RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 42 TIBET AS IT WAS A lecture delivered on February 9, 1961. HUGH RICHARDSON, C.I.E., O.B.E. Tibet as it is is too I am going to talk about Tibet as it was. tragic, moving and lamentable a topic for a present talk. But I shall describe Tibet before its old civilisation and culture, its ancient form of government, its religion, its liberty and indeed its individuality were swept away. I must forget for the moment this outrage and try to recreate a little of the easy-going, friendly, contented country that I remember. Obviously I cannot cover the whole of Tibet's past in this very short time. You may notice that I have not called it secret or mysterious Tibet. Of course there was plenty that was strange and little-known in the country; but to any foreigner who was living there it was hospitable and open. Many of the strange things became intelligible, and the mystery, although it was there, fell into its place. Now it is true that the idea of a rather baleful mystery was for quite a long time fostered by the policy of deliberate exclusion. But the latter is comparatively recent—it only began at the end of the eighteenth century. Before that foreigners were not specifically barred from Tibet. The occasional traveller or trader was kept out by the nature of the country, but anyone who was determined and courageous could find his way in. If the names of Antonio Daldarada, Stephen Caccella, Borazzio della Tenda and Ippolito Desideri as yet mean nothing to you, there is much enjoyment in store for you when you do make their acquaintance. They were missionaries in Tibet, mostly Jesuits, from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth. Their accounts are excellent reading, especially that of Desideri; and they all found a kindly welcome. Though they worked very hard, they made hardly any impact on the well-established Tibetan religion and on Tibetan conservatism. Conservatism was the dominant characteristic of the country. It was largely due, I think, to its geographical situation and to its natural defences, of which the Tibetans have long been conscious and proud. A very old hymn in praise of their country, at least as old as the eighth century, describes it as "in the centre of snowy mountains, the source of great rivers, a lofty country, a pure land." In that lofty country, behind the barrier of mountains, the Tibetans kept alive their peculiar civilisation, traceable in their own records from the seventh century. There were, of course, plenty of changes and developments in the course of thirteen hundred years, and some influences entered from outside. But every importation was assimilated and transmuted into a Tibetan form. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 38 SIR JOHN BOWRING having been nursed and reared by tigers." "Where should we have been," he asks, "if our grandmothers and mothers had been drowned in their infancy?" And he quotes two instances of the punishment of mothers who had destroyed their infants, one of whom had a blood-red serpent fastened to her thigh, and the other her four extremities turned into cow's feet.* Father Ripa mentions, that of abandoned children, the Jesuits baptized in Peking alone not less than three thousand yearly. I have seen ponds which are the habitual receptacle of female infants, whose bodies lie floating about on their surface. It is by no means unusual to carry persons in a state of exhaustion a little distance from the cities, to give them a pot of rice, and to leave them to perish of starvation when the little store is exhausted. Life and death in China, beyond any other region, seem in a state of perpetual activity. The habits of the people, their traditions, the teachings of the sages all give a wonderful impulse to the procreative affections. A childless person is deemed an unhappy, not to say a degraded, man. The Chinese moralists set it down as a law, that if a wife give no children to her husband, *Doubt has been sometimes expressed as to the practice of Infanticide in China on any great scale; but abundance of evidence of the extent of the usage may be found in Chinese books. The following is a translation of a Decree of the Emperor Kanghi, entitled,- "Edict prohibiting the drowning of children." "When a mother mercilessly plunges beneath the water the tender offspring to which she has given birth, can it be said that it owes its life to her who thus takes away what it has just begun to enjoy? The poverty of the parents is the cause of this wrongdoing; they have difficulty in earning subsistence for themselves, still less can they pay nurses and undertake all the necessary expenses for their children; thus driven to despair, and unwilling to cause the death of two persons to preserve the life of one, it comes to pass that a mother to save her husband's life consents to destroy her children. Their natural tenderness suffers; but they at length determine to take this part, thinking themselves at liberty to dispose of the life of their children, in order to prolong their own. If they exposed these children in some unfrequented spot, their cries would move the hearts of the parents; what then do they? They cast the unfortunate babe into the current of a river, that they may at once lose sight of it, and in an instant deprive it of life. You have given me the name of Father of the People: though I cannot feel for these infants the tenderness of the parents to whom they owe their being, I cannot refrain from declaring to you, with the most painful feelings, that I absolutely forbid such homicides. The tiger, says one of our books, though it be a tiger, does not rend its own young; towards them it has a feeling breast, and continually cares for them. Poor as you may be, is it possible that you should become the murderers of your own children? is to shew yourselves more unnatural than the very beasts of prey.”— Lettres Edifiantes, vol. xix, pp. 101-2, It Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 208 NOTES AND QUERIES it is easy to see what it was like in 1841 when Britain occupied Hong Kong. University Hall began life in the early 1860s as Castle Douglas, the fanciful creation of Douglas Lapraik, an early Hong Kong ship-owner (see J. Llewellyn's article from Volume XI, (1967-68) of Outpost, the annual magazine of University Hall Students' Association). The house and estate were sold to the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris (hereafter called the French Mission) in May, 1894, rebuilt and extended, and renamed Nazareth House. The Mission figures prominently in today's tour, since we shall visit the Maison de Béthanie, opposite Castle Douglas, that also belonged to it. Before proceeding further to describe Nazareth House and Béthanie, I shall mention something of its work and history. According to Samuel Couling's Encyclopaedia Sinica (Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1917) p. 378, the Société, all of whose members were French, was, at the time he wrote, a society of secular priests who, without being tied to any religious vow, devoted themselves to the propagation of the Catholic faith in the Far East. It originated in the middle of the 17th century by some French priests proceeding by invitation to Tonkin to assist the work of the Jesuits there. Its first missionary to reach China proper was Mgr. Pallu in 1681. It had no Superior-General but was administered by the heads of the different Missions, and by the Directors of the Seminary in Paris. The Society provided more workers and more martyrs than any other of the bodies that evangelized the Far East. At the time Couling wrote, it had under its care 12 Vicariats with 462,321 Christians, and more than 160 of its members had been made bishops. Besides its Missions in China, the Société had in Hong Kong a famous printing house, the Nazareth Press, which began its work soon after the first Nazareth House was opened in Macau in December 1884. Nazareth House soon moved to Hong Kong, to Tai Ku Lau, Pokfulam, (see below) 1885-1891, then to Richmond Terrace above Kennedy Town in the Western District of Hong Kong (1891-1895) and then to Castle Douglas, renamed Nazareth (1895-1953). The printing press went with it in all these removals. The Nazareth Press was a notable achievement. It occupied a special building at Tai Ku Lau, with the presses on the ground floor and the setting rooms above. A special extension was later built ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 122 RICHARD J. SMITH During the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty, a great many Indians, Sogdians, Uighurs, Persians and even Europeans occupied key positions within the Chinese civil and military bureaucracy. Marco Polo is perhaps the most famous of these individuals, but he is by no means the most important.46 Foreigners enjoyed a distinct advantage in obtaining official posts during the Yuan period owing to the Mongol policy of discrimination against Han Chinese. As a result, the percentage of non-Chinese in the Yuan bureaucracy was much higher than it would later be in the other great “barbarian” dynasty, the Ch'ing. According to the Institutes of the Yuan Dynasty (Yuan tien-chang), in the early fourteenth century foreigners held more than one quarter of all provincial posts and almost one half of those at court. It may be assumed that the majority of foreign employees within the Yuan bureaucracy were military men.47 The multi-national armed forces of the Mongols included not only troops and officers from the "Western Regions” (hsi-yu), but also guards regiments stationed at Peking comprised of Alans (i.e., Ossetes), Tanguts, Jurchen, Koreans, Qipchaq and even Russians. According to the Yuan History (Yuan-shih), the total number of Russians in the Peking guard in 1330 was about ten thousand men. These troops were given land north of Peking and settled there as military colonists. Among the various other foreign forces in the Mongol service was a Mohammedan (Hui-hui) artillery corps.48 By the time of the first Ming emperor, resentment over Yuan (i.e., barbarian) rule had produced a particularly strong anti-foreign reaction. Chu Yuan-chang, founder of the dynasty, was openly hostile toward barbarians and did his best to limit their influence.49 Yet even during Chu's reign (the Hung-wu period), foreigners served the Ming as military and naval commanders, imperial advisers, diplomatic officers and civil bureaucrats. Surprisingly, despite a strong bias against them, Mongols were employed extensively in China during the Ming—mostly in the army, but also in other areas of Chinese administration. Although Mongol soldiers were generally separated from Chinese soldiers, high military posts were not in fact closed to men of Mongol origin.50 Nor were Europeans excluded from positions of military responsibility. Indeed, the Jesuits, who gained influence at the Chinese capital in the seventeenth century by virtue of their scientific skills and, significantly, their willingness to conform to Chinese customs,51 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGN MILITARY TALENT 123 performed a valuable military function. Not only did they help cast cannon for use against the invading Manchus prior to the Ch'ing takeover, but at least one, Adam Schall von Bell, received orders to join the Ming campaigns against the rebel, Li Tzu-ch'eng, as a military adviser.52 During the 1620's the Ming government even employed a number of Macao-born Chinese and Europeans to fight against the Manchus, although the motley contingent of musketeers and gunners never got further north than Nan-ch'ang (Kiangsi).53 In all, foreigners in the Ming military service played a useful role, but their employment was never viewed with unqualified approbation. Whatever difficulty did occur with barbarian employees, the Chinese bureaucracy and historians tended to label it "rebellion."