Out of the Box

Hello dear readers,

This week is my last week working as a CCEPS Fellow. It has been my honor to work with Special Collections and the Asian Library of The Claremont Colleges Library. I have learned a lot while archiving the Ch’en Shou-yi Papers. Here, I must thank my supervisors and colleagues who always help and enlighten me. Sean guided me in the physical processing and intellectual organization of the Ch’en Shou-yi Papers. In addition, he was always patient to review my blog drafts each week. Xiuying taught me concepts in archival studies and inspired me to develop sensitivity to privacy and inclusive description, which I did not know about before accessing the archives. Thanks to their help, I now understand and have enjoyed the archival work every week.

Of course, I am sincerely grateful to the readers. Since I wrote the blogs every week beginning on February 8, I am glad to hear that quite a few researchers are paying closer attention to the Ch’en Shou-yi Papers and Asian Library collections. This week I begin labelling all the folders and double-checking the information I have input into the ArchivesSpace. During the upcoming Fall semester, I will give a presentation on my work, and I am looking forward to reading the collection finding aid, which will be published for public use in the near future.

Thank you so much for reading!

Yuda

This week when I was processing Ch’en Shou-yi’s materials, I found a governmental document, Directory of Chinese Scholars in America, 1961-1962, which was published by the Office of the Cultural Counselor, ROC Taiwan. As a Chinese scholar in the US, Ch’en received a copy with a gift note. The note disclosed some important information. First, Ch’en was not addressed as Doctor or Professor, but as a Committee Member, which meant that Ch’en must be a member of the committee in charge of the compilation of the directory. Second, Ch’en was asked to update the committee with the latest information of Chinese scholars in the US, indicating that Ch’en might have participated in gathering information about Chinese scholars in the US, or simply due to the fact that Ch’en had a wide academic circle. Indeed, from this document, we find many familiar names such as Chan Wing-tsit, Lin Yu-tang, and Chao Yen Ren that we introduced in the past weeks, making this document a useful index for Ch’en Shou-yi Papers.

First, this document listed Ch’en’s family and friends teaching at colleges. Ch’en’s two younger brothers, Chan, Shau-wing (陳受榮) and Chan, Stanley (陳受康) were scholars at Stanford University (p. 1) and Loyola University of Los Angeles (p. 2). Ch’en’s materials contain his correspondence with his brothers and an offprint written by Stanley Chan. Chan, Wing-tsit (陳 榮 捷 ) was Ch’en’s friend, fellow alumnus from Lingnan University, and colleague at the University of Hawaii. Chan and Ch’en established the Oriental Institute together (page 2). The Ch’en Shou-yi Papers include quite a few of Chan’s offprints, correspondence, and notes on Lingnan University. Liu, Wu-chi (柳無忌), professor at Indiana University (p. 52), focused on Chinese literature, especially modern Chinese writer and artist, Su Manshu (蘇曼殊). Liu was a friend of Ch’en and H. M. Lo (羅孝明), a Chinese scholar who also studied Su Manshu in Japan. Ch’en’s materials include correspondence among Ch’en, Liu, and Lo.

Second, this document listed Chinese studies scholars who benefited from Ch’en’s teaching or mentoring. Chu, Wen-Djang (朱文長), one of Ch’en’s students, was an instructor at Yale University (p. 20). Ch’en received Chu’s offprints of his latest worksand letters on Chu’s career in Singapore. Chuan, Han-sheng (全漢昇) was a visiting professor at University of Chicago (p. 20). Chuan was Ch’en’s student and became a well-known scholar for history of Chinese economics. Ch’en’s materials included Chuan’s offprints and handwritten notes on Ch’en’s lecture at Peking University.

Finally, this document listed some scholars who were not teaching or researching at colleges such as Ch’en’s old friends, Lin, Yu-tang (林語堂) and Yuan, T. L. (袁同禮). Both of them made contributions to modern Chinese literature and library science. The Ch’en Shou-yi Papers include Lin and Yuan’s photos, offprints, and correspondence. In addition, Chao, Yen Ren (趙元任), an important founder of modern Chinese linguistics, retired from University of California, Berkeley (page 6). Chao maintained a close relationship with Ch’en and Hu Shih. Chen’s materials preserve Chao’s correspondence and offprints.

This week I processed a small box full of Ch’en Shou-yi’s personal documents such as his diaries, to-do lists, address books, official documents, appointment letters, governmental forms, and materials on his family. Ch’en’s personal documents provide supplementary sources for research of contemporary Chinese scholars in the United States.

As a scholar, Ch’en collected many books for his research and for The Oriental Library (now Asian Library at The Claremont Colleges Library). This box preserves the receipts from various bookstores and presses in China such as The K’ai T’ung Bookstore (開通書社), Sui Ya Zhai (邃雅齋), Lai Xun Ge (來薰閣), and others. Due to Ch’en’s contributions to Chinese studies, Ch’en was appointed by colleges and institutes in both China and the United States. This box preserves Ch’en’s letters of appointment from Academia Sinica in Taiwan and Peking University China foundations, as well as governmental documents for travel and work like IRS taxation forms, and the entry forms to the US and Taiwan.

Among these materials, I was really impressed by the conversation notes between Ch’en and one of his Japanese friends, Katsuki Tamura (田村克喜) written during Ch’en’s visit to Japan. On four small notes, Ch’en and Tamura wrote simple Chinese characters to talk about Ch’en’s research topic, and Ch’en answered Tamura’s question on why he was not able to return to Mainland China because of the contemporary communism movements. At the time, Ch’en seemed unable to speak Japanese and Tamura did not speak English. Thanks to the same Chinese characters in both Chinese and Japanese, the two scholars successfully completed their conversation with pen and papers. With the same passion and friendship in research, language was no longer an obstacle for Ch’en to expand his social circle.

