China and the West

Muirhead, William. Da Yingguo zhi [ID D2152].
Erwähnung von William Shakespeare unter dem Namen 'Shekesibi' = 舌克斯畢 in China. Muirhead erwähnt auch Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Francis Bacon und Richard Hooker.
Er schreibt : "Shakespeare was a well-know public figure in the Elizabethan age. His brilliant works represent both beauty and virtue. No one has outshone him so far".

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal (1856).
I noticed that the Chinese tallow tree has begun to compete with the indigenous willow hereabouts. This was clearly in evidence along a new road through a field which soon became lined about half and half with willow trees and Chinese tallow trees.

Letter from Benjamin B. Wiley to Henry David Thoreau, Providence Oct 31, 1856
…I am anxious to know a little more of Confucius. Can you briefly, so that it will not take too much of your time, write me his views in regard to Creation, Immortality, man's preexistence if he speaks of it, and generally anything relating to man's Origin, Purpose, & Destiny.

Letter from Henry David Thoreau to Benjamin B. Wiley, concord Dec 12 '56
…I do not now remember anything which Confucius has said directly respecting man's 'origin, purpose, and destiny'. He was more practical than that. He is full of wisdom applied to human relations – to the private Life – the Family – Government &c. It is remark able that according to his own account the sum & substance of his teaching is, as you know, to Do as you would be done by.
He also said – (I translate from the French) "Conduct yourself suitably toward the persons of your family, then you will be able to instruct and to direct a nation of men".
"To nourish ones self with a little rice, to drink water, to have only his bended art to support his head, is a state which has also its satisfaction. To be rich and honored by iniquitous means, is for me as the floating cloud which passes".
"As soon as a child is born we must respect its faculties ; the knowledge which will come to it by & by does not resemble at all ist present state. If it arrives at the age of 40 or 50 years, withoug laving learned any thing, it is no more worthy of any respect".
This last, I think, will speak to your condition…

Letter from Henry David Thoreau to Mr. W., Concord, December 12 (1856).
I do not remember anything which Confucius has said directly respecting man's "origin, purpose and destiny ". He was more practical than that. He is full of wisdom applied to human relations, - to the private life, - the family, - government, &c. It is remarkable that, according to his own account, the sum and substance of his teaching is, as you know, to do as you would be done by. He also said (I translate from the French), "Conduct yourself suitably toward the persons of your family, then you will be able to instruct and to direct a nation of men ".

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal (1856).
Think of cats, for instance; they are neither Chinese nor Tartars, they neither go to school, nor read the Testament .

Thoreau, Henry David. Correspondence (1856).
But every nation has a motion of its own. Among the boatmen on the Bosphorus I saw many faces and figures very like the same class at Hong Kong and on the Canton River in China. Both have a Tartar look. Mongolians, I imagine.

Thoreau, Henry David. Houghton manuscript (1856),
We lately read an anecdote of Confucius and his disciples which is to our purpose.
"Tseu-lou, Thseng-sie, Yan-yeou, Kong-si-hoa, were seated by the side of the Philosopher.
The Philosopher said: make no account of my age more than if I were only a day older than you.
Living apart and isolated, then you say: we are not known. If any one knew you, then what would you do?
Tseu-lou replied with a brisk but respectful air: Suppose a kingdom of a thousand war-chariots, hard-pressed between other great kingdoms, add even, by numerous armies, and that withal it suffers want and famine; let Yeou (T'seu-lou) be appointed to its administration, in less than three years I could accomplish that the people of this kingdom should recover a manly courage, and know their condition. The Philosopher smiled at these words.
And you, Khieou, what are your thoughts?
The disciple replied respectfully: Suppose a province of sixty of seventy li in extent, or even of fifty or sixty li, and that Khieou were appointed to its administration, in less than three years I could accomplish that the people should have sufficient. As to the rites and to music, I would entrust the teaching of them to a superior man.
And you, Tchi, what are your thoughts?
The disciple replied respectfully: I will not say that I can do these things; I desire to study. When the ceremonies of the temple of ancestors are performed, and great public assemblies take place, clothed in my robe of azure and other vestments proper for such a place and such ceremonies, I could wish to take part in them in the quality of a humble functionary.
And you, Tian, what are your thoughts?
The disciple did nothing but draw some rare sounds from his guitar; but these sounds prolonging themselves, he laid it aside, and rising, replied respectfully: My opinion differs entirely from those of my three fellow disciples—The Philosopher said: What prevents you from expressing it? Here each one can speak his thought.—The disciple said: spring being no more, my robe of spring laid aside, but covered with the bonnet of manhood, accompanied by five or six men, and six or seven young people, I should love to go and bathe in the waters of the Y—, and go and take the fresh air in those woody places where they offer sacrifices to heaven to obtain rain, to modulate some airs, and then return to my abode.
The Philosopher applauding these words by a sign of satisfaction, said: I am of Tian's mind.
The three disciples departed, but Thseng-sie remained yet some time. Thseng-sie said: What ought one to think of the words of these three disciples? The Philosopher said: Each one of them has expressed his opinion; that is all.”
The narrator proceeds to tell why the Philosopher smiled; but that is obvious enough.
For the most part, when we listen to the conversation of the Reformers, we too [are] of Tian's mind."

