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CONTENTS
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Electric Scotland News
Electric Scotland Community
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
Memoirs of the Jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
Our New Zealand Cousins
Memoirs of Robert Dollar
Life of the Rev. Thomas Guthrie D.D.
A Scot in China of Today
The Scottish National War Memorial
5 Rain Drops
Tommy Douglas
The Tower of Craigietocher
Places to go in Aberdeen & Grampian
Lossiemouth Museum
A Look at Canada and Canadians
Electric Scotland News
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Well I confess to enjoying the reports here in Canada about the Royal Tour. It has gone down very well indeed and we're moving into the final part of the tour at the Calgery stampede. There is a web site where you can watch the video reports at http://cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=t...ate_id=46&hl=e
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Google's +1 is a new product from Google much like the Facebook Like button. We've implemented it on the site within our header. The idea is that if you enjoy reading a page on our site and think it provides some good information then you can click on the +1 button to tell others you recommend this page. And so we'd certainly encourage you to click on that button if you like the page you are reading as it will also help other searchers to find us.
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I have been working on a book about James Legge, a Scots missionary to China. What is particularly remarkable about his work is the translation he did of the Chinese Classics. He took the view that you can't convert the Chinese to Christianity unless you knew more about how they thought. He mentions that there is not a Chinese word for God and the word being used at the time was not the correct one in the minds of the Chinese as it meant quite a different view to them.
In fact last night I watched the MUNK DEBATE ON CHINA which was held in Toronto where there were some interesting comments. You can watch this at http://cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=t...=e&clipID=5823
The debate is around 90 minutes in length but I found it very interesting so hope you'll take the time to view it as China is going to affect all of us for sure.
In the debate one of the debaters actually mentioned that you need to get into the minds of the Chinese to better understand them and mentioned Confucious as a possible starting point. Legge includes his writings in his translation of the Chinese Classics.
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One of the four debators in this debate is Niall Ferguson and here is a wee biogrphy of him...
Niall Ferguson, MA, D.Phil., is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford University, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Born in Glasgow in 1964, he was a Demy at Magdalen College and graduated with First Class Honours in 1985. After two years as a Hanseatic Scholar in Hamburg and Berlin, he took up a Research Fellowship at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1989, subsequently moving to a Lectureship at Peterhouse. He returned to Oxford in 1992 to become Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Jesus College, a post he held until 2000, when he was appointed Professor of Political and Financial History at Oxford. Two years later he left for the United States to take up the Herzog Chair in Financial History at the Stern Business School, New York University, before moving to Harvard in 2004.
His first book, Paper and Iron: Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation 1897-1927 (Cambridge University Press, 1995), was short-listed for the History Today Book of the Year award, while the collection of essays he edited, Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals (Macmillan, 1997), was a UK bestseller and subsequently published in the United States, Germany, Spain and elsewhere.
In 1998 he published to international critical acclaim The Pity of War: Explaining World War One (Basic Books) and The World’s Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild (Penguin). The latter won the Wadsworth Prize for Business History and was also short-listed for the Jewish Quarterly/Wingate Literary Award and the American National Jewish Book Award. In 2001 he published The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000 (Basic), following a year as Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England.
He is a regular contributor to television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2003 he wrote and presented a six-part history of the British Empire for Channel 4, the UK terrestrial broadcaster. The accompanying book, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (Basic), was a bestseller in both Britain and the United States. The sequel, Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire, was published in 2004 by Penguin. Two years later he published The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, which was also a PBS series. His most recent book is the best-selling Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (Penguin, 2008). It aired on PBS this year. He has just completed a biography of the banker Siegmund Warburg and is now working on the life of Henry Kissinger.
A prolific commentator on contemporary politics and economics, Niall Ferguson writes and reviews regularly for the British and American press. He is a contributing editor for the Financial Times and a regular contributor to Newsweek. In 2004 Time magazine named him as one of the world’s hundred most influential people.
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This was a mamoth undertaking by him and even then his translation broke new ground for translations and as I was researching information about him I came across an interesting article about his work on this translation. The article starts...
17/08/09
To claim that James Legge’s Chinese Classics set new standards for classical translation in the last third of the 19th century may not be too surprising to those seated here today, simply because active translators and scholars of China generally know about the Chinese Classics, even if they have not very often employed them in their own studies as reference works. Describing the details about these standards may prove to be a positively stimulating experience, however, simply because there have been a number of major discoveries during the last two decades dealing with Legge’s life and translation corpus, so that these standards can now be highlighted in a concise and comprehensive manner. Yet it could probably be surprising to some if this claim was extended further: Legge’s Chinese Classics have set standards in the 1860s and 1870s which still carry much insight and authority even now at the beginning of the 21st century. His precedents for translations in canonical Ruist (“Confucian”) literature, therefore, require some extensive preliminary explanations.
Reasons for pursuing these explanations should be made clear from the start. First of all, under certain assumptions about the incremental growth of scholarship across the years, many might assume that we have long ago superceded standards of translation set over 140 years ago, especially those set in the context of the newly established colony of Hongkong. Not only is there a historical gap to be considered, but the cultural climate of a colonial setting certainly, it would be assumed, nurtured restrictive interpretive interests. Furthermore, the simple fact that Legge was a Protestant missionary should make us all concerned about his own personal hermeneutic orientation. How could a person whose intention was to challenge Chinese traditions with a Christian worldview be capable of anything close to an interpretively balanced or well-justified set of translations?
