RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author 62 11 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 "(Ching-Hai Fen-Chi) History of the Pirates who infested the China Sea, from 1807 to 1810"; "The Cathechism of the Shamans; or, The Laws and Regulations of The Priesthood of Buddha, in China" and "Vahram's Chronicle of The Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia, During The Time of The Crusades". C. F. Neumann was a German sinologue who visited Canton in 1830 to buy Chinese books for the Royal Library, Berlin. He had a letter of introduction to Morrison from Sir George Staunton and enjoyed much hospitality from the British residents during his visit. It is recorded in the Memoirs that he deplored the attacks that von Klaproth and Rémusat were making on Morrison. Sir George Staunton was a staunch friend to Morrison during long years in China and helped him in every way he could. Morrison had taken over the duties as Senior official translator to the East India Company (a post in which he had been assisting) when Staunton had to retire through ill-health in 1812. Two of Staunton's own contributions to translations from Chinese are in the Library, Narrative of the Chinese Embassy to the Khan of the Tourgouth Tartars, in the years 1712, 13, 14 & 15. By The Chinese Ambassador, and published By the Emperor's Authority, at Pekin, 1821 and Miscellaneous Notices Relating to China, and our Commercial Intercourse with that Country, printed for private circulation only in 1828. A letter from Staunton to Morrison telling him that he has sent him four copies of his work is printed in the Memoirs. There are two translations from the Chinese by another French sinologue, Stanilas Julien (1799-1873), Le Livre des Récompenses Et Des Peines, En Chinois Et En Français: Accompagné De Quatre Cents Legendes, Anecdotes Et Histoires, Qui Font Connaitre Les Doctrines, Les Croyances Et Les Moeurs De La Secte Des Tao-Ssé and Lao Tseu Tao Te King, Le Livre de la voie et la Vertu, Paris, 1842. One more French sinologue Jean Pierre Guillaume Pauthier (1801-1873), is represented by one of two books originally listed in the catalogue, Le Tao-Te-King ou Le Livre révéré de la Raison Suprême et de la Vertu, par Lao-Tseu, Paris, 1838, with the text in Latin and Chinese and with a French commentary. A noteworthy work by an earlier French sinologue, Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (1718-1793), (in the book printed Amyot) a Jesuit missionary at Peking is the Dictionnaire Tartare-Mantchou-Français, 1789. It is a two-volume work. Unfortunately, the first volume is missing. 11 靖海氛記 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 L 64 Sacred to the Memory of/ Robert Morrison, D.D.,/ The first Protestant Missionary to/ CHINA:/ where, after a service of Twenty-seven years,/ Cheerfully spent in extending the kingdom of the blessed Redeemer,/ during which period he compiled and published/ A DICTIONARY OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE;/ Founded the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca;/ And, for several years laboured alone on a Chinese version of THE HOLY SCRIPTURES,/ which he was spared to see completed, and widely circulated/ among those for whom it was destined. He sweetly slept in Jesus. He was born at Morpeth, January 5th, 1782;/ Was sent to China, by the London Missionary Society, in 1807;/ Was for twenty-five years Chinese interpreter, in the employ of the East India Company:/ And died at Canton, August 1st, 1834. A LIST OF BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE ARTICLE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER OF AUTHORS OR OCCASIONALLY, OF TRANSLATORS. AINSLIE, ROBERT, 1766-1838. [Reasons for the hope that is in us.] Edinburgh, printed by Ballantyne & Co. [c.1820.] Amiot, Jean JOSEPH MARIE, 1718-1793. Dictionnaire tartare-mantchou-français, composé d'après un dictionnaire mantchou-chinois, par M. Amyot, rédigé et publié avec des additions et l'alphabet de cette langue, par L. Langlès. 2v. Paris, imprimé par Fr. Ambr. Didot l'aîné, 1789. BAZIN, ANTOINE-PIERRE-Louis, 1799-1863. Le pi-pa-ki ou l'Histoire du luth, drame chinois de Kao-Tong-kia représenté à Péking en 1404 avec les changements de Mao-Tseu, traduit sur le texte original. