Year

1926

Text

Type

Publication

Mentioned People (1)

Subjects

Chronology Entries (2)

#	Year	Text	Linked Data
1	1760-1761.2	Goldsmith, Oliver. The citizen of the world, or, Letters from a Chinese philosopher [ID D26901]. (2) Sekundärliteratur 1758 Brief von Oliver Goldsmith an Robert Bryanton. Er schreibt : "I use Chinese names to show my own erudition, as I shall soon make our Chinese talk like an Englishman to show his." He refers in the same letter to himself as 'the Confucius of Europe', which statement seems to indicate that he had learned enough of China to know who Confucius was. 1759 Goldsmith, Oliver. Review of Goguet, Antoine-Yves ; Fugère, Alexandre-Conrad. De l'origine des loix, des arts, et des sciences, et de leurs progrès chez les anciens peuples. (Paris : Chez Desaint & Saillant, 1758). In : Critical review (March 1759). Er schreibt : of the volume of 'curious extracts from Chinese writers', which contain many valuable particulars concerning the history, manners, government, arts and sciences of the ancient Chinese, to which Goguet has had frequent recours in his history. 1762 Review of The citizen of the world by Oliver Goldsmith. In : The critical review (1762). After developing the thesis that human nature has been so fully described that 'nothing more remains for men of genius than to produce new combinations of old thoughts', the reviewer continues : 'Were we to examine these reflections of our Citizen of the world by the standard of originality, our pleasure would be greatly diminished ; but let us view them with regard to utility, and we must confess their merit. What seems cloying to an hundred persons of fastidious appetites, may prove wholesome delicious nourishment to thousands. These letters, if we mistake not, made their first appearance in a daily news-paper, and were necessarily calculated to the meridian of the multitutde, although they greatly surpass any late publications of the same nature, both in diction and sentiment. This circumstance alone would sufficiently plead the author's excuse, had he need of an apology ; that genius must be fruitful, indeed, which can supply such a variety of tastes with daily entertainment. It is rather extraordinary, that the philosophic Lien Chi Altangi could handle so many topics agreeably, and sustain the fatigue of so long a course without weariness, than that he has sometimes stumbled. All his observations are marked with good sense, genius frequently breaks the fetters of restraint, and humour is sometimes successfully employed to enforce the dictates of reason'. 1762 Review of The citizen of the world by Oliver Goldsmith. In : Monthly review (1762). "Although this Chinese philosopher has nothing Asiatic about him, and is as errant an European as the Philosopher of Malmesbury ; yet he has some excellent remarks upon men, manners, and things – as the phrase goes. They are said to be the work of the lively and ingenious Writer of An enquiry into the present state of polite learning in Europe ; a writer, whom, it seems, we undesignedly offended, by some strictures on the conduct of many of our modern scribblers." 1762 Rider, William. An historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the living authors of Great-Britain. (London : Printed for the Author, 1762). Er schreibt über The citizen of the world by Oliver Goldsmith : "But the Chinese letters, first published in the Ledger, in numbers, and since republished in volumes, under the Title of Citizen of the world, are, of all the productions of this author, those that do the highest honour to his genius, as they must be acknowledged by every reader free from influence of prepossession, to be but little inferior to the Persian letters of the celebrated Montesquieu. To conclude Dr. Goldsmith's character as an author, it must be acknowledged, that whilst he is surpassed by few of his contemporaries with regard to the matter which his writings contain, he is superior to most of them in style, having happily found out the secret to unite elevation with ease, a perfection in language, which few writers of our nation have attained to." [William Rider (London 1723-1785 London) : Historiker, Priester, Autor]. 1926 L.F. Powell : Goldsmith copied for his Citizen of the world extensively from D'Argens Lettres chinoises and made use of Du Halde. He took the name of his Chinese philosopher Lien Chi Altangi from Walpole and that of his chief correspondent Fum-Hoam from Gueulette. 1939 Ch'en Shou-yi : The Chinese letters not only assured Goldsmith's literary fame, but also marked the culmination of English interest in Chinese culture and things Chinese. Goldsmith pretends to give to the public the correspondence of a Mandarin, a disciple of Confucius, Lien Chi Altangi by name, who at other times corresponds with a mechant of Amsterdam, and at other times with his son Hing Po, a slave in Persia. The majority of the letteres were addressed to his friend 'Fum Hoam, First President of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China'. The Chinese Empire is represented as a race which claims to have been descended from the Sun (XLII). Although the Chinese tolerate the followers of Fohi (X), and the belief in transmigration of souls (XV), their religion is on the whole rational (X) and tolerant (XLII). While the Chinese may be outdone by the Europeans 'in the art of building ships, casting cannons, or measuring mountains', they are not to be excelled in matters of governing kingdoms and themselves (XLII). The Chinese emperor being monarchical and yet paternal, his laws are enlightened and merciful (LXXX), seeking not only to punish vice, but also to reward virtue (LXXII). There is a universal passion for politics there, as in England (IV). Learning flourishes in China because even the emperor himself takes cognizance ot the doctors in the kingdom who profess authorship (XXIX). Their writings, unlike those of other parts of the Orient, are phlegmatic (XXXIII), and soliloquies are not admitted in their plays (XXI). Missionaries (IV) and English factors (XXXIV) are allowed (II), nor are they permitted to do so (VI). On account of this cultural isolation, their ancient genius for inventions (CVIII) sometimes relapses into pure ignorance (CV). The ancient sage born about the same time as was Pythagoras (CIII), was Confucius, a man of practical wisdom. The Chinese love this life and hate to die (XII). It is owing to this natural attachment to the present life that they are so fond of things wordly. They like magnificent interments (XII) ; are fond of seeing plays (XXI), of dancing (which even as a profession is not considered contemptible) (XXI), of pompous equipage (XXXII), of elegant manners (XXXIII), of gardening (XXXI), of riding horses (LXXI), and of luxury (II). To maintain good health, they specialize in the art of feeling pulses (LXVIII). The Chinese women understand decorum (XXXIX). They seldom leave their house (VIII), and it is only on special days that they gamble (CII). The chief virtue they cherish is that of chastity (XIX). As to beauty, they have a different standard from the European : broad faces, short noses, little eyes, thin lips, and black teeth (III, XIII, CXVI). According to the Chinese, a woman is endowed by Fohi with three souls (XCVII). The genius for love is suppressed by ceremony in China, as it is by avarice in Europe, jealousy in Persia, poverty in Tartary, and lust in Circassia. Yet, the rest of the world, China only execpted, are strangers to the delights and advantages of love (CXVI). The supreme representative of the Chinese nation is Lien Chi Altangi, a native of Honan (I), who has left China against imperial mandates to learn from abroad, having travelled through Tartary and Siberia, and thence to Holland, before his arrival in England. His chief business being to procure wisdom (VII), he loves both nature and man. He hold the 'volume of nature' as the book of knowledge (IV). He believes in the Universal Soul (VI). He willingly submits to the stroke of Heaven (VII). But he is also fond of gay company (LIV), although he thinks that too much commerce may injure a nation (XXV). He is a discontented wanderer (LVI), but 'a universal friend of man' (XXIII). He is tolerant in his views (LXII) and appreciative of other nations (VIII). Having conferred with missionaries while in China (VII, XVI, XXII), he has 'almost become British' after some residence in England (LXXXXV). He is attached to his former master Fum Hoam, and loves his son Hing Po as a philosopher should (XLVIII, LXVII, C). The man in black, his English friend, is held by him in high esteem (XIII, XXI, XXIV). Well-versed in his own national culture, he yet seeks to learn from other nations. He reads European literature (XLIII, LIII, LXXII). Johnson and Smollet he praises as 'truly poets' (XL). The death of Voltaire he mourns, without being blind to the difference between the French philosophe and Confucius (III). He attacks superficiality (the flippant craze for chinoiseries) (CXVII), superstition (XXII), and sentimentality (CXVII). In short, he reasons without prejudice (XXV), and as he travels to increase happiness, and not merely out of curiosity (VII, XVI), the world 'is but a city' to him (CXXIII). The use Goldsmith has made of Chinese material does not only reflect contemporary English taste for things Chinese, but also reveals the author's own interest in the Chinese people, although, he neither aspires to be a critic nor tries to be an interpreter of Chinese culture. The passages that compare China favourably with Europe, or more particularly with England, usually do not indicate any positive enthusiasm for China on the part of Goldsmith. His chief purpose is to enlighten or satirize England and not to exalt or interpret China. China is represented as inferior to England, or the Chinese as inferior to the English, in order to make the ridicule more pungent. Most of the comparisons and contrasts are more jocose than serious, and are therefore to be taken more as Goldsmith's critical device than as his mediated opinion. Goldsmith's Chinese Philosopher is also made to voice somewhat unexpected and disconcerting criticism of English ideas and manners. Although Lien Chi Altangi is a citizen of the world, who aspires to be the 'universal friend of man', he is nevertheless an Asiatic who 'sees many superior excellences among the English, which it is not in the power of all their follies to hide, and who 'desires to discover those differences with result from climate, religion, education, prejudice, and partiality'. More often than not, the Oriental's remarks are far from being complimentary to the Englishman. In addition to Chinese tales, Goldsmith has studded his Letters with occasional quotations from Chinese sages, most frequently from Confucius. Strangely enough, he is not so much interested in Confucius' ideas as in his own. For most of the quotations are forgeries. There are a number of epigrammatic sayings in the letter, but none of them bears any noticeable resemblance to Confucius' Analects. Goldsmith is fond of manufacturing a sentence to suit an occasion and of attributing it to Confucius to make is 'poignant'. Goldsmith's principal interest in Chinese life and manners, lies chiefly in their usefulness as a literary decoration and as a means to his critical and satirical end. Like some of his contemporaries, Goldsmith is on the whole unfriendly to the current vogue of 'Chinese taste'. The craze for Chinese furniture and porcelain, for Chinese gardening and Chinese architecture, for Chinese fireworks and for goldfish, are one and all ridiculed. Not an enthusiastic admirer of China, Goldsmith's attitude is indifferent rather than antagonistic. He only caters to the taste of his time to the extent of making use of Chinese correspondents. But the Chinese philosopher is merely a satirical vehicle, and there our author stops. As Goldsmith never showed much respect for either Leibniz or Wolff, it is not surprising that he did not catch their enthusiasm for the culture of China. But it is rather curious that even Voltaire, for whom Goldsmith expressed considerable admiration, and to whom he was indebted for a noticeable amount of influence, should have failed to inspire in the author a keener interest of China. Golsdmith remained an indifferent writer with regard to China. His attitude may be explained perhaps, by the fact that enthusiasm for China never grew very strong in England, and that Goldsmith was too cosmopolitan on the one hand, and British on the other, to have his attention exlusively engaged in any single distant land. 1941 Qian Zhongshu : The story and its characters like Beau Tibbs, the Man in Black, and the Chinese philosopher himself, are too