China and the West

John Robert Morrison wird Sekretär der Medical Missionary Society.

Walter Henry Medhurst (1) ist als Missionar in Java tätig.

Thomas Richardson Colledge kehrt nach England zurück.

William Goodenough Hayer ist als Diplomat an der britischen Gesandtschaft in Shanghai und ist einige Monate an der britischen Gesandtschaft in Chongqing (Sichuan) für die Anerkennung der Guomindang Regierung von Chiang Kai-shek.

Das St. Paul's College in Macao wird durch Feuer zerstört.

Auguste Borget kommt in Jinmen dao (Fujian) statt in Guangzhou (Guangdong) an.

Auguste Borget hält sich in Hong Kong, dann in Guangzhou (Guangdong) und länger in Macao auf.
Er schreibt : "Je reprenais mes rêves, et déjà je me voyais en Chine."
Borget était amoureux déjà de la Chine avant de la connaître. Il rejoint le pays dont il a tant rêvé.
In Hong Kong schreibt er : "Après le repas, je me mis à dessiner. J'étais mollement étendu à l'ombre sur une pente couverte de gazon, et j'avais sous les yeux un admirable paysage de rochers, de montagnes et d'eau, sillonné par des barques sans nombre."
1939 schreibt er über den Tempel in Macao in einem Brief : "Au reste, je trouvais toujours la plus grande bienveillance dans tous ceux qui venaient au temple. Chacun s'y tenait de façon à ne gêner ni mes bras ni mes regards, et l'un d'eux même me prêta son dos en guise de pupitre."
Er schreibt über seine Abreise aus Macao : "Obligé par la guerre qui avait éclaté entre l'Angleterre et la Chine, de quitter le céleste empire où je comptais séjourner longtemps encore, je dus penser à retourner en Europe."

In China gemalte Bilder : Paysage de Hong Kong, Factoreries de Canton, Paysage de Whampoa, Vue panoramique de Macao, Tanka devant le fort Saõ Pedro, Cortège d’un mandarin sur la Praya grande, Portier de Paiva, Barbier de face, L'église Saõ Agostino, Rue près de Saõ Domingos, Chiffonier chinois à Macao, Théâtre de marionettes à Macao, Le port intérieur de Macao, Faubourg de Macao, Vue d'un grand temple chinois à Macao.

Méry, Joseph. L'Orient.
L'Orient aujourd'hui se fait occidental...
Tout voile est déchiré, toute illusion est morte !
Le bout de l'univers va s'asseoir à ma porte.
Plus de ces beaux pays d'un lointain fabuleux !
Adieu le Fleuve Jaune et tous les contes bleus !
Que vas-tu devenir, fabuleuse planète... ?

Gründung des Chinese Museum in Philadelphia durch Nathan Dunn..

Ralph Waldo Emerson reads 'Confucius'.

Henry David Thoreau und China : allgemein
Quellen :
Abel-Rémusat, Jean-Pierre. L'invariable milieu, ouvrage morale Tséu-ssê, en chinois et en manchou [ID D1943].
Huc, Evariste Régis. Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet et la Chine pendant les années 1844, 1845 et 1846 [ID D2107]. Iu-kiao-li, ou, Les deux cousines : roman chinois. Trad by Abel-Rémusat. [ID D5232].
The Chinese classical work commonly called the Four books. Transl. by David Collie. [ID D22647].
Marshman, Joshua. The works of Confucius [ID D1909].
Pauthier, [Jean-Pierre] Guillaume. Les livres sacrés de l'Orient [ID D2040].
Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique de la Chine. Trad. du Chinois par G. Pauthier. [ID D2116].
Pfeiffer, Ida. A lday's voyage round the world [ID D2109].
Lao-tseu. Le Tao-te-king. Trad. par G. Pauthier. [Eventuelle Quelle].

