From The Register of Ancients to Befriend to Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide: A Study of Late Qing Biographical Dictionaries

Abstract

The dissemination of Western learning during the late Qing not only brought specific scientific knowledge to China it also introduced reference books that collected the knowledge of different disciplines. This prompted a transformation of category-books, leishu 類書, into encyclopaedic works and dictionaries. The resultant changes in the structure of contemporary Chinese knowledge systems offer an attractive subject for study. This chapter, while limiting itself to examining the editing and translating of late-Qing world biographical dictionaries, offers a glimpse of the whole picture through this specific example.

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The dissemination of Western learning during the late Qing not only brought specific scientific knowledge to China it also introduced reference books that collected the knowledge of different disciplines. This prompted a transformation of category-books, leishu 類書, into encyclopaedic works and dictionaries. The resultant changes in the structure of contemporary Chinese knowledge systems offer an attractive subject for study. This chapter, while limiting itself to examining the editing and translating of late-Qing world biographical dictionaries, offers a glimpse of the whole picture through this specific example.

From Collected Surname Genealogies to Register of Ancients to Befriend

Genealogical study developed in China at a very early stage. Already in Sima Qian’s 司馬遷 (c. 145–186 BCE) Historical Records, Shiji史記, one finds passages such as “[I] checked in the genealogical records” 稽其曆譜諜 or “The Grand Historian [that is, Sima Qian] read in the Spring and Autumn Historical Genealogy Records…” 太史公讀春秋歷譜諜.¹ In ancient China, genealogies recorded a clan’s origins and the achievements of its members. Consequently, genealogies defined family status and could be deployed as the basis for marriage, rank, and position.² At one point, they became an instrument in the struggle of a new gentry class to establish its social position.³ Clan name studies, compiled prolifically by the government in notebook form, were not only inseparable from genealogies but also shared their rise and fall in popularity. Clan genealogies were scattered and lost towards the end of the Tang and during the Five Dynasties. Then in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and especially after the establishment of the Ming, rewriting genealogies and research on clan names gradually regained popularity.

The emphasis of Song and Ming Neo-Confucianists on maintaining exemplary clan order strongly fostered the keeping of genealogies; however, according to the Comprehensive Entries for the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, Siku quanshu zongmu 四庫全書總目, by Yong Rong 永瑢 (1744–1790) and others, there was also a literary factor that contributed to the popularity of clan-name studies after the Song:

In the Southern Song, correspondence became very popular, and in parallel-phrase prose, surnames were of the highest importance. For this reason, the Valley of the Myriad Embroidered Flowers and the Compendium of Matching Anecdotes have “family name categories.” Following upon The Complete Collection of Clan Names by Rhyme by someone from the Yuan Dynasty there was a profusion of such works.⁴

迨乎南宋, 啟札盛行, 駢偶之文, 務切姓氏。於是《錦繡萬花谷》、《合璧事類》各有 “類姓”一門, 元人《排韻氏族大全》而下, 作者彌眾。

This was quite different from Tang genealogies where “an insufficiently brilliant pedigree was a judgement on one’s status.” After the Southern Song, many works “presented historical figures for each surname, extracting the essentials,” which no doubt was more innovative. By combining clan genealogies with surname books, The Complete Collection of Clan Names by Rhyme, Paiyun shizu daquan 排韻氏族大全, went beyond the narrow usefulness of family investigation and pedigree to acquire the basic characteristics of a category-book and assembling ancient and modern documents for convenient and practical consultation.⁵

Two widely circulated Ming Dynasty surname books were Ling Dizhi’s 凌迪知 (jinshi 進 士 1556) Collected Surname Genealogies, Wanxing tongpu 萬姓統譜, and its successor work, Liao Yongxian’s 廖用賢 (fl. 1617–1666) The Register of Ancients to Befriend, Shang you lu 尚友錄. Ling’s work was published during the Wanli reign (1573–1620)⁶ and was later included in the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, Siku quanshu 四庫全書; a Tianqi reign (1621–1627)⁷ block-print edition of Liao’s work was also included in A Collection of Works in the Index of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, Siku quanshu cunmu congshu 四庫全書存目叢書. Although the Qing scholar Zhang Shu 張澍 (1776–1847) denounced the Collected Surname Genealogies as “false in the utmost; looking straight at it, one has no idea what is meant,”⁸ he nevertheless saw good reason for its inclusion in the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries since it was a “collection of many works into one volume, making the compilation indeed worthy of being called comprehensive,” despite being marred by “predilections, heterogeneity and contradictions” and “unreasonable phonetic interpretations.” Thus, its shortcomings could be ignored by virtue of its “broad gathering of materials and adequate textual research.” Since “works in common usage are not to be entirely discarded,”⁹ inclusion of the work was judged appropriate. However, The Register of Ancients to Befriend drew criticism because “much of its records are inappropriate in their details and omissions as well as lacking textual basis, but on the other hand it was also made for popular consumption” 諸所紀載, 詳略失宜, 無所考證, 蓋亦為應俗作也.¹⁰ Although the work was not included in this official collection, it did find a wider popular market. The constant additions and amendments to the book, as well as the frequent reuse of variations on the title, speak to its enduring influence. However, because The Register of Ancients to Befriend actually began as a continuation of Ling Dizhi’s Collected Surname Genealogies, we must begin our examination with a discussion of Ling’s work.

In his preface, Ling Dizhi gave the following explanation for the name Collected Surname Genealogies: “As a general principle, all-under-heaven is made up by a mass of families. As genealogies are able to link families, why not link all-under-heaven into one family through a genealogy for the whole realm?” 夫天下, 家積也。譜可聯家矣, 則聯天下為一家者, 盍以天下之姓譜之. The idea of collecting all surnames into one genealogy, making “all the realm one family,” turned out to mean, in practice, the compilation of a genealogy for all individual families and surnames one-by-one. Ling allowed that the usefulness of the work lay in the fact that when a person “looks at his genealogy, filial piety may very well arise of its own volition” 觀吾之姓譜者, 孝弟之心, 或亦可以油然而生矣.¹¹ It is impossible to say whether ordinary people recognised that the intent of this work was to promote patriotism through love of the family; however, it is worth pointing out that the compilation and structure of the work had deliberate aims.

In order to differentiate his work from previous surname books and to extol its special virtues, Ling included a pre-emptive defence of his work in his “Editorial Principles,” fanli 凡例. Although it is a rather long text, I have included an extensive passage from it because of the insight it affords into the origins and development of writings on surname studies:

There have been at least several dozen books on surnames in the past. Some adopt an approach to surnames based on reputation; others are concerned with clans of national importance; others are organised phonetically; others by characters; and there are also pseudo-surname books. Those based on reputation, such as Genealogical Records • Kings, Nobles and Prominent Officials and Genealogies of Surnames of the Brave and the Wise, are concerned primarily with status. But status is changeable; how can reputation be the central focus? Those based on clans of national importance, such as Succinct Records on Clans and General History • Clans focus on the search for clan origins; but clans without pedigree are listed by rhyme, resulting in undifferentiated, chaotic works that are unnecessarily confusing. Phonetically-based works are organised by the four tones, such as An Outline of Surnames Organised by Rhyme and Pearls on the Source of Surnames. But [characters] are not adjusted for ping and ze categories, and dong 東 and dong 冬 are not differentiated. King Hui of Liang [or of Wei] (369–319 BCE) is listed under the [surname] Liang, King Xuan of Qi (reigned 319–301 BCE) is listed under the surname Qi. What contemptible mistakes! How can these [names of dynasties] be treated as surnames? Character-based works, such as the Immortal Source of Classified Genealogies and Secret Outline of Clans, are organised around radicals. But they are concerned only with strokes, and meaning is disregarded. These may be wordbooks, but they have nothing in common with surname books. Pseudo-surname books, such as the Harmonious Categorised Compendium, Clans of Great Antiquity by Character and the Complete Book of Brush and Ink include four hundred and twenty-two families, and so the pedigrees included are not extensive. The single-juan The Compilation of a Thousand Families is well-organised and selects broadly. However, all of these books only take into account previous dynasties, not reaching the illustrious [present] dynasty, and therefore cannot be considered complete.

姓氏一書, 舊不下數十種。有論地望者, 有論國氏者, 有論聲者, 有論字者, 有仿姓書編者。夫論地望, 如《世本•王侯大夫譜》、《姓氏英賢錄》是也, 乃以貴賤為主;然貴賤無常, 安得專主地望 ? 論國氏者, 如《氏族要狀》、《通志•氏族》是也, 乃以本源受氏為主;然乏世系者復列以韻, 則混淆無辨, 徒亂耳目。論聲者, 乃以四聲為主, 如《姓氏韻略》、《姓源珠璣》是也;然平仄不調, 東冬不別, 以梁惠王為梁, 以齊宣王為齊, 則舛繆可鄙, 何取於姓也 ! 論字者, 乃以偏傍為主, 如《仙源類譜》、《姓氏秘略》是也;然拘於點畫, 不論其理, 但可為字書, 於姓氏無與也。有仿姓書編者, 如《合璧事類》、《尚古類氏》、《翰墨全書》是也, 然數止四百二十二家, 族系未廣;而《千姓編》一卷, 又工於組織, 搜羅未備。且諸書皆止述先朝, 未及昭代, 非為全書也。

The aforementioned books, which focused on provincial gentry and clan research, were inadequately organised and employed a narrow scope of compilation, while the Collected Surname Genealogies hoped “to collect all surnames without exception from the most ancient times until the present dynasty.” In terms of the work’s general layout, “the four tomes provide the structure, and the [pingshui] rhyme order the substructure,” so that “all the surnames of China, ancient and current” might be “included in sequence,” with “biographical information” compiled “from the biographies of the 21 histories, as well as General Records, Tongzhi 通志, Comprehensive Records, Tongzhi 統志, local gazetteers and other works,” and organised by surname.¹² This kind of complementary interweaving produced a work that, as Yong Rong and his collaborators remarked, was “called a genealogy, though it in fact combines genealogical records and biographies to create a book of the leishu kind.”¹³

Just as Ling Dizhi had done, and as was customary, in his compilation of The Register of Ancients to Befriend Liao Yongxian found fault with earlier works including the Collected Surname Genealogies. In his opinion, although one might say that New Account of the Tales of the World, Shishuo xinyu 世說新語, is concise and detailed, it is hard for a humble scholar like myself to tolerate its dissipation. As for Collected Surname Genealogies, one may of course call it learned, but its lack of discrimination should be recognised and criticised. In [An Outline of] Surnames [Organised by Rhyme], Xingshi [yunlüe] 姓氏[韻略], and [Pearls on the] Source of Surnames, Xingyuan [zhuji] 姓源[珠璣], there are many facts that are not substantiated; [the sections on] people in Records of the Vast Earth, Guangyu [ji] 廣輿[記], and The Comprehensive [Gazetteer], Yitong zhi 一统志 were not composed especially for this work.

