RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f NESTORIAN CROSSES 19 battle of Lignitz (1241) the knights of Europe were mown down, Europe lay helpless before the invaders, when the Great Khan Ogotai suddenly died, and the Mongol princes hastened back to be present at the grand assembly in Mongolia for the election of a successor. Europe was saved. But meantime through travelling merchants and friars contacts with the Mongols had been established in the Near East and, no doubt as a result of the Nestorian missions, and the conversion of the king of the Keraits in 1007, rumours grew of the rise of a great Christian Potentate in Central Asia called Prester John". Availing himself of the respite afforded by the withdrawal of the Mongols, the Pope conceived the idea of sending emissaries to the Mongol rulers, on the one hand to avert the threatened Mongol invasion by appealing to the reports of their common faith, and on the other to enlist their aid against the Moslem Turks in the Holy Land. The emissary chosen by the Pope was Friar John of Pian de Carpine (Plano Carpini) who was despatched with a letter to the Mongol rulers in A.D. 1245. Proceeding with his companion Friar Benedict the Pole through South Russia and Central Asia, he arrived at the camp of Kuyuk Khan in northern Mongolia at the time of his election by the great assembly, and was received in audience by him. Friar John returned to Europe in 1247, and met King Louis IX of France in Paris preparing for the Fifth Crusade (1248-1254). He has left a short but valuable account of his journey and a history of the Mongol tribes.11 During the disastrous Fifth Crusade King Louis was accompanied by Friar William of Rubruck, and he received several travellers returning from the nearer Mongols and despatched several emissaries, the most important of whom was Friar William of Rubruck himself whom he sent in 1253 on a personal mission to the Great Khan. Friar William travelled from Constantinople via South Russia and Central Asia to Karakoram near the present Urga, as Friar John had done, and returned through Asia Minor. He has left a long and detailed account of his journey, which for accurate observation, and balanced judgment is a document 14 Rockhill, The Journey of William Rubruck with two accounts of ... John of Pian de Carpini, Hakluyt Society, Second Series, No. IV, 1900, D'Avezac: Relation des Mongols ou Tartares par le frère Jean du Plan de Carpin, Paris, 1938. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 68 HERBERT FRANKE administration of the local rulers of the Tun-huang region who were descended from the Chagatay branch of Chingis Khan's clan was still modelled after the Chinese prototypes. The names of offices mentioned in this Mongol letter written in the Mongol script are transcriptions from Chinese. The same applies to the feudal titles of these local rulers: they are Chinese and can be identified through Chinese sources. The document must have been written about 1355 or 1360, that is, rather late and at a time when the Tun-huang and Turfan regions were certainly not under direct control from Peking. Another document found in Turfan and dating from the same period has furnished evidence for another set of Chinese titles, in a context which is, linguistically, a strongly Turkicized Mongolian. The names of offices mentioned show that the administration of these Chagatay kings was a replica of the Chinese central and provincial government organization. Even the disposition of the Mongol documents found in Central Asia shows Chinese influence: wherever the name of a Khan occurs, a new line is begun.23 This same feature occurs also in the Mongolian letters written by the Ilkhans of Persia to the King of France and to the Pope. The presence of Chinese chancellery practices in Persia under the Ilkhans is further shown by the Chinese seals or rather stamps on these letters.24 We could even go one step further and ask how much of the government and taxation practices of the Golden Horde rulers in Southern Russia is of Chinese origin. It is generally recognized that medieval Russia, that is, the Muscovite kingdom of the Ruriks, was deeply influenced by the "Tatar" domination and took over some of the Tatar or Mongol patterns of government. The tendencies toward centralization in sixteenth century Russia can be explained by these Tatar influences which might eventually go back to Chinese administrative patterns. Chinese art forms too have spread West under the Mongols. A good example is Persian miniature painting. It is not necessary to be a trained art historian or a specialist in Islamic art; even a layman would notice that thirteenth and fourteenth century Persian miniatures were deeply influenced by Chinese painting. On some early miniatures we find trees, rocks and clouds painted in the same way as Chinese painters did. Chinese painting must therefore have been known to the Persians under Mongol rule. Recently unassailable proof for the presence of Chinese art in Persia has ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d KING MONGKUT AND THE KINGDOM OF SIAM 83 opened the Treaty Ports and a second British conflict with China had proved the superiority of Western arms, the Chinese court refused to reform. The Japanese were quicker to read the signs. Only Siam, unlike her weak neighbours in the tropical south, was able to adapt herself to the new world without war or its threat and without loss of sovereignty. Why was this? Was it because Britain and France had agreed to the Thai kingdom being a buffer between their Indian and Indo-Chinese empires? Or was it that the King of Siam who received Sir John Bowring had more vision than most of his Asian contemporaries and was succeeded by an equally gifted son? Whatever the reasons, the Treaty of 1855 was a major factor in determining the future of the Thai kingdom. It provided for the opening of diplomatic relations with Britain and, as a natural consequence, with other western nations. It introduced extra-territorial rights to British subjects living in Siam and allowed them to own or rent property. In commerce the Treaty abolished the strangling system of monopolies owned by the King and 'farmed' to Chinese merchants - replacing it by a free market with low duties on imports and exports. The year after the conclusion of the British treaty the Americans and the French secured similar agreements and these in turn were hastily followed by treaties with various European nations. These treaties marked a turning-point in the modern history of Siam. In the century and a half which followed Louis XIV's mission to Ayuthia in 1689 Siam had little or no contact with the West. In the mid-eighteenth century her main preoccupation was the constant war with the Burmese who finally sacked their ancient and splendid capital in 1767. By the time the new house of Chakri had established the capital at Bangkok in 1782 the British East India Company had consolidated its dominion over India. The tea trade with China was growing rapidly and ports of call on the eastern run were obvious advantages. Francis Light obtained Penang island for the Company from the Sultan of Kedah in 1786 for the annual payment of $6,000 and the vague understanding of British protection. Kedah was an acknowledged feudatory of Siam, but at that time King Rama I was far too busy with the building of Bangkok to concern himself with the incident and the British were not then interested in Siam. Raffles had ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 