RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v NAVIGATION ON THE YANGTSE 109 The Imperial forces had very little success against the Taipings in the next two years, and although it had been stipulated that the three ports on the river were not to be opened until they were defeated, a second naval expedition left Shanghai early in 1861 to establish consular posts at Chinkiang, Kiukiang, and Hankow. This expedition went up 158 miles beyond Hankow before turning back. Shortly after the return of this expedition the river was opened to foreign trade. There is some ambiguity about Western policy during the Taiping Rebellion. It seems to have been regarded with sympathy in the early stages, when it was looked on as a reforming movement with Christian affiliations; and many foreigners welcomed the prospect of a change from the corrupt and reactionary Manchu régime. The British, American, and French governments, therefore, adopted a policy of neutrality in the early stages of the conflict. Later on, however, a marked change took place, which was not entirely due to the excesses committed by the rebels. Commercial considerations undoubtedly played some part. The Treaty of Tientsin had legalised the opium trade, but the Taipings were against opium and alcohol, and banned this trade in the territory under their control. They also made it clear that under their rule foreign trade would not be carried on in the one-sided manner so favourable to the foreign merchants. The Treaty of Tientsin again had stipulated that foreign ships could not navigate the Yangtse until peace was restored. Because of these and other reasons, the Western Powers abandoned their policy of neutrality. The rebels were looked on and referred to as firebrands and extremists, and the Manchu government as a peaceful and stabilising element, and steps were taken to help the latter. These included supplying the government forces with arms and ammunition — including the new Lee Enfield rifle, not yet used in Europe — allowing foreign steamers to transport government troops, and supplying officers to train and lead them.* As a result Nanking was captured in 1864, and the last vestiges of the rebellion were stamped out by 1866. In 1862 the Scotland, a steamer belonging to Lindsay and Company of Shanghai was the first ocean-going merchant ship to go to Hankow, and thus opened the interior of China to direct * Gordon was the most famous of these officers. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 112 A. D. BLUE Yangtse was not an easy river to navigate, and with its swift currents and shoals presented problems very similar to those on American rivers, in particular to the Mississippi. The Americans made good use of their experience in river navigation, and were also more willing to carry cargo on deck to speed up loading and discharging. They were more partial to paddle than to screw steamers, the former being better against strong currents and for reversing off shoals. This combination of factors gave the Americans a decided advantage in the early years, and the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company, belonging to the famous American trading firm of Russell and Company, was the most important company on the river for the first fifteen years of foreign trade. The 1860's on the Yangtse was in many respects a repetition of the 1840's and 50's on the coast. Great stretches of the river were still under Taiping control, and it was constantly patrolled by British warships. Lawlessness was common among Chinese and foreign traders alike, and shipping was liable to attack from rebels, Imperial war junks, and pirates indiscriminately. Many foreign ships were engaged in illegal and immoral trades, in flagrant disregard of treaty rights, let alone of the welfare and laws of China. This applies to the sailing ships and lorchas under foreign flags, rather than to the steamers run by the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company, the other American companies of Heard and Olyphant, and the British companies of Jardine, Dent, and Lindsay. Opium trading had been legalised by the Treaty of Tientsin, and for the first decade or two at least 20% of the foreign imports into Hankow by the steamers was opium. The salt trade was a government monopoly, and the most common illegal activity on the river was salt smuggling. Salt could be bought for the price of rice at Eching, eighteen miles above Chinkiang, and sold further up the river for at least double the price to the great detriment of the salt gabelle. Then there were foreign adventurers who supplied arms and ammunition to the rebels, and others who, if not actually smuggling themselves, convoyed native junks which were smuggling. — The Shanghai Steam Navigation Company was formed by Russell and Company in 1862 with American, British, and Chinese capital, and performed valuable pioneer work in developing river ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d CHINESE RELIGION AND RURAL COHESION 37 reports that twenty-four villages near Canton joined together to build a large house for "general consultations" because of the increase of crime in the area, especially from the Triad society. The inter-organization of the villages was "fairly comprehensive in its scope of activities. Again when the Taiping threatened in North Kiangsu in 1859, villages in five districts built walls round themselves and set up defence organizations, many of which operated on an inter-village basis. Eleven villages in Shensi had a common defence system, and while other communities were punished for not deterring the Boxers, they were spared, because they regarded the Boxers as enemies and killed them. Summary and Discussion The relative strength of organizations based on religious ideology or using religious elements at the village level, and their contribution to community stability and integration, appear to have depended on a number of factors and their relation to each other in turn. Important among them were: the degree of social differentiation in the community; differences in kinship affiliations; differences in wealth and education; also the numerical size of the village; its relation to other communities in the area and to those living outside communities; its proximity to town centres; the general economic conditions obtaining in the area at a particular time; and to some extent the virtue and competence of locally-based officials. Such factors also helped determine which type of organization would become the most important for a community. State cults were probably more successful in their aim with villages possessing gentry members and nearer to centres of government, but would be limited in their intended effect by other interests of persons able to use them. The cults were made use of by the already influential (and usually rich) on the whole in order to realize aims connected with their roles as local leaders and members of kin-groups. They could, however, through helping to realize such personal ambitions, aid in village integration: canonization of ancestors of village leaders, especially those of lineage villages, could bring prestige to a village and give it an additional symbol of solidarity. It could also, however, lead to competition and disharmonies between influential persons when their numbers were large. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE 33 British at Canton, and second, the Taiping Rebellion. Imperial resources were now strained to the limit and the paramilitary associations of the Kwangtung hinterland became an essential if volatile and unpredictable adjunct to government strategy. Contingents of gentry-organized militia contributed, with government encouragement and varying degrees of success, to the defence of Canton on several occasions and were largely responsible for the suppression of the mid-century Red Turban revolt.? The existence of such composite militia forces raises many interesting problems. For the moment they may be subsumed under two general questions. How were these militia forces organized? Can they be related to what is known of other, enduring aspects of social organization in rural Kwangtung? These questions are central to this article, as they are to Wakeman's study of the militia movement in Kwangtung province between 1839–1861. His analysis will be discussed in conjunction with the smaller, but in some respects similar, resistance movement which sought to prevent the British occupation of Hong Kong's New Territories in 1899. However, before turning to these events, it is necessary to consider two other recent contributions to the study of Chinese society. Theoretical Considerations Skinner has suggested that "anthropological work on Chinese society, by focussing attention almost exclusively on the village, has with few exceptions distorted the reality of the rural social structure. Insofar as the Chinese peasant can be said to live in a self-contained world, that world is not the village but the standard marketing community. The effective social field of the peasant... is delimited not by the narrow horizons of his village but rather by the boundaries of his standard marketing area.” For present purposes the central elements of Skinner's thesis are: (i) that the patterned economic activities of a predominantly peasant and agrarian society are discernible in the spatial distribution of its markets; (ii) that the markets, in terms of their different functions, can be conceptually ordered in a hierarchy; and (iii) that the overall system of differentiated marketing activities is integrated by a series of co-ordinated periodic market schedules. The resulting typology is: minor market, standard market, intermediate ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE 59 part of further studies of militia, both within Kwangtung Province and elsewhere in China. It is possible that the approach to militia used in this article could be applied to other, more significant, military organizations as they existed in nineteenth century China. For example, recent studies of the regional armies of Tseng Kuo-fan and Li Hung-chang indicate that they were, initially, amalgamations of local militia forces.78 A more detailed analysis of these militia could contribute to a greater understanding of the particularistic relationships which appear to have been important in maintaining regional armies as viable organizations over relatively long periods of time. NOTES This article is based upon research in Hong Kong between 1963 and 1965. I am grateful for the financial support provided by the London-Cornell Project for East and South-East Asian Studies. A number of colleagues have commented upon the subject matter of the article during its various stages of preparation. I would particularly like to thank the following for their advice: Dr. Christopher Turner, Dr. George C. Bond, Mr. James Hayes, Professor Maurice Freedman, and Professor Göran Aijmer. A draft of the paper was read to the Sociology Seminar, School of Social Studies, University of East Anglia. I am grateful to my colleagues in this context for their comments. Place names will be rendered according to A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon, and the New Territories, Hong Kong Government Printer, Hong Kong, n.d., but published 1960. 2 Brine, Lindesay. The Taeping Rebellion in China: A Narrative of its Rise and Progress. London, 1862, pp. 11-12. 3 Krone, [R]. “A Notice of the Sanon District", Article V, Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, pt. VI, Hong Kong, 1859, p. 71. 4 Freedman, Maurice. Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung. London, 1966, p. 115. 5 The Governor of Hong Kong, commenting upon robbery and piracy during the year 1903, said: "they are the most common offences in the Southern provinces ... the Provincial Authorities do not attempt to deal with such cases until some village is reported as being specially notorious as harbouring robbers, when, if the authorities do not consider them too strong, a force is sent out and as many as possible arrested or the village destroyed." Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1903, Hong Kong, 1904, pp. 348 ff. Freedman, op. cit., p. 112, quotes an account of such an expedition which took place in "about 1870" and resulted in the beheading of more than a thousand people. 6 Hsiao Kung-chuan, Rural China, Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century, Seattle, 1960, p. 503. 7 For a detailed account of these events, see: Wakeman, Jr., Frederic, Strangers at the Gate: Social Disorder in South China, 1839-1861. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d BOOK REVIEWS 171 tung. On the military side these events included two assaults on Canton itself, nearly four years of military occupation of the city (5.1.1858 - 21.10.1861) and various punitive expeditions on the Canton river and inside the province. On the civil and diplomatic side were the sequence of events connected with the question of entry to Canton, which the British held to have been promised them under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. This culminated in the triumph of the Canton Viceroy in 1849 who was able to defer entry still further on the grounds of the rooted opposition of the gentry and people of the province to this step by their officials — though deferment was also due to Bonham's conviction that the real key to Canton lay not by warlike action there as in the North. These years also saw economic crises at Canton occasioned, among other factors, by the opening of four other treaty ports under the Nanking Treaty, and a wave of growing lawlessness across the province culminating in the great disorders of the 1850s in the wake of the Taiping rebellion. Mr. Wakeman's theme is the re-emergence of local militia in the early 1840's to assist in repelling the British forces and their continuance through the later years of the entry question (1846-49); the part they played in local defence against the Red Turban and other rebels, pirates and banditti in the early 1850s; their efforts against the British attack in 1857-58 and, under secret orders from Peking, in the guerilla struggle against the British in Canton in the first period of the occupation, until diplomatic agreement in the North led to their being told to desist. He traces the ebb and flow in official attitudes to the local militia from encouragement to discouragement, from enthusiasm to apprehension. He describes, too, the methods by which the militia were raised and financed and shows how they were a two-edged weapon to Government and people alike. Mr. Wakeman also traces the rise and wane of anti-foreign attitudes in Kwantung during this period and the paradoxical change from bitter enmity to a realisation, at least in Canton and its surrounds, that British troops were a guarantee against a multitude of threats from lawless elements. The treatment is masterly and authoritative, being based on a wide variety of sources in English and Chinese; the book is compelling and the narrative moves smoothly. In this review I shall confine my remarks mainly to the militia. First of all I wish to comment briefly on the use of the English ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 LORD ELGIN AND THE TAIPINGS STEPHEN UHALLEY, Jr.