*54 After the fall of the Ming capital in 1644, the Manchus used Western military assistance to consolidate their position in China, while Ming loyalists continued to avail themselves of it in fighting the Ch'ing. During this transitional period, the Portuguese especially showed a marked ability to "run with the hare and hunt with the hound," serving both sides as gunners and craftsmen.55 At Peking, meanwhile, the Jesuits succeeded in transferring their allegiance to the Ch'ing and continued to serve as court scientists and technicians. Remarkably, the Manchus do not appear to have harbored a grudge against either the Portuguese or the Jesuits for their support of the failing Ming cause. Perhaps this was because European military and technical aid remained useful to the dynasty throughout the seventeenth century: In the 1660's, the Dutch, as "tributary subjects," rendered naval assistance to the Ch'ing against the Cheng rebels on Taiwan; in the 1670's and 80's the Jesuits cast cannon for use in suppressing the Revolt of the Three Feudatories (1673-1681); and at various times a few Dutch deserters and some escaped slaves from Macao held low-rank positions in the Ch'ing military service.56 But with the decline of Jesuit influence in the eighteenth century after the bitter attacks of Yang Kuang-hsien and the famous “Rites Controversy,” the use of Westerners in military affairs likewise declined. Anti-Western sentiment grew more pronounced at the capital, while at the same time, multi-ethnic Ch'ing military forces—composed of Manchus, Mongols, Chinese, and some Russians (with whom the dynasty had a special relationship), sufficed to protect, and even expand, China's boundaries without the aid of new Western technology and significant numbers of European troops.57 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 68 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS only the masonry shell of a building stood, mute witness to the horrors of war. Whenever a building was left untenanted, it suffered this same fate. The area around St. Paul's Hospital was pretty badly scarred, and the Hospital itself received many direct shell hits. A few Jesuits and some Salesians were kept prisoners for a while close to the Hospital, but were released after a few days. While engaged in driving an ambulance in the city, one of the Christian Brothers, Brother Peter, was killed; otherwise, the clergy and religious of Hong Kong were uninjured, though I believe Father Tournier, Assistant French Procurator, was slightly wounded. One shell hit the Maryknoll Convent School in Kowloon, and though the Sisters had a trying time, they were unmolested. After the armistice, the Japanese began immediately collecting all vehicles, cars and trucks. Along the road at Stanley, on our return from the garage, we saw a number of trucks and cars on the road, either having been damaged by machine-gun fire, or abandoned by their drivers. These were all towed into town, in many cases by British army trucks which had been captured, and hundreds and perhaps thousands of cars, trucks and buses were corraled on the Happy Valley and Deep Water Bay recreation grounds. It is also thought that the Japanese took many of these vehicles to Japan, as it is reported that they took food supplies out of the Colony to Japan. Gradually, a few bus lines were started up, as was a ferry or two to Kowloon, but the only cars on the road were Japanese trucks and official cars. All business was at a standstill; shops and department stores were closed and boarded up; what business there was, was done by hawkers on the streets. All foreign enemy property was promptly taken over by the Japanese and strips of wood with Chinese characters painted or stenciled on them bore the motto: "Imperial Japanese Government Property." Our house at Stanley was likewise placarded and Father Troesch was appointed guardian for the Japanese Government. The French Fathers at Pokfulam were treated rather roughly, and were kept in a small room for several days, while their buildings were ransacked and looted. The Christian Brothers' College suffered the same fate, even though they were of mixed nationality and their head an Irishman. The Jesuits lost Ricci Hall but managed to keep Wah Yan College and the Seminary at Aberdeen. The beautiful French Procure was finally confiscated and the Fathers had to move ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 128 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS going its trial run. Quite a string of small landing barges were once seen leaving the harbor. At Aberdeen in the narrow channel there are a number of small river steamers sunk or scuttled, and the Japanese are attempting to salvage them. They have also succeeded in raising the river gunboat Moth, and its recommissioning was given quite some space in the local English paper. During our stay at Bethany we had a number of visitors: the Jesuits from Wah Yan College, as also from the Seminary at Aberdeen; Father Haughey from the Salesians, some Italian Fathers from the Cathedral and the French Fathers, as also a few laymen, friends of Camp days, among whom was our genial chef, Mr. Gingles, with his side-kick, Dr. Molthen. Across from Bethany is Nazareth, the polyglot printing press establishment, and there we found the Superior, Father Biotteau, still holding the fort, along with one companion, Father Morel. Needless to say, the Printing Press is not now in operation, and the other Fathers normally stationed here left some time previous to our arrival for Indo-China. Later on, also, a number of French Sisters left St. Paul's Hospital for Indo-China. Shortly after the occupation of Hong Kong, the Japanese announced that they intended to build a large shrine just above the Botanical Gardens to commemorate the heroes of Hong Kong. They began surveying the site, beginning quite close to the Cathedral, and evidently it was to be a wonderful affair. Subscriptions were asked for from the local Chinese and everybody was expectant. However, as time wore on, the project seemed to have gotten out of the limelight, and now it seems it has been abandoned. However, a small monument was erected on one of the small hills facing the harbor. The 25th of October was the Feast of Christ the King. On that day, there is an outdoor procession at the Cathedral to which the faithful come from the various parishes both in the city and from Kowloon. As we had received an invitation to participate, we started out for the city. As we neared the city we noticed an unusual number of Japanese planes in the air. This was not out of the ordinary as planes were more or less constantly flying about for various purposes, and we did not attach any special significance to this increased number on this glorious afternoon. As the Holy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46 135 many of our friends were on the wharf to see us off, and promptly at twelve noon we pulled away from the bund. The day before, while at Bethany, we saw a large liner of the Asama Maru class, slowly enter the harbor, and wondered what it portended. The next day, as we left the harbor for Macao and Kwangchauwan, this majestic ship, painted a war-gray, was still in the harbor, but just as we started, it also got underway and our ship had to slow her engines so that the liner could pass us on her way to sea. Ranged on her decks we could see the familiar military uniform of the Canadian soldiers who were, no doubt, being taken to some other internment camp outside of Hong Kong. A few hours' run brought us to Macao where we met Sister Paul and made some visits, the first of which was to the Maryknoll Sisters' new orphanage for homeless and destitute children. It was quite a sight to see 400 little tots making away with bowl after bowl of rice, furnished by the kindness of the Portuguese Government. We then called on the Jesuits, formerly of Hong Kong, who had gone to Macao to open a school for boys, and at the Seminary, and the next day at noon pulled out of the Macao fairway for Kwangchauwan, a run of some twenty hours. By this time Bishop Paschang and the Kongmoon priests, Frs. Paulus, Smith and North, had already slipped back into "Free China." Travelling on an enemy ship in wartime made us naturally a little apprehensive. Some of the passengers told us of the occasional presence of submarines in this area, and we hoped that we would not meet any, even if they were from our homeland. However, we reached Kwangchauwan the next morning safely at 10 o'clock, and went ashore to the French Procure where we met the Procurator, Father Lebas and Father Moran, a Jesuit from Hong Kong, assisting him. With their assistance, we arranged for our travel inland. At Kwangchauwan, we met some of our other Hong Kong friends, one of whom was the wife of Andrew Tse of the Clover Flower shop, and Father Downs baptized her baby, Teresa Elizabeth. At Kwangchauwan, Father Toomey left us to proceed to Fachow in the Kongmoon Vicariate, and the rest of us engaged chairs for a six-day trip to Watlam, the first of our Wuchow stations. At Watlam, we again separated, Fathers Troesch, Moore and McKeirnan and Brother Thaddeus, and also one or two Sisters, going to Wuchow. The remainder of the group, consisting of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 72 JOHN VILLIERS legitimate trade that could be allowed to the Portuguese. Portuguese ships were indeed used both by the Chinese and Japanese for suppressing local pirates. There was keen competition among the daimyō of Kyushu to attract the Great Ship from Macau to their fiefs. In 1562 Omura Sumitada gave what amounted to extra-territorial rights to the Portuguese at Yokoseura and soon after was baptised with the name of Dom Bartholomeu. Yokoseura was however destroyed in 1564 by some anti-Christian merchants from Bungo and the Great Ship was diverted to Hirado. In 1568 Jesuit missionaries first visited Nagasaki, then a small fishing village in a wood belonging to a Christian vassal of Omura Sumitada. It provided excellent anchorage and in 1571 the Great Ship called there for the first time. From then on it was the chief port in Japan for the Macau trade and by 1580 had become a large settlement with an entirely Christian population. In that year Omura offered possession of Nagasaki to the Jesuits, reserving only the shipping dues for himself. From about 1578 the Macaonese began to make use of the Jesuit missionaries, then gaining rapidly in influence in Japan, to market their goods. As the Italian Fr. Valignano wrote to his superiors in 1580: “After the grace and favour of Goa, the greatest help we have had hitherto in securing Christians is that of the Great Ship. For as the Lords of Japan, even though they have much land, are very poor in revenue and ready money, the benefits they derive when the ships come to their ports are very great...they try hard to entice them to their fiefs".15 The Jesuits indeed depended for most of their revenue on this investment in the Macau-Japan trade. By an agreement of 1578 with the Macau merchants they were allotted a share of 50 piculs in the annual cargo of 1600 piculs of raw silk.16 These 50 piculs brought a profit of about 1600 cruzados. There was much opposition to this arrangement — from the Mendicant Orders, particularly the Spanish Friars in the Philippines, from the Jesuit General in Rome and even from some of the more scrupulous merchant casados in Macau, but it survived at least until 1614, when the first decree of the Tokugawa Ieyasu banishing all foreign and Japanese missionaries from Japan was issued, and it gave the Portuguese an edge over their English, Dutch and Spanish rivals.17 Meanwhile, the Philippines were being brought under Spanish rule by force and the missionary work of the religious orders. The ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 SILK & SILVER: MACAU, MANILA TRADE 77 In 1629 the Viceroy Conde de Linhares ordered that both the Macau-Nagasaki and Macau-Manila voyages should henceforth be made under the supervision and control of the Crown and the profits from them used for the upkeep of the royal dockyard at Goa and the maintenance of the Portuguese fleet in Asian waters, but it was not until 1635 that an administrator for the voyages was sent from Goa to Macau to enforce the new system.32 In the same year the Viceroy finally agreed to allow one pinnace to make the Macau-Manila voyage each year, laden with munitions for the Manila garrison and enough silk for local consumption in the Philippines without any surplus for export to Mexico, where it would compete with silks from Seville. By the end of the 16th century Macau's trade was already being threatened from several quarters. On the one hand, the development of the Manila-Japan trade, the increasing power and cohesion of the Japanese state under the Tokugawa and the encouragement of a Japanese merchant navy by Tokugawa Ieyasu — the famous Red Seal ships33 — and, above all, the growing hostility of the shoguns towards Christianity and the missionary activities of Portuguese Jesuits and Spanish friars undermined Macau's trade with Japan. On the other hand, competition from the Dutch, whose control of the Straits of Malacca made trade and communications between Macau and Goa difficult and dangerous and whose establishment in Taiwan after 1624 extended this danger into the China Seas, had a deleterious effect on Macau's trade with Indonesia. The extortions of the Chinese merchants, who also of course carried on direct trade in competition with the Portuguese, licitly or illicitly, both with Japan and Manila, weakened Macau's position still further. Between 1613 and 1640, an average of 60 to 80 Chinese junks visited Japan yearly, though from 1634 they were, like the Portuguese, confined to Nagasaki. These difficulties culminated in the summary expulsion of the Portuguese from Japan in 1639 by the Shogun Iemitsu and in the fall of Malacca to the Dutch in 1641. The embassy sent from Macau in 1640 in a last attempt to get Iemitsu to revoke his edict of expulsion met a terrible fate. 61 of the 74 members of the delegation were beheaded by 61 executioners sent specially from Yedo to Nagasaki for the purpose. A contemporary Portuguese account of how the citizens of Macau reacted to the news of the calamity sums up well the peculiar quality of the whole Portuguese adventure in the East, its mixture of missionary zeal and ... