Monday, December 22, 2008

The Bartow China Connection

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
Lloyd Harris, of First Presbyterian Church of Bartow, Florida (where I went to high school), is an historian on the side, and has found some fascinating connections with our little town of Bartow and the Orient, including some connections with the King of Siam (played by Yul Brynner in The King and I). Below are excerpts from Lloyd's e-mails. If you have more material or photos, please share it with us! Bill.

Click Here for 1st Presbyterian Church of Bartow Historical Page (great photos!)
Note: Photos on this page were provided to Mr. Lloyd Harris by Mr. Jan van der Wal (Almelo, Netherlands)

Letter from Lloyd Harris, 17 July 2003:
Hi Bill,
Cypress knee howdy's from Imperial Polk County to ya'll and all in the Great Land of
Chin.
Sue's web site is GREAT!!!!!!!

First Presbyterian Church of Bartow is building a web site
. Alex is putting it together since he's worked on one or two at school. I am working on the history and as I was going through records dating back to 1882 I found a Charlotte Ann Torrey, wife of Ambassador to King of Siam. She transferred her membership from Episcopal Church in Hong Kong back in 1885 to FPCB, He daughter Elena transferred membership from First Presbyterian Church of Bangkok at the same time. I did further research and found out that her husband was a J.W. Torrey founder of the American Trading Company along with a guy named Harris (no near relation as I can tell) in Hong Kong.

I know Hong Kong was British at the time. This Mrs. Torrey was Charlotte Ann nee Mills and Elena was their first child. Torrey later swings a deal with a Sultan in Borneo and succeeds in establishing American trading influence in the region and by 1864 is appointed Rajah in the area now known as Sabah. He
names his city on some River Elena (I don't have my notes nearby and am typing this from memory) He was actually a Vice Consul to the King of Siam (Same one as Yul Brynner , etc., etc., etc.) I believe his name was Mongkut. Torrey, his wife Charlotte and two children return to Massachusetts, USA in 1884 due to his being sick. Within a few months J.W. Torrey dies and the wife and children come to Bartow. They lived here for the rest of their lives and married into the Varn family.

Anyhow I thought it interesting to note a Bartow-China connection. I didn't check into what the American Trading Company dealt in as to goods or services and would presume unfortunately opium etc.. He also was editor of two different newspapers in Hong Kong from mid 1850s to 1860s. Just before Torrey died he received an appointment as an advisor to the King Chulalangkorn (boy king in "King & I" who instituted reforms. Torrey was never able to reply due to death.

From Lloyd Harris, 13 Sept. 2007:
...Our church has a Chinese connection from the 1860's-1880's. You can look up some of the story on line by searching out the American Trading Company in Hong Kong, William Torrey, Thomas Harris. One of the early members of First Presbyterian of Bartow was Charlotte Torrey the wife of William an ambassador to the king of Siam (the son of Yul Brynner in the movie Anna & the King) at the time Pres Grant visited the orient. William Torrey, Thomas Harris and a Chinese national chartered a trading company based in Hong Kong. Torrey was later granted a title equal to a king in his own right over the northern end of Borneo. They were apparently making money and at the same time advancing trade ventures for the US throughout the region. In the early 1880s Torrey returned to the US and died, his widow and daughter moved to Bartow around 1887 and were members of the church. Charlotte]s transfer was from a church in Hong Kong and was noted in the minutes of the church and in addition it was noted she was the wife of the former ambassador to Siam. Her granddaughter was Charlotte Varn and elderly lady who worked for the newspaper in Bartow. She wrote the Society column and lived on Broadway. I am writing this from memory and will send you details if your interested later.

It would be interesting to know what business they actually were involved in at Hong Kong. (tea, opium, etc..) In addition if the church Charlotte belonged to is still in existence.
www.amoymagic.com

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Caroline Adriance--1st RCA Female Missionary in Amoy

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

MISS CAROLINE ADRIANCE, 1861-'64.
(First single woman to serve directly under the RCA) (adapted from Pitcher Wilson Pitcher, "The Story of the Amoy Mission," 1893)

Two miles south of Auburn, N. Y., at the outlet of Owasco Lake, stands the Sand Beach Church (Owasco Outlet Church, Classis of Montgomery), Rev. Chas. Maar, pastor. Though perhaps unknown to many of the members of the Reformed churches, yet, on account of the number of missionaries, whose names are enrolled on her records, and who have gone out from her walls to publish the message of salvation unto the nations sitting in darkness, is worthy of better acquaintance and wider reputation.

It was in this church that Miss Adriance received both her spiritual and missionary education.
In 1851, Rev. S. R. Brown, D. D., who had been a foreign missionary at Canton, China, under the auspices of the Morrison Educational Society, and in charge of the Morrison Memorial School at Canton, became pastor of the Sand Beach Church.

It was under Dr. Brown's instruction, we may assume, that Miss Adriance received her missionary enthusiasm, and by whom was awakened the desire to go and tell the glad tidings off salvation to the souls perishing in the darkness of heathenism.

Dr. Brown's life was fired with the spirit, of missions, and the flame flowed with such brightness that it touched and fired the lives of members of his little flock at Owasco Outlet.

In 1852 a Ladies' Foreign Missionary Society was organized in this church, and Miss Adriance was one of the charter members—and a very active and consecrated one. It was in this school that she for seven years was, unconsciously, perchance, fitting herself both for the Macedonian call and for usefulness on the foreign field.

But a few years go by before that call comes to the pastor and to his child of faith alike. Japan had been opened and was ready for the Lord’s harvesters to enter and begin the seed-sowing in the fallow soil.

So when the call came in 1859 from the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed (Dutch} Church to Dr. Brown to go and represent that denomination in the "Land of the Rising Sun,''' he was ready to respond most heartily to the summons.

Others had at the same time received the summons, and with the same spirit of gladness obeyed the call. And thus it came to pass that it was that, instead of one or two, quite a company set out at that time from that church.

There were, besides Dr. and Mrs. Brown, Rev. Guido Verbeck, D. D., and wife, Miss Mary E. Kidder (now Mrs. E. R. Miller, of North Japan Mission), and Miss Adriance. Some of them were already, and others of them became, members of this church before their departure.

Dr. Verbeck was a graduate of the Auburn Theological Seminary, and while at Auburn became a member of this church.. Mrs. Verbeck was a member. Miss Kidder was teaching at Owasco Outlet in Dr. Brown's school, and she thus became attached to this church. Hence, it was that at that time when this little company set forth for the Orient on the ship Surprise, from New York, in the spring of 1859, they were all members of the Sand Beach Church, at Owasco Outlet, N. Y.
This little memoir has to do, however, with Miss Adriance.

Caroline Adriance, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Humphrey Adriance, was born in Scipio, N. Y., October 29th, 1824. When about four years old she met with the greatest loss which can come to a child in the death of her mother, so the care of her in childhood devolved upon others, who could not feel toward her as mother.
There was nothing remarkable about her childhood, and the only record of those early years is that she was obedient and affectionate, and grew up to be useful and helpful; yet, there is a beautiful history written in those lines that friends may well cherish.

At about the age of sixteen, during a revival that occurred in the neighborhood, she was one among others at that time to decide to accept Christ as her Saviour. Soon after she made a public profession of her faith by uniting with the sand Beach Church, where she remained a consistent member until she received the call to go unto the heathen.

Miss Adriance was a volunteer. The Board was not in the position to send her at that time, so she went out at her own expense. And not only that, but before she left New York she made her wiIl and bequeathed all her earthly possessions to the Board of Foreign Missions, which amounted, at the time of her decease, to $2,500 or more.

Miss Adriance's friends were very solicitous about her going alone, and on account thereof she received no small portion of discouragement from them to enter upon what seemed a most hazardous enterprise.