However, following this criticism, Liao still honestly admits that his work “draws on many authors who contributed to my views.”¹⁴ To be specific,

The Register of Ancients to Befriend, like Collected Surname Genealogies, is organised by rhyme order; its facts are drawn from New Account of the Tales of the World, Collection of my Early Stage at the [Dragon] Pond, The Complete Collection of Clan Names, Pearls on the Source of Surnames, The Comprehensive Gazetteer, The Vast Earth, Biographies of Lofty Men, Biographical Notes of Great Masters, Biographies of a Hundred Generals and Biographies of Various Immortals. Nine times out of ten, the information is drawn from these, then supplemented by the Summary [of the Comprehensive Mirror], [Tongjian] gangmu [通鋻]綱目, and The Comprehensive Mirror [for Aid in Government], [Zizhi] tongjian [資治]通鋻, as well as works of philosophy and history to fill in the gaps.¹⁵

《尚友錄》一如《萬姓統譜》, 所編分列各韻之下;其事實則《世說新語》、《初潭集》、 《氏族大全》、《姓源珠璣》、《一統志》、《廣輿記》、《高士傳》、《聖門人物志》、 《百將傳》、《列仙傳》十收其九, 間取《綱目》、《通鑒》、子、史諸書, 以補其遺。

Evidently, this method of taking “rhyme order for structure, surname for substructure” and “organizing the eras according to the biographies and actions of notable figures, divided by surname” is adopted from Collected Surname Genealogies. Liao Yongxian’s work consisted primarily, as he said, of “weeding out the extraneous and supplying the omitted.”¹⁶

Although The Register of Ancients to Befriend retained Collected Surname Genealogies’ the compilation structure of Collected Surname Genealogies without developing it, The Register was the work that, in later times, enjoyed greater popularity. Besides the fact that slashing the enormous work of 146 juan down to a simplified 22 made it more convenient to use, the book’s felicitous title was doubtless the principal reason for its sales success. Ling Dizhi also claimed of his work that “surname genealogies are records of surnames, and surnames will inspire one to research figures who bore that surname. Only if their words and deeds were exemplary, their reputation carried weight in their time, and their names have been left to posterity, may they be included.”¹⁷ However, Liao applies Mencius’s tenet on “befriending the ancients” more literally: “When a virtuous scholar has befriended all the virtuous scholars of the realm and finds it insufficient, he will consider the men of antiquity” 天下之善士, 斯友天下之善士, 以友天下之善士為未足, 又尚論古之人.¹⁸ Liao’s title more strikingly and clearly conveys the idea of the work. It is little wonder that in his preface Shang Zhouzuo 商周祚 (jinshi 1601) gushed,

I greatly appreciate the [New Account of] The Tales of the World and the Collected [Surname] Genealogies, which have long been regarded with disdain by those of great learning; but with the name changed to “ancients to befriend” this work was suddenly found by all to stimulate body and mind. [It is much like] taking down the flag of Zhao and running up the flag of Han, that most excellent tactic of the Huaiyin army [of Han Xin韓信 d. 196 BCE].¹⁹

予最善其以《世說》、《統譜》諸書, 百千年來, 第資博者譚柄;一更“尚友”名, 頓令人獲身心益也。拔趙幟, 立漢幟, 是淮陰將兵最妙著。

Consequently, it is not hard to understand why The Register of Ancients to Befriend enjoyed singular prevalence during the popular Qing fashion for rewriting genealogies. If a person of ordinary family did not know his pedigree, the new genealogy compiler had only to select a figure from The Register of Ancients to Befriend and acknowledge him as his ancestor.²⁰ Based on this association with an earlier sage, one could instantly improve one’s family status and reputation. Just as Liao Yongxian had changed the book’s title, they were also “taking down the flag of Zhao and running up the flag of Han.” One might even say that Liao and his readers achieved the same goal through different methods.

Although The Register of Ancients to Befriend had a new title, its purpose remained the recording of ancient and contemporary surnames in leishu form. Much like the Collected Surname Genealogies’ flexible system of “recording surnames,” figures with “uncommon surnames” or “of little repute but who had held a post, or who had few accomplishments and nothing worth recording, have nevertheless been included in the compilation. If there is someone rather eccentric in behaviour, he is nonetheless included.”²¹ Liao’s work, which “is billed as ‘befriending the ancients’ in esteem and admiration” while “collecting [examples of] gracious conduct and virtuous ways, even if they are of considerable length,” also exceptionally retained “occasional accounts of immorality, accounting for only one or two of hundreds or thousands.”²² This was, of course, an unwilling concession made in deference to the principle of wide collection.

In Liao Yongxian’s work, which took “befriending the ancients” as its principle, irregularities of compilation are more common than in Ling’s work. For this reason, Shang Zhouzuo, who wrote the preface in his capacity as a “parental official,” allowed himself to comment on how “Mencius’ chose friends strictly, but Liao too tolerantly.” Shang contrasts Mencius’ severity in choosing friends with the selection process of Liao’s work: “Of course mostly there are those who are eminent beyond compare, and can be listed alongside Mencius; but there are heterodox figures, such as members of the School of Yin-Yang, the Logicians and Legalists, the School of Diplomacy, Taoists and Buddhists, the School of Agriculture, the School of Formulas and Strategies, the School of Star-reading, and all kinds of wretched figures who are certainly not to be called friends.” Shang concludes with a rather contrived rationale: “As the famous early Han military leader Han Xin 韓信 (d. 196 BCE) said about his troops: the more, the better,” but “why tolerate the defective”?²³ In any case, Liao’s trick of juxtaposing ordinary people with sacred figures as possible models and friends found great popularity in ordinary society.

It is surprising that in Liao Yongxian’s own appraisal of his work he does not elaborate substantially on “befriending the ancients” at all, but instead repeatedly asserts that his work was “generally founded on poetry and prose, and is not intended simply for the elucidation of surnames” and that while “not originally conceived expressly for the research of surnames, it also offers a collection for those writing poetry and prose.”²⁴ For this reason, later printers and the compilers of later continuations had to bear the brunt of the blame for the fact that “people today present each other with poems composed entirely from the surnames of ancient people pieced together willy-nilly, entirely without meaning or art. This book seems to have given that kind of person a short-cut.” Actually, the fact that the “ambition of the ‘ancients to befriend’ series”²⁵ was not specifically the research of surnames, reflects even more tellingly how Liao deliberately continued in the tradition of Complete Collection of Clan Names, Shizu daquan 氏族大全, and other works, by “selecting a novel way to provide a book for the ornamentation of prose.”²⁶ This was likely another reason that The Register of Ancients to Befriend enjoyed such great popularity after the transition into the Qing.

Neither the use of rhyme order as structure and surnames as substructure, nor the collection of figures and events for the compilation of a book were innovations of The Register of Ancients to Befriend or of the Collected Surname Genealogies. Nevertheless, these two books did indeed make indispensable contributions to the perfection and development of the form. They also paved the way for a series of The Register of Ancients to Befriend compilations that began in the late Qing, which provide an indispensable link in the transition from leishu to modern reference works.

From The Register of Ancients to Befriend to The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend

The late Ming block-print edition of the Register of Ancients to Befriend was already adopted in the early Qing Kangxi reign by Zhang Bocong’s 張伯琮 (1647–1731) revised and enlarged edition, which added “5 surnames, 83 persons and further materials to 17 entries,”²⁷ and was entitled The Revised and Enlarged Register of Ancients to Befriend, Zengbu shang you lu 增補尚友錄. Further editions of this book were published in the late Qing; for example, the Siming changhuai 四明暢懷書屋 edition of 1886, the Shanghai Dianshi zhai 點石齋 and the Zhu yi tang 著易堂 editions of 1880, the Saoye shanfang 掃葉山房 edition of 1890, among others, later also used the name The Corrected Register of Ancients to Befriend, Jiaozheng shang you lu 校正尚友錄. At the same time that the Dianshi zhai was publishing Zhang’s revised and enlarged version, it was also promoting Pan Zunqi’s 潘遵祁 (The Master who Ponders in Seclusion, Tuisi zhuren 退思主人1808–1892) The Register of Ancients to Befriend, Continued, Shang you lu xuji 尚友錄續集, in 22 juan. This work was intended to rectify omissions by “identifying gaps, broadly drawing from historical biographical records, repeatedly searching and editing, ascertaining date and juan number from the original works.”²⁸ There were also several block-print editions of this work, including the 1896 Shanghai Press, Shanghai shuju 上海書局 edition, the 1899 Shanghai Beneficial Records Press, Shanghai yiji shuzhuang 上海益記書庄 edition, the 1900 Literary Exchange Hall edition, and the 1902 Precious Benevolence Studio, Baoshan zhai 寶善齋, edition. Many of these were distributed alongside Zhang’s revised work. While Touchstone Studio was publishing and selling The Register of Ancients to Befriend, Continued, it also announced the publication of the 20-juan The Continued Register of Ancients to Befriend, Xu shang you lu 續尚友錄, which gathered figures from the “Liao, Jin and Yuan as well as the Ming Dynasties” in sequence in order to rectify the original shortcoming of Liao Yongxian’s work and of The Register, Continued—namely, that it “stopped at the Song.”²⁹ This work is no longer extant. Later continuations were called The Third Collection of the Corrected Register of Ancients to Befriend, Jiaozheng shang you lu san ji 校正尚友錄三集, and The Register of Ancients to Befriend of the Present Dynasty, Guochao shang you lu 國朝尚友錄.³⁰ The Third Collection “specifically collected persons of four dynasties: the Liao, Jin, Yuan and Ming”³¹ in much the same way as had been envisaged for The Continued Register of Ancients to Befriend, though it was only ten juan-long. The Register of Ancients to Befriend of the Present Dynasty in eight juan, edited by Li Peifang 李佩芳 and Sun Ding 孫鼎, was, upon reprinting, divested of its “Editorial Principles” and included as part of The Complete Corrected Ancients to Befriend under the name of The Fourth Collection of the Corrected Register of the Ancients, Jiaozheng shang you lu si ji 校正尚友錄四集 and was sold as a set.³²

These various continuations of The Register of Ancients to Befriend, though initially independent, began to be collated in 1902. This enterprise was first undertaken by Ying Zuxi 應祖錫 (1855–1927), who called his work The Enlarged Combined Register of Ancients to Befriend, Zengguang Shang you lu tongbian 增廣尚友錄統編.³³ The writer of the preface, Wu Bangsheng 吳邦升, while remarking on the importance of the compilation, also commented on the previous publishing situation:

The Register of Ancients to Befriend by Liao Binyu 廖賓於 [i. e. Liao Yongxian] of the Ming Dynasty used, in imitation of Collected Surname Geneaologies, rhyme order for structure and surnames for substructure. The factual biographies were drawn from the classics and histories, with other sources also being consulted. Patching together these materials, he made a book of 22 juan. He was succeeded by Pan [Zunqi], like myself from the Wu region. Healthful in his forest seclusion and deeply committed to classical works, Pan took the gems omitted from Liao’s register and collected the works into a volume called The Continued Register with an unaltered structure but more detailed records. Both works began in the Zhou and Qin dynasties and continued down through the Song, though the Liao, Jin, Yuan and Ming Dynasties were missing. Then Zhang [Bocong] of Qingchuan compiled the ten-juan The Third Collection and there was a block-print bookshop edition called The Register of Ancients to Befriend of the Present Dynasty in eight juan which was included in The Fourth Collection. Altogether several thousand years of famous officials and great scholars, loyalists and artists, figures of governance and men of letters, the chaste, the loyal, the filial pious, have all been collected. One opens these works to find the figures as numerous as wrinkles on the page, a forest of gentleman scholars for the edification of posterity, a depository that is far from meagre. Each [work] was compiled separately, so the information is diffuse rather than concentrated. For this reason, one’s attention is always divided, which is inconvenient for the reader. The Master of the Precious Books Studio [=Ying Zuxi] therefore decided to place them on the stove and smelt them together, putting them in orderly sequence, deleting the superfluous, adding where needed, correcting the erroneous, assembling the gems into a harmonious whole and giving it to the printers. In this way the children of the future, obtaining instruction about the countless thousands of figures of ancient times, can learn powers of induction through wide reading and instruct themselves.³⁴

前明廖賓於先生有《尚友錄》一書, 仿《萬姓通[統]譜》例, 韻為綱, 姓為目;其事實小傳, 則於經史子外, 又旁搜他說, 集腋而成, 都二十二卷。嗣以吾吳潘氏頤養林泉, 覃心典籍, 取廖錄遺珠, 網羅成帙, 為《續集》, 體例如舊, 紀載較詳。然二書皆上自周秦, 下迄南宋而止, 遼金元明概付闕如。自晴川張氏復續《三集》十卷, 后又見坊本《國朝尚友錄》八卷, 遂成《四集》。於是上下數千百年名臣碩儒、逸民藝士, 經濟文章、忠孝節烈, 兼收並蓄, 開卷如掌上螺紋, 沾溉士林, 良非淺鮮。特各自為編, 散而不聚, 顧此失彼, 閱者病焉。鴻寶齋主人爰得並爐而冶一法, 挨次厘定, 重者刪, 闕者補, 訛者正, 珠聯璧合, 付諸手民。俾后生小子日對無萬數古人, 由博而反諸約, 能自得師。

As for the method of compilation, Ying Zuxi described it as “still according to Liao’s original compilation. From the Zhou and Qin dynasties and up to the present day, they are all included according to the original sequence.”³⁵ For this reason, this work is also 22 juan-long.

