China and the West

Gu, Hongming. The universal order [ID D10718].
Gu schreibt : "The distinguishing traits of the devil's character, as we know from Milton, are in an active form, - pride, arrogance, conceit, ambition, presumption, insubordination, 'having no regard or fear for the moral law' or for any thing."

Edward H. Hume gründet das Yale Hospital in Changsha, Hunan.

Gründung der Kai ming yan ju hui (Enlightenment Drama Troup) durch Wang Chongxian und Zhu Shuangyuan.

[Twain, Mark]. Shan jia qi yu. = [Jialifuniya ren de gu shi]. Wu Tao yi. [ID D29421].
Liu Haiming : It is very difficult to trace humor in Twain's tale in the Chinese translation. The translator felt that the theme of the miner's love for his wife and friendship with the other miners was of more interest than the humor, so the translation is full of stirring emotion white the humour of the original has vanished without a trace.
Li Xialo : Wu Tao used vernacular Chinese. The Chinese title and the ending line is borrowed from the Japanese version. The sentimental story seemed to have a particular appeal to some Chinese translators and writers.

Wai guo lie nü zhuan. Chen Shoupeng yi ; Xue Shaohui bian. [ID D29955].
"Mrs. Stowe is a daughter of Beecher the minister. Born in Connecticut on June 15, 1812. When fifteen, she became, at the request of her sister and her neighbors, a teacher at a girls' school in Hartford. After she [Harriet Beecher Stowe] married Pastor Stowe in 1836, her literary talent bloomed under his tutorship. She published a volume of stories called The mayflower, which was deemed a suitable school text for young persons, as a result of which Stowe became well known all over New England. In 1851 she wrote an other book called Uncle Tom's cabin, which was published in Boston in 1852. This was received very enthusiastically, going into four reprints and selling 400'000 copies. It also sold 500'000 copies in Britain, and was translated into the main European languages, besides being adapted for the stage. It was supplemented in 1853 by the author's The key to Uncle Tom's cabin, which enhanced its standing."

Hagede [Haggard, H. Rider]. Hong jiao hua jiang lu. Lin Shu, Wei Yi yi shu. [ID D10423].
Lin Shu schreibt im Vorwort : "The advocacy of deminism presupposes the education of women ; the educated woman would weigh the pros and cons in matters concerning her own matrimony, knowing only too well that indiscretion would not bring her any good, and therefore she would refrain from doing nything reckless... People would learn of the lasciviousness of the Western customs, and then would talk no more of the education of women, but still regard a woman as being virtuous if she has had no education at all. However, this is not what I want to see."

Amos Parker Wilder ist Generalkonsul des amerikanischen Konsulats Hong Kong und Macao.

Thornton Wilder lebt 7. Mai-30. Oktober 1906 mit seiner Familie in Hong Kong.

Thornton Wilder liest Hazelton, George C. ; Benrimo, J. Harry. The yellow jacket [ID D30346], ein Stück das seine spätere dichterische Tätigkeit beeinflussen sollte.

Welthy Honsinger Fischer ist Leiterin der Mädchenschule Bao Lin School in Nanchang.

London, Jack. Brown wolf and other Jack London stories. (New York, N.Y. : Macmillan, 1906).
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12336/12336.txt
Yellow handkerchief.
We ran forward, and found her bowsprit entangled in the tanned rigging of a short, chunky mast. She had collided, head on, with a Chinese junk lying at anchor. At the moment we arrived forward, five Chinese, like so many bees, came swarming out of the little 'tween-decks cabin, the sleep still in their eyes. Leading them came a big, muscular man, conspicuous for his pock-marked face and the yellow silk handkerchief swathed about his head. It was Yellow Handkerchief, the Chinaman whom we had arrested for illegal shrimp-fishing the year before, and who, at that time, had nearly sunk the Reindeer, as he had nearly sunk it now by violating the rules of navigation…
In a couple of minutes we ran softly alongside the bank, and the sail was silently lowered. The Chinese kept very quiet. Yellow Handkerchief sat down in the bottom alongside of me, and I could feel him straining to repress his raspy, hacking cough…
What was to happen next I could not imagine, for the Chinese were a different race from mine and from what I knew I was confident that fair play was no part of their make-up…
I was familiar enough with the Chinese character to know that fear alone restrained them…
Three of the Chinese--they all wore long sea-boots--got over the side, and the other two passed me across the rail. With Yellow Handkerchief at my legs and his two companions at my shoulders, they began to flounder along through the mud….
Half swimming, half wading, with my head just out of water and avoiding splashing, I succeeded in putting about a hundred feet between myself and the spot where the Chinese had begun to wade ashore from the junk. I drew myself out on the mud and remained lying flat…

The heathen.
The six of us cabin passengers were pearl-buyers. Two were Americans, one was A Choon (the whitest Chinese I have ever known), one was a German, one was a Polish Jew, and I completed the half dozen…

Kurt Wulff erhält nach den Studien klassischer und komparativer Philologie in Kopenhagen und Leipzig den Magister in Latein, Griechisch und Englisch.

