Materials on Manchuria, Inner Asia, and China Held at the Johns Hopkins University

Abstract

Vol. 6, No. 2 Late Imperial ChinaDecember 1985 MATERIALS ON MANCHURIA, INNER ASIA, AND CHINA HELD AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY William T. Rowe* The Johns Hopkins University is not a major East Asian research center, and consequently its Milton S. Eisenhower Library contains no comprehensive collection of materials in East Asian languages. However , through such former faculty members as Paul Linebarger, Owen Lattimore, and Richard Pfeffer, a number of scattered bodies of material in Asian laguages or on Asian subjects have found their way into the Library's possession. One unique resource, for example, is a collection in the University Archives of the correspondence of Frank Goodnow, former President of Johns Hopkins and constitutional advisor to the Republic of China under Yuan Shikai. Of more general interest are two collections of items in various languages relating largely, but not exclusively, to the history of China's northeast and inner Asian borderlands and peoples. Some of this material appears to my non-specialist eye to be quite rare; a few volumes may even be unique to this collection . I. The Hauer Collection The personal library of Dr. Erich Hauer, a sinologist and expert on the Manchu and Mongol languages at the University of Berlin, was purchased by Johns Hopkins after Dr. Hauer's death in 1939. Approximately six hundred volumes in various Western languages were subsequently merged into the Eisenhower Library's general collection, where they remain. However, some 393 volumes in Chinese, Mongol, and Manchu were never placed in the general collection, although a detailed inventory of them was accomplished in 1945. In addition to a variety of "I am grateful to Pierre Berry. Janette Cabeen, and James Walton of the M. S. Eisenhower Library, and to Professor David Farquhar of the University of California-Los Angeles for assistance necessary to preparing this note. 108 Materials on Manchuria, Inner Asia, and China109 miscellaneous items, this collection includes: 1.Several cord-bound Manchu-language works from the early Qing. Examples include Renchen jingxin Iu -^- S tfk. '& -fefc (Treatise concerning the proper conduct of officials and subjects), 1656, and Quanshan yaoyan $fl 4r£c% (Moral exhortations to the people), 1656, both attributed to the Shunzhi emperor; and the Yongzheng emperor's Shangyu qiwu yifu * i£j #£ jfc íj¡{ ejf^ (Edicts on banner affairs, with responding memorials), n.d. 2.Approximately eighty Chinese-language historical and geographical works published from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Example: Menggu yuanliu ¡fa % j$ >3L(Origin of the Mongols), Chinese translation by Lu Xixiong f£ £^ ft and Ji Yun fa i% from Mongol original, 1777. 3.Several bound runs of Beijing newspapers from the early twentieth century. Examples: Jinghua ribao -^f. %% $ £fk (August 1904June 1905), Mengwenbao ffi 5^-^ (April 1915-January 1916). 4.Translations of the Chinese classics and Chinese literature into Manchu and Mongol. 5.More than one hundred dictionaries and languages texts in Manchu, Mongol, and Chinese, several dating from the eighteenth century. II. The Lattimore Collection When Professor Owen Lattimore left Johns Hopkins for Leeds University in the late 1950s, he gave the Library several hundred volumes from his personal collection. This material was never inventoried by the Library, but I have recently had the opportunity to do so. The collection closely reflects Professor Lattimore's research interests, and includes the following types of materials: 1 . Chinese cord-bound geographical works and travel accounts on frontier areas, dating from the late eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries. Examples: Xiyu wenjian Iu ¦&} *£{)§& -i^i (A record of things seen and heard in the Western regions), by Chun Yuan -Jf^ j|| , 1777; Xijiang zashushi F $%. -Zfc sí. ¦%% 110William T. Rowe (Collected prose and poetry from the Western borderlands), by Xiao Xiongquan £ f ^ß) ¿3 -^. , Yuanchao jielu ?* £f[ *A. 4fÈ$ ¦») 1$ & Ü *T $. ^1 (Collected material on Manchuria) Xinjing, 1939. 5.A small number of cord-bound and paperbound volumes in Manchu and Mongol, primarily dictionaries and language texts. While the M. S. Eisenhower Library has recently begun the task of fully cataloguing these two collections, this process will take some time. In the interim, scholars interested in information on particular titles or wishing to arrange access to these materials are invited to contact me, in care of the Department...