That she made no mistake, and that her life was full of joy in her work, we have ample testimony in a letter (April 8th, 1861,) of hers to a cousin now living in Poughkeepsie, N. Y. In the letter, she writes:

"I recollect well the anxiety you felt on my account because I was single and alone, with no protector, and I presume you have often wished to know how your poor lone cousin was getting along. Could you have been permitted to have looked into my home in Japan you would have seen me surrounded with blessings far more than you could have imagined. I will not attempt, nor do I wish to make you think that it was no trial to leave brothers, sisters and friends to whom I was strongly attached; the dear little church of which I was a member; my own native land, which none could love more than I. Can any one think that it was not a trial, and a severe one, too, to be separated from all these with little expectation of ever seeing them again? But, strong as are ties which are (for a season, at least,) severed, I do not regret the course I have taken, and I am not sorry I am in Japan. I trust I am where the Father would have me, and that He has something for me to do in this far off land."

Her chosen lot was with the laborers at Yokohama, Japan, but finding that she could not pursue the work she had set out to do among the women of Japan, withdrew from the field and joined the Mission at Amoy some time in 186l.

Here also she was only permitted to labor for three brief years, when death cut off her life of usefulness March 5th, 1864; yet, during that time, by her beautiful Christian character and unsparing devotion, she endeared herself to all with whom and for whom she had labored.

Loving hands laid her to rest in the little hallowed cemetery on Kolongsu, where others of the Amoy Mission lie sleeping their calm and peaceful slumbers.

Over her grave, in that far off land, stands a modest little monument, with best of inspirations that one might wish for at life’s close: "She hath done what she could."

www.amoymagic.com

Monday, December 8, 2008

Chinese Farmers (1911)

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

King, F. H. , D. Sc., “Farmers of Forty Centuries, or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan,” University of Wisconsin, 1911

Note: This is a fascinating book, though too and involved for the casual reader. I have extracted sections that I found interesting. Bill.

We are to consider some of the practices of a virile race of some five hundred millions of people who have an unimpaired inheritance moving with the momentum acquired through four thousand years; a people morally and intellectually strong, mechanically capable, who are awakening to a utilization of all the possibilities which science and invention during recent years have brought to western nations; and a people who have long dearly loved peace but who can and will fight in self defense if compelled to do so.

We had long desired to stand face to face with Chinese and Japanese farmers; to walk through their fields and to learn by seeing some of their methods, appliances and practices which centuries of stress and experience have led these oldest farmers in the world to adopt. We desired to learn how it is possible, after twenty and perhaps thirty or even forty centuries, for their soils to be made to produce sufficiently for the maintenance of such dense populations as are living now in these three countries. We have now had this opportunity and almost every day we were instructed, surprised and amazed at the conditions and practices which confronted us whichever way we turned; instructed in the ways and extent to which these nations for centuries have been and are conserving and utilizing their natural resources, surprised at the magnitude of the returns they are getting from their fields, and amazed at the amount of efficient human labor cheerfully given for a daily wage of five cents and their food, or for fifteen cents, United States currency, without food.

WATER
To anyone who studies the agricultural methods of the Far East in the field it is evident that these people, centuries ago, came to appreciate the value of water in crop production as no other nations have. They have adapted conditions to crops and crops to conditions until with rice they have a cereal which permits the most intense fertilization and at the same time the ensuring of maximum yields against both drought and flood. With the practice of western nations in all humid climates, no matter how completely and highly we fertilize, in more years than not yields are reduced by a deficiency or an excess of water.

It is difficult to convey, by word or map, an adequate conception of the magnitude of the systems of canalization which contribute primarily to rice culture. A conservative estimate would place the miles of canals in China at fully 200,000 and there are probably more miles of canal in China, Korea and Japan than there are miles of railroad in the United States. China alone has as many acres in rice each year as the United States has in wheat and her annual product is more than double and probably threefold our annual wheat crop, and yet the whole of the rice area produces at least one and sometimes two other crops each year.

…Thus we find in the Far East…that these people have with rare wisdom combined both irrigation and dry farming methods to an extent and with an intensity far beyond anything our people have ever dreamed, in order that they might maintain their dense populations.

…Almost every foot of land is made to contribute material for food, fuel or fabric. Everything which can be made edible serves as food for man or domestic animals. Whatever cannot be eaten or worn is used for fuel. The wastes of the body, of fuel and of fabric worn beyond other use are taken back to the field…

Everywhere we went in China, about all of the very old and large cities, the proportion of grave land to cultivated fields is very large. In the vicinity of Canton Christian college, on Honam island, more than fifty per cent of the land was given over to graves and in many places they were so close that one could step from one to another.


VI
SOME CUSTOMS OF THE COMMON PEOPLE

Everywhere we went in China, the laboring people appeared generally happy and contented if they have something to do, and showed clearly that they were well nourished.
The industrial classes are thoroughly organized, having had their guilds or labor unions for centuries and it is not at all uncommon for a laborer who is known to have violated the rules of his guild to be summarily dealt with or even to disappear without questions being asked. In going among the people, away from the lines of tourist travel, one gets the impression that everybody is busy or is in the harness ready to be busy.

BEGGARS
Tramps of our hobo type have few opportunities here and we doubt if one exists in either of these countries. There are people physically disabled who are asking alms and there are organized charities to help them, but in proportion to the total population these appear to be fewer than in America or Europe. The gathering of unfortunates and habitual beggars about public places frequented by people of leisure and means naturally leads tourists to a wrong judgment regarding the extent of these social conditions. Nowhere among these densely crowded people, either Chinese, Japanese or Korean, did we see one intoxicated, but among Americans and Europeans many instances were observed. All classes and both sexes use tobacco and the British-American Tobacco Company does a business in China amounting to millions of dollars annually.

VII
THE FUEL PROBLEM, BUILDING AND TEXTILE MATERIALS
With forty centuries of such inheritance coursing in the veins of four hundred millions of people, in a country possessed of such marvelous wealth of coal and water power, of forest and of agricultural possibilities, there should be a future speedily blossoming and ripening into all that is highest and best for such a nation. If they will retain their economies and their industry and use their energies to develop, direct and utilize the power in their streams and in their coal fields along the lines which science has now made possible to them, at the same time walking in paths of peace and virtue, there is little worth while which may not come to such a people.

… This marvelous heritage of economy, industry and thrift, bred of the stress of centuries, must not be permitted to lose virility through contact with western wasteful practices, now exalted to seeming virtues through the dazzling brilliancy of mechanical achievements. More and more must labor be dignified in all homes alike, and economy, industry and thrift become inherited impulses compelling and satisfying.


VIII TRAMPS AFIELD
Another equally, or even more, laborious practice followed by the Chinese farmers in this province is the periodic exchange of soil between mulberry orchards and the rice fields, their experience being that soil long used in the mulberry orchards improves the rice, while soil from the rice fields is very helpful when applied to the mulberry orchards. We saw many instances, when traveling by boat-train between Shanghai, Kashing and Hangchow, of soil being carried from rice fields and either stacked on the banks or dropped into the canal. Such soil was oftenest taken from narrow trenches leading through the fields, laying them off in beds. It is our judgment that the soil thrown into the canals undergoes important changes, perhaps through the absorption of soluble plant food substances such as lime, phosphoric acid and potash withdrawn from the water, or through some growth or fermentation, which, in the judgment of the farmer, makes the large labor involved in this procedure worth while. The stacking of soil along the banks was probably in preparation for its removal by boat to some of the mulberry orchards.

IX
THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE

OPIUM and TOBACCO
Chinese history states that the plow was invented by Shennung, who lived 2737-2697 B. C. and "taught the art of agriculture and the medical use of herbs". He is honored as the "God of Agriculture and Medicine."

Opium is no longer used openly in China, unless it be permitted to some well along in years with the habit confirmed, and the growing of the poppy is prohibited. The penalties for violating the law are heavy and enforcement is said to be rigid and effective. For the first violation a fine is imposed. If convicted of a second violation the fine is heavier with imprisonment added to help the victim acquire self control, and a third conviction may bring the death penalty. The eradication of the opium scourge must prove a great blessing to China. But with the passing of this most
formidable evil, for whose infliction upon China England was largely responsible, it is a great misfortune that through the pitiless efforts of the British-American Tobacco Company her people are rapidly becoming addicted to the western tobacco habit, selfish beyond excuse, filthy beyond measure, and unsanitary in its polluting and oxygen destroying effect upon the air all are compelled to breathe. It has already become a greater and more inexcusable burden upon mankind than opium ever was.

