The encyclopaedia sinica / by Samuel Couling.

  • Couling, Samuel, 1859-1922.
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The encyclopaedia sinica / by Samuel Couling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    according to David, are not found in Mongolia. These arrive in China at the beginning of the cold season and go back north again in April. A. coelivox Swinh. is abundant in S. China to the Yangtze. A. sola from N. Formosa and A. matter- si differ slightly from A. coelivox of the Pes¬ cadores and S. Formosa. Otocorys olpestris, common in northern Europe and Asia, is seldom met with in China, and then only in the winter. The Chinese cage it for the sake of its song. They do the same with 0. sibirica the Siberian Horned Lark, which is common everywhere in Mongolia and is found in N. China in the winter. Galerita leautungensis is common all the year round in Mongolia and in the north and west of China as far as N.W. Ssuch‘uan, and is generally found in the foothills. Alaudula che- leensis and Calendrella br achy dactyl a are abundant in Mongolia, coming down in the cold season to the northern plains of China; the former breeds abundantly in Chihli and Shantung. C. dulchunens- is occurs in W. China and has been taken in migration at Shawei shan. Melcinocorypha mongo- lica comes south to China only in small numbers in the winter, but is found in cages in every province as the Chinese are especially fond of its song. David et Oustalet : Les Oiseaux de la Chine; (Alaudides). ALBATROSS. See Tubinares. ALBAZIN, a town or fort built on the banks of the Amur by Khabarov during his expedition of 1648-51; it did not receive its first governor till 1672. In 1675 Nicolas Spatar Milescu, returning from an embassy to Peking, advised the inhabitants of Albazin not to continue their expeditions on the Amur and to keep on good terms with the Chinese; advice that was not listened to, and the Chinese prepared in 1684 to begin hostilities. Albazin was twice besieged. In.the first siege, 1684, thirty or forty Russians including a priest, were made prisoners and taken to Peking. After some years they were set free but stayed in the capital. Per¬ mission was given for priests to be sent them for their religious needs, and this was the beginning of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission (q.v.). In 1689 the Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed, by which the Russians were pushed back from the Amur, and Albazin, after a short and troubled existence of thirty-eight years was destroyed. It is probable that some ruins of the fort may still be seen, and an inscribed monument has been put up on the spot. Cordier : Histoire des Relations de la Chine; etc. ; Ravenstein : The Russians on the Amur; Dudgeon ; The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, Chinese Recorder, vols. iii & iv; Innocent: The Russian Orthodox Mission in China, ibid., vol xlvii. ALBS ON PRESS, a printing press belonging to J. R. Morrison at Mauao, at which the Anglo-Chinese Calendar for 1833 was printed, besides a sermon by Dr. Morrison and four numbers of a periodical called The Evangelist and Miscellanea Sinica. In May, 1833, it was interdicted by civil authority, the reasons given being that the publications issued contained matter contrary to Roman Catholic teaching, and that the printing press was prohibited everywhere in Portuguese territory unless the king of Portugal sanctioned it. Chinese Repository : vol. ii, p. 92. ALBUQUERQUE, ALPHONSO D’, the founder of Portuguese empire in the East, was born in 1453. After conquering Malacca, he sent Perestrello to China in 1515, and thus opened the chapter of modern trade between Europe and China. - He died on December 16, 1515. ALGAE, the Order containing Auks, Guille¬ mots, etc., Alca antiqua 6m,, of the sub-family Alcinae, is Bebjng’s Guillemot; it is found in the Formosan Channel. ALCESTE ISLAND ft! |j| hai Iii tao, a small island N.W. of the Shantung Promontory. The boat in which Lord Amherst came as ambassador was named Alceste, and the island probably received its foreign name at that time. ALCHEMY, $$» IT Hen tan• The mediaeval theories as to the transmutation of metals and the elixir of life exist almost in their entirety in Chinese thought. Dr. Martin and other sinologues have made a strong but not complete case for the origin of alchemy in China; Watters thinks it had its origin in India; and Giles speaks of it as introduced from the West into China after the Han dynasty. Alchemy has been an important branch of Taoist study. Proceeding from the theory of progressive evolution (v. Yin and Yang) it was thought that the various forms of matter (v. Five Elements) gradually changed, and that the essence of man could similarly be modified. Hence Chinese alchemy, as in Europe, had two sections :—- (1) Nei Tan I^J , or spiritual alchemy, in which by ascetic practices, spiritual exercises, communion with virgin nature and the use of natural minerals and vegetable drugs, the body and soul gradually become transformed into the substance and spirit of an ethereal being (Hsien fill) with theurgic powers. Many of the Taoist sages and saints are believed to have thus attained perfection.