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I acknowledge with gratitude the many people who have helped me with this project. In particular, I wish to thank all of the librarians who played a key role throughout the research process, especially the archivists at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), including Lance Martin, Jo Ichimura, and Susannah Rayner. The SOAS archives have, for the past seven years, provided me with an exciting and rewarding academic home and, in return, it is hoped that this book will be its own tribute to the CWM/LMS Collection and to the pioneers on whom it focuses. Thanks also to Edith Chan, archivist at the University of Hong Kong, for allowing me access to Robert Morrison’s European library; and to the staff at Dr. Williams’s Library, especially David Wykes, for the patience and assistance which they shared with me as I educated myself on the area of dissenting studies and worked with their copy of the Bogue lecture notes. And finally, I acknowledge with appreciation the assistance provided to me by the library staff at New College, University of Edinburgh as I worked with their edition of the Gosport lecture notes, the oldest but, sadly, the most deteriorated set I discovered. The research for this book has been supported by funding from a variety of generous donors. The archival research in Edinburgh was supported, in part, by the Jordan Travel Grant. My extensive fieldwork in Hong Kong was made possible by the University of London Central Research Fund, the Spalding Trust, and the SOAS Fieldwork Award. In 2009–10, I was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship that allowed me to take a break from my regular teaching duties and to work intensively on this and other research projects , the rest of which will appear in the future. The Royal Asiatic Society of Acknowledgements Great Britain and Ireland, Regent’s University London, and the Universities’ China Committee in London (UCCL) have provided organisational and financial support, which helped to fund the production and publishing of this book. Finally, thanks go to my parents, Tom and Debbie, for helping me fund my doctoral research at SOAS in London. In addition to lending their financial support for my educational endeavours, my parents have always encouraged me to pursue my academic interests in Chinese religions. They have taken an active interest in my research, reading drafts of my work and providing their constructive feedback. For this unconditional love and support, I can never thank them enough. I am incredibly lucky to have such wonderful, loving parents—this book is dedicated to them. Thanks are also due to the various people who have shaped the way that I express my ideas within this text. I have been extremely lucky to have had T. H. Barrett as my MA and PhD supervisor and now a SOAS departmental colleague. He has always been to me a wise teacher, a dependable sounding board, and an encouraging mentor. I can only hope that my critical, archival approach to this study demonstrates how much I have learnt from him and grown as a scholar under his leadership. Thanks also to Lars Laamann and Gary Tiedemann for their warm collegiality and support along the way, reading drafts and providing commentaries at various stages of the research process, and for allowing me to enter into their sinological circle. Moreover, Andrew West, from whose work on Morrison’s Chinese library I have benefitted, has been very helpful by answering numerous questions and responding to my ideas about Morrison’s book collecting via email. I am further grateful to Isabel Rivers, Nicolas Standaert, and Daniel Bays for generously reading drafts and providing constructive criticisms which have afforded me the opportunity to improve my work. My doctoral examiners, Rosemary Seton and Beth McKillop, provided me with an immense amount of feedback on an earlier version of this research, which has helped me to strengthen my arguments in this edition. I am beyond grateful for the amount of time which all of the above put into listening to or reading my ideas, and this book is all the better because of their contributions. Thanks also to Emma Davis and the editorial board of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland for their feedback and support and for taking this title as one of their own. A more general word of appreciation is also due to Christopher Munn, who provided sound xii Acknowledegments [3.14.253.221] Project MUSE (2024...

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