The advantages of a combined register were very obvious and so, in 1903, the Tongwen Publishers 通文書局 rapidly published a 24 juan publication called The Corrected Combined Register of Ancients to Befriend, Jiaozheng shang you lu tongbian 校正尚友錄統編, which was credited to Qianhu diaotu 錢湖釣徒. In his “Editorial Principles,” the compiler could not resist claiming the credit due to others by remarking that besides “adopting the rhyme order” of Zhang Bocong’s work, he also “selected famous sages from the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and the present dynasty.” He claims to have added “more than 180 surnames, and increased the number of figures by 6,000–7,000”³⁶ to Liao Yongxian’s original The Register of Ancients to Befriend. Because this work had switched to the Treasury of Rhymes and Phrases, Peiwen yunfu 佩文韻府, system that was more familiar to literati of the era, and was supplementing the entries, it very quickly replaced all preceding works and was reprinted even during the Republican Era.

Publication dates suggest that the years 1902 and 1903, when both combined registers were first published, witnessed the most intense period for The Register of Ancients to Befriend series, including the greatest number of variants. The following is a list of the different works:

1902

• Ying Zuxi 應祖錫, comp. The Enlarged Combined Register of Ancients to Befriend, Zengguang shang you lu tongbian 增廣尚友錄統編, 22 juan. Shanghai: Hongbao zhai.

• Pan Zunqi 潘遵祁, comp. The Corrected Register of Ancients to Befriend, Continued. Jiaozheng shang you lu xuji 校正尚友錄續集 22 juan. Shanghai: Baoshan. [See Note 26].

• Li Peifang 李佩芳, Sun Ding 孫鼎, comps. The Register of Ancients to Befriend of the Present Dynasty, Guochao shang you lu 國朝尚友錄, Shanghai: Nanyang qiri baoguan 南洋七日報館.

• Zhang Yuan 張元 comp. The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend, Waiguo shang you lu 外國尚友錄, 10 juan ³⁷ (Illustration 1, 2, 3).

  Illustration 1

  

  First text page of Zhang Yuan, comp. The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend (1902)

  Illustration 2

  

  Cover page of Zhang Yuan, comp. The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend. Copy of different edition dated 1902 in Sanetō Keishū Library within the Tokyo Municipal Library

  Illustration 3

  

  Preface by Fu-ge-si in Zhang Yuan, comp. The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend. Copy of different edition dated 1902 in Sanetō Keishū Library within the Tokyo Municipal Library

1903

• Qianhu diaotu 錢湖釣徒, comp. The Corrected Combined Register of Ancients to Befriend, Jiaozheng shang you lu tongbian 校正尚友錄統編, 24 juan. Shanghai: Tongwen.

• Zhang Bocong, comp. The Corrected Register of Ancients to Befriend, Zengbu shang you lu 增補尚友錄, 22 juan. Shanghai: Baoshan.

• The Third Collection of Corrected Register of Ancients to Befriend. As above.

• The Fourth Collection of Corrected Register of Ancients to Befriend As above.

• Liu Shuping 劉樹屏 (1857–1917), comp. Register of Ancients to Befriend in the Twenty-four Histories, Ershisi shi shang you lu 二十四史尚友錄 (including as an attachment The Register of Ancients to Befriend of the Present Dynasty) Shanghai: Wenji shuzhuang.

• Wu Zuoqing 吳佐清, comp. The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend, Haiguo shang you lu 海國尚友錄. Eight juan. Shanghai: Kuizhang shuju, 1903 (Illustration 4).

  Illustration 4

  

  Cover page of Wu Zuoqing, comp., The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend, Haiguo shang you lu. Shanghai: Kuizhang shuju, 1903

This does not even include the remaining stock of earlier editions that would still have been for sale. Of these works, the most telling example of the late Qing vogue for the “Ancients to Befriend” series is The Register of Ancients to Befriend in the Twenty-four Histories credited to Liu Shuping (owner of the Wenji Press). This work is, in fact, an expanded revision of Xiong Junyun’s 熊峻運 (fl. 1724) Yongzheng period compilation entitled Commentaries and Explanations on Clan Names, Shizu jianshi 氏族箋釋,³⁸ which was promoted under a new name to capitalise on the fashion. The only portion of the text actually written by Liu is the single-juan addendum placed as front matter and called The Register of Ancients to Befriend of the Present Dynasty. It does not include very much material and is completely beneath comparison with Li Peifang’s and Sun Ding’s work of the same name. The fact that all of the new Registers of Ancients to Befriend came out of Shanghai is obviously connected to the fact that lithographic technology was first widely employed in this city, which was already becoming the most developed publishing hub of the era.

Besides those works which incorporated “Register of Ancients to Befriend” in the title, there was also the 1903 publication titled A Compilation of Western Notables Organised by Rhyme, Taixi renwu yunbian 泰西人物韻編. This work does not feature an “Editorial Principles” section, but it does include a preface by Zhou Shitang 周世棠 (1871–1941) which informs us that the editor, Wang Chengjiao 汪成教, was an instructor at the Longjin School, Longjin xuetang 龍津學堂, in Fenghua 奉化, Zhejiang Province. Zhou’s preface records Wang’s own account of his work’s particularities:

….this book starts two thousand years before the Common Era and reaches into the present twentieth century, including without omission all Western personalities who appear in translated books, citing dates of birth and death without fail. Figures for whom there is no reliable record have not been included.³⁹

……是書起紀元前二千年頃, 迄今二十世紀, 凡泰西人物於譯書所見, 搜集靡遺, 且必引証生卒年代, 而無事實者概不錄。

By selecting people on the basis of their noteworthiness without reference to their moral qualities, this work has jettisoned The Register of Ancients to Befriend’s criteria of selection by moral example. Consequently, it was not unreasonable for Zhou to compare this work to the Japanese publication Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Foreign Geographical Names and People, Gaikoku chimei jinmei jiten 外國地名人名辭典.⁴⁰ However, the difference between the two works is that the Japanese encyclopaedic dictionary was “organised in sequence according to the Western alphabet, but complemented by Chinese, for the convenience of those with knowledge of the Western alphabet,” whereas Wang’s work is “organised by rhyme order, unaltered in structure, for the convenience of those accustomed to Chinese.”⁴¹ This demonstrates how powerful the tradition of arranging surnames by rhyme order had become; it was now the standard structure for name registers. Since A Compilation of Western Notables Organised by Rhyme lies outside the fixed scope of this essay, which deals primarily with the Register of Ancients to Befriend series, there will be no further discussion of it. However, as the forerunner of many biographical dictionaries in the Republican era it is worth emphasising its stature and significance.

To return to the main subject: Of the works listed above, the two most noteworthy are Zhang Yuan’s 張元 The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend ⁴² and Wu Zuoqing’s 吳佐清The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend.⁴³ Both works extend the compilation tradition of Ancients to Befriend overseas, with the specific purpose of collecting material on people and events “of nations East and West, in books already translated and as yet untranslated.” Their immediate target readership was identified as “instructors of Western Learning.”⁴⁴ In the late Qing, a period of convergence between Western and Chinese learning, this was doubtlessly an important innovation.

Let us turn now to the authorship of the two works. The table of contents credits the “editor Zhang Yuan, styled Shengchu 聲初 of Xishang 溪上, ” and every juan credits “Zhang Yuan of Xishang,” so we know that the compiler was Zhang Yuan. Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend credits the “editor Wu Zuoqing Chengfu 吳佐清澂父 of Dantu 丹徒, ” but in the “Compiler’s Preface” the author’s name is written as “Wu Zuoqing Zuoqing 吳佐清左卿.” Clearly, he had at least two alternate names: Chengfu and Zuoqing 左卿, and the Zuoqing came in two writing variants, 佐清 and 左卿. Nothing specific is known about Zhang Yuan’s background, but he was studying at a new-style school when he compiled the book. In 1893 Wu was already a student of the Shanghai Polytechnic Institution, Shanghai gezhi shuyuan 上海格致書院,⁴⁵ and was made a professor by the time of compilation. In 1909 he was elected a member of the consultative assembly for Jiangsu Province.

Neither book became widely popular during the late Qing, and both were limited to one edition. Zhang’s work drew notice once more in 1918 when the Shanghai National Learning Press, Shanghai guoxue tushuju 上海國學圖書局, planned to combine Qianhu diaotu’s The Corrected Combined Register of Ancients to Befriend with The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend and publish The Combined Register of Ancients to Befriend, Chinese and Foreign. Except for the inscription, which adds “edited by Zhang Yuan styled Shengchu of Xishang” after “compiled by Qianhu diaotu of Gujin 古堇, ” the work as presently known actually consists only of the 24 juan of The Corrected Combined Register of Ancients to Befriend Jiaozheng shang you lu tongbian. Pan Zunqi’s preface, however, was reused, having been included from The Register of Ancients to Befriend Continued to The Corrected Combined Register of Ancients to Befriend, it now, under another name change, served as the preface to The Combined Register of Ancients to Befriend, Chinese and Foreign.⁴⁶

Superficially, it would appear that The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend has attracted more attention than The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend. If one examines their merits, however, it is evident that the latter work is the superior one. To a great extent, this is because the former work was hastily compiled and went through many different hands. According to the writer of the preface, this work was created through the combined efforts of “many classmates and friends” who excerpted passages.⁴⁷ The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend was different. This book was compiled by one man—Wu Zuoqing—from “the texts ordinarily cited to speak of a [given] subject.”⁴⁸ Besides the six-juan body of the text, Wu added one juan each of addenda and appendices, establishing a very meticulous structure (Illustration 5).