well-known to need re-telling here. The pompous and highly floriated style affected in the first two letters from Lien Chi Altangi is soon dropped to be spasmodically resumed in the books. Goldsmith himself seems to have been aware of this lack of consistency in tone, and tried to forestall the criticism of being "un-Eatern and out of character" in Letter XXXIII and Letter LI by showing that "the sonorous, lofty, musical and unmeaning style which passes for Chinese among the English" is really not Chinese at all. Thus, we venture to think that the apology for the "concise, simple, grave, sententious, and dull" style in the preface and Letter XXXIII represents partly Goldsmith's considered opinion and Letter XXXIII represents partly Goldsmith's considered opinion on the subject of Chinese literature, and partly his attempt to make a virtue of necessity. It must have been impossible for Goldsmith's simple and charming genius to keep on writing inflated and stileted prose to the very bitter end of the book. After one or two letters in the pseudo-oriental style, even the fun of parody must have begun to pall. If The citizen of the world is on the whole a genial satire of the English, does it also reveal Goldsmith's attitude towards the Chinese ? For example the passage in the preface : "The furniture, frippery and fireworks of China have long been fashionably bought up. I'll try the fair with a small cargo of Chinese morality. If the Chinese have contributed to vitiate our taste, I'll try how far they can help to improve our understanding". Obviously the "help to understanding" comes from Goldsmith himself, whereas the "vitiation of taste" is a blame to be laid on the Chinese. In Letter XII, he openly criticised the "Chinese taste" by describing "a lady of distinction" who "has got twenty things from China that are of no use in the world... pea-green jars, sprawling dragons, squatting pagods and clumsy mandarins". The lady, with more curiosity than good manners, buttoonholed Lien Chi Altangi in the street, wanted to see him eat and use chop-stocks, and asked him to speak Chinese so that she might hear the sound of the language. Letter XXXI contains a caricature of the Chinese garden the very disposition of whose groves, grottos and streams inculcated morals and wisdom. In Letter CX, Lien Chi Altangi gloated over the fact that the English had filled their houses with Chinese furniture, their public gardens with Chinese fireworks, and their very ponds with goldfish which had come from China. In Letter LXXXIX Goldsmith satirised both the theory of the Egyptian origin of the Chinese and the Noah-Fohi hypothesis. The following quotation from Letter LXIII is most revelatory of Goldsmith's opinion of China : "Yet believe me, my friend, that even China itself is imperceptibly degenerating from their ancient greatness : her laws are now more venal, and her merchants are more deceitful than formerly ; the very arts and sciences have run to decay... There was a time when China was the receptacle of strangers ; when all were welcome who either came to improve the state, or admire its greatness ; now the empire is shut up from every foreign improvement, and the very inhabitants discourage each other from prosecuting their own oriental advantages". 1951 Peter Venne : Goldsmiths Buch ist eine satirisch-kritische Zeitbetrachtung durch den Mund eines Chinesen, der allerdings nur eine konstruierte Gestalt ist, bekleidet mit vielen Details, wie sie der Verfasser aus den geläufigen Chinaberichten entnehmen konnte. Es kam ihm auch nicht darauf an, einen realen Chinesen zu zeichnen, sonderne eine literarische Kunstfigur, die abseits stand von der europäischen Kultur- und Gesittungswelt und darum geeignet erschien, objektive Kritik zu üben. Seine meist beissenden Bemerkungen zu englischen Zuständen vertreten den gesunden Menschenverstand, der sich zu distanzieren weiss von dem, was Gewohnheit oder Mode als Norm aufgestellt haben, und mit unbefangenem, unvoreingenommenem Auge auf die Dinge schaut. So bringt Brief XIII eine satirische Kritik des Verfassers and der unwürdigen Zuseisung von Plätzen im Ehrentempel der Nation, Westminster Abbey, gegen Bezahlung, sowie eine scharfe Ironisierung des Museumskultes. Brief XXI schildert einen Theaterbesuch und enthält eine fesselnde Kritik der zeitgenössischen englischen Bühne. Der Chinese tritt hier auf als Vertreter einer gesunden, phlegmatisch-überlegenen Vernünftigkeit, die nur staunen kann über die Unsinnigkeiten des westlichen Geschmacks. Die englischen Bühnen- und Theatergepfogenheiten jener Zeit erscheinen aus einer solchen neutralen Schau allerdings seltsam genug, und Goldsmith hat die Gelegenheit, seinen feinen Spott über die englische Gesellschaft auszugiessen, reichlich benutzt. In Brief XXXIII wird die populäre geringschätzige Beruteilung Chinas sichtbar, zu der Robinsons Bericht einen Teil beigesteuert haben mag. Der Brief handelt von den naiven, lächerlichen und doch unverbesserlichen Ansichten der Engländer über die Chinesen. Wohin er komme – erzählt unser Philosoph seinem Pekinger Freund – errege er Misstrauen oder Verwunderung. Einige wollten nicht glauben, dass er ein Chinese sei, weil er mehr einem Menschen gleiche als einem Monstrum. Andere wunderten sich, dass jemand fünftausend Meilen von England entfernt geboren und doch mit gesundem Menschenverstand begabt sein könne. "Seltsam", sagen sie, "dass ein Mensch, der seine Erziehung so weit von London empfangen hat, common sense haben soll. Er muss wohl ein 'verkleideter Engländer' sein. Nicht einmal sein Gesicht hat etwas von echter fremdländischer Barbarei". Allerdings hatte Goldsmiths Held so viel von einem Europäer der Aufklärungszeit an sich und so wenig von einem Chinesen, dass der Verdacht von dem 'verkleideten Engländer' nicht unbegründet war. In einem Briefe erzählt der Chinese dann von einer Einladung bei einer Lady, die ihre Kenntnisse des Ostens aus den vielen Romanen geschöpft hatte, "die hier täglich verbreitet werden". Die Behandlung, die er erhält, ist denn auch ein Niederschlag dieser Romankenntnisse. Er wird mit seltsamen Aufmerksamkeiten arg bedrängt, aber er kann den Leuten nicht böse sein, da ja alles nur ein Übermass von Höflichkeit ist. Als er aber bescheiden dagegen zu protestieren wagt, da das gar nicht chinesisch sei, wird ihm bündig erklärt, dass man Grund habe, sich als Kenner in chinesischen Dingen zu betrachten. Noch mancherlei Belehrung über wahren orientalischen Stil und Geschmack muss er über sich ergehen lassen. Doch kann er sich nicht versagen, sich nachdrücklich dagegen zu wehren, dass sein Landsleute in eine Reihe gestellt werden mit ungebildeten Barbaren : Türken, Persern und Eingeborenen von Peru. Er weist hin auf die Leistungen chinesischer Wissenschaft und weiss zu berichten, dass manche seiner Landsleute sich auch westliche Bildung angeeignet hätten, nicht schlechter als ein Student in Paris. Aber so sehr sich der chinesische Gast auch bemüht, er findet bei dem Publikum gar keine Aufmerksamkeit, so dass er es für das Beste hält, sich zu empfehlen. In Brief LXXXVI verbreitet er sich über die Sportbegeisterung der Engländer, die dem konservativen Chinese bis heute noch immer nur ein Kopfschütteln abnötigen konnte. Für die hochgeborenen Sieger im Pferderennen hat er nur Spott : "Wie glorreich muss solch ein Senator erscheinen in Mütze und Lederhosen, die Peitsche quer im Munde durch das Ziel jagend, unter dem Beifallsgeschrei von Pferdeknechten, Jockeys, in Ställen aufgewachsener Herzöge und heruntergekommene Generäle." 1971 Jody Faye Ponthieu : The guise of the Chinese persona failed to fool the British public for long, and the modern reader is apt to feel that the clumps of story essays which do appear are little more than an attempt to make the persona more convincing. This lack of dominance on the story line emphasizes the comparison of cultures, a fact which Goldsmith seems to have had in mind in his composition. Letter III : to the bizarre dress of the English. Altangi looks about him and compares the English men and women with their counterparts in his native China. When the philosopher compares the ladies of China to those of England he finds the latter quite ugly. Rather than having small feet as do the Chinese women, the English women have large feet, often as long as ten inches. The Chinese women are blessed with broad faces, small eyes, thin lips, short noses, pencil-fine eye brows, and black teeth. In comparison to such beauty, Altangi finds the English women frightfully odious. Not only does the dress of Chinese and English women differ but also the manners ; especially the preliminaries of courtship are considerably different. There is a difference between the Chinese and the English political system. In Altangi's country the emperor endeavours to instruct his people, in theirs the people endeavour to instruct the administration. China is governed by familial loyalty and has never become engaged in endless war. In China, says Altangi, there is a great cooperation among authors for each to contribute in a unifying way to the body of learning. On the other hand, in England the situation is reversed. Each author looks upon his associates as rivals, and there is constant bickering and ridicule. Altangi states that Confucius observed that it was the "duty of the learned to unite society more closely, and to persuade men to become citizens of the world," but English authors strive to disconnect the union of all men. 1979 David Wei-yang Dai : Lien Chi Altangi possesses a natural love for all mankind. A man of genuine benevolence must be compassionate. Lien Chi says 'actual love is the spontaneous production of the mind, no generosity can purchase, no rewards increase, nor no liberality continue it : the very person who is obliged has it not in his power to force his lingering affections upon the object he should love, and voluntarily mix passion with gratitude. Love is often an involuntary passion. We love some men, we know not why ; our tenderness is naturally excited in all their concerns ; we excuse their faults with the same indulgence. Goldsmith, like Confucius, seeks to promote the universal benevolence found in all good-natured person. In Letter XXVII Goldsmith traces the history of the Man in Black with affection and esteem. Five passages of the second part of the essay end with the phrase 'I was tolerably good-natured, and had not the least harm in me'. The world inevitably rejects good-natured men such as he, not because their benevolencs is false, but because men of the world are selfish. Only one can exist, the good or the evil, no coexistence ist possible. Confucius also maintains that 'true benevolence' is 'to love all men', and to take no note of the result. The problem faced by the father of the Man in Black is that 'he loved all the world, and he fancied all the world loved him'. In reality, most of the beneficiaries of such love meet this benevolence with contempt. Goldsmith distinguishes between true love and gratitude. True love neither expects nor desires a reward, but loves for its own sake, for love is all the reward. Lien Chi Altangi, the Chinese philosopher, recognizes that his fortitude is the origin of his pride. 'I know but of two sects of philosophers in the world that have endevoured to inculcate that fortitude is but an imaginary virtue ; I mean the followers of Confucius, and those who profess the doctrines of Christ. All other sects teach pride under misfortunes ; they alone teach humility'. Lien Chi encourages his son, Hingpo, to live according to his passion. Passion may lead people to vice but can also direct to virtue. Pride, for Lien Chi, is vice as well as virtue. All depends on the conditions. However, if a person rids himself of all passion and pride, he loeses the possibility of being virtuous and happy. Lien Chi Altangi finds that Confucian philosophy is embodied in Voltaire, the poet and philosopher. The philosopher makes people wise, the poet makes people happy. At the end of a silvery panegyric, Goldsmith presents another typical Chinese philosophical attitude : 'Let his errors rest in peace, his excellences deserve admiration ; let me with the wise admire his wisdom ; let the envious and the ignorant ridicule his foibles ; the folly of others is ever most ridiculous to those who are themselves most foolish'. Like Confucius, Goldmith believes that 'a benevolent disposition contributed to public prosperity'. Lien Chi Altangi with his friends, the Man in Black, Beau Tibbs, Fum Hoam, and his son Hingo are humorous, benevolent, and amiable characters. They embody such attractive qualities in Goldsmith as his 'exuberant humour – and that mastery in the pathetic wich, though it seems opposed to the gift of humour, is often found in conjunction with it'. 