A Corpus And Case Study Of Chinese Manuscripts In The British Library

The British Library has always been well known for its rich collection of books,especially for Dunhuang Manuscripts to domestic scholars.However,a large number of other Chinese manuscripts are not known to the academic circles.In this paper,the characteristics,sources,cataloguing situation and value of these documents are thoroughly revealed from two perspectives of monographic study and case study by using the traditional philology method.Generally speaking,they are not traditional Chinese manuscripts,but rather a historical archive and other subjects.They embody the pragmatism of the British pursuit of realistic interests,with the psychology of peeping at foreign cultures and showing off as the victors of war.These books were mainly purchased and donated.Fewer books were collected in the 18th century.In the 19th century,with the British forces continued to penetrate into China,a large number of books came to the British Library.In the 20th century,they took advantage of China's war,more and more books are in storage.They were catalogued by Karl Friedlich Gutzlaff,M.Auguste Proevst,Robert Kennaway Douglas,Giles Lionel.especially Douglas'Catalogue of Chinese printed books,manuscripts and drawings in the library of the British museums is one of the most influential.However,these catalogues do not reflect the whole picture of these documents,and do not record the era of transcription,which is not convenient for Chinese readers to access.By using the method of Chinese classical philology,this paper catalogues the titles,editions,authors,formats,main contents,inscriptions,sources and other specific information of each document one by one,and tries to reveal each document in an all-round way,including linguistic literature,geographical literature,historical archives literature,artistic literature and religious literature.Language literature mainly consists of dictionaries,mainly Chinese-English dictionaries,including other European languages,major minority languages and dialects in China.Geographical literature can be divided into two categories:maps and monographs.The maps are mainly military maps of the southeast coast of the Qing Dynasty.Monographs are mainly concerned about the border areas such as Xinjiang,Yunnan and Guizhou.The category of historical archives is the most valuable one,including imperial edicts,military documents,letters and name cards,historical materials of the Taiping Rebellion and Hongmen,economic and trade documents,diplomatic archives,local government documents and so on.Most of them came from Jiangsu,Zhejiang and Guangdong during the two Opium wars.Art literature mainly includes calligraphy,painting and seal carving.Calligraphic literature is dominated by Qing people,and there are many works of celebrities in Tang,Song and Yuan Dynasties,but the authenticity is mixed;painting is mainly figure painting,especially with the characteristics of genre painting,which is an important historical material for the study of Qing Dynasty folklore;the number of seal carving collections is relatively small.Religious literature includes four religions:Buddhism,Taoism,Islam and Christianity.The number of religions decreases from Buddhism,Taoism,Christianity and Islam.From the point of view of the text case,Fucixian Shi Cao confirms that the first time of burning Summer Palace was October 18,1860.Xiangyun You Peng Xin Zha are important materials for private advisers in Qing Dynasty,reflecting how they got positions and how they enriched their spare time life by writing poetry.Zhou Fu Xian Qing Ce shows that the Qing Dynasty official year-end secret examination not only includes officials above Dao the Fu government,but also includes county and other officials.The secret letter about the transportation and disposition of troops in Cixi County of Zhejiang,the map of land and water in the three counties of yincizhen confirmed Gutzlaff's role as the chief spy officer of the British Army in the Opium War.A Catalogue of Chinese books comfirmed his role of the Chinese literature collector and cataloguer in the war.Nanyang Shi Xue Zha helps us to restore the historical facts of Liu Shiji's investigation of Nanyang education in the late Qing Dynasty,and helps us to understand the purpose and the course of his trip,and the achievements he has made.The Chinese manuscript in the British Library are mainly written in the middle and late Qing Dynasty,mainly from Jiangsu,Zhejiang,Guangdong and Beijing.They have witnessed the modern history of China and the history of Sino-British exchanges.They have important historical value,academic data value and artistic aesthetic value,which deserve our further exploration.