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 204 A RELIC OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER P. BRUCE In a small cool church in Macau, separated by a few hundred yards of muddy water from China, rests a unique relic of St Francis Xavier.* Almost 20 years ago 100,000 people in 15 days filed past the small piece of bone housed in an ornate silver monstrance when it was taken to America from its usual resting place in Macau. Now the relic is back in a tiny church on Coloane Island. Ten years ago the building was in a run-down condition, having been used as a chapel for soldiers from Mozambique serving in the Portuguese Army. Then Father Mario C. Acquistapace arrived on the scene. A sprightly figure now probably in his seventies, he had the church restored. Today its exterior is washed in pale yellow with windows and woodwork picked out in light blue. He has an outgoing personality that runs to a hug when he finds a visitor is a Christian. Macau, the first permanent Western settlement on the coast of China, across the silt-laden waters of the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong, despite wars, upheavals and revolutions, remains curiously Mediterranean. The Portuguese built their first houses there in 1557, having camped briefly at Liampo and Sanchuang (St John's) Islands. Francisco de Xavier, called by Pope Urban VIII the "apostle of the Indies", was born into a noble and wealthy family and in 1529 he made the acquaintance of St Ignatius Loyola who was then studying at Paris. Impressed by his teachings, Xavier became one of the original seven men to take the first vows of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, in 1534. When John III, King of Portugal, asked the Pope to send a mission to his Indian possessions, two Jesuits were selected, one of whom was Xavier. He set sail in 1541 and after a voyage of more than a year arrived in Goa, India, where he carried out missionary work. From there he journeyed to Ceylon, or Sri Lanka... * See plates 12-14. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 123 two. Foreigners in the land Although the opening of Hainan to foreign trade led to an influx of westerners to open business houses and man the British, German and French consulates that were installed in Haikou soon after the treaty port proclamation, they were not the first foreigners to penetrate Hainan. This honour belongs to gallant Roman Catholic priests who took up residence on Hainan almost 300 years before, although undoubtedly even these priests were preceded by unknown sailors from foreign vessels marooned by typhoons on the "Shore of Pearls". The first Jesuit padre known definitely to enter Hainan was Father Gago who was shipwrecked in 1560 on the southern coast (Madrolle, 1898), and spent five months at San Ya before he could secure passage to Macau (Dehergne, 1940). However, it was not until the arrival of the Portuguese Jesuits, Pierre Marquez in 1632 and Benoit de Matos in 1635, that a church was established in K'iungchow (Pfister, 1932). By 1637, there were four churches with a total membership exceeding one thousand which included some high officials such as Wang Hung-hui, a former emissary to Peking, and his son, Paul (Pfister, 1932; Dunne, 1962). 2 Through persecution and plagues, a succession of priests from Portugal, France, Italy and Germany, superintended the growing mission for more than a half century until 1665 when Jesuits were banished from China (Dehergne, 1940). After the priests were expelled, church property was seized and converted into Taoist temples, two of which were still standing in the late nineteenth century (Swinhoe, 1872a). Little remains today of this influence, although as late as 1919, the Roman Catholic cemetery in K'iungchow was still intact, albeit neglected, and the epitaphs of at least three priests buried in the 1680's could still be deciphered (Moninger, 1919). The number of tombs of respectable people is evidence of the large following the Jesuits had established in Hainan (Henry, 1886). Between 1673 and 1725, priests returned to Hainan to continue ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 140 D.L. MICHALK China Daily (1983) “Hainan Island draws more foreign interest”, November 25, 1983, published by Xinhua News Agency. Clark, L. (1938) "Among the Big Knot Lois of Hainan", National Geographic Magazine, September issue, pp. 391-418. Dehergne, J. (1940) “Les Origines du Christianisme dans l'ile de Hainan”, Monumenta Serica, 5: 329–348. Dunne, G.H. (1962) “Generation of Giants: The Story of the Jesuits in China in the Last Decade of the Ming Dynasty”, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, U.S.A. Eberhard, W. (1969) A History of China. Fairfax-Cholmeley, E. (1963) "Hainan: Awakening Paradise”, Eastern Horizons, 2: 35-42. Fenzel, G. (1933) "Die Insel Hainan: Eine landeskundliche Skizze, dargestellt auf Grund eigner Reisebeobachtungen und des vorhandenen Schrifttums", Mitteilungen der geographischen Gesellschaft Munchen, 26: 73-221. Fusson, C.G. (1929) "The Peoples of Kwang-tung: Their Origin, Migrations and Present Distribution”, Lingnan Science Journal, 7: 5-21. Gao, Da-Xian (1981) “The Li People of Hainan Island”, China Reconstructs, 10: 59-65. Henry, B.C. (1886) Lingnam: Travels in the Interior of China, S.W. Partridge & Co, London. Hollingworth, C. (1982) “Letter from Hainan”, Far Eastern Economic Review, April issue, p 78. Iskoldsky, V. (1958) "The Development of Agriculture on the Island of Hainan”, Sovetskoe kitaevedenie, 2: 117-123. Kirk, D. (1965) "Unknown Hainan", Far Eastern Economic Review... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 To be invited to give this lecture in memory of George Ernest Morrison, that remarkable Australian, is not only a pleasure and an honour; it provides a very appropriate occasion to review the unique position China has held for more than three centuries in the eyes of French intellectuals. Morrison, himself quite fluent in French and well versed in French literature, was very familiar with some distinguished members of the French intelligentsia who visited China during those ‘Morrison years', such as Loti, Segalen and Claudel. He also knew well how prestigious China had been in the eyes of French intellectuals of an earlier period, namely French Jesuits and French Philosophes of the late seventeenth and eighteenth century. Their writings occupy a distinctive position on the shelves of Morrison's own library, once in Peking and later transferred to Japan. These early French books with their old-fashioned print and leather binding indicated, and Morrison was fully aware of it, that a major intellectual encounter had taken place between France and China. For the Philosophes, for Voltaire, Diderot and other contributors to the Great Encyclopedia, China was a powerful war machine which they directed against the backwardness, the tyranny, the impotence of the Versailles monarchy. As seen in the very title of a well-known French Ph.D. dissertation, China played an essential role in the formation and growth of the esprit philosophique in eighteenth century France. China, in the view of these philosophes, was an empire ruled by an intellectual elite, namely the Confucian literati. In our subsequent Western political culture, our universities being no exception, ‘mandarin' has become a symbol of bureaucratic rigidity, almost a dirty word. But such was not the case in the eighteenth century. Voltaire praised very highly the Confucian degree holders he called Talapoints, a strange word which has since vanished entirely. China was seen as being ruled by men of wisdom, and this was an obvious contrast to the practices of the French monarchy and its corrupt, incompetent, uneducated officials. China was supposed to be at least as advanced as France, on the way towards Enlightenment, towards l'Age des Lumières. These peoples [said Diderot], gifted with a 'consentement unanime, are superior to all other Asiatics in antiquity, intellect, art, wisdom, policy, and in their ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 14 early Manchu emperors. The Jesuits' basic strategy was to establish the compatibility of a conversion to Christianity with the continuation of the Confucian ceremonies of respect to the Emperor and to family ancestors. They had to defend this strategy against other influential church lobbies in Rome, especially the Dominicans. The Jesuits were defeated, eventually, but they had produced in the course of this epoch-making controversy La Querelle des Cérémonies Chinoises an enormous wealth of material highly favourable to Chinese culture and society, among which the standard collections of Father Lecomte and Father Du Halde are best known. After these Jesuits' memoirs had lost their polemical value within the Church, they found a new lease of life with the Philosophes, who turned them against the whole ancien régime. China's position in this Age of Enlightenment is well-known. Rather than chart it in greater detail, I should like to emphasise that for the French Philosophe, China was a perfectly abstract entity, an ideological construct, an intellectual artefact. Needless to say, almost none of them had ever visited China or had contemplated doing so. The Philosophes, and the Jesuits before them, knew nothing of the deeply rooted dissatisfaction of the Chinese people with foreign Manchu rule, of the rampant peasant unrest, the bureaucratic control of the economy, the atmosphere of intellectual rigidity, or the repression against dissidents. In their eyes, China was not so much idealised, but rather completely reprocessed, reconstructed so as to fit into French intellectual and political controversies. Yes, China was an abstraction, and this was not considered a handicap. For China as reconstructed by the Philosophes was an essential prerequisite for the achievement of a genuine philosophical universality, for a universal and world-wide approach to human nature and human society. China enabled these Philosophes to break away from a Eurocentric view of world history, founded only on Greek and Roman cultures and on earlier Hebrew traditions. To include China in their views on modern progress, to appeal to China as much as to Greece and Rome, was a major intellectual and philosophical advance towards universality. Voltaire was most concerned with this generalising approach to world ================================================================================ 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-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 196 45 In order to achieve these aims, he translated from English a reader for younger students which at times was a conscious attempt to impress Chinese readers with the greatness of Western culture. In addition, in the mid-1850s he took over the editing of a monthly journal, written in Chinese for the propagation of news and cultural information from a Western perspective. This