* When Lord Elgin, Great Britain's Plenipotentiary to China and the negotiator of the abortive Treaty of Tientsin in 1858 and of the Peking Convention in 1860, in a fit of anger and frustration at the Manchu government raised the possibility of treating with the Taiping revolutionaries instead, his colleagues quickly dissuaded him from such a drastic course. But the question, having been raised, remained to what extent was Lord Elgin's threat the revelation of an alternative policy that the British might have been considering should the recalcitrant Manchus prove in the end to be hopelessly intractable? In other words, had the British been giving secret thought to negotiating a separate or alternative treaty with the Taipings at Nanking? Aside from Lord Elgin's passing remark in this regard there certainly was little in the record of relations between the British and the Taipings to suggest that any such arrangement had been given serious consideration. The early diplomatic visits to Nanking in 1853 and 1854 were never followed-up by any of the Western powers.2 Despite the features of the Taiping regime that did not set well with the foreigners it had manifested a friendly attitude toward them and did continue to exist as a de facto alternative government with which they might have dealt had they been so disposed. But they were not. Instead the powers opted to deal exclusively with the Manchus, even though this required the waging of further hostilities in order to accomplish their diplomatic objectives. Still, there does remain Lord Elgin's annoyed comment. Did it possibly signify a line of action that had been hidden? Of course, this was unlikely. Yet the best way to satisfy our curiosity on this question is to examine the record of Lord Elgin's own visit through Taiping territory. Did the Minister Plenipotentiary, *The author, a former editor of this Journal, currently Associate Professor of History at Duke University, is indebted to the Research Associates Program of the Graduate School of International Studies and the Social Science Foundation of the University of Denver for a grant which facilitated the preparation of this article. In modified form the article forms part of a chapter of the author's forthcoming book Revolutionary Taiping China and the West. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 LORD ELGIN AND THE TAIPINGS 27 The next evening, the squadron anchored off the city of T'ai-p'ing, also in Taiping hands, after having previously silenced some other forts a few miles below under equally questionable circumstances. Nevertheless, at T'ai-p'ing a request came to the British from the Taipings for assistance against the Imperialist war junks. The request note referred to its writer as "your younger brother" and was addressed to "your Excellencies the Foreigners."12 In reply, Elgin sent a note recalling what had happened the previous day at Nanking, indicating that this had been a "warning to all who may be hereafter minded to interfere with the ships of Her Majesty."3 For their part, however, the Taipings apologized for the firing at Nanking, explaining that it had been a mistake. Assurances were also given that the mission would not again be molested. Elgin conceded that he believed the Taipings to be sincere.14 Their request for assistance, however, was ignored. Two days later, on November 23, the English arrived at Wu Hu, where they paused and sent ashore Thomas Wade "to ascertain the disposition of the insurgents" and "in particular to determine if supplies could be obtained."15 This proved to be another instance of unmitigated presumption on the part of the visitors, and we see this by reading the English account only. Even though the Taipings' suggestion as to the form in which the request be made (a letter to the Taiping chief) was ignored by the English, the Taipings were still quick in making available the requested provisions. In spite of this gracious and generous Taiping hospitality, Wade's report of this visit is filled with language prejudicial to his hosts. There is not the slightest indication that appreciation was felt, or expressed.16 The squadron continued its progress up the Yangtze, The next clash, at Anking, remains a classic instance of international effrontery. As the English ships approached this city it was under attack by Ch'ing forces, an assault that may have been coordinated with the English arrival. According to eyewitness Laurence Oliphant: "It seemed that the Government troops had received notice of our approach and had determined to take advantage of it, in order to make a grand attack upon Ngan-king…". Aside from these circumstances, not mentioned in most accounts of the affair, Elgin himself knew that the Taipings ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 LORD ELGIN AND THE TAIPINGS 33 of the river ports is contingent on the suppression of the rebellion."40 Thus the record of Elgin's own visit through Taiping territory adequately lays to rest any notion that he might have been harboring an alternative policy of dealing with the Taipings. Without question, his angry remark was merely rhetorical, entirely lacking substance. He was frustrated with Manchu behavior, both in his own repeated experiences with them, and with their poor handling of the Taiping resurgence of 1860.41 Yet Elgin had done nothing to cultivate the political alternative that Taiping China posed. Nor would he ever do so. NOTES 1 Elgin referred to a "Chinese" government as an alternative to the Manchus. This presumably meant the Taipings who were the only viable such alternative readily at hand. See, for example, Immanuel C. Y. Hsü, China's Entrance into the Family of Nations: The Diplomatic Phase 1858-1880, Cambridge; Harvard University Press, 1960, p. 104. 2 See Stephen Uhalley, Jr., "A New Look at the Diplomatic Missions of 1853-54 to Taiping-held Nanking," The Chung Chi Journal, Volume 6 (May 1967), 171-190. For the best general English-language history of the Taiping movement as a whole, see Franz Michael, The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents, Vol. I, Seattle and London; University of Washington Press, 1966. Unfortunately the fine work of Jen Yu-wen, the foremost Chinese authority on the Taipings, is for the most part unavailable in English translation; although a concise English edition of his narrative history of the Taipings is in preparation, 3 Elgin to Malmesbury, No. 228, Shanghai, January 5, 1859, "Papers Respecting Lord Elgin's Special Mission to China and Japan, 1857-1859," 1859, Parliamentary Papers or Blue Book (BB), IX, 444. 4 Ibid. 5 Laurence Oliphant, Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan, London, 1860, Vol. II, 310. 6 Elgin to Malmesbury, No. 228, p. 444. 7 Oliphant, II, 361-362. 8 Elgin to Malmesbury, No. 228, p. 444. 9 Oliphant, II, 314. 10 "A Cruise up the Yangtze in 1858-59," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (May 1860), 704-705. 11 It was of an event during this exchange that Oliphant later wrote: "A large crowd had collected outside the gate, chiefly composed of rebel soldiers watching the proceedings. We sent them a ten-inch shell just to give them some idea of our armament." Ibid., p. 318. ================================================================================ 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 21 Shanghae, as we consider it quite unsafe to proceed to Ningpo through the pirate fleet, though we shall be quite safe in going to Shanghae, although it will be a long and tedious journey.” The agent and his companions did make their way to Shanghai, with their silk, and were everywhere treated in a friendly manner by the Taipings. Another writer reported to the North China Herald that he had been given a pass in order to conduct trade in the environs of Ningpo, and transmitted the assurances of a Taiping officer in charge of the district through which he passed that "he would do his best to protect traders and he hoped before long to regain the confidence of the population, and see business again restored..."13 As it turned out this particular reporter did run into some difficulties in the course of his business trip, but in the end received “adequate apology", and another pass to travel again later on. Yet despite such a positive record, the Taiping achievement at Ningpo marks a watershed in their relations with the foreign powers. Far from viewing the Taiping occupation as an experiment to determine their governmental capacity, the British only awaited an appropriate opportunity to retake the city on behalf of the Ch'ing government. And except for the initial candidly favorable appraisals of Taiping behavior, most subsequent reports were calculated to portray a negative image of the insurgents. Thus, despite the surprise of the rapid Taiping conquest and signs of Taiping reasonableness in dealing with foreigners and their promotion of the all-important trade, it seems evident that the British very early began to make preparations for the inevitable showdown. But first they were preoccupied elsewhere. A few days after the fall of Ningpo, for example, Admiral Hope again visited the Taiping capital at Nanking where he sought a renewal of the agreement for the Taipings to respect the thirty-mile limit in the environs of Shanghai. The Taipings refused to comply, primarily because of their concern that the Ch'ing forces were using Shanghai as a base of operations in the civil war. The correspondence between the Taipings and the British on the occasion of this visit to Nanking is further evidence that the latter were simply provoking the Taipings. And although the Taipings remained anxious to avoid an armed confrontation or to give rise to any pretext for one, they still firmly sought to protect their interests with dignity. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 22 STEPHEN UHALLEY, JR. In Ningpo itself, the preparations were underway. British officials persuaded all missionaries of British nationality to withdraw from the city, a step which Consul Harvey indicated would "simplify considerably our future relations with the Taipings at Ningpo."14 British naval Captain Corbett concurred, reasoning that in the event of any difficulty with the Taipings the missionaries would otherwise "prove a source of great embarrassment to us."15 It is a matter of record that many of the missionaries who did comply and therefore lived apart from the Taipings during the duration of their occupation did come to share the negative or hostile attitude toward the insurgents.16 As the British intervention policy developed, an anti-Taiping propaganda campaign mounted. One of the most interesting and telling samples of this effort was the reporting of Consul Harvey. His dispatch of March 20, 1862, is perhaps the best example.17 Completely in contradiction to the report of the already noted China Overland Trade Report of less than a month earlier, Harvey declared that although three months had elapsed since the Taiping takeover they had still to take a single step in the direction of good government. Curiously, he repeatedly stressed his lack of bias and dispassionate judgment. He even conceded that “personally I have received every mark of courtesy and proper regard from the Tae-ping Chiefs; and further, I have found in official dealings with them a rough and blunt sort of honesty quite unexpected and surprising, after years of public intercourse with the Imperial mandarins.” But despite such lack of bias, repeatedly emphasized, and such acknowledgment of Taiping honesty and courtesy, Harvey went on to say: "Nevertheless, the Taepings with their frank demeanour and bluff energy have a fume of blood and a look of carnage about them, from which I, for one, recoil with horror." Harvey noted that the occupation of the Taipings, termed an "experiment", had produced "exactly what was expected - ruin, desolation, and the annihilation of every vital principle in all that surrounds the presence, or lies under the bane, of the Taepings." Still underlining, undoubtedly, his lack of bias, Harvey noted: "I now, therefore, take the liberty of declaring, once for all (and for ten years I have fairly adhered to and been consistent in this opinion), that the Taeping rebellion is the greatest delusion, as a political or popular movement, and the Taeping doctrines the most gigantic blasphemous imposition... