Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on the Illustrations
- Introduction
- CHAP. I A VILLAGE DISTRICT IN LIGHT AND SHADE
- CHAP. II RURAL SCENES AND SOUNDS
- CHAP. III THE MANDARIN IN EMBRYO
- CHAP. IV RED LETTER DAYS
- CHAP. V COMPENSATIONS
- CHAP. VI RECORDS OF AN ANCIENT CITY
- CHAP. VII CAN ANY PATHOS COME OUT OF CHINA?
- CHAP. VIII AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE
- CHAP. IX PROBLEMS DOMESTIC AND NATIONAL
- CHAP. X GODS MANY AND LORDS MANY
- CHAP. XI A TAIPING CAMP
- CHAP. XII THE LONGHAIRED HAVE COME
- CHAP. XIII SUFFERING BY DEPUTY
- CHAP. XIV AN OLD, OLD STORY IN A NEW EDITION
- CHAP. XV IMPERIAL POP-GUNS
- CHAP. XVI THE MART OF CENTRAL CHINA
- CHAP. XVII FOUR MILES OF FLAME
- CHAP. XVIII IMPERIALISTS TO THE FRONT
- CHAP. XIX ART AND ARTISTS
- CHAP. XX HOW TO BECOME A DEMIGOD
- CHAP. XXI CHANGING SCENES
- CHAP. XXII FATHER AND DAUGHTER
- CHAP. XXIII RESURRECTION
- CHAP. XXIV FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE
- Appendix
- Plate section
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on the Illustrations
- Introduction
- CHAP. I A VILLAGE DISTRICT IN LIGHT AND SHADE
- CHAP. II RURAL SCENES AND SOUNDS
- CHAP. III THE MANDARIN IN EMBRYO
- CHAP. IV RED LETTER DAYS
- CHAP. V COMPENSATIONS
- CHAP. VI RECORDS OF AN ANCIENT CITY
- CHAP. VII CAN ANY PATHOS COME OUT OF CHINA?
- CHAP. VIII AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE
- CHAP. IX PROBLEMS DOMESTIC AND NATIONAL
- CHAP. X GODS MANY AND LORDS MANY
- CHAP. XI A TAIPING CAMP
- CHAP. XII THE LONGHAIRED HAVE COME
- CHAP. XIII SUFFERING BY DEPUTY
- CHAP. XIV AN OLD, OLD STORY IN A NEW EDITION
- CHAP. XV IMPERIAL POP-GUNS
- CHAP. XVI THE MART OF CENTRAL CHINA
- CHAP. XVII FOUR MILES OF FLAME
- CHAP. XVIII IMPERIALISTS TO THE FRONT
- CHAP. XIX ART AND ARTISTS
- CHAP. XX HOW TO BECOME A DEMIGOD
- CHAP. XXI CHANGING SCENES
- CHAP. XXII FATHER AND DAUGHTER
- CHAP. XXIII RESURRECTION
- CHAP. XXIV FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE
- Appendix
- Plate section
Summary
Respected Reader,—May I be allowed to dispense with conventionalities, take a seat by your side, and have a chat with you about the book you hold in your hand?
The title? It may be taken to indicate that you are in possession of a collection of desiccated tales, legends, and the like, picked up here and there along the highways and byways of China. Or if you should be charitable enough to regard the body of the book as a story in itself, the title will still apply; for a string of peach-stone charms, literal enough to hang upon a study wall, does certainly figure in these pages.
In that narrative, my object has not been to attempt anything like a novel, but by means of a series of character sketches, in which the details are drawn from the life, to picture the normal village life of Central China, to describe some leading incidents in the earlier Taiping Rebellion, and to indicate how Chinese character may be modified under the changes which come, and must come, even in “the changeless East.”
To many, China is merely an old curiosity shop, to others a land of easily-scared soldiers or of anti-foreign mobs. The present need is for information. A symmetrical work of art would hardly meet this need, and at the expense of what may be called literary fluency, the author has endeavoured to give as much reliable information as may be crammed into four hundred and eighty pages.
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- A String of Chinese Peach-Stones , pp. xi - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010