China, with her already overtaxed fields, can ill afford to give over an acre to the cultivation of this crop and she should prohibit the growing of tobacco as she has that of the poppy. Let her take the wise step now when she readily may, for all civilized nations will ultimately be compelled to adopt such a measure. The United States in 1902 had more than a million acres growing tobacco, and harvested 821,000,000 pounds of leaf. This leaf depleted those soils to the extent of more than twenty eight million pounds of nitrogen, twenty-nine million pounds of potassium and nearly two and a half million pounds of phosphorus, all so irrecoverably lost that even China, with her remarkable skill in saving and her infinite patience with little things, could not recover them for her soils. On a like area of field might as readily be grown twenty million bushels of wheat and if the twelve hundred million pounds of grain were all exported it would deplete the soil less than the tobacco crop in everything but phosphorus, and in this about the same. Used at home, China would return it all to one or another field. The home consumption of tobacco in the United States averaged seven pounds per capita in 1902. A like consumption for China's four hundred millions would call for 2800 million pounds of leaf. If she grew it on her fields two million acres would not suffice. Her soils would be proportionately depleted and she would be short forty million bushels of wheat; but if China continues to import her tobacco the vast sum expended can neither fertilize her fields nor feed, clothe or educate her people, yet a like sum expended in the importation of wheat would feed her hungry and enrich her soils.

In the matter of conservation of national resources here is one of the greatest opportunities open to all civilized nations. What might not be done in the United States with a fund of $57,000,000 annually, the market price of the raw tobacco leaf, and the land, the labor and the capital expended in getting the product to the men who puff, breathe and perspire the noxious product into the air everyone must breathe, and who bespatter the streets, sidewalks, the floor of every public place and conveyance, and befoul the million spittoons, smoking rooms and smoking cars, all unnecessary and should be uncalled for, but whose installation and upkeep the non-user as well as the user is forced to pay, and this in a country of, for and by the people. This costly, filthy, selfish tobacco habit should be outgrown. Let it begin in every new home, where the mother helps the father in refusing to set the example, and let its indulgence be absolutely prohibited to everyone while in public school and to all in educational institutions.

XI
ORIENTALS CROWD BOTH TIME AND SPACE
Time is a function of every life process, as it is of every physical, chemical and mental reaction, and the husbandman is compelled to shape his operations so as to conform with the time requirements of his crops. The oriental farmer is a time economizer beyond any other. He utilizes the first and last minute and all that are between. The foreigner accuses the Chinaman of being always "long on time", never in a fret, never in a hurry. And why should he be when he leads time by the forelock, and uses all there is?

XII
RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT
If the United States is to endure; if we shall project our history even through four or five thousand years… and if that history shall be written in continuous peace, free from periods of wide-spread famine or pestilence, this nation must orient itself; it must square its practices with a conservation of resources which can make endurance possible…

XIII SILK CULTURE
Another of the great and in some ways one of the most remarkable industries of the Orient is that of silk production, and its manufacture into the most exquisite and beautiful fabrics in the world. Remarkable for its magnitude; for having had its birthplace apparently in oldest China, at least 2600 years B. C.; for having been founded on the domestication of a wild insect of the woods; and for having lived through more than four thousand years, expanding until a $1,000,000 cargo of the product has been laid down on our western coast at one time and rushed by special fast express to New York City for the Christmas trade.

According to the observations of Count Dandola, the worms which contribute to this vast earning are so small that some 700,000 of them weigh at hatching only one pound, but they grow very rapidly, shed their skins four times, weighing 15 pounds at the time of the first moult, 94 pounds at the second, 400 pounds at the third, 1628 pounds at the fourth moulting and when mature have come to weigh nearly five tons--9500 pounds. But in making this growth during about thirty-six days, according to Paton, the 700,000 worms have eaten 105 pounds by the time of the first moult; 315 pounds by the second; 1050 pounds by the third; 3150 pounds by the fourth, and in the final period, before spinning, 19,215 pounds, thus consuming in all nearly twelve tons of mulberry leaves in producing nearly five tons of live weight, or at the rate of two and a half pounds of green leaf to one pound of growth.

According to Paton, the cocoons from the 700,000 worms would weigh between 1400 and 2100 pounds and these, according to the observations of Hosie in the province of Szechwan, would yield about one-twelfth their weight of raw silk. On this basis the one pound of worms hatched from the eggs would yield between 116 and 175 pounds of raw silk, worth, at the Japanese export price for 1907, between $550 and $832, and 164 pounds of green mulberry leaves would be required to produce a pound of silk.

A Chinese banker in Chekiang province, with whom we talked, stated that the young worms which would hatch from the eggs spread on a sheet of paper twelve by eighteen inches would consume, in coming to maturity, 2660 pounds of mulberry leaves and would spin 21.6 pounds of silk. This is at the rate of 123 pounds of leaves to one pound of silk. The Japanese crop for 1907, 26,072,000 pounds, produced on 957,560 acres, is a mean yield of 27.23 pounds of raw silk per acre of mulberries, and this would require a mean yield of 4465 pounds of green mulberry leaves per acre, at the rate of 164 pounds per pound of silk.

XIV THE TEA INDUSTRY

The cultivation of tea in China and Japan is another of the great industries of these nations, taking rank with that of sericulture, if not above it, in the important part it plays in the welfare of the people.
www.amoymagic.com

Sunday, December 7, 2008

My Library

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

Some have asked what books I use. Below is a partial list of my library (over recent years, I've collected hundreds of books, mainly from online bookstores through www.abebooks.com or www.addall.com). I'll complete this short bibliography when I have time.

Abend, Hallett, “Treaty Ports,” Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc, New York, 1944

Allom, Thomas and Wright, the Reverend G.N., “China in a Series of Views, Displaying the Scenery, Architecture, and Social Habits of that Ancient Empire,” Fisher, London and Paris, 1843.

“Greetings from Amoy; Amoy Mission, 1842-1907,” Pamphlet by Reformed Church of America.

“Asia Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies,”; Supplementary Intelligence, Vol. XXVI, July to December 1828, London, 1828

Ball, Benjamin Lincoln, “Rambles in Eastern Asia: Including China and Manila, During Several Years Residence,” James French and Company, Boston, 1856

Band, Edward, “Working His Purpose Out: The History of the English Presbyterian Mission,” Presbyterian Church of England, London, 1948

Barbour, George F., “China and the Missions at Amoy, with Notice of the Opium Trade,” William P. Kennedy, Edinburgh, 1855.

Bax, Captain B.W., R.N, “The Eastern Seas; Being a Narrative of the ‘Dwarf’ in China, Japan, and Formosa,” John Murray, London, 1875

Beach, Harlan P., “Dawn on the Hills of T’ang, or, Missions in China,” Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions,” New York, 1905

Bedloe, Edward, M.D., U.S. Consul, reporting in “Weekly Abstract of Sanitary Reports,” Supervising Surgeon-General M.H,S., Government Printing Office, Washington, 1893

Bedloe, Edward, M.D., U.S. Consul in Amoy, :”Public Health Reports, Vol. 2, January 1, 1881

Beltman, Henry, “90 Years with Uncle Henry,” Robert Schuller Ministries, Garden Grove, California, 1984

Bishop, Mrs. J.F., “Chinese Pictures; Notes on Photographs Made in China,” Cassell and Company Limited, London, 1900

Blakeslee, George H., Editor, “China and the Far East: Clark University Lectures,” Thomay Y. Crowell and Co., New York, 1910

Bonar, Rev. Andrew A., “MEMOIR of the Life and Brief Ministry of REV. DAVID SANDEMAN,” JAMES NISBET & Co., LONDON, 1861.