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 30 STEPHEN UHALLEY, JR. counter."'48 But, of course, this act cannot be laid exclusively to Captain Dew. Another contemporary source charged perhaps more penetratingly that the Taiping possession of Ningpo was "peculiarly adapted" to thwart British Minister Frederick Bruce's "schemes for aiding and abetting" the Ch'ing side in China's civil war. The source noted that Taiping possession of the seaport would enable them to deprive Shanghai of the greater proportion of the customs duties, which not only might now be diverted into their own exchequer, but would frustrate the object of Mr. Horatio Lay's mission to London where he was seeking to put together an Anglo-Chinese flotilla to be used against the Taipings, and "destroy the main stay of the Imperial cause." The Taipings would also be able to obtain needed war munitions. Finally, they would have the opportunity to dispel "the illusion of their being inimical to foreign trade." This source concluded that from "such cogent reasons" Admiral Hope came to agree with the Minister's views, and "resolved on the recapture of the place by fair means or foul."49 Small wonder that the story of the Taiping occupation of Ningpo has received little subsequent attention in Western historical accounts of the Taiping period. When it has, it has too often been sadly distorted. It is not a happy episode to think about. But however that may be, it is an historical experience that is well worth reflection upon. It was a passing moment of history which, in a telescoped span of time, rather accurately reflected a larger contemporary story. It demonstrated that Chinese revolutionaries of the early 1860s had the capacity to achieve major objectives against a weak established government, including the conquest of much of the territory of the richest provinces in the lower Yangtze River basin and the seizure of a principal seaport. It also demonstrated that the Taipings did treat foreigners respectably well and promoted trade, which was, after all, the matter of greatest importance to foreigners. It also proved that neither the apparent military nor the civil capabilities of the revolutionaries made much difference to those key foreign officials who were determined to assist the weak established government. Finally, it showed that the intervention of foreign powers made a great deal of difference in the ultimate outcome of the civil war in China. At the most, the experience at Ningpo from December 1861 to May 1862 suggests the story in microcosm ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 36 CHIU LING-YEONG After giving his reader a vivid picture of China in her sleep, Tseng then urged the public to watch closely for China in her awakening. The awakened China, he said, would not be aggressive or dangerous to any of her neighbouring countries. China, after all, was not a land-hungry nation. Hungering for land was only the affair of the European powers. China was under no necessity of finding in other lands outlets for her surplus population. A considerable number of Chinese had, at different times, been forced to leave their homes and try their fortunes in Cuba, Peru, the United States and the British colonies, on account of the Taiping Rebellion. The Chinese emigrated to these countries of their own free will, and their movement and activities had nothing to do with the Chinese Government. The Chinese in these countries, however, unlike the Europeans who had settled in the East, had no political nor territorial ambitions. Returning to the internal affairs of the awakened China, Tseng stressed: • Great efforts are being made to fortify her coast and create a strong and efficient navy. China will proceed with her coast defences and the organisation and development of her army and navy, without, for the present, directing her attention whether to the introduction of railways or to any of the subjects of internal economy; the changes which may have to be made when China comes to set her house in order can only profitably be discussed when she feels she has thoroughly overhauled and can rely on the bolts and bars she is now applying to her doors. The general line of China's foreign Policy will be directed to extending and improving her relations with the Treaty Powers, to the amelioration of the condition of her subjects residing in foreign parts, to the placing on a less equivocal footing of the position of her feudatories, as regards the suzerain power, to the revision of the treaties, in a sense more in accordance with the place which China holds as a great Asiatic power" "China has decided on exercising a more effective supervision on the acts of her vassal princes and of accepting a hostile movement against these countries or any interference with their affairs will be viewed at Peking as a declaration ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g The Emergence of a Chinese Elite in Hong Kong Carl T. Smith* (A lecture delivered to the Branch on 15 March 1971) INTRODUCTION The opening of Tung Wah Hospital (1872)† marks the terminal date for this study of the emergence of a Chinese élite in Hong Kong. We are concerned, therefore, with the first thirty years of the colony's history, 1841-72. The first decade was characterized by economic and social problems partially created by a shifting and generally irresponsible population. During this period, there was, however, a small number of settlers who were establishing themselves and their families with the purpose of making Hong Kong their permanent home, of acquiring capital, and of investing in real estate. As the Colony entered into the 1850s, this group increasingly assumed a position of leadership. It was recruited from a few successful contractors and builders, several government servants, compradores of foreign firms, and Chinese Christians attached to missionary groups. The second decade of Hong Kong's history was marked by an influx of population and capital caused by disturbed conditions in South China created by the Taiping Rebellion. This influx turned into an exodus when hostilities began between the British and Chinese in 1857. But war brought more compradores to Hong Kong as foreign firms moved down from Canton. In the third decade, there was a revival of trade, and a growing merchant class provided its share of élite. By the end of the * Rev. Carl Smith is Lecturer in the Theology Division in the Department of Philosophy and Religion, Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and has been associated with the College since 1962. † It is difficult to know what date to give to the origin of Tung Wah Hospital. In 1869, a committee of concerned Chinese was organized. In 1870 (the usual date given for the foundation of the Hospital), the Tung Wah Hospital Ordinance was passed and the foundation stone was laid by the Governor. The Hospital was formally opened by the Governor on 14 February 1872. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 86 CARL T. SMITH of substantial Chinese merchants was not realized. The Blue Book reports for both 1845 and 1846 noted some signs of a growing stability in the Chinese population. In 1845 it was stated that "both in numbers and respectability the Chinese are improving, being accompanied in a greater number of instances by their families", and in 1846, "the proportion of females increases as a feeling of security induced Chinese settlers to bring over their families". The settling of families was welcomed because it indicated that the Chinese who did so were willing to consider Hong Kong as a place of permanent residence. Although there had been noted some progress in this area, the report for 1848 indicated that it was not sustained. "There exists no local attachment, which may be ascribed to the absence of respectable families born on the island, with which the adventurers could contract marriages. The rent of houses and shops is at present low enough to enable any man who has a middling trade to lodge his family, yet very few decent married females reside here. In this respect there has been very little improvement during the past year". The paucity of Chinese families in Hong Kong is reflected in the annual census of shops and buildings. In 1845 there were as many brothels as families, twenty-five families and twenty-six brothels. Within five years the families had increased to 141, but there were only six more brothels than in 1845. The 1850s saw a substantial influx of Chinese families escaping from the turbulent conditions in Kwang Tung Province created by the Taiping Rebellion. This influx changed somewhat the characteristics of Hong Kong's Chinese population. It acquired more stability, responsibility and economic strength. Examination of an emerging élite in this period shows that its members can be divided into five occupational groups: contractors, merchants, compradores, government servants and Christian employees of missionary groups. The biographies of the individuals in each of these groups found on our lists for determining élite status provide the background for élite emergence in the 1850s and 1860s. THE CONTRACTORS GROUP When Hong Kong was settled the immediate need of buildings brought many connected with the building trade to Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG 89 Fukienese merchants to settle in Hong Kong. Several other merchants appear on the earliest of the élite lists indicating their presence in the first decade of the Colony's history. In 1852 "Cun-wo A Kwi, merchant" contributed five dollars to Dr. Hirschberg's Hospital. This is Chow Aki* of the firm Cong-wo, which had been established in the Lower Bazaar in 1842, having a branch at Canton. In 1849 he bought the lease of the Central Market, holding it until 1857. He became a large investor in real estate, but sold out most of his property in 1866 and retired to Macao. A merchant who survived the pitfalls of commerce in early Hong Kong was Wong Ping1. He is named as a silk merchant on the land-owners' petition of 1848, but he was one of Hong Kong's first industrialists in that he owned a rope walk beyond the western end of the Lower Bazaar. He was one of three trustees to hold Inland Lot 361 in Taipingshan on behalf of the Chinese community. The lot was granted in 1851 and upon it was built a temple "for the reception of Tablets to the memory of... deceased countrymen".22 The building was used, however, not only for memorial tablets but also as a depository for those who were about to die, following established Chinese custom. When this use came to the notice of the European community it was shocked. The reaction and public discussion which followed resulted in Government allocating a grant from the revenues of the gambling monopoly to the Chinese community for the erection of a suitable hospital to be known as Tung Wah. Wong Ping was not a member of the Organizing Committee of the Hospital, though he was on the Kai Fong Committee for 1872. He died in 1887. Wong Yue Yee alias Wong Yick Bun, of the Chun Cheong Wing Nam Pak Hong, a Director of the Tung Wah in 1872, may have been a relative as Wong Ping is mentioned in 1881 as a managing partner of the Chun Cheung Hong for some twenty years. He also was associated with the Tsui Shing firm and the Tuck Mee Hong. In the 1850s the Taiping Rebellion upset the social and economic structures of China. The changes in China were reflected in changes in Hong Kong. The Taiping threat upon Canton created a refugee group which sought in Hong Kong more stable conditions. Some were wealthy and brought their ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG 111 England had spoiled him. He had received much attention and had been presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury who had been impressed enough to give him a gift of theological works to start his library. But the Hong Kong Bishop's hopes of using him as an agent for the Church of England's mission among the Chinese were soon dimmed. He was deficient in Chinese and had to begin a course of study in the Chinese Classics. At the same time the English he had acquired during his stay abroad was not sufficient to write grammatical English. In spite of these deficiencies he was appointed as an assistant Tutor in the newly opened St. Paul's College. When the Bishop went to Shanghai in 1853 to investigate the rumours concerning the Christian aspect of the Taiping movement, he took with him Chan Tai Kwong and another prospective evangelist, Lo Sam Yuen. The two Chinese tried to get through the Imperial lines and reach Nanking; but they ran into frequent outbreaks of hostility between the warring groups and were forced to return to Shanghai. Chan Tai Kwong's interest, however, was neither in being an evangelist nor a teacher, or even perhaps an emissary of Christian interests to the Taipings. He was attracted to the business world and the prospect of wealth. The advantages of his connections and his ability to speak English furnished a ready entry into Hong Kong's business world. In 1856 he left St. Paul's College and served for a time as an interpreter in Government, as well as taking advantage of some business offers. He was taken on by a group of Chinese engaged in the opium trade. Financed by Leong Attoy, Li Tuk Cheong and Li Chun, the latter two members of the Li family Wo Hang firm, he bid for the opium monopoly in 1858. It was granted to him, but his firm soon ran into financial difficulties and he was forced to throw up the contract after several months. The Sheriff foreclosed on the property of Chan Tai Kwong. He then appears to have left the Colony, perhaps going to Singapore. However, in December, 1867, he was appointed as Chinese clerk and shroff to the Hong Kong Court of Summary Jurisdiction. Here he often served as arbitrator in disputes among Chinese. He continued with the Court until his death in 1882. His son-in-law George Orley, a Sanitary Inspector, was appointed administrator of his estate which was valued at $3,000. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 160 DAFYDD EMRYS EVANS 23 A writ of fieri facias (abbreviated to fi. fa.) is the means whereby a judgment is executed against the property of a person found liable to another in damages in a civil suit. It enables his property to be sold to meet the sums awarded against him. The writ was frequently employed at this time in suits for arrears of Crown Rent. 24 Memorial 359. 25 When property is mortgaged to secure sums advanced by the mortgagee to the mortgagor, the latter is said to have an 'equity of redemption'. The purpose of this is to make certain that his interest in relation to that of the lender is kept in balance, so that the lender can always be forced to release the security when the reasons for giving it are no longer present, i.e., when the sums advanced are repaid. The equity of redemption is treated as an item of property which the mortgagor is free to dispose of—it is the right to reconveyance when the security is discharged or repayment of the loan. 26 Under the Ordinance No. 3 of 1844, all transactions in and concerning land, as well as judgments, wills and so on which involve land, must be registered in the Land Office. A transaction is quite effective even if the Ordinance is not complied with but subsequent purchasers or persons having dealings with property automatically have notice of any registered transaction which will therefore take precedence even over prior unregistered transactions. 27 Ong Chok may in fact have been Ong Lok. The latter frequently dealt in property and is described in Memorials as a 'compradore'. He had extensive property interests in the Taipingshan district. 28 Memorial 384. 29 Memorial 385. 30 Memorial 418. 31 The Chinese used then and still do use to a certain limited extent a lunar calendar. 