History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810Yüan, Yung-lun
History
History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810
Yüan, Yung-lun
Pirates -- China Sea
[82] The most common denomination for Portugal is now Se yang kw[)o],
or more correctly _Siao se yang kw[)o]_. "The small realm in the
western ocean; Europe is called _Ta se yang_." (See Preface.) I thought
it here more proper to translate _E_ by _foreigner_, than by
_barbarian_. In a Chinese history of Macao, we find various
particulars regarding the Portuguese. The description of the
Portuguese clergy and the Roman Catholic religion is the most
interesting part of this curious publication. It consists of two
parts, or volumes.
[83] It would be interesting to read the Portuguese version of these
skirmishes. A history of these skirmishes was printed at Lisbon, but I
could not procure this publication. The reader may compare the
statements of Richard Glasspoole in the Appendix.
[84] The Chinese are very much accustomed to consult the P[)u]h, or
sort. There exists various ways, according to the ideas of the
Chinese, of asking the divinity whether any undertaking shall prove
either fortunate or not. The translator has seen different modes of
casting lots in the temples of the suburbs of Canton. The reader may
find an interesting description of casting lots in the "Histoire du
grand Royaume de la Chine;" à Rouen 1614-8, p. 30. There is much
useful information to be found in this work; but it would be curious
to learn in what Armenian works ("escritures des Armeniens") it is
stated, that "St. Thomas came through China in his voyage to the
East-Indies" (l. c. p. 25)!
[85] _Woo_ (11753) _how_; _Woo_ is the time between eleven and one
o'clock of the day. The Chinese divide the day into twelve _she shin_,
or great hours; the European twenty-four hours of the day are called
_seaou she shin_, little hours. We learn by a passage of Herodotus
(Euterpe 109), that the Greeks in his time also divided the day into
twelve parts; Herodotus also adds that the Greeks received this
division of time from the Babylonians.--See Visdelou in the Supplement
to the "Bibliothèque Orientale," by Herbelot, under the word _Fenek_.
[86] _Me teng_ is a particular sort of junk.
[87] These speeches seem to be rhetorical exercises of the Chinese
historian; the antithesis is a figure very much used in Chinese
rhetoric and poetry, and a great part of their poetry consists merely
of such antitheses.
[88] That is--they are of no effect at all. I, however, thought it
proper to retain the strong figure of the original.
[89] The author forgets in his rhetorical flourishes, that it is a
pirate himself who speaks to pirates. The Chinese characters for "sea
monster" are to be found in M 2057; "_King e_ is used figuratively for
a devouring conqueror of men," says Dr. Morrison.
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