RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 118 D.L. MICHALK Hai-pei Hainan Tao, i.e., the “Circuit or Intendantship of North of the Sea (straits) and South of the Sea” (Mayers, 1872). Since Hai-pei was already used to describe coastal Guangdong, the practice arose of referring to the island south of the sea as Hainan (Schafer, 1969), although it was not until 1921 that it became the official name of the island (Liu, 1938). This new administrative footing established by the Mongols paved the way for the constitution of the island in 1370 as the Prefecture of K’iungchou Fu, named after the major city of the island (near present-day Haikou) which was first settled in 631 A.D. (K'iungchou fu chih, 1920 edition). The new prefecture was placed under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province, an arrangement which has continued to the present. This new status marked the promotion of the island from remote dependency to an integral part of the imperial realm. Rebellion, taxes, piracy and trade Undoubtedly, this integration was stimulated by the emergence of a flourishing commercial sector which had begun with limited trade in the Tang-Sung period (618-1280) when Hainanese cotton and incense aloeswood were exchanged by the Li for axes, salt, and cattle for their ceremonial rites (Savina, 1929). Through the increase in communication necessary for trade, and intermarriage between settlers and the Li aboriginals, an intermediate community emerged which accepted the supremacy of Chinese rule and adopted their customs and life-style. Known as Shu Li (literally tamed or civilized Li), this group served Chinese masters by tending livestock and tilling fields (Swinhoe, 1872a) in the buffer zone between the Chinese settlements on the coast and the unconquered mountain strongholds of the Sheng Li (literally wild or savage Li) in the island's interior. As their numbers increased, however, the Shu Li caused more anxiety to the Chinese Government by constant rebellion than the wild mountaineers, although most uprisings were self-inflicted by the rapacity of Chinese merchants and injustices meted out by government officials. Only when the Chinese garrisons were known to be weak did the Sheng Li sally forth from their impenetrable mountains and wreak devastation in the settled plains. Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 120 D.L. MICHALK Taxes levied on imports were just as crippling since the rates were fixed according to the size of the vessel that ferried the goods to Hainan, regardless of the value of the wares it carried. This meant that because the greatest profits were obtained from luxury goods such as expensive furniture, fine silks, silver vases and gold-en hairpins for the privileged rich, these imports took precedence over cargoes of livestock, cooking pots and bags of rice which returned negligible profits (Schafer, 1969). The lack of necessities of life led the poet Su Shih to lament in verse that a "grain of rice was like a pearl”. Enticed by an abundance of rich cargoes, bands of pirates formed and pillaged, almost unchecked, shipping along the entire southern seaboard of China. The problem reached such epidemic proportions in the seventeenth century as to preclude safe navigation on the open sea between the east coast of Hainan and the mouth of the Pearl River (Mayers, 1872). The only secure trade route between the mainland and Hainan was to cross the narrow straits which separate the island from the Leichow Peninsula with strong military escort and thence, trek overland to the provincial capital, at quickest a journey taking one month. As a consequence, commerce virtually ceased and Hainan was immersed again in the poverty and deprivation for which it was noted in medieval times (Schafer, 1969). Denied their source of revenue, pirates turned their ravages landward, and repeatedly sacked towns and villages in the north and east of the island, in spite of the presence of Imperial garrisons (Mayers, 1872). Although the destruction in 1684 of the pirate kingdom in Taiwan restored safe navigation to the Guangdong coast, Hainan still remained a haven for buccaneers, and pillage continued almost unabated until the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was the combination of a growth in foreign shipping interests in China, the use of steam power in ships and the