kind of approach, so common among many Western missionaries of various sorts, from the early Jesuits to the educators and medical doctors of the 20th century, Legge consciously rejected in 1856. In that year he decided as editor of the monthly journal that the enterprise was not helpful, so he not only stepped down as editor, but also stopped its publication. Furthermore, never again did he translate an educational reader of the sort mentioned above for Chinese students. In doing so, he was returning to the original educational ideals first expressed in his personal journal of 1847. What motivated Legge to return after 1856 to his original ideals after his experiments between 1852 and 1856 with a more didactic educational philosophy? Several factors seem to have been involved. One was a disenchantment with the government's militarism and the ugly stories tied to the commercial opium trade in which English capitalists were implicated. Although Legge remained a faithful British citizen, he was not unwilling to criticize policies which stood in opposition to ethical duty and moral integrity among his own countrymen. He was a faithful citizen, but not a blind patriot. Another factor may well have been the growing apprehension among the missionary communities about the Taiping Rebellion and its distortion of Christian faith. Some had originally hailed it as a judgement of God on the Qing dynasty, with leaders who were favourable to the representatives of Christian religion. This hope was dashed when a German missionary in contact with Taiping leaders published an account of their doctrines, displaying them as an eclectic cult which adopted some teachings of Christianity, but distorted them by combining them with other religious teachings and the visionary messages of Hong Xiuquan.47 Legge could not distance himself from this issue, because his closest Chinese friend during this period was Hong Rengan, later to become the Shield King of the Taipings (太平天國) once he arrived in their capital of Tianjing (天京) (formerly and now Nanjing). The issue was constantly in the widower's mind not only because he felt close to Rengan, but also... 4K ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 200 Legge urged missionaries to reach into the very heart of the Middle Kingdom and seek to fulfil the Chinese spirit through appeal to the traces of God left in their own Classics, while supplementing and fulfilling them through Christian revelation. Why was Legge so persistent in this approach? One major factor in his motivation came from a special passage in the Old Testament. The nineteenth century Protestant missionary mandate to China was driven by a Biblical prophecy understood to include a promise of the eventual Christianization of China. According to many nineteenth century Protestant missionaries including Legge, the place referred to in Isaiah 49:12 as "Sinim" must refer to China. (More recent scholarship sometimes refers it to Assuan in Egypt.) Being thus convinced that God had a plan to include the Chinese peoples within the Kingdom of God, many 19th century Protestant missionaries believed that God's Spirit would accomplish this Christianization through the influence of great Christian leaders. A claim that this prophesy indicated essentially Protestant endeavours was also emphasized: the earlier Christian missionary groups, Nestorians, Jesuits and other Catholic orders, as well as a few Russian Orthodox priests, had been kept from completing this building up of the Kingdom of God in China. Thus it was claimed that the nineteenth century was the time for the Protestant nations to fulfil their Divine destiny in bringing to China the transformative message of Christ as well as their own brand of Christianized civilization. — This particular attitude explains to a large extent why Legge himself was both supportive and critical of British and other colonial powers. If they were to be beacons of Christian civilization, they had to be criticized whenever they did not live up to this calling. Protestant missionaries therefore acted in relation to Chinese societies as social revolutionaries, and in relation to Western nations as prophets of either (and sometimes both) glory or judgement. Legge was not only able to define a prophetic duty for missionaries, he was also deeply motivated to provide intellectual tools to make it all the more possible. This is one of the motivations which explains Legge's important reassessments of Confucius (LF) in his second edition of the Four Books completed in 1895. (He did not find similar reasons to revise ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 of Hong Kong's colonial history. 329 CHARLES WALKER D. E. Mungello. Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989. 405+2pp. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. The title of the book leads the reader to expect a discourse on the development of Sinology out of the accommodative approach which the Jesuits took to missionary work in China. However, this is not the theme which the author pursues. Rather he writes about the historical development of Jesuit accommodation in the 17th century within the context of European intellectual traditions and concerns, paying particular attention to the impact of their published works and in some cases correspondence with contemporary European scholars, whom he characterizes as 'proto-sinologists'. The author's concept of accommodation is not adequately defined in the introductory remarks where he says only that it applies to the setting in China where Jesuit missionaries accommodated Western learning to the Chinese cultural scene and attempted to achieve the acceptance of the Chinese literati through the 'Confucian-Christian synthesis' (p. 15). Much later the author spells out other very important aspects of his perception of Jesuit accommodation, namely 'the supplying of Europe with information about China' (p. 207) as part of their on-going public relations effort which was conducted within the context of Ricci's accommodation whose Confucian-Christian synthesis represented 'a formula for the intellectual assimilation of China by Europeans' (p. 507). Although he notes that this appears not to have been a part of the original formulation of Jesuit accommodation in China, but appears rather to have developed 'out of practical needs' (p. 207), the author gives it nearly equal weight with the Chinese directed aspect of accommodation in his selection and presentation of data throughout this work. Therefore, the reader would have been better served by an early introduction of this idea. The author coins the term 'proto-sinology' for the early study of China in Europe which he claims, and goes on to show, was intimately connected with the Jesuits' China mission (p. 13). Noting that the term 'applies to Europe where the assimilation of knowledge ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 330 about China took place' (p. 15), he effectively excludes the Jesuit missionaries in China from being the originators of Sinology! In contrast to the latter, the Proto-Sinologists 'knew very little about China', never 'set foot in China' (p. 135), and were primarily compilers and editors' of information and words provided by the missionaries (pp. 135-37). Their own scholarly output suffered from 'the lack of adequate Chinese' (p. 227) or the absence of a developed knowledge of the Chinese language' (p. 209). An important distinction between the works of proto-Sinologists and later Sinologists (as well as, one should say, the Jesuits in China) is the 'non-sinological thrust of the former (p. 14; on this point see also pp. 164 and 174) who 'geared their interests in China toward Europe' rather than toward China itself (p. 15). If the author's observations are correct, then the Jesuit missionaries in China are the true originators of Sinology, not the proto-Sinologists. In his concluding paragraph he finally puts the role of proto-Sinologists into historical perspective by asserting that they deserve credit for bringing the fruits of Jesuit accommodation into the 'flow of history' where they would be picked up by later Sinologists and become 'the foundation of modern sinology' (p. 358). If this is the case, then this book has something to do with the advent of modern Sinology in the 18th and 19th centuries, a period which the author does not cover. The origins of Sinology, however, are to be found in the writings of the Jesuit missionaries in 17th century China. ― For one who is unfamiliar with the Jesuits' accommodative approach to China, their publications, or European scholarship in the 17th century, this work has much to offer if the reader is willing to work hard enough to get through the author's sometimes frustrating style and numerous errors which proof readers and editors should have caught (the two page "Errata" at the back of the edition under review is not nearly adequate and a little unusual in that it allows the author a chance to do some revision!). In Chapter I the author frames his study by noting the concerns of European scholars with such issues as Aristotelianism, Copernicanism, Humanism, Hermetism, the search for a universal language, geography, and history (particularly, biblical chronology). The remainder of the book follows a basically chronological format beginning with the early development of Jesuit accommodation and their creation of a ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 331 Confucian-Christian synthesis through an overview of the publications of Fathers Ricci, Semedo, and Magalhaes (Chapters 2 and 3). However, the flow of the presentation is marred by the author's frequent interruptions to correct, with the benefit of nearly four centuries of sinological research and hindsight (p. 72), factual and interpretive errors of these pioneers of Sinology. Consequently, the reader has to struggle to piece together and get a grasp of their views. Beginning with the geographical and historical treatises of Martini in Chapter 4, the focus of the book shifts to the impact of the Jesuits on European scholarship, particularly through expanding geographical knowledge, stimulating revision of accepted biblical chronology to take into account the Chinese chronology, and fueling the search for a universal language. In reviewing the influential works of proto-Sinologist Fr. Athanasius Kircher (Chapter 5), the author contrasts the Hermetic orientation of Kircher with the accommodative approach of his fellow Jesuits who were missionaries in China, setting the stage for both the growing tension around the theological implications of the latter that was to culminate in the Rites Controversy and a major change in the content of Jesuit accommodation under the influence of Hermetism in the closing decades of the 17th century. The author's critiques of Fr. Kircher's views are somehow less obtrusive than is the case where the views of the early Jesuit missionaries in China are concerned. Several of the best parts of the book follow the author's discussion of the search for a universal language (Chapter 6) and a key to the Chinese language (Clavis Sinica) (Chapter 7), focusing on the writings and correspondence of proto-Sinologists Fr. Kircher, Müller, Mentzel, and Leibniz, and China missionary Fr. Bouvet, the last great proponent of Jesuit accommodation in the century. However, the author's penchant in this section for taking pokes at others for using 20th-century attitudes to judge the shortcomings of some of his subjects (pp. 215, 227-28, 231, and 236) is rather annoying, especially in view of the fact that he indulges in the same type of thing (p. 220). In Chapter 8, the focus shifts back to the Jesuits in China. Here the author discusses the culmination of Ricci's version of accommodation in the 1687 publication of Confucius Sinarum philosophus and the European reactions to it. This work is a Latin translation of a ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 332 biography of Confucius and three of the Four Books of early Confucianism; namely, Ta-hsüeh, Chung-yung, and Lun-yü. While the discussion (based on the author's private correspondence with T. Korai Kitao) of the European influences in the portrait of Confucius standing with a temple of learning in the background is very interesting, the suggestion that Confucius is holding his own spirit tablet (pp. 271, 274, and 276) may be worth further investigation. The