×

Warning

JUser: :_load: Unable to load user with ID: 1064
Tuesday, 14 March 2017 05:26

Devils on the Loose

Written by
Rate this item
(0 votes)
Chinese junk Chinese junk Painting origin unknown

In my latest book, Dragons, Devils and Rebels, there's a chapter on what Chinese and westerners thought of each other in the early days of contact. The book's finished, but I've since been reading a biography of an Englishman who lived in Shanghai in the mid 1850's. To his shock, when he first arrived Shanghai had been overrun by rebels, and was under siege from imperial troops. Still, he was an intrepid traveller. One day he went on 'an interesting excursion' to Wusong, by boat down the Huangpu. He and his companions sailed into trouble on the way home.

 

He writes:

'...in the evening we were puzzled to know how we should pass the Imperial fleet in safety. They are somewhat random with their fire after dark, and might easily have taken us for Chinese, if not Rebel spies. Mr Edkins came to the rescue, proposing that we should sing as we passed them, that they might know we were foreigners. This suggestion seemed good and the boatmen were pleased with the idea... We approached some ships we took to be the fleet, and passed them singing lustily. But just as we were about to congratulate one another on our success, the boatmen shouted to us to recommence, as we had been mistaken in what we supposed to have been the fleet and were just coming within range of their guns. 

'So now we had to tune up again without delay...We concluded just opposite the largest ship of the fleet. It was now quite dusk.

'"What now?" cried Mr Edkins, as the alarm-gong struck on board the ship. 'There is not a moment to lose."

'He then commenced singing I know not what. Quaterman struck up a truly American tune...while I at the same moment raised a third with all the voice I could command. The men on the warship were shouting loudly, our boat's crew outdoing them if possible, and the whole thing was so ludicrous that I could control myself no longer. I burst into a fit of laughter most inappropriate to the occasion. 

'"Who goes there?" shouted a voice from the Imperial ship.

'"Bai-gui [white devils]," yelled our men, while we cried simultaneously, "Da Ying-guo" [Great Britain] and "Hua-qi-guo" which means Flowery Flag Country, or America. 

'After a little further explanation we were allowed to pass, upon which my companions began to lecture the boatmen for having called us 'white devils'. The poor men, who had not yet received their day's pay were very penitent.'

This story is taken from a letter by James Hudson Taylor of 20 September 1854, in Biography of James Hudson Taylor by Dr and Mrs Howard Taylor, Hodder & Stoughton, London 1983, pp111-112. 


Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /home/alisonll/public_html/templates/rt_metropolis/html/com_k2/default/item.php on line 248
Read 3093588 times Last modified on Tuesday, 14 March 2017 09:51

229412 comments

  • Comment Link Gates of Olympus - 90i Tuesday, 22 April 2025 10:09 posted by Gates of Olympus - 90i

    Gates of Olympus oyununda kayıplar yaşıyorum!
    gates of olympus oyna, Pragmatic Play tarafından sunulan eğlenceli bir slot oyunudur.|Pragmatic Play'in sunduğu Gates of Olympus, tanrısal bir temaya sahiptir. Oyun, Zeus’un büyüleyici dünyasında eşsiz bir macera sunuyor.

    Gates of Olympus demo oyna seçeneği ile stratejinizi oluşturmadan önce deneyim kazanabilirsiniz.

    Gates of Olympus oyna demo modunda, oyunun farklı özelliklerini ve kazanç sistemini deneyimleyebilirsiniz. Oyunun ana özellikleri arasında dinamik ödeme sistemi ve büyük ödüller bulunur. Gates of Olympus ile eğlencenin ve kazancın kapılarını aralayın!

    Report
  • Comment Link mostbet_odSn Tuesday, 22 April 2025 10:04 posted by mostbet_odSn

    mostbet скачать https://mostbet7006.ru/ .

    Report
  • Comment Link pin up azerbaycan_ajOl Tuesday, 22 April 2025 10:04 posted by pin up azerbaycan_ajOl

    pin up kazino pin up kazino .