In response, I must clarify from the start that I would agree that there have undoubtedly been many technical refinements in the broader area of Chinese classical translations over the past 140 years as well as some major theoretical advances regarding the nature of translation during the same period. Nevertheless, I do want to assert that the grammatological event of Legge’s publication of the Chinese Classics involved numerous principles for translating authorized texts or canonical literature that not only went far beyond anything which had been done previously in translations of Chinese canonical texts, but also still offers some very salutary suggestions for those of us who are involved with translation work in the 21st century. That there were also aspects of his translations which are now passé and are no longer able to guide us today I will also readily agree, and in the subsequent details will try to make some of these manifest as well. Nevertheless, his Chinese Classics were such a watershed event in foreign translations of Chinese canonical literature that they do still provide insight and guidance into ways of translating these same texts and others of similar status even in the 21st century.
While it will be a wee while before I will be publishing this book on the site you can read the rest of this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...e/classics.htm
Ranald also sent me in a wee email...
Hi Alastair
Filling up my computer with books d'l from the site, I'll soon need YET another hard drive !!
I see the reference to James Legge, and wonder if the following site would be of any use to you?
I had d'l it and was looking at some of the pages, and that is where the first few lines were found!
CHAP. IV.
1. The Master said, 'At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning.
2. 'At thirty, I stood firm.
3. 'At forty, I had no doubts.
4. 'At fifty, I knew the decrees of Heaven.
5. 'At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth.
6. 'At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right.'
* * * * * * *
From: THE CONFUCIAN ANALECTS by James Legge at:-
http://www.richtaiji.co.uk/Free%20St...Analects_1.pdf
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Nola sent me in a link to view a video of the sunami in Japan which is pretty amazing and you csn see this at http://www.wimp.com/japanesetsunami/
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Read a very interesting article on Newsnet Scotland about the issues around a referendum for independence which you might care to read at
http://www.newsnetscotland.net/scott...ce-issues.html
I do think the Flag in the Wind should start to discuss some of these issues.
ABOUT THE STORIES
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Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at http://www.electricscotland.com/rss/whatsnew.php
Electric Scotland Community
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I've downloaded some new games for our Arcade and have just transferred them to Steve so hopefully he'll get them up shortly for you to check them out.
Our community can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.org but of course if you are reading this you're already in it :-)
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
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This weeks issue is now available compiled by Jamie Hepburn. Some excellent articles in the Synopsis section of the Flag including a transcript of the Opening talk of the Scottish Parliament by Alex Salmond with the Queen in attendance.
You can get to the Flag at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
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And of the Border Raids, Forays and Conflicts by John Parker Lawson (1839). This is a new publication we're starting on which is in 4 volumes. We intend to post up 2 or 3 stories each week until complete.
This week we've added...
Battle of Otterburn
The Ancient Caledonians
Raid of the Red Swire
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
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Added some more poems...
Spring?
William G. Cameron, Messenger
Alyth Ploughing Match
First Lady News Reader?
Bridge of Cally Parent-Teacher Association Burns Supper
which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/rodger.htm
Memoirs of the Jacobites
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Of 1715 and 1745 by Mrs Thomson (1845) in 3 volumes. We intend to add a chapter a week until complete.
I've now added "William Murray, Marquis of Tullibardine"
The account starts...
Among the nobility who hastened to the hunting-field of Braemar, was William Marquis of Tullibardine and eldest son of the first Duke of Athole.
The origin of the powerful family of Murray commences with Sir William Dee Moraira, who was Sheriff in Perth in 1222, in the beginning of the reign of King Alexander the Second. The lands of Tullibardine were obtained by the Knight in 1282, by his marriage with Adda, the daughter of Malise, Seneschal of Stratherio. After the death of William De Moraira, the name of this famous house merged into that of Murray, and its chieftains were for several centuries known by the appellation of Murray of Tullibardine. It was not until the seventeenth century that the family of Murray was ennobled, when James the Sixth created Sir John Murray Earl of Tullibardine.
The unfortunate subject of this memoir was the son of one of the most zealous promoters of the Revolution of 1688. His father, nearly connected in blood with William the Third, was appointed to the command of" a regiment by that Monarch, and entrusted with several posts of great importance, which he retained in the time of Queen Anno, until a plot was formed to ruin him by Lord Lovat, who endeavoured to implicate the Duke in the affair commonly known by the name of the Queensbury plot. The Duke of Athole courted inquiry upon that occasion; but the business having been dropped without investigation, he resigned the office of Privy Seal, which he then held, and became a warm opponent of the. Act of Union which was introduced into Parliament in 1705.
After this event the Duke of Athole retired to Perthshire, and there lived in great magnificence until, upon the Tories coming into power, he was chosen one of the representatives of the Scottish peerage in 1710, and afterwards a second time constituted Lord Privy Seal.
You can read the rest of this long story at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter08.htm
You can read the other chapters as we get them up at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
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An Appreciation of his Social and Religious Outlook by Ian M. Fraser (2002).
Added another chapter to this account...
Social Aspiration
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/graham/
Our New Zealand Cousins
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By James Inglis (1887)
We now have several more chapters up of this book...
Chapter X.
McNab's gardens—The Rimutaka railway—The Fell engine—The gorge itself—Grandeur of the scenery —Power of the wind—The Wairarapa Valley—The town of Masterton—An antipodean hermit—Mr. Kohn's curios—The Belmont Viaduct—Meat pre-, serving industry—The various stages—A Social blot.
Chapter XI.
Bank's Peninsula—Port Lyttelton—The changes of twenty years—A transformation—The great tunnel —The graving work—Christchurch, the city of gardens—Its homelike aspect—Hard times— Colloquy with a croaker—The philosophy of the matter—"The good time coming".
Chapter XII.
The majesty of the mountains—The great Canterbury Plains—Ashburton, a city of the plains—Then and now—The Rangitata River—Progress of settlement —Timaru—The surf—The olden time—The city of - to-day—A triumph of engineering skill—The giant mole—Its construction—The engineer's description of the work—An old chum—"Once a mate always a mate"—Calling the roll—A vivid contrast.