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1841. BAZIN, ANTOINE-PIERRE-LOUIS, 1799-1863. Théâtre chinois ou choix de pièces de théâtre composées sous les empéreurs mongols traduites pour la première fois Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1838. BIOT, ÉDOUARD CONSTANT, 1803-1850. Dictionnaire des noms anciens et modernes des villes et arrondissements compris dans l'Empire Chinois indiquant les époques auxquelles leurs noms ont été changés. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1842. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 44 CURRENCY PROBLEMS 27 consideration. Though the official rate of exchange was issued by the Chamber of Commerce, considerable manipulation was possible on fluctuation, scale, and the grading of the cash. For instance, it was a foregone conclusion that the weight of the piece of silver you offered for exchange, would not agree on the shop scales with your own scales. For the law allowed the exchange shop to weight their scales up to 2% against the customer to defray "exchange expenses". Anything over 2% was an infraction of the law and punishable by such. Therefore the exchange transaction was always preceded by a long wrangle on the question of weight. A very good story is related by Abbé Huc in his "Travels in Tartary & Thibet" in which he tells of the "guileless" Mongol who visited a cash shop in the big city in order to exchange a large "shoe" of silver. The "shoe" had been doctored but this was not apparent to the smart young shop assistant who served him. The assistant took care to effect a considerable discrepancy in weight in favour of the shop. Finally the Mongol professed himself as satisfied but asked for a written statement of the weight and exchange rate so that he would be able to clear himself with his master. The assistant complied and the Tartar returned to his camp with his camels laden down with cash, the proceeds of the deal. When the accounts were made up at the end of the day the assistant presented his returns with considerable pride expecting fulsome commendation from his master for the amount he had been able to fleece the innocent Mongol. What was his surprise, then, to be met with a storm of abuse at his denseness in having failed to detect the adulteration. The following morning the assistant rode out to the Mongol camp and haled the offending Tartar to the court of the district magistrate where he was charged with having circulated spurious currency. When the shoe of silver was produced in court the wily Mongol asked that it might be weighed on the official scales. When this was done he produced the cash shop's own receipt and claimed that the shoe produced could not possibly be the one he had exchanged as the discrepancy in weight far exceeded the 2% allowed by law. The Magistrate was forced to dismiss the case and the exchange shop was only too glad to drop the matter before they attracted further unwelcome publicity. 44 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 94 R. G. IRWIN Ces trois historiens des MING sont particulièrement distingués à la Chine, & personne n'y révoque en doute les faits qu'ils rapportent; c'est sur leur réputation de fidélité & d'exactitude que le Père de Mailla les a adoptés de préférence aux autres. II a encore puisé dans un recueil de discours & instructions de HONG-VOU, fondateur des MING, que Chun-chi des TSING a fait traduire en tartare pour son usage particulier dans le gouvernement de son nouvel empire & pour l'instruction des grands de sa cour. Ce recueil est intitulé, Ming-kou-lou-hong-vou-han-y-oyong-tatsi-yen; c'est-à-dire, Documens importans de l'empereur HONG-VOU, de la dynastie des MING. These authors and their works may well have been renowned at the time of de Mailla, but two centuries later their very identification presents a problem, the results of which are herewith summarized: 1. Ku Ying-t'ai (T. Keng-yü),3 who is credited with the authorship of Ming-ch'ao chi-shih pen-moa by the editors of the Ssu-k'u ch'üan-shu tsung-mu¤$£$#!' was a native of Feng-jun, Pei-Chihli. After taking the chin-shih degree in 1647 he held a secretaryship in the ministry of Revenue, and later in the Chekiang provincial board of education. The history, a work in 80 chüan, each