Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/4

 tions and events in the outside world. In the case of the leaders of the Taiping rebellion, wherein the Chinese records were deliberately destroyed or suppressed, foreign records form almost the only reliable sources of information. The history of the Taiping rebellion, with its peculiar form of fanatic iconoclasm, would now be unintelligible without the aid of records kept by foreign observers and missionaries. Indeed, even the numerous official documents and religious tracts published by the Taiping government have entirely disappeared from China and have only recently been reprinted in China from copies preserved in British and European archives.

In all these respects, the present contributors to this series of brief biographies of "Eminent Chinese" have done a great deal to improve upon the traditional biographical material in Chinese. They have exercised remarkable critical judgement in the selection of the subjects to be included and of the source materials to be used. They have succeeded very well in the reconstruction of authentic and objective biographies within the rigid limitations of a biographical dictionary. They have been able to supplement the official and formal biographies by critical use of unofficial and unorthodox materials. They have made full use of the results of modern historical research in China. And they have certainly set a good example for future Chinese biographical literature by their extensive incorporation of non-Chinese source materials in all cases wherein the native record is inadequate or incomplete.

The articles on such early Chinese Christian leaders as Hsü Kuang-ch'i, Li Chih-tsao, Ch'ü Shih-ssŭ and others; those on Hung Hsiu-ch'üan and Hung Jên-kan of the Taiping rebellion; and the many articles on Chinese statesmen having charge of foreign relations from Lin Tsê-hsü down to I-hsin and Jung-In, will be found interesting and valuable to Chinese readers because they contain important information from sources not accessible to the traditional Chinese biographer.

Such articles as those on the geographical explorer Hsü Hung-tsu, the historian Ts'ui Shu, the novelists Ts'ao Chan and Wu Ching-tzŭ, and the scholars Chao I-ch'ing and Tai Chên, with special reference to the century-old controversy concerning the Shui-ching chu shih—these among others may be cited as examples of fruitful utilization of contemporary Chinese scholarship.

The greatest difficulty in planning this book, I can imagine, must have been the selection of the eight hundred men and women as subjects of biographical sketches. The final selection will probably be questioned by some readers who may fail to find certain of their favorite artists, poets or collectors prominently treated here. I for one have my own mild complaints of omission. But after a careful analysis of the book as a whole, I am very well satisfied with the general plan of selection of biographical subjects. It is a well-balanced selection which takes into consideration the dynastic, racial, military, territorial, political, intellectual, literary, artistic and religious phases of Chinese history of the last three centuries, and gives a quite fair apportionment of space to the personalities who played their part, for better or for worse, in their respective spheres. It is a work of historical objectivity and justice which accords the same attention to the rebels Hung Hsiu-ch'üan and Li Hsiu-ch'êng as to the Emperor K'ang-ksi or the Empress Dowager Hsiao-ch'in; to a powerful Grand Secretary of State like Mingju as to