Chapter XIII.
"The old order changed"—A fine farming country—A literary peddler—Otago scenery—Wealth of water —The Clutha country—A colonial manse—The minister's lot a hard one—Kindly relations between pastor and people—Tree-planting—Slovenly farming—An angler's paradise—Gore township—The Waimea Valley—A night ride.
Chapter XIV.
Up the dark silent lake—Dawn on Lake Wakatipu—-"The Remarkables" — Queenstown — Chinamen gold-diggers—Lake scenery—Von River—Greenstone Valley—The Rees and Dart Rivers—Head of the lake—Kitty Gregg—Peculiarities of the mountains —The terrace formation—The old Scotch engineer —Frankton Valley—Farmers' feathered foes—Lake Hayes—Arrive at Arrowtown.
Chapter XV.
Arrowtown—"A river of golden sands''—An auriferous , region—A dismal look-out—Old gold-workings—A terrible chasm—Nature's laboratory—Rabbitters at work—A serious plague—The kea, or liver-eating macaw—Hawk and pigeon—"Roaring Meg"— Cromwell township—The Molyneux Valley— Deserted diggings—Halt at Roxburgh.
Chapter XVI.
Dunkeld—Our Jehu—On the box seat—A Chinese Boniface'—Gabriel's Gully—Good farming—Dune-din—Harbour works—A category of "the biggest things on record"—Charms of Dunedin—A holiday drive—The Grand Hotel—The churches—Preachers —Dunedin mud—Beer—Keen business competition —The West Coast connection—"Wild Cat" claims —The Scotch element—Litigiousness—Energy of the people.
Here is how Chapter XII starts...
On a bitterly cold morning, and under a dense heavy pall of leaden cloud, we start on our journey across the great Canterbury Plains towards Timaru and Dunedin.
The plains are composed chiefly of shingle, with a scant herbage of tussock grass. Here and there, alongside the line, are young plantations of English oak and Australian blue gum. Stubble fields, hedged in by long rows of gorse, stretch away on either hand for miles. Already (May) the winter ploughing has begun in places. The majestic range of the snowy Alps bounds the great plain to the right. What a burnished splendour! what a dazzling glory! as the sun bursts through the pall of cloud ! Could anything be more beautiful than these eternal solitudes of snow? The absolute purity—peace—rest. What an emblem of the soul's repose after purification from life's mire and unrest! The rattle of the train hurts and jars. It is so incongruous with that pure holy majesty of the pinnacled snow. Little wonder that moun*taineers are generally reverent and religious.
Now we cross the rapid Rakaia over a very long wooden bridge. At every country town in the South Island among the most prominent features are the great granaries and stores of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company. They seem to be ubiquitous. The company provide weighbridges and platforms for their cus*tomers at all the large stations free of charge. The neat churches, too, are a constant feature. Here is a malthouse; there a flour or saw-mill. Here again is a granary; there is a woolshed. Seed-cleaning machinery is of frequent occurrence; so too are steam ploughs, traction engines, reaping machines. Indeed, all the most modern forms of agricultural labour-saving appliances are common sights. The faces we see are ruddy and fresh and brimful of intelligence. Corn-ricks and farmhouses stud the plains.
You can red the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter12.htm
You can get to the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nzcousins/
Memoirs of Robert Dollar
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By the Robert Dollar Company in 2 volumes (1917)
We now have the first 12 chapters up for you to read...
Chapter One. Early Experiences
Chapter Two. First Business Ventures in Canada
Chapter Three. Transfer Timber Operations to the United States
Chapter Four. First Trip to the Orient
Chapter Five. The Return Voyage via Japan
Chapter Six. My Second Trip to the Orient
Chapter Seven. Notes of a Trip to Java
Chapter Eight. The Steamship "M.S. Dollar" as a Blockade Runner
Chapter Nine. American Commissioners Entertained by Japanese
Chapter Ten. A Continued Round of Entertainments
Chapter Eleven. Personal Comments on Japan
Chapter Twelve. A Visit to Australia 1908 - 1909
In chapter Six you can see how life was a bit precarious in these days...
We sailed from Tacoma for the Orient again in 1903 on the steamer "M. S. Dollar," with a list to starboard of about 10 degrees. For two days after we sailed the crew was busy moving coal and everything that would move, trying to straighten her up. The third night after dark, when there was considerable sea running, the Captain made an attempt to get her on her feet. He put the wheel hard over and got her up, but no sooner got her straight when she fell over to port and kept going until it looked as though she would turn turtle. I told the Captain that it was no use to try to save the deck load and we had better get rid of it. So he called all hands and by the time they had gotten to work she was listing over 25 degrees. It was impossible to walk on the deck as there was a heavy sea on. They had great difficulty working, and it went slowly. The lashings were very tight, and if they cut them the whole thing would go, so we tried to dig a hole under the lashings to get a start. They had thrown over some, old dunnage that was in the way and two large lumber shoots, when the Captain came and said she had stopped going over and not to do any more as he would try to shift some of the things they had moved.
We consulted, and came to the conclusion that some of the tanks must be partly empty, so he remained on deck arid I went below. We found water on top of the fireroom plates, and the Chief Engineer got the floor up to make an investigation and found the engine room tank (that we were sure was full) half empty, and what had run out of it had gone into the boiler room tank and filled her bilges. We got all the pumps going to empty the bilges and the boiler room double bottom, and started to fill up the engine room tank, when we discovered leaks in the tank top, which we temporarily closed. All this, with what the Captain was doing on deck, soon got her up to 12 degrees, which was the. best we could do, and she ran with a list from 5 to 12 degrees all the way over.