32 Friend of China, 23 June 1849. 33 Memorial 541. 34 Lease Register Vol. C, f. 219. 35 Lease Register Vol. F, ff. 38 and 47. 36 It was suggested that Chinese merchants were not averse to bribery because they were accustomed to bribing Chinese Government officials. 37 But it should be noted that there are a good many lots in the Taipingshan area in which there were no recorded dealings for a good many years. It is unlikely that there were no dealings at all. It is more likely that the dealings were simply not recorded. 38 Towards the end of the 1840's and in the early 1850's the number of non-residents investing in property in the colony rose markedly, most of them coming from those districts of Kwantung Province adjoining Hong Kong and Macao. The Taiping rebellion may have caused some part of the flow of capital. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d MERCHANT ORGANISATIONS IN IMPERIAL CHINA 35 buildings and roads destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion. Collaboration of this sort gave these merchant leaders a greater voice over taxation and other local public affairs.23 The same guild leaders joined charitable organisations because their larger numbers offered them a wider base of support. As the merchants assumed a leadership role in providing social services and welfare, they gradually took over responsibilities and privileges which went along with their work. Because permanent charitable organisations could cut across guilds and sometimes Landsmannschaften, they claimed that their leadership was based on community-wide support. And since they were merchants, they should be identified as merchant leaders to whom matters affecting the merchants would be referred. Moreover, these merchants were elites in their own communities, and were regularly referred to as "titled merchants” (shen-shang). Even as individuals, they had some political influence with the local officials. But unless they had begun as gentry or officials, such influence rested on no legitimate basis. When they organised themselves in institutions which had a communal purpose, they quickly used them to claim legitimate leadership. This was what happened by the late nineteenth century. In Hong Kong, the board of directors of the Tung Wah Hospital quickly gained the right to present petitions to the Hong Kong government on all matters related to the Chinese community. Institutionally, the hospital was put under the jurisdiction of the Registrar General, after 1913 styled the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, who also served as its patron. By the early 1880's, the board opened up another channel when the Governor-general's Office in Canton began to correspond with it. There is some indication that the directors acted as a kind of information centre and advisory board for the Governor-general on matters involving the overseas Chinese.24 To this day, a seat on the board of directors of either the Tung Wah Hospital or the Po Leung Kuk still represents the government's recognition of each occupier's leadership status. In Canton, charitable organisations, too, quickly became a regular channel of communication between the government and the merchants. In early 1886, when news of the San Francisco race riots against Chinese workers reached Canton and Hong Kong, the Chinese government wrote to the directors of the Ai-yü shan-t’ang ================================================================================ 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 121 allies, for example, occasionally directed their military efforts against, rather than for, the dynasty; and even the Uighurs sometimes became overbearing and troublesome.42 There were, moreover, tensions between barbarian and Chinese officers, as well as conflicts between various competing barbarian commanders. But perhaps the most vivid illustration of the dangers involved in utilizing foreigners was the famous rebellion of the "mixed-breed" barbarian, An Lu-shan, which the Uighur heir apparent had helped combat in its early stages. Contemporary observers saw this uprising not as a civil war between the central government and a local "warlord," but rather as a conflict between the Chinese and a barbarian. Chinese historians went so far, in fact, as to maintain that the rebellion occurred "because An Lu-shan and other barbarians were given important military and political offices."43 Whatever the merits of this view, we may safely assume that An did not rate a biography in Li Te-yü's I-yü kuei-chung chuan; and although foreign troops and individual barbarian commanders assisted in the restoration of imperial rule, and helped sustain the Tang dynasty for nearly a century and a half after the revolt, resentment and distrust of barbarians became increasingly evident as neo-Confucianism rose to prominence. The Use of Foreigners in Post-T'ang Times Chinese anti-foreignism, already on the rise in the later years of T'ang, received reinforcement from neo-Confucianism, with its emphasis on the superiority of Chinese culture and the closer identification of Confucianism with that culture. At the same time, the stress on civil virtues and the growing importance of the vaunted examination system as a channel for upward mobility led to a general decline in martial spirit.44 Yet even as China turned inward, her ever-present need for foreign military and administrative expertise assured that outsiders would continue to find their way into the Chinese service. This proved true in the Sung, when specially trained "barbarian troops" (fan-ping) operated against internal and external enemies, and barbarian commanders (fan-chiang) such as Kuo Yao-shih (a surrendered Liao officer) rendered similar service. Kuo is particularly noteworthy for having led a military force known as the Ever-Victorious Army (Ch'ang-sheng chün) which, in some respects, resembled the contingent with the same designation raised by Frederick Townsend Ward in the latter stages of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864).45 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 14 RICHARD J. SMITH foreign military aid reaped few long-term gains. Western officers from "Chinese" Gordon to Constantin von Hanneken introduced a measure of modernity to at least a few armies in the late Ch'ing period, but none of these individuals was able to promote more basic institutional reform.10 The effects of Japan's success and China's failure in this regard were far-reaching. Generally speaking, China's approach to military reform in the years from 1860 to 1895 may be compared with that of Japan in the years from 1853 to 1868. In each instance, foreign assistance was acquired piecemeal by both the central government and local governments, with no real coordination between the two. Similar rationales were offered, and similar results obtained, although in the case of China the new knowledge and technology acquired was used to bolster rather than to undermine the existing central government.11 A high priority for both pre-Meiji Japan and late Ch'ing China was the training of troops and officers in Western techniques. In each country, the use of foreign military assistance followed similar lines. The training program established for the Bakufu by the French Minister, Leon Roches, at Yokohama during the mid-1860's, for example, may be compared with the central government training program set up by the British Minister, Frederick Bruce, at Tientsin in the early 1860's.12 Similarly, the various foreign-training efforts begun in Chōshu and other han during the 1860's bear a basic resemblance to the post-Taiping training camps established at Shanghai, Canton, Foochow and elsewhere.13 The Japanese even had their own rough equivalent of China's famous Ever-Victorious Army.14 Common problems in these early military improvement programs included language difficulties, foreign rivalries, financial limitations, lack of standardization in arms and training, and foreign meddling.15 China never overcame these problems. From the 1860's to the early 1890's, a handful of foresighted individuals, most notably Li Hung-chang, undertook a variety of modernizing enterprises aimed at building up China's “wealth and power.” Their efforts succeeded in a limited way, but were severely hindered by obscurantism, official opposition, bureaucratic inertia, and the deliberate policies of the Empress Dowager, Tz'u-hsi, who carefully manipulated political factions in order to maintain and enhance her own power.16 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 118 CARL T. SMITH Government, for they hoped that through those converts, whom they financed in their efforts to reach the areas controlled by the Taiping government, they might influence the movement. Since they believed that these converts who had been under their instruction were better grounded in the fundamentals of the Christian faith than the Taiping leaders at Nanking, the missionaries expected their converts to strengthen the Christian element in the movement and correct some of its reported misconceptions in doctrine and aberrations in practice. They also hoped that through the good offices of these converts, once they had established themselves at Nanking, the missionary would, in time, be able to join them. The most prominent of these individuals was Hung Jen-kan, a distant cousin of the Taiping leader Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. He became the Kan Wang (Shield King) in the Taiping government at Nanking in 1859 and was executed in November, 1864, after the fall of Nanking. He accompanied Hung Hsiu-ch'uan to Canton for Christian instruction under the Rev. Issachar Roberts in 1847. In an appendix to Dr. Margaret M. Coughlin's unpublished doctoral thesis, Strangers in the House: J. Lewis Shuck and Issachar Roberts, First American Baptist Missionaries to China (University of Virginia, 1972), there is a letter of Roberts to Shuck, dated 27 March, 1847, giving details of Hsiu-ch'uan's spiritual development. After a month's instruction, they were sent out on a preaching tour in the course of which they returned to their home district, Hua-hsien, Kwangtung. Jen-kan did not return to Canton with Hsiu-ch'uan for further studies but remained at home to study medicine. While Hung had been preaching near his home in Kwangtung and studying with Roberts at Canton, Feng Yün-shan, a friend of his who had also been influenced by Christian ideas, had been gathering a group of followers in Kwangsi. They adopted the name of "The Society of God Worshippers" and were the nucleus from which developed the Taiping movement. The usual accounts of the movement attribute its origins to the activity of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. This interpretation rests heavily on the account given in Hamberg's booklet The Visions of Hung Siu-Tschuen and Origin of the Kwang-si Insurrection, published in Hong Kong in 1854, and on various documents of the movement which were written after the death of Feng Yün-shan. There are several contemporary references which ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 124 CARL T. SMITH lished there in a responsible position, he wrote to Li Tsin-kau inviting him to join him. Tsin-kau set off for Nanking but turned back before arriving there, because, as he claimed, he had heard alarming accounts of the religious and moral aberrations of Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. On his return to Hong Kong, he was taken on by Lechler as a helper in his ministry to the Hakka population in Hong Kong. Li Tsin-kau continued as a valuable assistant in the Basel Mission in Hong Kong, serving as a catechist until his death in 1885. For some years in the 1860's he was a travelling preacher, using Hong Kong as his home base. His mother, wife and children, and a younger brother joined him in Hong Kong and all of them became members of the Basel Society congregation on High Street, Saiying-poon. In 1858, he mentions a brother, Schiu-siu, in California. The Eighth Report of the Berlin Society, for the years 1861 and 1862, mentions A-tat the unbaptized brother of the Basel Mission helper Lichenko. Li Tsin-kau after his initial efforts to join the Taiping forces spent the remainder of his life serving the church in Hong Kong. However, his friend Hung Jen-kan became an important figure in the Taiping government under the title Kan Wang. Before assuming this political role, he also was a valued assistant in the Protestant Mission work in Hong Kong. While Li Tsin-kau worked among the Hakkas under the direction of the Rev. Rudolph Lechler, of the Basel Missionary Society, Hung Jen-kan worked with the Rev. Dr. James Legge, of the London Missionary Society, among the Cantonese speaking population. Dr. Legge took an interest in the Taiping movement and saw within it a potential for providing a turning point in the relation of the Christian church with the whole of China. In the summer of 1853, he sent two of his assistants to Shanghai to open communication with the Taiping government so as to prepare the way for a missionary to enter Nanking. The delegation consisted of a long-time assistant in the London Missionary Society, Keuh A-gong, alias Wat Ngong A, and a young theological student of Dr. Legge's school, Ng Mun-sow. Their efforts were unsuccessful, so after spending six months in Shanghai, they returned to Hong Kong.4 We have already noted the unsuccessful effort of Hung Jen-kan and Li Tsin-kau to reach Nanking by way of Shanghai in 1854. Upon returning to Hong Kong, Jen-kan became a language teacher ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 125 for the Rev. John Chalmers of the London Missionary Society, but soon he began to be used extensively in the various activities of the mission, preaching in their Lower Bazaar Chapel, visiting prisoners in the Gaol, serving as an evangelist to the sick in the dispensary recently opened by Dr. Julius Hirschberg on Queen's Road West. Legge characterized him as “a man who has won my affection and esteem as few of his countrymen have done", and he impressed Dr. Wong Foon, who had recently returned from Medical School at Edinburgh and was associated with Dr. Hirschberg in the dispensary, as “a man of great intelligence and considerable fluency of speech."5 In 1858, with the blessings of the Mission, Hung Jen-kan with a companion made another effort to reach Nanking, but this time travelling up through Canton and Kwangsi. In a letter