RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g THE TAIPINGS AT NINGPO 29 Ningpo, for a long time had been a difficult city to administer, but the Taiping occupation seems in retrospect to have been an exceptional period. To better appreciate this it is worth considering Ningpo in a somewhat broader perspective. For example, a year and a half before the Taipings took the city, a Jardine Matheson Company agent reported that the Ch'ing officials were unable to control the pirate-infested countryside.41 Three months after the Taipings left Ningpo, the Jardine agent gloomily reported that trade was bad and would remain so until "a stop was put to the squeezing on the part of the Imperial Authorities."42 Six months after the departure of the Taipings, the agent revealed that Ningpo was in the throes of civil chaos. The unpopular tao-t'ai had been forced into hiding following a dispute with men from Frederick Townsend Ward's so-called Ever Victorious Army. The situation was resolved by Captain Dew who actually had to reoccupy the city. Dew and Harvey ignominiously had to search long and hard to find the affrighted Ch'ing official.43 Small wonder then, that the Jardine agent's report of January 1863, speaks of how the country people of Ningpo are now fondly recalling that the Taipings had always paid for what they took.44 Judgment on the victorious expulsion of the Taipings from Ningpo has been varied. Consul Harvey congratulated himself: For my part, let me state that it will be a source of great satisfaction and I may add, of pride, in after time to think that I have been placed in a position to use my feeble pen, and to have exercised my humble powers (always within the limits of my official duties) in weakening and undermining, as perseveringly and indefatigably as I have been able, the most gigantic imposture and the most blasphemous structure that ever disgraced ancient or modern pages.45 Foreign Secretary Russell, from London, also congratulated Harvey for the "judgment, courage, and temper, which he displayed on all occasions...."46 Another influential writer on these events termed Dew's accomplishment "a brilliant feat of arms."47 But the Hong Kong Daily Press, for one, expressed the view of many contemporaries: "There never was a falser, more unprovoked, or more unjustifiable act than the taking of Ningpo by the allies from the Taipings. It should, in fairness, be recorded to the eternal disgrace of Captain Roderick Dew, of HMS En- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 OVERSEAS ORDINARY MEMBERS KNEEBONE, Mrs. Susan, c/o 65-79 Riverside Avenue, South Melbourne 3205, Victoria, AUSTRALIA. KRAMERS, Dr. R. P., c/o Ostasiatisches Seminar, Der Universitat Zurich, Muhlegasse 21, 8001 Zurich, SWITZERLAND. LEIMAN, Mrs. R. M., 14-17 Nishi-Azabu, 4-chome, Minato-ku, TOKYO 106, JAPAN. LEIMAN, Mr. R. M., 14-17 Nishi-Azabu, 4-chome, Minato-ku, TOKYO 106, JAPAN. LIU, Prof. Ts'un Yan, F.R.A.S., c/o Dept. of Chinese, Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T., AUSTRALIA. LOVELL, Mrs. Hin-Cheung, 2 Dunbar Walk, SINGAPORE, 15. LU, Mrs. Sylvia, Rangoon, Dept. of State, Washington, D.C., 20520, U.S.A. LYNCH, Rev. Francis M. M., Maryknoll Centre House, 120 San Min Road, Ist Sect., Taichung City 400, TAIWAN. MACLEAN, Mr. Roderick, c/o The Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, Denmark House, SINGAPORE 1. MATHIAS, Dr. John R. G., 36 Bradbury Court, St. John's Park, Blackheath, LONDON, SE3 7TP, UNITED KINGDOM. MCCOY, Dr. John, Division of Modern Languages, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14850, U.S.A. MORGAN, Mrs. Carole, 5 Avenue Vion Whitcomb, Paris 75016, FRANCE. MYERS, Mr. John T., Dept. of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47401, U.S.A. NUTTER, Baroness Joanna Von, 3802 Castle Rock Drive, MALIBU, California 90265, U.S.A. REDFERN, Mr. O'Donnell S., Maison de la Foret, Chemin de la Becassiere, 1290 Versoix, SWITZERLAND. ROMER, Mr. J. D., 11, Cecilia Road, Preston, Paignton, Devon, TQ3 1BD, GREAT BRITAIN. SELWYN, Mr. J. B., 26 Fairway, Merrow, Guildford GUL 2XJ, Surrey, UNITED KINGDOM. SMITH, Dr. Ralph B., School of Oriental & African Studies, Malet Street, LONDON, W.C.1., UNITED KINGDOM. STEEDS, Mr. David, Dept. of International Politics, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, UNITED KINGDOM. STOKES, Mr. John, 427 Banbury Road, Oxford, UNITED KINGDOM. 259 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 139 I was in Ningpo when the announcement of the closing of the Burma road was received. It was a severe blow for the Chinese, but I think they appreciated the difficulties of Britain's position and that she had only been compelled by the force of circumstances to accede to the Japanese demand. Nothing could have exceeded the kindness and courtesy shown to me by the merchants and officials whom I met. Ningpo was one of the first five treaty ports, opened to trade in 1842. Early promises had not been fulfilled, and the port, overshadowed by Shanghai, had remained small. Off the mouth of the Ningpo river on the largest island of the Chusan archipelago lay the walled city of Tinghai, occupied by British troops twice for a space of several years between 1840 and 1860. Tinghai at one time was designated, instead of Hongkong, as the place to be ceded to Britain for the repair of vessels. It looks a healthy enough place, built up the slopes of a high hill, yet the troops suffered much from sickness and the stones in the graveyard bear witness to the numbers buried there. The garrison imported some turkeys, to provide variety for the larder. The British troops have long since left, but the climate was favourable to turkeys, and now large flocks descended from the original birds are bred to supply the Christmas market in Shanghai. In Ningpo, the graveyard contains the stone monument, first erected outside the East gate of the city, to commemorate the assistance given by Captain Roderick Dew, R.N., and Lieutenant Kenny of the French Navy and their respective ships' companies, in 1862, to the Imperial Chinese troops in expelling the Taiping rebels from the town. It was nearby that the American General Ward, Gordon's predecessor in command of the Ever Victorious army, was killed. But times change. To Dr. Sun Yat Sen and the Kuo Min Tang the Taiping rebels are the glorious forerunners of their own revolution, and it is doubtful whether General Gordon, or the British, are given any credit for having assisted the Imperial Government to quell the rebellion. The country round the little Ningpo plain is very beautiful. In previous winters I used to shoot on the shallow lakes which lay amongst the hills to the west. Most sportsmen waited to go after the early morning and evening flights of duck, but I preferred to work along the edge of the hills with my dog for the occasional pheasant. They were not so numerous here as amongst the reedbeds of the Yangtze. Beyond the lakes, the deep waters of Nimrod Sound were ================================================================================