Letter from Walt Whitman to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Brooklyn, August, 1856.
With Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Oregon—with the states around the Mexican sea—with cheerfully welcomed immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa—with Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island—with all varied interests, facts, beliefs, parties, genesis—there is being fused a determined character, fit for the broadest use for the freewomen and freemen of Tho States, accomplished and to be accomplished, without any exception whatever—each indeed free, each idiomatic, as becomes live states and men, but each adhering to one enclosing general form of politics, manners, talk, personal style, as the plenteous varieties of the race adhere to one physical form.

Meredith, George. Works.
1856
Meredith, George. The shaving of Shagpat. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1856).
So he allowed Bhanavar greater freedom and indulgences, and Bhanavar feigned to give her soul to the pleasures women delight in, and the Vizier buried her in gems and trinkets and costly raiment, robes of exquisite silks, the choicest of Samarcand and China; and he permitted her to make purchases among certain of the warehouses of the city and the shops of the tradesmen, jewellers and others, so that she went about as she would, but for the slaves that attended her and the overseer of the harem…
Round the vault were hung helm-pieces, and swords, and rich-studded housings; and there were silken dresses, and costly shawls, and tall vases and jars of China, tapestries, and gold services. And the King said, 'Take thy choice of these in exchange for the hawk.'…
Then the King threatened him, saying, 'There is a virtue in each of the things thou seest: the China jar is brimmed with wine, and remaineth so though a thousand drink of it; the dress of Samarcand rendereth the wearer invisible; yet thou refusest to exchange them for thy hawk!'…
And the King swore by the beard of his father he would seize perforce the hawk and shut up Shibli Bagarag in the vault, if he fell not into his bargain. Shibli Bagarag was advised by the hawk to accept the China jar and the dress of Samarcand, and handed the hawk to the King in exchange for these things…
Now, when it was night, Shibli Bagarag heard a noise at his lattice, and he arose and peered through it, and lo! the hawk was fluttering without; so he let it in, and caressed it, and the hawk bade him put on his silken dress and carry forth his China jar, and go the round of the palace, and offer drink to the sentinels and the slaves. So he did as the hawk directed, and the sentinels and slaves were aware of a China jar brimmed with wine that was lifted to their lips, but him that lifted it they saw not: surely, they drank deep of the draught of astonishment…
Thereupon she ran hastily from the vault, and passed between the sentinels of the palace, and saw them where they lay drowsy with intoxication: so she knew that the China jar and the dress of Samarcand had been used that night, and for no purpose friendly to her wishes…

1859
Meredith, George. The ordeal of Richard Feverel : a history of father and son. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1859).
Chap. 39
Dear to their tender bosoms as old china is a bad man they are mending!

1860
Meredith, George. Evan Harrington. In : Once a week ; Feb. 11-Oct. 13 (1860).
Chap. 5
'I 'm sorry I swore,' he said. 'Bad habit! The Major's here—you know that?' and he assumed the Major's voice, and strutted in imitation of the stalwart marine. 'Major—a—Strike! of the Royal Marines! returned from China! covered with glory!—a hero, Van!
Chap. 8
Women, who are almost as deeply bound to habit as old gentlemen, possess more of its spiritual element, and are warned by dreams, omens, creepings of the flesh, unwonted chills, suicide of china, and other shadowing signs, when a break is to be anticipated, or, has occurred.

