The Translator has been so absorbed in his Author, that he fears he may have often slipped in his Syntax, and been rude in his manner. However, with whatever faults, he hands the volume to his Countrymen—thinking that they may be as much interested in it as he has been; and may derive as much amusement. If it do not commend itself for its Wisdom, it may, at least, for its novelty—that is, as a genuine expression of intelligent Chinese opinion, concerning the "Civilization of the Western Barbarians, and particularly of the English."
The Author's own Preface explains the Origin of the Work, and its claims to consideration.
The Retreat,
Shanghai, China, 1875.
J.Y.S.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
Ah-chin-le, Mandarin, and member of the exalted Calao, to the Illustrious Wo-sung, Mandarin, First class, President of the most Serene, the grand Council, Calao; virtue, health, and the highest place in the Hall of your Sublime Ancestors! Trained from my youth for many years in the school of the Foreigners [Fo-kien], so as to be versed in the languages of the chief Barbarians of the West, and particularly of the English, afterwards perfected in the latter at our port of Shanghai, and sent by your Illustrious command upon a private mission with the Imperial Embassy to the outside Barbarians of the far West to curiously seek into the state of those Peoples, and report upon the same to your Illustrious mind—that being so informed exactly, your Wisdom might, in those matters appertaining to the Western Barbarians, enlighten the Son of Heaven (our Celestial and Imperial Majesty [Bang-ztse] most renowned and exalted) when, in Council, things touching those outer Barbarians should be considered: these, my poor words, in so far as to your Illustrious Wisdom it has been thought proper to make general, are now produced: that the happy subjects of our Central, Flowery Kingdom, may understand more perfectly the condition of those outside Barbarians, respecting whom so very little is known, and may the more cautiously guard the Sacred Institutions [Kam-phfe] of our Celestial Land—wise, peaceful, powerful, and teeming with an industrious and contented people, before the Western Barbarians had so much as the rudiments of learning.
Ah-chin prostrates his poor body before your Illustrious Benevolence, and craves forbearance that these, his unworthy Observations, are not better ordered:—the circumstances of travel, fatigue, agitation of mind, hurry and confusion, have been unfavourable for that due ordering of the same which a respect for your Illustrious Wisdom required—in this particular the precise Report, submitted to the Exalted, the Calao, through the hands of your Illustrious Greatness, is more perfect. These are minutes, rather, jotted down and fastened for better reordering, if, at another time, it should be judged fit. May the Sovereign Lord of Heaven [Chang-ti] keep your Illustrious mind and body!
AH-CHIN-LE.
Note.—These Observations now following were made in England, and refer chiefly to the English Barbarians, who pride themselves upon being the most powerful and most enlightened of all the outer Barbarians, and, in fact, of any People in the whole, immense World.
Ah-Chin.