Hisrony oF zo PexaNe Pataces wom nur Cw'me Drxasry-~By Carroll Brown Malone. sity of Tlinols, Urbana, Gold $3.
When the reviewer first saw the work with its fascinating title, he thought to himself: "Now here is something worth reading!". But before he had got through the second chapter, he found that it contained chief value lay in refreshing his memory. Added to this, the author's erratic spelling of proper names most puzzling. For example, he has on one page "Kien Lung" and on another "Chien Lung; and again, on p97 "Ta-pao-en-Yen Shou temple" and Ssu," $0 that the ordinary reader must think these to be two different persons and temples, The author also makes the usual mistake of calling the "Imperial Canal" "Jade Canal" (p.17). On page 68 he refers to the Fang Hu Sheng Ching which he translates as "Blevated Region of the Square Pot!" A most extraordinary rendering for a "Commanding View of the Isles of the Blew." Fang Hu refers to some fairy islands supposed to lie off the oust of Shantung. The "Almond Blossom needle arrows" mentioned on page 55 were cross-bows which could Ifire" sometimes ten shots at time {Gh cam sti be Bought at the Lange fuss fair in Peking), and not or-mary bows and arrows, as one Is led to believe.
In several places of the book w. find the name "Prince Mo Er Kun" without any explanation as to who this was, This, it should have been stated, is the Manchu title of the famous Dorgun Amah Wang (in Chinese, Jui Wang), the fourteenth son of Nurhachi, the most powerful and romantic figure inthe Manchu conquest of China who entered Peking in triumph and put his nephew Shun Chih on the throne of the Celestial Empire.
On page 17 of the Introduction the author states that lardons where he might relax somewhat from the cares of state There are, however, records showing that many of the "palace regions" mentioned were begun as far back as the Liao and Chin dynasties (007- 1234), although no doubt on not quite such an elaborate scale.
On page 18 it is stated that the palace parks are now open for the" common" people to. enjoy upon payment of a gate fee for the upkeep This, however, ig only partly true, for many of the best palaces and park buildings are closed to the Public, being occupied by the park authorities and their families or by other officials.
'A typical exaggeration is the statement (page 19) that "Kang Hat's reign is noted for his military vic~ tories over the Ruslans." When the 7 Mamthoa and Rustans fest shed Amt ithe reign of Shan Chih, in the years 1651 and 1652, the former were heavily defeated. And thus malters rested until K'ang Hi, with the close of the internal con-filet, tured his attention to the northern troubles. Large forces were despatched to the Amur, and the Russian forts destroyed. One such fort, Albazin, on the Amur above Aigun, put up an obstinate defence, but finally taken and razed Kiang Hel ordered that the captured garrison of about 800 were to be treated with the utmost consideration. The Russian commander who was "so overcome by the Emperor's clemency that he shed tears gratitude" soon broke his parole and fleeing to Albazin, rebuilt the fort there and started the old game of robbing the Manchu fur hunters. Kiang Hei again besieged the place, which was on the point of falling, when the Russians wisely surrender= ed and the trouble was put a stop to. This triting matter of the surrender of 'a small fort constitutes K'ang Hist total "military victories over the Russians."
The story of the Yuan Ming Yuan (the old Summer. Palace) and the "Forty Pictures" is the most Interest:
if Dart of the book which the author evidently set out to write about, but, got lost in the recital an ell back on the resources of others. great drawback of the book, which detracts from its value even as a work of reference, io that the author has divided up his subject historically tead of topographically. result, in order to trace the development of the Yuan Ming Yuan, for instance, one has to search through parts of all the chapters, instead of having the subject presented to ne 5.2 whole in a single section, The book is well indexed and there is a useful bibliography, but the Chinese characters (Appendix 1) are not, fully treated and many. important names mentioned in the text are missing—Lca,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.