Illustration 5

Author’s preface, in Wu Zuoqing, comp., The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend, Haiguo shang you lu. Shanghai: Kuizhang shuju, 1903

It is interesting to note that in the front matter of The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend there is no statement by the compiler Zhang Yuan at all. Instead, one finds only prefaces from Fu-ge-si, “a clergyman who has travelled England, France, Italy and Belgium” and the former Japanese Foreign Minister and Home Minister Soejima Taneomi 副島種臣 (1828–1905). Fu-ge-si was mostly concerned with extending the meaning of Ancients to Befriend to include foreign nations, pointing out to this end that Liao Yongxian’s work was already insufficient to cope with the needs of the present:

This work was compiled from only one continent, Asia. Now that the whole globe is known, there are five continents. As for the nations on these continents, the following are the great ones: England, France, Germany, America, Australia and Russia, as well as innumerable small ones. Across the vastness of the continents and the enormous rivers and mountains, steamboats, railways and electric lines crisscross the globe, translations are being made, and the manifold nations are being united by the special will of the creating divinity. No distinction will be made on this vast earth between Europe and Asia, between yellow and red races, so that great harmony arises while regional selfishness is diminished and all learn from one another to achieve perfection.⁴⁹

是其所集者, 蓋第就亞細亞一洲而言之也。至今日而環地球而計之, 得大洲者五;綜五大洲之國而計之, 其大者則有英、法、德、美、奧、俄諸國, 其他小國悉數難終。想五洲之大, 山川之廣, 輪船、鐵路、電線之旁午交錯於寰中, 戶庭重譯, 萬國來同, 是造物特神其用, 欲使環球大地, 域不分歐亞, 種不分黃赤, 以並臻大同之盛, 而化其畛域之私, 相與觀摩盡善焉。

Fu-ge-si’s description of this beautiful scene of great harmony and international fraternity under heaven encourages China to imitate the West through “self-strengthening” and “amassing wealth.” Thus, “unless more works are translated, it will be impossible to know the imperatives of new governance, the essence of new jurisprudence, the proper way of new regulations, the purity of new reason.” The compilation of the Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend was therefore also connected with the sacred mission of “protecting the 400 million people of the yellow race” and “strengthening China’s 200 million [li] of land.”⁵⁰ Similarly, Soejima Taneomi, the president of the Japanese Oriental Society, Nippon, Tōhō Kyokai 日本東邦協會, pays even less attention to “befriending the ancients.” Instead, he emphasises that “this book encompasses the manifold nations, grasping their essence. It covers millennia, reducing them to their main points,” declaring that “everything falls into place with this book. Reading it produces a flash of understanding, since all the affairs of all the world are contained within it.”⁵¹ It is readily apparent that, in the view of the authors of the two prefaces, the work’s primary function was the integration of new learning. One can already discern here a fundamental difference from traditional surname studies works, including The Register of Ancients to Befriend, which had a stated purpose of “researching surnames and clans” or “furnishing prose and poetry.”

The same central purpose for compilation that these foreign scholars had articulated and praised was also adopted in The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend, though Wu Zuoqing’s expression thereof was doubtlessly both more thoughtful and intimate in tone. Wu’s first concern was to overcome the traditional prejudice of the Chinese standpoint—namely, an enduring contempt for barbarians. Presupposing that Eastern and Western cultures could coexist and develop, he painted the following picture of the role that The Corrected Register of Ancients to Befriend could play in cultural development:

Starting from Menes, the intellect of the Egyptians expanded. Starting from De-xiu (Theseus?), the intellect of the Greeks expanded. Starting from Kai-wo-mo-si (Cyrus II?), the intellect of the Persians expanded. Starting from Romulus, the intellect of the Romans expanded. When an era has men of great learning, philosophy thrives. When there are great generals and officials, culture thrives and the military is glorious. Alas! In the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, the heavens definitely did not wish to especially privilege China so that it alone would attain cultural prosperity! Since the Han and Tang dynasties, the Western nations have declined politically and became barbarous and cruel, forgetting their source [of culture]. At that time, China had much trade with them, but did not know their previous culture and so continuously regarded them as Luoluo or Zhuang savages. But in Japan, on the same continent as China, after Emperor Jimmu founded the nation, their culture has thriven more daily, but we also did not know of their prosperity and continued to regard them like Ainu [Japan's orginal tribal inhabitants]. And so, how could we after continuously seeing the [Westerns] as Luoluo or Zhuang and [the Japanese] as Ainu have noticed that since the Song and Yuan Dynasties the [Westerners] who already had had civilization before, were developing it further, and those [like the Japanese] who had been uneducated and rustic earlier, were also rushing towards a civilized. After the Song and Yuan dynasties their civilisation grew even more civilised while the barbarians became civilised as well. Yet the officials of our land still treat them like Yi and Di tribals, mock and treat them with disdain, for they do not realise that there are people of distinction among them. This is why we have ended up being no match for them.⁵²

自米尼司出, 而埃及之民智開;自德修出, 而希臘之民智開;自開我摩斯出, 而波斯之民智開;自羅慕路出, 而羅馬之民智開。由是代有名儒, 而哲學興焉;由是代有名將名相, 而文猷武烈昭焉。嗟虖 ! 虞夏商周之際, 天固不欲私吾中國, 使獨臻文明之盛也。漢唐而降, 泰西各國政學中衰, 頑獷狉獉, 漸忘其本。斯時中國適與之通, 不知其昔日之文明也, 直獞猺猓黎視之而已。即與吾同洲之日本, 自神武開國以來, 人文日盛, 吾亦不知其盛也, 直蝦夷視之而已。然使其終如獞猺猓黎、終如蝦夷則亦已耳, 豈知宋元而后, 文明者益文明, 頑獷者亦日趨於文明。而吾士大夫猶且彝之狄之、非笑之詬厲之, 而不知秦有人也, 此吾之所以終絀於彼也。

Japan and the West have never lacked people of distinction, and both have their own cultural traditions. In that period of conflict between Eastern and Western civilisations, the fact that Chinese culture had fallen on hard times was the basic motivation for Wu Zuoqing and others who were equally anxious to examine the world around them. The fact that “Western scholars can read Chinese history” or that a 13-year-old Western girl named Ai-er-bo 愛爾孛 was “familiar with Asian stories,” made Wu even more “deeply ashamed” of his compatriots’ “intransigent foolishness and inability to reflect on the world or understand human beings.” Compiling The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend was “one way of assisting the student of Eastern and Western history,”⁵³ and was therefore not a project to be delayed.

The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend lists 48 works in its bibliography. Except for twelve that were either translated from Japanese or had Chinese authors, these works whose titles were given in Chinese translation had mostly featured in the following categories of Liang Qichao’s Bibliography of Western Learning, Xixue shumu biao 西學書目表: “history,” “educational system,” “law,” “travel accounts,” and “works of Western discourse.” Of course, because of the later publication of The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend, some of the sources had not been included in Liang’s works. But the bibliography is not really complete, since Ancient Religions Compared, Gujiao huican 古教匯參, is not included in the list despite being mentioned in several entries. The bibliography of The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend lists only the titles of works, not the authors, which means that some information is lost. In this compilation, only 42 Western and Chinese works each are listed. The focus is on Chinese-written books starting from Wei Yuan’s 魏源 Illustrated Record of Overseas Countries, Haiguo tuzhi 海國圖志, and famous Western works in translation (such as Evolution and Ethics, Le contrat social, De l’esprit des lois) with a special focus on religion, astronomy, mechanics, etc. Only 14 books are included in both bibliographies, reflecting their very different approaches. Moreover, since Liang Qichao was still wanted for arrest by the Qing Court, both works treat Liang’s works as taboo, though this did not prevent the compilers from borrowing from them as they saw fit.

Although they can be considered contemporaneous publications based on the period of their production,⁵⁴ the difference exhibited in the compilation and structures of The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend and The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend lend themselves instead to a discussion of the works as representatives of two distinct phases. In this way, the evolution of late Qing biographical dictionaries represented by these two models can be fully demonstrated.

From The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend to The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend

It need hardly be said that in terms of academic systems The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend represents a new tendency, although its organisational method is still very much according to an old convention that was exactly the same as in the heyday of The Register of Ancients to Befriend’s own popularity. And because it was so devoid of invention, the usual “Editorial Principles” were also left out. There is only one explanatory sentence in Fu-ge-si’s preface, to the effect that the book is “put together according to rhyme order.” With the addition of the “Bibliography of Books Used”, there was nothing more that the reader needed to know.

A count of all ten juan shows that entries include biographical events for 864 persons; however, this is not the actual number of historical figures featured. Because of the discrepancy in transliterations, on many occasions the same person has two or three entries. For instance, the French scholar Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755) appears in this work under three different transliterated names. They are excerpted below for convenient comparison.

Meng-di-si-jiu [=Montesquieu]. French. Born in 1689. Very gifted from a young age, he studied and gained insight into history. In his youth, he explored the systems and codes of laws of various nations and researched legal theory. In 1740, he was elected to his province’s consultative assembly. In the same year he joined the Academy, gaining fame for his painstaking and meticulous research in all sciences and production of a considerable body of work which garnered acclaim. In 1746, he resigned from the assembly and travelled through Europe’s various nations. Returning to France, he set to writing with great ardour. First came the two works Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence and Notes sur l’Angleterre. Then, in 1750, he published De l’esprit des lois, the culmination of twenty years of energetic compilation. Upon the publication of this work, the intellectual discourse of the whole nation underwent a sea change as powerful as ten thousand li of rushing Yellow River waters. As a measure of its reputation, consider that in only eighteen months it was reprinted 21 times. Today, all the civilised nations of Europe act according to his teachings, and so Montesquieu can truly be called [the initiator] of a pivotal change in world politics. He died in 1755, aged 66.⁵⁵

Meng-te-si-qiu [=Montesquieu]. Famous French official. He once wrote a new work which said that governance in England was superior to that in France. The French, feeling envious [of the English] upon reading [this book], in one fell swoop determined to take the English ruler as their standard.⁵⁶

Meng-di-si-jiu [= Montesquieu]. From Château de la Brède near Bordeaux in France. An avid reader of histories, he was adept at Greek and Latin. He travelled across all the nations and consorted with the famous scholars of his day. After twenty years of arduous labour, he produced De l’esprit des lois, a work which discusses legal theory, political system, human rights, etc., and brought great benefit to later generations.⁵⁷

蒙的斯鳩 法國人也。生於一千六百八十九年。幼稟天才 , 讀史有識。少壯 , 探討各國制度、法典 , 並研究法理學。千七百四十年 , 舉為本州議會議員。同年入學士會院 , 益刻苦厲精研究各學 , 頗有著述 , 為世所稱。千七百四十六年辭議員職 , 游歷歐洲諸國。歸國后 , 益潛心述作 , 先成《羅馬盛衰原因論》、《英國政體論》兩書 , 既乃成《萬法精理》 , 以千七百五十年公於世 , 蓋作者二十年精力之所集也。此書一出 , 全國之思想言論為之丕變 , 真有黃河一瀉千里之勢 , 僅閱十八月 , 而重印二十一次 , 可以想見其聲價矣。今歐洲文明之國 , 皆一一行其言 , 故蒙氏者 , 實可稱地球政界轉變一樞紐云。以一千七百五十五年卒 , 年六十六歲。

蒙特斯邱 法國名宦。嘗新著一書, 言英吉利治國規模勝於法國。法人讀而羨之, 一舉一動 , 盡以英主為准則云。

孟的斯鳩 佛蘭西羅弗勒人。好讀諸史 , 兼善希臘、拉丁語。歷游各國 , 與當時名士交游。費二十年星霜 , 著《萬法精理》一書 , 論法理、政體、人權等 , 甚有裨於后世云。

Of these three passages, the first two are classed under the first shangping rhyme, yi dong 一東, and appear consecutively. However, the last entry can only be found if one searches under the 24th qu rhyme, ershisi jing 二十四敬. For those who were only just becoming acquainted with works of Western learning in translation, one fears that it would have been very difficult to realise that all three entries referred to the same figure.

By analysing the sources of the material for these three entries, we can understand the manner in which The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend was compiled. The first and most detailed introduction to Montesquieu’s life and works is excerpted from Liang Qichao’s 1899 essay “The Teachings of Montesquieu.”⁵⁸ Comparing the two texts, one finds that up to “all the civilised nations of Europe” The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend entry includes the entire text except for the deletion of a portion of Liang Qichao’s précis of Montesquieu’s teachings and the Chinese reign years that followed the Western dates. From this we can conclude that the emphasis of The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend’s compilation was not on scholarship but on biographical events.

The second text is taken from Timothy Richard's (1845–1919) (Li Timotai 李提摩太) and Cai Erkang’s 蔡爾康 (1852–1921) joint and widely read translation of Robert Mackenzies’ The nineteenth Century. A History.⁵⁹ In the tenth section of the first juan the first sentence reads, “The famous French official Montesquieu had written a new book.” This was excerpted into The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend without reference to the specific timeframe that served as the original context. Consequently, the era for the “new work” is entirely undefined. The last sentence has been copied incorrectly: “To take the English ruler 英主as their standard” reads “to take the English system 英制 as their standard”⁶⁰ in the Mackenzie translation. This shows how small copying errors can produce serious mistakes. The origin of the third text cannot be determined at present, but the transliteration of the name would suggest either an early date or a Japanese origin.