Sekundärliteratur
1932
Arthur Christy : Thoreau read the Confucian books, probably just as much as Ralph Waldo Emerson, but he used them in his own way. His individuality and the eccentricity which baffled the practical Concord villagers was probably never illustrated to better advantage than in the selections from the Chinese books which he chose to quote. Thoreau seems never to have divorced his interest in nature from his reading of any scripture. His Confucian reading, considered alone, emphatically suggests this. He never tried to read mystical divinity into the Chinese ; he quoted them in connection with flora and fauna. 1972
Ch'en David T.Y. : To the student of Thoreau who is familiar with Chinese culture, Walden is similar to a traditional Chinese government, Confucian in form and Taoist in spirit, for the book is full of quotations from the Confucian books, while its ideas are essentially Taoist.
1984
Yao-hsin Chang : It was intensified by Thoreau's reading of Greek and European authors and the Hindoo philosophy, which exerted a good deal of influence on his thinking. What Confucius and Confucian classics had to capture his interest relates also chiefly to the perfection of men through self-development. Thoreau was of the opinion that the culture of the mind conduces to the happiness of the individual. He believed that all reform must come from within, and that when each individual referms himself, then the reformation of society will automatically follow. This essentially transcendental stance touched the quintessential Confucianism tangentially.
1988
Chen Chang-fang : For Thoreau, the Confucian canon, though gilded by the patina of antiquity, still preserves immutable wisdom, a wisdom that captivated him all his life. In addition, Thoreau seems to imply that he is attracted by the practical way of morality as subtly inculcated in the Confucian teachings.
2004
Cheng Aimin : Thoreau's contact with nature fascinates present-day urban reader in China as it does in the West. Many Chinese critics expressed their ideas about Thoreau's contact with nature and life at Walden. Since the 1990s Chinese scholars and critics begun to study Thoreau's ecological ideas. The Chinese concept of nature in Walden lead the Chinese to reevaluate his contribution to an American philosophy of nature.
2009
Ma Junhong : Henry David Thoreau, who was ignored and dismissed by his contemporaries, now has become a global figure as the saint and pioneer of environmental protection. Thoreau inquired into the rationality of science and technology, recognized the exploitation of life under the guidance of rationality and objected to the material culture in which people's lives were eroded and degraded. He tried to find an ideal solution to the crises of natural ecology and spiritual ecology of human beings. China could derive some enlightenment from Thoreau's life philosophy. First, it stimulates us to rediscover and reinterpret the Chinese classics, which have been ignored I the past 100 years, and to find our own eco-wisdom. Second, it forces us to reflect on the development of China's modernization. In Thoreau's opinion, a true life should be full of vivacity, growth and vitality. It involves perception of life, natural growth of the organism and active creation of living things and everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. Nature's exuberancy aroused Thoreau's life consciousness. Therefore, he sought to gain it through life experience in nature. He not only showed his love and concern for nature, but also showed his great solicitude for the human being.
China has also encountered the problem in the process of its modernization. Thoreau's ideas could give China some insight from the perspective of culture and reflection on modernization. Thoreau's critiques on industrial civilization can still provide warning to China's modernization. It seems that the conflict he predicted between man and nature brought about by industrial civilization is impossible to avoid. China has focused its development strategy on economic construction and taken the conflict between growing material and cultural needs and backward social production as the principal contradiction since 1978. Therefore, it is the aim for China to develop the productive forces vigorously and promote the Chinese modernization as rapidly as possible. Development is no doubt the central theme of China. China has begun to recognize the ecological problems and is trying to develop in an all-round, coordinated and sustainable manner. Thoreau's cosmological beliefs of life embodied in his work remind us of the eco-wisdom in ancient Chinese philosophy. He took nature as man and liked to have dialogues with nature without any prejudice.
While Thoreau who was enlightened by the ancient Chinese philosophy had a great influence on American nature writing, his ideas about nature have rich ecological meaning and have become the symbol of non-anthropocentric environment ethics now. His representative book Walden has become a classic, which continues to influence more and more people to devote themselves to environmental protection. Many scholars begin to make systematic studies on the ancient Chinese ecological thought, rediscovering and reinterpreting the ecological ideas of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
2009
Yang Jincai : There are three different stages as regards the Chinese projections of Thoreau. The first stage from the 1920s to 1949 marks China's burgeoning interest in the American writer featured by a passion for Western literature as both cultural and intellectual nourishment. The second is mainly a period of ideological appraisals from 1949 to 1977 in which Thoreau is regarded as a champion of democracy and a critic of American capitalist civilization. The third one is known as the multiple approach period from 1978 onwards in which Thoreau studies has flourished and continues to grow in China. Focused discussions have revealed the following: (1) comparative approaches have been made into the Chinese elements in the formation of Thoreau's notion of civilization and views of Nature; (2) critical attention has been drawn on Thoreau's political thought and ecological awareness, rendering a multitude of interpretations both textually and theoretically; and (3) further discussions focus primarily on Thoreau's personal conduct raising a question of how to appraise Thoreau's withdrawal from society and giving rise to an ambiguous identity of Thoreau.

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal ; Aug. 22 (1838).
How thrilling a noble sentiment in the oldest books, - in Homer, the Zendavesta, or Confucius ! It is a strain of music waited down to us on the breeze of time, though the aisles of innumerable ages. By its very nobleness it is made near and audible to us.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and China : general
Quellen, Bücher seiner Bibliothek.
Alger, William Rounseville. The poetry of the East [ID D30086].
Breton, Jean Baptiste Joseph. La Chine en miniature [ID D9692].
Corner, Julia. China pictorial, descriptive, and historical [ID D30087].
Julien, Stanislas. Hoei-lan-ki [ID D4646]
Nieuhoff, John. An embassy from the East-India Company of the United provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham emperor of China [ID D1738].
Taylor, Bayard. A visit to India, China, and Japan, in the year 1853 [ID D5664].
Tiffany, Osmond. The Canton Chinese, or, The Americans sojourn in the celestial empire [ID D30088].

The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [ID D30134].
Undated
To James Thomas Fields
Please let me know to-day if possible, whether you send a box to Routledge by the China on Wednesday. I wish very much to put some book into it, if you do.

1838
To Stephen Longfellow ; Cambridge August 23, 1837
The Chinese Puzzle I was puzzled to find : and did not find one worth buying.