opening of a treaty port in Hainan, which led to the demise of piracy as a lucrative pastime in the South China Sea. Although the Chinese had previously established rudimentary navies such as the "Sea-Patrolling Water Army" (Hsun-hai shui-chun) to control piracy (K’iungchow fu chih, 1920 ed.), it was the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 141 Review, 49: 501-502. K'iungchou fu chih www (1920 edition), cited by Schafer (1969). LaTourette, K.S. (1929) A History of Christian Missions in China, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Lee, Hwa (1964) “Hainan Island today”, Issues and Studies, October issue, p 35-45. Liu, Hans (1938) “Hainan: The Island and the People", China Journal, 29: 236-246; 302-314. Madrolle, C. (1898) “L'ile d’Hainan”, Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie Commerciale, 20: 361-370. Mayers, W.F. (1867) “Ancient Pearl Fisheries in the Province of Kwang-tung”, Notes and Queries of China and Japan, 1: 1-2. Mayers, W.F. (1872) “A Historical and Statistical Sketch of the Island of Hainan”, Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 8: 1-23. McClure, F.A. (1922) “Notes on the Island of Hainan”, Lingnan Agricultural Review, 1: 66–79. McClure, F.A. (1934a) “The Lingnan University's fifth Hainan Island Expedition”, Lingnan Science Journal, 13: 163-171, McClure, F.A. (1934b) “The Lingnan University's Sixth and Seventh Hainan Island Expeditions”, Lingnan Science Journal, 13: 577-601. Merrill, E.D., and F.P. Medcalf (1937) “Systematic Notes on Hainan Plants including New Species”, Lingnan Science Journal, 16: 181-197. Michalk, D.L., J.F. Ayres, Fu Nan-Ping and Zhu Ching-Min (1985) "Range Improvement in Tropical China: Gaopoling ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 64 September 1885 March June ca 1885 1886 January ca 1886 ca 1886 1887 1889/1890 1889 23 January 1890 Lived in the Chang-fa Chen, an hotel in Shanghai His first child, Pin Mesny, also known as Hu-sheng, born in Shanghai Departed Shanghai aboard the Yangtze for Canton and appointed for service in both Arsenals [claimed that during the years 1884/1887 whilst living in Canton, he suffered from boils, eczema and prickly heat] Many of Mesny's notes lost in Chungking during the destruction of the CIM missionary premises. Mesny had left them for safe keeping with the Rev G Nicoll Office Bearer of the Keystone Royal Arch Chapter of Masons in Shanghai Promoted to the brevet rank of Lieutenant-General [ennobled for three generations: previously claimed to have been bestowed in 1879] In charge of the China Branch of the New York Life Office, in Shanghai Representative of the Lartigue Railway Construction Company in Shanghai Intention to publish a monthly magazine in Shanghai to be called Yüleh Pao together with Chiang Chao-ling (friend and sworn brother). to be the organ of the Reform Party Made two journeys through Anhui and northern Kiangsu in connection with famine relief Journey through Anhui, around Lake Chao from Wu-hu to Lu-chou Fu, returning 5 February 1889 Visited Wu-chang to warn Chang Chih-tung that he was erecting the Iron and Steel Works in Wu-chang in an unsuitable place 1891 7 September Typhoon destroyed the Olympia Skating Rink, his property in Lloyd 1892 January 1894 May 1895 September 1896 Mar/Sep 1898 May/June December 1899 Mar/Oct Road, Shanghai, ruining him financially. Mesny involved in the Mason case Invited to organise a naval brigade for service on the Hsiang and Han rivers Stormy interview with Li Hung-chang in Tientsin Visited Peking and had breakfast with Manchu Prince Su Claims to have volunteered for service in Manchuria [Sino-Japanese War] En route to Manchura: Visited Liu K'un-1, Generalissimo of Chinese Forces [afloat and ashore] at his headquarters at Shan-hai-kuan Mesny refused permission to visit camps of Wu Ta-cheng and Wei Kuang-tao at or near to T'ien-chuang-tai Liu advised Mesny to return to Tientsin. His second and only other child, his daughter, Marie Wan-er, born in Shanghai Began the publication of his Chinese Miscellany Volume 1 in Shanghai Publication of Volume 2 of his Chinese Miscellany Legally married to Lady Han, mother of Hu-sheng [or Pin] and Marie Wan-er Trip by chartered boat to Hangchou Visited Nanking Publication of Volume 3 of his Chinese Miscellany ================================================================================