1871
Meredith, George. The adventures of Harry Richmond. (London : Smith, Elder, 1871).
Chap. 43
She went attired as a boudoir-shepherdess or demurely-coquettish Sevres-china Ninette, such of whom Louis Quinze would chuck the chin down the deadly introductory walks of Versailles.

1874-1875
Meredith, George. Beauchamp's career. In : The fortnightly review ; August 1874-December 1875.
Chap. 15
From his point of observation, and with the store of ideas and images his fiery yet reflective youth had gathered, he presented himself as it were saddled to that hard-riding force known as the logical impetus, which spying its quarry over precipices, across oceans and deserts, and through systems and webs, and into shops and cabinets of costliest china, will come at it, will not be refused, let the distances and the breakages be what they may.
Chap. 36
'It's the week-day Parson of the middle-class, colonel. They have their thinking done for them as the Chinese have their dancing.
Chap. 47
'Is it? Ah! There's an expedition against the hilltribes in India, and we're such a peaceful nation, eh? We look as if we were in for a complication with China.'
'Well, sir, we must sell our opium.'
'Of course we must. There's a man writing about surrendering Gibraltar!'
'I'm afraid we can't do that.'
'But where do you draw the line?' quoth Tuckham, very susceptible to a sneer at the colonel, and entirely ignorant of the circumstances attending Beauchamp's position before him. 'You defend the Chinaman; and it's questionable if his case is as good as the Spaniard's.'
'The Chinaman has a case against our traders. Gibraltar concerns our imperial policy.'
'As to the case against the English merchants, the Chinaman is for shutting up his millions of acres of productive land, and the action of commerce is merely a declaration of a universal public right, to which all States must submit.'
'Immorality brings its punishment, be sure of that. Some day we shall have enough of China. As to the Rock, I know the argument; I may be wrong. I've had the habit of regarding it as necessary to our naval supremacy.'

1879
Meredith, George. The egoist : a comedy in narrative. (London : C. Kegan Paul, 1879).
Chap. 1
The country and the chief of this family were simultaneously informed of the existence of one Lieutenant Crossjay Patterne, of the corps of the famous hard fighters, through an act of heroism of the unpretending cool sort which kindles British blood, on the part of the modest young officer, in the storming of some eastern riverain stronghold, somewhere about the coast of China.
Chap. 4
They saw him distinctly, as with the naked eye; a word, a turn of the pen, or a word unsaid, offered the picture of him in America, Japan, China, Australia, nay, the continent of Europe, holding an English review of his Maker's grotesques.
Chap. 5
To flatter Sir Willoughby, it was the fashion to exalt her as one of the types of beauty; the one providentially selected to set off his masculine type. She was compared to those delicate flowers, the ladies of the Court of China, on rice-paper.
Chap. 17
"A porcelain vase!" interpreted Sir Willoughby.
"China!" Mrs. Mountstuart faintly shrieked.
Chap. 25
De Craye detained him in the laboratory, first over the China cups and saucers, and then with the latest of London…
Chap. 34
"The cat," said Dr. Middleton, taking breath for a sentence, "that humps her back in the figure of the letter H, or a Chinese bridge has given the dog her answer and her reasons, we may presume: but he that undertakes to translate them into human speech might likewise venture to propose an addition to the alphabet and a continuation of Homer.
Chap. 36
"Your porcelain was exquisitely chosen, and I profess to be a connoisseur," he said. "I am poor in Old Saxony, as you know; I can match the country in Savres, and my inheritance of China will not easily be matched in the country."
Chap. 46
"Not so bright: like a bit of china that wants dusting.

