Thom robert compiler (3 resultados)

paperback. Condición: New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title.

First edition, 8vo (247 x 154 mm), English title page and title page in Chinese and Manchu, 102pp., [i.e 204 pp.,] separate text leaves in English and Mandarin Chinese, some spotting and small water stains, a few tears to tissue endpapers, small ink stamps and previous owner ink inscription at front, original limp stitched wrappers, some fading and light stains, but overall a very good copy. Robert Thom (18071846), an English nineteenth century Chinese language translator and diplomat based in Canton who worked for the trading house Jardine, Matheson & Co. When hostilities began between the British and the ruling Chinese Qing Dynasty in late 1839, Thom, along with other Chinese translators including John Robert Morrison and Karl Gützlaff provided the necessary language interface between the warring factions. The treaty of Nanking (1842), was negotiated, with Thom's assistance, by Sir Henry Pottinger (the first Governor of Hong Kong from 1843). The book is dedicated to Sir Henry Pottinger but Thom was not satisfied with the production, a further work was intended but cut short due to his death in Ningpo in September 1846. Cordier, 1685; Lust, 1034; Lowendahl, 1052.…

Folio. Pp. (ix), xxi, (iv), 104. With one lithographed plate of Chinese characters. Text in English, Chinese and romanizations in the Nanking and Cantonese dialects. Early 20th century cloth with original wrappers bound in at the end. Small marginal repairs on the title page and the two following leaves.Rare first edition of Thom's translation of Aesop's fables into Chinese. It is the first complete Chinese translation of the fables and became the most important and influential version in 19th century China. It contains 81 fables (Yùyán) mainly based on the English edition produced by Roger L'Estrange in 1692, preceded by a long preface and an introduction to written Chinese characters. The short stories are printed in Chinese characters (woodblocks) accompanied by the Mandarin pronunciation of Nanking (Roman letters) and the Cantonese dialect (italics). Both according to Dr. Morrison's orthography. In another column, a free English translation is given together with an English "direct translation" of the Chinese characters. Robert Thom came to China in 1834 and initially worked for the trading house Jardine, Matheson & Co. in Canton. He was an official linguist during the First Opium War and participated as a translator in the negotiations for the Treaty of Nanking. In 1843 he was appointed British consul in Ningbo. He dedicates this work to William Jardine, James Matheson and Henry Wright "by whose bounty the entire expense of his Chinese education was defrayed". According to the preface, this translation of the fables was selected from various ancient sources such as Phaedrus, Avanius, Barlandus, etc. Thom dictated the fables, in Mandarin, to his teacher Mun Mooy Seen-Shang, who wrote them down in a simple style called "tsã-luh", the lowest and easiest form of Chinese composition. The first selection of the stories was published in 1837-8 and was well received by the Chinese. "They had their run of the Public Courts and Offices - until the Mandarins - taking offence at seeing some of their evil customs so freely canvassed - ordered the work to be suppressed. . The application was once perceived - and the justice of the remark admitted immediately" (Preface). The Western tradition of using fables in education and sermons indirectly paved the way for their transmission to China. In the 17th century, the Jesuits adapted and used Aesop's fables in their Chinese sermons. The fables came to influence and challenge the traditional Chinese way of writing fictional stories which had always been based on true historical events. (See Diss.: Wu, Pei-Lin "Aesop's fables in China, the transmission and transformation of the genre" (Illinois). Cordier BS 1683. Lust 1065. See: Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China and Australasia. Vol. XXXVI - new series. Sept. - Dec. 1841. pp. 182-3.…