Herbert Giles
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Herbert Allen Giles (8 December, 1845 - 13 February, 1935) was a British linguist who modified a Mandarin Chinese Romanization system established by Thomas Wade earlier, resulting in the Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration system.
Giles was a diplomat to China (1867 – 1892) as British Consul at Ningpo who later became the second professor of Chinese at Cambridge, succeeding Sir Thomas Wade, after living in Aberdeen, Scotland.
He spent a brief time at Fort Santo Domingo (1885-1888) in Tamsui, Taiwan.
He was the father of the sinologist Lionel Giles.
His publications include:
- Using Examples to Learn the Spoken Language (Yuxue Jiuyu) (1873)
- Using Examples to Learn the Written Language (Zixue Jiuyu) (1874)
- 'Chinese Sketches' Book Description: 204pp.,1876. First Edition. Giles, a scholar and linguist, is best known for his Chinese- English Dictionary, yet Chinese Sketches is an earlier and scarcer work. Work contains his early collection of short essays based upon his frequent travels to Chinese cities. (source abebooks.com)
- Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1880, London)
- English translation of 164 stories (out of 431) from Pu Songling's collection of ghost and fantastic folk tales, Liaozhai Zhiyi.
- The 1415-page A Chinese-English Dictionary (Hua-Ying Zidian) (1892, Shanghai; 1912, London)
- Chuang Tzǔ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (1926, Shanghai)
- The posthumously published, though never in English, encyclopedia, The Chinese and Their Food (Zhonghua Fanshi) (1947, Shanghai)
Postal map spelling is also based on the Wade-Giles system described in A Chinese-English Dictionary.
==Giles' Adversaria Sinica ==
From 1904 to 1915, the Shanghai publisher Kelley and Walsh published a series of Giles' scholarly papers, reviews, etc. The descriptive table of contents below gives a good idea of what Giles was doing in this period, and of the state of English sinology at the turn of the 20th century:
No. 1 (1905)
1. “Who was Si Wang Mu?”
- associating the “Queen Mother of the West” 西王母 with the Greek goddess Hera.
2. “What Is Filial Piety?”
- Giles’ interpretation of the Lunyu passage 子夏問孝。子曰︰色難。
No. 2 (1906)
1. “Art Thou the Christ?”
- An advance on the argument Giles had made in his book on Chinese painting, regarding a woodcut entitled 函三為一 . The three figures in the picture are generally taken as Confucius, Laozi and the Buddha, but Giles would have them be the Christ (the Buddha figure) and two Nestorian priests. Includes a personal attack on Berthold Laufer, who had reviewed Giles’ book.
2. “Echoes of Orpheus”
- claims that the Music-master Kui 夔 in the Shang shu must be a later interpolation, the result of the influence of Greek mythology.
3. “The Weak Water”
- a continuation of the argument about the Queen Mother of the West in no. 1. “Weak Water” is ruo shui 弱水
4. A review of China and Religion, by Edward Harper Parker, Professor of Chinese at the Victoria University, Manchester (London: John Murray, 1905)
- highly critical
No. 3 (1906)
1. “Moses”
- on some Chinese parallels to the legend of Moses
2. “Lao Tzû and the Tao Tê Ching”
- advancement of the argument made in Giles’ 1886 book The Remains of Lao Tzû, that the Dao De Jing does not date from the 6th century BCE. Giles compares Legge’s translations from 1883 and 1891, and claims that the later version was modified based on Giles’ own 1886 translation. Includes more attack on Edward Parker.
3. “The Four Classes 士農工商”
- a brief note inspired by the perceived collapse of the social classes in Britain
4. “Ventriloquism in China”
- an anecdote on ventriloquism from the Jin shu 晉書
5. Review of a translation of the Shang shu 尚書 by Waltern Gorn Old (London and Benares: The Theosophical Publishing Society, 1904) – by Lionel Giles
- criticizes the translator for not consulting Legge’s translation.
No. 4 (1906)
1. “Football and Polo in China”
- collection of Tang and pre-Tang sources mentioning football games
2. “On Exorcism” – a chapter from Albert Forke’s translation of the Lunheng 論衡 – by A. Forke - is Giles’ selection of this chapter intended as an attack on the “heathen” Chinese practice?
3. “The Mariner’s Compass”
- quotes Shen Yue’s Song shu 宋書 on the invention of the compass. Giles seems to support the antiquity of this Chinese invention, though he does not say so outright.