219 CHEN, Ching-ho CHEN, Tsun-teh CHEN, Yih · CHENG, Dr. Siok-hwa CHENG, T. C. - CHEUNG, Hon. Oswald - CHOA, Dr. Gerald H. CHOA, Robert CLARK, Mrs. A. T. COHN, Dr. A. J. COLLIN, P. H. + - COLLINS, Mrs. D. A. COMAN, Miss A. A. COMBER, L. - CORBALLY, E. · COSTANTINI, G* c/o New Asia College, C.U.H.K., 6 Farm Road, Kowloon. Room 11, 21st Floor, Block B, 395 King's Road, H.K. 406 A Bank of East Asia Building, H.K. c/o Dept. of History, University of Hong Kong, H.K. c/o United College, C.U.H.K., 9A, Bonham Road, H.K. Room 703, Prince's Building, H.K. c/o Medical & Health Dept., Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K. c/o Sperry Rand, 404-5 Fu House, Ice House Street, H.K. 13, The Albany, Albany Road, H.K. 15 Cambridge Road, 2nd Floor, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, c/o Dept. of European Language, University of Hong Kong, H.K. c/o Dept. of Chemistry, University of Hong Kong, H.K. 53 Dina House, Duddell Street, H.K. K.P.O. Box 6086, Kowloon, c/o Central Magistracy, Albert Road, H.K. 19, Boulevard de Montmorency, 75-Paris, 16C, France. COWPERTHWAITE, Lady 45 Shouson Hill Road, H.K. CREMA, M. · CRONE, Dr. D. L. CUMINE, E. - CUMMING, Mrs. D. M.* - CUMMING, M. S. CURTIS, Miss S. DAIKO, P. + DANSEY-BROWNING, Lt. Col. G. C. DANSEY-BROWNING, Mrs. S. M. - T c/o Italian Consulate General, Chartered Bank Building, H.K. Flat 2B, 1 Middleton Towers, 140 Pokfulum Road, H.K. 14, Embassy Court, H.K. 16, Peak Road, H.K. 16, Peak Road, H.K. 26 Dina House, Duddell Street, H.K. P. O. Box 201. H.K. P.O. Box 5096, Kowloon. P.O. Box 5096, Kowloon. · Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g THE DEBATE ON NATIONAL SALVATION 41 The homage and the tribute presented by submissive nations is something signifying the imperial dignity and the people do not obtain any good from it. Subduing foreigners is also not the way to rule. International commerce and overseas trade are advantageous to all and are indeed of no harm to the people. Thereupon, where does the secret of ruling lie? Confidence is the answer. With regard to confidence, Ho Kai did not refer to a theoretical attempt but to a practical pursuit. A government must provide significant evidence in its administration before it could secure the confidence of the people. Confidence, however, could not be enforced; it could only be obtained by directing the people to such a feeling of reliance. If everyone was forced to obey and follow the rule or policy as decreed, the sort of confidence thus secured arose from awe and could never be depended upon. If people had no confidence in their country, it was really unimportant whether this country was asleep or awake. On this point, Ho Kai's opinion was indeed a heavy blow at Tseng's proposals. According to Ho Kai, the people in China of the late nineteenth century were not striving for progress, and there was no united strength. However, those in high positions often informed their superior (the Emperor) that the people had a regard for progress, that their strength was significant, and that the Chinese enjoyed a state of good government. This, however, was dishonest talk. As for the Sino-French war, Tseng Chi-tse in his article said that 'China laughed to scorn the demands of France for an indemnity, exacted the restoration of her invaded territory, and made peace in the hour of China's victory.' Tseng continued to explain that China accepted the French demand without conditions because China did not want to exhibit her success to her people for fear that such a result would intoxicate the Chinese. As a result of this battle, according to Tseng, China was completely triumphant, even though Tong-king was ceded to France. Tseng was sharply criticised for trying to prevent the people from knowing the truth. Ho Kai said that the disunity and weakness of China had been brought to the surface during the Sino-French war. He pointed out that the people of China were not... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 50 CHIU LING-YEONG and the Chinese authorities. However the State Secretary, Thomas F. Bayard, was very pleased with Tseng's friendly attitude to the United States in his article. Cf. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1887, No. 168, Bayard to Denby, May 7, 1887. * Ho Kai (Ho Ch'i) was born on 12 March, 1859, the fifth son of the Rev. Ho Jun-yang. Ho Kai obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degrees from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, 1879, and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 29 April, 1879. He was called to the Bar on 25 January 1882. Ho Kai was admitted to practice as a barrister in the Supreme Court on 29 March, 1882 after he returned to Hong Kong. From 1882 onward, Ho Kai appeared to be an educationalist, reformist, revolutionary etc. Ho died in September 1914. At the time of his death he was a Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and had been knighted for his public services in 1912. See the account given at pp. 12-16 of T. C. Cheng's "Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Council in Hong Kong up to 1941” in JHKBRAS Vol. 9 (1969). After Ho's article was published in the China Mail on 16 February, 1887, it was translated into Chinese entitled "Shu Tseng Hsi-hou Chung-kuo sheng-shui hou-hsing lun-hou" by his friend Hu Li-yüan (1848-1916) and was published in the Hua Tsu Jih Pao on 11 May, 1887. Most of Ho Kai's writings like Hsin-cheng chen chian was written in English and was translated into Chinese by Hu. For Ho Kai, see Chiu Ling-yeong, The Life and Thought of Sir Ho Kai, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Sydney, March, 1968; Onogawa Hidemi, op. cit.; Watanabe Tetsuhiro, op. cit.; Fang Hao, "Ch'ing-mo wei-hsin cheng-lun-chia Ho Ch'i yü Hu Li-yüan”清末維新政論家何啟與胡禮垣, Hsin Shih-tai 新時代, Taipei III, 12 (1963) 20-25; Hsiang-Kang yali-shih Ho Miao-ling Na-ta-su i yüân ch'i-shih chou-nien ki nien, 1887-1967, Lo Hsiang-lin, Kuo-fu ti kao-ming kuang-ta, Taiwan, 1965, pp. 115-132, Kuo-fu chih 1a-hsüeh shih-tai, Taiwan, 1954, pp. 5-13; B. Harrison, (Ed): The First 50 Years, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1962 pp. 5-23; Llyod E. Eastman, "Political Reformism in China before the Sino-Japanese War", Journal of Asian Studies, Volume XXVII, No. 4, August 1968, pp. 695-710. André Chih: L'occident Chretien vu par les Chinois vers la fin du XIX siécle (1870-1900), presses universitaires de France, Paris, 1962, pp. 42 and 47. Hu Pin, Chung-kuo chin-tai kai-liang chu-i ssu-hsiang, Peking, 1964. pp. 82-84, pp. 173-182. Jen Chi-yü, “Ho Chi Hu Li-huan ti kai-liang chu-i ssu-hsiang” in Chung-kuo chin-tai ssu-hsiang shih lun-wen, Shanghai, 1958, pp. 75-91. 中國近代思想史論文集 Liu Yü-sheng, Shih-tsai tang tsa-i, Peking, 1960, pp. 163-164. Immanuel C. Y. Hsü: The Rise of Modern China, New York, Oxford University Press, 1970, pp. 425 and 543. Harold Z. Schiffrin, in his book entitled Sun Yat-sen and the Origins of Chinese Revolution, University of California Press. Berkeley, 1968, also has a lengthy chapter dealing with Ho Kai's relations with Sun Yat-sen, 9 Chung-kuo chin-tai ssu-hsiang shih ts'an-k'ao tzu-liao chien-pien, Peking, San-lien Shu-tien, 1957, pp. 174-175. 10 Cf. Chung-Fa Chan-cheng, Chung-kuo shih-hsüeh hui Comp., Shanghai 1955, Vol. I; Ah Ying (Ed); Chung-Fa chan-cheng wen hsieh chi, Chung hua Shu tien, Shanghai, 1957, pp. 3-6. Li Ting-yi, Chung-Kuo chin-tai shih, Taiwan, 1959, pp. 153-162; Liu Feihua, Chung keo Chin-tại Chiến-shih, Peking, 1954, pp. 117-125. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 32 H. J. LETHBRIDGE not on his side. He had come to Hong Kong with an express aim - to obtain cash. His design was to persuade Hong Kong merchants to invest heavily in the exploitation of the territory he claimed to rule as soi-disant King of the Sedangs, a title he had assumed in June 1888 with the passive assent of an innocent montagnard people. There were rich men in Hong Kong - speculators, gamblers, risk-takers - and Mayréna hoped to interest them in the mineral wealth and natural products of his new kingdom. Thus he assumed that meeting Sir William and Lady Des Voeux at Government House would vouch for his respectability and provide an entrée into the social enclosure of the rich European merchant class. Morès, on the other hand, had no such motivation. He was in Hong Kong with William Van Driesche, and an engineer, a M. Thorel, en route for Tonkin. His visit to Hong Kong was an accident. The Calédonien, the ship he boarded at Marseilles, berthed at Saigon and Hong Kong but not at Haiphong, so Morès was forced to travel on to Hong Kong and transfer to another ship for Haiphong, the entry port for Hanoi and the Red River basin. He was in a hurry and bent on business. Hence he stayed in Hong Kong for only a week, leaving on 29 November by the small German steamer, the Clara. It was during this week that the alleged duel between the two adventurers took place; but to explain why they had both wandered into the East and why they clashed, we must first examine their previous careers. Marie-Charles David de Mayréna16 The future King of the Sedangs was born into a bourgeois milieu at Toulon on 31 January, 1842. His father was a commander in the French navy, who died when Mayréna was a child so that he was reared entirely by a complaisant mother. He failed his examinations for the Ecole navale in 1857 but joined the Sixth Dragoons in 1859, transferring to the Spahis de Cochinchine in 1863. He served in Indo-China until 1868, when he resigned and returned to France. His career so far had been unremarkable. The next year he married a colonel's daughter; but little is known about the marriage and it seems likely that they soon separated or divorced. Mayréna was a great womaniser. The Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870 and he was recalled to the colours and procured the rank of captain. In February 1871 he was awarded the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 34 H. J. LETHBRIDGE Mayréna was joined by Father Guerlach, a missionary who had lived in the Moï region for many years and spoke several local dialects. On 3 June 1888, the members of the confederation accepted a constitution drawn up by Mayréna, which made him king. It is suggested by Marcel Ner1 and other scholars that Mayréna owed much of his success to his skill at prestidigitation, for the Moï were extremely superstitious and accepted his tricks as a sign of moral excellence and divinity. Mayréna by a surprising turn of fortune had become Marie, King of the Sedangs. The new kingdom was named after the Sedangs simply because this tribe formed the most populous element in the confederation of Moï tribesmen. He made Mercurol, the middle-aged, malaria-riddled adventurer from Saigon, the Marquis of Henoui, and created a number of orders of chivalry. His most fanciful creation was the Order of Merit pour récompenser les lettres, les arts, les sciences, l'industrie et le dévouement à la maison royale. It is difficult to understand for whom this order was intended since the Sedangs were totally illiterate. His Annamite mistress—Ahnaïa20—became Queen of the Sedangs, but although the official religion of the kingdom was now Catholicism, the young Ahnaïa resolutely refused to give up her pagan practices, much to the disgust of the missionaries who had foregathered at Mayréna's capital, Kon-Djeri, where the royal palace was a primitive hut above which, however, the royal standard fluttered. Mayréna led his warriors into several campaigns against recalcitrant tribes with varying success; but his real problem was not one of warfare but of money. He lacked the means to live in the style which he now felt was his due. It was the search, therefore, for financial support which led him to Hanoi and Haiphong and in November 1888 to Hong Kong. The Marquis de Morès21 Antoine-Amédée-Marie-Vincent-Manca de Vallombrosa, marquis de Morès et de Monte-Maggiore, was born in Paris in 1858. Unlike Mayréna, he was of noble blood. His ancestors, the Spanish Mancas, had been granted feudal estates in Sardinia in the fourteenth century. The family remained based in Sardinia until the early nineteenth century when the Marquis' grandfather settled in France. Morès received the conventional education of one of his class; he was first tutored by an abbé, then sent to the Catholic ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 42 H. J. LETHBRIDGE long with the proposed intention of working his new-found country." He merely wished to form a syndicate to prospect the country, and agreed if their report was favourable to grant certain concessions. And the China Mail writer ought to know, since he claims to have taken so much interest in the King's personal affairs as not to be ashamed to pry into his private life, who he took to supper, and other details which only a hypocritical Pharisee and blackguard of the deepest dye would have had the audacity to set out in print, that the syndicate in question had been duly formed and the agreement signed. Had M. de Mayréna been the adventurer and swindler he has been called by the China Mail he would have surely tried to raise money by his promised concessions but he made no such attempt. He asked for nothing until his bona fides had been clearly established and the enterprise he proposed was thoroughly tested and shown to be genuine. That he may have acted foolishly in some respects during his stay in Hong Kong is probable enough, but we doubt if the China Mail's self-constituted censor is so immaculate a being that he can afford to throw mud at an erring brother. The China Mail oracle says he cannot conceive, even supposing M. de Mayréna's conduct to have been perfectly straight, how any speculators in Hong Kong could have been induced to embark in such an enterprise. That merely proves poverty of conception and further shows that the writer knows nothing whatever about the subject which he pretends to elucidate for the benefit of the public.38 It is at first sight difficult to understand why Bain and Fraser-Smith attacked each other with such rancour, but a clue is provided by the following comment in the Mail: 'Imitating the example of the old Kings of France, the King of the Sedangs showed a remarkable affection for literature; and, one night, when the "flow of soul” was especially strong, he knighted the whole staff of a local newspaper which had kindly taken to espouse his cause.39 The newspaper was of course the Telegraph, which had a staff of five Europeans in 1888. The journalists of the Telegraph, all of whom had suddenly become 'chevaliers' of the Kingdom of Sedang, no doubt swelled up with pride at their elevation and infuriated the puritanical Bain by their airs. There is a pendant to the story of Mayréna's odyssey in Hong Kong. In Sir Hugh Clifford's words: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG 45 the Sedangs, a warrior chant. Mayréna was in full dress uniform, complete with multiform decorations. He was