dated 5 June 1858, the Rev. John Chalmers remarks on his and Jen-kan's hopes: "He has had a desire for a long time to reach his friends at Nanking and endeavour to impart to them the superior knowledge he has acquired, and I doubt not the fact that the present government is so hardly pressed from without had induced him to adventure upon the long and dangerous journey across the country from Canton in hopes that the Nanking party may be persuaded to seek an alliance with foreigners before it is too late. Of course his religious zeal is associated with patriotic feelings. We have always thought that if he could get among the Taiping people he might be the means of correcting many of their errors with regard to Christianity and to foreigners, from whom they have received it."6 The London Missionary Society at Hong Kong financed the trip and agreed to grant a monthly allowance of seven dollars to his family for ten months or until Jen-kan himself was able to provide for them. In the course of his journey Jen-kan wrote five letters to the society at Hong Kong, but only three were received. One written from Hupei states that: Unexpectantly on 16th October, I was seized and searched by Imperialist guards. They only found some medical books and money. On the 19th I made my escape to Yaou Chow and on the 14th of November eight officers who wished to leave the Imperial service took me to Lung Ping in the province of Hoo ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 127 style befitting relatives of one of the Taiping Kings. To celebrate his second marriage, Dr. Legge and his new wife entertained their Chinese friends and associates at a feast of twelve tables with some thirty courses. Mrs. Legge remarks in a letter dated 24 August, 1860, that “Sy-poe seemed very desirous I should honour his table We had a letter from the Rebel King, he congratulates Dr. Legge on his marriage." Sy-poe is not mentioned again by the missionaries, but in 1871, Dr. Legge states that his son came to the Mission house requesting a recommendation for the position of a watchman. Legge states, "He is an honest-looking lad — but alas, that the glory of the Taipings should thus have passed away” Reports in the Archives of the Basel Missionary Society mention Fung Khui-syu, born in 1848, "son of a Taiping King". He must be Hung K'uei-yüan alias K'uei-hsiu, the son of Hung Jen-kan." He was employed by the Society as a teacher; first on the mainland, but then, because of the danger to him and his family created by his former association with the rebellion, he was removed to Hong Kong to teach in the mission's Girl's School at Sai Ying Poon. In 1873 a marriage was arranged by Mrs. Lechler between Fung Khui-syu, then teaching at Tshong-hang-kang in Hsin-an district, and one of the older girls in the Society's boarding school at Hong Kong. The bride Tsen A-lin, alias En-min was an orphan. As a young girl she had been sold by her mother in Shanghai and had been brought to Hong Kong to work in a brothel; but she had been found wandering in the streets by a member of the Basel Society congregation and was brought to the Mission House. In 1865, at the age of twelve, she was enrolled as a student, and was baptized in 1870, when she received the name Lin, meaning compassion, in place of Tchuy-khuyk (Ch'iu-chü), meaning autumn chrysanthemum. In 1878 a large part of the congregation of the Basel Mission Church at Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong, emigrated to Demerara, British Guiana. Fung Khui-syu went with them. The 1885 Yearly Report of the Rev. Lechler states: In Georgetown is a Chinese Church and one of our emigrants has been placed there as Pastor. He is the relative of the former rebel king Fung Syu-tshen, and himself, at the time of the Government of Taipings in Nanking, was made king. He found his way to Hong Kong and was received at our table. I sent him ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 128 CARL T. SMITH later to Lilong, where he served under Brother Bellon in the boy's school. Because of his relation to the Rebel King, it was difficult on the mainland so he came to Hongkong until 1878, when he emigrated with those of Shaukiwan. 14 A search of the records of British Guiana might provide details of his later career. Lechler's Day Book under date 12 January, 1871, mentions a visit from Tsau-phoi, a member of the Fung family of Tsim Sha Tsui, and on 18 February, 1871, he notes that Fung A-lin from Tsim Sha Tsui returned to the Girl's School at Sai Ying Poon. It is probable that Fung Tsau-phoi and Fung A-lin were the son and daughter of "a former Rebel King", who is referred to in the records of the Girl's Boarding School of the Basel Mission at Sai Ying Poon. A report dated 10 July, 1866, lists as a student Lyu Tsya, aged eighteen years, "betrothed to a son of a former Rebel King, who long has put away the crown, baptized by the Berlin Missionary Hanspach in her home." Also listed is Fung A-lin, the small sister of the young man. She had been enrolled in 1865, aged seven years. Her mother was a widow and a Christian. Keeping in mind that the Hakka version of the surname Hung was written Fung, and that the entries in Lechler's Day Book were written in a very illegible script, it may be that Fung Tsau-phoi is the same as Hung Tsun Fooi mentioned in T’ai-p’ing t'ien-kuo shih-shih jih-chih Appendix, p.24, as present in Hong Kong after the fall of the Taiping government. Two relatives of Feng Yün-shan, a twenty-one year old nephew A-sou and his fourteen-year old cousin, accompanied the Rev. Issachar J. Roberts to Shanghai in 1853, in an attempt to reach Nanking. A-sou was baptized by Roberts at Shanghai. The Baptist Missionary Rev. Matthew T. Yates became acquainted with the two boys, but in his book The Tai Ping Rebellion, he mistakenly states that they were brothers of Feng Yün-shan. Fung A-sou found it impossible to reach Nanking, so he came down to Hong Kong. From here he went up to Canton where he became a teacher to an American missionary. But he became ill, and returned to Hong Kong where he died on the 21 August, 1855. These accounts of some of the events in the lives of friends and relatives of Taiping leaders and their association with the missionary ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q NOTES ON FRIENDS AND RELATIVES OF TAIPING LEADERS 131 CARL SMITH'S ADDITIONAL NOTE Carl Smith has added to the text of the article appearing in Ching Feng the following note on the family of Li Tsin-kau and their services to the Hakka Church of the Basel Mission in Hong Kong and in Sabah. Li Tsin-kau, otherwise known as Lee Sik-sam, died 8 April, 1885, aged sixty-two. On the letters of administration issued to his widow Ho Lai-yau, the value of his estate was estimated at $400. His assets consisted principally of a small house beside the Basel Society's Church and Mission House in Sai Ying Poon, which he had purchased in 1878 for $480. He sold a portion of the lot in 1878 for $370. Li Tsin-kau's wife was baptized in Hong Kong in 1861 and died there 21 September, 1888, leaving four surviving children. The family property after her death was conveyed by Li A-cheung, an interpreter, Li Shin-en, a missionary and Li En-kyau, unmarried to their brother Li A-po, a trader. The eldest son of Tsin-kau, A-lim, had died in 1864 “in trouble with the police". A-po, the second son was betrothed in 1865 to Kong Oi-fuk from Lilong. She was a student in the Basel Society Girl's Boarding School at Hong Kong, and he was a student of their Boy's School at Lilong. The third son, A-cheung studied at Hong Kong Central School (Queen's College) and in 1871 was given the prize for best scholar. After leaving school, he entered Government service, beginning as a charge-room interpreter for the Police, but in 1875 was transferred to the Magistracy as a clerk. Three years later he was promoted to Second Interpreter in the Magistracy. In 1882 he was offered the position of Interpreter to the Kingdom of Hawaii. Like his brother he had married one of the students of the Girl's Boarding School in Hong Kong, Tshin Then-tet. She accompanied him to Hawaii. In 1883, the Rev. Frank Damon, who was in charge of Chinese Christian work in Hawaii, visited Hong Kong. In a report of his visit published in The Friend (New Series, Vol. 33, No. 2, p. 9) he expresses his pleasure in meeting "the venerable and interesting father of our Government interpreter in Honolulu, Mr. Lee Cheong. A brother and sister are engaged in teaching here, while another brother is missionary to his countrymen". ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 SIIIWAN POTTERY EXPLORED 107 the theme of "restoring rivers and mountains" to the point of becoming formula, but no one complained. Mai further describes how the Guangdong opera actors practised the martial arts of the Shaolin branch (*) and finally put this art to use when in 1854 their leader, the actor Li Yunmao (***) also known as Wen Mao () led three armies of actors to join the Taiping effort against the Manchus. These armies were destroyed along with the rest of the Taiping army, and in the aftermath, the Qing court issued an order forbidding the performance of Guangdong opera and had the actors' Qiong Hua (hortensia flower) Association Hall (1446) in Fushan burned to the ground. A gilt wood carved altar in the Ancestral Temple in Fushan, and a Shiwan frieze depicting the story of the Yang Family Generals, preserve in their carvings the significance of these events and their broader implications for a community not under the domination of a foreign Manchu government, but also besieged with Caucasian foreigners pressing for trade and territorial rights. The Qing dynasty gilt wood altar carving has double meaning. The carving depicts the story of Tang dynasty Li Yuanba fighting the dragon colt (*£#£#6). On a second level however, the horse represents the unruly foreigners, and Li Yuanba, having the same surname, represents Li Wenmao. Verifying this are two hidden plaques hung above the scene which can only be seen from a crouching position. One reads "Great Ming Mountains and Rivers" (11) and the other "Qiong Hua Hall" (44), with the middle character Hua (4) substituted as disguise for the similar sounding Hua (*) of the Hortensia Flower (Qiong Hua) Association. Furthermore, according to Mr. Zhang Tao (**), curator of the Ancestral Temple, the characters on these two wood plaques were originally covered with extra slabs of wood and were only discovered while renovation was being done to the temple between 1971 and 1972. (Plate 14). In addition to this gilt wood altar scene, a beautiful ceramic frieze depicting the story of the Yang Family Generals, Song dynasty loyalists, is displayed in the rear courtyard of the Ancestral Temple. In addition to this anti-Manchu theme (the Yang family's loyalty to the native Song dynasty during the period of barbarian Yuan conquest, symbolising the loyalty of the Chinese people to the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 202 CARL SMITH HOW A-CHICK CLIMBED TO THE TOP IN SHANGHAI After his return to China, Tong A-chick, or Tong Mow-chee as he began to call himself, in some sense rode on the coat-tails of his younger and more prominent brother, King-sing. In 1862, Mow-chee was employing his language skills as head linguist at the Shanghai Imperial Customs Office. King-sing had preceded him there but had left to seek better prospects. At this time their father died and Mow-chee retired for the usual mourning period. Assessing his future prospect in Chinese Government service as not good, he did not return to his job after the mourning period ended. The position he had held was a good one, but did not offer many opportunities for advancement, as higher offices in the Chinese Government were generally open only to those who held an official degree. Though he took steps to remedy this by purchasing a degree, he felt prospects in the customs were not bright. Later, when he had more wealth, he purchased the degree that entitled him to wear the peacock feather, and finally the button of the second rank on his hat. Tong King-sing had become compradore at Shanghai to Jardine, Matheson and Company in 1863. In 1870, after leaving Hongkong, Tong Mow-chee through his brother's influence took charge of the Chinese business of Jardine's shipping office at Tientsin. In 1872, King-sing was recruited by Viceroy Li Hung-chang to manage the newly created China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company. Though backed by private capital, it was under the control of the Chinese Government. The compradoreship of Jardines at Shanghai thus became vacant. It was natural that Tong Mow-chee should come down from Tientsin to take his brother's place. In 1877 Tong King-sing was commissioned to develop the Kaiping coalfields for the Chinese Government. Mow-chee assisted... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 203 ed his brother by raising much of the capital needed to open the mines. In 1883 King-sing was sent to Europe and America to inspect mining operations and machinery. His elder brother took over the management of the China Merchants' during his absence. It was a time of troubles. The French were expanding their interests in south China and war broke out. As a precaution, the property of the China Merchants' was transferred to the firm of Russell and Company. This would prevent their ships from being seized by the French as they would be flying the American flag. After cessation of hostilities and peace was restored, the Chinese again assumed control. Even though Mow-chee assumed these extra duties, he retained his position with Jardines until his death. In his latter years, however, he was able to place the management of the compradore's office under the care of his son Tong Kidson. This son had been one of the boys sent by the Chinese Government to be educated in the United States under the Chinese Educational Mission. The scheme was initiated by Yung Wing who had been a classmate of Tong Mow-chee in the Morrison Education Society School. Several of Kidson's cousins were also students of the mission. The most famous was Tang Shao-i, a leading political figure during the Republican period, Tong Kai-son, or as he was also called, Tong Kwok-on, after following his father Tong King-sing in the administration of the Kaiping Mining Company, became the first President of Tsing Hua College in Peking. Tong Yuen-cham, a student of the mission and a graduate of Columbia University, New York City, became Director-General of the Imperial Chinese Telegraph Administration. No doubt the position and influence of Tong King-sing and Tong Mow-chee enabled these students of the Educational Mission to arrive at their own high position in the Government of China in the early part of the 20th century. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 209 The fifth brother, Ho Wooi-shang, became an assistant in the business of A-tick, Hongkong's most successful tailor at that time. In addition he had a business at Honam in Canton. While visiting there he was wounded by a Chinese tax officer. He lingered long enough to make his will but died not long after leaving a family of small children. In the collection of the Legge family, which was deposited in the Archives of the London Missionary Society, there is a photograph of Ho Shun-chee, alias A-lloy. On the back is written: “To Miss Legge with kind regards from her sincere friend,” and an added note by Dr. Legge's daughter, Edith: "He told me he had attended the emperor when he went to pray at the Altar of Heaven." It is indeed a long step from a Hongkong classroom to the Altar of Heaven at Peking. TO THE GOLDFIELDS DOWN UNDER IN SEARCH OF CONVERTS Among the students of Dr. Legge's school in Hongkong were a number of boys from the Ho clan. Two orphaned brothers, Ho Low-yuk and Ho Mei-yuk, were near relatives of the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong. Both went to Australia after finishing school. They were part of an exodus of Hongkong-educated boys seeking their fortunes in overseas communities. As English speakers in a place where their countrymen were cut off from the general community, they served to bridge the gap. At the same time, government officials and Christians interested in the conversion of the Chinese needed someone through whom they could communicate with the immigrants. A-low and another young man from the school were urged by Dr. Legge to emigrate to Australia. Because of the unsettled conditions in China created by the Taiping rebellion, Dr. Legge felt it was not a good field for these two young men he had trained as religious workers. So provided with letters of introduction to a Congregational minister in Melbourne off they sailed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 297 that guided the administration of the city of Canton during its four year occupation by the Allies, during which he laid the foundations of his knowledge of written and spoken Chinese, he joined the Chinese Maritime Customs at Ningpo. When that city was captured by the Taiping Army, he assisted the Sino-French "Ever Triumphant Army" to recapture it, and later commanded it in the operations that led to the recapture of Hangzhou, for which he received high rank and honours from the appreciative Ch'ing government. Contacts made during this time led to employment after the Rebellion, in and outside China, that lasted until his death in France in 1886. His principal achievement was the construction and administration of the Fuzhou Dockyard and its fleet of warships in the face of many difficulties. Ironically, they were destroyed by naval forces of his own nation during the hostilities of 1884-85 between France and China over Vietnam. Giquel was a rare bird for his times. Apart from his linguistic proficiency and administrative capacities, he was sympathetic towards China at a time when this was not common among his contemporaries. Moreover, he sought ever to combine his duties to his employers, the Chinese, with his loyalties towards his native land, a veritable tightrope which he conscientiously trod throughout his working life. As Dr. Leibo observes, "A less committed individual might never have attempted such a balancing act”. (Transferring Technology, p. 5). He gave offence to many influential Frenchmen and to his government in 1872 by an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes in which he suggested that the French Concession at Shanghai should be merged with the International Settlement, and criticized French policy towards China in various aspects. Why this should be so is hinted at by an English account which indicates how different Giquel must have been from most of his fellows. Even allowing for the fact that this is an English account, written at a time of strong rivalry between the two powers and by one side of an old and mutual antipathy, it speaks for itself: French officers are so quick to take offense (sic) — so quick to obtain satisfaction - so imperious, so impractical, and so totally uncommercial that they are viewed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 417 interested in modern China or who are interested in the British in Asia. Dr. Atwell has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of how the British administered one small locality and coped with the demands of modern forces. Her work can be used as a guide or spring board for comparison of British colonial policy in other East Asian places, such as Brunei and the Straits Settlements, Hankow, Tientsin and Shanghai, say, with Hong Kong tossed in for good measure. WEI PEH T'I, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong Steven A. Leibo, Transferring Technology to China, Prosper Giquel and the Self-strengthening Movement, China Research Monograph 28, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Chinese Studies, 1985. Prosper Giquel, edited by Steven A. Leibo, A Journal of the Chinese Civil War 1864. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1985. These two works, one of compilation and assessment based on a doctoral dissertation, the other of translation (with the help of Debbie Weston) and annotation with a lengthy introduction, have a considerable intrinsic interest because they deal with a rather extraordinary man. They have also a degree of relevance, over a century later, for the West's involvement with present day China's modernizing programme. They are to be read in conjunction with other modern works on this period of China's self-strengthening efforts, including those listed in Dr. Leibo's introduction to Transferring Technology. Prosper Giquel, a French naval officer, came to China during the Second China War. After service with the Joint Commission that guided the administration of the city of Canton during its four year occupation by the Allies, during which he laid the foundations of his knowledge of written and spoken Chinese, he joined the Chinese Maritime Customs at Ningpo. When that city was captured by the Taiping Army, he assisted the Sino-French "Ever Triumphant Army” to recapture it, and later commanded it in the operations that led to the recapture of Hangzhou, for which he received high rank and honours from the appreciative Ch'ing government. Contacts made during this time led to employment after the Rebellion, in and outside China, that lasted until his death in France in 1886. His principal achievement was the construction and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 Table | Comparison of three Lam Tsuen Jiao Bulletins 1963 1972 1990 Total no. of pages 20 20 64 Colour black & white [b/w] b/w colour Content (columns relating to) 1 3 6 the community the opera 1 5 6 greetings from: 1 1 9 commercial organizations 7 6 2 the community 2 4 other communities 4 individuals Government officials Advertisements 21 Committee members Photos: other community members 3 3 43 guests 4 3 community opera performers 4 9 20 Sources: Lin Cun [Lam Tsuen] Xiang Taiping Qingjiao Shenghui Tekan (Lam Tsuen, 1963) Renzhi nien Lin Cun Xiang Taiping Qingjiao (Lam Tsuen, 1972) Gengwu nien Lin Cun Xiang Shinien Yijie Taiping Qingjiao (Lam Tsuen, 1990) c. Approaches to the study of Hong Kong Jiao Festivals In general, Saso's "cosmic renewal" is the view most commonly accepted by researchers of Hong Kong Jiao festivals. Instead of looking at the rituals, there is a strong tendency to study the social and organizational aspects of the festival. Tanaka recorded more than 14 different Jiao festivals in his three comprehensive volumes on Chinese ritual theatre.* Starting from the quest to uncover the origin and the route of diffusion of Chinese ritual theatre, Tanaka gradually moved his focus to social and structural complexities of the Jiao festival. This shift in focus is likely to have resulted from his expanding his scope from immigrant ================================================================================ 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 ================================================================================ 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-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 22 Hao has selected modern enterprises such as steam shipping, coal mines, cotton textile, and machine manufacturing and detected the share of investment by compradors as being substantial. In steamship enterprise, compradors' capital in British and American steamship companies established between 1862 and 1875 amounted to 499,975 taels; a modest 19.5% of the total of 2,559,000 taels. However, in steamship companies wholly Chinese-owned and under Chinese directorate between 1871 and 1893, compradors' investment amounted to 54.5% while the government had only 6.94% of the total capital of 1,958,000 taels. In the modern coal mines, compradors' capital amounted to a bigger share of 62.7% or a total of 1,350,116 Mexican dollars. In the total Chinese investment of 18,047,544 dollars in cotton textile manufacturing, compradors' share was 23.23%, second only to the 33.89% of gentry-officials, and in the machine manufacturing industries, the largest share of investment fell to the compradors with a percentage of 27.68 or a total sum of 2,887,000 dollars. The compradors were the first Chinese merchants to invest in the insurance business. They were the pioneers in introducing new types of business such as insurance and later other business methods such as contract, insuring, and limited liability. New forms of business like the joint-stock company with limited liability proved successful in attracting investment from the private sector in some guandu shangban enterprises, which also were the first Chinese large-scale modern enterprises like the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co., the Kaiping Coal Mines, and the Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill, in which compradors' capital shared 77.8, 100.0, and 70.4 percentages respectively. Definitely, compradors played a decisive role in forming the above enterprises, for they were the first generation of modern enterprises owned and operated by Chinese. Cantonese Compradors in Shanghai The compradors played the role as entrepreneurs in modern Chinese enterprises. They were not only fund suppliers but also employed new ways of raising the large amounts of capital needed for these large-scale industrial projects. The typical examples of Cantonese compradors active in Shanghai were Xu Run, Tang Tingshu, and Zheng Guanying. They successfully used the joint-stock system in raising capital for the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co. in 1873 and Shanghai Cotton ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 169 as they subsequently produced no results, and indeed, in the absence of targets could not be expected to However, the next course had to be postponed time and again owing to our dangerous position. The Japanese took Kinhwa, advanced and after severe fighting took Chunsien, and joined up with their other troops who had advanced from Nanchang to Yingtan. They occupied Shangjao: the Headquarters of the 3rd War Zone withdrew to Fukien. We were thus entirely cut off. The most serious consequence was to break our telegraphic communication with Chungking. It was fully expected that the Japanese would mop up the areas left behind; in the absence of the telegraph we could not get accurate information and all sorts of wild rumours circulated. We broke up our stores and found hiding places for them in the mountains. We had already decided on our own line of retreat to a mountain hideout, which had last been used by the members of our village during the Taiping rebellion. We ran out of money. Michael was able to borrow some from his friends, and the magistrate did what he could to help us; but currency seemed to have vanished. Eventually the Government dropped a supply by aeroplane in the area and the situation eased. I found a Chinese civilian who was a wireless expert, and who had made a good set, driven by hand-operated power, which had sufficient strength to reach Chungking. We applied to the Chinese authorities for permission to use this set; the request was relayed by wireless to Chungking, but after a long delay we received a refusal from General Ho Ying Chin "Lest precedent be set". I know, of course, that wireless was one of the subjects on which the Chinese government was very touchy, but I had hoped, in view of our circumstances, that an exception might be made. After three months the Japanese withdrew from Shangjao, conditions improved, and students collected for the second course. In the meantime, we had not been idle. One of our chief problems was to obtain the metal for our mines and booby-traps. We had heard that a number of damaged locomotives were to be found down the line; on inspection, we discovered that they had been stripped of anything portable, particularly of all brass work, but in some of them, the boiler tubes still remained. The Chief felt sure he could make good mines out of these. We obtained permission from the engineer in charge of the railway to take what tubes we could find; they had to be cut out by explosive, as those that screwed out had already been taken. The Chief put in a lot of work at this, and we acquired quite a useful stock of tubes. They were 1" in diameter and when cut I ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 27 rendered eminent service to the Imperial cause. The Double Dragon Jewelled Star (Shuang-lung Pao-hsing) was, he repeated, conferred on him in Kueichou during his first campaign in that province (1867-1869). He described it in his second note as consisting of a pure heavy gold [2oz or more] medal rather than a star, about one and a half inches in diameter, with a hole in the centre about half an inch in diameter, filled by a light sapphire globe revolving on a gold pin inserted through it. On one side were two dragons in high relief, on the other, four characters, also