devoted to a separate topic, carries a preface dated 1658.6 On the whole, it is a well-ordered record of the Ming period. Factual errors, which occur, for example, in connection with Chu Yün-wen, who reigned as Emperor Hui (1399-1402), and again with Chang Ma, better known as Empress I-an (consort of Chu Yu-chiao, emperor of the T'ien-ch'i period, 1621-27), are accounted for by the lack of any such standard source as the official history at the time of composition. But the Ssu-k'u editors are of the opinion that the author has handled the available material well. Whether Ku should be given entire credit for its authorship is open to question, however, since it seems to have been based on Shih-kuei ts'ang-shu♬ §#*, for which he is reported to have paid Chang Tai of Shan-yin, Chekiang, some 500 pieces of gold. Fu I-li# » † (fl. 1862-74), in a colophon, discusses the problem at length, concluding that Chang Tai's material passed through the hands of Hsu Ch'ao-li, who re-wrote it. Ku, in turn, re-worked this, and cannot be accused of out and out plagiarism. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 96 R. G. IRWIN "publishers for advertisement of spurious writings." In any case this work was subsequently proscribed by the Ch'ien-lung emperor, exception being taken especially to the last four chuan, written by Wang Ju-nan (T. Chi-yung), a fellow townsman of Chung Hsing, whose preface is dated 1660. It furnishes a record of the final years of the Ming and the advent of the Ch'ing. The sympathy of the author for the former is manifest by the preservation of its chronology throughout, i.e. to 1645/6. Copies of this work are available in several important libraries, such as the National Central Library (Taichung), the Naikaku Bunko (Tokyo), the Library of Congress (Washington), and the University of Leiden. The copy at Columbia University lacks chuan 11 and 12, and that at the Library of Congress has had its objectionable features partially effaced, "but in no case sufficiently as to be illegible." 4. The modern romanization of "Ming-kouron-hong-vou-y-oyongo Taisi-yen” is “xoeng u i oyonggo tacixiyan," which proves to be a Manchu version of Hung-wu pao-hsün, the translation having been done by Kang Lin and others. It is in 6 chuan, and was published in 1646, the 3rd year of Shun-chih. de Mailla, who was in China from 1703 to 1748, relied on three sources, in addition to his personal observation, for the account of the early Ch'ing period which comprises Vol XI. The editor's introductory note (Vol. XI, page 2) refers to them as follows: On a déjà parlé, dans un note sur les MING, du Tong-kien-ming-ki-tsuen-tsai, publié la quinzième année de Kang-hi: le docteur Tchu-tsiny-yen, qui en est l'auteur, a conduit ce morceau d'histoire jusqu'en 1659, que les princes de la famille des MING perdirent tout-à-fait l'espérance de recouvrer le sceptre impériale. Le P. de Mailla a écrit d'après lui; & quand cette source a tari, il a en recours au Tsin-tching-ping-ting-sou-han-fang-lio, ou relation des guerres que l'empereur Gin-ti (Kang-hi) fit au Kaldan des Eleutes. Ces Mémoires, rédigés par quatre ministres d'état & par soixante-dix mandarins tant Chinois que Mantchéous, choisis dans le tribunal des Hanlin & parmi les docteurs du premier ordre, sont écrits dans les deux langues, Chinois & Tartare; ils contiennent le détail de l'expédition contre les Eleutes, & l'abrégé des autres événemens du règne de Kang-hi ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933 167 Huc, M.; The Chinese Empire: Forming a Sequel to the Work Entitled "Recollections of a Journey Through Tartary and Tibet". 2nd ed., 2 vols.; London, Longman, 1855. Huc, M.; L'Empire Chinois: Faisant Suite à L'Ouvrage Intitulé "Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet". 2nd ed., 2 vols.; Paris, Gaume Frères, 1855. Hummel, Arthur W.; "The Case Against Force in Chinese Philosophy" (Chinese Social and Political Science Review, vol. 9, 1925, p. 334-350). Jamieson, G.; Chinese Family and Commercial Law. Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1921. Kulp, Daniel H.; Country Life in South China: The Sociology of Familism. Vol. 1: Phenix Village, Kwantung, China. New York, Columbia, 1925. Lee, Mabel Ping-Hua; The Economic History of China, with Special Reference to Agriculture. New York, Columbia, 1921. Leong, Y.K., and Tao, L.K.; Village and Town Life in China. London, Allen and Unwin, 1915. Li, Chi; The Formation of the Chinese People; an Anthropological Inquiry. Cambridge, Harvard, 1928. Mallory, Walter H.; China: Land of Famine. New York, American Geographical Society, 1926. (American Geographical Society, Special Publication no. 6.) Malone, C.B., and Tayler, J.B.; The Study of Chinese Rural Economy. Peking, China International Famine Relief Commission, Series B, no. 10, 1924. (Reprinted from: Chinese Social and Political Science Review, vol. 7, no. 4, 1923, p. 88-101; and vol. 8, no. 1, 1924, p. 196-226.) Martin, W.A.P.; "The Worship of Ancestors a Plea for Toleration" (Records of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China. 1890. Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1890. p. 619-631). Maspero, Henri; La Chine Antique. Paris, Boccard, 1927. Maspero, Henri; "La Vie Privée en Chine à l'Epoque des Han." (Revue des Arts Asiatiques, vol. 7, 1931-1932, p. 185-201). Maybon, B.; Essai sur les Associations en Chine. Paris, Plon-Nourrit et Cie, 1925. Meadows, Thomas T.; Desultory Notes on the Government and People of China. London, Allen, 1847. Morse, Hosea B.; The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire. Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1908. Shryock, John; The Temples of Anking and Their Cults: a Study of Modern Chinese Religion. Paris, Geuthner, 1931. Smith, Arthur H.; Village Life in China; a Study in Sociology. New York, Revel, 1898. Staunton, George T. (translator); Ta Tsing Leu Lee, Being the Fundamental Laws, and a Selection from the Supplementary Statutes of the Penal Code of China. London, Cadell and Davies, 1810. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 200 Fairbank, John King. The United States and China, Cambridge (Mass) Harvard University Press, 1948 The Missionary Enterprise in China and America, Cambridge (Mass) Harvard University Press, 1974 Fairbank, John K, Katherine Frost Brunet, and Elizabeth MacLeod Matheson, eds, The IG in Peking. Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs 1868–1907, 2 vols, Cambridge (Mass) Harvard University Press, 1975 Fay, Peter Ward, The Opium War 1840-1842, Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press, 1975 Fenn, William P. The Effect of the Japanese Invasion on Higher Education in China, Kowloon China Institute of Pacific Relations, 1940 Christian Higher Education in Changing China 1880-1950, Grand Rapids (Mich), William B Eerdmans, 1976 Ferguson, Mary E. China Medical Board and Peking Union Medical College a Chronicle of Fruitful Collaboration, 1914-1951, New York China Medical Board of New York, 1970 Feuerwerker, Albert, The Foreign Establishment in China in the Early Twentieth Century. Ann Arbor University of Michigan press, 1947 -, 'The Foreign Presence in China', Cambridge History of China, vol 12, 128-207 Fishbourne, Edmund Gardiner 1811-1887 (Captain), Impressions of China, and the Present Revolution Its Progress and Prospects, London Seeley et al, 1855 Fisher, Arthur A'Court (Lt Col), Personal Narrative of Three Years' Service in China. London Richard Bentley, 1863. Fisher, Emil Sigmund, Travels in China 1894-1940. Tientsin Tientsin press, 1941 Fitch, Janet. Foreign Devil, Reminiscences of a China Missionary's Daughter 1909-1935, San Francisco Chinese Materials Center, 1981 Fleming, George. Travels on Horseback in Manchu Tartary, London Hurst and Blackett, 1863 Fleming, Peter, News From Tartary a Journey from Peking to Kashmir. 1936 (Los Angeles Reprint JP Tarcher, 1982) One's Company, New York Scribners 1934 - The Siege at Peking. London Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959 (Hong Kong Reprint Oxford University Press) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g Hatt. Virgie Chittenden, Western China, a Journey to Mount Omei, Boston Ticknor and Co, 1888 Hedin, Sven Anders, The Silk Road, English translation, New York Dutton, 1938 — My Life As An Explorer, London Cassell, 1926 Hillard, Mrs Barnet(Low), My Mother's Journal Hope 1829-1834, Boston Ginn & Libs. 1900 Manila, Macao and Cape of Good Holden, Reuben Andrus, Yale in China, the Mainland, 1901-1957, New Haven The Yale