1840
To Willis Gaylord Clark ; Cambridge July 5, 1840
The reason I did not inflict my brother upon you was, that he merely passed through Philadelphia ; and being desirous of seeing the Library and that beautiful Chinese collection, I gave him a letter to our friend Smith.

1843
To Julia Ward ; Cambridge Jan. 16, 1843
If the Chinese Proverb be true, that "a coach and six cannot bring back a word once spoken",
I beg you to send a coach and seven ; or if necessary two coaches.

1867
To George Routledge ; Cambridge May 24, 1867
I send you to day some sheets of the Paradiso, which may turn out to be duplicates, but I am not quite sure. All the rest have been sent ; in part through your house in New York last week, and in part by the China on Wednesday from here.

1869
To James Thomas Fields ; Camb. Nov. 24, 1869
In the name of the Prophet – Tea ! When shall we go together to China or India (wharf) in pursuit of the fragrant herb ? and where was it we made our last purchase thereof ?

1870
To James Thomas Fields ; Camb. June 28, 1870
If the weather permits I shall come in tomorrow or next day – more likely next day – to take you with me in search of the Blue China.
To George Washington Greene ; Nahant July 10, 1870
I wish the Fainéant Congress would rise, and let Somner loose. I agree with him about the Chinese ; and about striking the word white out of every law of the land. [Sumner wrote a report dated June 24, 1870, which advocated the return to China of any surplus remaining of the Chinese Indenmnity Fund after the payment of all just claims].

1871
To Julia Sumner Hastings ; Cambridge May 18, 1871
May I recall myself to your recollection by introducing my son Charles, who is on his way to Japan and China.
To Charles Appleton Longfellow ; Nahant Aug 9, 1871
We have been delighted to receive your letters from the Pacific Steamer and are now looking for tidings from Japan, to tell us that you are well, and well-satisfied with your journey so far. Miss Dora Clark tells us that Arthur thinks of coming home soon, on a visit. I hope he will not have left China before you reach there.

1873
To Charles Appleton Longfellow ; Camb. June 20, 1873
It is so uncertain whether this letter will ever reach you that I do not, or shall not make it very long. It is only a word, to say that we got your first letter from China, a month ago, or more, and since have heard nothing of your movements.

1874
To Charles Appleton Longfellow ; Camb. Feb. 19, 1874
Your description of a trip up the Chinese canals we all greatly liked. Uncle Tom and Sumner insist upon having it published, and I think it ought to be, but don’t know what you would say to it.
To Mary Appleton Mackintosh ; Camb. March 3, 1874
Charley we are looking for in a month or two. He has been gone nearly three years ; and has sent from home from Japan and China screens without end and boxes without number.

1877
To Henry Mills Alden ; Camb. Aug 4, 1877
For China. Vase. Jacquemart Plate I. p. 14. – Porcelain tower of Nankin. Jacquemart. P. 55.
To Charles Lanman ; Camb. Nov 28, 1877
I shall put it away with The psalm of life written in Chinese on a fan. What I should like now is a literal re-translation of the Japanese into English. In the introduction there is a slight error, which perhaps is worth correcting. It is the Poet not the Potter, who takes the aerial flight, and in imagination visits far-off lands.

1878
To Richard Henry Stoddard. ; Camb. April 28, 1878
I am sorry that it comes to me too late for India ; but it is in season for China and the Nile, and I am very glad to have it. Those regions will be the richer for it.
To George Washington Greene ; Camb. April 29, 1878
Here, Poems of places have shut out the dull weather. I have been in India and China and Japan, and am now in Africa, where it is hot and dry enough.
To Richard Henry Stoddard ; Camb. May 19, 1878
When I send you the volume of Poems of places containing China, which I will do as soon as it is published, I hope you will not think I have taken too many of your Chinese songs.
[Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Poems of places : Persia, India, Chinese empire, Japan. (Bosong : Houghton, 1878).]
To Edith Longfellow Dana ; Camb. Jan 16, 1878
Rosa had der hover in the Library instead, which was as good as a concert any day ; and I had Miss Bull's old china cup in my study, and wrote my thanks to her in a comparatively long letter.

1881
To Kate Gannett Wells ; Cambridge, Dec 29 (1881).
I was never so thoroughly taken to pieces and it will be as hard to put me together again as a chinese puzzle or a dissecting map of world.

Poe, Edgar Allen. How to write a blackwood article. In : American Museum (1838).
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/POE/blackwod.html
"PIQUANT EXPRESSIONS. 'The Venerable Chinese novel Ju-Kiao-Li.' Good! By introducing these few words with dexterity you will evince your intimate acquaintance with the language and literature of the Chinese."

Aleksej Ivanovic Kovanko wird Lehrer für Chemie an Technologischen Institut.

Philip M. Broadmead ist Counsellor der britischen Botschaft in China.

Lancelot Dent ist Konsul des französischen Konsulats in Guangzhou.

James Legge heiratet Mary Isabella Morison.

Benjamin Hobson kommt in Macao an.