author's running criticism of the translations of the Ta-hsüeh and Chung-yung gets in the way of his presentation of Jesuit views and interpretation. One wonders why he did not include the Lun-yü in his discussion, particularly since Leibniz was particularly fond of this work (pp. 287-88). Chapter 9 is devoted to the writings of Fr. Bouvet who arrived in China in 1688 and significantly revised the content of accommodation by discarding Ricci's Confucian-Christian synthesis in favor of a 'Chinese-Christian synthesis' focusing on the pre-Confucius portions of the I-ching. The author gives a clear picture of the different social and political circumstances under which Ricci and Bouvet laboured and how this influenced their approaches to accommodation. He shows the impact of Hermetism on Bouvet's fascination with and interpretation of the hexagrams of the I-ching as hieroglyphs which encoded the ancient and pristine religion of man. The discussion of the dissemination of Bouvet's views to Europe through his correspondence with Leibniz is most interesting, though the reading is somewhat tedious. Chapter 10 brings down the curtain on the 17th century and the Jesuits with an examination of the extremist views found in the new accommodative compositions of Le Comte and Le Gobien which brought the Rites Controversy to a head and provoked the impeachment of their works in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1700. Finally, a four-page conclusion provides a succinct and adequate summary of the author's main points. MELVIN P THATCHER Cecil Beaton: Chinese Diary and Album New edition, O.U.P., Oxford, 1991 also, same author: India Diary and Album New edition, O.U.P., 1991 Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) was well-known, particularly in the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 73 One would expect in Japan, a country that has adopted so much of its culture from China, that people believe in fung shui. It was introduced there during the Tang Dynasty, and, in the 'Land of the Rising Sun', it is called in Japanese (using the Cantonese pronunciation) fong wai hok (the 'School of Direction'). But the art is not nearly so common as in Chinese communities, and, while it is sometimes used for designing commercial buildings, harmonious gardens and landscapes in Japan, it is not used for graves. The cities of Nara and Kyoto are said to have good fung shui and this was also supposed to have been a consideration when the Imperial Palace was planned. Fung shui, as practised in Vietnam, is closer to the Chinese doctrine than the Japanese version, and in Vietnam some cities, as in China, are said to have been planned according to geomantic principles and the power of nature. In China, both Peking and the Forbidden City were laid out on fung shui principles. The latter was planned as a cross superimposed on a square. The chessboard or grid pattern, and the north-south axis and gates at four quarters were considered important, as were the three encircling walls allowing for circulation. All these provide balance, harmony and protection against both the enemy and evil spirits. In the eyes of the Chinese, when the Forbidden City was planned the world was square, and, consequently, most walled villages are also square. The whole idea of considering balance and form, including a variety of shapes, sizes, together with 'open lungs', is not inconsistent with the ideas of modern planning. It has even been postulated that, in the 17th century, once the Jesuit missionaries had gained the confidence of the Emperor in China, they tried to have fung shui stamped out. Yet some Jesuits took fung shui ideas back to Europe, some claim, where the priests used the principles for laying out parks (Pennick; 1979). Korea has the 'symbol of creation' (yin and yang) on its national flag, and its version of fung shui is similar to the Chinese version (Yau, 1976-passim). To mention, briefly, additional examples. In Malaysia, a site that faces a river or a valley is considered good for building a house. In Africa, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 134 Pokfulam and Bethanie, July 1972 During an address at the 1990 Annual Dinner in the presence of our Patron and Lady Wilson, I reminded members of this visit to the "Maison de Bethanie" in its centenary year, some eighteen years before. This particular local tour had meant a great deal to me; on its own account, and for its insights into bygone Hong Kong. Made in the height of the Hong Kong summer, it took in University Hall the former "Nazareth" of the French Mission's complex at Pokfulam with its famous Mission Press, operated between 1884-1953 together with "Bethanie" itself, and the old Pokfulam Village. As was stated in the programme notes for the visit, it was being made to a part of Hong Kong Island that had not witnessed the same degree of change as other districts. "Even today", I wrote in 1972, "it is easy to imagine what Pokfulam was like in 1841 when Britain occupied Hong Kong." "Bethanie" had been built by the Fathers of the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris; otherwise called for short, the French Mission. Suffice it to say here, that this particular Catholic Mission provided more workers and more martyrs than any other of the bodies that evangelized the Far East. It originated with some French priests who, in the mid 17th century, had been invited to Tonkin to help with the Jesuits' work there, and its first missionary to China had begun work there in 1681. By the time the Mission received a mention in Samuel Couling's Encyclopaedia Sinica in 1917, it had under its care 12 Vicariats with 462,321 Christians, and more than 160 of its members had been made bishops. But it was by "Bethanie" itself, the embodiment of so much heroic effort, that I was so stirred. As stated in the Journal, its chapel had then still contained beautifully finished ecclesiastical furniture and fittings that, in mediaeval fashion, had obviously been made by artisans working on and round the site for as long as required, when the building was nearing completion. Its walls carried memorials in marble to martyred priests, and the adjoining Mission cemetery had held the remains of a hundred former priests and high dignitaries, many of whom had come to "Bethanie" to die of sickness contracted elsewhere or to spend their declining years amidst its peace and safety - for the "Maison de Bethanie" was essentially a sanitarium for the entire overseas Mission, and Hong Kong had been selected on account of its climate and the medical facilities available. Father Caminondo, who permitted our visit and provided a valuable note, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 199 Dewey, John and Alice Chapman Dewey, Letters from China and Japan, New York Dutton, 1920 Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368-1644, edited by Carrington Goodrich, et al, New York Columbia University Press, 1976 Dingle, E.J., Across China on Foot, Bristol Arrowsmith, 1918 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing) Dobell, Peter, Travels in Kamchatka and Siberia, with a Narrative of Residence in China, London H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1830 Donne, G.H., Generation of Giants. The Story of the Jesuits in China in the Last Decade of the Ming Dynasty, Notre Dame University of Notre Dame Press, 1962 Donovan, John F., The Pagoda and the Crows, the Life of Bishop Ford of Maryknoll, New York Charles Scribner, 1967 Downing, C. Toogood, The Fan-qui in China in 1836-7, London Henry Colburn, 1838 (Shannon Reprint, Irish University Press) Dyce, Charles M., Personal Reminiscences of 30 Years Residence in the Model Settlement, Shanghai 1870-1900, London Chapman and Hall, 1906 Eames, James Bromley, The English in China, London Curzon Press, 1909 (New York Reprint Barnes and Noble) Earl, Lawrence, One Foreign Devil (on Mary Ball. A Medical Missionary in North China), London Hodder and Stoughton, 1962 Edkins, Jane Rowbotham, Chinese Scenes and People, London Nisbet, 1863 Edwards, Dwight W., Yenching University, New York United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, with a sequel by Y.P. Mei on Yenching in Chengtu, 1959 Elliot, Robert, Views From the East, London I. Fisher, 1835 Ellis, Sir Henry (1777-1855), Journal of the Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China, Comprising a Correct Narrative of the Public Transactions of the Embassy, of the Voyages to and From China, and of the Journey From the Mouth of the Pei-Ho to the Return to Canton, 2nd edition, London J. Murray, 1818 Enders, Elizabeth Crump, Swinging Lanterns, New York Appleton, 1923 — Temple Bells and Silver Sail, New York Appleton, 1923 Englishman in China, The, London Saunders, Otley, 1860 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 204 Hunter, Jane, The Gospel of Gentility, American Women Missionaries in Turn-of the Century China, New Haven Yale University Press, 1984 Hunter, W C. The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton, London Kegan Paul, 1882 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing) Hunter, William, Bits of Old China, London K Paul, French, 1885 Hutchison, James Lafayette, China Hand, Boston and New York Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, 1936 Hutchison, Paul, ed. A Guide to Important Missionary Stations in Eastern China Lying Along the Main Routes of Travel, Shanghai Mission Book Company, 1920 Hyatt, Irwin T, Jr, Our Ordered Lives Confess. Three 19th Century Missionaries in East Shantung, Cambridge (Mass). Harvard University Press, 1976 Ichiko, Chuzo, Political and Institutional Reform, Cambridge History of China, vol II, 375-415 Inglis, Brian, The Opium War, London Hodder and Stoughton, 1976 International Mission Council, Christian Education in China, A Study Made by an Education Commission Representing the Mission Boards and Societies Conducting Work in China, New York, 1922 Isaacs, Harold Robert. Images of Asia, New York and London. Harper and Row, 1972 Jesuits, Letters from Missions, The Travels of Several Learned Missioners of the Society of Jesus translated from the French in 1713, London printed for R Gosling, 1714 1 Johnston, Alan James, The Footprints of the Pheasant in the Snow, Portland Me Johnston, 1976, 1978 Johnston, R. F, From Peking to Mandalay, London John Murray, 1903 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing) Twilight in the Forbidden City, London Victor Gollancz, 1934 (Hong Kong Reprint Oxford University Press) Jones, Francis Clifford, Shanghai and Tientsin, With Special Reference to Foreign interests, London Oxford University Press, 1940 Kemp, Emily Georgina (b 1860), The Face of China. Travels in Eastern, Northern, Central and Western China, with Some Accounts of New School, Universities, Missions, New York Duffield and Co. 1909 Chinese Mettle, London and New York Hodder and Stoughton, 1921 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g Roc, A S, China As I Saw It, London Hutchinson, 1910 Romer, Charles Frederick, Foreign Investments in China, New York Macmillan, 1933 Roosevelt, Kermit, The Search of the Giant Panda, Journal of American Museum of Natural History XXX 33-16(1930) Ross, Edward Alsworth, The Changing Chinese, The Conflict of Oriental and Western Cultures in China (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing) Rowbottom, Arnold H, Mission and Mandarins, the Jesuits at the Court of China, Berkley, University of California Press, 1942 Roy, Jules, Journey Through China, London Faber, 1967 Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of Hong Kong Branch Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of North China Branch Quested, R. K.I., The Expansion of Russia in East Asia 1857-1860, Kuala Lumpur University of Malaya Press, 1968 Saeki, P Y, The Nestorian Monument and Relics in China, Tokyo. Toho Bunkwa Gakuin, 1937 Scidmore, Eliza Ruhamah, Westward to the Far East, a Guide to the Principal Cities of China and Japan, Montreal Canadian Pacific Railroad, 1894 Scott, Roderick, Fukien Christian University. Historical Sketch, New York United Board for Christian Colleges in China, 1954 Sebes, Joseph S.J., The Jesuits and the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689), Rome Institutum Historicum S.I., 1961 Sewell, William Gowan, The People of Wheelbarrow Lane Chengtu 1931-41, London Alfred and Unwin, 1972 Shaw, Robert, Visits to High Tartary, Yarkand and