Various Projects

VARIOUS PROJECTS There are always various projects in the air, and even sometimes in actual progress. Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i will try to list those that may be of interest to members. Here are five that have come to the editor's attention: The Morrison Project, Public Record Office Microfilms, A Ch'ing Syllabus, David Pong's work at the P, R. O. , and a comment on Manchu Sources that may lead to something. Anyone with information on these or any other Ch'ing projects need simply send a letter to the editor, and the information will be made generally known in future numbers of this bulletin. Notes on the Morrison Project by Lo Hui-min I. The Man George Ernest Morrison was born in Australia in 1862. He first went to China in 1894 and his impressions of the country were recorded in An Australian in China, describing a journey he made, mostly on foot, from Shanghai to Rangoon in that year. In 1895 he joined the staff of The Times and was asked to proceed to China, Instead he chose to go first to Siam and did not reach Peking to take up his appointment until the beginning of 1897, For the next 15 and a half years he was The Times Peking Correspondent, He resigned from The Times in 1912 and was invited by Yuan Shih-kai's government to become Political Adviser to the Republic of China, in which capacity he remained in China's service until he died in May 1920. **· The Papers There are 255 boxes or volumes of Morrison's Papers now in the Mitchell Library in Sydney. There is no denying that outside China itself these Papers are among the most important manuscript sources existing on modern China, taking into consideration their bulk, their continuity, the immensely diverse topics they touch upon, and the light they are able to shed on the various problems of China during the period covered (1895-1920). Indeed, the unique position of Morrison, first as The Times Peking Correspondent and subsequently as Political Adviser to the President of the Chinese Republic has endowed these papers with a quality which is not easily found in other archives, namely the inside story they are able to reveal: the making of history and not just the history itself« III. Editing and Publication With a view to making these papers readily accessible to scholars of modern China, we undertake to edit these papers and to publish them as The Morrison China Papers, 1895-1920. They will be arranged in three categories: (1) Morrison's China Diary; (2) Morrison's China Correspondence; and (3) Morrison's China Miscellaneous Papers, this last comprising the memoranda and notes Morrison and his correspondents wrote on various topics that have not already appeared in print elsewhere. In order that the importance of these papers may further be enhanced, we are to draw upon, in our notes and annotations, Chinese and Western archival sources as well as printed material. The end product, which we hope to reduce to - 2 - between 6 to 8 volumes, would be a kind of documentary history of modern China for the period it covers with Morrison, as it were, as the narrator. The first volume should be ready for publication by 1967-8, IV. The Financing The costs of the undertaking are quite considerable. The bulk of the expenses is for Xeroxgraphing of the selected material and for clerical and research assistance, and photocopying of material from sources abroad. The Australian National University has generously helped us to launch the project by providing us with the necessary funds for xeroxgraphing of the selected material and also the first year's salaries of a typist and a research assistant. But as the Project was submitted to the University after its next triennial budget had been decided upon, we have undertaken to appeal to research institutions and foundations for financial support to enable us to continue the work without interruption or delay. Contributions should be sent to: "Morrison Project" % Professor C. P. Fitzgerald Department of Far Eastern History Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University Canberra, Australia Public Record Office Microfilm It...