    Report
  • Comment Link Williedix Tuesday, 22 April 2025 09:57 posted by Williedix

    I love the poker range online—new always! plinko

    Report
  • Comment Link mostbet_egKt Tuesday, 22 April 2025 09:42 posted by mostbet_egKt

    mostbet скачать на телефон бесплатно андроид mostbet скачать на телефон бесплатно андроид .

    Report
  • Comment Link ThomasHak Tuesday, 22 April 2025 09:29 posted by ThomasHak

    plinko game download pakistan play store

    Report
  • Comment Link RonaldUrimb Tuesday, 22 April 2025 09:28 posted by RonaldUrimb

    Celine fake designer bags

    Report
  • Comment Link Gordontef Tuesday, 22 April 2025 09:21 posted by Gordontef

    ‘A whole different mindset’
    Accurate clockwork is one matter. But how future astronauts living and working on the lunar surface will experience time is a different question entirely.
    kraken войти
    On Earth, our sense of one day is governed by the fact that the planet completes one rotation every 24 hours, giving most locations a consistent cycle of daylight and darkened nights. On the moon, however, the equator receives roughly 14 days of sunlight followed by 14 days of darkness.

    “It’s just a very, very different concept” on the moon, Betts said. “And (NASA is) talking about landing astronauts in the very interesting south polar region (of the moon), where you have permanently lit and permanently shadowed areas. So, that’s a whole other set of confusion.”
    https://kra30c.cc
    kraken даркнет
    “It’ll be challenging” for those astronauts, Betts added. “It’s so different than Earth, and it’s just a whole different mindset.”

    That will be true no matter what time is displayed on the astronauts’ watches.

    Still, precision timekeeping matters — not just for the sake of scientifically understanding the passage of time on the moon but also for setting up all the infrastructure necessary to carry out missions.

    The beauty of creating a time scale from scratch, Gramling said, is that scientists can take everything they have learned about timekeeping on Earth and apply it to a new system on the moon.

    And if scientists can get it right on the moon, she added, they can get it right later down the road if NASA fulfills its goal of sending astronauts deeper into the solar system.

    “We are very much looking at executing this on the moon, learning what we can learn,” Gramling said, “so that we are prepared to do the same thing on Mars or other future bodies.”

    Report
  • Comment Link Alonzodug Tuesday, 22 April 2025 09:21 posted by Alonzodug

    Lunar clockwork
    What scientists know for certain is that they need to get precision timekeeping instruments to the moon.
    kraken tor
    Exactly who pays for lunar clocks, which type of clocks will go, and where they’ll be positioned are all questions that remain up in the air, Gramling said.

    “We have to work all of this out,” she said. “I don’t think we know yet. I think it will be an amalgamation of several different things.”
    https://kra30c.cc
    kraken вход
    Atomic clocks, Gramling noted, are great for long-term stability, and crystal oscillators have an advantage for short-term stability.
    “You never trust one clock,” Gramling added. “And you never trust two clocks.”

    Clocks of various types could be placed inside satellites that orbit the moon or perhaps at the precise locations on the lunar surface that astronauts will one day visit.

    As for price, an atomic clock worthy of space travel could cost around a few million dollars, according Gramling, with crystal oscillators coming in substantially cheaper.

    But, Patla said, you get what you pay for.

    “The very cheap oscillators may be off by milliseconds or even 10s of milliseconds,” he added. “And that is important because for navigation purposes — we need to have the clocks synchronized to 10s of nanoseconds.”

    A network of clocks on the moon could work in concert to inform the new lunar time scale, just as atomic clocks do for UTC on Earth.

    (There will not, Gramling added, be different time zones on the moon. “There have been conversations about creating different zones, with the answer: ‘No,’” she said. “But that could change in the future.”)

    Report
  • Comment Link 1win_evSl Tuesday, 22 April 2025 09:20 posted by 1win_evSl

    1vin казино 1vin казино .

    Report

Leave a comment

Make sure you enter all the required information, indicated by an asterisk (*). HTML code is not allowed.