in China Association, 1964 Holm, Puts, My Nestorian Adventure in China, a Popular Account of the Holm-Nestorian Expedition to Sian-fu and as Result, New York and Chicago. Revell, 1923 Homer, Jay, Dawn Watch in China, Boston Houghton Mifflin, 1941 Hopkirk, Peter, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road. The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia, London John Murray, 1980 (Hong Kong Reprint Oxford University Press) Hosie, A. Three Years in Western China, London Philip, 1897 (Taipei Reprint Cheng-wen Publishing) —, On the Trail of the Opium Poppy, London, 1934 1 Hoy Ching-ming, Foreign Investment and Economic Development in China. 1840-1937 Cambridge (Mass). Harvard University Press, 1965 Hsu, Immanuel C.Y., The Rise of Modern China, New York: Oxford University Press. 1970 Huang, Ray, The Lung-ch'ing and Wan-li Reigns 1567-1620, Cambridge History of China, vol 7, 511-84 Hue, Ivan, Recollections of a Journey Through Tartary During The Years 1844 1845 and 1846, a condensed translation by Mrs Percy Simmett, London Longman, 1852 - A Journey Through the Chinese Empire, New York, 1855 1 Hughes, Mrs Thomas Francis, Among the Sons of Han Notes of Six Years Residence in Various Parts of China and Formosa, London. Innes & Brothers 1887 Hume Lotta Carswell, Drama at the Doctor's Gate the Study of Dr. Edward Hume of Yale-in-China, New Haven Yale Association, 1961 Hummel, Arthur W, ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ching Period. Washington DC Government Printing Office, 1944 (Taipei Reprint. Cheng-wen Publishing) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 209 Nevins, John Livingston (1829-1893), China and the Chinese, New York Harper, 1869 Northey, James E, People Go to Church the Story of Greater Lancashire, London Salvationist Publication and Supplies, 1973 Oliphant, Laurence (1829-1888), Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China and Japan in the Years 1857, 1858, 1859, New York Harper, 1860 Orleans, Pierre Joseph d' (1641-1698), History of the Two Tartar Conquerors of China. Including the two Journeys into Tartary of Father Ferdinand Verbiest, in the Suite of the Emperor Kang-Hi from the French, London printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1854 Osbeck, Per (1723-1805), A Voyage to China and the East Indies Together with an Account of Chinese Husbandry by John Reinhold Forster - Appendix of Faunula and Flora Sinensis, London B White, 1771 Owen, David Edward, British Opium Policy in China and India, London and Oxford Oxford University Press, 1934 Parker, Edward Harper, Chinese Customs, a Lecture, Shanghai Kelly and Walsh, 1899 Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons (1857) Session 2, No XLIII, papers relating to the opium trade in China 1842-56 (Opium Trade 1932, Correspondence Relating to China 1840, Additional Correspondence Relating to China 1840, Report from the Select Committee on the Trade with China 1840) Paterno, Roberto M, The Yangtze Valley anti-Missionary Riots of 1891, Harvard University PhD dissertation, 1967 Pelliot, Paul, Notes on Marco Polo, Paris Imprimerie Nationale, 1957-1963 1 Le voyage de MM Gabet et Huc a Lhasa (a reprint of 1850 article) in Toung Pao 24 133-78 (1926) Pennell, Wilfred V, A Lifetime with the Chinese, Hong Kong Privately printed, 1974 Percival, William Spencer, The Land of the Dragons, My Boating and Shooting Excursions to the Gorges of the Yangtze. London Hurst, 1889 Twenty Years in the Far East, Sketches, London Simpkin, 1905 Pereira, Thomas, The Treaties and the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk, 1689, the Diary of Thomas Pereira, SJ, Rome 1961 (Bibliotheca Instituti Historici S J vol 18) Playfair, G M H, The Cities and Towns of China, a Geographical Dictionary, Shanghai Kelly and Walsh, 2nd edition, 1910 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen publishing) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g Roc, A S, China As I Saw It, London Hutchinson, 1910 Romer, Charles Frederick, Foreign Investments in China, New York Macmillan, 1933 Roosevelt, Kermit, The Search of the Giant Panda, Journal of American Museum of Natural History XXX 33-16(1930) Ross, Edward Alsworth, The Changing Chinese, The Conflict of Oriental and Western Cultures