saluted by the other European passengers, who inclined their bodies, and he responded with a military salute. Present were the ennobled and happy industrialist and several rich young men from the Brussels haute-bourgeoisie. The chaplain was a former curé, who had been unfrocked for immorality. And so Mayréna left Europe for the last time. The voyage out was mostly uneventful, though Mayréna drank far too much and was often indiscreet enough to talk about his past with his courtiers. Court etiquette was strictly enforced aboard ship --- Buckingham Palace rules at table - except when brief forays were made ashore at Port Said, Aden and Colombo; then the King assumed his incognito as the Comte de Drey. On 18 April 1890 the Sachsen anchored in Singapore harbour. When Mayréna stepped ashore he was at once stopped by a courier from the French Consulate and told that the Consul wished to see him urgently. At the Consulate he was greeted politely but informed that the French Government now claimed rights over the territory of the Sedangs, that he was therefore no longer King, and would be arrested if he set foot in Indo-China. Mayréna, after much argument, returned to Ralph's Hotel, where his officials and courtiers had lodged temporarily, and informed the party that the Sedangs had revolted and that it was impossible to proceed to his kingdom. The group, it appears, were not surprised by the turn of events. They had enjoyed a splendid ocean vacation at the expense of the rich industrialist, Mayréna's backer, but had no desire to seek martyrdom among the savages of the Moï country. At the end of the week the party - court chamberlain, chaplain, other officials and passengers - all returned to Antwerp by the Sachsen. Mayréna stayed on in Singapore. There was little else he could do. Mayréna's sojourn in Singapore is not well documented, though Soulié claims Mayréna met in that city a European he had known formerly at Haiphong, a companion of Miss Dahlberg's brother, who was now domiciled on the island of Tioman and making a living by collecting birds' nests, those of the sea swallow, for the Chinese market. Mayréna decided to accompany this trader back to Tioman, because the island was under the jurisdiction of the Malay State of Pahang, and once settled there he felt he could not be extradited to either France or Indo-China, where he would have had to face trial assuredly for treason. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 46 H. J. LETHBRIDGE On the island Mayréna lived alone in a shack with a French poodle. He did not collect birds' nests, a task he left to his fellow European, but the feathers of birds of paradise. It seems that he took another 'wife—the twelve-year-old daughter of a local village chief. But he soon began to suffer acutely from paranoia, barricading and fortifying his shack and interrogating at the point of a rifle all who approached. He also suffered from delusions; he walked around gesticulating and talking to himself. He was now more than a 'king in exile', he was a 'mad king'. For Mayréna's last days we must rely on the testimony of J.F. Owen,46 the Collector of Kuala Rompin on the mainland, who visited Tioman and made friends with Mayréna. In November 1890 Mayréna visited Owen at Kuala Rompin. The morning after he drew up his will, and executed it formally in the presence of Owen, who was a magistrate. Then he called Auguste, his poodle, and set forth for a stroll along a jungle path. Soon he returned in great pain and claimed to have been bitten by a poisonous snake. He died soon afterwards in the presence of Owen. He was buried, Lineham states, at Kampong Jawa on the Rompin and his grave was marked by a plain block of chengal wood.47 There was no inscription. ‘But if you chance to visit Tioman', Sir Hugh Clifford writes, "the natives of the place will point out to you a number of strange-looking quadrupeds, half-pariah, half-poodle, and with pride will inform you that these are "ânjing pranchis" (French dogs); and these uncouth descendants of the well-beloved and redoubtable Auguste are the only traces left upon this little fairy island marking it as the erstwhile refuge of Marie David de Mayréna, Comte de Ray (sic), and King of the Sedangs'.48 The Marquis de Morès' nirvana was as strange as Mayréna's. Back in Paris he discovered that he could not go ahead with his scheme to construct a railroad in Tongking because of opposition from Ernest Constans, Minister of the Interior, who had just driven from France another ambitious soldier who, too, had left the French army. This was the sentimental General Boulanger, who was later to commit suicide over his mistress's grave at Brussels. Morès, as a result of what he felt was a personal conspiracy against him, became an implacable enemy not only of Constans but of the regime, the Third Republic, that Constans served. He had also become an anti-semite, principally because of his experiences with the Jews in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 56 H. I. LETHBRIDGE 41 In 1838 Charles Mirfin was killed in a duel on Wimbledon Common. The principal escaped abroad but the seconds were found guilty, sentenced to death, but later reprieved. In 1841 the Earl of Cardigan wounded Captain Tuckett in a duel and was accused of 'assault with intent to murder'. In 1852 a group of Frenchmen were indicted for duelling on English soil, sent for trial, and imprisoned. It must have been well known to both Mayréna and Morès that duelling was a criminal offence under English law and that the guilty could not escape easily from a term of imprisonment, even in Hong Kong. In 1872 the Spanish Consul in Hong Kong and the Peruvian Consul in Macao fought a duel at Chinese Kowloon. The Peruvian Consul was wounded by a pistol shot. They were each fined $200 at the Supreme Court in Hong Kong, although the duel had not taken place on Hong Kong soil! 42 ...the duel is a leisure-time institution... In civilised communities it prevails as a normal phenomenon only where there is an hereditary leisure class, and almost exclusively among that class' (Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, New York, 1934, p. 239.) 43 Alfred Capus (1858-1922) was a well-known journalist and man-about-town. 44 Maurice Mac-Nab (1856-1890) was a chansonnier, poet and notorious noctambule. The Rat Mort was a well-known café-chantant in Montmartre, the haunt of decadents, harlots and pleasure-seekers. The composer Charles de Sivry (1848-1900) was for a long time accompanist at the Cabaret du Chat-noir. He was the brother-in-law of Arthur Rimbaud. 45 At table, for example, the courtiers were expected to wait until the King introduced a topic of conversation. 46 John Fortescue Owen, born in 1869, entered the Federated Malay States Civil Service in 1889 and was appointed Junior Officer and Magistrate, Pahang, in that year. 47 See W. Lineham, 'A History of Pahang', Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 14, Part 2, 1936, p. 135. 48 Sir Hugh Clifford, 'The King of the Sedangs', Asia, July-Dec., 1926, p. 920. 49 Edouard Drumont (1844-1917) wrote a famous book, La France Juive, (1886), in which he attempted to demonstrate that France was controlled from behind the scenes by a pack of Jews. 50 R. H. Sherard gives an account of a personal interview with Morès in the Santé prison in The Real Oscar Wilde, London, n.d., pp. 401-2. 