Kurt Wulff arbeitet am Thesaurus linguae latinae in München und studiert Malayisch-polynesisch und türkische Sprachen.

Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim reist mit seiner Delegation in China nach Kashgar, Khotan, Turfan, Urumchi, Gansu, Innere Mongolei, Shaanxi, Henan, Shanxi bis Beijing. Er sammelt Manuskripte, antike und ethnologische Objekte.

Orvar Karlbeck arbeitet als Eisenbahn-Ingenieur in China von Beijing bis Shanghai und sammelt Bronzen (San guo-Zeit-Han).

Frederick Wyller Schjöth ist Generalkonsul für China

Vasilij Mikhailovic Alexeev reist und studiert in China.

Gu Hongming sent to Leo Tolstoy through the intermediary of the Russian Consul-general his two works Papers from a Vieroy's yamen and Et nunc, reges, intelligite ! : the moral causes of the Russo-Japanese war.
Tolstoy, Leo. Letter to a Chinese (1906). [Letter to Gu Hongming].
"I have received your books and read them with great interest, especially the Papers from a Vieroy's yamen. The life of the Chinese people has always interested me to the hightest degree, and I have taken pains to become acquainted with the things in Chinese life which were accessible to me, for the most part Chinese religious wisdom : the books of Confucius, Mencius, Lao Tzu, and the commentaries on them. I have also read on Chinese Buddhism, as well as the books of Europeans on China.
The Chinese people, who have suffered so much from the immoral, crudely egoistic, and avaricious cruelty of the European peoples, have up to the present replied to all the violence committed against them with a majestic and wise composure, and have preferred patience in the struggle against force. I speak of the Chinese people and not of their government.
The successes of some thieves provoke the envy of others, and the seized prey becomes an object of wrangling and thus brings the thieves themselves to ruin. So it is with dogs, and so also it is with people who have lowered themselves to the level of animals.
I believe, that a great upheaval in the life of humanity is taking place in our time, and that in this upheaval China, at the head of the peoples of the Orient, must play an important rôle. It seems to me that the rôle of the oriental peoples of China, Persia, Turkey, India, Russia, and perhaps also Japan (if it is not completely entangled in the net of the corruption of European civilization) consists in showing to the world the right way to freedom, for which, as you write in your book, the Chinese language has no other word than 'Tao', a way, that is, an activity, which agrees with the eternal fundamental law of human life.
In our time, I believe the turn has now come likewise for orientals in general and Chinese in particular to become aware of the utter harm caused by despotic rule and to seek a means of liberation from it, since under present conditions of life it has become intolerable. I know that it is taught in China that the highest ruler, the Emperor, must be the wisest and most virtuous man, and if he is not, his subjects can and should refuse him allegiance. But I believe that this doctrine represents only an excuse for despotism. The Chinese people cannot know whether their emperor is wise or virtuous.
Especially is this true of China because of the peace-loving character of its people and the poor organization of its army, which give Europeans the opportunity to plunder Chinese territory with impunity under the pretext of various clashes and disagreement with the Chinese government. Thus the Chinese people cannot but feel the necessity of changing their relation to the ruling power. And here I can see from your book, as well as other sources of information, that some light-minded people in China, called the reform party, believe that this change should consist of doing just what the European nations have done, that is, of replacing a despotic government by a republican one, and establishing the same kind of army and industry as those of the West. This decision, which seems at first glance the simplest and most natural, is not only light-minded but very stupid, and, from all that I know about China, quite unnatural for the wise Chinese people.
As soon as people recognize human power as superior to that of God and of His law (Tao), they then become slaves ; all the more so when that power becomes increasingly comples (as in the case of a constitution which they establish and obey). Freedom can exist only for that people for whom the law of God (Tao) is the only supreme law, to which all other laws are subordinate. If you, by refusing to bey your government, will give no help to the foreign powers in their aggressions agains you, and if you refuse to serve them, whether it be in a private, civil, or military capacita, then there will be none of those disasters from which you now suffer.
May the Chinese people but continue to live their peaceful, industrious, agricultural life as they have before, behaving in accordance with the fundamentals of their religions : Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, all three of which basically agree on liberation from all human power (Confucianism), not doing to others what you do not wish to be done to yourself (Taoism), and self-abnegation, humility and love to all people and creatures (Buddhism). Then all those disasters from which they supper will automatically disappear, and no power will be enough to conquer them."

Arthur Alison Stuart Barnes ist Kommandant des Shanghai Volunteer Corps.

Eröffnung des ersten Departements für westliche Kunst in der Jiangsu Jiangxi Normal School in Nanjing.