When we discovered the real cause, we felt like people who had been walking over a powder mine. But we learned one thing: that she was a very stiff old ship and would stand anything in reason.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...1chapter06.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/rdollar/
Life of the Rev. Thomas Guthrie D.D.
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This is another new book we're starting on another famous Scot but this time on the home front.
We now have up the following chapters...
Chapter I. - Birth, Birthplace, and Parentage.
Chapter II. - Education and Choice of a Profession.
Chapter III. - Probationership, Medical Studies and Banking.
Chapter IV. - Settlement at Arbirlot and Marriage.
Chapter V. - Call to Edinburgh—Old Greyfriars—St. John's.
Chapter VI. - The Disruption.
Chapter VII. - Manse Scheme, Refusal of Sites, Canobie.
Chapter VIII. - Ragged Schools.
In Chapter III we learn...
Newly licensed preachers do not always find it easy to obtain a speedy and acceptable settlement. Some of the most distinguished ministers in the church have had to wait for years ere their talents were recognised by patrons and congregations, and a suitable sphere of labour and usefulness assigned them. It was so in the case of Dr Guthrie. Indeed, if the truth must be told, at this period of his career he was far from being popular as a preacher. He had not acquired the knack of making friends, either in or out of the pulpit. Some of the local critics who heard his trial discourses, gave judgment upon them in terms far from complimentary. One kind friend called him a "bulletin blockhead," and whatever the phrase might mean, neither the preacher nor his friends had any difficulty in understanding that it did not imply, on the part of the critic, an excess of admiration. From the outset of his pulpit career he gave full play to his lungs and voice, and his aim was always directed to speaking the truth without fear, favour, or affectation. His sermons were not really dull, nor could they be objected to on orthodox grounds, but still there was something about them which prevented them from catching the popular ear.
Failing to procure an immediate settlement, but having the not far distant prospect of being presented to a parish by Lord Panmure, Guthrie determined to proceed to France with the view of increasing his knowledge of medicine, in the study of which he took a deep interest. Accordingly, he spent the winter of 1826-7 in Paris attending medical classes, and getting such insight into medical matters as the hospitals of that city could so well furnish. His medical studies would seem to have been of a somewhat desultory and amateur character, and did not indicate any intention of changing his profession, but only of qualifying himself more fully for the performance of its duties. In this respect, his attention to medicine was eminently useful, and subsequently gave him great power for good when labouring among the poor in the parish of St. John's, Edinburgh.
When he went to Paris he took with him an introduction to Baron Guil. Dupuytren, then considered the first surgeon in Europe. Proving himself an apt and enthusiastic pupil, the Baron took a special interest in his studies, and treated him with much friendly familiarity. The Baron was of short stature, and his Scottish student was over six feet in height. On one occasion, when going his rounds in one of the hospitals, the Baron stopped at the couch of a patient, whose leg had been recently amputated, and turning to Guthrie, said, "Take care of your legs; there's a man who would never have had his limb amputated but for its inordinate length; it was always in his way." Both master and pupil enjoyed the joke; Guthrie, probably, all the more that he was considered a "strapping" fellow, and, despite his stature, by no means unhandsome. Several countrymen, who afterwards rose to the highest distinction in the medical profession, sat at this time, like Guthrie, at the feet of this Gamaliel in medicine; and with some of these he formed friendships that were as permanent as they were intimate and valuable.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter03.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/guthrie/
A Scot in China of Today
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Compiled by Ron Dow
Got another two articles in from Ron...
Kunming
Leshan Giant Buddha (Sichuan province)
The Buddha article shows the largest Buddha in the world, an amazing sight. Ron has sent in tons of pictures to go with the article which I hope you'll enjoy. He's got one picture from the foot looking up to the top but alongside you see the people walking down what looks to be a pretty precarious stairway and beside the Buddha the people look like ants.
You can get to these articles at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../dow/index.htm
The Scottish National War Memorial
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Found a wee article about this memorial together with a ground plan and have also provided a link to a web site about it.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...r_memorial.htm
5 Rain Drops
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A children's story by Elham Khatibi which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/khatibi02.htm
Tommy Douglas
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In 2004, in a vote conducted by the CBC, Canadians elected him the Greatest Canadian of all time. He was born in Falkirk, Scotland. You can read an article about him at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...glas_tommy.htm
The Tower of Craigietocher
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Got in some pictures showing continued progress towards building this tower which you can see at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gietocher7.htm
Places to go in Aberdeen & Grampian
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Got in some info on Maggie’s Hoosie along with a picture. I will say that Stan Bruce has over many months been sending in pictures and additional information on historic places in this area and we are indebted for his great work. You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/historic/grampian.html
Lossiemouth Museum
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Our thanks to Jim Campbell for sending us in some pictures of the refurbished museum. You can view these at http://www.electricscotland.com/lossiemouth/museum.htm
A Look at Canada and Canadians
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I found this interesting article in MacLean's Magazine of 11th July and thought I'd share it with you and so scanned it into a pdf file which you can view at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../canadians.htm
And finally...
Wrong Number
Australia is having a tough time of it, and one of the most heartbreaking stories from the floods was the Morning Bulletin newspaper in Queensland reporting that “30,000 pigs were floating down the Dawson River.”
The newspaper put an apology in the following day which read: “What piggery owner Sid Simpson said was 30 sows and pigs.”
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
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Electric Scotland News
Electric Scotland Community
The Flag in the Wind
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
Memoirs of the Jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
Our New Zealand Cousins
Memoirs of Robert Dollar
Life of the Rev. Thomas Guthrie D.D.