Breck, Samuel, “Descendants of Aaron and Mary (Church) Magoun, of Pembroke, Massachusetts, Third Edition,” Washington, D.C., 1891 p. 21

Breuer, Hans, “Columbus was Chinese, Discoveries and Inventions of the Far East,” Herder and Herder, New York, 1972

Brown, C. Campbell, “China in Legend and Story,” Fleming H. Revell Company, NY, 1907

Caldwell, George W., M.D., “Oriental Rambles,” Published by G.W. Caldwell, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1906.

Clarke, Basil, “Chinese Science and the West,” Nile & MacKenzie, Ltd. London, 1980.

Close, Upton, “In the Land of the Laughing Buddha; the Adventures of an American Barbarian in China,” G.P. Putnam and Sons, New York & London, 1924.

Coffin, George, A Pioneer Voyage to California and Round the World, 1849 to 1852” Gorham B. Coffin, Illinois, June, 1908.

Cope, Captain, "A New History of the East-Indies: With Brief Observations on the Religion, Customs, Manners and Trade of the Inhabitants...", M. Cooper, London, 1754.

Corwin, Edward Tanjore, D.D. “A Manual of the Reformed Church in America (Formerly Reformed Dutch Church), 1628-1902, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1902.

Cressy-Marcks, Violet, “Journey into China,” E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1942

Gordon-Cumming, Miss, “The Explosion at Amoy,” St. James’ Gazette, in Littell’s Living Age, Feb. 4, 1888, pp. 314-316

Curtis, Benjamin Robbins, “Dottings Round the Circle,” James R. Osgood and Company, Boston, 1876

Darley, Mary, “Cameos of a Chinese City,” [Jian ‘Ou] Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, Missionary Society, 27 Chancery Lane, London, 1917

Darley, Mary, “The Light of the Morning,” Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, Missionary Society, 27 Chancery Lane, London, 1903

Davis, Rev. J.A., “The Young Mandarin; a Story of Chinese Life” Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society, Boston and Chicago, 1896

Dean, William, “The China Mission: Embracing a History of the Various Missions of All Denominations Among the Chinese, with Biographical Sketches of Deceased Missionaries,” Sheldon & Co., New York, 1859

De Jong, Gerald F., “The Reformed Church in China 1842-1951,” Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Michigan, 1992

Denby, Hon. Charles, LL.D., [Thirteen Years United States Minister to China], “China and Her People: Being the Observations, Reminiscences, and Conclusions of an American Diplomat, Vol. II, L.C. Page and Company, Boston, 1906

Dennis, Rev. James S., “Christian Missions and Social Progress: A Sociological Study of Foreign Missions,” Vol. III, Fleming H. Revell Company, NY, 1906

Dobell, Peter, “Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia, with a Narrative of a Residence in China, Vol. II, London, 1830. Dobell: Counselor of the Court of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia” pp.309, 310

Dukes, Edwin Joshua, “Everyday Life in China; or, Scenes Along River and Road in Fuh-Kien,” London Missionary Society’s Edition, The Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster Row; 65, St. Paul’s Churchyard; and 164, Piccadilly, 1885

Duryea, Rev. William Rankin Duryea, D.D., “The Amoy Mission,” Excerpted from “A Manual of the Missions of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America,” by Sangster, Mrs. Margaret E., Ed.; Board of Publication of the Reformed Church in America, New York, 1877, pp.170-209

Edkins, Joseph, D.D., “Introduction to the Study of the Chinese Characters,” Trubner and Company, London, 1875

Edkins, Jane Rowbotham Stobbs, “Chinese Scenes and People: With Notices of Christian Missions and Missionary Life in a Series of Letters from Various Parts of China,” James Nisbit and Company, London, 1863

English Presbyterian Messenger, Vol 1. 1st May 1845 to 31st December 1847, Hamilton, Adams, and Co., Paternoster-Row, London, 1847

Eve, Paul F. M.D. and Garvin, I.P. M.D. “The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal Vol. 1 - 1845 New Series,” P.C. Guieu Publisher, Augusta, Jan. 1845

Fisher, Lena Leonard, “The River Dragon’s Bride,” Abingdon Press, New York, 1922

Ford, John D., “An American Cruiser in the East, Travels and Studies in the Far East,” 2nd Edition, With an Account of the Battle of Manila, April 30, 1898, A.S. Barnes and Company, New York, 1898 Note: Ford was First Engineer of the Pacific Station, United States Navy.

Foster, John W., “American Diplomacy in the Orient,” 1903.

Franck, Harry A., “Roving Through Southern China,” The Century Co., New York, 1925.

Fullerton, W.Y., andWilson, C.E., “New China—A Story of Modern Travel,” Morgan and Scott, Ltd., (Office of the Christian), 12 Paternoster Buildings, London, 1910.

Gamewell, Mary Ninde, “New Life Currents in China,” Interchurch Press, New York, 1919

Gaunt, Rev. L.H., Ed., “The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, Vol. VIII – No. 85 New Series,” London, 1899

Giles, Herbert Allen, L.L.D., “China and the Chinese,” Columbia University Press, New York, 1902

Gillespie, Rev. William, “The Land of Sinim, or, China and Chinese Missions,” Myles Macphail, London, 1854 [Gillespie was “For seven years agent of the London Missionary Society at Hong-Kong and Canton, and now minister of the United Presbyterian Church, Shiels, Aberdeen.”]

Graves, Rev. Rosewell Hobart, “Forty Years in China,” R.H. Woodward Company, Baltimore, 1895.

Griffis, William Elliot Griffis, D.D., L.H.D., “Hepburn of Japan, and His Wife and Helpmates; a Life Story of Toil for Christ,” Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1913

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Gutzlaff, Charles, Rev. by Rev. Andrew Reed, D.D., “China Opened; or, A Display of the Topography, History, Customs, Manners, Arts, Manufactures, Commerce, Literature, Religion, Jurisprudence, etc. of the Chinese Empire,” Vol. II Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1838.

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Johnston, Meta and Lena, Jin Ko-Niu—A Brief Sketch of the Life of Jessie M. Johnston For Eighteen Years W.M.A. Missionary in Amoy, China, T. French Downie 21 Warwick Lane, London, E.C. 1907

Joseland, Rev. Frank P. “Our Missionary Districts, Amoy and Chiang-Chiu”, in Gaunt, 1899.

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King, F. H. , D. Sc., “Farmers of Forty Centuries, or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan,” University of Wisconsin, 1911

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Knollys, Major Henry, “English Life in China,” Smith, Elder & Company, London, 1885

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Lawrence, Una Roberts, “Lottie Moon,” Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville, 1927

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Little, Archibald, Mrs. “Intimate China: The Chinese as I Have Seen Them,” Hutchinson & Co., London, 1899

Lockhart, William, The Medical Missionary in China: A Narrative of Twenty Years' Experience, Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, Spottiswoode and Company, London, 1861

Lowrie, Rev. Walter M., “Memoirs,” Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, New York, 1850.

Lu, C.C., of Ningpo, China “China and England: a Lecture Delivered at Sheffield University,” Sheffield Independent Press, Sheffield, U.K., 1904

MacCauley, Hastings, Kathay, A Cruise in the China Seas, 1852, p.142

MacCauley, Hastings, Life Among the Chinese, Carlton and Porter, New York, 1861.

Macgowan, John, “How England Saved China,” T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1913.

Macgowan, John, “Beside the Bamboo,” London Missionary Society, 16 New Bridge Street, London, 1914.

Macgowan, Rev. John, “Christ or Confucius, Which?, or, The Story of the Amoy Mission,” London Missionary Society, 14 Blomfield Street, E.C.; John Snow & Co., 2 Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, E.C. 1895

Macgowan, Rev. John, “Lights and Shadows of Chinese Life,” North China Daily News & Herald Ltd., Shanghai, 1909

Macgowan, Rev. John, “Men and Manners of Modern China,” T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1912. use, 43 Gerrard Street, W. 1907

Macgowan, Rev. John, “Pictures of Southern China,” The Religious Tract Society, London, 1897

Macgowan, Rev. John, “Sidelights on Chinese Life,” Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Limited, Dryden H

Macguire, Theophane, C.P., “Hunan Harvest, Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1946.