1990 Willi Richard Berger : Höhepunkt der fiktiven Reisekorrespondenz im chinesischen Kostüm und neben den Lettres persanes das einzige Werk der Gattung von weltliterarischem Rang ist Citizen of the world. Lien Chi Altangi wechselt Briefe mit Fum Hoam, dem Leiter der Zeremonienakademie in Peking, und mit Hongpo, seinem Sohn, der dem Vater nach England nachfolgt und unterwegs in Persien in eine Reihe romanhafter Abenteuer verwickelt wird. Der Wechsel der Adressaten wirkt der Monotonie entgegen, die sich bei dieser Gattung leicht einstellt, auch halten die Reiseschicksale des Sohns das Interesse des Lesers über das blosse Vergnügen an der satirischen Entlarvung hinaus in einer ganz ähnlichen Weise wach, wie dies bei Montesquieu die Serail-Intrige im fernen Isfahan vermag. Goldsmith hatte zunächst wie Montesquieu einen Orientalen, einen Bürger aus Morokko oder Fez, zum Korrespondenten nehmen wollen ; angesichts der in England grassierenden 'China-Madness' durfte er sich aber von einem Chinesen eine grössere publizistische Wirkung erhoffen. Die Chinese letters waren auch bald so populär, dass der Public Ledger sie auf der ersten Seite veröffentlichte und andere Journale sie nachdruckten. Goldsmith knüpft [u.a.] bewusst an Montesquieu an, von dem er viele Motive, ja ganze Szenen übernimmt. Seine Informationen über China bezog Goldsmith wie alle anderen aus den jesuitischen Publikationen. Von hier stammen die 'konfuzianischen' Weisheiten, die Lien Chi Altangi in seine Briefe an den Sohn einflicht, von hier die positiven Urteile über chinesische Moral und Kultur, Geschichte und Gesellschaftsordnung, die sich vor allem in den Briefen des Akademiedirektors aus Peking finden. Fum Hoam ist der eigentliche Lobredner Chinas in dieser Korrespondenz, des traditionellen Chinas zumal, denn wenn auch dessen konservatives Beharrungsvermögen sich leuchtend von der Geschichte Europas abhebt, die trotz allen technischen Fortschritts eine 'chaotische Folge von Revolutionen', 'a tiddue of crimes, follies and misfortunes' (XIIL) darstellt, so ist doch auch China der Naturgesetzlichkeit des historischen Wandels und der Gefahr des Verfalls ausgesetzt. Gerade das gegenwärtige China erlebt, so Fum Hoam, eine Phase der Dekadenz, genau wie das zeitgenössische Europa (LXIII). Der Naturzustand in dem die Tataren leben, ist für Goldsmith nichts Erstrebenswertes ; ihm ist eine geistig und materiell hochentwickelte Kultur wie die chinesische trotz aller Gefährung durch Genusssucht, Luxus und Lasterhaftigkeit allemal vorzuziehn (X, XI). Fum Hoam ist nicht das Sprachrohr des Autors, denn Goldsmith macht sich frei von dem durch die Jesuiten und die kontinentale Aufklärung begründeten 'Mirage chinois', dem er überall in seinem Quellenmaterial begegnete. Sein wahrer Protagonist Lien Chi hat einen sehr viel freieren Blick auf die Welt und die Dinge, als sich aus den China-hagiographischen Missionsschriften gewinnen liess ; er urteilt selbständig, subjektiv und jedenfalls origineller als der Kulturkonservative Vorsitzende der Zeremonieakademi, origineller auch als die langatmigen Korrespondenten des Marquis d'Argens, bei denen Goldsmith sich so ausgiebig bedient hat. Gewiss, Lien Chi Altangi ist ein 'Philosoph', wie es sich für den Chinesen à-la-mode gehört. Aber abstrakte Tugendideale und spitzfindige Erörterungen über den wahren Gottesbegriff kümmern ihn wenig, und die Verstiegenheiten der Chinoiserien finden nichts als seinen Spott. (XIV). Wenn dieser 'Weltbürger' schon als 'Philosoph' gelten soll, so allenfalls als ein Philosoph der praktischen Vernunft ; konfuzianische Weisheit äussert sich bei ihm als gesunder Menschenverstand, als typisch englischer Common sense. Zwar ist Lien Chi gebildet und gelehrt, erweist sich als überlegener Kenner der Welt und der Menschen und ist von seinem Autor zudem mit einem würdevollen Ernst ausgestattet worden, wie sie dem 'Chinois philosophe' zukam. Lien Chi Altangi tritt als lebendige, durch viele Einzelzüge plastisch charakterisierte Individualität vor uns hin. Unbefangenheit von Blick und Urteil, Liebenswürdigkeit und urbaner Charme, Humor, geistreicher Witz und spitzzüngige Ironie, Wohlerzogenheit, Gesittetheit, Humanität und moralisches Engagement. Mit epischer Detailfreude blättert Goldsmith eine zeitgenössische 'Chronik der laufenden Ereignisse' auf, die bis heute nichts von ihrer Frische und Originalität verloren hat. Modetorheiten, Sektenwesen, Seuchenangst, Gottesdienst, Prostitution, Theaterkrieg, Wahlen, Pferderennen, Dekadenz des Adels, Titel- und Tablettensuche, Ehe und Ehebruch, Kurpfuscherei und die Eitelkeiten der Gelehrtenrepublik – nicht, was der kritisch-humoristischen Glossierung durch den Fremden entginge. Für Abwechslung sorgen vor allem die überall eingeschobenen rein erzählenden Partien : kleine moralische Erzählungen meist satirischen und humoristischen Charakters. Letztlich geht es Goldsmith weder um eine satirische Degration Europas noch um eine Verspottung chinesischer Wunderlichkeiten, vielmehr um einen kosmopolitischen Kulturvergleich, bei der beide Seiten einmal besser, einmal schlechter abschneiden, um eine west-östliche Synthese zuletzt, für die das anspruchsvolle Wort vom 'Citizen of the world' nicht zu hoch gegriffen ist. 1993 Christopher Brooks : Goldsmith situates his satirist and protagonist Lien Chi Altangi squarely in the role of impostor. Moreover, Goldsmith's use of an oriental figure as an impostor of sorts brings into view an important array of assumptions about orientalism, the identity of the 'other' in occidental works, and the nature of English imperialism. Goldsmith vacillates between his occasional attempts to make Altangi seem 'genuine' and his use of Altangi as a mere literary and ironic device, a practice that again signals the imposture at hand. The tension that arises when a realistic literary persona devolves into a simpler form, that of 'eiron', serves to millify the version of the 'Orient' envisioned by Edward Said : the clownish Chinese philosopher becomes the satirical puppet master at the expense of the English reader who identifies with the fad chinoiserie. But this shift also occurs at the expense of the oriental persona that Goldsmith created, manipulated, altered, and then abandoned. Altangi is often unable to discern the social status of his hosts and hostesses. Thus, Goldsmith depicts his Chinese philosopher encountering members of various classes as each reveals his or her participation in the Chinese vogue, be it by language, art, architecture, cuisine, or something else, and as each insists on defining orientalism as a Westerner perceives it. When the subject of an essay concerns Chinese fashion of any sort, Goldsmith becomes an archironist 'imposing' his editor's occidental sarcasm and editorial notes onto Altangi's narrative. When Altangi is the central narrator and biographical participand and his subject matter is China, his hubris becomes that of an 'alazon', a braggart to be undermined by an 'eiron', usually played by Goldsmith-as-narrator and editor. But when Altangi plays the role of an outsider and turns his eyes to British society, he becomes the classic victim described by Said's orientalism in that each of his English hosts attempts to redefine the oriental observer into an occidentalized version of what 'should be' a Chinese visitor. Goldsmith's work : his Chinaman is, in effect, engaged in the buying and selling of ideas, misrepresentations, half-truths, and subtle impostures. China as topic of expansionist interest gives way in Goldsmith's story to China as vehicle for ironic discourse. Altangi encounters numerous English characters to whom he says nothing about China, though he insists on 'being' Chinese. Not only does pretension threaten the reality of the individual but, as Goldsmith and others would assert, the pretense of chinoiserie threatens the traditions of England itself. Goldsmith, after all, saw Chinese arts as offering a poor model and wrote in a critical review that 'there is not a single attempt to address the imagination, or influence the passions ; such therefore are very improper models for imitation. In other words, the lack of 'imagination' in Chinese arts stood at an opposite pole to the tenets of Goldsmith's neoclassicism, a posture that privileged the imagination not only in poetry but in biography and history as well. Goldsmith's satire sought to use China satirically, with Goldsmith constantly altering the Orient to suit his needs as Altangi arbirarily vacillates between Englishman and Chinaman, 'eiron' and 'alazon', illusion and fact, observer and, antecedent to Said's view, 'observed'. The collection of Chinese Letters does employ the Orient as a 'surrogate self' or illusion image in which the vogue-oriented English see the imposture of their own hubris, but the image is an occidentalized version of the Orient based on hearsay and incomplete evidence, creating room for Goldsmith's satire on English behavior at the expense of Chinese tales. Altangi's character does not claim to have visited China : his pretense is to 'be' Chinese – and to be irritated that he is 'not' treated as such. In so doing, of course, the ultimate irony of Goldsmith's imposture is underlined : he, too, has written 'many a sheet of eastern tale', little of which is original, none of which emerges from firsthand experience of China. Altangi's plea to be taken seriously, is part of the aesthetic of imposture, a product of Goldsmith's imaginative but not wholly creative process, in turn a process that found Goldsmith's original reading audience dabating the reality of Altangi's letters. Goldsmith does 'victimize' his reader with deceptive, illusionary 'knowledge' about the Orient, but even more critically he victimizes Altangi and the Orient that he represents by casting this Chinese wanderer in the alternative role of 'alazon-eiron'. Altangi is sometimes looked down upon for his foolish misreading of English society, making him a victim of his own dubious self-knowledge. He also imposes on his reader, giving misinformation about the Orient that the reader must decode. Goldsmith's conversion of Altangi from his initial self as a Chinese 'eiron' into an English 'alazon' is certainly not done for the sake of the Orient but is done to protect an emulating culture from a seductive otherness. But in playing two such roles, both of which are intimately tied to the Orient, Altangi muddles the reality in such a way that little, if anything, is actually learned about the China of the eighteenth century, save for the English fondness for and subsequent rejection of the Eastern fad. The whole of the Chinese Letters becomes a fabric made out of facts and fictions about the Orient that Goldsmith weaves into a single literary imposture, an imposture that exposes the very nature of emulative thinking and behavior, and a satire that exploits as its vehicle the apparent 'idiot-savant' nature of its Chinese narrator. Altangi is merely a mirror for English manners, and his imposture is a reflection of their own. Moreover, Altangi offers the English the opportunity literally to 'recognize' that the real China is not present in misshapen pagodas and exotic ideas. And he provides them with a tool with which to recognize how little they know, in fact, of themselves. In a nation of disguises, Goldsmith employs numerous pretenders who are specifically victims of the Chinese vogue. They emerge wherever pretense is never far away, as another of Altangi's encounter with an English sinophile reveals. Altangi enters a woman's home that is vertably filled with Chinese materials. She admits, 'I have got twenty things from China that are of no use in the world. Quite empty and useless upon my honour'. Upon being shown the Chinese temple in woman's garden, Altangi remarks, 'Where I stand I see nothing, madam, at the end of the garden that may not as well be called an Egyptian pyramid as a Chinese temple ; for that little building in view is as like the one as t'other'. The woman response : 'You surely must be mistaken. Mr. Freeze, who designed it, called it one, and nobody disputes his pretensions'. This 'lady of distinction' demonstrates all that is imposing about chinoiserie. She initially 'had taken [Altangi] for an Englishman', but upon being informed about his Chinese heritage, 'instantly lifted herself from the couch, while her eyes sparkled with unusual vicacity'. Altangi is, in fact, 'English' not by appearance but by his satirical, commentative nature. That the woman is quickly persuaded to perceive him as Chinese again implies that China was a mirror for satire and her own faddish self-deception, and nothing more. Altangi's masquarade – as an oriental, cosmopolite, savant – does allude 'perversely' to the British Empire, for it brings out the worst in English behavior : hubris, egoism, racism. More important to this study, it demonstrates the depths of emulative silliness and the exploitative 'use' of the Orient. We learn a great deal about English behavior in the narrative, but little about Chinese society that was not previously available in Du Halde, Montesquieu, D'Argens, or Lyttleton. Goldsmith creates and then abandons Altangi. Altangi does not go 'home' to China, as China was never his home and China was certainly never his identity. No longer of 'use', Altangi is left alone, his identity unacknowledged. 