A Scot in China of Today
The Scottish National War Memorial
5 Rain Drops
Tommy Douglas
The Tower of Craigietocher
Places to go in Aberdeen & Grampian
Lossiemouth Museum
A Look at Canada and Canadians
Electric Scotland News
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Well I confess to enjoying the reports here in Canada about the Royal Tour. It has gone down very well indeed and we're moving into the final part of the tour at the Calgery stampede. There is a web site where you can watch the video reports at http://cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=t...ate_id=46&hl=e
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Google's +1 is a new product from Google much like the Facebook Like button. We've implemented it on the site within our header. The idea is that if you enjoy reading a page on our site and think it provides some good information then you can click on the +1 button to tell others you recommend this page. And so we'd certainly encourage you to click on that button if you like the page you are reading as it will also help other searchers to find us.
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I have been working on a book about James Legge, a Scots missionary to China. What is particularly remarkable about his work is the translation he did of the Chinese Classics. He took the view that you can't convert the Chinese to Christianity unless you knew more about how they thought. He mentions that there is not a Chinese word for God and the word being used at the time was not the correct one in the minds of the Chinese as it meant quite a different view to them.
In fact last night I watched the MUNK DEBATE ON CHINA which was held in Toronto where there were some interesting comments. You can watch this at http://cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=t...=e&clipID=5823
The debate is around 90 minutes in length but I found it very interesting so hope you'll take the time to view it as China is going to affect all of us for sure.
In the debate one of the debaters actually mentioned that you need to get into the minds of the Chinese to better understand them and mentioned Confucious as a possible starting point. Legge includes his writings in his translation of the Chinese Classics.
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One of the four debators in this debate is Niall Ferguson and here is a wee biogrphy of him...
Niall Ferguson, MA, D.Phil., is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford University, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Born in Glasgow in 1964, he was a Demy at Magdalen College and graduated with First Class Honours in 1985. After two years as a Hanseatic Scholar in Hamburg and Berlin, he took up a Research Fellowship at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1989, subsequently moving to a Lectureship at Peterhouse. He returned to Oxford in 1992 to become Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Jesus College, a post he held until 2000, when he was appointed Professor of Political and Financial History at Oxford. Two years later he left for the United States to take up the Herzog Chair in Financial History at the Stern Business School, New York University, before moving to Harvard in 2004.
His first book, Paper and Iron: Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation 1897-1927 (Cambridge University Press, 1995), was short-listed for the History Today Book of the Year award, while the collection of essays he edited, Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals (Macmillan, 1997), was a UK bestseller and subsequently published in the United States, Germany, Spain and elsewhere.
In 1998 he published to international critical acclaim The Pity of War: Explaining World War One (Basic Books) and The World’s Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild (Penguin). The latter won the Wadsworth Prize for Business History and was also short-listed for the Jewish Quarterly/Wingate Literary Award and the American National Jewish Book Award. In 2001 he published The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000 (Basic), following a year as Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England.
He is a regular contributor to television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2003 he wrote and presented a six-part history of the British Empire for Channel 4, the UK terrestrial broadcaster. The accompanying book, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (Basic), was a bestseller in both Britain and the United States. The sequel, Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire, was published in 2004 by Penguin. Two years later he published The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, which was also a PBS series. His most recent book is the best-selling Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (Penguin, 2008). It aired on PBS this year. He has just completed a biography of the banker Siegmund Warburg and is now working on the life of Henry Kissinger.
A prolific commentator on contemporary politics and economics, Niall Ferguson writes and reviews regularly for the British and American press. He is a contributing editor for the Financial Times and a regular contributor to Newsweek. In 2004 Time magazine named him as one of the world’s hundred most influential people.
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This was a mamoth undertaking by him and even then his translation broke new ground for translations and as I was researching information about him I came across an interesting article about his work on this translation. The article starts...
17/08/09
To claim that James Legge’s Chinese Classics set new standards for classical translation in the last third of the 19th century may not be too surprising to those seated here today, simply because active translators and scholars of China generally know about the Chinese Classics, even if they have not very often employed them in their own studies as reference works. Describing the details about these standards may prove to be a positively stimulating experience, however, simply because there have been a number of major discoveries during the last two decades dealing with Legge’s life and translation corpus, so that these standards can now be highlighted in a concise and comprehensive manner. Yet it could probably be surprising to some if this claim was extended further: Legge’s Chinese Classics have set standards in the 1860s and 1870s which still carry much insight and authority even now at the beginning of the 21st century. His precedents for translations in canonical Ruist (“Confucian”) literature, therefore, require some extensive preliminary explanations.
Reasons for pursuing these explanations should be made clear from the start. First of all, under certain assumptions about the incremental growth of scholarship across the years, many might assume that we have long ago superceded standards of translation set over 140 years ago, especially those set in the context of the newly established colony of Hongkong. Not only is there a historical gap to be considered, but the cultural climate of a colonial setting certainly, it would be assumed, nurtured restrictive interpretive interests. Furthermore, the simple fact that Legge was a Protestant missionary should make us all concerned about his own personal hermeneutic orientation. How could a person whose intention was to challenge Chinese traditions with a Christian worldview be capable of anything close to an interpretively balanced or well-justified set of translations?
In response, I must clarify from the start that I would agree that there have undoubtedly been many technical refinements in the broader area of Chinese classical translations over the past 140 years as well as some major theoretical advances regarding the nature of translation during the same period. Nevertheless, I do want to assert that the grammatological event of Legge’s publication of the Chinese Classics involved numerous principles for translating authorized texts or canonical literature that not only went far beyond anything which had been done previously in translations of Chinese canonical texts, but also still offers some very salutary suggestions for those of us who are involved with translation work in the 21st century. That there were also aspects of his translations which are now passé and are no longer able to guide us today I will also readily agree, and in the subsequent details will try to make some of these manifest as well. Nevertheless, his Chinese Classics were such a watershed event in foreign translations of Chinese canonical literature that they do still provide insight and guidance into ways of translating these same texts and others of similar status even in the 21st century.