1885
Meredith, George. Diana of the crossways : a novel. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1885).
Chap. 28
Mr. Hepburn, in settling himself on his chair rather too briskly, contrived the next minute to break a precious bit of China standing by his elbow; and Lady Pennon cried out, with sympathetic anguish: 'Oh, my dear, what a trial for you!'
Mr. Hepburn penitentially knelt to pick up the fragments, and Westlake murmured over his head: 'As long as it is we who are the cracked.'
'Did we not start from China?'
'We were consequently precipitated to Stamboul.'
He was witness of Mr. Hepburn's presentation of a costly China vase, to repair the breach in her array of ornaments, and excuse a visit.
Chap. 29
It is the married woman's perpetual dread when she ventures a step. Your Law originally presumed her a China-footed animal.
Chap. 40
And the drawing-room was fitted with her brackets and etageres, holding every knickknack she had possessed and scattered, small bronzes, antiques, ivory junks, quaint ivory figures Chinese and Japanese, bits of porcelain, silver incense-urns, dozens of dainty sundries. She had a shamed curiosity to spy for an omission of one of them; all were there.

1889
Meredith, George. Sandra Belloni. (London, Chapman and Hall, 1889).
Chap. 8
There was never pertness in Emilia's look, which on the contrary was singularly large and calm when it reposed: perhaps her dramatic instinct prompted her half-jaunty manner of leaning against the sunny corner of the house where the Chinese honeysuckle climbed.

1891
Meredith, George. One of our conquerors. (London, Chapman and Hall, 1891).
Chap. 22
We go down, then; complete the furnishing, quite leisurely; accept—listen—accept one or two invitations: impossible to refuse!—but they are accepted!—and we defy her: a crazy old creature: imagines herself the wife of the ex-Premier, widow of Prince Le Boo, engaged to the Chinese Ambassador, et caetera.
Chap. 24
At first, as her letter to her mother described them, they were like a pair of pieces of costly China, with the settled smile, and cold. She saw but the outside of them, and she continued reporting the variations, which steadily determined the warmth. On the night of the third day, they kissed her tenderly; they were human figures.
Chap. 28
Colney cast a weariful look backward on the 'regiments of Anglo-Chinese' represented to him by the moneyed terraces, and said: 'The face of a stopped watch!—the only meaning it has is past date.'
Chap. 37
Will you credit me when I tell you he carries his infatuation so far, that he has been investing in Japanese and Chinese Loans, because they are less meat-eaters than others, and vegetarians are more stable, and outlast us all!

1894
Meredith, George. Lord Ormont and his Aminta. (London : Chapman and Hall, 1894).
Chap. 25
She entertained the wish to work, not only 'for the sake of Somebody,' as her favourite poet sang, but for the sake of working and serving—proving that she was helpfuller than a Countess of Ormont, ranged with all the other countesses in china and Dresden on a drawing-room mantelpiece for show…
Those pretty eyes, their cut of lids hinting at delicate affinities with the rice-paper lady of the court of China, were trying to peer seriously.

1895
Meredith, George. The amazing marriage. (Westminster : Archibald Constable and Co., 1895).
Chap. 30
He went to the window looking on the chimneys she used to see, and touched an ornament over the fireplace, called grandfather's pigtail case—he was a sailor; only a ridiculous piece of china, that made my lady laugh about the story of its holding a pigtail.

Galsang Gomboev wird Adjunkt der Universität St. Petersburg.

Otis Gibson gründet die ersten beiden methodistischen Kirchen in China, die Church of the true God und Church of Heavenly Peace, sowie eine Schule in Fuzhou.

George Compigné Parker Braune ist Student interpreter am britischen Konsulat in Fuzhou, dann in Xiamen.

Martin Crofton Morrison ist Konsul des britischen Konsulats in Xiamen (Fujian).

William Henry Pedder ist 1856-1858, 1860-1878) Generalkonsul des britischen Konsulats in Xiamen (Fujian).

Gründung und Dauer des deutschen Konsulats in Hong Kong.

Gustav von Overbeck ist Vize-Konsul des deutschen Konsulats in Hong Kong.

Rosewell Hobart Graves ist Missionar des Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Guangdong und Guangxi.

John Liggins ist Missionar der Protestant Episcopal Church Mission in Shanghai.

Hampden Moody ist Kommandant der Royal Engineers während des Zweiten Opium-Kriegs.

Gründung der North China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in Shanghai.