1996 Tao, Zhijian : The eighteenth century saw not only the rise of Britain as a great empire, it saw also the emergence of the modern spirit of cosmopolitanism, represented by the flood of foreign-travel and foreign-observer fictions, resulting from Europe's, particularly England's, newly-enlarged access to the rest of the world. Whether as trenchant satire on English customs, mentalities, and politics, or as a fanciful evocation of exotic mores, the traveller's story is, in complex ways, informed by England's growing geopolitical visions – its developing demand for foreign markets and its quest for power. The citizen of the world appeared during January 1760-August 1761, a period when Britain was about to become the biggest colonial power. When he collected his Chinese letters into a book, he changed that generally known title to The citizen to the world. As many critics note, his intent was to teach a cosmopolitan humanism, which would transcend political and national confines. This cosmopolitan ideal was shared by many of the englightenment philosophers in Europe. Goldsmith's political stance as a Tory loyalist opposint the Tory war policy, is clearly stated in his journalistic 'Chinese letters'. Goldsmith's portagonist meets a politician who supports the expansion of the British Empire. “We are a commercial nation, we have only to cultivate commerce like our nighbours the Dutch ; it is our business to encrase trade by settling new colonies : riches are the strength of a nation (XXV). One could argue that Goldsmith is merely showing that even patriotism should not argue for colonial expansion, and that a broader view and a more generous spirit of cosmopolitanism is just what Goldsmith is propagating. Yet the cosmopolitan sentiments embodied in The citizen of the world and informed by the empire's broadening geopolitical experiences, necessarily express an imperialist politics – even though this political stance remains, to a great extent, implicit and is masked, in particular, by the rhetoric of humanistic cosmopolitanism. On one side of Goldsmith's satire, China as the Other is often frivolously appreciated as the ideal, on the other side, it is also tacitly the butt of criticism. Donna Isaacs Alnekoff aptly find that 'while Chinese nationality renders the protagonist a convenient satirist, it renders him an equally convenient object of satire. Goldsmith exploits the associations of China with extreme formality, pedantry, and ceremonialism to turn his philosopher into a figure of ridicule'. This is true not only of Lien China, but also of China and things Chinese, in general. They all provide, at once, contrasting images to ridiculous English idiosyncrasies and images to be ridiculed. China, as an abstract utopian construct, is admired for many things. First of all, there is the Chinese political system. Fum Hoam boasts of Chinese excellence in 'the greatest of all arts, the art of governing kingdoms and ourselves. The whole state may be said to resemble one family, of which the emperor is the protector, father, and friend. (XLII). Lien Chi ist quite taken aback by the oddity of English politics. 'In our well-managed country the Emperor endeavours to instruct the people, in theirs, the people endeavour to instruct the administration. (IV). Although Goldsmith is known to have advocated greater monarchical power and can, therefore, be taken as genuine in his criticism of such anarchism as the people instructing the administration, his criticism of Chinese politics is also unmistakable. Goldsmith's treatment of Chinese government is a case in point. His praise of the Chinese political system is feigned, and its insincerity is easy to detect because the ostensible positive view is rebutted by hard 'facts'. Goldsmith notes that 'the very Chinese, whose religion allows him two wives, takes not half the liberties of the English in this particular. By giving such ostensible credit to the Chinese, Goldsmith is criticizing the English who 'keeps as many wives as he can maintain'. But he is clearly using a double-edged weapon : the old Chinese practice of polygamy, which in Goldsmith's account of Chinese religion appears to be methodical, gets at least its share of the criticism – and this is very much at the expense of China, as part of the mysterious and evil ethos of the 'Orient'. Goldsmith's satire participates blatantly in the wilful, European concoction of the exotic. The Chinese sense of beauty, as well, is purposely distorted and denigrated in Goldsmith's narrative. Lien Chi nostalgically pictures 'the small-footed beauties of China' “How very broad their faces ; how very short their noses ; how very little their eyes ; how very thin their lips ; how very black their teeth”. Arbitrary management of China was prevalent in eighteenth-century Britain – one of its manifestations being the China fad, or chinoserie, which was later mocked by many, including Goldsmith. The citizen offers a good case of such satire for study. Here the management of China proceeds on at least two levels : first, the knowledge of the Orient and of China collected 'from fictions every day propagated here, under the titles of eastern tales and oriental histories', and, second, the assiduous and admirable efforts made by the Chinaman (Goldsmith) in yet another fiction for 'straighten' things out. When the Chinese traveller is invited to a dinner given by a lady of distinction, instruction about China, instead of being sought from him, is imprudently forced upon him. Such instruction ranges from the use of chopsticks to the function of similes and metaphors in Chinese rhetoric. (XXXIII). Another instance of the 'orientalizing' management of China is in Lien Chi's descriptions of gardens in his country. After some complaints about English gardening, the philospher avows that 'there is scarce a garden in China which does not contain some fine moral, couched under the general design, where one is not taught wisdom as he walks, and feels the force of some noble truth or delicate precept resulting from the disposition of the groves, streams, or grottos'. Goldsmith's satiric manipulation of China to direct subtle sarcasm at the boasts made about China's history in the context of the European fad of chinoiserie. It can be said that Goldsmith took advantage of the bythen popular appetite for things Chinese in order to revile China, or, that he used China as an absent and silent Other that would serve as a convenient target in his attack on the English. One gradually realizes that China is excluded from the civilized world. It is an unhuman place that tellingly resembles Persia. Lien Chi's son Hingpo almost becomes a slave of the cruel Chinese emperor and has to escape at the risk of his life, just as he later falls into the hands of a cruel Persion lord from whom he escapes. China is actually said to be 'declining fast into barbarity' ; 'her laws are now more venal, and her merchants are more deceitful than formerly ; the very arts and sciences have run to decay'. China, in particular, is a stagnant society ; it hardly ever changes – at least for the better. Comparing himself in Europe with his friends in China, and also Europe with China, Lien Chi deploringly remarks, 'I wander, but they are at rest ; they suffer few changes but what pass in my own restless imagination ; it is only the rapidity of my own motion gives an imaginary swiftness to objects which are in some measure immovable'. What China is, Goldsmith does not care – he could easily have replaced China with any other exotic place, and have done his job equally well. Goldsmith is thus by no means a sinophile, as is sometimes suggested, but rather he uses China as just an example of the 'Other', and a vicious one at that. What he actually cares for is first and foremost his own people. Goldsmith annexes his 'China' to Europe. China is a projection of Goldsmith's European ideal and/or fantasy, a figure in contrast to English idiosyncracy, an exotic locale of strangeness and abnormality – in European eyes. Simply put, what China, in reality is, Goldsmith neither knew well nor cared ; what is useful to him is that China is either the same, or different – in reference to Britain or Europe. 1996 Bob Vore : The description of London given in the very first letter is a good example of the kind of perspicacity of which Goldsmith's protagonist Altangi is capable : "Judge then how great is my disappointment on entering London, to see no signs of the opulence so much talk'd of abroad ; wherever I turn, I am presented with a gloomy solemnity in the houses, the streets and the inhabitants ; none of that beautiful building which makes a principal ornament in Chinese architecture. The street of Nankin are sometimes strewn with gold leaf ; very different are those of London". The more Altangi's experiences in English society, the more detailed and subtle his insights become. Describing funeral practies, for instance, he observes that "people of distinction in England really deserve pity, for they die in circumstances of the most extreme distress. It is an established rule, never to let a man know that he is dying ; physicians are sent for, the clergy are called, and everything passes in silent solemnity round the sick bed ; the patient is in agonies, looks round for pity, yet not a single creature will say that he is dying". An other point, this time commenting on a club of authors, he remarks that "In China the emperor himself takes cognisance of all the doctors in the kingdom who profess authorship. In England, every man may be an author that can write ; for they have by law a liberty not only of saying what they please, but of being also as dull as they please". (Letter IIIVI) "The nobility are ever fond of wisdom, but they also are fond of having it without study ; to read poetry required thought, and the English novility were not fond of thinking ; they soon therefore placed their affections upon music, because in this they might indulge an happy vacancy, and yet still have the pretensions to delicacy and taste as before". Perhaps no subject so befuddles Altangi than that of English women. Having expressed his distance for them, calling them 'horridly ugly', he returns to the subject later for a final frustrated gloss concernig the then-current fad for long trains on dresses. "Son of China, what contradictions do we find in this strange world ! Not only the people of different countries think in opposition to each other, but the inhabitants of a single island are often found inconsistent with temselves ; would you believe it ; this very people, my Fum, who are so fond of seeing their women with long tails, at the same time dock their horses to the very rump !!!" As accurate and insightful as these criticism of English society may be, Goldsmith's satire is rarely, if ever, severe in any moral sense. Rather than offend his readers, Goldsmith's purpose in writing the letters was to invite them to laugh good-naturedly at the petty foibles of society at large, at the eccentricites of their immediate neighbors, and even on occasion at themselves. There exists too a certain reflexive satire on Altangi's part when his own biases cause him to denigrate things undeservedly, thereby compromising his credibility as a judge of English manners and leaving Goldsmith's English readership feeling not so very bad about themselves after all. To his credit, Altangi is aware of the danger of falling into this habit and expresses some concern over the matter. He explains than "When I had just quitted my native country, and crossed the Chinese wall, I fancied every deviation from the customs and manners of China was a departing from nature ; but I soon perceived that the ridicule lay not in them but in me ; that I falsely condemned others of absurdity, because they happened to differ from a standard originally founded in prejudice or partiality". (Letter XXVIII) Altangi's caustic remarks about aged bachelors stand as an example of his sometimes prejudiced point of view : "An old bachelor is a beast of prey, and the laws should make use of as many stratagems and as much force to drive the reluctant savage into the toils, as the Indians when they hunt the hyena or the rhinoceros". (Letter LXXII) He is also to be questioned in his censure of the marriage act : "Would you believe it, my dear Fum Hoam, there are laws made, which even forbid the people marrying each other. Buy the head of Conf ucius I jest not ; there are such laws in being here ; and yet their law-givers have neither been instructed among the Hottentots, nor imbibed their principles of equity from the natives of Anamaboo". The sincerely charitable nature of the English, the merits of their system of government, and the general simplicity of their outlock all leave favorable impressions in Altangi's mind. Thus, although the book ends with Altangi leaving England, his stay there was overall a pleasant one characterized by observations the overall effect of which is to tacitly condone the established order and make Citizen of the world palatable reading to Goldsmith's audience. 