Henrietta Harrison - The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire

THE PERILS OF INTERPRETING

The Perils of Interpreting

THE EXTRAORDINARY LIVES OF TWO TRANSLATORS BETWEEN QING CHINA AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Henrietta Harrison

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON, NJ

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Jacket art: William Alexander, Lord Macartneys Embassy to China, 1793. Courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

The Chinese do not really believe, though they so express themselves in the official language of their edicts, that embassadors are sent to their court, with the sole view of enabling them to contemplate with more advantage the sublime virtues of their heavenly-enthroned emperorthey are not quite such drivellers in politics. If, therefore, we are so unfortunate as to succeed in persuading them that commerce is not our object, conquest is the next thing that occurs to them.

GEORGE THOMAS STAUNTON, MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES ON CHINA, 1821

Never now it is past have I regretted undertaking something that not even the most stupid person would have done if they had understood the danger.

LI ZIBIAO, LETTER OF 20 FEBRUARY 1794 (ARCHIVES OF THE PROPAGANDA FIDE, ROME)

1. ix
2. xi

RESEARCHING AND WRITING this book has taken many years. I am immensely grateful to everyone who has helped me and also to all those friends and members of my family who have been willing to listen and talk for many hours about Li Zibiao and George Thomas Staunton, as well as the people mentioned below who provided inspirational ideas and conversation as well as practical assistance. In particular I would like to thank May Bo Ching of City University of Hong Kong for her ongoing enthusiasm and interest in the project.

For Li Zibiaos story Chai Bin now of Shanghai University and his former students at Lanzhou University kindly helped me to find the places where the Li family came from in Wuwei. Michele Fatica gave me access to the archives of the Universit Orientale di Napoli in their beautiful setting. The Archives of the Propaganda Fide not only welcomed me but also kindly provided copies of some of Lis letters. Successive archivists of the General Curia of the Franciscans in Rome, who hold the transcriptions of Lis letters to the Chinese students, were wonderfully welcoming. Li Wenjie of East China Normal University and Cao Xinyu of Renmin University both helped with the search for Qing archive materials and were willing to hold long conversations on Qing officialdom and the embassy. Xia Mingfang of Renmin University recommended me to the First Historical Archives in Beijing and Qiu Yuanyuan of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was both helpful and inspiring when I arrived there. In Shanxi Father Zhang of Changzhi diocese arranged interviews for me in Machang and Zhaojialing where Li Zibiao lived in his old age. In England Muriel Hall and Mary Keen both discussed points of Latin translation at great length and gave me many new ideas, while Catherine Keen of University College London helped me with the Italian.

For the Stauntons Peadar ODowd of the Galway Historical Society guided my understanding of the Irish background. Gabrielle Lynch Staunton and her family kindly gave me permission to see George Thomass bank account in the Coutts Archives. Margret Frenz of the University of Stuttgart helped me with material on Indian interpreters. Jordan Goodman generously lent me his photocopies of Macartneys papers now in the Toyo Bunko in Japan. Xu Maoming of Shanghai Normal University found the Chinese version of Macartneys letter of credentials in the National Archives in London. Lawrence Wong provided detailed and helpful disagreement with several statements in an earlier article. Celia Duncan, who is descended from Hochee, sent me her fathers family history, and Janet Bateson of the RH7 History Group checked his immigration status for me. Helena Lopes provided me with reading suggestions on Rodrigo da Madre de Dios in Macao. Hannah Theaker kindly did some research for me in the First Historical Archives when, at the end of the project, I realised that I needed to know about Yuan Dehuis activities in Beijing in the 1830s.

Maris Gillette and her colleagues at University of MissouriSt. Louis commented on an early chapter. Alexander Statman and Max Oidtmann not only read the entire manuscript but wrote wonderful comments. In addition I benefitted greatly from talking to Devin Fitzgerald and Michael Sharkey about translation and other topics. David Cox kindly altered John Barrows 1796 map to make the route of the embassy stand out. Duke University Library, Keele University Library, and the publishers Adam Matthews all found and provided documents on Staunton. I am also very grateful to the Bodleian librarians and especially Joshua Seufert and Mamtimyn Sunuodula.

Some material was previously published in A Faithful Interpreter? Li Zibiao and the 1793 Macartney Embassy to China, in Transformations of Intercultural Diplomacies: Comparative Views of Asia and Europe (17001850), ed. Nadine Amsler, Henrietta Harrison, and Christian Windler, International History Review 41, no. 5 (2019).

The Li Family of Liangzhou

Li Zibiao , also known as Jacobus or Giacomo Ly, Mr Plum and Jacobus May or Mie

Li Fangji, his father

Li Zichang , his older brother, an officer in the Qing army

Li Jiong , Li Zichangs son, a Confucian scholar

Francesco Jovino di Ottaiano, also known as Mai Chuanshi , a missionary

The Stauntons of Galway

George Thomas Staunton, also known as Sidangdong

Sir George Leonard Staunton bart., his father

Jane Staunton, ne Collins, his mother

John Barrow, his mathematics tutor, later secretary to the Admiralty

Johann Christian Httner, his classics tutor

Benjamin, a slave purchased in Batavia to look after him

A Hiue, a boy who was brought to England to speak Chinese to him

Wu Yacheng Assing (or Ashing), formally known as Wu Shiqiong , who came with the family to London in 1794 and later went into the trade

Peter Brodie, George Leonards friend who married Janes sister Sarah and their children, especially the doctor