4. A Note from Chavannes on Giles’ article about Moses stories
5. “Two Yangs”
- correcting a mistake by Legge regarding Yang Zhu 楊朱
6. A note from the Shanghai Mercury, supporting Giles’ argument about the woodcut of Christ.
No. 5 (1906)
1. “The Dance in Ancient China”
2. “The Home of Jiu Jitsu” (柔術)
3. Review of S.W. Bushnell, Chinese Art (London, 1904-06) – by Lionel Giles
No. 6 (1908)
1. “Psychic Phenomena in China”
- drawing from an article by one F.W.H. Myers, “Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death”, which distinguishes between a conscious soul and a spiritual, “subliminal” soul, Giles treats the hun 魂 and po 魄. A paper read at The China Society on March 21, 1907.
2. “Notes on Books”
- including Forke’s translation of the Lunheng
3. “Phrenology, Physiognomy, and Palmistry”
4. “Swallowing Gold – Cunarum labor est angues superare mearum!”
- on the phrase tun jin 吞金, which Giles says does not mean ‘poisoning oneself by swallowing gold’.
No. 7 (1909)
1. “Japan’s Debt to China”
- information on Japanese history from Chinese sources
2. “The Chinese Library at Cambridge”
- includes a photograph of the reading room, in which stands a blackboard with two couplets written on it: 荊蠻非吾鄉，何為久滯淫。 and 人歸落雁後，思發在花前. According to Giles, the verses were displayed for the “edification” of one “H.I.H. Duke Tsai Tsê” (who is that?)
3. “Textual Criticism – viperina est expositio quae corrodit viscera textus”
- Giles’ emendation of another Lunyu passage
4. “Art Thou the Christ” (continued)
5. “The Mariner’s Compass” (continued)
- Giles finds that the zhinanche 指南車 was not actually a compass
6. The “Taxicab” in China
- [what is a “taxicab” to Giles?]
7. “A Feast: A.D. 1908” and “A Feast: 9th Cent. A.D.”
- juxtaposes a newspaper report of British unemployed’s dissatisfaction at a “Cutler’s feast”, with a similar poem of social criticism by Bai Juyi.
No. 8 (1910)
1. “Traces of Aviation in Ancient China”
2. “Notes on Place Names”
3. “Opium and Alcohol”
- traditional literature on alcohol, to show that “the Chinese have not always been the generally sober people we now find them”
4. “The Celestial Horse and Others”
5. “In Self-Defence – Letter to the Editor of “The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review” on the Chinese “Taxi-cab”
- Another attack on Edward Parker, in which Giles has reinserted some harsh language removed by the editor of the “Asiatic Quarterly”
No. 9 (1911)
1. “Earthquakes”
2. “Small Feet”
- Giles reveals that the “original intention” of foot-binding “was not merely to make them small. The real reason was a sensual one; it was to make the thigh large …”
3. “Chinese Bronzes”
- again attacking E.H. Parker
4. “Who Was Si Wang Mu?” (continued)
5. “Art Thou Christ?” (continued)
6. “刀筆”
7. “Notes on Books”
8. “Jade”
9. “My Village – By 白居易 Po Chü-I, A.D. 772 – 846”
No. 10 (1913)
1. “Jade”
2. “The Chinese ‘Bronze Bowl’ in the Victoria and Albert Museum”
3. “Lieh-Tzû – The beings of the mind are not of clay”
4. “Childbirth, Childhood, and the Position of Woman”
5. “Notes on Books”
- on bible translations, the rise of German sinology, etc.
No. 11 (1914)
1. “Caricature in China”
- on cartoon drawings of the early Republic, with some interesting samples
2. “Infanticide in China”
- Giles begins: “I am heartily sick of this subject”. Giles believes stories of female infanticide are exaggerated.
3. “Notes on Books, etc.”
- includes review of some Chinese poetry translations
Ser. II, No. 1 (1915)
1. “Poe’s ‘Raven’ – in Chinese”
- Jia Yi’s 賈宜 “Funiao fu” 鵩鳥賦. One W.A.P Martin had pointed out a similarity in 1901, but Giles found Martin’s translation flawed, and so presents his own here. Giles does not accept “any real analogy between Chia I’s ‘Owl’ and Poe’s ‘Raven’”
2. “Mr. Laufer and the Rhinoceros” – by Lionel Giles
- distinguishing the xi 犀 and the si 兕
3. “Another Mistranslator”
- rather unfair criticisms of poetry translations by one John C. Ferguson.
4. “An Emperor on Ku K’ai-chi” – with Lionel Giles
- translation of Qianlong’s comments on a painting by Gu Kaizhi 顧愷之
5. “Hibbert Lectures” (corrections to another publication)
6. “Commissioner Lin”
- Giles suggests that Lin’s two letters to Queen Victoria never made it to her, circulating only in Canton
[edit] External links
- Works by Herbert Giles at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Herbert Giles at Romanization.com
- Images of Giles
- Address by his Great Grandson