Kashgar, London John Murray, 1871 (Hong Kong Reprint. Oxford University Press) Shaw, Samuel (1754-1794), The Journals of Major Samuel Shaw, the First American Consul at Canton with Life of Author by Joseph Quincy, Boston W Crosby and H P Nichols, 1847 Silverstein, Joseph and Lynn, David Marshall and Jewish Emigration from China, China Quarterly (London 1979) Sino-Swedish Expedition 1927-1935, Reports from the Scientific Expedition to the North-Western Provinces of China Under the Leadership of Sven Hedin, with 54 folded maps, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 132 of the façade as part of broader surveys on the church of St. Paul's or the architecture of the Jesuits in China and, regretfully, not much new has been added to this particular question. In order to make clearer certain developments related to the façade of St. Paul's, a limited number of churches and altarpieces in Spain and in Portuguese India will be discussed. But because of limitations of time, any detailed references to the ground plans, elevations, and dimensions of St. Paul's or any of these structures or buildings will be left out. It is mainly the façades of buildings as they relate to the main topic that are of greater importance here. Besides these analogies, I will further explore some relevant questions on the development of Jesuit buildings in India first expressed in an article written several years ago. The Church of St. Paul's, Macao What once was the Jesuit Church of Madre de Deus, or St. Paul's, is today merely a church front, some 70 feet high, with narrow sections of aisle-walls holding it up at either side at the back. This seventeenth-century ruin is the only remnant of a catastrophic 1835 fire, which destroyed the entire complex of educational and residential buildings of which it was part (Fig. 1). The impression that it makes today, when it is mainly admired as a relic of a bygone age, is quite different from that which it made to visitors over three and a half centuries ago. At that time, the church stood in full visible splendour on a hill near the city walls, facing the Portuguese city below and the open sea beyond. Ironically, a fire in November of 1600 had destroyed a previous church, which led to the construction of the church of Madre de Deus, the one that in time became the most splendid Christian temple in a transitional Early Baroque style ever to have been built in China. Seventeenth-century visitors marvelled at what was then the new church of a university college, started two years after the November fire and at the time only recently completed with the addition of a brand new façade. This added structure was an amazing showcase of artistic and social co-operation. Artists of East and West had created it. The Portuguese rectors had supported it. The wealthy citizens of Macao had financed it. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 137 Some of the aspects of Christianity introduced by the religious orders, including the Jesuits, are rather disturbing as they harked back to the Dark Ages, with street spectacles of burning heretics and bleeding flagellants. But in all fairness it should be pointed out that the gruesomeness of these spectacles was nothing new to the East. Moreover, there was also a much more positive, Renaissance side to Iberian colonisation, as seen in the unique buildings of the period that have survived in Velha Goa and elsewhere in India. Velha Goa reached its greatest period of administrative importance and commercial prosperity during the last three decades of the sixteenth century, a fact reflected in the mentioned civic and religious buildings. For this very reason the passage to India and the sojourn in Goa was practically mandatory for many of the great Jesuit missionaries, scientists and artists arriving from Lisbon under the wing of the Portuguese padroado on their way to Macao, China or Japan. The Arch of Triumph motif It is not possible in this paper to give an adequate survey of what some term Indo-Portuguese churches. Instead I would like to focus on the Arch of Triumph, a characteristic architectural theme used in the decoration of façades that is linked in very interesting ways to that of the retable-façade. As will be mentioned later in these pages, it has been argued that a couple of Jesuit church fronts in Goa have arches of triumph as decoration that resemble retables. Moreover, there are some church fronts in Goa that seem to me to have been influenced by the type of façade known as a capilla abierta, or open chapel, used above a main entrance for the display or celebration of the Eucharist. It may be inferred from this that the probable use of retable inspired façades by the Jesuits or others in Goa makes it more plausible that they chose this particular decorative structure for their Church in Macao, albeit in a radically different and more elaborate style. But as will be seen, that style itself was part of a clear process of stylistic development already started in Goa. The Arch of Triumph is a well-known structure that was used by Italian Renaissance architects for the decoration of the elevation of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g -reinfo 141 brackets, enclose a window. Typical Late Renaissance ornaments and geometric designs of various kinds, such as spheres on pedestals, top the entablature and pediment. Jesuit Churches in India Perhaps the most ingenious exploitation of the motif in India was by the Jesuit Fathers, whose building schemes form such an important part of the history of art of Colonial Iberian architecture in Asia and the Americas. It can be seen not only on the façade of the now vanished collegiate church of São Paulo in Velha Goa, but also in the Church of their College of São Paulo in Baçaim. The Arch of Triumph decoration of their Baçaim church is of great interest for my main argument because at least one art historian has noticed its structural similarities to that of retables. David M. Kowal's recent article implies that not only the façade of the Baçaim collegiate church, but also that of Velha Goa should be so considered and he describes them as "retable-like." Not all art historians would classify any of the church fronts in Portuguese India as retable-façades, including those of the Jesuits, although it is difficult to dismiss D. Kowal's claim for these two churches.13 The name of the church at Baçaim, built between 1561-1579, is actually Nome de Jesus (Name of Jesus). Its large Arch of Triumph indeed resembles those appearing in a number of Renaissance retable-façades in Southern Spain, such as that of the church of St. Elizabeth, in Seville. As far as the Arch of Triumph motif itself is concerned, the most important sixteenth-century example in India may be seen in the Church of São Paulo in Velha Goa. Moreover, one could take 1560, the year when building of the new college and church of São Paulo were initiated, as signalling a more ambitious phase in the Society of Jesus' architectural projects in India. When it was completed in 1572 São Paulo was not only the first major church built by the Jesuits in India, it was also one of the most masterful Portuguese churches in Asia, attesting to the importance that the Jesuit fathers attached to it.15 Its association with St. Francis Xavier ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 142 himself, as well as the whole of their missionary activity in Asia and the Far East, including Macao, accounts for this. Sadly, as in Macao's Madre de Deus (which apparently was popularly called St. Paul's because of the Goa college and church), today only a pitiful ruin remains of this artistic and historic treasure, with merely a section of the entrance façade with its stone portal standing (Fig. 8). The entangled history of the church's abandonment and final decay need not concern us here. But conveniently for my main arguments, the small section that does survive displays an Arch of Triumph integrated to the wall. Here engaged Corinthian columns, paired and elegantly fluted, standing on bases decorated with diamond-shaped reliefs and carrying a broken entablature frame the half-circular entrance arch. Artistically and technically this feature is close to the sophistication of Italian Renaissance architecture. Since neither the famous college nor its church survives, Mário Chicó attempted to reconstruct the latter by means of drawings based on contemporary descriptions. He believed it to be the prototype for one of two types of Indo-Portuguese churches. He also convincingly argued that of the two types that of the façade of São Paulo is the closer to Serlio and Italian Renaissance architecture. In Chicó's published drawing the façade of the church is shown as having three storeys, plus a pedimented attic. The three storeys are divided into three bays by projecting pilasters with entablatures, with openings for entrances and square and round windows. There is a niche for a titular image in the attic, which is joined to the floors below by the pilasters of the middle bay and by volutes. It's an imaginative reconstruction, especially the fact that the façade has comparatively little decoration. It relies for effect on the more purely abstract lines of the design and on the main feature of its decoration, its Arch of Triumph. The artistic and symbolic potency of the motif and its application as decoration to the façades of religious architecture was one that was not actually initiated by either the architects or the religious members of the Society of Jesus in Italy, Spain, Portugal or India. Rather it was one that the Jesuits had readily accepted and were able to effectively ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 143 exploit for the decoration of the façades of some of their Indian churches of the last third of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the next. The theme would later be adapted to the more ornate decoration of the façades of the churches of their Casa Professa in Velha Goa and of the Jesuit College in Diu. Minor Basilica of Bom Jesus and the Diu Collegiate Church Not only the Bom Jesús, but, as we shall see, the façades of the collegiate churches in Diu and of Madre de Deus in Macao point to a further stylistic development of the architecture of the Society of Jesus in Asia. It could be argued that the façade decoration of the three mentioned buildings reveals a transitional phase, one in which a Late Mannerist decorative idiom is elaborated to the utmost. Moreover, in the Church of Madre de Deus in Macao this idiom already heralds the Baroque style. In India even before Jules Simão's appointment as chief of the cathedral works the Jesuits had begun work on what was to be their finest building project in India. This was their Casa Professa, or Profess House, begun in 1583-85, whose cloisters were also designed by Simão (Figs. 9,10). Today the church of the Profess House, originally dedicated to the Child Jesus, is better known as the Minor Basilica of Bom Jesus. It was started on the 24 November 1594 to the plans of G.B. Cairatti, an Italian architect from Milan, and completed about twelve years later. Perhaps its chief attraction today is the so-called incorrupt body of St. Francis Xavier and its magnificent 1690s funerary monument by Giovanbattista Foggini.17 The design of the front of the Bom Jesús, if not of its ground plan, indicates that the architect followed the general lines of the façade of St. Paul as reconstructed by M. Chicó (Fig. 9). There is the same division into three storeys and three bays, plus attic and pediment joined to the storeys below by gracefully curved brackets. Not only the façade but the whole building is crowned by numerous Herreresque spheres on bases placed as accents to the line of rising unifying pilasters. The Arch ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 144 of Triumph theme itself has been incorporated here into a more sumptuous design and at first glance is not immediately apparent. Although it is not possible to discuss it in detail, one should at least take note of the articulation of the façade. Its luxuriously applied decoration is executed in a soft local stone and stands out from the brick wall, once coated in white plaster. It starts with Corinthian columns on three bays of the ground floor that connect to Doric and Corinthian pilasters in the two storeys above and a fanciful Mannerist Composite order with decorative