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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 48| December 2000


Mission accomplished:
Rare Chinese Collection catalogued

A project to catalogue the rare and unusual Chinese language London Missionary Society Collection has been successfully completed. Weidong Chen of Asian Collections has now catalogued all 722 titles onto the National CJK Service. The books are also searchable on the Library’s online catalogue, accessible through the home page at www.nla.gov.au. A search by call number under ‘LMS’ will bring up records for all these items.

As Weidong says ‘The collection includes publications dating from the early 17th century up to the 1950s.’ He adds ‘It is a very valuable collection and is certainly attracting a lot of interest from scholars and librarians nationally and internationally.’ In addition to monographs there are 27 manuscripts, 7 newspapers and 11 maps including Vrooman’s street plan of Canton in 1860 which is in Chinese and English (see illustration). While most titles are in Chinese there are also 37 in Japanese, 3 in Korean and 2 in Manchu.

The London Missionary Society was founded in 1795 as a non-denominational body dedicated to spreading the Christian faith around the world. The National Library has developed extensive holdings of English language books and microforms about its activities particularly as they relate to Australia, the Pacific and Asia.

The Library acquired the London Missionary Society collection of Chinese language sources in 1961 as part of its effort to develop strong research holdings on modern Asia. The Library’s Liaison Officer in London at that time, F.W.Torrington wrote to the National Librarian, Harold White on 4 May 1961:

I have to report that the London Missionary Society has offered to sell to the National Library a collection of Chinese works of about 600 volumes. The majority of these works were published in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and they cover a wide range of subjects religion, history, literature, politics.

As Torrington also noted, the most outstanding part of the collection came from the Taiping Rebellion, one of the greatest upheavals in modern Chinese history. The Taiping (‘Great Peace’) movement was founded by Hong Xiuquan, a visionary leader influenced by Protestant missionaries. He preached a mixture of Christian egalitarianism and traditional Chinese utopian ideas. The movement’s reformist actions initially enjoyed some support from missionaries and other Westerners. Hong and his followers captured Nanking in 1853, making it their ‘Heavenly Capital’. They looked as if they would overthrow the ruling dynasty. However their initial success was followed by internal dissension. Finally in 1864 Chinese forces, with some aid from foreign-officered mercenaries, crushed the rebellion with enormous loss of life.

Contemporary materials acquired from the London Missionary Society include 22 monographs published by the Taiping rebels and 3 original Taiping proclamations. The latter were issued at the height of the movement in 1853. Rare publications include a Taiping calendar and seven other rebel pamphlets on their religious and social program bound together.

About one third of the collection relates to Christianity. Of particular importance are the more than 60 editions of the Old and New Testaments translated into literary and colloquial Chinese and local dialects. A number of these translations are now rare. There are also hymn books and catechisms and even an illustrated Old Testament in Shanghainese. Apart from Christian books there are also works from the Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist traditions.

The collection covers a considerable range of subjects. There are rare editions of classic Chinese historical and literary works. For example there are several editions of the Confucian philosopher Mencius (Mengzi) as well as different editions of the famous Three Character Classic (San zi jing) including Christian and Taiping versions. There are also several titles on scientific and medical matters, including early Chinese translations of Western science books.

Canton Map

In developing its holdings about Asia the National Library has placed a strong emphasis on China’s modern history. The London Missionary Society collection contains valuable resources on Western influences in China and Chinese responses to the foreign impact.
—Andrew Gosling

D. Vrooman. Map of the city and entire suburbs of Canton.
[China : s.n.,18—?] From the Map Collection. MAP LMS 636

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au

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