RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p BOOK REVIEWS 333 Art Treasures of Dunhuang, comp. by the Dunhuang Institute for Cultural Relics Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1981, 254 pp., 84 col. pls. & 84 b. & w. figs. The preface of this book is by the first, and only recently retired, Director of the Dunhuang Institute for Cultural Relics Chang Shuhong. It offers a brief history of the Mogao grottoes or the Cave-Temples of the Thousand Buddhas at the Dunhuang oasis in the Gobi Desert of Gansu Province. A longer essay, by Shi Pingting and Shu Xue, follows. In this, more attention is given to description of the mural art which is the chief glory of the site. Although architecture (imitated in the rock-cut caves) and sculpture are also mentioned as other arts important to the temples, less is said about them. Finally, the vicissitudes of this long-abandoned centre of Buddhist worship since the Middle Ages are described. The colour reproductions are chronologically arranged and compare well to those in recent Japanese publications which are considerably more expensive than this Hong Kong printed volume. However, this more modestly scaled production is intended for a less specialized readership and does not illustrate the murals as completely as the multiple-volumed works from Japan. One cannot obtain the impression of how a total cave complex looks from a few selections of details, especially as there are no views of caves as a whole and sculpture is separated to follow the wall-painting section. Most useful are the notes for each plate, compiled by Wan Gengyu and Huang Wenkun. The content of each scene, and especially of narratives from Buddha's pre-birth legends or jataka tales, is given. Brief as these paragraphs are, they are the result of considerable new research and contribute greatly to both aesthetic pleasure and intellectual understanding in our viewing of the plates. Finally, a five-page chronology of the caves ends the book. The English translations of the original Chinese texts are quite good, although perhaps still reading as translations rather than as well-written English language. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 20 bandit will bear the name of France, the other the name of England . . . I hope that some day, France once freed and cleansed will send back to China the booty she has plundered.' 16 Incidentally, the Summer Palace of Peking, sacked and burned by French and British vandals, had been restored in the time of Emperor Qianlong (eighteenth century) by Jesuit architects and painters such as the famous Castiglione. The very contribution of European culture to China was smashed down by European militarism in China. That French intellectuals concerned with China not only were very few, but also showed little interest in the political China, is supported by the non-committed attitude of that strange Jesuit, palaeontologist and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. His Chinese years in the 1920s and 1930s were most productive intellectually. He elaborated his partly mystical, partly anthropological views on man's fate and future. Yet, he was utterly indifferent to the complex developments of the Chinese revolution at that time, epoch-making as they were. He was living in a China almost without Chinese --- except fossils. Teilhard de Chardin was an intellectual explorer, almost an adventurer, and so was the energetic Pelliot, one of the founding fathers of modern French sinology. He had established his reputation with his expedition to the Dunhuang Buddhist caves in the Gobi Desert, had not hesitated to bribe and to steal, brought back to France a unique Chinese library and became a Professor at the College de France at the early age of 27. French sinology then was still entirely oriented towards classical China. Just as British sinology was a by-product of missionary studies on China, French sinology was a distant replica of Latin and Greek studies in the Jesuit tradition. The teaching aids which the Jesuits had prepared for classical Chinese often used Latin. Classical Chinese studies did not have to pay attention to the China of that time, any more than Latin and Greek studies did to the Italy and Greece of modern times. And classical sinology remained quite marginal in French academic life, just as much as China-inspired novels and poetry in French literature. Yet, the Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 62 1874 April July October 1874 1874 December Late 1874 1875 Summer? 