Maclay, Rev. R. S., “Life Among the Chinese: With Characteristic Sketches and incidents of Missionary Operations and Prospects in China,” Carlton & Porter, New York, 1861.

Manson-Bahr, Sir Philip, “Patrick Manson, The Father of Tropical Medicine,” Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., Edinburgh, 1962

Martin, Robert Montgomery, China; political, commercial, and social; in an official report to her Majesty's Government, Vol. II, James Madden, London, 1847

Matheson, Donald, Esq., “Narrative of the Mission to China of the English Presbyterian Church, with Remarks on the Social Life and Religious Ideas of the Chinese, by the Rev. James MacGowan (London Missionary Society of Amoy), and Notes on Climate, Health and Outfit, By John Carnegie, Esq., M.D. of Amoy”, James Nisbet and Company, London, 1866.

Matheson, Mrs., Ed., Memorials of Hugh M. Matheson [1921-1898] Edited by his wife with a prefatory note by the Rev. J. Oswald Dykes, M.A., D.D. Principal of Westminster College, Cambridge. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1899

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“Messenger and Missionary Record of the Presbyterian Church in England,” London, 1875

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Michie, Alexander, “The Englishman in China During the Victorian Period, as Illustrated by the Career of Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., D.C.L., Many Years Consul and Minister in China and Japan, Vol. I”, William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1900

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Smith, George, A Narrative of an Exploratory Visit to Each of the Consular Cities of China, on behalf of the Church Missionary Society, in the Years 1844, 1845, 1846,” Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York, 1857.

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Related Books

Henslow, Geoffrey T., “Ye Sundial Booke”, W. and G. Foyle, London, 1935 (1st edition 1914). The 1914 edition is downloadable from Internet Archives.

Hyatt, Alfred H, “A Book of Sundial Mottoes,” Philip Wellby, London,1903

Leadbetter, Charles, "Mechanick Dialling: or, the New Art of Shadows : freed from the many Obscurities, Superfluities and Errors of Former Writers upon this Subject . . , To which are added a choice Collection of Mottos in Latin and English . . . “At the Black Swan,London,1737
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Fire Jumping in Xiamen China

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

Otte letter from China, written on Kulangsu in October 1901, published in Hope College Anchor, December 1901.

“I have long thought of writing you some description of a very peculiar sport I witnessed not long ago. Apropos of the many college games entered into nowadays is one Chinese sport I do not think Hope College venturesome ones would care to try , nor the most liberal among the faculty to encourage. I refer to jumping over the fire.

On the fifteenth day of the first Chinese month (generally about the middle of February) the “Feast of Lanterns” is observed. On the evening of this day you may see all over the city small bonfires, bright, cracking, and evidently pretty hot. There are little groups of men and boys standing near. Our party went a little to one side to watch with interest. After their prolonged staring at us, one after another gained courage, and then made a dash, a spring through the air, and safely landed on the other side, would come down a living figure, wiping the perspiration and dust from off his heated face. This is kept up for several hours, the waning fire being constantly replenished. Strange to say, but few accidents occur, and long after midnight you may hear the sounds of revelry

The more dignified among the Chinese worthies indulge in other sports, such as archery. How old-fashioned that sounds to us, and yet it is still practiced, and prize examinations are held every year at the famous annual examination periods.

There is, however, much for the Chinese to learn in the way of genuine beneficial bodily exercise, and his phlegmatic temperament might be improved were he stimulated more by some of our Western ideas…

But the longer I live in China the more I am impressed with the fact that the Chinese are not only a peculiar, but an interesting people, if viewed from the right standpoint. And I believe I am about as interested in their great antiquity as in anything else.






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Tobacco--China's First Opium

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
Today the headline was that Barack Obama lied about his smoking habit. It is ironic that he should have to hide his habit--and that we now criticize China for having more smokers than America has people. America, after all, is largely responsible for China's smoking addiction today. Chinese emperors fought the use of tobacco almost as energetically (and futilely) as they did the opium trade a century later, as we see from excerpts in Blakeslee below:

Blakeslee, George H., Editor, “China and the Far East: Clark University Lectures,” Thomay Y. Crowell and Co., New York, 1910.

p. 157
The rise of the opium-smoking habit in China seems to have followed the introduction of tobacco smoking to that Empire. The tobacco plant had been transplanted by the Spaniards to the Philippine Islands. From here it appears to have been introduced by way of Formosa to Amoy and its neighborhood, in the Province of Fukien. This was towards the end of the Ming Dynasty (1620). 1628-44 were the years of the last Ming Emperor. During this reign the habit of tobacco smoking tended to spread throughout the eastern portion of the Empire. The result was a prohibitory Edict against it. But in vain; the habit could not be checked by law.

The Manchus followed the Mings and in the year 1641 an Edict was again published which prohibited the smoking of tobacco.

The prohibitory Edicts issued by the last Ming and first Manchu seem to have been just as ineffectual against tobacco smoking as were the later Manchu Edicts against opium smoking. During the seventeenth century the spread of the tobacco habit was as rapid and as difficult to control by Edict as the spread of the opium-smoking habit in the nineteenth century. The prohibitory Edicts emanated from Emperors who it cannot be gainsaid were moved by a deep paternal interest in their people. The common sense of the better classes and the propriety of the Confucian mind were shocked by both practices.

In 1729 the Chinese Government found itself face to face with a rapidly spreading and alarming vice. Native opium was being diverted from medicinal uses to pander to an evil. The opium poppy began to flourish all over China, while imports of the Indian drug began to move upward. Alarmed, in 1729, the Emperor issued an Edict prohibiting the sale of opium and the opening of opium divans. The penalties imposed on those who disobeyed were severe, the most important being on the sellers of the drug. In 1730 another Edict was aimed at the practice amongst the Chinese colonists in Formosa.

Since these Edicts were promulgated, it may be said in truth that the ruling authorities of China have steadfastly regarded opium smoking as a crime.

1782 letter of Thomas Fizhugh in China to Mr. Gregory in London: “The importation of opium to China is forbidden under very severe penalties; the opium on seizure is burnt, the vessel in which it is brought to port is confiscated, and the Chinese in whose possession it is found for sale is punishable with death….”

King, in 1911, warned China, and the West, against tobacco.

IX

THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE

OPIUM and TOBACCO

Opium is no longer used openly in China...it is a great misfortune that through the pitiless efforts of the British-American Tobacco Company her people are rapidly becoming addicted to the western tobacco habit, selfish beyond excuse, filthy beyond measure, and unsanitary in its polluting and oxygen destroying effect upon the air all are compelled to breathe. It has already become a greater and more inexcusable burden upon mankind than opium ever was.

China, with her already overtaxed fields, can ill afford to give over an acre to the cultivation of this crop and she should prohibit the growing of tobacco as she has that of the poppy. Let her take the wise step now when she readily may, for all civilized nations will ultimately be compelled to adopt such a measure. The United States in 1902 had more than a million acres growing tobacco, and harvested 821,000,000 pounds of leaf. This leaf depleted those soils to the extent of more than twenty eight million pounds of nitrogen, twenty-nine million pounds of potassium and nearly two and a half million pounds of phosphorus, all so irrecoverably lost that even China, with her remarkable skill in saving and her infinite patience with little things, could not recover them for her soils. On a like area of field might as readily be grown twenty million bushels of wheat and if the twelve hundred million pounds of grain were all exported it would deplete the soil less than the tobacco crop in everything but phosphorus, and in this about the same. Used at home, China would return it all to one or another field. The home consumption of tobacco in the United States averaged seven pounds per capita in 1902. A like consumption for China's four hundred millions would call for 2800 million pounds of leaf. If she grew it on her fields two million acres would not suffice. Her soils would be proportionately depleted and she would be short forty million bushels of wheat; but if China continues to import her tobacco the vast sum expended can neither fertilize her fields nor feed, clothe or educate her people, yet a like sum expended in the importation of wheat would feed her hungry and enrich her soils.