2006 James Watt : While Lien Chi is an 'ironic observer' of British customs and manners, he is also an 'ironic victim', a comic and perhaps even absurd figure. Like earlier imaginary travelers, Lien Chi appears in his first few letters as an innocent abroad, a naive observer of 'a new world', where 'every object strikes with wonder and surprise'. Goldsmith's traveler is especially bewildered by the appearance and the conduct of English women, which he often reads through the lens of his own 'Chinese' prejudices, incredulously declaring, for example, that the women he encounters 'have such masculine feet, as actually serve some for walking'. Shortly afterwards, Lien Chi is shown to be less dogmatic about standards of beauty, and to admire the engaging manners of 'the ladies in this city' ; nonetheless, he misinterprets what he sees, falling victim to the confidence trick of a prostitute : he gives his watch away to be repaired, never to see it again. Goldsmith's Chinese philosopher is initially shown to be at sea in the London of pubs and prostitutes, and the comic potential of his errors and misrecognitions is explited throughout the work. If Lien Chi often comes across as a naive blunderer rather than a worldly traveler, The citizen of the world does not in any straightforward way satirize the humanistic ideals of the 'enthusiasm for knowledge' that he so often proclaims. Lien Chi considers himself a 'philosophic wanderer', motivated by a scholarly curiosity, and determined to distance himself from narrow national prejudices. Goldsmith's work nonetheless uses Lien Chi to redefine contemporary constructions of global fraternity. While he often celebrates the life and writings of Voltaire, Lien Chi often looks beyond the 'actually existing' cosmopolitanism of a Francophile aristocratic elite, and conceives of cosmopolitan fellowship in a potentially much more inclusive sense, as the coming together of likeminded people concerned 'to unite society more closely'. Some of Lien Chi's letters take the form of discrete moral essays on abstract questions, such as the pursuit of happiness, and a number of the letters explore Goldsmith's own predicament as a relative newcomer from Ireland to England, displaying a fascination with class distinction, or referring to the anxious and unstable condition of the modern writer. If Lien Chi is frequently said to see Britain and Europe from a generally 'Asiatic' perspective, his specifically Chinese background often gives him a certain critical purchase too. He intermittently refers to the history of contact between Europe and China, complaining that European travelers to China have hitherto been people with an agenda - 'the superstitious and mercenary' – rather than the truly disinterested and enlightened. And while it is true that Goldsmith does little to flesh out Lien Chi's Chineseness, beyond presenting him as 'a native of Honan' and a former 'mandarine', Lien Chi nonetheless on occasion defends Chinese customs and manners. 'The Europeans reproach us with false history and fabulous chronology', Lien Chi tells the reader, but 'how should they blush to see their own books, many of which are written by the doctors of their religion, filled with the most monstrous fables, and attested with the utmost solemnity' ; the priestly case deceives the laity, Lien Chi states, not only in China but 'in every country'. Lien Chi's often misogynistic commentary on both English and Chinese women makes him a secondary obejcts of satire for the polite reader. It is important, that he also sometimes challenges commonly held European assumptions, about the supposed condition and treatment of Eastern women. Lien Chi declares that 'the Asiatics are much kinder to the fairer sex than you imagine'. Lien Chi states 'The ladies here make no scruple to laugh at the smallness of a Chinese slipper, but our wives at China would have a more real cause of laughter, could they but see the immoderate length of an European train !' Lien Chi uses 'woman' as an index of cultural comparison for his own purposes, here, presenting himself as a rational and refined observer at the primary expense of female consumers of luxury goods. The Chinese identity of Lien Chi is especially significant in the light of Goldsmith's engagement with the ongoing debate about the effects of luxury. As is well known, one of the key types of luxury commodity in the consumer culture of the mid-eighteenth century was 'chinoiserie', a catch-all term that referred both to goods brought from China- lacquerware, furniture, porcelain, silks, an so on – and to domestic imitations of these exotic imports. In Letter XI, Lien Chi attributes to Confucius the humean injunction that 'we should enjoy as many of the luxuries of life as are consitent with our own safety and the prosperity of others'. Goldmith had denounced chinoiserie as 'a perversion of taste' in the review of The orphan of China and his use of a term like 'perversion' seems to position Goldsmith among those critics who saw the Chinese taste as a vulgar affront both to the integrity of the nation and to the dignity and truth of neoclassical aesthetics. Throughout The citizen of the world Goldsmith presents the taste for apparently Chinese commodities as frivolous and ignorant, having little or nothing to do with China itself. Rather than attempt to provide an authentic description of Lien Chi's particularity, Goldsmith's work, notwithstanding its occasional reference to certain 'Chinese' eccentricities, seems much more concerned to 'de-exoticize' and familiarize its title character. Lien Chi complains that 'some fancy me no Chinese, because I am formed more like a man than a monster' and he tries in turn to frustrate others' curiosity by aiming at 'appearing rather a reasonable creature, than an outlandish ideot'. Many of Lien Chi's letters refer to his companionship with the 'man in black', an English gentleman, sometimes interpreted as another authorial persona, who introduces himself to Lien Chi at Westminster Abbey. The citizen of the world certainly exploits the comic potential of the man in black's misanthropic 'humor', but at the same time it develops a bond between Lien Chi and his guide, a bond founded on the fact that 'the Chinese and we are pretty much alike'. Goldsmith's work has little to say about any makers of physical difference between Lien Chi and the people he encounters, and it is significant that the only interest in the Chinese philosopher's physiognomy comes from those figures, such as the 'lady of distinction' or the 'grave gentlemen', who are determined to see him as exotically other. If The citizen of the world attempts to grasp the utopian potential of cross-cultural contact, however, it also appears to concede that the time is not ripe for the realization of this potential. One index of this is that while Goldsmith's writing insistently emphasizes the need to overcome the false consciousness of an unreflecting patriotism, The citizen of the world also acknowledges the enduring force of popular patriotic attachment. If Goldsmith draws attention to the idealized nature of the dialogue between Lien Chi and the man in black, it is also important to contexturalize his appeal to the honorific term 'cosmopolitan', and to look more closely at the foundation of the critical authority that is sometimes accorded to his Chinese traveler. The way in which The citizen of the world often confronts received ideas about China and the Chinese seems to underscore its commitment to improving cross-cultural conversation, which is based on the assumption that 'the Chinese and we are pretty much alike'. It is significant that Lien Chi makes a particular claim for Chinese civility and politeness, though, defining these virtues against the 'voluptuous barbarities of our eastern neighbours' : when he defends Chinese reationality against the orientalist assumptions made by readers of Eastern tales, Lien Chi states that 'you must not expect from an inhabitant of China the same ignorance, the same unlettered simplicity, that you find in a Turk, Persian, or native of Peru'. Even though Lien Chi intermittently asserts the cultural prestige of Chinese civilizations, Goldsmith's construction of China is itself ambivalent and divided. Despite Lien Chi's efforts to distinguish between China and its 'eastern neighbours', Goldsmith sometimes presents China as a generic oriental despotism. 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2	1761	Hau kiou choaan ; or, the pleasing history. [Hao qiu zhuan]. Transl. by James Wilkinson, an East India merchant ; ed. by Thomas Percy [ID D11073]. Quellen nach Thomas Percy : Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste. Description [ID D1819]. Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste. A description of the empire of China [ID D11819]. Semedo, Alvaro. The history of that great and renowned monarchy of China [ID D17593]. Magalhães, Gabriel de. A new history of China [ID D1713]. Le Comte, Louis. Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état de la Chine [ID D1771]. Ides, Evert Ysbrandszoon. Three years travels from Moscow over-land to China [ID D4572]. Martini, Martino. Novus atlas sinensis [ID D1698]. Martini, Martino. Sinicae historiae decas prima [ID D1703]. Lettres édifiantes et curieuses [ID D15044]. Lockman, John. Travels of the Jesuits [ID D26896]. Couplet, Philippe. Confucius sinarum philosophus [ID D1758]. Confucius. The morals of Confucius [ID D26897]. Nieuhof, Johan. L'ambassade de la Compagnie orientale [ID D1711]. Ogilby's China. (1669-1671). Nieuhoff, John. An embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham, Emperor of China. Kircher, Athanasius. China illustrata [ID D1712]. Bayer, T.S. Mvsevm sinicvm [ID D407]. Fatinelli, Giovanni Giacomo. Historia cultus Sinensium [ID D1787]. The modern part of the universal history. Vol. 1-16. (London : Printed for T. Osborne, 1759-1765). Vol. 8. The religious ceremonies and customs of the several nations of the known world [D D26303]. Harris, John. Navigantium atque itinerantium bibliotheca [ID D26900]. Kaempfer, Engelbert. The history of Japan ; together with a description of the Kindom of Siam. Transl. By J.G. Scheuchzer. Vol. 1-2 in 1. (London : The translator, 1727). Anson, George. A voyage round the world [ID D1897]. Dampier, William. Nouveau voyage autour du monde [ID D1778]. Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat de. De l'esprit des lois [ID D1829]. Fourmont, Etienne. Reflexions critiques sur les histoires des anciens peuples [ID D5529]. Histoire de l'Academie royale es inscriptions et belles lettres. The Preface. The following translation was found in manuscript, among the papers of a gentleman [whose name Percy disclosed as James Wilkinson in the "Advertisement" to the second issue of the book] who had large concerns in the East-India company and occasionally resided much at Canton. It is believed by his relations, that he had bestowed considerable attention on the Chinese language, and that this translation (or at least part of it) was unertaken by him as a kind of exercise while he was studying it : the many interlineations, &c., which it abounds with, shew it to be the work of a learner : and as the manuscript appears in many places to have been first written with a black-lead pencil, and afterwards more correctly over-written with ink, it should seem to have been drawn up under the direction of a Chinese master or tutor. The History is contained in four thin folio books or volumes of Chinese paper ; which after the manner of that country, are doubled in the fore-edge, and cut on the back. The three first of these volumes are in English ; the fourth in Portuguese ; and written in a very different hand from the former. This part of the Editor hath now translated into our own language. The missionaries have given abstracts and versions of several Chinese books, which may be seen in the curious collection of P. Du Halde. Among them are some few novels. As there are but short pieces, the Editor thought it would be no unacceptable present to the curious to afford them a specimen of a larger kind : that they might see how a Chinese Author would conduct himself through the windings of a large narration. Although the general character of a people should not be drawn from one or two individuals ; nor their literary excellence determined by the particular merit of one book ; yet it may be concluded that the following is a piece of considerable note amont the Chinese, otherwise a stranger would not have been tempted to translate it. That book would naturally be put first into the hands of a foreigner, which is in highest repute among the natives. Such as it is, the Editor here presents it to the Public. Examined by the laws of European criticism, he believes it liable to many objections. It will doubtless be urged, that the incidents are neither sufficiently numerous, nor all of them ingeniously contrived ; that the imagery is often neither exact nor lively ; that the narrative is frequently dry and tedious, and while it runs out into a minute detail of unimportant circumstances, is too deficient in what should interest the passions or divert the imagination. That there is a littleness and poverty of genius in almost all the works of taste of the Chinese, must be acknowledged by capable judges. This at least is evident in their writings ; and in a narrative like the following, would make a writer creep along through a minute relation of trifling particulars, without daring to omit the most inconsiderable. The objectness of their genius may easily be accounted for from that servile submission, and dread of novelty, which inslaves the minds of the Chinese, and while it promotes the peace and quiet of their empire, dulls their spirit and cramps their imagination. It ought, however, to be observed in favour of the Chinese, that if they do not take such bold and daring flights as some of the other Eastern nations, neither do they run into such extravagant absurdities. Whether this be owing to the cause now assigned, or to their having bestowed more attention on literature, so it is that they pay a greater regard to truth and nature in their fictious narratives, than any other of the Asiatics. For it must be allowed to our present work, that the conduct of the story is more regular and artful than is generally seen in the compositions of the East ; hath less of the marvellous and more of the probable. It contains an unity of design or fable, and the incidents all tend to one end, in a regular natural manner, with little interruption or incoberence. After all, the Editor is not concerned about the judgment that will be passed on this performance, and neither attempts to conceal nor extenuate its faults. He gives it not as a piece to be admired for the beauties of its composition, but as a curious specimen of Chinese literature, and leaves to the critics to decide its merit. But he also begs it may be considered in another light, as a faithful picture of Chinese manners, wherein the domestic and political economy of that vast people is displayed with an exactness and accuracy to which none but a native could be capable of attaining. To read in a Collection of Voyages and Travels ; in a portion of Universal History ; or in a Present State of any Country, an elaborate account of it, under the several heads of its customs, laws, government, &c. Drawn up by a foreigner however well acquainted with the subject, can convey but a superficial knowledge to the mind. Those accurate compilations have certainly their merit, but the little distinguishing pecularities which chiefly compose the true character of a living people will hardly be learnt from them. Many of these can come under no regular head of methodical arrangement. Those writers may give a dead resemblance, while they are careful to trace out every feature, but the life, the spirit, the expression will be apt to escape them. To gain a true notion of these we must see the object in action. There is no a greater difference between the man who is sitting for his portrait, stiffened into a studied composure, with every feature and limb under constraint ; and the same person unreserved, acting in his common sphere of life, with every passion in play, and every part of him in motion : then there is between a people methodically described in a formal account, and painted out in the lively narrative of some domestic history. A foreigner will form a truer notion of the genius and spirit of the English, from one page of Fielding, and one or two writers now alive, than from whole volumes of Present States of England, or French Letters concerning the English Nation. But not to mention that many curious customs and peculiarities of a nation are better understood by example than by description : many of these cannot easily be known to foreigners at all. The whole system of the manners of a people can only be thoroughly known to themselves. The missionaries are the only foreigners from whom we can possibly espect compleat and accurate accounts of China, for none besides themselves were ever permitted to range at large through the Chinese empire : but let it be considered, that supposing we had no reason to question their veracity, yet the very gravity of their character would prevent them from being ocular vitnesses (not only of the idolatrous ceremonies, but) of many particulars of the interiour conduct of the Chinese. It is well known that this people affect a privacy and reserve beyond all other nations ; which must prevent many of their domestic customs from transpiring to strangers : and therefore the intire manners of the Chinese can only be thoroughly described by themselves. Thus much in favour of the present, which the Editor here makes to the Public. It behoves him now to mention the share he hath bad in preparing it for their acceptance. As the version was the work of a gentleman whose province was trade, and who probably never designed it for the Public, nothing could be expected from him but fidelity to the original : and this, if one may judge from the erasures and corrections that abound in the manuscript, was not neglected ; which the general prevalence of the Chinese idiom will serve to confirm. The Editor therefore hath been so far obliged to revise the whole, as to render the language somewhat more grammatical and correct. Yet as the principal merit of such a piece, as this, must consist in the pecularities of its style and manner, he hath been careful to make no other alterations than what grammer and common sense merely required. He is desirous to conceal none of its faults, and he hopes he hath obscured none of its beauties. He hath been particularly exact in retaining the imagery, the allusions, the reflections, the proverbial sayings, any uncommon sentiment or mode of expression, and as much of the Chinese idiom in general as was not utterly inconsistent with the purity of our own : and when he could not retain this in the text ; he hath frequently been careful to preserve it in the margin. Sometimes where the narrative was insupportably diffuse and languid, interrupted by short questions and answers of no consequence, or retarded by dull und unmeaning repetitions : in these cases he could not help somewhat shortening and contracting it ; and probably the most rigid admirer of Chinese literature, would have pardoned him, if he had done this oftener. As the great fault of the original was its prolixity, it was generally more requisite to prune away than to add ; yet as the Editor hath been sometimes tempted to throw in a few words, it may be proper to inform the Reader that these will generally be found included in brackets. Once or twice where the incidents were inartificially conducted, a discovery which seemed rather premature, hath been postponed for a few pages, but never without notice to the reader. Some few inconsistencies and contradictions have been removed by the Editor, but generally such as the Translator himself had corrected in some other place : and where he had rendered a Chinese title improperly, it hath been set right from better authorities : two or three instances have occurred of this kind, wherein it was thought unnecessary to detain the Reader with particular information. But ever this liberty hath never been assumed, where there could be the least doubt of its propriety. In short, as the grand merit of such a piece as this must consist in its peculiarities and authenticity ; the reader may be assured that nothing hath been done to lessen the one or impair the other. This close attachment to the original may perhaps be blamed, as it hath prevented the style from being more lively and flowing ; but the Editor had in view rather to satisfy the curious than to amuse the idle. It may have rendered the book less entertaining, but he believes more valuable. It was his intention, however, to have removed all such expressions, as were quite barbarous and ungrammatical, yet be cannot be sure but instances of both will be found to have escaped him. If any thing faulty of this kind should occur, he hopes the candid will pardon it as one of those oversights, which will sometimes elude the most vigilant attention. It remains that something be said concerning the Notes, if it be only to apologize for their frequency and lenth. It was at first intended to have incumbered the page with as few of these as possible : but it was soon found necessary to depart from this plan. The manners and customs of the Chinese, their peculiar ways of thinking, and modes of expression are do remote from our own, that tey frequently require a large detail to render them intelligible. The Editor quickly saw that be should have occasion to touch upon most things remarkable among the Chinese : this tempted him to introduce a short account of others. He was desirous that the History and Notes taken together might be considered as forming a concise, and not altogether defective account of the Chinese, such as might be sufficient to gratify the curiosity of most readers, and to refresh the memory of others. This he hopes will serve as an apology for such of the Notes as appear impertinent or digressive. Where the narrative can interest or entertain the Reader, he will not suffer them to take off his attention : and where it is dull and tedious, they may possibly prove no unwelcome relief. The Editor was the less sparing of them, in hopes they might procure the book a second perusal : he can truly affirm, that they are extracted from the best and most authentic writers on the subject, many of which are scarce and curious : and that they will be frequently found to supply omission in more celebrated and more voluminous accounts of China. The Editor wishes he could as easily apologize for some of the Notes which he is afraid will be thought unimportant and trifling : but, after the labour of inquiry many things will appear more deserving of attention than they really are ; and such is the weakness of the human mind, that it is apt to estimage things not so much by their intrinsic worth, as by the difficulty and pains with which they were acquired. After all, 'tis hoped there will not be found many instances of this kind, and that these will be pardoned for the sake of others more curious and important. The Editor ought not to conclude without returning thanks to that Gentleman, to whose friendship he is indebted for the use of the manuscript here printed : who not only gave him leave to commit this piece to the press, but in the most obliging manner indulged him with the free use of all the Translator's papers, many of which contributed to throw light upon it. His thanks are also due to those Gentlemen of distinction, who so obligingly gave him acess to their libraries, and thereby enabled him to prefix to his Notes a list of Authors, that would do honour to a much more considerable publication. The assistance received from the Earl of Sussex's library deserves particularly to be acknowledged ; the reasures of literature contained in that large and valuable collection are so well known to the learned world : that it will perhaps be some disadvantage to our little work to mention it here, as it will be apt to raise expectations in the reader, which nothing that follows may be able to answer. Fussnoten "The manuscript is dated 1719, which was the last year he [James Wilkinson] spent in China. He died in 1736." [Vorwort]. "Now these accounts have been