If we study modern Chinese history, Hu Shih (胡適) should be an inevitable name. As a scholar, Hu Shih introduced methodologies he learned in the United States to renovate modern Chinese history, philosophy, and literature studies. As a poet, Hu Shih wrote the first poem in modern vernacular Chinese (白話文), thereby affecting the reform of modern Chinese language. Hu, like most contemporary scholars, introduced democracy and science into China, trying to enlighten people and establish a liberal new China. As the representative of liberalist scholars, Hu and the founders of Chinese Communist Party, Chen Duxiu (or Ch’en Tu-hsiu, 陳獨秀) and Li Dazhao (or Li Ta-chao, 李大釗), participated in the New Culture Movement and May Fourth Movement to innovate Chinese culture and gain China’s independence. Mao Zedong (or Mao Tse-tung, 毛澤東) was Hu’s student. During World War II, Hu became a celebrated politician in Chiang Kai-shek’s administration and was appointed as the Chinese Ambassador to the United States. As a result, Hu maintained close relationships with both the liberal and conservative parties in China, not to mention numerous Chinese scholars including his lifetime friend, Ch’en Shou-yi. The Ch’en Shou-yi Papers has a box full of Hu Shih’s materials including Hu’s manuscripts, offprints, newspaper clippings, and cassette and recording tapes, all valuable materials to study Hu Shih.  

Hu Shih’s works in Ch’en Shou-yi papers includes Hu’s research on ancient Chinese philosophy like The Development of The Logical Method in Ancient China (先秦名學史), Buddhist studies like A Third Tunhuang Text of the Discourses of the Monk Shen-Hui (神會和尚語錄的第三個敦煌寫本《南陽和尚問答雜徵義：劉澄集》), and history studies such as Hsüeh Tsan, The Han-Shu Commentator (注漢書的薛瓚). Hu Shih also left two handwritten manuscripts on Chinese classics like Ch’ing-hsi wen chi hsü pien (青溪文集續編), and a published book, The Chinese Renaissance, likely a gift to Ch’en because of the handwritten compliments. In addition to academic works on Chinese history, literature, and philosophy, Hu also published his comments on politics such as China in Stalin’s Grand Strategy, and My Former Student, Mao Tse-tung. Ch’en also collected the magazine, Free China, which was published by Hu after retreating to Taiwan in 1949, and materials on the China Institute (華美協進社), which Hu helped found.  

Ch’en also preserved special types of materials, such as cassette tapes and recording tapes of Hu’s speeches and lectures on Chinese literature and domestic political situations. One recording tape recorded Hu’s speech at a dinner during his visit to The Claremont Colleges. In the end, Ch’en collected newspaper clippings on Hu Shih, especially those reports on Hu’s death and contemporary well-known scholars lamenting the death of Hu. Hu recommended Ch’en to teach at the University of Hawaii, thereby introducing Ch’en to the United States. Hu was not only Ch’en’s lifetime friend and colleague, but also Ch’en’s faithful comrade in the publicity of Chinese culture and liberalism. 

This week I processed one of two boxes of Ch’en Shou-yi’s personal collections. I must admit that Ch’en’s historical collections in these two boxes should be the most interesting visual items during my processing work. In addition to offprints, notebooks, newspaper clippings, or magazine excerpts, materials from Ch’en’s personal collections, both textual or non-textual, provided visual evidence reflecting Ch’en’s scholarly and research interest.

The box I processed contained two categories. One category included textual materials on Chinese literature, history, and culture. The other category included textual and non-textual materials on Japanese art and religion. For the Chinese collections, I would like to introduce the wood block printed book on Yuan drama, which were popular in the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan drama in Ch’en’s collection focus on plots and topics such as ancient warrior and generals’ bravery, ancient intellectuals’ romantic love, and the loyalty between emperors and their followers.

Some history such as the brotherhood and comradeship between Liu Bei (劉備, 161-223 AD), the founding emperor of the Shu Han (蜀漢, 221-263 AD) Kingdom, and his generals, Guan Yu (關羽, ?-220 AD) and Zhang Fei (張飛, ?-221 AD), were adapted into various Chinese art forms due to the dramatic and legendary ending. Novels, paintings, manga, and even video games often chose this history to show that historical era. The Yuan drama in Ch’en’s collection I highlight below is titled “Yuan drama on Guan Yu’s bravery during a diplomatic mission,” and included two episodes that provide a good way to understand this Chinese cultural icon.

In addition, ancient Chinese bank notes and imperial currency are also attractive because they are symbols of ancient Chinese finance. Although Ch’en himself did not specialize in the history of Chinese economics, he taught excellent students who contributed to this field such as the historian Han-Sheng Chuan (全漢昇). The bank notes and currency bills in Ch’en’s collection might help readers to understand the development of financial industry in ancient China.

As for Japanese collections, Ch’en collected a lot of religious items from Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Buddhism and Shinto were traditional Japanese religions, and Japanese people would often visit temples and shrines to pray for charms. The wooden and paper charms in this box were from different temples and shrines in Japan, and they recorded people’s wishes for various things such as traffic safety, fortune, family health, and peace and prosperity. In addition, this collection included other related religious items such as Suzunoo (鈴緒), a Japanese bell belt on cloth used for Shinto rituals. Ch’en also collected a lot of postcards and photos on Chinese and Japanese religious culture, and I will introduce these in the future.