Besides Montesquieu, other figures who appear more than once in the work include [Giuseppe] Garibaldi (1807–1882), under the 6th xiaping rhyme, liu ma 六麻 as jia-le-ba-ti 加勒罷提, and under the 11th ru rhyme, shiyi mo 十一陌 as ka-la-bai-er-ti 喀拉擺爾提; [Camillo] Cavour (1810–1861) under the 6th xiaping rhyme, liu ma 六痳 as jia-fu-er 嘉富珥, and under the 11th ru rhyme, shiyi mo 十一陌 as ka-fo-er 喀佛耳; Plato (c. 428–c. 348 BCE) under both bo-na-tuo 伯納陀 and bo-la-duo 伯拉多; George Washington (1732–1799) is found under huashengdun 華盛頓 and zuozhi · huashengdun 佐治·華盛頓. Without the inclusion of the name in the original language, it may be that this kind of duplication was inevitable. This may have originated as a kind of precaution, but the result was a great deal of disorder.

Since The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend was a collaborative effort between many people, there are also duplications caused by a lack of necessary pruning at the assembly stage. Consequently, there are two entries for [Prince Klemens von] Metternich (1773–1859), the first of which reads “Austrian prime minister. Metter(nich), through unparalleled careerism, the manipulation of foreign powers, and the crushing of domestic popular spirit all but eliminated 800 years of Hungarian civil rights. Deep waters, searing flames, the sorrowing bird gave its unheard call; as the rain poured and the wind lashed, [the people] waited for a dragon to emerge! And the times did create a hero, for this was the era that produced [Lajos] Kossuth (1802–1894)!” ⁶¹ The other entry reads, “Austrian prime minister. Metter(nich), through incomparable careerism, the manipulation of foreign powers and the crushing of domestic popular spirit, all but eliminated 800 years of Hungarian civil rights.”⁶² Clearly, both texts stem from the same source, except that the latter shows more restraint in its excerption than the first. In fact, these texts are culled from Liang Qichao’s “Biography of the Hungarian Patriot Kossuth,”⁶³ but the “classmates and friends” have copied with such unconcern that Kossuth appears, completely incongruously, in Metternich’s entry.

Based on the character of the compilers, one may conjecture that the repetitions in The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend had something to do with the commitment on the part of those in charge to the idea that quantity improved quality. Even the name “Master Ironsnow,” Tiexuezi 鐵雪子, about which the editors had no information, was included in the book with the comment “Unknown.”⁶⁴ As a result, there are more than a few figures who cannot be readily identified. For example, the entry on Yao-ge 姚哥:

The Western scholar Yao-ge said: Women are weak, but mothers are strong. How can a weak woman be a strong mother? Just thinking of her complete love for her child, a woman who is usually as delicate and affectionate as a little bird will cross countless mountains and dales; or rage like a wolf or a lion; or haunt about like a demon, fearing nothing, and shirking no danger. How magnificent! Intense love can change a person’s character.⁶⁵

西儒姚哥氏有言:“婦人弱也 , 而為母則強。”夫弱婦何以能為強母? 唯其愛兒至誠之一念 , 則雖平日嬌不勝衣 , 情如小鳥 , 而以其兒之故 , 可以獨往獨來於千山萬壑中 , 虎狼吼咻 , 魍魎出沒 , 而無所於恐 , 無所於避。大矣哉!熱誠之愛之能易人度也。

After reading this text, one still has no information at all about “the Western scholar Yao-ge”: not his nation, his era, or his works.⁶⁶ The text is originally drawn from “On the Adventurous Spirit,” Lun jinqu maoxian 論進取冒險, a section of Liang Qichao’s famous essay “On Reforming the People,” Xinmin shuo 新民說.⁶⁷ As for Yao-ge, the figure in question is the renowned French writer Victor Hugo (1802–1885). The inclusion of this kind of aphorism in The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend does not really offer any substantial amount of accurate knowledge. In fact, it only serves to demonstrate the strong influence of traditional genealogical studies which “selected a novel way to provide a book for the ornamentation of prose.”

We should admit that while The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend introduced new learning, it did not actually abandon the traditional surname book’s habit of gathering trivial information. Take, for instance, the entries on the English scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727). The entry niu-dun 牛頓 gives a full account of the events of his life, as well as his discovery of infinity, gravity, the light spectrum, and other scientific contributions. On the other hand, the entry niu-dong 牛董 is concerned entirely with the bachelorhood of the “great British natural scientist”: “Never marrying, Newton was an avid student from childhood, striving never to rest except to eat and sleep. In his middle years, he had a multitude of projects and a wide circle of acquaintances, and so had no time to think of marriage.”⁶⁸ Its account of the Scottish inventor James Watt (1736–1819) is similar. In the entry hua-te 華忒 he is briefly introduced as “a Briton, the inventor of a late eighteenth century engine which ran on steam, later utilised in all manner of manufacturing.” But then, in the entry nai-duan 奈端 about half of the entry is devoted to an anecdote on how, at the age of 14, he “was studying in his studio, and felt thirsty. Putting a clay kettle on the fire, he turned back to his studies and forgot about it.” Then, “the water in the clay kettle boiled and the kettle lid kept rattling about. Hearing it, he glanced over, saw what was happening, and was astonished.” This event inspired him to research steam power and later invent the steam engine.⁶⁹ However, the use of nai-duan to transscribe his name is a simple misattribution, since the characters are a rendering of Newton’s name and totally unconnected with Watt. This kind of error occurred because the editors were hampered by their inability to check the originals, although the book’s hasty compilation was also partly at fault. Moreover, it was easier to attract the reader’s attention by telling anecdotal stories than by simply recording biographical events.

Wu Zuoqing’s single-handed compilation The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend is not only more rigorous in its approach; its compilatory structure is also more precise than that of The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend. However, Wu Zuoqing is not entirely free from the desire to incorporate as much as possible. In the first juan’s entry for Xi-bi-ai 希比埃 there is only one meaningless sentence of explanation, “Lived during King Jing of Zhou’s 周敬王 (reigned 519–476 BCE) time.” But his striving for accuracy, which “the heart yearns for, though it cannot be achieved,” is nevertheless evident. Words like the following in the “Editorial Principles” capture its spirit best:

[Information on] a figure being recorded must be conclusively verified before it can be included. If there are any doubts, if there are different accounts of place of residence or birth date, then we may not make rash assumptions. The figure should be tentatively classed in the supplementary juan to wait for the information to be verified.⁷⁰

所載之人 , 必考証確鑿 , 始行採入。若稍有疑似 , 或所居何地、所生何世言人人殊 , 則不敢妄為臆斷 , 姑列入補遺卷內 , 以待考訂。

For this reason, besides the 614 figures included in the body of the text, there are another 274 included in the seventh “supplementary” juan. In other words, of all the names included, nearly one-third is deliberately classed in this juan for further research.

Unlike the “Editorial Principles” in traditional Register of Ancients to Befriend works, which usually explain the reasons for inclusion, Wu Zuoqing mostly lists the reasons for exclusion: “the existence of this person has not yet been determined, and so he is not included” or “Certainly Korea, Burma, Siam and Vietnam have figures of accomplishment, but they have not been included, since they were once considered China’s protectorates, so they should not compiled along with the manifold [foreign] nations,” etc. There is also a special explanation that “at the back of this work is an addendum in one juan regarding the evolution of foreign geography, the details of historic events, full and clear, for the purpose of foundational studies.” This “addendum” is divided into “Names of Cited Countries (the place names addendum)” and “Appendix of Quotations Used.” The former includes 73 countries, the latter 48 entries. Evidence of Wu’s meticulous work is everywhere.

A more substantial change is the fact that Wu Zuoqing totally abandoned “rhyme order for structure, surnames for substructure,” ordering the entries instead “according to chronological sequence.” This was indeed the most prominent feature of The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend, and so it is little wonder that Wu gives it pride of place in the first item of the “Editorial Principles.” For the convenience of that era’s Chinese readership, entry arrangement was entirely according to the Chinese system of dynastic chronology, starting with Yao and Shun and continuing all the way down to the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty. Figures are listed sequentially by dynasty, though dates in every entry include both Chinese and Western calendrical reckonings. For instance, in the first juan “Plato” (428–348 BCE) of “the Zhou” is recorded as “born in the 12th year of the reign of King Kao of Zhou 周考王,which in the Western calendar is 429 BCE; died in the 23rd year of the reign of King Xian [of Zhou] [周]顯王, which in the Western calendar is 348 BCE.” Compared to The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend, which included only Western dates, this is clearly more convenient for the reader. One can imagine how difficult it was for one person to attempt to arrange foreign figures by chronological precedence in a period when materials were far from complete. This is also the reason for the large number of figures in The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend classed as “incomplete” and “awaiting further elaboration.”

Undaunted by the complications, Wu Zuoqing proceeded without assistance. It was not merely novelty that prompted him to change the organisation of entries; there was a deeper motivation behind this choice. The reason that he did not continue using Liao Yongxian’s model turns out to have been related to the realities of the late Qing translation world:

As the transliteration of foreign names has not been unified, how could I have settled on any one transliteration? And since some [characters] are not included in the rhyme [order], it was not convenient to use Liao’s system.

然外國人名, 譯音不一, 安能以一家所譯據為定音?且並有韻中所無者, 尤未便用廖氏之例。⁷¹

The second sentence refers to foreign surnames with characters like ling 呤 and li 唎 [e.g. Augustus Lindley 呤唎 1840–1873], which add a mouth radical to an existing character. These are not found in The Treasury of Rhymes and Phrases. It would be a moot point if such names were left out entirely, but once they are chosen for selection they cannot be incorporated into the rhyme order. The first reason Wu gives for this is that various transliterations are used. For this reason the choice of The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend to collect entries indiscriminately was not just according to precedent, but also the least laborious and the safest method. The store of knowledge required in order to refer to the original language or to merge the different transliterations is not something superficial scholars could quickly acquire. Consequently, besides the difficulties of researching dates of birth and death and ordering the entries chronologically, Wu Zuoqing also had to go to the trouble of assessing the many variant name transliterations.

Of course, The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend is not a perfect work. One need only look at the bibliography to see that the list of figures is far from complete; and it can still occur that the same figure appears twice, as is the case with Fu-lan-ke-ling富蘭克令 [Benjamin Franklin 1706–1790] in juan 5 and the “American” Fu-lan-lin 富蘭林 [Franklin] in juan 7 who “realised the manner in which lightning might be lured from the clouds”; or the Nai-duan奈端 [Newton] in juan 4 and the “acoustic and optical scientist” Niu-dun 牛頓 [Newton] in juan 6. In both instances, it is clear that the same person is meant. However, this does not diminish the great significance of the compiler’s tireless efforts to standardise. Take, for instance, the entry for Suo-ge-la-di 梭格拉底, Socrates (c.470–399 BCE). In the first juan’s table of contents, underneath Suo-ge-la-di, a further five transliterations are noted in smaller script as Su-ge-la-di 蘇格拉第, Suo-ha-da-di-shi 所蛤達底士, Suo-ke-la-di 索克拉的, Suo-ge-di 瑣格底, and Suo-ge-la-di 梭革拉低. At the bottom of the entry’s text, The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend reiterates:

Ge-[suo]-ge-la-di, also known as Su-ge-la-di. In Gujiao huican古教匯參 [Ancient religions (by Alexander Williamson)],⁷² [the name] is written as Suo-ha-da-di-shi; in [Okamoto Kansuke’s 岡本監輔] Wanguo shiji萬國史記 [ World History] as Suo-ke-la-di; in Wanguo tongjian 萬國通鑒 [A Composite World History] [the Chinese translation of a work by Devello Sheffield] as Suo-ge-di; and Xila zhilüe希臘志略 [A Brief History of Greece] as Suo-ge-la-di.⁷³

“格[梭]格拉底”一作“蘇格拉第,” 《古教匯參》 作“所蛤達底士,” 《萬國史記》 作“索克拉的,” 《萬國通鑒》 作“瑣格底,” 《希臘志略》 作“梭革拉底”。

Consequently, all variations of the name of this “man from the state of Athens” and “sage of Greece,” who was “born in the 7th year of the reign of King Yuan of Zhou 周元王, which is 470 BCE according to the Western calendar,” are finally reduced to a single form.

