Chinese Courtship. In Verse. To Which is Added, an Appendix, Treating of the Revenue of China, &c. &c.

THOMS, Peter Perring.

Published by London: Published by Parbury, Allen, and Kingsbury; Printed at the Honorable East India Company's Press, Macao, 1824

About this Item

First edition of this culturally significant Macao imprint, the first translation of a Cantonese literary work into English. Shipped from China on an East India Company vessel, copies of Thoms's translation spread from London across Europe and found an enthusiastic audience: in 1827, the 77-year-old Goethe spent almost half a year pouring over the copy in the library of the Duke of Sax-Weimar. The last traceable complete example appeared in commerce in 1988. Thoms (1791-1855) arrived in China in 1814, bringing with him moveable type and other equipment sent at the expense of the East India Company and needed to print Robert Morrison's landmark Dictionary of the Chinese Language. Over the next decade, despite the all-consuming nature of the Dictionary project, Thoms found time for research into bronze vessels, linguistics, and literary history. Chinese Courtship takes as it subject the 17th-century Hua Jian Ji, a 60-chapter poem telling the story of a young scholar and his love for two women. "Given that some of his social betters appear to have claimed that the Chinese have no poetry worth translating, Thoms also set out to vindicate the Chinese poetic tradition in the eyes of European sceptics" (p. 149). In this, he was successful. Chinese Courtship, and other translations that came in its wake, offered western readers new cultural touchstones from which to draw inspiration. The appendix, "On the Revenue of China", is a translation of a manuscript composed by a Chinese official in 1823. It includes figures for taxation and grain production, descriptions of the economic situation in different provinces, and details on civil service and military establishments. Cordier 1760; Löwendahl 1523; Lust 1104. Octavo (240 x 151 mm). Diagrams in text, Chinese characters on title page and in text. Contemporary polished calf, raised bands, black spine label, spine ruled in gilt, gilt frame on boards, board edges and turn-ins rolled in blind, brown surface-paper endpapers, edges sprinkled red. Contemporary bookseller's ticket of W. White, Piccadilly, on front pastedown. Light rubbing and marking to calf, top edge dusty, contents fresh: a fine copy.

Seller Inventory # 181519

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Chinese Courtship. In Verse. To Which is Added, an Appendix, Treating of the Revenue of China, &c. &c.
• Publisher: London: Published by Parbury, Allen, and Kingsbury; Printed at the Honorable East India Company's Press, Macao, 1824
• Edition: 1st Edition