in China (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing) Rowbottom, Arnold H, Mission and Mandarins, the Jesuits at the Court of China, Berkley, University of California Press, 1942 Roy, Jules, Journey Through China, London Faber, 1967 Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of Hong Kong Branch Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of North China Branch Quested, R. K.I., The Expansion of Russia in East Asia 1857-1860, Kuala Lumpur University of Malaya Press, 1968 Saeki, P Y, The Nestorian Monument and Relics in China, Tokyo. Toho Bunkwa Gakuin, 1937 Scidmore, Eliza Ruhamah, Westward to the Far East, a Guide to the Principal Cities of China and Japan, Montreal Canadian Pacific Railroad, 1894 Scott, Roderick, Fukien Christian University. Historical Sketch, New York United Board for Christian Colleges in China, 1954 Sebes, Joseph S.J., The Jesuits and the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689), Rome Institutum Historicum S.I., 1961 Sewell, William Gowan, The People of Wheelbarrow Lane Chengtu 1931-41, London Alfred and Unwin, 1972 Shaw, Robert, Visits to High Tartary, Yarkand and Kashgar, London John Murray, 1871 (Hong Kong Reprint. Oxford University Press) Shaw, Samuel (1754-1794), The Journals of Major Samuel Shaw, the First American Consul at Canton with Life of Author by Joseph Quincy, Boston W Crosby and H P Nichols, 1847 Silverstein, Joseph and Lynn, David Marshall and Jewish Emigration from China, China Quarterly (London 1979) Sino-Swedish Expedition 1927-1935, Reports from the Scientific Expedition to the North-Western Provinces of China Under the Leadership of Sven Hedin, with 54 folded maps, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 377 translated into Italian, then into French. It was the undated French version that we saw. It had been written, possibly in Macau, on the instructions of the Pope and described the persecution of priests. There was also a massive hand-written "Tartare-Mantchou French dictionary” 1st edition, Paris 1789, in 3 volumes. Another interesting book was "Dr Fryer's Travels: A new account of East India and Persia in eight letters, being nine years travels" by John Fryer MD (Cantab) and Fellow of the Royal Society, published in 1898. The more linguistically accomplished of our members interpreted these works for the benefit of all and there was much erudite discussion. This was the Society at its best and we could have spent many more hours, even days, delving into this fascinating collection. [Illustration Two]. On Saturday afternoon we drove out to Fa Hai (Sea of Dharma) Temple, in the distant western suburbs at the southern foot of Cuiwei Mountain. The temple was begun in 1439 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) with funds raised by Li Tong, a favourite eunuch of the Emperor. It was completed in 1443 and named by Emperor Ying Zhong. The most outstanding features are the frescoes, which completely fill the walls of the main, Mahavira, hall. These reflect a relatively pure Buddhism without Taoist depiction. They are of Buddhas, Avalokiteshvara (Kuan Yin) and the three other bodhisattvas, devas, wonderful animals, auspicious clouds, flowers and realistic landscapes. There are five Buddhas on either side with the 10 Buddhas together representing the full power of Buddhism, and possibly also the idea of east and west. The colours are subtle and not too faded (although the viewing of a colour-enhanced video prior to touring the Temple helped our appreciation). In the temple grounds are unusual pine trees with silver-white bark; ancient trees, said to resemble dragons, and a bell engraved in Chinese characters expressing Sanskrit teachings. The auspicious clouds inside were matched outside, for misty rain added to the atmosphere of the temple, set in the mountainside woods. On Easter Sunday we were up very early to go to the oldest Christian church in Beijing - the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception of Blessed Mary, on Qianmen Avenue. This is also known as Nan t'ang, or South Church. The Emperor bestowed on Matteo Ricci the lands and funds to build the church near the then Calendrical Bureau inside ================================================================================