While it will be a wee while before I will be publishing this book on the site you can read the rest of this article at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...e/classics.htm
Ranald also sent me in a wee email...
Hi Alastair
Filling up my computer with books d'l from the site, I'll soon need YET another hard drive !!
I see the reference to James Legge, and wonder if the following site would be of any use to you?
I had d'l it and was looking at some of the pages, and that is where the first few lines were found!
CHAP. IV.
1. The Master said, 'At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning.
2. 'At thirty, I stood firm.
3. 'At forty, I had no doubts.
4. 'At fifty, I knew the decrees of Heaven.
5. 'At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth.
6. 'At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right.'
* * * * * * *
From: THE CONFUCIAN ANALECTS by James Legge at:-
http://www.richtaiji.co.uk/Free%20St...Analects_1.pdf
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Nola sent me in a link to view a video of the sunami in Japan which is pretty amazing and you csn see this at http://www.wimp.com/japanesetsunami/
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Read a very interesting article on Newsnet Scotland about the issues around a referendum for independence which you might care to read at
http://www.newsnetscotland.net/scott...ce-issues.html
I do think the Flag in the Wind should start to discuss some of these issues.
ABOUT THE STORIES
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Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's New" section in our site menu and at http://www.electricscotland.com/rss/whatsnew.php
Electric Scotland Community
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I've downloaded some new games for our Arcade and have just transferred them to Steve so hopefully he'll get them up shortly for you to check them out.
Our community can be viewed at http://www.electricscotland.org but of course if you are reading this you're already in it :-)
THE FLAG IN THE WIND
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This weeks issue is now available compiled by Jamie Hepburn. Some excellent articles in the Synopsis section of the Flag including a transcript of the Opening talk of the Scottish Parliament by Alex Salmond with the Queen in attendance.
You can get to the Flag at http://www.scotsindependent.org
Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland
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And of the Border Raids, Forays and Conflicts by John Parker Lawson (1839). This is a new publication we're starting on which is in 4 volumes. We intend to post up 2 or 3 stories each week until complete.
This week we've added...
Battle of Otterburn
The Ancient Caledonians
Raid of the Red Swire
You can read these at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/wars/
Poems of George Alexander Rodger
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Added some more poems...
Spring?
William G. Cameron, Messenger
Alyth Ploughing Match
First Lady News Reader?
Bridge of Cally Parent-Teacher Association Burns Supper
which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/poetry/rodger.htm
Memoirs of the Jacobites
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Of 1715 and 1745 by Mrs Thomson (1845) in 3 volumes. We intend to add a chapter a week until complete.
I've now added "William Murray, Marquis of Tullibardine"
The account starts...
Among the nobility who hastened to the hunting-field of Braemar, was William Marquis of Tullibardine and eldest son of the first Duke of Athole.
The origin of the powerful family of Murray commences with Sir William Dee Moraira, who was Sheriff in Perth in 1222, in the beginning of the reign of King Alexander the Second. The lands of Tullibardine were obtained by the Knight in 1282, by his marriage with Adda, the daughter of Malise, Seneschal of Stratherio. After the death of William De Moraira, the name of this famous house merged into that of Murray, and its chieftains were for several centuries known by the appellation of Murray of Tullibardine. It was not until the seventeenth century that the family of Murray was ennobled, when James the Sixth created Sir John Murray Earl of Tullibardine.
The unfortunate subject of this memoir was the son of one of the most zealous promoters of the Revolution of 1688. His father, nearly connected in blood with William the Third, was appointed to the command of" a regiment by that Monarch, and entrusted with several posts of great importance, which he retained in the time of Queen Anno, until a plot was formed to ruin him by Lord Lovat, who endeavoured to implicate the Duke in the affair commonly known by the name of the Queensbury plot. The Duke of Athole courted inquiry upon that occasion; but the business having been dropped without investigation, he resigned the office of Privy Seal, which he then held, and became a warm opponent of the. Act of Union which was introduced into Parliament in 1705.
After this event the Duke of Athole retired to Perthshire, and there lived in great magnificence until, upon the Tories coming into power, he was chosen one of the representatives of the Scottish peerage in 1710, and afterwards a second time constituted Lord Privy Seal.
You can read the rest of this long story at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter08.htm
You can read the other chapters as we get them up at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/jacobites
R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Fighter for Justice
---------------------------------------------
An Appreciation of his Social and Religious Outlook by Ian M. Fraser (2002).
Added another chapter to this account...
Social Aspiration
You can get to this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/graham/
Our New Zealand Cousins
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By James Inglis (1887)
We now have several more chapters up of this book...
Chapter X.
McNab's gardens—The Rimutaka railway—The Fell engine—The gorge itself—Grandeur of the scenery —Power of the wind—The Wairarapa Valley—The town of Masterton—An antipodean hermit—Mr. Kohn's curios—The Belmont Viaduct—Meat pre-, serving industry—The various stages—A Social blot.
Chapter XI.
Bank's Peninsula—Port Lyttelton—The changes of twenty years—A transformation—The great tunnel —The graving work—Christchurch, the city of gardens—Its homelike aspect—Hard times— Colloquy with a croaker—The philosophy of the matter—"The good time coming".
Chapter XII.