51 Morès did not mean to kill Mayer: Mayer impaled himself by running upon Morès's foil. 52 The Marquise offered a large reward for the capture of the assassins. There is a story that she tried to hire a number of cowboys to effect the rescue. She died in 1921 and in her will—a copy of which is in Somerset House, London—she left a sum of money for the erection of a monument at Mechiguig. In 1928 a large granite cross was placed on the spot where Morès fell. Lesley Blanch in her book The Wilder Shores of Love (London, 1954) claims that the Arab-loving Isabelle Eberhardt went in pursuit of Morès' assassins, but I have found no confirmation of the story. 53 Times, 20 July, 1896. 54 Soldiering was also an aristocratic sport, better than the chase. Many people volunteered to fight in wars which did not concern them; see, for example, the career of St. Leger Grenfell, who fought with John Hunt ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 NOTES ON THE SOURCES OF DE MAILLA 93 of Chin Lü-hsiang ✯✯✯(1232-1303), and a supplementary section prepared by Shang Lu j (1415-86) and others under imperial order of 1476, was available to de Mailla in the edition of 1708.1 But it carries Chinese history only to the end of the Yuan dynasty, whereas the Histoire générale in its final form includes the Ming and Ch'ing periods to 1780, the 45th year of the Ch'ien-lung reign, Since de Mailla's manuscript was sent to France in 1737,2 where it remained unpublished for forty years, it is evident not only that the author relied on sources other than the T'ung-chien kang-mu to continue his record beyond the Yuan period, but also that the final chapters are not his at all. There is no secret involved in these facts, credit generally being given where due by the published Histoire générale. But the usual tendency to consider the matter as closed when one has attributed the work to de Mailla and indicated the T'ung-chien kang-mu as his source is misleading. Volumes I-IX represent an abridged translation of the Kang-mu; for Vol. X, which treats of the Ming period, four other Chinese sources were employed. They are indicated in the editor's footnote to Vol. X, pp. 1-3, as follows: + Les trois auteurs que le Père de Mailla a suivis sur ce qui concerne les MING, sont le docteur Kou-yng-tai, examinateur des lettrés du Tché-kiang, dont l'ouvrage, intitulé Ming-ssé-ki-sse-pen-mo ou Faits historiques de la dynastie des MING a été publié par Fou-y-tché, premier ministre de Chun-chi, empereur des TSING: ce ministre en faisant tant de cas, que non content d'en être l'éditeur, il y a ajouté une preface de sa façon. Le second auteur, d'après lequel le Père de Mailla a rédigé l'histoire des MING, est Tchu-tsing yen docteur du premier ordre & gouverneur de Nan-yang-fou du Ho-nan. Son ouvrage, fait sur le modèle du Tong-kien-kang-mu, a pour titre, Tong-kien-ming-ki-tsuen-tsai, c'est-à-dire, Suite complette de la dynastie des MING-Tchang-yn, president du tribunal des Rits & ministre d'état, le publia la trente-cinquième année du règne de Kang-hi. Enfin le troisième écrivain, que le Père de Mailla a consulté sur les MING est le fameux lettré Tchong-pé-king, qui vivoit sous cette dynastie, au temps qu'elle perdit le sceptre impérial. Son Ouvrage, intitulé Ming-ki-pien-nien; c'est-à-dire, Annales de la dynastie des MING, fut rendu public la quarante-septième année de Kang-hi, plus de cinquante ans après la mort de l'auteur. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 98 R. G. IRWIN of investigation which he and two other Jesuit fathers had made to Formosa in 1714.31 Having carried his record to the close of the K'ang-hsi period, de Mailla ventured no further into contemporary history. Some forty years later the task of recording the subsequent Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung periods (to 1780) was assumed by M. le Roux des Hautesrayes32 of the Collège Royal de France. It should be noted that whereas de Mailla had scrupulously confined himself to Chinese (and in one instance Manchu) sources, the contribution of des Hautesrayes, in Vol. XI, pages 369-610, was based, not on Chinese texts at all, but on the writings of Jesuit missionaries, available in the volumes of Lettres édifiantes edited by Père du Halde and in the collection Mémoires concernant les Chinois,33 Vol. XII, containing “a note on the customs, sciences, and arts of the Chinese,” a table of reign titles, a summary of geographical nomenclature, an alphabetical index, etc., is also the work of des Hautesrayes. But the essays on Cochin China and Tongking, said to have been based on Chinese sources, are specifically attributed to P. Gaubil, and taken from Lettres édifiantes, Vol. XXXI.34 By translating the part relating to China in Fischer's Histoire de Sibirie, 1774 (in Russian), Stollenwerck has provided the note concerning the first attempts of the Russians against the Chinese.35 Abbé Grosier, who had been intimately connected with the publication of the earlier volumes, brought out in 1785 a supplement entitled "Description générale de la Chine ou Tableau de l'État Actuel de cet empire.” Individual copies have circulated independently, but it is commonly considered as Vol. XIII of the series, and its author is justifiably included in a review of those who share in the completed work. The present paper, it will be seen, makes no attempt either to evaluate the sources which have been identified, nor the manner in which de Mailla employed them. Its purpose has been simply to correct a popular misconception with regard to the relation between the T'ung-chien kang-mu and de Mailla's Histoire générale. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 102 MICHAEL SMITHIES French, advancing up the Mekong from Saigon, over-anticipating its value as a trade route to China and claiming suzerainty over Annamese vassals, slowly filled. The explorer Mouhot was at Luang Prabang in 1861 and Doudart de Lagrée and Francis Garnier shortly thereafter. The Kha rebellion of 1885 gave the French an excuse for intervention and stopping further extension of Siamese power in Laos; in 1886 a provisional Franco-Siamese convention was signed giving the French the right to establish a vice-consulate at Luang Prabang. The first mission by Pavie to Luang Prabang took place early in 1887, but French expansionism was effectively held in check for three years by the devastation caused by Deo Van Tri and the Black Flags (the Ho 'pirates' operating from Yunnan and Tonkin). Incidents increased between Siam and France and culminated with the French naval demonstration at Bangkok in 1893; the Siamese gave way and ceded the left bank of the Mekong to France. The Franco-Siamese treaty of 1907 gave the right-bank province of Sayaboury and those right bank parts of Champassak to France, but recognised Siamese authority over the rest of the right bank. The present frontiers of Laos were effectively decided by the French, from whom the Lao gained independence in 1949 under King Sisavong Vong. Prince Boun Oum of Champassak having in a secret protocol of 1946 renounced his right to the kingdom. More recent events have been well chronicled and the agreement of the three major political princes of left, right and centre in 1974 to form a joint government offers hope that the troubled post-war history of Laos might enter a more peaceful phase. The buildings in Vientiane then are either restorations or totally modern and, as always in mainland southeast Asia, the monuments of note are almost exclusively religious. The most attractive shrine is the That Luang slightly outside the city. This solid tapering square tower was built in the 16th