On account of the necessity of choosing one transliteration among many, The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend also represents a step forward in the standardisation of transliteration. Although Wu Zuoqing does not make his criteria explicit, his preferences can be deduced from his habits. Socrates is a good example of this. Wu rejected the transliterations used in Ancient Religions Compared and the other works and selected Suo-ge-la-di, a rendering for which one must again look to Liang Qichao as a model. Liang had already used this transliteration several times in 1897 in “On Translation,”⁷⁴ which meant that his transliteration had a precedent. Other entries in The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend, such as Bo-la-tu柏拉圖 [Plato], Dan-ding但丁 [Dante], Lu-suo盧梭 [Jean-Jacques Rousseau], Wa-te 瓦特 [Watt], Yue-han Mi-le約翰:彌勒 [John [Stuart] Mill], Bo-lun-zhi-li伯倫知理 [Johann Caspar Bluntschli], Ma-zhi-ni瑪志尼 [Giuseppe Mazzini], Jia-li-bo-di加里波的 [Garibaldi], Jia-fu-er加富爾 [Cavour], etc., all use versions made familiar by Liang Qichao’s writings, and many of them have since become the standard transliterations.

Merging transliterations in this manner, Wu Zuoqing could not simply copy text in the manner of Foreign Ancients to Befriend. The text for his entries had to be collated anew. Let us turn again to the entry for “Montesquieu,” which in The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend is quite succinct:

Montesquieu—French. Born in the 28th year of this dynasty’s Kangxi reign, which is 1689 in the Western calendar. Died in the 20th year of the Qianlong reign, which is 1755 in the Western calendar. Wrote De l’esprit des lois and invented the principle of the tripartite separation of powers into legislative, judiciary and executive [branches]. He denounced the slave trade as inhumane, and favoured the removal of torture from the trial process as well as the creation of a jury system. Posterity holds him to be correct.⁷⁵

孟德斯鳩 法蘭西國人。生於我朝康熙二十八年, 即西歷一千六百八十九年;卒於乾隆二十年, 即西歷一千七百五十五年。著 《萬法精理》 , 發明立法、行法、司法三權鼎峙之說。又極言販奴無人理, 聽訟宜廢拷訊, 設陪審。后人韙之。

The entry includes dates of birth and death, the name of a representative work, main contributions, and influence on later generations—already much like the standard style for a modern reference work. Of course, one should note that this is the finest example, and there are quite a few other entries that are too simple or too convoluted, or where the length is less than ideal. All in all, the quality of this work’s compilation is a good deal higher than the direct excerpts in The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend. At the very least, its narrative is more complete and relevant.

This work, which intended to provide an introduction of Western civilisation and the “befriending of Western ancients,” was compiled by a man whose intellectual allegiance perhaps does not represent a complete departure from traditional principles, but who must at least be credited with a breakthrough in this field. However, in one way, despite the difference in epoch, Wu Zuoqing professes much the same thing as Collected Surname Genealogies, which warned, “evidently treacherous and sinister men of wide renown are to be excluded, lest they contaminate these volumes.”⁷⁶ Wu Zuoqing’s “Editorial Principles” include a similar item:

[As for] the French assemblymen who committed regicide and the recluses who killed the Japanese tairō [Ii Naosuke 1815–1860]—at the time it was said that they had acted for civil rights, that their righteous ire had spurred them on. This work dreads opening the way to lèse-majesté or rebellion, and so these figures have been excluded.⁷⁷

法蘭西之議員手弒法王 , 日本國之處士實刺大老 , 當時稱之 , 謂為民權所由張、義憤之所激也。是書恐開犯上作亂之端 , 故其人概不列入。

One might remark that the structure is still hampered by the conventions of the Register of Ancients to Befriend works, but it would be better to say that this principle allows us to see how The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend is not entirely guided in its compilation criteria by the extent to which a person influenced historical developments or the importance of a person’s contribution to human society. Consequently, it still operates at a certain distance from modern reference tools.

Besides the figures omitted, not all of the notables who actually appear in The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend are model figures in Wu Zuoqing’s eyes. This is where the utility of an “addendum” becomes apparent. The entry for Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a good example of this. This text gives the circumstances of Rousseau’s biography and works in detail, and especially notes that “in his work Le contrat social, he invented the doctrine of equality and freedom. The application of his ideas produced the French Revolution. Later, people called his books the fuse to the rebel powder keg, and so insurgents could be seen everywhere.”⁷⁸ In the eighth juan, the “addendum,” titled “Rousseau’s teaching of equality and freedom” is also included with an accompanying explanation. Wu first reiterates that Rousseau’s Le contrat social was called the “fuse to the rebel powder keg” and so on, and then proceeds to list four Western and Japanese books, including Bluntschli’s (Bo-lun-zhi-li 伯倫知理, now written Bu-lun-qi-li 布倫奇利) Lehre vom modernen Staat, Guojiaxue 國家學, which “ardently advocate freedom and equality.” Then he adds a long additional statement about the justice of “freedom”:

Freedom is the conservation of personal rights, which the monarch cannot restrict or remove. Nevertheless, one cannot therefore act irresponsibly, forgetting the difference between high and humble status. Under the Western system, the entire nation attends to school, and if someone does not, the parents are blamed. The entire nation must serve in the army, and those who do not are considered fugitives. These are the restrictions on freedom. The system of rational punishment is administered by courts. Those who have suffered hardship can receive redress through the high courts, though not forgetting the difference between high and humble status. Consequently such freedoms as that of the press, of religion, of establishing organisations, of residence, of transfer, of body, and of secrecy of correspondence proceed from universal truths, and it has never been forbidden for citizens to change residence. Many of these freedoms are recorded in the constitution and published all over the nation. Outside these freedoms, there is no mention of a freedom to rebel or to be insubordinate. Earlier supporters of civil rights said they desired the monarch not to be partial or act arbitrarily, but to act instead in accordance with the will of the masses. But people twist the meaning of these words to suit their anti-royalist venom, which is not the actual idea behind civil rights.⁷⁹

自由者, 保其自有之權利, 君不得制之奪之, 非任其囂張而無貴賤上下之別也。西制舉國入學,  不入學者罪其父母;舉國充兵,  不滿役者以逃亡論。此至不自由者也。理刑規制在道院, 受枉者大審院得以平反之, 則非無上下之別。即如出版、從教、立社、居住、移轉、身體、信書秘密之自由權, 以世界公理推之, 固未嘗有禁民之居處往來者也。之數者,  載之憲法, 布之通國。此外不聞有反亂之自由權、抗令之自由權也。可知前人主持民權之說,  欲使人主無偏聽、無專斷,  合眾是以為是。乃僉人附會其說, 以逞其無君之毒, 則非言民權者之本旨也。

Rousseau, as an advocate of “equality and freedom” and “civil rights,” was never “treasonous” in his actions, and therefore should not be disqualified from being an “ancient to befriend.” Still, Wu Zuoqing is clearly concerned that his teachings could unleash revolutionary forces. For this reason, in the addendum he counteracts the “deleterious effects” that he fears may have operated in the body of the text. The addendum has been put to good use in order to put a stop to the “dread of opening the way to lèse-majesté or rebellion” inadvertently.

Of course, the “addendum” is more generally devoted to the effort of providing objective knowledge or supplementing entries with information that could not be included in the body, and thereby assisting the reader in achieving an accurate understanding. For instance, the text on “Italy”⁸⁰ provides a simple outline of that nation’s history, thus offering the necessary background information for entries like “Mazzini,” “Garibaldi,” “Cavour” and others. Not only does this decrease the number of notables in the body of the work, which in turn helps the user to comprehend each individual’s achievements, but it also allows the “addendum” to become an extension of the information contained in the entries by turning a supplement into a part of the whole.

In fact, in comparison with The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend, works like The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend, with its new content and old format and its jumble of new knowledge and old tendencies, is a more representative sample of that era’s flavour. This is the kind of work that could have only emerged in the transition from old to new during the late Qing. The historical context caused people to place all their hope in translated materials. The most tangible reason for the compilation of The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend was to provide Chinese readers, who had access to a great many works containing irregular transliterations, with a reference work. For this reason, the duplication of personal names has a kind of logic. Subsequently, however, entries on the same person should have been merged. Unfortunately, that was not yet possible given the abilities of the editors and the way in which the book was compiled. Moreover, because the biographies that appear in this book are all excerpted from completed works, its failings are considerable when measured against the entries in today’s reference books. The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend already represents an enormous step forward. By using chronological sequence as a compilation principle and deliberately breaking with traditional surname-books, it profoundly expressed the spirit of the times. But its “dread of opening the way to lèse-majesté or rebellion” and the subsequent exclusion of some figures due to a valorisation of moral concern meant that it could not yet free itself from the constraints of works in the Register of Ancients to Befriend mould. Although they belong to different evolutionary stages, both works should be viewed as transitional works that bridge the divide between category-books and modern reference works.

From The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend to Darroch’s Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide

Variant translations were a reality in the world of late Qing translation. Although this made The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend flawed in many ways, the work is still essential and valuable. But it was The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend that, by selecting a single transliteration from the variants, clearly indicated future trends. Moreover, with the proliferation of translated works, the cry for standardised translated terminology grew more urgent by the day.⁸¹ A new standardising encyclopaedic dictionary was about to appear.

In 1897, Gao Fengqian 高鳳謙 (1869–1936), who was later to become a mainstay of editing and translation at the Commercial Press 商務印書館, wrote an article for the Chinese Progress, Shiwu bao 時務報, called “On Translating Useful Western Works,” in which he offered his detailed reflections on the standardisation of transliterated names. Besides using characters with semantic value for “names of distinctive objects,” in the section on “harmonious sounds” Gao suggested the following specific solution for “the names of people and places, which have sounds but no meaning, and are especially jumbled”:

Roman letter [words] should be compiled into a work which is organised in sequence from [words with] one letter to those with over ten, with the Chinese sound noted. Foreign countries mostly use English, and most translated works used English. Chinese takes Beijing dialect as the standard for use throughout the realm. From now on, regardless of whether Chinese is being transliterated into Western languages or Western languages are being transliterated into Chinese, we will use English and Beijing dialect as the basis. If one or two sounds do not tally, no one shall alter them according to their own inclinations, so that standardisation may be achieved.⁸²

宜將羅馬字母, 編為一書, 自一字至十數字, 按字排列, 注以中音。外國用英語為主, 以前譯書, 多用英文也;中國以京語為主, 以天下所通行也。自茲以后, 無論以中譯西, 以西譯中, 皆視此為本。即一二音不盡符合, 不得擅改, 以歸畫一。

This suggestion does not take into account problems such as the difficulties created by the semantic value of the Chinese characters employed for transliteration, or the realities of the phonetic qualities of other Western languages, or, indeed, the question of how to accommodate existing transliterations. As a result, it was an impossible proposal; however, the basic idea of standardising transliterated names provided an inspiration to those who followed.