The majesty of the mountains—The great Canterbury Plains—Ashburton, a city of the plains—Then and now—The Rangitata River—Progress of settlement —Timaru—The surf—The olden time—The city of - to-day—A triumph of engineering skill—The giant mole—Its construction—The engineer's description of the work—An old chum—"Once a mate always a mate"—Calling the roll—A vivid contrast.
Chapter XIII.
"The old order changed"—A fine farming country—A literary peddler—Otago scenery—Wealth of water —The Clutha country—A colonial manse—The minister's lot a hard one—Kindly relations between pastor and people—Tree-planting—Slovenly farming—An angler's paradise—Gore township—The Waimea Valley—A night ride.
Chapter XIV.
Up the dark silent lake—Dawn on Lake Wakatipu—-"The Remarkables" — Queenstown — Chinamen gold-diggers—Lake scenery—Von River—Greenstone Valley—The Rees and Dart Rivers—Head of the lake—Kitty Gregg—Peculiarities of the mountains —The terrace formation—The old Scotch engineer —Frankton Valley—Farmers' feathered foes—Lake Hayes—Arrive at Arrowtown.
Chapter XV.
Arrowtown—"A river of golden sands''—An auriferous , region—A dismal look-out—Old gold-workings—A terrible chasm—Nature's laboratory—Rabbitters at work—A serious plague—The kea, or liver-eating macaw—Hawk and pigeon—"Roaring Meg"— Cromwell township—The Molyneux Valley— Deserted diggings—Halt at Roxburgh.
Chapter XVI.
Dunkeld—Our Jehu—On the box seat—A Chinese Boniface'—Gabriel's Gully—Good farming—Dune-din—Harbour works—A category of "the biggest things on record"—Charms of Dunedin—A holiday drive—The Grand Hotel—The churches—Preachers —Dunedin mud—Beer—Keen business competition —The West Coast connection—"Wild Cat" claims —The Scotch element—Litigiousness—Energy of the people.
Here is how Chapter XII starts...
On a bitterly cold morning, and under a dense heavy pall of leaden cloud, we start on our journey across the great Canterbury Plains towards Timaru and Dunedin.
The plains are composed chiefly of shingle, with a scant herbage of tussock grass. Here and there, alongside the line, are young plantations of English oak and Australian blue gum. Stubble fields, hedged in by long rows of gorse, stretch away on either hand for miles. Already (May) the winter ploughing has begun in places. The majestic range of the snowy Alps bounds the great plain to the right. What a burnished splendour! what a dazzling glory! as the sun bursts through the pall of cloud ! Could anything be more beautiful than these eternal solitudes of snow? The absolute purity—peace—rest. What an emblem of the soul's repose after purification from life's mire and unrest! The rattle of the train hurts and jars. It is so incongruous with that pure holy majesty of the pinnacled snow. Little wonder that moun*taineers are generally reverent and religious.
Now we cross the rapid Rakaia over a very long wooden bridge. At every country town in the South Island among the most prominent features are the great granaries and stores of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company. They seem to be ubiquitous. The company provide weighbridges and platforms for their cus*tomers at all the large stations free of charge. The neat churches, too, are a constant feature. Here is a malthouse; there a flour or saw-mill. Here again is a granary; there is a woolshed. Seed-cleaning machinery is of frequent occurrence; so too are steam ploughs, traction engines, reaping machines. Indeed, all the most modern forms of agricultural labour-saving appliances are common sights. The faces we see are ruddy and fresh and brimful of intelligence. Corn-ricks and farmhouses stud the plains.
You can red the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter12.htm
You can get to the other chapters at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nzcousins/
Memoirs of Robert Dollar
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By the Robert Dollar Company in 2 volumes (1917)
We now have the first 12 chapters up for you to read...
Chapter One. Early Experiences
Chapter Two. First Business Ventures in Canada
Chapter Three. Transfer Timber Operations to the United States
Chapter Four. First Trip to the Orient
Chapter Five. The Return Voyage via Japan
Chapter Six. My Second Trip to the Orient
Chapter Seven. Notes of a Trip to Java
Chapter Eight. The Steamship "M.S. Dollar" as a Blockade Runner
Chapter Nine. American Commissioners Entertained by Japanese
Chapter Ten. A Continued Round of Entertainments
Chapter Eleven. Personal Comments on Japan
Chapter Twelve. A Visit to Australia 1908 - 1909
In chapter Six you can see how life was a bit precarious in these days...
We sailed from Tacoma for the Orient again in 1903 on the steamer "M. S. Dollar," with a list to starboard of about 10 degrees. For two days after we sailed the crew was busy moving coal and everything that would move, trying to straighten her up. The third night after dark, when there was considerable sea running, the Captain made an attempt to get her on her feet. He put the wheel hard over and got her up, but no sooner got her straight when she fell over to port and kept going until it looked as though she would turn turtle. I told the Captain that it was no use to try to save the deck load and we had better get rid of it. So he called all hands and by the time they had gotten to work she was listing over 25 degrees. It was impossible to walk on the deck as there was a heavy sea on. They had great difficulty working, and it went slowly. The lashings were very tight, and if they cut them the whole thing would go, so we tried to dig a hole under the lashings to get a start. They had thrown over some, old dunnage that was in the way and two large lumber shoots, when the Captain came and said she had stopped going over and not to do any more as he would try to shift some of the things they had moved.
We consulted, and came to the conclusion that some of the tanks must be partly empty, so he remained on deck arid I went below. We found water on top of the fireroom plates, and the Chief Engineer got the floor up to make an investigation and found the engine room tank (that we were sure was full) half empty, and what had run out of it had gone into the boiler room tank and filled her bilges. We got all the pumps going to empty the bilges and the boiler room double bottom, and started to fill up the engine room tank, when we discovered leaks in the tank top, which we temporarily closed. All this, with what the Captain was doing on deck, soon got her up to 12 degrees, which was the. best we could do, and she ran with a list from 5 to 12 degrees all the way over.
