Chine

Chine — marelibri

1900Best.-Nr. 174874Xi'an China: c. 1900. China's "Christian Rosetta Stone" A rubbing of the most famous document of Chinese Christianity. When rediscovered the Nestorian Stele transformed understanding of the cross-cultural history of Tang dynasty China. "The discovery of this monument is what made Westerners aware of the presence of Christianity in China prior to the mission of the Franciscans in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and those of the Jesuits" Nicolini-Zani p. 117. The Nestorian Stele was carved in 781 and stands at almost three metres tall. The Chinese inscription in the calligraphy of a local official Lu Xiuyan describes how Christians arrived at the Tang capital of Xi'an in 635 and with official permission founded churches. The stele also introduces in Chinese and Syriac some of the community's senior clergy and the present state of the Nestorian church. "Erecting a stone monument to describe commend and propagate its teachings was no small undertaking for the Tang Christian community. Putting up stone monuments was an expensive exercise because of the price of the stone and the fee of the expert artisan who engraved the text. The monument itself makes an important statement about the place of Christianity within Tang society" Nicolini-Zani pp. 120-1. In 845 Christianity was banned by Emperor Wuzong and the stele was buried. Rediscovered by Chinese antiquarians around 1625 it brought to light a lost dimension to China's history and translations soon appeared in Jesuit writings including Kircher's China Monumentis 1667 which included the first printed reproduction of the text. The stone now stands at the Beilin Museum in Xi'an and is listed among the small number of protected antiquities that will never be exhibited abroad. Rubbings from the original are no longer permitted. This piece belonged to the theologian and sociologist Y. Y. Tsu 1886-1986 also known as Chu Yu-Yu. Born in Shanghai Tsu studied at St John's College Shanghai and at Columbia becoming one of the first Chinese students of sociology to study abroad. In 1912 he became Professor of Sociology at St John's and later served as the religious director of the Peking Union Medical College. "In 1940 he was consecrated an Episcopal bishop in Shanghai and was named Assistant Bishop of Hong Kong and Bishop of Kunming where he began his Burma Road work." Tsu was known "as the 'Bishop of the Burma Road' because of his efforts to befriend Allied troops traveling the international highway that ran through his district" obituary in New York Times. In 1931 Tsu held a visiting lectureship at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley California. This rubbing was gifted to the institution by Tsu and displayed there during the 1930s. It is regularly mentioned as a point of interest in contemporary tourist guides to the state. Mounted on four long pieces of paper total size: 234 x 96 cm. Rubbing from stone on multiple paper sheets arranged soon after execution to form 120 x 320 mm curved headpiece 100 x 588 mm title and 1825 x 870 text body edges of mount reinforced with old decorative white paper. Rubbing generally sharp and legible a few surface blemishes sectional joins reinforced in places on verso: a very good example of an imposing piece. Matteo Nicolini-Zani The Luminous Way to the East: Texts and History of the First Encounter of Christianity with China 2022. unknown

CHINA – BEIJINGBiblio.com

Collection of 79 Loose Original and Studio Gelatin Silver Photographs Showing Beijing Including the Forbidden City Temple of Heaven Great Wall of China Summer Palace Marble Boat Yonghe Temple the Beijing Guozijian Beijing City Fortifications Miaoying Temple Zhenjue Temple Beihai Park Nine-Dragon Wall Peking Union Medical College Street Scenes and Portraits of Vendors etc. Ca. 1946-1947.

Best.-Nr. PD8879 loose gelatin silver photographs from ca. 12 x 9.5 cm 4 ¾ x 3 ¾ in to 10 x 6.5 cm 4 x 2 ½ in. 40 images with period pencil captions on verso. Four images with “Lama Temple” stamped on verso. Overall a very good collection of strong interesting photos. A well-preserved collection of 79 original and studio gelatin silver photographs showing Beijing written as “Peiping” in late 1946 and early 1947. The collection was likely compiled by a US Marine Corps officer serving in China as part of Operation Beleaguer 1945-1949. Operation Beleaguer was the US-overseen repatriation of Japanese and Koreans living in China’s northeastern Hebei and Shandong provinces in the wake of World War II. Over 30 photographs show landmarks and sites in Beijing. They include the Forbidden City’s northern gate Gate of Divine Might and Hall of Supreme Harmony; the Hall of Prayer and Circular Altar Mound at the Temple of Heaven; aerial views of the Great Wall of China taken north of Beijing; the Marble Boat in the Summer Palace; a “Lama Service” at Yonghe Temple; the Beijing Guozijian; the city fortifications including the archery and gate tower described as being “the north gate on the east wall”; the White Pagoda at Miaoying Temple; the Diamond Throne Pagoda at Zhenjue Temple; the Nine-Dragon Wall at Beihai Park; Peking Union Medical College; and two bird’s eye views of the city one showing the Forbidden City from the Grand Hotel de Peking currently Beijing Hotel the other a busy street. Also included are over 25 photographs of the streets of Beijing. They show busy street markets including a grain market; street vendors including a peddler of earmuffs and gauze masks a vegetable merchant and a knife sharpener; and street scenes near a city gate with portraits of locals including a municipal policeman a man smoking tobacco and a “militiaman.” There is also a series of six photographs showing a funeral procession. Other photographs in the collection include the interior of a residence; a courtyard with an air raid shelter; lion statues next to cannons in front of a pavilion; statues from a Buddhist temple; and a dragon boat with many spectators in Shanghai in front of the Capitol Theatre. Overall an interesting and well-preserved collection of original and studio photographs showing Beijing shortly after World War II. unknown

Globus Rare Books & Archives · Vereinigte Staaten1.500,00 $≈ 1.337,49 €

CHINA - SNOW, EdgarBiblio.com

Unpublished typed letter signed from Lawrence Salisbury to Ida Pruitt concerning the divorce of the famous journalists Edgar Snow and Helen Foster Snow Nym Wales.