shafts in the attic. But the overall design is highly compartmentalized by means of large buttresses framing the corners and central bay in the shape of classical brick pilasters rising on all storeys. However, in spite of similarities, one can see a marked difference to the churches the Jesuits has built previously. Quite novel are the Mannerist carvings now embellishing practically the whole design of the façade of the Bom Jesus. The rendition of the symbol of the Society of Jesus in the attic, inside an oculus framed by a Mannerist cartouche upheld by eight angels, as well as other unusual details, is typical of the Mannerist style (Fig.10). Started in 1601 the Collegiate Church of the Society in Diu is the second most important example of a new development in Jesuit churches in India. Its proper name is Espírito Santo, or Church of the Holy Spirit. The design of the front elevation basically reproduces that of the Bom Jesús, except that it has been greatly unified by the abolition of the third storey and the compartments created by the buttresses in that building (Figs. 11,12). In ornamental extravagance its carved white stucco decoration outdoes the Bom Jesús and it has been argued that this is partly due to the influence of Indian architecture. Both the influence of retables claimed by D. Kowal for the Jesuit portals showing arches of triumph in Velha Goa and Baçaim, as well as the decorative complexity of the fronts of the Bom Jesus and Espiritu Santo are new developments. They point the way towards the even more novel departures seen in the façade of the Church of Madre de Deus in Macao. Page 195 Page 196 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 145 The Façade of São Paulo, Macao These novel trends in Jesuit architecture in India occurring at about the turn of the century may have reached their apogee in the church of their new college in Macao, opened to the public on Christmas day, 1603 (Figs. 1, 13). However, amongst other important differences with churches in India, here there is no Arch of Triumph as such; there is not even an entrance arch, but straightforward lintel-and-post doorways. Could the reason for its absence be that Portugal never did conquer Macao? This is an attractive conjecture, although a more likely explanation is that the architect or designer of the façade of St. Paul's was simply following St. Charles Borromeo's recommendations to architects concerning the façades of ecclesiastical buildings. In his influential Instructions of 1572, Charles Borromeo recommends the use of lintel and post for entrances of Christian churches instead of the arch, which he considered a pagan structure18. Be that as it may, the idea that the façade of Madre de Deus represents a symbolic arch of triumph of sorts, although one not based directly on an Arch of Triumph but on some other structure, should not be discarded altogether. Apparently, seventeenth-century visitors, many of whom had seen the churches of the Jesuits in Goa, did not find the lack of arches too unusual. What they do imply in their chronicles is that this façade was something particularly surprising within the architecture of the Society of Jesus, not only in Asia but elsewhere. The way they reacted not only to the magnificent interior of the church but also to its façade is significant. In the case of the latter, were they looking at something not merely visually striking but also quite novel? As already surmised at the start of this paper, were they in fact looking at the first retable-façade in China? This is not as improbable as it may seem. Today, once certain historical and art-historical associations are made, the surviving façade of the church recalls the outburst of altarpiece construction that took place in the Iberian Peninsula and its overseas colonies from the last decades of the sixteenth century. Until the Portuguese revolt of 1640 and the restoration of the House ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 147 Work on it could only have started after the beatification of St. Francis Borgia at the end of 1624. His statue and that of St. Luís Gonzaga appear in niches on the second storey of the façade with pedestals only bearing the title beatus, not saints. Francis Borgia was only canonised in 1670 but had been beatified by Pope Urban VIII on the 23rd November 1624. Luis Gonzaga had already been beatified in 1605 (Figs 14.15). The statues of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier also appear in the second storey and on their pedestals are given the correct title of saints. Both had been declared saints in 1622 with spectacular canonisation ceremonies in Rome, Spain and Portugal. We know from a 1644 Annual Letter written from the college in Macao that the façade was completed the year that this letter was dated. It seems therefore very probable that the frontispiece was constructed between 1625 and 1644 and that the impulse for its construction or reconstruction was very likely the canonisation of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier. The initiative for founding the Macao College as the seat of the Japan missions, later expanded to include China, was due to Alessandro Valignano, the Father Superior and Father Visitor of the Jesuits in the East. As stated, the architect of the church was Father Carlo Spinola, an Italian from Naples. The reputed decoration of the façade at the hands of Chinese and Christian Japanese craftsmen was very likely carried out under the direction of Giovanni Nicolao, an Italian Jesuit painter from Nola. From this it is only too obvious that Italian Jesuits with a Late Renaissance mentality were highly influential in its creation, something characteristic of the historical period in question. J.E. McCall, whose pioneering research is fundamental to the subject, has studied the activities of Giovanni Nicolao. Yoshitomo Okamoto, in his Namban Bijutsu, also gives important insights on Father Nicolao, who had actually opened a school of fine arts for young Japanese seminarians as apprentices in Western painting, printmaking and sculpture in various missionary colleges in Japan.19 But apart from Giacomo Niva, a Chinese-Japanese painter and the most brilliant of Nicolao's pupils, we hardly know the names of the other Chinese and Japanese artists who may have formed Nicolao's team in Macao. Unfortunately, this was apparently Jesuit practice at the time. Their famous annual letters sent from China or their Macao College, today ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 152 pair emerges at the back of the fourth storey. These six lions obviously served the same purpose as the gargoyles of Gothic churches, and may be void of iconographic meaning. In this case more important than classical orthodoxy for the Jesuits was evidently the incorporation and integration of Chinese and Japanese decorative motifs. Purpose of Decoration One of the most striking features betraying the influence of retables is the profusion of religious symbols adorning the walls of the frontispiece, an esoteric hieroglyphic language growing in iconographic intensity as it moves towards the top. In purely architectural terms this richness of imagery appears to be mainly artistic and non-functional, and is not found to this extent in the decoration of more conventional church façades. However, it is something typical of Counter-Reformation altarpieces, one of its main purposes being a didactic one. Not only the structure, but also the decorative dialogue of the façade also reveals it to be a mixture of medieval scholasticism and Renaissance classicism. Another characteristic of retables found in the façade is the hierarchy and progression of symbols and sculptured images that goes from bottom to top. For example, instead of the geometric decoration of the first storey, the second storey's bays display naturalistic bas-reliefs of palm trees. The bronzes themselves start with images of blessed and saints, above which appear those of the Virgin and Jesus. The upper half of the façade consists of a third storey united to those below by carved volutes, and a fourth storey or attic joined to it by segmental brackets and crowned by a large pediment displaying the dove of the Holy Spirit. In this upper half there are several Chinese inscriptions, further attesting to the didactic purpose of the decoration. Although these apparently were not the work of Chinese artists knowledgeable of calligraphy,25 they are quite legible and visible from the upper steps and the entrance courtyard below. There can be little doubt that their main purpose was to make the iconographic and calligraphic messages of the frontispiece, largely concentrated in the upper half of the façade, clear to the Chinese population and to potential Chinese converts. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 158 The prolific use of symbols for the decoration of the façade and the mystical poetry thus created is typical of the way images were used in the decoration of carved wooden retables. It is a topic that could be elaborated at great length, although unfortunately it is not possible here. Conclusion In this talk I have endeavoured to elucidate my main contention concerning the façade of St. Paul's by pointing out the way certain of its principal features relate to retables, such as the uniquely decorative nature of its classical supports and the strongly Eucharistic connotations of its decoration. This fact connects it to Spanish retable-façades, a kind of structure not typically Portuguese but also appearing in Portuguese architecture at this time. Moreover, two significant artistic developments in Jesuit architecture in Portuguese India could be said to prefigure the originality of the façade of St. Paul's. Firstly, there is some evidence of incipient retable-façades decorating a few of the churches of the Society of Jesus in India in which the Arch of Triumph is used as principal decorative motif. Although not possible here, Secondly, at the turn of the century the Jesuits in India were willing to admit the use of a more elaborate artistic idiom for the façades of their churches, in contrast to the plain styles preferred in the Iberian Peninsula during the latter half of the sixteenth century. Hopefully my extended inquiry has provided convincing answers to the intriguing similarities I believe exist between the unusual features seen in the façade of St. Paul's and those more characteristic of a retable-façade, even if the façade discussed remains an elusive artistic work sui generis. NOTES Guillén-Nuñez, César, “The Relationship of the Façade of the Jesuit Collegiate Church of Madre de Deus, Macao, to Retable-Façades”, M.Phil. Thesis, University College London, 1997. Guillén-Nuñez, C., Macau (Images of Asia), Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1984, pp. 52-3. 2 Vid. Rafael Moreira, “As Formas Artísticas”, in História dos Portugueses no ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 160 M. Hugo-Brunt, "An Architectural Survey of the Jesuit Seminary Church of St. Paul's, Macao", Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. 1, No.2, July 1954, University of Hong Kong, pp.1-21. J.B. Bury, "A Jesuit Façade in China", The Architectural Review, VI. CXXIV, No. 743, London, Dec. 1958, pp. 412-3. "Macao's St. Paul”, in Actas do III Colóquio Internacional de Estudos Luso-Brasileiros, II, Lisbon, 1960, pp. 30-6. A version of the latter, first delivered in 1957, is found in J.B. Bury, "A Igreja de São Paulo”, Arquitectura e Arte no Brasil Colonial, São Paulo, 1991, pp. 154-61. With few exceptions Chinese gazetteers of the Ming and Ching Dynasties seem to have ignored the façade altogether. 3 Guillen-Núñez, Cesar, "Some observations on the architecture of the Jesuits in the Orient", in St. Paul's Ruins. A Monument towards the Future, (bilingual Portuguese-English exh. catalogue, directed by F.A. Baptista Pereira), Lisbon-Macau, September-December, 1994, pp.49-53. Unfortunately, in this catalogue part of the original English text is corrupted by numerous typographical errors. There is however an excellent Portuguese translation, although a few lines of the original have been misinterpreted. + For the dimensions of St. Paul's façade vid. Hugo-Brunt, op. cit., p. 9. plates 2-10, and plate 13. 5 The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667, Hakluyt Soc., London, 1919, III, Part I, pp. 162-3. 