Fällmans skriverier 富雷随笔 Fällman's writings

Our book collection holds quite a number of leaflets, pamphlets and interesting paraphernalia, and today we present on of these. At first glance it could have been printed in Beijing and part of showing how modern the city had become after the policy of ”Four modernizations” 四个现代化, first started in the 1960s and then revived late 1970s. But anyone knowing Chinese sees directly that there is something strange, as the title is ”China’s Glorious Way – the Three Principles of the People” 中国光明大道 三民主义. The Three Principles of the People (full Chinese text here) were not formulated by Mao Zedong but by Sun Yat-sen 孙逸仙 (Sun Zhongshan 孙中山 1866-1925), the ”Father of the Nation” 国父 and first president of the Republic of China. The photo on the cover shows Taipei 台北 (Taibei in pinyin), not Beijing, but the Chinese characters are all simplified as if printed in the PRC. They are not, however, as this is Taiwanese propaganda material.

The pamphlet is not dated, but should be from the early 1970s, as Chiang Kai-shek is still evoked, he died in 1975. The language is very similar to PRC propaganda as we can see on one of the images: ”Chairman Chiang’s [Kai-shek] important points on the Three Principles of the People” 蒋主席有关三民主义的重要提示. The exact same phrase is still used when Chairman Xi Jinping has something important to tell… Calling it the ”Glorious Way” is also well chosen as that phrase was often used during the Cultural Revolution. Item three under the first chapter talks about ”transplanting 30 years of Marxist-Leninist thought” 三十年马列思想移植. The fourth chapter is about the ”rebuilding of New China” 新中国的重建, a sharp play with words as ”New China” and ”rebuild” were exactly the terms used by Mao Zedong in 1949.

If the reader still had not quite understood where the pamphlet came from, he or she would get a lead from the last inner page where the distinct logo of Central Daily 中央日報 is displayed. Central Daily was the major Kuomintang newspaper, founded in 1928 and long a leading Chinese newspaper. After Taiwan democratised in the 1990s and Kuomintang lost influence the newspaper lost impact and sales, and paper circulation was stopped in 2006, web presence ended in 2018.

This beautiful atlas is the book of the day in the Christmas calendar, ”prepared by Mr. Edward Stanford for the China Inland Mission” (CIM 內地會). The full book name is Atlas of the Chinese Empire: containing separate maps of the eighteen provinces of China proper on the scale of 1:3,000,000 and of the four great dependencies on the scale of 1:7,500,000, together with an index to all the names on the maps and a list of all Protestant mission stations, &c. It was published in 1908, four years after Edward Stanford (1827–1904) had passed away. Stanford took over a stationery and map shop in London in 1853 and developed it into a leading map producer. Stanford’s 1862 ”Library Map of London and its Suburbs” is still reprinted.

The Atlas has twenty-two map plates and sixteen index pages, showing the eighteen provinces of the time as well as Xinjiang (Sinkiang 新疆), Manchuria (滿洲), Tibet (西藏 Xizang), and Mongolia 蒙古. The maps of this atlas are unfortunately often cut out and sold separately today, often at high prices, but our copy is complete. You can see the complete atlas online.

The book of the day is actually not shown here, but only the accompanying records. Legendary Chinese-American linguist Yuen Ren Chao (Zhao Yuanren 趙元任, 1892-1982) published his Mandarin Primer 國語入門 in 1948, and it became a classic for teaching basic modern Chinese. Yuen Ren Chao was awarded a Boxer indemnity scholarship 庚子賠款獎學金 in 1910 and studied mathematics and physics at Cornell University, where he learnt to know Hu Shi 胡適 (1891-1962), a leader in the New Culture and May 4th Movements, later president of Peking University and Chinese ambassador to the USA.

Yuen Ren Chao’s doctoral degree from Harvard in 1918, however, was in philosophy. Only when Chao returned to China in 1920 did he take a systematic interest in linguistics, and did research on dialects at Academia Sinica. In the 1930s Chao together with another well-known linguist, Luo Changpei 羅常培 (1899–1958), translated Bernhard Karlgren’s Études sur la Phonologie Chinoise into Chinese, published in 1940 as 《中國音韻學研究》.