in high relief, viz. Ta-Ch'ing Feng-tseng meaning 'a title of honour bestowed by the Ch'ing dynasty'. The jewelled globe in the centre was intended to represent the light blue button and rank of colonel which Mesny then held. Had the medal been conferred by the Emperor, Mesny added, he would have worn it in Europe in 1878 but as it was the gift of a provincial viceroy he did not. Mesny also wrote that he preferred his ordinary Chinese rank and decorations, the Flowery Plume or single-eyed Peacock's Feather and, later, the ordinary order of Pa-t'u-lu with special designation of Ying yung, the Penetrating Knight, awarded to him by the Emperor. Mayers, again, in The Chinese Government wrote about this minor award; 'Isolated distinctions have indeed been conferred in China on foreigners of various nationalities, principally for services rendered in the command of drilled troops during the Taiping rebellion, and subsequently in the collection of the Customs revenue, which are known, with reference to the European term 'star', by the designation pao-hsing; but as these are bestowed, for the most part, by provincial authorities, and without the sanction of any established rule or recognised statutes, such as are required to constitute what is commonly known as an 'Order', the badges thus conferred can scarcely be regarded as having any real value as authentic marks of distinction.' Mesny was recommended for 4th Degree civil rank in 1866 which, if it had been awarded, would have entitled him to wear a mandarin square 'wild goose' breast badge. He recorded that the fourth degree civil rank had the right to wear and were distinguished by a dark blue button on their official cap. The embroidered robe, mang pao, had but eight dragons with five claws on each foot. The dress badge worn by civil officers and all ladies of their class and degree bore the semblance of a swan ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 56 together with his regular recommendations to the Chinese government, such as the one for the Chinese capital under a new regime to be moved from Peking but not to Nanking which would, he suggested, be the natural Chinese choice, but to Si-an, nearer central China and better able to be defended from invaders, were interspersed amongst other more mundane factual paragraphs. Very occasionally his stories verged on the salubrious, but were never risqué. He described Patriarch Lu Tsu, one of the Eight Immortals, as the author of an extraordinary work on the art of massage. By a certain process of massage, if systematically continued for some time, it was possible, so wrote Mesny, to deprive young men and women of their desire for sexual intercourse. They were practically rendered impotent and maintained so, without injury to their health or intellect. This was practised in Szechuan and Hupei provinces, especially in the large monasteries and nunneries of the Taoist and Buddhist priesthood, wherein celibacy was strictly enforced and easily maintained. Mesny was not above writing very puerile articles. One such in 1896 was a parody on the subject of the Shanghai Mixed Court in the British Concession, referred to by him as the 'tribunal of injustice', which is now practically impossible to understand without knowledge of the personalities of the day, whom Mesny disguised behind pseudonyms. It filled some five columns on four pages and may have amused some readers and rid Mesny of some of his spleen, but a century later it reads so poorly that it is embarrassing. Something at the Mixed Court had so upset Mesny that he must have rushed into print, writing in the vein of many similar letters to the press in England at that time signed by 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' etc. The contents of the Miscellany included serialised weekly parts running for a couple of months or so on substantial subjects such as: [1] The Taiping Rebellion or the Life and Adventures of a British Pioneer in China. This provided many pages of detailed and often petty experiences, such as his voyage up the Yangtze in 1868, where he repeats minor incidents often ad nauseam. Better descriptions of, for example, voyages up the Yangtze have been written by other westerners, such as Little, with excellent photographs, something Mesny appears not to have ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 76 The Chinese Government, Mayers does not refer to the Lien-chûn Ying. Mesny's ambiguous descriptions are confusing though it would seem that there were four separate bodies, the Banner Forces, the ill-trained Green Standard armies under provincial control, the Disciplined Battalions formed from the Green Standards forces, and the local defence train bands. The standing army was divided into two great classes, the Banner Forces, [Ch'i-ping], and the Militia Forces (Chih-ping]. The real Chinese National Army also called Ying-ping generally styled by foreigners as the Green Banner Force [Lu-ch'i Ying'] derived its title from the colour of their triangular standard, green satin with a red satin scalloped border and a golden dragon embroidered in the centre. Each province had a separate army corps under a C-in-C styled Ti-tu Chün-men [one such force was the Kueichou Provincial Force operating alongside the Szechuan Force in which Mesny served]. The forces consisted entirely of Chinese and were, in fact, a part of the local militia. Three centuries ago, wrote Mesny, it was the finest military force in the world: as it was in 1895, he added. The force was beneath criticism. The Disciplined Army battalions, the Lien-Chün Ying [troops trained by and after foreign advisers], was a new organisation instituted by Ts'en Yü-ying, formerly Governor of Yunnan, Kueichou, Fukien and subsequently Governor-General of the Yun-kuei provinces. It consisted of detachments from the various Territorial Green Regiments formed into battalions and bearing the same territorial name as the regiment from which they had been detached and of which these detachments actually formed or constituted a fighting or field battalion. The Disciplined Battalions were armed with obsolete rifles but far superior to anything opposed to them in Yunnan or Kueichou. These Disciplined Armies, often referred to as the Anhui and Hunan Armies, were originally privately raised and financed by Tseng Kuo-fan and Li Hung-chang to combat the Taiping rebel armies and were under the personal command of Han Chinese generals. Later, they employed westerners such as Mesny to assist China's programme of 'self-strengthening', primarily in the sphere of armaments. Although Mesny explained that there was a lack of uniformity in organisation throughout the whole of China he went into some detail, and added that each provincial army corps was considered a regular ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 86 NOTES In one of the notes written by Mesny in his Miscellany, [Volume 4 page 34], he listed the various classes and degrees of military rank in what he terms the Chinese Militia Service. A marshal or general was a T'i-tu Chün-men, a lieutenant-general was a Tsung-ping Kuan, a major-general a Fu-chiang; and a colonel a Ts'an-chiang. 2 Mesny gives various totals for the number of battalions serving with the Szechuan Force and in particular with the Ko-i Brigade, with a grand total of thirty-three battalions in the whole Force. These vary from eight to fifteen and a half operating with the Ko-i Brigade. Presumably the explanation lies in the arrival of new battalions to support the Force from time to time, though we are unable to be certain how many battalions were serving at any one particular moment. Mesny states at the beginning of Volume 1 of his Miscellanies that in 1861 General Ward had organised a disciplined force for the Chinese Government, at first locally styled "Ward's Force" and later as the 'Ever-victorious Legion'. 4 Mesny later keeps referring to thirty-five battalions. The I-ho-t'uan, the "Patriotic Train Band", was the official title of the Boxers, of ill-repute. 6 Mesny too had been a member of a train band, the volunteer force in Hankow between 1863-67, under arms several times during the approach of the Nien-fei rebels, when he wore the uniform of the Queen's Western Rifles [sic]. 7 Mesny goes into some detail providing recruitment policy, promotion schemes, ranks and titles, training and duties. Use of the term Disciplined Force was a contemporary fashion. It later became popular to refer to the Lien-chun Ying as Field Forces. 9 Most of the ranks of unit commanders given by Mesny do not tally with those given by Hucker in his Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China. 10 All commanders of divisions and corps had one or more battalions, regiments or brigades, serving a sort of staff brigade and forming the headquarters of that particular army corps. It was popularly designated the Body Guard Battalion or Regiment. Presumably Han Chinese rebels such as the Huang-hao or the Pai-hao, the remnants of the Taipings or even the Moslem rebels. 12 This is the same title as the Force previously operating under the command of General Gordon during the Taiping Rebellion. Either Mesny has incorrectly recalled the title of the new Force or the new Force continued to bear the former title. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 90 Three Bold Adventurers to fight alongside the Nien rebels. After being captured and carried to Chin-chiang in a cage, he was saved by two British artillery officers serving with the Taiping forces. The third time was in Hankow when Mesny took Damström along with him as a heavy-weight. The incident occurred after Mesny 'arrested' the dishonest Chinese merchant who had swindled Dupuis. [These incidents are probably not in temporal order]. Dupuis, Jean A French merchant born ca. 1828, who arrived and lived in Hankow in about 1860. He built up a thriving trade in armaments. Fluent in Chinese, he introduced Mesny to the Szechuanese officials whose invitation to serve with the Szechuan Force changed his life. Mesny remarked that Dupuis was a distinguished explorer and 'conqueror of Tonkin.' Gill, William J: born Bangalore 1843 Served in India after being commissioned into the Royal Engineers. Inherited a fortune and indulged his passion for exploration. One of his travels was through north Szechuan province, where first he travelled alone and then later with Mesny to Burma. He wrote The River of Golden Sand in 1880, and after several other travels, in Tripoli and Afghanistan, he was murdered by Bedouins in 1882. Giquel, Prosper M. [1835-1886] A French naval officer who arrived in China during the Second China War. Formerly Commissioner of Imperial Maritime Customs at Ningpo and Hankow. He assisted the Sino-French 'Ever Triumphant Army' that fought alongside Tso Tsung-t'ang's force in Chekiang province to recapture Hangchow and Ningpo, and later commanded the force in operations that led to the recapture of Hangchow, for which he received high rank and honour from the Ch'ing government. His principal achievement was the construction and administration of the Foochow Arsenal in 1866, and dockyard with its fleet of warships. He was the only foreigner besides Gordon to receive the honour of the Yellow Riding Jacket. Page 105 Page 106 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 91 Hart, Sir Robert [1835-1911] Known as the "I G” [Inspector-General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs]. His Bureau was the one financial stay and prop, the negotiable asset, the one honestly administered and creditable branch within the Imperial government. He left the British Consular Service in 1861 to join the Customs Service, appointed I G in 1863. Hill, David [1840-1896] Wesleyan missionary stationed in Hankow until 1867. Died of typhus in Hankow. Hill was not only a witness with Griffith John at the re-marriage of William Mesny's brother's widow to E.G. Wilson in October 1884; he was also guardian with William Mesny to John's children. Hung Hsiu-ch'uan ## [1813-1864] a Hakka Leader of the Taiping Rebellion: believed himself to be entrusted as the brother of Jesus to lead China and destroy the Manchu regime. [There is an inexplicable reference in Mesny's Miscellanies to a daughter 'of Hung?' wishing Mesny to return to Nanking to marry her] Gordon, C G [1833-1885] An English officer in the Royal Engineers who commanded the 'Ever-Victorious Army' against the Taiping rebels. He was appreciated by the Ch'ing Imperial government and was the first foreigner to be awarded the prestigious Yellow Riding Jacket. He later helped advise the Chinese during the Ili uprising in the early 1880s. He died in Khartoum during the Mahdi Uprising. John, Griffith [1831-1912] Missionary, LMS, Hankow 1861-1912. (Hill: q.v.) Prince Kung: also known as I-hsin [1832-1898] Sixth son of the Tao Kuang emperor and half brother of the Hsien Feng emperor. Probably one of the most important Ch'ing dynasty officials in foreign affairs. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 92 Li Hung-chang ## [1823-1901] He was one of the outstanding figures in modern Chinese history; a statesman and diplomat. He was Governor of Kiangsu province at the time of the Taiping Rebellion, and again was a major proponent in the self-strengthening movement in Imperial China during the latter years of the Ch'ing dynasty. He was first a soldier who came to notice during the suppression of the Taiping rebellion and later went on to help develop western economic methods to endeavour to lead China into a greater independence from western domination. He emerged from comparative obscurity commanding a few battalions of field troops with the title of Expectant Tao-t'ai of Fukien in 1859 serving under Tseng Kuo-fan (q.v.) and soon rose to fame. Liu Ming-ch'uan ## [1836-1896] 劉銘傳 Said to have been a gang leader who murdered a rich villager. When the Taiping rebels threatened his area, he organised a volunteer corps which became famous as a military leader. He was rewarded by being made an official of the first rank and Commander-in-Chief of Chihli at the early age of 29. Under the command of Tseng Kuo-fan, he defeated the Nien rebels. Some time later, in 1884, he was made Governor of Fukien during the France-Chinese war and ordered to garrison Formosa. Liu was defeated in several lesser battles but held Taipei and was probably saved by a French change of policy when they withdrew from Formosa [Taiwan]. Liu was made Governor of Taiwan in 1885 and relinquished his post in 1891, dying in retirement. Little, Robert and Archibald Robert [Bob] was a failed tea merchant who edited the North China Daily News for eighteen years. According to OM Green, he was the best-loved man ever known in the Settlement [Shanghai]. His brother, Archibald Little, who was not so loved according to others, has been credited with designing and taking the first steamship up the Gorges. He made the first attempt in 1888 but, when he got to I-chang, the officials raised a storm of protest and he had to desist; the Chinese Government afterwards buying up his ships. In 1899, he tried again, with a boat called the Pioneer, and got through from I-chang to Chungking in seven days compared with the three or even six weeks it took a junk to be hauled up by trackers on the bank. Archibald's wife, Alicia, founded one of... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF LAI CHUN BIN ANTHONY SIU KWOK-KIN 175 1 Lai Chun-bin (黎春彬), also known as Pun-shek, was a native of Cheung Ping Chau (長坪洲) of Tung Kwun county in the Kwangtung province. He was born in the 1830s. When he was young, he followed his brother Lai Chun-hai (黎春海) to fight against the Taiping rebels in Kiangsu and Chekiang; he was then promoted to be lieutenant, and was awarded a blue feather. In the 9th year of the reign of Hsien Feng (1859), by making a donation to the government, he was promoted to be a colonel, commanding the newly equipped Chit-shing Fleet. He joined forces with his brother in the attack of Kiang Pu. The Taiping rebels under Shuet Shaam-yuen (薛杉元), also known as Shuet Shing-leung (薛成龍), were defeated and then surrendered. In the 10th year of the reign of Hsien Feng (1860), they captured Po Hau (寶號) and Kau Fuk Chau (九福洲); Lai Chun-bin was awarded a peacock feather, and was promoted to be a brigadier. In the 11th year of the reign of Hsien Feng (1861), Shuet Shaam-yuen revolted. He retreated his force to Yeung Chau (洋洲). At the same time, So Sheung of Tan Yeung and the rebels of Si-ling-tong and Chin-kiang joined him. Lai Chun-bin and his brother followed To Hing-ah, the Kiang-ling General, and Wong Bun, the lieutenant-general of the Navy, and thrice released Chin-kiang from the rebels' seizure. For this, Lai Chun-bin was granted the title of major-general. In the 6th moon of the 1st year of the reign of Tung Chih (1862), Lai Chun-bin was promoted to be the major-general of the Kwangtung Navy. Two months later, his Chit-shing Fleet, consisting of only six ships, was dismissed; and he had remained at the post of the Chin-kian Naval Battalion. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 200 The influence of these western-educated Cantonese extended northward in the 1860s when western firms such as Jardine and Swire established their branch offices in the newly opened Treaty ports — Shanghai in 1850, Fuzhou in 1854 and Hankou in 1861. It was in these new Treaty ports that the Cantonese recognized that a new job market in politics was open to them. A "Western Affairs Movement” was initiated by several powerful provincial officials in China by the 1870s. Under the patronage of these officials, economic and legal reforms were introduced into China in the name of westernization. These officials who rose to power after suppressing the Taiping Rebellion without Beijing's support, developed huge business enterprises in the name of the "official supervision — merchant management” or “western-affairs movement". The Hong Kong compradores were mainly responsible for the collection of capital. Their credibility came not from the enterprises they set up, with or without the legal backing of a company law, but from their own reputation as well as the political patronage behind them. Amidst the rhetoric of these western affairs movements, “reform-minded" officials recruited their own advisors and set up their own personal governments, known as Mufu, literally, tent government, or what we now call think-tanks. Many Cantonese, with or without imperial degrees, were sought to fill these posts. The strength of this “Cantonese party” rested on their early access to things western — the "Cantonese faction established predominance in China's internal affairs and foreign relations... [their strength] lies in the monopoly in the matter of emigration overseas ... Before 1840, Canton was the only port open to foreign traders”. On how these think-tank members were appointed, westerners observed that: in the exercise of patronage... the principle is that which animated Washington in the selection of his first cabinet. Latterly the Canton party, ultra-progressive, has come to the front. In the 1870s amidst this rhetoric of westernization, and with the assistance of western-educated Cantonese, the "reform-minded" officials managed to bargain with Beijing and develop huge business enterprises under their patronage. In an environment where company law and stock markets were absent, these reform-minded officials started these modern enterprises under an arrangement known as the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 27 small group of soldiers there, so the risk of attack was then real. This was particularly so since pirates were a notorious risk in the waters between Kowloon City and the Lei Yue Mun Passage throughout the period from the middle eighteenth century to the late 1840s, and Nga Tsin Wai was both relatively wealthy, and only a few hundred yards from the coast. After 1841, when the Sub-Magistracy, and the local garrison command were moved back to Kowloon City, the number of soldiers posted near Nga Tsin Wai should have been enough to frighten off bandits in most circumstances. However, the League of Seven faced one major attack, in 1854. In 1854 a group of Taiping rebels approached Kowloon City25. The villagers of Nga Tsin Wai believe that the garrison at Kowloon City all fled, with the officials, and the traders in the Market. The League of Seven was thus left with no defence against the bandits except what they could muster themselves. The villagers of Nga Tsin Wai say that the elders of the League of Seven besought Tin Hau to help them with advice. They cast the divining-blocks (FF) - should they stay and fight, or flee? The Goddess told them to stay, and, in a spirit of devotion, they decided to follow her advice. The villagers of the undefended League of Seven villages fled inside the walls of Nga Tsin Wai, and the gate was heavily barred. Nga Tsin Wai had, as noted above, two iron cannon above the gate, and a brass jingal at each corner tower. These guns were all readied, and stocks of gunpowder gathered. When the Taiping bandits appeared before the village, the League villagers fought them off valiantly, and the bandits eventually left, leaving the League of Seven untouched. The villagers consider this success to be a miraculous intervention by the Goddess: great drops of sweat were seen on the Goddess' brow, showing what a huge effort she was making to throw back the bandits. The leader of the villagers in this defence was Shue-tong (A), from the tenth descent line of the clan. He was later commended by the Ch'ing Government, and granted the honour of a peacock's feather for his role in this defence. The official records generally agree with the villagers' memory of this event. There can be little doubt that the merchants in the totally undefended Market at Kowloon would have fled on the approach of the rebels, but it seems likely from the official records that the garrison did as well, since the rebels, led by Loh A-tim (E), were able to capture the Walled City, seemingly without any fighting, on the 26th day of the 7th Moon, 1854. Seven days later, a relieving force of soldiers under the command No ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 47 the highest placed individual named on the then Donation Tablet was again an Ng (the Managers of this restoration are all entered on the Donation Tablet in the names of their shops - the Market merchants were clearly the dominant force on this occasion). This man, Ng Man-yuen, XXX, cannot be identified from the Ng clan Tsuk Po, but he was probably a Nga Tsin Wai elder appearing in the Tsuk Po under a posthumous Tong name. Some six other Ngs either certainly or probably Nga Tsin Wai villagers can be identified on this 1822 Donation Tablet, as can three more on the 1859 Tablet. It should be remembered that the Nga Tsin Wai villagers did not normally worship at the Hau Wong Temple, but at their own Tin Hau Temple: the prominent position taken by Ng clan elders in these restorations must be seen as evidence of the clan recognising their local prominence and responding to it. Thus, Nga Tsin Wai was keenly aware of its role as one of the largest and most prosperous villages of the area, and its elders can be seen playing an important part in all the local charitable undertakings, a part entirely in accord with the village's wealth and standing and self-confidence. The village, again as a response to its relatively wealthy position, placed a high importance on education, as noted above. One village youth, Ng Tsz-mei, 7, 1881-1939, even managed to get into King's College, despite being so poor in his childhood that he had to work herding cattle. He studied engineering, and established with his brother the Tung Shing Company (with its premises on High Street, in Sai Ying Pun), which did a good deal of construction work for the Government. Ng Tsz-mei prospered greatly, and retired to the house he had built on the banks of the river at Sha Tin (he called the house Ng Yuen, "The Ng Garden", and it still survives). He left behind him a reputation for charity. He was a major supporter of the Red Cross in its medical work in the New Territories in the 1920s and 1930s, he gave coffins to the poor who could not otherwise afford a decent burial, and bought and distributed a great deal of medicine in a cholera outbreak. Not only did the Ng clan run a high-quality school, and interest themselves in academic education, but they were also anxious to ensure that the clan youth were trained in martial arts. The response of the villagers to the Taiping bandits makes it clear that there must have ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 216 forces of the British and French armies were departing Canton, so that whether these events had any correlation may be an additional issue. Nothing seems to have been consciously planned as an attack on the Governor-General, though he felt threatened by the riot (the events in Poklo being some 40 miles east of Canton). At the very least the vigilantes were acting "in flagrant violation of the stipulations of the [1860] Treaty," "stirring up the hatred of the people toward foreigners, and their dislike to Christianity." Whether they had other "ambitious ends" hidden under the banner and their rhetoric remained a serious, but moot, question. Following normal protocol for this kind of emergency, Chalmers acting on behalf of the London Missionary Society presented their complaints to the consul at Canton. The missionaries had been given no indication of the Governor-General's intentions, but Legge specifically adds that, if all else failed, they could refer the matter "to our Ambassador at Peking." His attitude toward the Qing bureaucracy was unqualified and negative: "The [Qing] Government is effete. The foundations are destroyed.” Although this might seem like an overstatement, the feelings reflected a fairly realistic evaluation of the disarray of an empire overcome by foreign powers in the capital and unable to handle the massive Taiping Rebellion which continued to defy imperial armies and ruled over much of the centre of the empire at the time. Other means for dealing with the crisis were also at hand. Daily prayer about the whole situation and its continuing problems became the self-imposed discipline by the Chinese Christians in Hong Kong, prompting Legge to compare this "painful and discouraging" situation in Poklo with the "primitive forthgoing of Christianity” where persecution was also a stimulus for expansion. It was part of the "cunning of history" that Legge's life and name for the next decade were identified with two major issues of the year of 1861: Poklo and his Chinese Classics.90 In missionary publications he became "Dr. Legge of Hong Kong and Poklo,” and in Hong Kong itself, the memories were more vivid and even more powerful in creating around him a kind of aura as a “folk hero" in the Carlylean sense of the term. At least one major event later in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 314 32T. Adkins joined the China Consular Service in 1854 and was the first Vice-Consul in Zhenjiang, being posted there in May of 1861, preceded by an assistant, Phillips, in February who had been sent to the ruined city to set up the Consulate in a ruined temple. Within a week of Adkins' arrival, he had moved the Consulate a mile down river to safer accommodation away from the Taiping fighting. He remained there, on an island, living a monotonous life alone as Phillips had been transferred elsewhere. He left Zhenjiang in poor health in February 1865 after serving there for three and a half years to return to the UK. 33 This was the Cantonese title by which the bandits were known. In Mandarin it would be Shiwu Zi† £ 'The Fifteen Sons'. * Parker E.H. John Chinaman and a few others: John Murray: London: 1902 35 Robert Anderson Mowatt, former consular official: acting Chief Justice and Acting Consul-General Shanghai, April - October 1891. * The Elder Brother Society (Gē Lǎo Huì): a secret society sworn to overthrow the Imperial government, the foreign Manchu Qing dynasty and replace it with a Chinese emperor. Mesny's son would have been about six at the time of this story, whilst his only other child, his daughter, had not yet been born. **Mason, C. W. (1924) Chinese Confessions. London: Grant Richards Ltd "Fairbank, Bruner and Matheson, ed (1975). The I.G. in Peking: Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press * Transit Passes are discussed in a separate chapter below. 4 According to Mason in his Confession, Croskey had told him that Croskey's father was an English baronet in business in Vancouver and his mother a Spanish Creole of San Diego in California. 42 Parker, E.H. (1903) China Past and Present: Chapman and Hall Ltd: London "Cook, Christopher (1982) The Lion and the Dragon - British Voices from the China Coast: London: Elm Tree Books. ================================================================================