1948Best.-Nr. 178144Higganum Connecticut: 30 November 1948. I hope you won't reply to this" - a sinological circle rent asunder A window onto the collapse of the marriage of Edgar and Helen Snow the 20th century's most important bridges between China and the Western world. As shown in this terse exchange between two of their friends the split sowed distrust and trapped some of the leading lights of American sinology in a quagmire of pettiness. Enjoying privileged access to top Chinese political and social figures Edgar 1905-1972 and Helen Foster Snow 1907-1997 also known as Nym Wales and "Peg" shaped Western views of China and its people to an extent unmatched by any other journalist or academic. Edgar Snow's career was bookended by Red Star Over China 1927 the work that introduced Mao Zedong to the English-speaking world and the historic 1972 Nixon visit to Beijing for which he laid important groundwork in the 1960s. Helen Snow reporting and writing from China in the 1930s and 1940s opened American eyes to the country's deteriorating political and refugee situations earning two nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. With Rewi Alley the Snows co-founded the Indusco "Gung Ho" co-operative movement to promote economic recovery and they are lionized in China today. Their 1932 marriage ended acrimoniously in the late 1940s following their permanent return to the US and divided their sinological circle. This letter written by the State Department China expert Lawrence Salisbury 1891-1976 was sent in reply to Helen Snow's close friend the medical missionary Ida Pruitt 1888-1985 at the New York headquarters of Indusco. There are no opening niceties. "Your letter just came. You and I must not talk about the Snows to each other. I have known them for fifteen years. Peg is a liar". There follows several paragraphs listing Helen Foster Snow's character faults "unreasonable" "unprincipled" and "willing to blacken people" and her attempts to take advantage of Edgar Snow. "On Ed's side I find no lies. I find that he has been hitched to a selfish self-seeking pathological woman who is set to destroy him financially and/or in reputation. When I told him that Peg was responsible for the arrival at my farm in early this month of two men to serve a writ to attach most unreasonably his car and his river property he would not at first believe me". A pencilled note in the margin states that "I can give many underlined other instances". Salisbury also accuses Helen of greed and money-grabbing and sneers at her "feminist theories" and her inability to produce commercially viable books. In the final third of the letter he flatly rejects Pruitt's suggestion that he intervene to soften Edgar Snow's mind ending with a word of advice: "I hate to see you waste your time and emotional strength in so undeserving a cause. I hope you won't reply to this." Provenance: by descent through the Pruitt family; recently in a private collection in Hong Kong. Single sheet 275 x 215 mm text one side only. With mailing envelope typed address "Miss Ida Pruitt Indusco Inc. 425 Fourth Avenue New York 16 N.Y.". Envelope split along 3 edges otherwise fine. unknown

Peter Harrington · Vereinigtes Königreich2.500,00 £≈ 2.975,20 €

[CHINA] SMEDLEY, AgnesBiblio.com

Battle Hymn of China w/ ALS

1943Best.-Nr. 63876New York: Alfred A. Knopf 1943. First Edition. First printing. Laid-in is a 2-pp ALS dated Dec. 26 1944 on Agnes Smedley's letterhead to Lt. Eugene S. Brewer Jr. see note below. Octavo 21cm. Original red cloth boards titles in gilt on spine; dustjacket; maroon top-stain; viii528xvi pp; illus. Folding map inserted before half-title. A Very Good copy with expected evidence of reading and use; there is a small closed tear in the margin of the folding map which is otherwise clean and complete. In the original dustwrapper unclipped priced $3.50 generally rubbed and soiled with old clear tape reinforcements at flap-folds; just VG. Ownership and bookplate of Eugene S. Brewer Jr.; a 4¢ "Sun Yat Sen" U.S. postage stamp affixed to front free endpaper. Additionally laid-in is a folded circular printing the "Statement of Policy" of the Committee for a Democratic Policy Toward China later the Committe for a Democratic Far East Policy. Jacket design by Jean Carlu. The revolutionary journalist's major work a memoir of her twelve years as a correspondent on the front lines of both the Chinese revolution and the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1929 to 1942. Smedley 1892-1950 was a prolific left journalist and probable spy known for her active support of Chinese and Indian revolutionary causes and for her many writings on Maoist China. The laid-in letter of about 250 words is dated Dec. 26 and addressed to a young Army lieutenant from Michigan Eugene S. Brewer. Smedley discusses the recent U.S. Presidential elections stating that she voted for Roosevelt despite disagreeing with "many things Roosevelt has done and still does.but I was afraid of Dewey and his rotten reactionaries. Now I grow more and more afraid of Churchill and it would be a godsend if he'd fall dead or if someone would kindly bump him off." She comments on British policy in India: "As long as Nehru remains in prison I have no hearing for any agent of the British" - and concludes with a description of her work for China relief "raffling off things for 2 weeks to aid cultural workers in Chung King.I'm tired tramping the streets selling chances for 10¢! So much work for so little." Eugene S. Brewer 1914-2001 was a 1935 graduate of the University of Michigan. He won a 1938 Avery Hopwood Prize for a proletarian novel apparently never published "Some Brass and No Groceries." After a brief and apparently unremarkable scriptwriting career in Hollywood Brewer returned to his home town of Owosso Michigan where he was for many years a county planner and surveyor. Brewer's connection to Smedley is uncertain but likely dated from his student days at Michigan. Alfred A. Knopf unknown

Lorne Bair Rare Books · Vereinigte Staaten650,00 $≈ 579,58 €