In the matter of conservation of national resources here is one of the greatest opportunities open to all civilized nations. What might not be done in the United States with a fund of $57,000,000 annually, the market price of the raw tobacco leaf, and the land, the labor and the capital expended in getting the product to the men who puff, breathe and perspire the noxious product into the air everyone must breathe, and who bespatter the streets, sidewalks, the floor of every public place and conveyance, and befoul the million spittoons, smoking rooms and smoking cars, all unnecessary and should be uncalled for, but whose installation and upkeep the non-user as well as the user is forced to pay, and this in a country of, for and by the people. This costly, filthy, selfish tobacco habit should be outgrown. Let it begin in every new home, where the mother helps the father in refusing to set the example, and let its indulgence be absolutely prohibited to everyone while in public school and to all in educational institutions.

King, F. H. , D. Sc., “Farmers of Forty Centuries, or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan,” University of Wisconsin, 1911



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Golf on Gulanyu in 1897

Bill Brown .... Xiamen University

Watson, Alfred T., “Badminton Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, Vol. V, July to Dec. 1897”, Longmans, Green and Company, London, 1907

A Foursome at Amoy By Surgeon T.T. Jeans, R.N.

The news of the match quickly spread through the Club, and the fact that any strangers should be confident of beating the Amoy fellows on their own links seemed to afford considerable amusement. Men uttered mysterious hints about the difficulties of the links, and in answer to our requests for information, they would say 'Bunkers? oh, the usual kind of bunkers. Greens? Greens? did you say? Oh I the usual kind of greens,' and nothing more could we extract. …

'They can't be much worse than the Malta links or the moats at Haslar,' I told Reggy reassuringly… After the race week we took o ne of Jardine's steamers for Amoy, Hardly had the Customs people boarded us before Rusby bounced on board and took us to Kulung-su Island-the foreign settlement.

Next morning we walked out to the links, passing through the small Chinese village, in which we saw a man in stocks outside his own shop-a punishment, probably, for having given short weight. As we were climbing a steep incline covered with stubbly grass and strewn with boulders, I saw Calderson throw down his bag of clubs and take a look round. 'What's the matter-done up already?' I asked him jokingly. 'No,' he answered, diffidently, ‘only we've got there.' ‘Got there I' I exclaimed; 'got where?' But it was unnecessary to ask, for he was already kneeling down and scraping a little dry sand into a heap and trying to make a tee. I looked round, and dotted in among huge boulders-planked down among innumerable concrete native graves-were several familiar red flags hanging limply in the morning calm. There was not a space of clear turf within sight, and what the greens were like we could conjecture only too well.

I caught Reggy's eye; we both looked sadly at each other, and then at our numerous drivers and brasseys, both recognising simultaneously that they were practically useless here.

The first green was on the near side of a wall which apparently separated two large graveyards, and was the only spot not covered with graves or stones. • Never saw anything like this before,' whispered Reggy, and I noticed that the other two were smiling at our astonishment.

There is a little hotel close by much favoured by American missionaries, and sending our coats, &c. in there, we began playing.

Calderson drove off with an iron; the hole was not more than eighty yards away, and his ball dropped dead about two yards the other side of the flag. 'That's just the place,' said Rusby, screwing his face into a comical expression of half apology, half satisfaction. 'Don't you fellows get away to the right, or you'll lose your ball.' I followed, and, using my driving cleek, of course managed to cut the ball, and away down the hill it went. Reggy gave me a look of inexpressible scorn, and trudged after it, his long legs being very useful in negotiating graves and tombs. He called me plaintively a minute later, so down I scrambled after him, to find that he had discovered the ball nestling up to an inscription stone, and had lofted it into a dead bush about two yards away-the only vegetation, dead or alive, for thirty yards. I hit blindly at it with a very heavy iron, and away it went, falling not two feet from the hole in a tuft of thick grass. 'I once got out of Haslar Moat in half an hour with that club,' I remarked, when I had seen the ball dead. Reggy was dumb founded; so was I, but climbed up with a reproachful look at him. Rusby followed, but did not hole out, and we finally halved that hole in four. A putter was quite useless on that, or, as it turned out, on any of the greens; so we followed our opponents' example and used either an iron or niblick, the latter being probably the more effective.

From the next tee we could see the flag on the shoulder of a hill about one hundred and twenty yards away, and Rusby, with a cleek, landed on the near side of the slope, clear of all obstacles.

‘Just in the right space,' he said, waiting for it to stop rolling, and with that same half-pitying air which he had shown before. ‘Don't go past it, whatever you do.' Now Reggy imagines that if he is good at anything it is at judging a drive, and nothing will prevent him from using a driver. I knew perfectly well that the distance was not long enough, and, though I advised• him in the most diplomatic manner, his favourite driver circled round his head, and away spun the ball over the hill, out of sight. 'You won't find that ball again,' the others said sympathetically; and we didn't, though Reggie insisted on us all spending a futile ten minutes searching for it.

The third green is on the edge of a cliff, the further edge overhanging the sea. Fortunately for us, Calderson did not loft his stroke sufficiently, and the ball had so much pace on after touching the ground that it rolled over the cliff, despite the ridiculous contortions of little Rusby, who was following its flight with his eyeglass tucked into his eye and his whole body bent back, as if he could thus arrest its course. Luckily we holed out in nine, making timid little approach shots, and finally taking five on the green, so unaccustomed were we to their peculiarities. Score: one all.

The fourth is the long hole-right out of sight over a sloping shoulder of rock, the hole itself being on the top of a mound surrounded by nearly vertical sand-bunkers. Our directing mark was a large boulder, and Reggy drove so carefully that he struck it, the ball rebounding and rolling downhill into a mass of loose rocks. Needless to say, we lost that, as well as the next-a short hole, situated on a very sloping green, only to be approached by dropping the ball on a small plateau immediately above it-a feat I did not accomplish, but sent it bounding downhill to the right.
'I do wish you wouldn't use that idiotic iron,' Reggy muttered. 'If you'd only stick to your driver, we might have a chance.' We did that hole in sixteen. Score: two down.

The sixth is the short hole, and Rusby implored us tragically not to go to the right, or we should lose our ball in a cow-yard about three hundred feet below. 'Follow me,' he said kindly, and sent his ball spinning down, right out of sight. 'Just as I told you,' he said, not the least perturbed. 'We'll give you that hole; if you don't get in the same place.' Reggy didn't, and the score was one down.

As we climbed up the rocks to the next tee, they tried to cheer us. I First few holes a bit tricky, if you're not accustomed to them; but you'll make up for it at the next two-ripping good holes-more your style. Eh! Calders?' 'Rather,' Calderson agreed, 'awful sporting holes.' They were. The tee was on the turf-covered top of a big rock; the green on the side of a hill, the slope of which was covered with mandarins' graves. Between the two were three paddy fields, a ditch, a road-along which numerous coolies were tramping-another ditch, and a sandpit scooped out from the hill.

‘Drive right past the hole, and keep to the left,' was the advice Calderson gave us, as his ball, hitting the side of the hill, trickled gently down on to the green. I followed, and, though going again to the right, saw to my great relief that I had gone past the sand. A little dangerous,' Rusby muttered; and, even as he spoke, the ball came rolling down nearer and nearer to the danger. A grave arrested its course for a moment, but it ran down the side, and, gaining impetus, rolled over the edge.

Reggy, consigning golf, and my golf in particular, to other climes, trudged after it. 'You'd better go too, old chap,' Rusby said; 'it's rather an awkward bit:

When I reached the ball, Reggy had just driven it further into the sand. He turned red in the face with fury in his eyes, his remarks not being fit for print. 'What price the moat at Haslar?' he said sarca.stically, when we had played ten and given up the hole. I was too much annoyed to answer. By good fortune we won the ninth, and the score for the first round was two down.