Our records are the original 1955 edition, and you may listen to the recordings online. The voices heard are Yuen Ren Chao himself and his daughter Rulan Chao Pian (卞趙如蘭 Bian Zhao Rulan, 1922–2013). She was a prominent ethnomusicologist and professor at Harvard University. She and Chao Yuen Ren assisted Buwei Yang Chao (趙楊步偉 1889–1981), Chao’s wife and Rulan’s mother who was a physician, in writing How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, a celebrated cookbook where they together coined English terms as ”stir fry” 炒 and ”pot stickers” 鍋貼 for Chinese cooking methods and dishes.

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent which calls for something special in this book calendar, quite a rarity actually. The book is rather small and looks nothing special if seen on the shelf, but it contains a poem and a text on the city Mukden (Manchu name for Shenyang 沈阳, capital of Liaoning province 辽宁省) by the Qianlong emperor 乾隆 (1711-1799), translated and published during his reign by Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (錢德明 1718-1793), a French Jesuit who spent over 40 years in China. The book was published in 1770 in Paris by ”M. Deguignes”, who ought to be Joseph de Guignes (1721–1800). de Guignes was a French Orientalist, Sinologist and Turkologist, professor at Collège de France, and the teacher of Chinese to Swedish proto-Sinologist Johan Erik Ringström (1746–1820).

Beside the Qianlong poem and his text on Mukden, the book contains ”curious notes on the geography and on the natural history of Eastern Tartary, and on the ancient customs of the Chinese; composed by Chinese and Tartar editors”. The picture shows a section on Chinese writing systems.

The Qianlong poem included in the book is quite well-know, and it is an ”ode” to Qianlong’s favoured special tea, called 三清茶 ”Three clear tea”. It contains plum blossom 梅花, pine nuts 松子仁 and Buddhas hand 佛手柑 (fingered citron). Below is the full Chinese text. The whole book is available digitally.

梅花色不妖 佛手香且洁
松实味芳腴 三品殊清绝
烹以折脚铛 沃之承筐雪
火候辩鱼蟹 鼎烟迭生灭
越瓯泼仙乳 毡庐适禅悦
五蕴净大半 可悟不可说
馥馥兜罗递 活活云浆澈
偓佺遗可餐 林逋赏时别
懒举赵州案 颇笑玉川谲
寒宵听行漏 古月看悬玦
软饱趁几余 敲吟兴无竭

10 December is Nobel Day with gala and festivities, many celebrities and royals gathering in Stockholm. Here in this calendar we celebrate as well, but in a different manner. Prince Roland Bonaparte (1858–1924) was descended from Lucien Bonaparte, younger brother of Napoleon I. Roland Bonaparte had wide scientific interests, and was for a time president of both Société de Géographie and Société astronomique de France. Bonaparte travelled extensively and there are landmarks in his name in both Norway and Antarctica. But did he go to China? Not as far as I know. This book is a collection of Chinese inscriptions from the Mongol Yuan dynasty 元朝 from archives, museums and collections in France.

Each copy of the book is numbered, ours no. 176, possibly 200 copies were made. It has been digitised and can be seen via this link. In the book, or collection of plates, rather, there is also ʼPhags-pa and old Uyghur script. Perhaps the most fascinating documents shown in the book are held at Bibliothèque nationale de France and Archives Nationales in Paris. These are the letter from Arghun (1258–1291), Mongol ruler of the Ilkhanate, sent in 1289, and the letter from Arghun’s son Öljaitü (1280-1316) sent 1305. Öljaitü followed his father as ruler of the Ilkhanate. Both letters were sent to French king Philippe IV (Philippe le Bel, 1268-1314), and were part of the efforts of creating a Franco-Mongolian alliance against the Islamic caliphates.

Fortunately the Internet can show us these remarkable letters in their full glory, and you may even read the full texts in English translation. For Arghun’s letter follow this link and for Öljaitü’s letter use this link. Note the official stamps on the letters which are from the Chengzong Emperor of Yuan 元成宗 (Temür, 1265–1307), in Beijing (or Khanbalik as it was named the time). At its height the Ilkhanate covered what is now eastern Turkey, Iran, parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Iraq, but they still wanted to have the nominal connection and support of the Great Khan in far-off Khanbalik.