century by King Settathirat and is said to contain Buddhist relics. It was badly destroyed by the Red Flags in 1873 and its reconstruction was completed in 1929. It is an impressive pile set in a large open square fringed with trees. A vast fair takes place here every November and assumes a national importance. Vat Pra Keo was also built originally by King Settathirat to house the Emerald Buddha on its arrival from Chiengmai; the statue ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 250 LIST OF MEMBERS LIFE OVERSEAS MEMBERS: ACORNE, Michael - ARMERDING, L. E. BAKER, W. E. BALL, J. M. BARNETT, K. M. A. BERTUCCIOLI, Dr. Giuliano BLAKER, D. J. R. COLLIN, P. H. COSBY, I. S. G. COSTANTINI, G. COWPERTHWAITE, Lady CUMMING, Mrs. Dorothy M. DRAKE, Prof. F. S. DUNCANSON, J. D. - EWING, Miss E. FABER, Mrs. G. A. G. GALVIN, J. A. T. GARD, Dr. Richard A., M.A., PH.D., D.H.L. GEORGE, T. J. B. GIEDROYC, Michal GOODRICH, Prof. L. Carrington HUGHES, Mrs. G. M. HURT, Miss E. J. IRETON, Mrs. Polly H. 505, Broadway, Petaluma, Ca. 94952, U.S.A. 2222, Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96815. c/o The Hongkong Electric Co. Ltd., 40, St. Mary Axe, London, E.C.3, England. Thanya Building, 11th floor, 62, Silom Rd., P.O. Box 1923, Bangkok, Thailand. "Bishops Nympton", Devenshire Avenue, Amersham, Bucks., England. Lungotevere delle navi 30, Rome, Italy. 29, Brompton Square, London, S.W.3., England. 6, Cherry Orchard, Stoke Poges, Bucks, England. c/o Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp., P.O. Box 244, 1 Bantang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 19, Boulevard de Montmorency, 75-Paris 16o, France. 33, Bramble Drive, Barnton, Edinburgh 4, Scotland. Inverwick House, Nairn, Scotland. "Lincot", Stoke Road, North Curry, Taunton, Somerset, England. 26, Leinster Mews, London, W.2, England. 25, The Meadows, Old Portsmouth Road, Guildford, Surrey, England. Inveroak, West End Lane, Stoke Poges, Bucks, England. Loughlinstown House, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Director of Institute Services, The Institute for Advance Studies of World Religions, 531-2, Melville Library, State University of New York, New York, 11790, U.S.A. c/o Foreign & Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London, S.W.1.A. 2 AH, England. 31, Richmond Way, Fetcham, Surrey, England. Columbia University, New York 27, New York, U.S.A. c/o C. V. Starr & Co., Inc., 102, Maiden Lane, New York, N.Y. 10005, U.S.A. Woodlands School, Woodlands Drive, Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. P.O. Box 362, Langley Washington, 98260, U.S.A. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n LIST OF MEMBERS LIFE OVERSEAS MEMBERS: ACORNE, M. J. 505 Broadway, Petaluma, California 94952, U.S.A. ARMERDING, L. E. 2222, Kalakaua Ave., Honolulu, Hawaii 96815, U.S.A. BAKER, Dr. H. D. R. School of Oriental & African Studies, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HP, England. BAKER, W. E. Old Quarry, Blackberry Road, Felcourt, East Grinstead, Sussex RH19 2HL, England. BALL, J. M. Thanya Building 11th Floor, 62 Silom Road, P.O. Box 1923, Bangkok, Thailand. BARNETT, K. M. A. "Bishops Nympton", Devonshire Avenue, Amersham, Bucks, England. BENNISON, L. L. Honam Oil Refinery Co. Ltd., C.P.O. Box 2467, Seoul, Korea. BERTUCCIOLI, Dr. G. Lungotevere delle navi 30, Rome, Italy. BLACKMORE, M. "Baytrees", Padleigh Hill, Bath BA2 9DW, Somerset, England. BLAKER, D. J. R. 80, Eaton Square, London S.W.1., England. CAPLAN, M. Memamdrou 1, Kifissia, Athens, Greece. COLLIN, P. H. 31, Teddington Park, Teddington, Middlesex, England. COSTANTINI, Mrs. G. 19, Boulevard de Montmorency, 75016 Paris, France. COSTANTINI, Dr. G. 19, Boulevard de Montmorency, 75016, Paris, France. CUMMING, Mrs. D. M. Inverwick House, Nairn, Scotland, UK. DUNCANSON, J. D. 26, Leinster Mews, London W.2., England. EWING, Miss E. 25, The Meadows, Old Portsmouth Road, Guildford, Surrey, England. FABER, Mrs. G. A. G. Inveroak, West End Lane, Stoke Poges, Bucks, England. FEHL, Prof. N. E. 685 Shawnee Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37205, USA. GALVIN, J. A. T. Loughlinstown House, Co. Dublin, Ireland. GEORGE, T. J. B. c/o Foreign & Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH, England. GIEDROYC, M. J. H. 31, Richmond Way, Fetcham, Surrey, England. HAYDON, E. S. Old Castle Farm, Buckland St. Mary, Somerset, England. HENSMAN, Prof. B. St. Anne's College, Oxford, England. HILSDALE, Mrs. K. H. 1105, Armada Drive, Pasadena, California 91103, U.S.A. HOWARTH, R. H. 1585 Inlet Court, Reston, Virginia 22090, U.S.A. 245 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 140 H. J. LETHBRIDGE **Sax Rohmer, pseudonym of A.S. Ward (1886-1959). Rohmer's Chinese master-villain first appeared in Dr. Fu Manchu (1913), the start of a series of thrillers about Fu. 27 His real name was Chang Wan but he was known as Brilliant Chang to police and public. **The Times for April 10 and 11, 1924. See also Robert Graves and Alan Hodge, The Long Week-end (London: Faber, 1941). One of Chang's clients was Brenda Dean Paul, a notorious upper-class drug-addict, daughter of Sir Aubrey Dean Paul, a former Lord Mayor of London. "Some information about Miss Siu is given in the South China Morning Post on October 26, 1928. See also the Hongkong Telegraph for June 23, 1928. **Travers Humphreys, op. cit., p. 163. "1 South China Morning Post, December 7, 1928. Necrophiliacs are rare but not unknown. The most famous was surely Sergent (Sergeant) Bertrand, whose activities are discussed in Marcel Montarron, Histoire des crimes sexuels (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1971) 113-13. Another extraordinary necrophiliac Henri Blot, 'Le vampire de Saint-Ouen'—is discussed in Daniel Riche, Histoires criminelles de Paris/Ile-de-France (Paris: Presses de la Renaissance, 1980) 407-416. **The case is examined in Sir Travers Humphreys' A Book of Trials, op. cit. But see also Christmas Humphreys, Seven Murders (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1946); E. Spencer Shew, A Companion to Murder (London: Cassell, 1960); and C.E. Bechhofer-Roberts, Sir Travers Humphreys: His Career and Cases (London: John Lane, 1936). *Sir Travers Humphreys (1867-1956). Called to the Bar, 1889. He was a distinguished criminal lawyer before becoming a Judge of the King's Bench Division of the High Court, 1928-1951. *Joseph Cooksey Jackson K.C. (1879-1938) of the Northern Circuit. **Criminal Appeal Reports, vol. 21, 1930. **Travers Humphreys, op. cit, 162-163. 06 18 Ibid. 167. *Ibid, 168. 40 J. Dyer Ball, Things Chinese; or, Notes Connected With China (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1925, fifth edition). Dyer Ball writes: "The Chinese are not only remote from us as regards position on the globe, but they are our opposites in almost every action and thought" (668). "The late Victorians were much amused by Pidgin English. See Charles Godfrey Leland, Pidgin-English Sing-Song; or Songs and Stories in the China-English Dialect (London: Trubner, 1876). 42 Op. cit., 164. "Herbert John Bennett was accused of strangling his wife on Yarmouth Beach. The body was left in such a position as to suggest attempted rape. See Julian Symons, A Reasonable Doubt (London: Cresset Press, 1962). **Op. cit., 168. *A son and a daughter (Wai-sheung) were born to his primary wife. His other wives produced over ten children, two of whom were later returned students from the United States. See the South China Morning Post, June 25, 1928. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 193 * Shi Boxuan (Yuan dynasty) is the compiler of two books: the Sishu Kuanku 190 and the Guankui Waipian 7 lumped together as Kuankui in the Gujin Tushu Jicheng. See Bu Liao Jin Yuan Yishu Wenzhi WIGxARK ed. Shangwu, Taipei, 1966, pp. 28, 56. 1차 * Jing Fang (77 to 37 B.C.) was a famous Han philosopher and presumed author of a number of oracular works. Most of these are still listed in the Jingji Zhi, Chapter, part 3, section zi of the Suishu. "The Liji refers to the ritual dismembering of a dog in connection with the annual Nuo exorcism. The animal's remains were then buried in front of the main gate of the capital. See S. Couvreur, Le Liji, Imprimerie de la mission catholique, Ho Kien Fu (1913), vol. I, p. 352. 12 The charm, faintly visible near the end of column 22, may represent a model of an "astronomical" charm. "Peach wood was thought to possess magical properties as early as 544 B.C. (D. Bodde, op.cit. pp. 128 ff.) while the wood of the tong tree was associated with the miraculous birth of the hero Yiying. See M. Granet, Danses et légendes de la Chine antique, Presses universitaires de France, reprint edition 1959, vol. II, p. 428. B. Laufer "Bird divination among the Tibetans", in Toung Pao, vol. XV (1914) p. 4, note 1. "The Study of Tibetan divination is as wide as it is ungrateful and unpleasant for research”. * The same omen is found in the Gujin tushu jicheng, vol. 26, j.174, p. 1b, column 7. "The prohibition against leaving the house for three years is mentioned three times in the Gujin tushu jicheng. It applies: when a pack of dogs howl in neighbourhood streets; when such a pack howls in city markets and, unless obeyed, portends death for a man who has (accidentally) been spattered with dog urine. Op.cit. pp. 1a,b. * The contradictory omens in brackets show that other dog divination systems were known at the time. 18 The Gujin tushu jicheng has "against a palace door" op.cit. p. 11b, column 11. ** "Dreadful disasters" instead of "of the inhabitants will be harmed” Ibid. "The last four characters of this column make no sense. "Mu is probably an error for the numerator mei. AN ODE ON HONG KONG COMPOSED BY THE MAYOR OF CANTON IN 1845 P. BRUCE A charming ode was published on December 13, 1845 by the Friend of China newspaper. It gives a rare Chinese view of the development of the young colony of Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 321 Dudden's work is essentially narrative history based upon Western-language secondary sources. Beginning with a summary of early American involvement in the China trade, he proceeds to describe the United States' acquisition of and subsequent relations with Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines. After surveying the contrasting course of American dealings with Japan and China up to World War I, he covers the Pacific War, the beginning of the Cold War, and American intervention in Korea and Vietnam. A final chapter deals with the somewhat ambiguous developments of the past two decades. The early portion of the book tells the fascinating story of how the American Republic gained its two last states and its largest colony. An irredeemably commercial nation, the United States purchased two large tracts of its own territory, Louisiana from the Emperor Napoleon I of France in 1803 and Alaska from the Russian Tsar Alexander II in 1867. Until 1910 the near exclusive domain of fur trading companies and gold miners, Alaska's sparse population and remoteness meant that, despite its mineral wealth, only in 1958 did it win statehood. Not until 1778, when Captain James Cook's final expedition landed there, did Westerners discover the Hawaiian islands, "the most isolated archipelago in the world". Once found, they became a magnet attracting American whalers, merchants, and missionaries. In the 1820s the last group assisted Queen Kaahumanu, one of the widows of King Kamehameha the Great, 'a six-foot, three-hundred-pound, strong-willed beauty', to overthrow the dominant religious kapu system which among other things banned women from exercising political power. From then onwards successive rulers were under the tutelage of Americans, who eliminated the native religion, advised the monarchs, and introduced private property rights in land. Soon afterwards, American sugar and pineapple interests acquired large holdings, which would dominate Hawaiian economic and political life until after World War II. In the 1890s the efforts of the anti-American Queen Liliuokalani to restore the powers of the monarchy led to a coup, backed by American sugar interests, and suggestions that the United States annex the islands, also long coveted by French, German, and British imperialists. Congress initially rejected the suggestion, but in 1898, in the war-generated expansionism of the Spanish-American War, reversed itself. Hawaii would become a major American naval base, a centre of tourism, and a focus of Japanese immigration: the attack on Pearl Harbour ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 97 the barrel resting on a second man's shoulder. Kang sì: a baked mud or brick bed used in northern Chinese homes, warmed in winter by hot air from the kitchen flue passing through it. Ko-ino Hul #₺★ : A powerful secret society; the Elder Brother Society, membership to which was strictly forbidden by the Ch’ing government and punishable by death. Kowtow : 'knock the head': The ceremony of prostration common in China, chiefly performed before the emperor, in religious ceremonies, and by inferiors to superiors as an humble apology. International Settlement together with the French Concession [Shanghai]: Colonial enclaves where privileges but not political control were enjoyed. The Municipal Council of the International Settlement, against which Mesny occasionally railed, eventually regarded itself as independent even of the UK and US Governments. Most foreigners regarded their presence in Shanghai, despite increasing Chinese nationalism, as in the best interests of the Chinese. Foreigners were divided socially and economically into businessmen, officials of all kinds including police officers and customs officials, missionaries and others such as be-shored seamen, refugees, later mainly White Russians and German Jews, and 'stayed-on' westerners who had married Chinese women or had nowhere better to go. Lartigue railway system: Mesny would appear to have been acting as the local agent for the Lartigue Railway Construction Company in China [in 1886] though whether authorised on a retainer or on commission we shall probably never know. The Lartigue system was invented during the 1880s by Charles Lartigue, a French inventor who, having observed how camel loads were balanced on either side of the animal, invented a monorail which after a tentative experiment in France was chosen as the system to be used for the Bally-Bunion to Lisowel Railway in a remote corner of Ireland in 1888. There is no indication that the line Mesny proposed between Wu-sung and Shanghai, ever got beyond Mesny's fertile imagination. Wu-sung, the town at the junction of the Yangtze and the river which leads up to Shanghai, was where ships first berthed before sailing up the Wu-sung River to Shanghai, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 201 "official-supervision merchant-management" (A). The formula went like this: the reform-minded officials provided the political patronage - they bargained with Beijing for charter, franchise, monopoly or tax