One might say that the greatest difficulty for the editors and users of The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend and The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend was their inability to refer back to the original. As early as the 12th month of 1896, in the 13th issue of The Chinese Progress, “A Chinese and Western Language Harmonisation Table,” Zhong Xi wen hebibiao 中西文合璧表, was appended to every juan. This table listed all the “uncommon names of people and places” of foreigners who appeared in that issue “for the convenient reference of the reader.”⁸³ With the original script available, any transliteration, no matter how idiosyncratic, could be traced back to its referent in the end. This is very different from The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend and The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend, which both approached compilation based on extant transliterations.

The combination of standardised transliteration with the inclusion of Western script alongside was implemented by Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide, Shijie mingren zhuanlüe 世界名人傳略, a translation project initiated by the British missionary Timothy Richard and executed by John Darroch, among others⁸⁴ (Illustrations 6 and 7). The “Editorial Principles” declare that “this book consists of selected translations from Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary, includes over a thousand figures, and is entitled Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide.” The original work, Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary, was published in 1897 and was edited by David Patrick (1849–1914) and Francis Hindes Groome (1851–1902). Clearly, Xu Jiaxing 許家惺, who wrote the preface to the Chinese translation and was proof-reading and polishing the text, was not aware of the publication details. He referred to the “Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide by the Briton Chambers”⁸⁵ (Illustration 8) and did not realise that Zhang-bo-er 張伯爾referred to the name of a publishing company in Scotland—W. & R. Chambers, Limited, which was founded by the brothers Robert and William and was renowned for its publication of Chambers’s Encyclopaedia.

Illustration 6

Cover page of Zhang-bo-er (= Chambers), Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan 1908. A selective translation of Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary

Illustration 7

Inside page of Zhang-bo-er (= Chambers), Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide, Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan 1908, with English announcement of content

Illustration 8

Xu Jiaxing, Preface to Zhang-bo-er (= Chambers), Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide, Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan 1908

The translation of a large-scale work like Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary, with its entries on more than 10,000 people,⁸⁶ would indeed have represented an enormous amount of difficult work for late Qing translators. Fortunately, the resourceful Timothy Richard proposed that the translation be taken over by the Shanxi University Translation Academy, Shanxi daxuetang yishu yuan 山西大學堂譯書院, founded in Shanghai in 1902, where it would proceed under the supervision of the British missionary John Darroch (Dou Le’an) 竇樂安 (1865–1941). Huang Ding 黃鼎, Zhang Zaixin 張在新, and Guo Fenghan 郭鳳翰 were engaged as translators and the juan were divided among them for translation, with the translator’s name noted in the front matter of each juan to give each his due credit. Finally, Xu Jiaxing proofread and finalised the text, with the entire process taking at least 5 years. During that time they experienced various setbacks including “the move of the academy, the loss of several juan, which had to be retranslated before work could be continued.”⁸⁷ The book was finally published in its entirety in 1908 with only slightly over 1,000 biographies of notables selected for translation. This accounts for its alternate English name, One Thousand Biographies.

To explain the compilation process of Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide it may be useful to examine a series of articles called “On a Thousand Notables of the Earth,” Diqiu qian mingren kao 地球千名人考,⁸⁸ published in Review of the Times, Wanguo gongbao 萬國公報, in the 5th month of 1903. These articles provide information on the criteria for selection, which the “Editorial Principles” do not discuss. Judging from the tone, this article, credited as “A Manuscript from the Shanxi University Translation Academy,” appeared to have been the work of Timothy Richard. Moreover, according to Xu Jiaxing, Richard also undertook the task of “choosing the most important thousand” from “the great number of notables ancient and contemporary, vast and profound, all collected without omission” in Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary. The composition of this article can therefore be regarded as a signal that the translation project for the whole work was about to begin.

Unlike the great concern with the moral dimension that was exhibited in the Ancients to Befriend work, the author of “On a Thousand Notables of the Earth” uses only historical influence and so-called reputation as his yardstick. This distinction is reflected in the title of the work, which uses the formulation “notables worldwide” rather than “foreign ancients to befriend,” a title that would, in any case, have been incongruent with the original English title. The author of the article proposed the compilation of a volume called Notables of Ancient and Contemporary Times, Gujin mingren biao 古今名人表. Its work was undertaken as follows:

I once collected one thousand notables, ancient and contemporary, and arranged them into a list. I arranged the biographies of foreign notables according to six sections (two for England, two for France, one for Germany, one for the United States). Choosing the longest of the biographies, two [one] thousand for each section, I collected six thousand. From these, I selected at least three sections, leaving about 1,600 names. From these I again chose the longest biographies, leaving one thousand. Using this method, one can not only identify those of the greatest reputation, but also determine their relative status.⁸⁹

余曾集古今千名人,  臚為一表。其集法,  取列國名人傳六部(計英二、法二、德一、美一), 擇其列傳最長者,  部各二[一]千名,  以此法共得人六千。又於此中取其至少三部,  列名者約得一千六百之數。復於此中擇其篇幅最長者,  得人一千。以此法求之, 不惟可以得其最有聲名者, 即諸人位置之序, 亦可由此而知焉。

From today’s point of view, the Western bias of the work’s scope is apparent. Especially in light of the fact that Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary had been retitled Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide. However, for the late Qing academic world, which was thirsting for Western knowledge, such criticism is irrelevant—in fact, the work’s prejudice towards the West was considered its greatest virtue. Furthermore, based on the above explanation, we can see the origins of the compilation process for Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide.

Compared to earlier Chinese-language biographical registers, Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide’s greatest particularity is that it is arranged according to the “name in the original Western language.” This is clearly laid out in the “Editorial Principles” (Illustration 9):

Illustration 9

Editorial Principles for Zhang-bo-er (= Chambers), Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide, Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan 1908

Item: Beneath each transliterated name, the name in the original Western language is appended, along with the dates of birth and death. If these are unknown, they must be omitted.

Item: If personal or geographical names occur in the biographies, the name in the original Western language is given at the top of the page. Next to both the transliterated name and the name in the original Western language, the numbers 1,2,3,4 are added for the reader’s convenient reference.⁹⁰

一、每傳譯名之下, 附列西文原名, 及其生卒年代。其有未詳者, 則從闕如。 一、傳文中如遇人名、地名, 仍將西文原名, 按列書眉, 並於原名譯名之旁, 附志 1、2、3、4等號目, 以便閱者參考檢查之用。

To take Victor Hugo as an example, beneath the transliterated surname Hu-ge 胡戈, written in large characters, there is another line of slightly smaller writing “Wei-duo 維多 Hugo, Victor” which is Hugo’s name in Chinese transliteration and his English (French) surname and given name. Between these two lines, Hugo’s dates of birth and death are noted: “born 1804, died 1882.” The four personal names in the text of the biography, “Na-po-lun 拿坡侖, Bu-bang 布邦, Cha-li 查理, and Lu-yi · Fei-li-bi 路易·腓立比” have been enumerated with notes, and above the body of the text the corresponding four names in the original Western script are listed sequentially: “Napoleon,” “Bourbon,” “Charles,” “Louis Philippe.”⁹¹ For this reason, though Hu-ge is still rather different from the contemporary transliteration Yu-guo 雨果, inclusion of the Western name allows the reader to ascertain which figure is meant.

The use of Western language as the standard is reflected in the structure of the entire work. In fact, copying the arrangement and sequence of the original work, “the juan are organised according to the 26 letters.”⁹² This means that readers of this work first had to master the 26 English letters. Requiring this kind of background knowledge clearly marks a substantial difference from The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend and earlier works. The system of having “rhyme order for structure, the surnames as substructure” or “excerpting according to rhyme order” presumed the reader’s familiarity with the pingshui, hongwu 洪武 or other rhyme sequences. The difference in the two systems of reference constitutes a seismic shift in the adoption of Chinese or Western learning as a foundation. Although already aware of the limitations of organising Western learning according to category-book structures, the abandonment of the rhyme-system organisation in The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend and the adjustments made had nevertheless kept to the traditions of Chinese learning.

If one assesses the system based on accuracy then the Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide’s arrangement is, of course, the most appropriate. In order to adapt to the fractious nature of late Qing translation, the compilers and translators attempted to bridge the gap. One way to do this was stated as follows:

All transliterated names of places and people are made in accordance with study of other works and by adopting transliterations of long-standing use. Remaining transliterations are made in accordance with the pronunciation current in the capital. [This shall be done] consistently in order to avoid the pitfalls of disorderliness or confusion.⁹³

所譯人、地名, 除習見他籍, 沿用已久者, 仍襲用外, 其餘悉據京音譯定, 且前后畫一, 無錯雜紊淆之弊。

This accords with Gao Fengqian’s suggestion to standardise transliterations according to “Beijing dialect” as well as the aims of other perceptive figures in contemporary translation circles. However, actually standardising all the names in a book featuring over 1,000 persons was a very difficult task indeed. The translators’ special efforts to establish links with existing knowledge and to consistently employ transliterations of long standing naturally made the work even more convenient for the reader.

The second method was to attach two important appendices collated by the translators at the back of the book. One of them, “Worldwide Notables Chinese Transliteration Reference List,” Shijie mingren Han yi jiancha biao 世界名人漢譯檢查表, is organised according to the radicals of the Kangxi Dictionary, Kangxi zidian 康熙字典, and allows for the use of Chinese to find the figure’s original Western name and the page number for his biography. Clearly, the purpose of this measure was to make use convenient for those who could not read Western letters. Using the “dictionary” rather than the “rhyme order” system of reference may reveal the translators deliberately distancing themselves from the tradition of reference works that “furnish a collection of poetry and prose,” and instead situating themselves closer to the compilation ground rules of Western reference books. This is also why Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary is referred to simply as The World Biographical Dictionary, Shijie mingren zidian 世界名人字典.

The other appendix to Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide is “A Chronological Table of Notables Worldwide,” Shijie mingren shidai biao 世界名人時代表. There is no doubt that the compilers and translators put the most effort into this, and the “Editorial Principles” makes specific reference to it:

The back of the book includes the appendix “Chronological Table of Notables Worldwide” which lists each figure according to Chinese and Western calendars in order to demonstrate the rise and fall of notable figures throughout world history. After each person’s listing, the page number for his or her biography is noted for reader reference. To find the entry, look at the beginning of the name as written in Western script to see which section it belongs to, and check for its page number in that section.⁹⁴

書末附列《世界名人時代表》, 將本書各名人, 按照中、西年歷, 以次編列, 藉証古今世界人物之盛衰。每人表末, 附載本傳頁數, 以便閱者按籍而稽。其查檢之法, 即視本人西文原名字首, 屬於某部, 而檢某部若干頁。

Clearly, this table is based on material that could not fit into “On a Thousand Notables of the Earth.” They are organised by dynasty according to Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, and so on, first listing the figure’s “Western name,” then his/her “transliterated name.” For “year of birth,” both the Western calendar date and the Chinese reign-name year are noted, with the page number listed last. Because the body of Brief Biographies incorporates Western, but not Chinese calendar dates, the late Qing reader, accustomed to using Chinese reign names, could easily be confused by the difficulty in converting dates. For this reason, the “Chronological Table” was an absolute necessity. Compared with The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend, which had deleted “28th year of the Kangxi reign” and “20th year of the Qianlong reign,” the Chinese calendar dates which Liang Qichao had appended for Montesquieu’s dates of birth and death, Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide is attentive to the needs of its readers and provides for them commendably. The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend is similar in arrangement, but because the actual entries include both calendars while giving the Chinese calendar precedence, it cannot avoid the awkwardness of declaring that the Frenchman Montesquieu was “born in the 28th year of the Kangxi reign of our dynasty.” In this respect, the decision to approach the calendars separately in Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide, with Chinese reign names absent from the body of the text, is doubtless the more appropriate choice.

Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide made considerable contributions to the standardisation of transliterated names. By employing long-standing transliterations and using Beijing phonetics rather than dialect to transliterate personal names, this reference work was discriminating and helped to establish standards. Leafing through the “Notables Worldwide Chinese Transliteration Reference List,” it is easy to see that the transliterations frequently coincide with those in use today, including Montesquieu (Meng-de-si-jiu) 孟德斯鳩, [Nicolaus] Copernicus (1473–1543) (Ge-bai-ni) 哥白尼, [Francis] Bacon (1561–1626) (Pei-gen) 培根, [George] Washington (1732–1799) (Hua-sheng-dun) 華盛頓, Metternich (Mei-te-nie) 梅特涅, Mazzini (Ma-zhi-ni) 馬志尼. Brief Biographies also tried to employ native Chinese characters in order to eliminate the culture barrier, especially for those surnames that are similar in sound to Chinese. But it is important to emphasise that since this work was compiled and translated in the late Qing, the editors were still concerned primarily with the Chinese readership’s powers of absorption. For this reason, it is natural that the transliterated names had to conform to certain sensibilities. Those transliterations employed by renowned figures could especially achieve popularity more easily. Consequently, the popular transliteration Nai-duan 奈端 is retained in Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide, as well as Yan Fu’s transliteration Si-mi-ya-dan 斯密亞丹 (Adam Smith 1723–1790, transliterated today as Ya-dang · si-mi 亞當·斯密), Liang Qichao’s frequently mentioned Fu-lu-te-er 福祿特爾 (Voltaire 1694–1778, transliterated today as Fu-er-tai 伏爾泰), Mi-le 彌勒 (J.S. Mill, now transliterated as Mu-le 穆勒), etc.

Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide, comprised as it was of selections from Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary, naturally shared that work’s aim of providing concise biographical abstracts. Here we may once again turn to the “Montesquieu” entry as our example. English personal and geographical names, originally noted at the top of the page, have been inserted for our purposes into the text following the Chinese transliterations. The entry now reads as follows (Illustration 10):

Illustration 10

Entry for Montesquieu in Zhang-bo-er (= Chambers), Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide, Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan 1908

Meng-de-si-jiu (Cha-li Montesquieu, Charles, born 1689, date of death unknown)

Great French political thinker. Born near Bo-er-duo (Bordeaux). In his twenties, he became a member of the Bordeaux assembly, soon rising to head it, and acquitting himself well of his duties. He was particularly devoted to the study of natural sciences. When the French King Lu-yi (Louis) XV was a child on the throne, Fei-li (Philip), the Duke of Ao-lin-si (Orleans) was regent, and [the court] was endlessly debauched. Pained by the corruption of state affairs, Montesquieu wrote Lettres persanes, adopting the voice of two Persian visitors to Paris to admonish and satirise the politics of the day. Then he resigned his position in the assembly and travelled to Wei-ye-na (Vienna), Fei-ni-si (Venice), Rome, Switzerland, the Netherlands, England and other countries. He lived in England 2 years, and visited all its great sages and officials. Reading the works of the philosopher Luo-ke (Locke), he visited the English assembly repeatedly, researched the English constitution, and made great progress in his studies. Returning to France, he wrote Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence, earning gasps of admiration from the readers. Then he worked arduously for 20 years to write De l’esprit des lois which laid out the origins of laws, the rules of their development, and their organisation. He lavished praise on the perfection of the free English constitution, saying that it deserved to be a model for every European country. The work was first published anonymously, but its monumental spirit made it a topic of nationwide discussion, and provoked great change. In less than 2 years, it was reprinted as many as 21 times.⁹⁵

孟德斯鳩 (查理, Montesquieu, Charles, 生一六八九年, 卒年闕)

法政學大家。生於波耳多 (Bordeaux) 之附近。年二十餘, 為波耳多議會議員, 旋升會長, 克勤厥職, 尤注意格致之學。法王路易 (Louis) 第十五在位年幼, 奧林斯 (Orleans) 公腓力 (Philip) 攝政, 荒淫無度。氏痛國事之腐敗, 乃托為兩波斯人游巴黎之語, 著《波斯寓言》, 以規諷當時政教。既而辭議員職, 游歷維也納 (Vienna)、腓尼斯(Venice)、羅馬、瑞士、荷蘭、英吉利諸國。居英二載, 與彼都賢士大夫游。讀哲學家洛克 (Locke) 氏之書, 復屢至其議院, 研究英國憲法, 學識大進。歸而著《羅馬盛衰原因論》, 讀者嘆服。既復窮二十年之力, 成《萬法精理》一書, 推論法律之來原, 及其發達之理, 組織之法, 盛稱英國自由憲法之美, 謂足為歐洲各國矜式。是書初出, 隱其名, 然魄力甚偉, 全國言論思想, 為之丕變。不及二年, 重印多至二十一次云。

Evidently, this entry is more detailed than the one in The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend. Compared to The Register of Foreign Ancients to Befriend, the greatest difference is the inclusion of Montesquieu’s work Lettres persanes and a summary of the basic contents of De l’esprit des lois. Alternatively, one could say that the article is not only the collation of the first and second entries from The Register of Overseas Ancients to Befriend, with “the new work” in question being De l’esprit des lois, but also that extra information was added. Moreover, several phrases are very similar to Liang Qichao’s “The Teachings of Montesquieu,” and it would seem that the translator also drew on this to a degree. As for the date of Montesquieu’s death, it is included in every edition of Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary as well as in Liang Qichao’s essay, but is missing from Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide. This constitutes a slight defect in an otherwise admirable work.

As a dictionary that aimed to present a collection of short biographies of notables worldwide, this work naturally should not have been restricted to the Western world. The Western orientation of Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary created a serious imbalance between the representation of Western and Eastern figures. However, in order to attract Chinese readers, Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide deliberately made room for three Chinese figures—the only three Asian figures selected. The earliest is Confucius (c. 551–479 BCE), the middle one is Xuanzang 玄奘 (c. 602–664), and, representing the late and recent era, Li Hongzhang 李鴻章 (1823–1901). Li had died only 2 years before work began on the Brief Biographies Notables Worldwide; the revised 1899 edition of Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary’s entry for “Li Hung-chang” was based on materials that reached only to 1898.⁹⁶ It seems likely that events after that date were added by the translators of the Brief Biographies. This text was compiled to show how Li Hongzhang appeared in the eyes of foreigners:

Li Hongzhang (Li Hung-chang, born 1823, died 1901)

…In 1894, a conflict arose between China and Japan and a disastrous war broke out. Li was charged with military affairs. Officials of this department, whether army or navy, proved all to be cowardly bureaucrats. Then the forces were routed and all Li’s honours were annulled. The court regarded the peace treaty that Li had negotiated as ruinous. In great rage, [the court] summoned him back to the capital. In fear, Li hung back for a long time. Before long, he was appointed chief negotiator and all his honours were restored. He was sent east to Japan, where he exerted all his efforts in negotiation. A Japanese man shot and wounded him. The treaty carved off the entirety of Taiwan Island and called for restitution of 315 million pounds. Having signed the treaty, he returned to China. In 1896, Li was sent to Europe and America in order to determine how Western learning could be used to strengthen China. He suggested adopting their model and counselled reforms. At that time, northern bandits were stirring up trouble, provoking dispute and hoping to take vengeance on foreigners. They incited all sorts of ministers in the capital to join their efforts. But Li knew that they must fail, and so was despondent. Appointed the Viceroy of Liangguang, he found that all high ministers had lost the strength to resist, and were totally unconcerned with this reckless and wanton behaviour. This caused the calamity of the emperor’s flight from the capital. Then the soldiers of the alliance entered the capital and the two palaces [the emperor and the dowager empress] appointed Li plenipotentiary and peace negotiator. That China was not carved up like a melon in the peace treaty was due to Li’s protection. Because of his shining reputation and his sincerity towards China and foreign nations, he is known by one and all for his loyalty.⁹⁷

李鴻章 (Li Hung-chang, 生一八二三年, 卒一九零一年)

……一八九四年, 中日失睦, 致開戰禍。氏總制軍務, 所部海陸軍士, 多貪墨無勇, 以致兵鋒大挫, 從前所得之功賞, 悉被褫革。上以李主和議為怯戰憤[僨]事, 大怒, 急召回京。氏懼, 逡巡於外者久之。未幾, 奉命為議和大臣, 盡復其原有功賞。東使日本, 竭力議和, 為日人所銃擊受傷。議割台灣全島, 賠償兵費三十五兆鎊, 成約而歸。一八九六年, 歷聘歐美, 考知西學之足以富強中國, 乃倡議仿行, 以謀改革。會北方拳匪肇亂, 仇外啟舋, 煽惑在京各大臣, 附合者眾。而氏果知其必敗也, 頗沮之。尋授兩廣總督, 各大臣乃失其阻撓之力, 任意妄為, 絕無顧忌, 於是釀成天子蒙塵之巨禍。及聯軍入京, 兩宮命氏為全權大臣, 議和, 中國得免於瓜分, 此李保護之功也。以故聲名洋溢, 中外傾心, 人皆稱之曰忠。

This presents an interesting opportunity for analysis of the difference between this entry and those that appeared in earlier editions of the Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary,⁹⁸ or for a comparison with Liang Qichao’s 1901 work Li Hongzhang.⁹⁹ The different images of Li Hongzhang in the eyes of Chinese and Western intellectuals or the Chinese and Western public would also be an intriguing topic of study; however, this is not something that the scope of this essay allows.

To reflect that the Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary appeared in Chinese translation less than 10 years after its first publication in English is enough to demonstrate the urgency of late Qing efforts to acquire new knowledge from abroad. The painstaking efforts put into the selection, editing, compilation, and proofreading of Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide was quite exceptional since the translation occurred during a period that generally required speed and quantity. For the same reason, the work was not fated to garner general admiration. A thick hardcover volume at the not inconsiderable price of two or three yuan meant that the book could only find its way into an ordinary person’s library with difficulty. Today, 100 years later, when trying to locate this book, one finds no trace of it in the Beijing University Library, which collected the books from the Yenching University libraries, or even the National Library, which houses the country’s most extensive collection, even though this is, to date, the only Chinese translation of Chambers’s Biographical Dictionary.

However, there were successors to the Ancients to Befriend genre in the Republican Era. Regardless of whether it was The Register of Ancients to Befriend in Medicine, compiled by Zhang Juying 章巨膺 that was published or The Register of Female Ancients to Befriend, Nüzi shang you lu 女子尚友錄, compiled by Ren Zhuo 任卓—which is extant only in manuscript form—all that remained was the inclusion of the phrase “ancients to befriend” in the title. In terms of structure, though proclaiming, “this book was edited in imitation of the Ancients to Befriend,” Zhang also emphasised that “the personal names in this book are organised by surname stroke count, and can be checked in dictionary radical sequence for convenient reference.”¹⁰⁰ In the first item of his “Editorial Principles,” Ren Zhuo marked the difference between this work and traditional organisation even more clearly: “Liao’s work Ancients to Befriend uses rhymes as the structure; now, in order to avoid the annoyance of having to check the rhymes, the women included are organised into sections by the stroke number of the first character of their surnames.”¹⁰¹ Both compilers abandoned organisation by rhyme order and were indexing characters by their radical or their stroke count. The reason for this was that they had already recognised that, as the vernacular became the mainstream for poetry and prose, rhyme books were gradually losing their market and becoming increasingly peripheral to the readership’s systems of knowledge. At this point, the long tradition of the Ancients to Befriend compilation system, having undergone the reform of Wu Zuoqing’s ordering “according to chronological sequence” before adopting dictionary sequence in Brief Biographies of Notables Worldwide, entered the main current. Then, losing their nominal designation of “ancients to befriend” and allowing “all important figures,” “whether saintly or vile, to be included,”¹⁰² the formal evolution of biographical dictionaries from traditional China into the modern period came to an end.

Translated from the Chinese by Josh Stenberg.