A waiter from the hotel now brought us drinks, and also found three boys to carry our bags, so we started the second round in better spirits. We lost the first, but won the next two. At the fourth I made a very lucky drive, laying my ball dead close to the green, and, Reggy clearing a patch of sand, we won that hole, standing six all. Reggy lost the next by his persistence in using a driver and through excitement, and I lost the cow-yard one by again badly cutting my ball for the fourth time that morning. Score: two down and three to play. Rusby, leading off across the valley, drove into the road, and hit one of two inoffensive coolies carrying a pig. A good drive of Reggy's won us that hole.

The match was now very exciting. Coming back over the road I got in a fair drive, and, Reggy following by a lucky niblick shot from the corner of a grave, we won that hole.
Score: eight all and one to play.

The last hole is a short cleek or iron shot downhill, but a good lie off the green is impossible. My shot landed on a big boulder, and disappeared among some graves. As luck would have it, Calderson topped his ball, and it went among a large heap of stones, my caddy, a fat boy, who took great interest in the game, giving a grunt of satisfaction. .After a long search our ball was found in an open grave among crumbling bones. We shouted for instructions, and removed it, counting one, and played our third on to the green. 'Not so bad,' said Reggy; ‘they're up in the rocks.' Even as he spoke there came a shout of 'Fore!' and we saw Rusby's fat little figure climb rapidly to the top of a rock, screwing his glass into his eye as he followed with swaying figure the flight of his ball. Plump! it came, not two feet from the hole. Calderson, never so cool as when everything depends upon his stroke, holed out with his next, and on the match.

We had a rattling good time at the Amoy races, where we made up for our previous ill-fortune. Afterwards, at Hong Kong, if any of the fellows chaffed us at the result of our Amoy game, Reggy would burst out with, 'If those infernal Chinese would mend their ancestors' graves, instead of fooling round joss-houses and worshipping them, we should have won.' And he still considers that he has a. real grievance against the whole race.




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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Xiamen's Beauty in 1860

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University

In 1860, Miss Jane Edkin letters home went on at such great length about the beauties of Amoy (now called Xiamen) that she was accused of mixing religion and nature! I think you'll enjoy her descriptions.

TO HER BROTHER SIMON.
From AMOY, 20th April 1860.
HERE we are at Amoy. A passage of ten days in the "Palmerston" brought us, if not rapidly, at least safely.

I think I feel better for it already, though the heat is very great. We anchored outside, on a beautiful moonlight evening. The scenery all round was enchanting. Noble hills of rocky brown overhung the entrance, crowned by pagodas, etc. Rocky islands, the abode of wild fowl, encircled us. The sun poured his last mellow rays o'er the delightful scene as we entered, and my heart bounded with joy at the sight. Stretching on each side, peak above peak, and peak beyond that, were high rocky hills. The sunlight gave a golden tinge to their brown grassy covering, and a warmer tint to their rocky sides. At their foot a beautiful sandy beach, smooth and glittering, extended for some distance. It was a most charming scene, and one that filled the heart. I cried with joy almost to see home hills again, for so they seemed to me.

The noise of the dropping anchor, and the hearty song of the men, did not interrupt me as my thoughts went home to dearly loved Scotland. It was especially pleasant to come up on deck after tea in the soft moonlight, when all was still, save the silent tread of the watch whenever the helm was deserted, and the white sails furled, and gaze up through the tall masts and rigging to the fair heaven so beautifully blue and sparkling. The dark hills on each side, and the soft gurgle of the waters as they gently passed by, added to the impressiveness of the scene. Mr. Edkins and I sat a long time delighting in it, and felt its strangeness and beauty heightened still more as the lightning's vivid flash frequently lighted up the dark hills for a moment.

Next morning early, Mr. Edkins called me to look at the opening bay as we entered it. I was busy packing, so I had only glimpses here and there, but these were striking. High rocks, of all sorts and sizes, line one side of the bay, many of them grown over with moss. Some of them have long weird-like inscriptions, and some seemed tottering, ready to fall.

Nestling under them was the little town of Amoy, before which we cast anchor about nine A.M. We proceeded direct to the Rev. John Stronach's, where we are now staying….

…after dinner, we had a boat-excursion, in company with Mr. J. Stronach, his sister, and young Miss Stronach.

This recalled the olden time in Stromness harbour. "We rowed and talked agreeably, though my enthusiasm about the hills…Through many an opening in the rocky hills we saw temples hid among trees, looking so picturesque, built out on jutting rocks. I wish I had my young strength again, to climb at will those mountain rocks and wild romantic paths, all in a state of nature, untouched by the rude hand, shall I call it, of cultivation…

In the afternoon, Jessie, her father, Mr. Edkins, and I, went over to Kolangsu, a lovely island about half a mile's run across. We landed, climbed the beach, and reached abroad graveled walk arched with trees, then we entered a garden where roses, mignonette, and many other exquisite flowers, bloomed beautifully. The rocks were on either side like a wall to it, but their bare exterior was clothed with honeysuckle and green creepers. From that we passed into another, and then, by some steps, reached a little hill. By a path that wound round it we gained the top of one height, from which we had an interesting view of Amoy. Her navy of junks, her small fishing-boats, all lay close together in a sheltered corner, while the English ships lay outside. The houses are poor, both those of the merchants and missionaries, in comparison with those at Shanghai; but from Kolangsu all looked pretty. We descended, and by paddy-fields of fresh green we reached another hill, which we slowly climbed, and the view to the other side of the island was most captivating. The broad sea, broken here and there by islets, and bounded by magnificent hills, all bursting as it did on us without expecting it, had a powerful effect. I forgot my weariness, and gazed long on this noble prospect. Hills and sea give a higher idea of the beauty of nature than any artificial cultivation, however rich. "The everlasting hills," and the ever-changing sea," are to me the noblest works o nature. But the beauties round our feet were not to be overlooked.

A broad, wide-spreading banian tree, with its thick foliage, stood proudly queen of the scene; while a lovely tangled path, damp and cool, led us on where we wished to go,—to the resting-place of the dead. In a beautiful nook, under the sheltering wing of the dark rocks, and on a pleasant acclivity, lay the graves of those missionaries who had lived and died for Christ…

3. TO HER MOTHER-IK LAW. from AMOY, 18th May 1860.
It is nearly three weeks since we came to Amoy. We have been much benefited by its health-giving sea breezes. The scenery around greatly interests me. What with its rocks, mountains, beautiful islands, and blue sea sparkling, dashing, and foaming in all its fresh beauty around the town, I am exceedingly taken with it. … We have Chinese chapels. It was a sweet Sabbath morning when I first went to ours. For a considerable time before going, I had been seated in a low chair in our room, with a book before me; my head and heart were somehow not with it, but were drinking in the attractive beauties of the scene that presented itself from the wide open window. High, noble craggy hills, with mossy brown, still retained the warm glow of the soft embrace of the morning. A misty beauty hung around, though the sky was blue and unclouded. The little islands rejoiced in the fair morning, and the very sea murmured a lullaby of peace. Oh, the peaceful Sabbath morn.

How the heart rises and glows with love and joy, especially when all nature calls upon you to rejoice. Would that the pleasurable feeling that steals over the heart at such times could be retained.

My husband has taken part repeatedly in the work of the Mission, but being here for the benefit of our health, we have kept moving about, sight-seeing, rowing in small boats, picnicking, calling, etc. He has had great enjoyment in wandering among the old temples, deciphering the more than half-worn characters on many an aged rock, etc.

…This is a bright sunshiny morning after the rain, and everything looks fresh and lovely. I don't know how it is, but a familiar sound keeps ringing in my ears, it seems so applicable this bright May morning— "
Birds are singing,
Bells are ringing,
May is bringing
Gifts to man."
With best love to yourself, Ebenezer, Kate, and John, your very affectionate JEANIE.