concessions for the enterprises, and the merchants provided the capital and management. Concerning merchants' ability to raise capital, their credibility came not from the enterprises they set up, but from their own reputations, as well as from the political patronage which they managed to establish. Some of the most famous of these merchants in the western affairs movement were such Hong Kong compradors as the Tang Jingxing (Tang King-sing) brothers. This kind of business environment made China unique when compared to Europe. Historically, the political fragmentation of Europe, and the frequent wars it led to, had forced the kings and the princes to be bound by their commercial commitments - one refusal to repay their debts meant that the princes would find tremendous difficulty in raising funds for the next war. In China, on the contrary, the Emperor needed not to (and actually had not) surrendered his right to interfere into the market; the government was not bound by legislation it made. Several incidents which occurred in the fifteenth century help to illustrate these divergences. Firstly, while the Ming Emperor abolished the national debt (in the form of salt certificates) overnight in 1667, the King of England was forced to grant his debtors a charter for the formation of a national bank (the Bank of England). Secondly, while the four Atlantic states (Spain, Portugal, France, England) were competing for overseas expansion and experiencing the “Age of Discovery”, the Chinese Emperor issued an edict to stop all his subjects from going overseas in 1667, just three years after the famous Zhenghe fleets (Tr Admiral) arrived at Malaya. Business endeavours in Europe were first protected by privileges granted by the Kings (in the forms of charter or monopoly) as in the case of the East India Company. This practice was later developed into a kind of rights guaranteed by legislation (company laws). In China, with the prohibition of sea-going, overseas trades were restricted in the forms of tribute, smuggling and piracy. No legislations were developed in China to guarantee and to protect commercial endeavors. An easy alternative for the Chinese merchants, therefore, was to rely on personal networks. On this, China and Europe went their separate ways. While the feudal society in Medieval Europe based on the ties of allegiance to a local land-owning aristocracy for protection, in China, authority was nominally resided in the central ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 94 Wei, and saw active service in the Third China War, "The Boxer Rising" [10 June-31 December 1900]. In 1901 he was posted to South Africa to serve with the mounted infantry, taking part in operations in Cape Colony and the Transvaal [December] and the Orange Free State (January to May 1902]. From 1904 to 1908 he was appointed as Inspector of Chinese Labour in the Transvaal. He was the Military Secretary to the Governor of Madras in 1907, and in May 1914 he transferred to the Reserve of Officers with the rank of Major, but was recalled in August 1914 serving again with the DLI before being transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and then transferring back again to the infantry, commanding 17th Battalion of the King's [Liverpool] Regiment [Pals] before being severely wounded and gassed at Trones Wood in July 1916, being invalided home in early August 1916 aboard the Asturias. He was again gassed, after returning to France on the night of the 29th July 1917 at Guillemont. He established the HQ for the CLC at Noyelles in 1917, staying at the villa, with an unusual name of “Daisy Cottage", serving as GHQ Adviser Chinese Labour, from 1917 to 1919. During World War II he was a Zone Commander for the Yorkshire Home Guard and died on 24 January 1950 at the age of 76. 4 pai is a section and tou is a head or boss. Decauville was a French company that manufactured a portable light railway system much used by the military. It was almost a full-size [but narrow gauge] railway system which could be laid down and picked up like the old model toy train sets. • The difference between Male and Female tanks was based on the type of weapons they carried. Male tanks, like "Fan-tan,” carried a pair of 57mm cannon, one on each side, together with two or three auxiliary machine-guns. Female tanks only carried machine-guns, two each side and one at the front which, in First World War terms made them more dangerous than their male counterparts. [The female being deadlier than the male!] Numbers after names or in the text refer to the man's service number. * Demeestrere, Matthieu : article in a French magazine th Mellor, Norman: With the Chinese Labour Corps - France 1918 10 The CWGC, in a written reply to the author, stated that the fifth phrase used on CLC headstones is translated as "True till death", but the characters used would ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g We were particularly fortunate in our next event, which took place in August 2001 in Salisbury, to visit the Cathedral and the Salisbury museum where we also heard a lecture by Patrick Hase on 'Traditional South China Agriculture.' To find this latter combination, i.e. Patrick in Salisbury in August and South China agricultural instruments in the Salisbury museum, may appear somewhat far-fetched; however, by the end of the fascinating and extremely well researched lecture and a visit to the museum to actually see the agricultural instruments, which formed part of the Pitts River ethnographic collection, there was no doubt that all members had experienced a day well worth it. Our sincere thanks go to Patrick for giving us his time and for educating us on a subject about which most of us knew absolutely nothing. The Friends have for some time been trying to arrange a tour to Northern France to view the World War I battlefields, and in particular the Chinese Connection, when around 100,000 Chinese labourers were brought over from the Far East to support the war effort behind the lines. A number of them died in the process and are buried in the cemeteries. For various reasons the trip has not taken place except by the inveterate few, but we were fortunate in having the next best thing, i.e. a talk by Brian Fawcett, which took place on Saturday, 1st December 2001. Brian has been researching the Chinese Labour Corps for some time and the Friends were particularly fortunate to hear the results of his research and to see a short video/film of First World War relevant events. The fruits of his labour have recently been published in the 40th volume of the Journal of the Society, and Radio 4 in the U.K. will shortly be giving a half-hour programme on the subject. And our programme did not end there. Recently, on 16th February 2002, forty-five members and guests sat down to celebrate the incoming Year of the Horse at the Joy King Lau Chinese restaurant. Not only did we welcome Dr. Patrick Hase and his wife Aileen, who were fortunately in the U.K. again, but we also had Mr. and Mrs. S. F. Bailey (Bill), who was the first Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Centre in the 1970's and 1980's, and was very supportive of the Society when it was a Constituent Member of the Arts Centre. Now, however, we are preparing ourselves for our next far-flung visit at the end of April to take place in Cornwall, when about twenty-five members will visit the Gardens (Caerhays, Trewithen, Pine Lodge, ================================================================================