1875 Winter 1877 February Kueichou, but Mesny had already departed To Ch'engtu (six month stay] Visited the temple dedicated to Tu Fu the poet in Ch’engtu Returned by very large houseboat via Sui-fu, Chungking and I-ch'ang to Hankow. Mesny entertained at the palace of General Viscount Pao Chao in K'uei-chou en route on the Yangtze. In Hankow he met Rev. David Hill Published 'Tungking' [date in the book itself: Mesny however, claimed later that it was published in 1875] Officially married Nien Suey-tsen in Hankow Travelled overland from Chin-kiang, through Shantung [Chi-nan], en route for Peking. Spent winter in Chi-nan at invitation of Ting Pao-chen, the Governor of Shantung, to whom he claimed he had been an adviser Peking Returned to Kueichou via Shanghai [November]. Hankow and Human [1876] Re-appointed Superintendent of the Kueichou Armouries, an appointment he held until March 1877 Mesny entertained two British Protestant missionaries in Kuei-yang Overland Trek to Western China, through Burma to India and by sea to England 28 May June 1878 8 January November 26 December 28 December 1879 February 9 March 4 June Departed Kuei-yang for Szechuan [his third visit to the province (en route for England, via Tibet, Burma and India, with Captain Gill)] Arrived Ch'engtu Arrived in England from Calcutta Visited Channel Islands Received telegram from Chinese Minister in London desiring Mesny to accompany the returning Chinese Minister at Berlin to China: departed! Marseilles for Hong Kong aboard the Irrawaddy Arrived Hong Kong from England Departed Hong Kong for Canton Visited Amoy Departed Canton for Kueichou, via Kuei-lin (Kuangsi] Arrived Kuei-lin 25 July Arrived Tu-yun Fu 4 August [1880/1881] 1880 February 15 March August 1881 January February Arrived Kuei-yang Possibly visited Hanoi? Governor of Kueichou province recommended Mesny to the Throne for the bestowal of posthumous honours for three generations [San-tai Erh-p'in Kao-feng] Set out for Lan-chou via Chungking [where he had remained six months] Mesny spent the night at Ch'ien-hsi Chou, some 90 kms NNW of Kuei-yang, where he was attacked by an armed mob Departed Chungking [after 'delay due to unexpected contretemps" which Mesny did not clarify] Arrived Lanchou Departed Lanchou, crossed Gobi to Ham taking six to seven weeks ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 63 1881 April June 1882 February March Spring 1882 November 1882/1883 1883 May 1833 Autumn 1883 ca 1883/1884 Early 1884 1884 July Arrived Hami Passed through Shensi and Kansu to Turkestan he tried to push on through Central Asia to India but was stopped; again, tried to push on to the Russian frontiers via Ili and Tarbagatai but was stopped, visited Hami [HQ Chinese Army]. Residence in Hami where he said he remained until the Treaty of Livadia [2-10-79] was signed and where he learned a number of Turkish words. [Mesny claimed that in 1882 returning from Kashgaria he stayed in Tso Tsung-t’ang's camp. [Tso was recalled from Hami to Peking in late 1880] Departed Hami and retraced his steps leisurely across the Gobi desert to Kansu, on to northern Tibet (visited old fashioned gold diggings) and back to Kan-chou to refit before continuing into Tibet a second time in another direction. He then, travelled through the Kokonor region ending up at Lanchou, February 1881, via Hsi-ning. Departed from Northwest China for Peking, via Si-an, Ho-nan Fu, Tai-yuan Fu and Pao-ting Fu. Whilst in Si-an Mesny visited the Nestorian Cross, later, on his first evening in Taiyuan he lost 640 pages of notes, the journal of his Journey to Hami from Canton Arrived Peking Visited Tientsin to await the first steamers of the season carrying mails Returned to Tai-yuan in Shansi and Pao-ting Fu, and again visited Si-an. Visited the famous Shao-lin monastery in the Sung-shan [Mountains] near Ho-nan Fu and invited to settle down for a couple of years with the monks. Departed Shansi for Canton; however, Visited Yunnan province at the invitation of T'ang Chung to assist in the development of natural resources of the province The French authorities in Tongkin insisted that Mesny leave the province Passed through Ch'engtu and Yunnan Fu heading for Canton via Po-se, Nanning Kuangsi [Kuei-hsien, where he spent three to four months whilst the Franco-Chinese war raged in Tongkin), Kueichou and the West River. He travelled much of the way by large house boat. He took careful notes which he offered to the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce but failed to receive any encouragement Arrived Canton, then visited Hong Kong, Macau, Swatow, Amoy and Foochou [Viceroy Chang Chih-tung retained Mesny at Canton for one year and ten months (nfd) He lived in an hotel unable to get an appointment from Chang he eventually withdrew. Mesny met Kung Chao-yuan, the Commissary General at Shanghai for Formosa, at the Kiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai Visited tomb of Su Hsiao-hsiao near Hangchou. (a celebrated courtesan of the 11th century AD) Departed Canton via Hong Kong for Foochou and Shanghai [elsewhere he noted that he had been recommended for the post of Foreign Superintendent of the Arsenal at Foochou during his visit there in 1883) In Wu-chang and Han-yang ================================================================================