4. TO MISS EDKINS, SHANGHAI, June 1860.
I HAVE been greatly remiss in writing, but when I plead sickness for excuse, you will, I know, forgive me freely. Yet sickness won't do for a full apology, as I have only been on the sick list for a week or so, but then an endless succession of changes and visitors these several weeks past has put all idea of quiet letter- writing enjoyment out of the question. I had a letter nearly finished for you when we were at Amoy, but it is now of such an old date, that I won't send it, although I shall give you some of the particulars in this…

…First of all, we enjoyed Amoy, and the scenery, and the mission work unspeakably. It is, to my taste, a delightful place, being perfectly surrounded with what I call Scotland's heathery hills. Oh, the flood of beauty tinting those hills when the sun slowly sinks to rest,—when lingeringly it leaves them, and casts its glowing mantle tenderly o'er their rugged rocky sides, softening them to melting beauty.

We spent one lovely afternoon over at Kolangsu, a small island near Amoy, where, from an eminence, we had a most interesting view of the town, its complete little harbour, navy of junks, etc.; and where, from another, we had a view of a broad expanse of water, intersected by sweet islets, calm and unruffled, dashing softly on the sandy beach, while the background of mountains was truly majestic, raising as they did their rugged tops to the fair sky, and winning the soft shadows from the untroubled clouds of blue that ever and again passed swiftly over them. …

By the way, your brother says I blend the beauties of nature almost into religion in my description in some letters. I doubt if he is right in saying this. Don't you think, if gazing on beautiful scenery stirs the soul, and raises it to admiration, it must naturally rise to nature's God before the full idea of grandeur and glory settles on the soul?
But I fear I am now mystifying both you and myself….

5. TO HER MOTHER. June 1860.
WE are safely back again from Amoy, by way of Hong Kong, after enjoying our trip exceedingly, and being much benefited by it.

Source: Edkins, Jane Rowbotham Stobb,s Chinese Scenes and People: With Notices of Christian Missions and Missionary Life in a Series of Letters from Various Parts of China, James Nisbit and Company, London, 1863
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Monday, November 24, 2008

A 19th Century Master of Guanxi

Bill Brown .... Xiamen University

Adapted from John MacGowan Sidelights on Chinese Life, 1907 p. 119-122

A man, for example, comes in to see you. He is common looking, with a face hardened and battered by toil. His clothes, which are shabby and well worn, consist of the ordinary blue cotton cloth that in its dull and dingy colour helps to give a mean and uninteresting look to the wearer. If the nation would but depart from the eternal tradition that has come steadily down the ages in regard to its clothing and would take some hints from nature, whose varied moods make her look so charming, how different would these unaesthetic people appear from what they do now! … you ask him with as much politeness as your poor opinion of him will permit you, what he wants with you.

In a hesitating, nervous kind of way, he informs you that he has ventured to come and ask a favour of you. It is a very important one, he says, and as he knows no one that is so kind as you are or who has so much influence as you have, he has taken the liberty to address himself to you and he hopes that you will not refuse his request.

You find as he tells his story that he wants you to use your good offices to get his son into employment in a responsible firm in the town. You are startled, for you do not know any one in the said firm, and moreover you have no knowledge of the young man either as to his character or abilities. You try and impress upon the father that it is impossible for you to help him in the matter, because you really have no influence with any one responsible in the house of business to which he refers, and that therefore he had better apply to some one else who has the ability to help him.

The man in a weak kind of way appears to agree with you, expresses his appreciation of your kindness in so pleasantly listening to him, and bids you good-bye, and any one not acquainted with the Chinese character would certainly come to the conclusion that the whole incident was at an end and nothing more would be heard of it.

Tomorrow morning you are engaged, say, in writing when the same man is ushered into your room by your "boy," and he in a timid, hesitating way expresses a wish to say a few words to you. In his hand he carries a fowl, with its legs tied and its head hanging down, and as this is the usual way in which such animals are carried in China, it seems to recognize the universal custom and to utter no protest against the indignity to which it is exposed.

Without referring to it, he lays it down in a corner of the room, and proceeds to make his request for his son in precisely the same language that he had done the previous day. Your statement then that you had no influence in the firm mentioned was considered by him to be a pleasant and refined way of showing your displeasure that a present had not been made you, and so to-day he is atoning for this by bringing you the fowl that lies fluttering on the ground.

You try and make him understand that you really cannot help him, that you would do so if you could, and you insist upon his taking away his present, as you absolutely refuse to accept it. He agrees with all you say, expresses his admiration at your disinterested and generous conduct, is quite sure that you cannot help him, and finally leaves you holding the fowl which you have forced upon him in his hand, and declaring that he is afraid you are angry with him since you refuse his gift, which he declares he knows is too small to be accepted by a person of your position and character. You happen to go out half-an-hour after and you see the identical fowl lying in the yard struggling to get free, and with a look of pain and misery in consequence of its legs having been tied so tight and because of the cramped position in which it has been compelled to lie so long.

You call the "boy" and you ask him why the man has not taken the fowl away, as you had positively refused to accept it. "Oh! it would never do," he replies with an anxious look that pushes its way through its permanent sphinx-like veneer, "for the man to take back the trifling present that he has made you. He would have lost 'face,’ for people would say that you were angry with him for making you such an insignificant gift that you could not possibly receive it."

Next morning the man once more appears, but this time accompanied by a person well known to you. After a few complimentary remarks, the newcomer introduces the man, and begs of you to use your influence to get his son the employment about which he has already spoken to you. You state the case fully to him and explain that it is quite a mistake to imagine that you can assist him in the way he wishes. Both men listen with the most wrapt attention to what you say, and by smiles and vigorous nods of the head seem to believe in every word you speak. By and by they leave, and you feel convinced that the incident is at an end, and that you will hear nothing more of it.

In the afternoon of the same day, the man turns up once more, with a smiling countenance and a look of supreme satisfaction upon it. He holds a letter in his hand which he delivers to you with the air of a man who is delivering a pleasant ultimatum that will settle the whole question in a manner satisfactory to all. It is from an Englishman who has been approached on the subject, and he asks me to do what I can to get the old fellow's son into a firm where he has been told I have some influence.

You are getting annoyed by this time, not simply because all your protestations have not been believed, but because you see that the dogged persistence that lies rooted in the Chinese character will not allow the matter to drop until you have either given him a piece of your mind, more forcible than polite, or taken some plan to carry out his wishes. After a few minutes' consideration, you remember that an acquaintance of your own has business relationships with the firm in question, so you at once write a note to him and request him as a great favour to exert himself to introduce the son of the bearer to the manager of a certain business house with which he is intimately concerned. Having sealed it up, you hand it over to the man, and direct him to take it to your friend, who may possibly be able to assist him in procuring the employment he wishes for his son.

The very next day, he once more appears, but this time with two fowls, a small basket of oranges and a tiny box of tea, and also with the most profuse thanks for getting his son that situation. You tell him that you have had nothing to do with that, and that if he is inclined to make presents, he had better take them to the friend who has really engineered the business. If the Chinese could only see the humour there is in a wink, there is no doubt but that he would express his feelings by one just now, but as he has never been taught the subtle part that the eye can take in conveying a joke, he simply smiles prodigiously, clasps his own hands instead of yours and leaves you with a profusion of the most elegant and polite phrases, such as the great Sage of China penned more than two thousand years ago for the guidance of people in contingencies such as this.

It must be perfectly understood that the man never believed from the very first that you could not have got that situation for his son, if you had been so disposed, and the fact that you procured it for him at last proved that. Your writing the letter and sending it to a friend were but little subtle by-plays to save your "face." Acting like that is something inexpressibly dear to the Chinese, who are always posing before each other, and exhausting their histrionic powers to produce certain effects that shall redound to their credit. The one thing that was really to be admired in this Chinaman was the tenacity of purpose that caused him never to falter until he had gained the object that he had in his mind.

This distinguishing virtue in the Chinaman has unquestionably been a very large factor in the building up of their Empire, and yet on the other hand it is just as true that it has been one of the most powerful forces in preventing its progress and development.

The very persistence of character that made the Yellow race build the Great Wall of China and extend their conquests from their original home on the banks of the Yellow River, until the whole of the vast extent of territory embraced within the eighteen provinces has been subdued by them, has made them cling to old traditions and customs with a tenacity that has stayed the progress of new ideas, and has prevented them from adopting new methods that would have benefited both the people and the Empire.



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