taxed, as partial and defective, especially so far as they describe the religious ceremonies of the Chinese. For the reader is to be informed that the Jesuites have beecn accused by the missionaries of other orders, of making very improper concessions to their Chinese converts, and of so modelling christianity, as to allow an occasional conformity to many pagan superstitions, under a pretence that they are only of a civil nature. How far this charge was true, we will not pretend to determine, but probably it was not altogether grundless, as sentence was given against them by their superiors. These disputes have subsisted near a century ; and in all the descriptions of China, published by the Jesuites during this period, it may be expected they would give such an account of the Chinese ceremonies, as would best favour their cause." [Vorwort]. "In a blank page of the Translator's MS. Of the Chinese History is the following list [of celebrated Chinese poets and painters], dated Canton, 1720." "... most of the modern Literati understand the word 'Tien' in their ancient books in a low material sense, and are down-right atheists-" "It is very remarkable that the Chinese have no particular terms in all their language that expressly denotes the Supreme Being, or answers to our word GOD. Hence they have been branded with the characters of professed atheists. But whatever their Literati may be at present, it is certain that the Chinese have had from the earliest antiquity various forms of expression, and a multitude of religious rites, which prove their belief of a Divine Providence." "We are not to wonder among a People so avaricious as the Chinese and who have so little notion of a future reckoning, that Power and Office are often productive of Tyranny and Oppression. Where there is no principle of conscience, it is not in the power of human laws to prevent injustice. If we examine the Chinese Government in Theory, nothing seems better calculated for the good and happiness of the people ; if in Practice, we shall nowhere find them more pillaged by the great." "... as their magistrates are generally raised by personal merit and application, and that even from the lowest ranks, so that they come poor to their governments, they lie under strong temptations to be rapacious and greedy." "It is the business of their Laws to check and correct this evil tendendy : and many fine Regulations to this end will be found among those of the Chinese. But after all, as the Chinese Laws are merely political institutions, and are backed by no sanctions of future rewards and punishments, though they may influence the exterior, they will not affect the heart, and therefore will rather create an appearance of virtue, than the reality." "... the ancient Chinese lawgivers, although they inculcated pretty just notions of Providence, seem to have paid little or no attention to those of a Future State. Confucius himself hath scarce dropt a hint on this subject. What opinions of this kind prevail have been chiefly adopted from... Bonzes who propose a thousand ways to compound for iniquity... in short by being any thing else rather than Good and Virtuous." "Where the women are held so cheap, we must not wonder that the men should be backward to acknowledge a soft and respectable passion for any one of them : or that a nation in other respects civilized and refined, should in this resemble the most savage and unpolished... Among some of the wild Nations of North America." "... notwithstanding their boasted purity, evidently fall short of the Christian, since they know not how to inspire that open and ingenious simplicity void of all guile, which more elevated principles of morality propose to our esteem and admiration." "The Morality of the Chinese Author... appears in a very contemptible light compared with the Christian, which so strongly recommends the forgiveness of injuries and the return of good for evil." "... that even his great Philosopher doth not insist upon this, as a duty : and hath neither backed it with any Sanction nor recommended it upon adequate motives. But indeed where is this divine maxim taught with that precision ; urged with that glowing benevolence ; or enforced from those sublime and affecting motives, which it is in the mouth of the SAVIOUR of the world ?" "Power and Riches... are the sole objects of attention in China, because Power and Riches produce every thing which can render this life desirable, and a Chinese seldom looks beyond it. And where only principles of this kind prevail, and there is no check from conscience, we must not wonder that general dishonesty and corruption prevail too." Sekundärliteratur 1719 James Wilkinson translated Hau kiou choaan [Hao qiu zhuan] in 1719 probably as a form of language exercise while he was resident as a merchant in Canton. 1758 Thomas Percy borrowed a manuscript translation of Hau kiou choaan [Hao qiu zhuan]. 1758-1762 Briefe von James Grainger und William Shenstone an Thomas Percy über Hau kiou choaan. James Grainger (ca. 1721-1766) : Schottischer Arzt, Dichter, Übersetzer. Robert Didsley (1704-1764) : Englischer Autor, Buchändler. William Shenstone (Halesowen 1714-1763 Halesowen) : Dichter Febr. : Grainger schreibt : "I gave G. [Ralph Griffith] that part of your letter to me, which related to Shui-ping-Sin. He did not seem to approve of the manner in which you propose to treat that fair foreigner. He wants a pleasing romance, and you talk of a faithful copy ; but he is to write to you, and till then I would not have you begin your rifacciamento." "I have talked with Ralph Griffith about the Chinese novel. He tells me there is no occasion for any formal bargain ; you are to translate it into good reading English, and he is to pay you fifty guineas for your pains. You are to add notes to explain the more uncommon customs, and are to introduce the whole with a prefactory discourse upon the manner of writing in China. For this supernumerary labour he promises to let you have some copies for yourself and friends. I should really have been much pleased if Griffiths would have remitted you, at present, part of the price, but I find, from the best authority, that this is deldom if ever done. I therefore told Griffiths it would be obliging me to let you have part in hand, to animate you in your drudgery. But he replied, “Should any accident happen to your friend, before the version is finished, my money would be lost, as none but Mr. Percy can perform our agreement”. In short, after much pro-ing and con-ing, he at last told me that as soon as the whole MS. was sent him he would remit you the fifty guineas, whereas the custom was never to pay the whole till the last sheet was sent to the press ; and, indeed, I myself know this to be true ; you must therefore set about Shui-pin-Sin as soon as possible, and when you have finished the first two books dispatch them up. He shall then pay you the half, because the work may be given to the printer." L.F. Powell : Percy adopted Griffiths' suggestion as to the explanatory notes, but apparently did not feel equal to a discourse on Chinese writing. 20. Juli : Grainger an Percy : "Griffith has sent me back the Chinese Lady, and I assure you I like her in her new English garb." 1. Aug. : "As to Shui-ping-Syn, I have mentioned her to Dr. Hawksworth, who desires to be introduced to her ; which I have the more readily complied with, as he is intimate with Payne the bookseller, and I know he will be pleased with this Chinese naturalization." 17. Febr. 1759 : Grainger schreibt : "Dodsley thinks well of the Novel, and I hope I shall bring him to bargain with your for it ; next week I shall show him the specimen. Let me know what you expect for your labor." 5. Aug. : Percy sent Dodsley the first packet. 11. Aug. : William Shenstone was able to tell Percy that Dodsley "seems to enterain no doubt, that your Chinese novel will excite curiosity". 20. Juni. : Percy an Shenstone : "Mr. Dodsley has promised to get up a set of our Chinese History for you as soon as possible". 5. Juli : Shenstone an Percy : "I have received your Chinese novel, but have not yet had time to read it. Tis a neat edition, I see, and I wish you all success." Sept. Shenstone an Percy : "The novel, tho' in some parts not void of Merit, must certain.ly draw its chief support from its value as a Curiosity, or perhaps as an agreeable means of conveying to the generality all they wish or want to know of the Chinese manners and constitution." September 1761 William Shenstone, who had received an advance copy of the novel, wrote to Percy : "Your annotations have great merit". July 25, 1762 James Grainger wrote to Percy : "You have been at great pains in collecting your notes to the Chinese history. They throw much light upon it ; and, to deal frankly with you, I think they constitute the most valuable part of your book". 1774 Francis Douce (1757-1834) : Englischer Antiquar. Francis Douce schreibt über Hau kiou choaan von Thomas Percy : "The authenticity of this work has been doubted, and an 'Extract of a letter from Canton, July 9th, 1763, to James Garland, Esq., of Burlington Street”, inserted, to countenance it, at the end of the 2nd edition of Reliques of Ancient English poetry, 1767, pronounced a forgery." Advertisement : "When this little work was first published, it was apprehended that the peculiarities of the composition would so clearly prove it to be a genuine translation from the Chinese language, as to render it unnecessary to metnion either the names of the translator, or the editor. But in order to remove any doubt or suspicious arising from that circumstance, the editor has now subscribed his name to the dedication ; and he no longer conceals that of the translator, who as Mr. James Wilkinson, an English merchant, equally respected for his ability and his probity. This gentleman's residence at Canton may be ascertained from the records of the East India Company ; and his respectable character is not yet forgotten. His own manuscript was lent to the editor by his nephew, the late Captain Wilkinson, of Bugbroke, near Northampton, to whom it was returned, and it is doubtless at this time in possession of his widow, a very amiable lady." 1803 Miller, Samuel. Brief retrospect of the eighteenth century [ID D26887]. Er schreibt : "In 1761 a very singular and curious performance made its appearance in Great-Britain. This was a translation of a Chinese novel, under the title of Hau kiou choan, or the Pleasing history, in four volumes. The translation had been made a number of years before by Mr. James Wilkinson, a British merchant, who had resided for dome time at Canton, where he studied the Chinese language. The editor was Dr. Thomas Percy, who accompanied the publication with extensive and learned notes, which have a tendency not only to illustrate the composition immediately connected with them, but also to throw new light on the character of Chinese literature in general." In a footnote, Miller indicates that the Scottish critic Hugh Blair "once remarked in conversation, that the Pleasing history contained a more authentic and interesting account of the internal state of China, than all the other publications on that subject that he had ever seen." [Hugh Blair : (1718-1800) : Schottischer Geistlicher, Schriftsteller, Rhetoriker]. 1810 John Barrow schreibt eine Rezension über Ta Tsing leu lee [ID D1911] in Quarterly review (May 1810). Affirming that Percy's text was "the most faithful" rendition of any Chinese work in a Western language." In his opinion, it was also "the best selected work for conveying just descriptions of the manners, habits, and sentiments of the people, as far at least as regards the state of social and domestic intercourse". 1821 Tulisen. Narrative of the Chinese embassy to the Khan of the tourgouth tartars [ID D1958]. In his introduction, George Thomas Staunton repeats his favorable opinion of Hau kiou choaan, affirming that "even under the disadvantage, in part of a double translation, and the Editor's want of acquaintance with the language of the original", the novel "conveys a juster and more lively picture of the actual state of manners and society in China, than any other work which we possess in the English language". 