6 Reynaldo dos Santos, Historia da Arte em Portugal, III, pp. 34-6. R.C. Smith, The Art of Portugal, p. 86. The literature on Spanish and Portuguese retable-façades is extensive but often only found piecemeal in more general works on Spanish and Portuguese architecture. Two pioneering researchers were B. Bevan, History of Spanish Architecture, London, 1938, p. 135; and G. Kubler, in Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and their American Dominions, 1500-1800, Penguin Books, 1959, p. 1. It should be noted that in the latter San Gregorio's façade is wrongly described as that of the chapel, rather than the College of San Gregorio. The following is a selected sample of other important writing on these structures. A. Rodriguez G. de Ceballos, La Iglesia y el Convento de San Esteban de Salamanca, Salamanca, 1987. F.Checa, Pintura y Escultura del Renacimiento ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 161 en España 1450-1600, Madrid, 1988, p. 58. Some of the more important writings on Latin American retable-façades, dealing also with those of the Jesuits, Dominicans and other religious orders, include, D. Angulo Iñiguez, E. Marco Dorta, M. J. Buschiazzo, Historia del Arte Hispano-Americano. II, pp. 427-38, 559-66, passim. J. A. Baird Jr., The Churches of Mexico, 1530-1810, University of California, 1962, pp. 22-3, 37-9, passim. A. Benavides, La Arquitectura en el Virreinato del Peru y en la Capitania General de Chile, Santiago, 1941, p. 54, passim. M. Collier, The Sagrario of Lorenzo Rodriguez, Yale University, 1973 (unpublished thesis). E. Harth-Terré, "El Imafronte de la catedral de Lima”. Arquitecto Peruano, 1941. "La obra de la Compañía de Jesus en la arquitectura virreinal peruana", Mercurio Peruano, 1942. P. Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, New York, 1961, p. 123 passim. A. B. Louchheim, "The church façades of Lorenzo Rodriguez: A focal point for the study of Mexican Churrigeresque architecture", Inst. of Fine Arts, New York University, 1941 (unpublished M.A. thesis). G. Navarro, La iglesia de la Compañía de Quito, Madrid, 1930, R. C. Smith, A First History of Latin American Art, The 2nd volume, Washington, 1952, pp. 157-61. M. Toussaint, "La catedra de Zacatecas y el arte del Virreinato", Anales instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas, Mexico, 1947. “La Catedral de Mexico y el Sagrario Metropolitano, Mexico, 1948, H. E. Wethey, Colonial Architecture and Sculpture in Peru, Harvard University Press, 1949, pp. 53-6, 58-60, passim. B. Vargas-Lugo, La iglesia de Sta. Prisca de Taxco, Mexico, 1974. 7 $ Late in the eighteenth century the fronts of Jesuit churches in Guanajuato, Tepotzotlan and elsewhere in Mexico display several of the most important retable-façades. M. Diaz, La Arquitectura de los jesuitas en Nueva España, Mexico, 1982, pp. 78-80. A. von Wuthenau, Tepotzotlan, Mexico, 1941. Gran Enciclopedia Gallega, XXV, Santiago, 1974, pp. 138-9. Carmen Aznar, Summa Artis, XVII, pp. 106-8. Summa Artis, XVIII, pp. 96-7. F. Checa Goitia, Arquitectura Española del Siglo XVI, XI, Madrid, 1953, pp. 47-8. Important carved retables were also produced in northern Europe during the fifteenth century, e.g., that of the Marienkirche, Lübeck, or that by an anonymous master of the School of Cologne, of c. 1434, in Frankfurt Cathedral. In Flemish altarpieces the theme is quite common. W. Kinkel, Der Dom zu Frankfurt am Main, München-Berlin, 1988, p. 18. Pearson, M. N., The New Cambridge History of India: The Portuguese in India, Cambridge, 1987. New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 21, University of Chicago, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 162 1993, p. 154. Morais, Carlos Alexandre de, Cronologia Geral da Índia Portuguesa, Lisbon-Macao, 1993. Ms. Amita Bairg, UNESCO heritage consultant on India, kindly provided number of churches and convents in 17th century Velha Goa. 10 Arches of Triumph appeared in church portals at the time in Andalusia, in Southern Spain. For Vandelvira's career and famous treatise on architecture, see Barbé-Coquelin de Lisle, Tratado de Arquitectura de Alonso de Vandelvira, 2 vols. Albacete, 1977. "V. Fraser. "Architecture and Imperialism in sixteenth-century Spanish America”, Art History, 9, No. 3, Sept. 1986, pp. 325-35. "The Architecture of conquest: building in the Viceroyalty of Peru, 1535-1633", 2 volumes, Ph.D. diss., Uni. of Essex, Colchester, 1984. 12 George Kubler's classic thesis on the plain style of Portuguese architecture forms the subject of his book, Portuguese Plain Architecture: Between Spices and Diamonds, 1521-1706, Middletown, Conn., Wesleyan University Press, 1972. For a recent discussion of this style, see Miguel Soromenhos' article, "Classicismo, italianismo e ‘estilo chão'. O ciclo filipino", in História da Arte Portuguesa, direcção Paulo Pereira, Volume 2, Lisbon, 1995, pp. 377-403. See in particular pp. 383-86. 13 David M. Kowal, "Innovation and Assimilation: The Jesuit Contribution to Architectural Development in Portuguese India", in The Jesuits, Culture, Sciences, And The Arts, 1540-1773, University of Toronto Press, 1999, pp. 482 and 488. It is somewhat ironic that D. Kowal uses the term "retable-like" for the portal decoration of the façade of São Paulo. Professor J.B. Bury dismissed an exact term in the first assessment of my MPhil thesis (see note 1) as not precise enough, one which I eventually gave up. 14 See flap of vol. 2, in Barbé-Coquelin de Lisle, op. cit, for illustration of the seldom reproduced portal of Saint Elizabeth Church. 15 Documenta Indica, (edited by Josef Wicki) Rome, “Monumenta Historica Soc. Iesu", 18 vols, 1948-1988. For São Paulo, see vol. 4, pp. 726-27; vol. 8, pp. 584-86; vol. 9, p. 491. For an interesting reconstruction of the site of Church and College see, Schurhammer, G., Francis Xavier, vol. 8, Jesuit Historical Institute, Rome, 1980, p. 457. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 437 Association on 3 December 1999. Behind the church over 100 steps led up to a tall statue of St Francis Xavier. Beside the steps were 14 stone posts bearing Chinese numbering and inscription. The pedestal of the statue bears worn inscriptions in Chinese and Portuguese - ‘Aqui foi sepultado S. Fran.co Xavier da Comp.a de Jesus, Alpo do Oriente. Este Padrao se levantou no anno de 1639.' The current caretaker, Mr Lam, took over in 1996 from a Christian caretaker aged 86, who had cared for the church since 1984. We had the pleasure of meeting this delightful old man in the village beside the church. The current caretaker suggested that for further information we could contact the Religious Affairs Dept. of Tai Shan Municipal Government on Tel 075 552 5980. We returned to the port for a good seafood lunch. The ferry arrived a little late but took us safely back to Shen Ju in good time for us to hire a taxi to Zhuhai. There we crossed the border to Macau and enjoyed our dinner accompanied by a bottle of good Portuguese wine, and a toast to the memory of St Francis. A visit assisted by China Travel Service By chance, in June 2001, I (Chris Bailey) had read an article in HK Magazine about the Jesuit-run Xavier Retreat House on Cheung Chau - dedicated to the missionary Saint Francis-Xavier. The article quoted the resident priest, Father Kane, as follows: "Xavier was one of the founding members of the Jesuits, and came to Asia in 1542. He was a tough guy, a trailblazer and died very near to Hong Kong, on an island about 60 miles west of Macau. His letters describe travelling from Japan and trying to get to Guangzhou, and stopping somewhere nearby to get fresh vegetables and water. There is one historian who theorizes that he stopped at the Old Port in Hong Kong. In any case, he must have passed through Hong Kong waters and seen the islands here. So I stand here (in the Xavier Retreat House) and see what he saw over 400 years ago It's very private, on top of a hill and overlooking the sea. It's a very beautiful sight.” This information inspired me to speak to Father Kane who said he knew the island well, had been there several times via Macau and that there was a non-active church dedicated to Francis Xavier, built close ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 440 - who were very friendly and didn't mind us snapping away. All too soon, it was time to head back for the 2.30pm ferry (and the dreaded customs hall that was rumoured to be tough-going, but in fact gave us no problems). In all, a relaxing and different weekend which was fun and gave us a sense of achievement. Details of St Francis Xavier's life and links to St John's Island (as gleaned from a search on the Web and other sources) St. Francis spent 10 years in Asia and became known as the Apostle of the East. He was the third son of a high official and was born in April 1506 in the Castle of Xavier in Navarre in Northern Spain. Francis was influenced by Ignatius of Loyola and his “Spiritual Exercises” while they lived in Paris. Later, while in India, Francis became a member of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, which Ignatius had been instrumental in founding. Francis left Lisbon in 1541 and travelled via Mozambique to Goa in 1542. Many were converted, inspired by his life, writings and teaching. He travelled to Malacca in 1545, translated prayers into Malay, and again won many converts. He travelled to the Moluccas, to Cochin (1548), to Kagoshima (1549) and to Kyoto (1550). In 1551 he resolved to return to Goa and his ship called in to St John's Island in December 1551. St John's Island was a common port of call for Portuguese ships in those times. While Francis was there, a Portuguese prisoner in Guangdong, probably a smuggler who had been caught by the Chinese authorities, managed to get a letter to a friend of Francis's. The letter suggested the sending of an ambassador to China to seek help for such prisoners. Francis saw opportunities in this and set out from Goa again in April 1552. He intended to bring the news of Christ to China and, with others on board the "Santa Cruz," intended to pursue the release of Portuguese prisoners. However, when they called in at Malacca, they found the Captain of Malacca, a son of Vasco da Gama, resented the appointment of an ambassador other than himself. He allowed the Santa Cruz to leave Malacca, but only without the ambassador. Francis realised his mission was in peril but arrived at St John's Island in August 1552. The Chinese authorities forbade him to enter ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 213 BOOK REVIEWS Full Circle: A Life with Hong Kong and China Ruth Hayhoe Introduction by Mark Bray and Ora Kwo Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, 200 ISBN 962 8093 31,2 276pp. HK$200/US$32 Few westerners in history have become as knowledgeably inculturated into respect for China and Chinese ways as Ruth Hayhoe has, or achieved her high level of trilingual Chinese skills. Centuries ago, the Jesuits adopted Chinese ways in order to convert China to Roman Catholicism. Some wore Chinese clothes and traveled in state like Confucian scholar-administrators, borne in palanquins preceded by attendants carrying their books. In the end, the Roman hierarchy thought they had gone too far, and the Order was suppressed. Hayhoe wears the occasional mandarin collar, has written or edited several books and numerous articles, which could well be borne in state, and for just over four years, as a senior member of the educational hierarchy, enjoyed an official car in Hong Kong. But her avowed purpose is sometimes the opposite of that which compelled the Jesuits in the past. She wishes to bring Chinese knowledge (pp. 126, 251) -- and 'Asian ways of knowing' (pp. 20, 239) -- to the rest of the world. At other times, she looks for an equal balance; for, ‘an ideal set of relations between China and western countries, characterised by mutuality and ordered around the values of autonomy, equity, solidarity and participation.' (p. 117) This Autobiography gives a description of how Hayhoe's inculturation took place and also expresses the illumination she found when writing this account of selected strata of her life. Although she tells us that when she left Canada for her first visit to Hong Kong, in June 1967, 'China meant nearly nothing to me' (p. 64), elsewhere she explains that, as she wrote this book, she came to feel that all her ================================================================================