Responses

RESPONSES Seeing that there has been such a good response to the Society, I wonder whether there might be a chance of formally publishing papers, monographs and books within the next one to three years. Possibly this might be done on a subscription basis, finding a willing publisher or getting foundation support. The AAS might be interested in publishing a supplement or in its monograph series. Cr the Society and its members could stand the cost of issuing a volume of papers annually if there is enough interest. You might suggest this in the next bulletin and get further suggestions on the matter. Cordially, Horst Schmidt Rt. 1 Belgium, Wis. 53004 sSc î£c 3Ïc sït sic sfc sic î8c îît sSc A «& «Se îSc I note in the bulletin that someone has suggested that the Ch'ing -tai wai-chiao shih-liao be reprinted. This will appear in a type-set edition with index before the end of the year. I also have people working on a type-set edition of Weng T'ung-ho's Diary, but have not yet announced it. An index to proper nouns will also be made to this. The local gazetteers project (No. 4) is finally getting off the ground. The publisher will bring out ten titles a year during the next three years. Response has been good to these, but not good enough to pay for printing - 19 - yet, I hope that once they are in print that more orders will come in. Robert Irick CMRASC P.O. Box 22048 Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China) ************** Ch'ing Studies - Suggestions for the Future From: J, L. Cranmer-Byng Department of History Toronto University Toronto, Canada 1 ) Could the Society make available, in some form to its members, brief biographies, short extracts from biographies in translation, or short summaries of Ch'ing dynasty worthies (and some un-worthies) who have not found a place in Hummel ? For instance various scholars might have come across interesting biographical details of Ch'ing persons as a by product of their recent researches. For instance Prof. Nivison, in working on his biography of Chang Hstteh-ch'eng, may have unearthed some other biographical material which he did not include in his book. The same may be true of Spector's biography of Li Hung-chang. Stephen Uhalley, who is working on the Taiping Rebellion, may have some biographical details of interest which he can't use in his main work. Would it be possible to reproduce such material from time to time in order to supplement what is in Hummel and to gain insights on Ch'ing - 20 - history from the lives of slightly less exalted persons? 2 ) The Society might consider including in each issue of the Bulletin one or two terms used regularly in Ch'ing documents giving the Chinese characters , a suggested translation and a brief definition of the term. In this way the Society might gradually build up a glossary of terms with the object of trying to establish standard translations and definitions for these terms as they were used in documents during the Ch'ing dynasty. For example you might write a short definition of the terms pao-i "bondservants " and hsiang-shen "local elite", and I would be glad to send in a few definitions for terms used in documents relating to the tributary system. These definitions should be accepted as tentative and readers of the Bulletin might write in with suggested modifications to these definitions and alternatives as standard translations. As you know, it is a great help when translating a document to have an acceptable working definition available for explaining a particular term and an acceptable translation for it - especially if the term occurs regularly in a document or group of documents. 3 ) Could the Society develop some method of keeping its members informed of where they can find illustrations of famous persons, buildings, etc., connected with the Ch'ing dynasty? For example: a ) A list of William Alexander's major finished water color (color - 21 - wash) drawings which he completed after returning to England with the Macartney embassy. Where they are, what they depict, size and colors, b ) A...