1822 Davis, John Francis. Chinese novels, translated from the originals [ID D1962]. Er schreibt : "It is nearly seventy years since Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, edited from a manuscript, partly English and partly Portuguese, a sort of skeleton or abstract, rather than a translation of this romance, and without the poetical passages, under the title of The pleasing history, which is not the meaning of the original name. Although it abounded in both errors and omissions, this work, at the time when it appeared, was by far the best picture of Chinese manners and society that we possessed ; and Dr. Percy was not answerable for the imperfections of his materials. He was naturally puzzled by some parts of his manuscript, and expresses his surprise in notes at a number of incongruities, which, in a reference to the original, are not found to exist. In fact, at the distance of more than one hundred years since, for that is the date of the manuscript, no countryman of ours could possibly be competent to the task of translation ; and the work in question appears evidently to have been taken down in great part from the mouth of a native, probably in the imperfect jargon of English spoken at Canton." 1829 A writer wrote in Quarterly review : "At the distance of more than one hundred years since... no countryman of ours could possibly be competent to the task of translation ; and the work in question appears evidently to have been taken down in great part from the mouth of a native, probably in the imperfect jargon of English spoken at Canton." 1887 Reverend J. Pickford said, that the whole work was translated from the Portuguese by Percy. 1908 Aulice Cecilia Caroline Gaussen (1857-1918). Alice C.C. Gaussen writes in : Percy : prelate and poet. (London : Smith, Elder, & Co., 1908) : "The work was a translation from a Portuguese MS. Of a Chinese novel... The actuel translation from the Chinese was executed by Mr. Wilkinson, and Percy merely translated the granslator into good English." 1926 Milner-Barry, Alda. A note on the early literary relations of Oliver Goldsmith and Thomas Percy. In : The review of English studies ; issue 2 (1926). She wrotes that the novel “Was a rendering of a Portuguese translation of a famous Chinese work”. 1926 L.F. Powell : Percy had access to all Wilkinson's papers ; he had the manuscripts before him ; and he had a knowledge of Portuguese. Thus equipped, it is almost incredible that he could have failed to discover the truth ; and having discovered it, there does not appear to be any cogent reason for its suppression. Wilkinson probably studied Chinese under a Portuguese tutor ; or with a Portuguese student under a Chinese tutor ; he had not finished studfying the whole work when he went home ; being interested in the story, he brought the Portuguese translation home to England together with a set of the Chinese original ; probably he studied Chinese through the medium of Portuguese, or at least depended on the Portuguese translation for a better understanding of the Chinese text ; Percy either did not see the Portuguese translation in whole, or concealed parts of it. Percy's general attitude toward the Chinese race, - their boasted deism, their enlightened government, their excellent morals, and their learning – it only remains to be pointed out that his opinion is his own. 1933 Vincent H. Ogburn : The stock of Wilkinson manuscripts relating to Chinese subjects came to Harvard University with the materials purchased by Professor Francis James Child, from the Sotheby sale of the Percy library in April 1884. The first part reads thus : Feb. 28th, 1758 Borrow'd of Cap't Wilkinson the following Books, which I hereby promise to restore upon demand. The History of Shuey Ping Sin, a Chinese Novel in 4 Books MS. stitch'd in blue Paper. The Argument of a Chinese Play, in 2 loose Sheets of Paper. Four Chinese Books, with Cutts, I of human figures. 3 of Sketches of Landscapes etc. - Stitch'd in blue Chinese Paper. Thomas Percy. Bugbrook 23d Dec'er [vermutl. 1758] : Rec'd of the Rev'd. Mr. Percy all the above articles except the last. J. Wilkinson. 1936-1937 Ch'en Shou-yi : The Chinese novel was interesting to European readers only as a mirror of Chines ideas and manners, but not as a piece of creative art. 1941 Qian Zhongshu : Percy's knowledge of China, though acquired at second-hand, seems astonishingly extensive. The list of reference books given in the first volume of The pleasing history testifies to his wide reading on China. 1946 T.C. Fan The manuscript on which Percy worked has never been discovered, and our knowledge of it is derived largely from the Preface to his edition. According to Percy, it was contained in 'four thin folio books or volumes of Chinese paper', of which the first three were in English and the fourth in Portuguese. His information is incomplete : he does not even give the name of the 'gentleman', of the East India Company, among whose papers the manuscript was found. Immediately upon the publication of Hau kiou choaan in 1761, doubt was cast upon its authenticity. Naturally, Percy was disturbed. He seems to have made inquiries about the novel in China through the East India Company. At the end of the 2nd ed. Of the Reliques of ancient English poetry (1767) he inserted an 'Extract of a letter from Canton', showing that the novel did exist in China and that people at Canton knew ist. But immediately this letter was pronounced a forgery. Then, in 1774, in the Advertisement to a re-issue of Hau kiou choaan which was never published, he gives more information about the owner of the manuscript – 'Mr. James Wilkinson, an English merchant, equally respected for his ability and his probity'. Even as late as 1805 the question of the authenticity of the manuscript remained. On 13 August 1805 Edmond Malone [(Dublin 1741-1812) : Jurist, Historiker] inquired about it in his letter to Percy : Malone had heard some imperfect account of the work ; but 'nothing distinctively'. To this letter Percy replied on 28 Sept. 1805, repeating in the main what he had already said in the Prefact to his edition and in the Advertisement to its re-issue in 1774. He did not, as he could not, produce definite proof of its authenticity. Questions should arise : Was the merchant, whose name was Wilkinson, the translator ? Or was he only the translator of a translation ? Or, quite likely, was the whole thing simply a literary hoax, like Walpole's Letter from Xo Ho and Goldsmith's Citizen of the world ? Percy did try to gather further information ; and in 1800, when a new edition of the novel was contemplated, he wrote to Lard Macartney for proof of its authenticity. If the translation is on the whole a condensed version, it is in certain prose portions quite literal, being a word-for-word rendering of the original. It seems likely that the translator was using the Chinese novel as a text in his study of the language. The manuscript was in the main a chapter-by-chapter translation, though each chapter was condensed and most of the poetical passages omitted. In the first three volumes Percy indicates the places where the chapters in the manuscript began ; and these agree entriely with the chapter divisions of the Chinese version. Curiously, the Chinese novel was often used by Westerners in China as a language text : it was still used as such in 1904, when a special edition was published with notes in English. It seems that the Portuguese portion which constitutes considerably less than one-sixth of the manuscript, was drastically condensed, so that the whole manuscript was composed of sixteeen chapters only. It was this translation, about five-sixths in English and the remainder in Portuguese, incomplete, inaccurate, though in certain portions quite literal, that Percy edited and published for the English public. In his Preface and Notes he tels us what he had done with the manuscript. He translated the Portuguese part and edited the English part. The manuscript was not very legible, and some portions of it, especially the Portuguese part, were so obscurely written or over-written that he had to guess at the meaning. There were missing passages and missiong pages, and more than once he had do 'throw in a few words' in order to smooth a transition or bridge a gab. A number of pages in the manuscript contained 'an appearance of indelicacy', and he had to take the trouble either to suppress them altogether or 'soften' them in the interest of decorum. And then there werde dull passages and passages that forestall our curiosity ; these he had to cut or reduce, knowing that English readers could not possibly be interested in Oriental prolixities. Equally remarkable is the liberty he took to transpose wpisodes. His footnotes contain a large number of readings from the manuscript, and they give us an idea of what the language of the manuscript was like and how Pery altered it. He says in his Dedication to Lady Longueville, 'at a time when this nation swarms with fictious narratives of the most licentious and immortal turn', this curious work from China has its value as a moral diquisition. Starting with scenes of virtue in distress and ending with scenes of virtue rewarded, it bears some resemblance to the sentimental fiction of England in the eighteenth century. An other reason why Percy found the work valuable ; namely, it gives a faithful picture of Chinese manners. On the title-page of Hau kiou choaan, he quotes with approval a passage from Du Halde's Description : "Il n'y a pas de meilleur moyen de s'instruire de la Chine, que par la Chine même : car par la on est sûr de ne se point tromper, dans la connoissance du génie et des usages de cette nation." From the very beginning of his work he had planned, not only to edit and emend the text, but also to explain the uncommon customs and manners of China so as to make the events in the novel more intelligible to the English public. For this purpose, he borrowed bookis from Captain Wilkinson, from Dodsley, from the library of the Earl of Sussex and from other sources.	Document: Ogburn, Vincent H. The Wilkinson MSS. and Percy's Chinese books. In : The review of English studies ; vol. 9, no 33 (1933). (PerT4, Publication) Document: Berger, Willy Richard. China-Bild und China-Mode im Europa der Aufklärung. (Köln ; Wien : Böhlau, 1990). (Berg, Publication) Document: Aldridge, A. Owen. The dragon and the eagle : the presence of China in the American enlightenment. (Detroit, Mich. : Wayne State University Press, 1993). S. 21. (Ald1, Publication) Document: Cheung, Kai Chong. The theme of chastity in "Hau ch'iu chuan" and parallel Western fiction. (Bern : P. Lang, 1994). (Euro-Sinica ; Bd. 6). [Hao qiu zhuan]. S. 13, 73. (Cheu1, Publication) Document: The vision of China in the English literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Ed. by Adrian Hsia. (Hong Kong : Chinese University press, 1998). [Enthält] : Qian, Zhongshu. China in the English literature of the seventeenth century. In : Quarterly bulletin of Chinese bibliography ; vol. 1 (1940). Fan, Cunzhong. The beginnings of the influence of Chinese culture in England. In : Wai guo yu ; no 6 (1982). Chen, Shouyi. John Webb : a forgotten page in the early history of sinology in Europe. In : The Chinese social and political review ; vol. 19 (1935-1936). Qian, Zhongshu. China in the English literature of the eighteenth century. In : Quarterly bulletin of Chinese bibliography ; vol. 2 (1941). Chen, Shouyi. Daniel Defoe, China's severe critic. In : Nankai social and economic quarterly ; vol. 8 (1935). Fan, Cunzhong. Chinese fables and anti-Walpole journalism. In : The review of English studies ; vol. 25 (1949). Fan, Cunzhong. Dr. Johnson and Chinese culture. In : Quarterly bulletin of Chinese bibliography ; vol. 5 (1945). Chen, Shouyi. Oliver Goldsmith and his Chinese letters. In : T'ien hsia monthly ; vol. 8 (1939). Chen, Shouyi. Thomas Percy and his Chinese studies. In : The Chinese social and political science review ; vol. 20 (1936-1937). Fan, Cunzhong. William Jones's Chinese studies. In : The review of English studies ; vol. 22 (1946). Chen, Shouyi. The Chinese garden in eighteenth century England. In : T'ien hsia monthly ; vol. 2 (1936). Chen, Shouyi. The Chinese orphan : a Yuan play. In : T'ien hsia monthly ; vol. 4 (1936). [Ji, Junxiang. Zhao shi gu'er]. Hsia, Adrian. The orphan of the house Zhao in French, English, German, and Hong Kong literature. In : Comparative literature studies ; vol. 25 (1988). [Ji, Junxiang. Zhao shi gu'er]. S. 302, 310-311, 317-320. (Hsia8, Publication) Document: Tan, Yuan. Der Chinese in der deutschen Literatur : unter besonderer Berücksichtigung chinesischer Figuren in den Werken von Schiller, Döblin und Brecht. (Göttingen : Cuvillier, 2007). Diss. Univ. Göttingen, 2006. S. 42. (Tan10, Publication) Document: Watt, James. Thomas Percy, China, and the Gothic. In : The eighteenth century ; vol. 48, no 2 (2007). http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ecy/summary/v048/48.2watt.html. (PerT5, Publication) Person: Percy, Thomas Person: Wilkinson, James

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#	Year	Bibliographical Data	Type / Abbreviation	Linked Data
1		Zentralbibliothek Zürich	Organisation / ZB