When we discovered the real cause, we felt like people who had been walking over a powder mine. But we learned one thing: that she was a very stiff old ship and would stand anything in reason.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...1chapter06.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/rdollar/
Life of the Rev. Thomas Guthrie D.D.
------------------------------------
This is another new book we're starting on another famous Scot but this time on the home front.
We now have up the following chapters...
Chapter I. - Birth, Birthplace, and Parentage.
Chapter II. - Education and Choice of a Profession.
Chapter III. - Probationership, Medical Studies and Banking.
Chapter IV. - Settlement at Arbirlot and Marriage.
Chapter V. - Call to Edinburgh—Old Greyfriars—St. John's.
Chapter VI. - The Disruption.
Chapter VII. - Manse Scheme, Refusal of Sites, Canobie.
Chapter VIII. - Ragged Schools.
In Chapter III we learn...
Newly licensed preachers do not always find it easy to obtain a speedy and acceptable settlement. Some of the most distinguished ministers in the church have had to wait for years ere their talents were recognised by patrons and congregations, and a suitable sphere of labour and usefulness assigned them. It was so in the case of Dr Guthrie. Indeed, if the truth must be told, at this period of his career he was far from being popular as a preacher. He had not acquired the knack of making friends, either in or out of the pulpit. Some of the local critics who heard his trial discourses, gave judgment upon them in terms far from complimentary. One kind friend called him a "bulletin blockhead," and whatever the phrase might mean, neither the preacher nor his friends had any difficulty in understanding that it did not imply, on the part of the critic, an excess of admiration. From the outset of his pulpit career he gave full play to his lungs and voice, and his aim was always directed to speaking the truth without fear, favour, or affectation. His sermons were not really dull, nor could they be objected to on orthodox grounds, but still there was something about them which prevented them from catching the popular ear.
Failing to procure an immediate settlement, but having the not far distant prospect of being presented to a parish by Lord Panmure, Guthrie determined to proceed to France with the view of increasing his knowledge of medicine, in the study of which he took a deep interest. Accordingly, he spent the winter of 1826-7 in Paris attending medical classes, and getting such insight into medical matters as the hospitals of that city could so well furnish. His medical studies would seem to have been of a somewhat desultory and amateur character, and did not indicate any intention of changing his profession, but only of qualifying himself more fully for the performance of its duties. In this respect, his attention to medicine was eminently useful, and subsequently gave him great power for good when labouring among the poor in the parish of St. John's, Edinburgh.
When he went to Paris he took with him an introduction to Baron Guil. Dupuytren, then considered the first surgeon in Europe. Proving himself an apt and enthusiastic pupil, the Baron took a special interest in his studies, and treated him with much friendly familiarity. The Baron was of short stature, and his Scottish student was over six feet in height. On one occasion, when going his rounds in one of the hospitals, the Baron stopped at the couch of a patient, whose leg had been recently amputated, and turning to Guthrie, said, "Take care of your legs; there's a man who would never have had his limb amputated but for its inordinate length; it was always in his way." Both master and pupil enjoyed the joke; Guthrie, probably, all the more that he was considered a "strapping" fellow, and, despite his stature, by no means unhandsome. Several countrymen, who afterwards rose to the highest distinction in the medical profession, sat at this time, like Guthrie, at the feet of this Gamaliel in medicine; and with some of these he formed friendships that were as permanent as they were intimate and valuable.
You can read the rest of this chapter at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../chapter03.htm
The other chapters can be read at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/guthrie/
A Scot in China of Today
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Compiled by Ron Dow
Got another two articles in from Ron...
Kunming
Leshan Giant Buddha (Sichuan province)
The Buddha article shows the largest Buddha in the world, an amazing sight. Ron has sent in tons of pictures to go with the article which I hope you'll enjoy. He's got one picture from the foot looking up to the top but alongside you see the people walking down what looks to be a pretty precarious stairway and beside the Buddha the people look like ants.
You can get to these articles at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../dow/index.htm
The Scottish National War Memorial
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Found a wee article about this memorial together with a ground plan and have also provided a link to a web site about it.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...r_memorial.htm
5 Rain Drops
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A children's story by Elham Khatibi which you can read at http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/khatibi02.htm
Tommy Douglas
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In 2004, in a vote conducted by the CBC, Canadians elected him the Greatest Canadian of all time. He was born in Falkirk, Scotland. You can read an article about him at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...glas_tommy.htm
The Tower of Craigietocher
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Got in some pictures showing continued progress towards building this tower which you can see at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...gietocher7.htm
Places to go in Aberdeen & Grampian
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Got in some info on Maggie’s Hoosie along with a picture. I will say that Stan Bruce has over many months been sending in pictures and additional information on historic places in this area and we are indebted for his great work. You can view this at http://www.electricscotland.com/historic/grampian.html
Lossiemouth Museum
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Our thanks to Jim Campbell for sending us in some pictures of the refurbished museum. You can view these at http://www.electricscotland.com/lossiemouth/museum.htm
A Look at Canada and Canadians
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I found this interesting article in MacLean's Magazine of 11th July and thought I'd share it with you and so scanned it into a pdf file which you can view at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist.../canadians.htm
And finally...
Wrong Number
Australia is having a tough time of it, and one of the most heartbreaking stories from the floods was the Morning Bulletin newspaper in Queensland reporting that “30,000 pigs were floating down the Dawson River.”
The newspaper put an apology in the following day which read: “What piggery owner Sid Simpson said was 30 sows and pigs.”
And that's it for now and hope you all have a good weekend.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com
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