A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Preface
PREFACE
In 1874 the late Mr. Mayers published a small collection of about 800 notices of Chinese statesmen, generals, writers, and others.
For many years his work held the field, until at length a feeling arose that something more comprehensive was wanted to meet the slow but sure development of Anglo-Chinese scholarship. Accordingly, in 1891 this dictionary was planned, and has since been carried out, in the hope that it may prove of use to all who are occupied with the language and literature of China, especially to the British Consular official.
Some such book of reference is indeed an absolute necessity to the student, confronted in every branch of the written language, including State papers, dispatches, public proclamations, the Peking Gazette, etc. etc., by oft-recurring allusions to the sayings and doings of the heroes and villains of the past. In this sense, names have been inserted of men whose only title to a biographical record rests perhaps upon one pointed remark or striking deed which has appealed to the imagination of their countrymen.
Many of these sayings and incidents, historical as well as mythological, are no doubt trivialities in themselves. Their usage however by the Chinese invests them, as regards the European, with an importance not their own. Western statesmen do not scorn references to Polyphemus, to Horatius Cocles, nor even to the Hatter of Alice in Wonderland. In the same way a Chinese statesman knows what happened to Chang Hsün (No. 64) and to Duke Yang of Lu (No. 2397), and we who would follow his train of thought must know it too.
Notices of the more prominent living men have also been given, thus bringing the book down to the present day from a starting-point of forty centuries ago.
The surname and personal name, by which each man is formally known, have been transliterated according to the sounds of the Court dialect as now spoken at Peking and popularly called "Mandarin." These have been arranged so far as possible alphabetically, and are followed by the "T." (= 字 tzŭ) which stands for "style" or literary name adopted in youth for general use, and by the "H." (= 號 hao) which is a fancy name or sobriquet either given by a friend or taken by the individual himself. Of the latter there are several varieties, classed together for convenience' sake under one letter.
Most of the Emperors are inserted in a similar manner, with cross references under the "canonisation" and sometimes under the "year-title." Thus the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty is given under Chu Yüan-chang, with cross references under T'ai Tsu and Hung Wu. The Mongol Emperors appear under the names by which they are familiarly known to Europeans (e. g. Kublai Khan); the Emperors of the present dynasty under their year-titles (e. g. K'ang Hsi).
The Chinese characters for such place-names (exclusive of Treaty Ports), dynasties, etc., as recur several times will be found in a table at the end of this Preface. At the end of the book there is a full alphabetical index of the literary and fancy names, coupled in some cases with the surnames, and of the canonisations. All such are frequently used in literature, and are often very troublesome to the foreign student. To these have been added a few names which should have appeared in the body of the work.
Some of the phraseology employed is conventional. It is usual to speak in narrative (e. g.) of the Emperor Wên Ti, although Ti means Emperor and Wên cannot properly be used of the monarch until after death. The term "Board" may be found applied to a department of State which existed long before the familiar Boards of more modern times, and so on.
As regards matter, certain difficulties have occurred in the course of compilation. Varying versions of the same story are not uncommon, in Chinese authors; sometimes the same story is told of two different persons.
In conclusion, I have to thank Mr. E. H. Fraser of H. B. M. Consular Service for many valuable contributions; also Mr. C. H. Brewitt-Taylor of the Chinese Customs' Service for several notes on the warriors of the Three Kingdoms.
In Mr. F. de Stoppelaar (late E. J. Brill) of Leiden, I found a printer who was able to carry out the task of producing a lengthy Anglo-Chinese work with expedition and skill.
The toil of proof-reading was performed chiefly by the same practised "reader" (on my domestic establishment) to whom the typographical accuracy of my Chinese-English Dictionary was so largely due.
Herbert A. Giles.
Cambridge: 27th January, 1898.