It is not so common to see a book by a national leader translated by his wife, but the book of the day is an example of that. Chiang Kai-shek 蒋介石 (Jiang Jieshi, also known as 蒋中正 Jiang Zhongzheng, 1887-1975) was the leader of the Republic of China 中华民国 from the late 1920s until his death. However, he was defeated by the Communist forces in 1949 and had to leave for Taiwan, where the Republic of China still lives on. Chiang led the Kuomintang 国民党 (Guomindang) as well, the ruling nationalist party. ”Madame Chiang Kai-shek”, as she was often called, had the name Soong Mei-ling 宋美龄 (Song Meiling 1898-2003), and was only Chiang’s fourth wife. However, she had a great impact on him, made him become a Christian, and helped raise support from the USA through her good connections there. Chiang Kai-shek never learnt English, and Soong Mei-ling often acted as his translator.

In the 1930s China was torn apart by civil war, Japanese invasion, corruption and what Chiang Kai-shek, his wife and many others in the Kuomintang saw as moral decay. Therefore they started The New Life Movement 新生活运动 in 1934, and argued for a life ruled by four principles: 禮 ”proper rite”, 義 ”righteousness” (or justice), 廉 ”honesty and cleanness”, and 恥 ”shame” (sense of right and wrong). Confucian morals and self-cultivation were central elements, paired with Soong Mei-ling’s Methodist perspective. Notably, the ultranationalist faction ”Blue Shirt Society” 蓝衣社 within Kuomintang was prominent among the leadership of the New Life Movement. The movement never had the intended success, partly due to the difficult circumstances in the country, and partly because it lacked appeal for many people. However, one may see morality campaigns in contemporary China (PRC) as echoes of the New Life Movement.

The national flag of the Republic of China (ROC) features prominently in the little leaflet, and the aim is to respect and honour the flag as national symbol. Interestingly, the blue field with the white sun is the party symbol of Kuomintang. This flag was made the national ROC flag in 1928 when Kuomintang had taken control of most parts of the country. It is still the ROC national flag, despite Kuomintang losing power in Taiwan several years ago.

Today we have a rather peculiar book. Ah Hai’s 《北欧的神话传说》(“Nordic myths and legends”), published in 1992 at Liaoning University Press 辽宁大学出版社 in Shenyang 沈阳. But why a book in Chinese about Nordic mythology? And who is Ah Hai 阿海? Ah Hai is one of many pen names for Gui Minhai 桂民海 (b. 1964), also known as 桂敏海 (also pronounced Gui Minhai but with a tone difference between 民 mín and 敏 mǐn) and Michael Gui among other names. Gui Minhai is a Swedish poet, publisher and writer of Chinese origin, who was abducted by Chinese intelligence officers or policemen in Thailand, later forcibly confessing on Chinese TV, before being convicted, and finally being sentenced to ten years in prison for ”illegally providing intelligence overseas” 为境外非法提供情报罪. This tragic story is well-know. However, fewer people know that Gui Minhai had a serious interest in Nordic mythology and even wrote a book about it, the calendar book of today. Gui Minhai came to Sweden in 1988 and studied history at the University of Gothenburg. He wrote a master thesis named ”Feudalism in Chinese marxist historiography” published by NIAS in Copenhagen.

The book is a collection of stories and descriptions of Nordic mythology, and apparently Gui Minhai had studied the topic in quite some detail. Gui’s book has a popular approach and probably sold quite well. It is still searchable on Chinese search engine Baidu 百度, and the book has its own page on Chinese book, film and music social network site Douban 豆瓣, where it is given generally favourable reviews.

On one of the first pages of our copy Gui Minhai has signed as Ah Hai, with a dedication to then main teacher of Chinese at our department, Mats Engberg. Engberg is here rendered as 马茨 (”Mǎcí”), which sounds more or less as ”Mats”, with Chinese pronunciation. Ah Hai asks Engberg to ”critique and correct” 教正, as is common in China when signing books. The book is signed almost exactly 30 years ago, 7 December 1992, in Gothenburg. Gui Minhai is unjustly imprisoned in China, but still greets us today through this book.