Lion and Dragon in Northern China

by Reginald Fleming Johnston

Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874 1938) was a colonial administrator and scholar with a lifelong fascination with China who was appointed tutor to the young Puyi (1906 1967), who became emperor at the age of two. Johnston was highly favoured by the emperor, receiving several imperial titles and residing in the Forbidden City. His account of his time as Puyi's tutor, Twilight in the Forbidden City, also reissued in this series, was dramatised in the film The Last Emperor. Previously, Johnston had served in a variety of colonial service positions, including three years as commissioner of the British-held territory of Weihaiwai. This book, first published in 1910, is Johnston's examination of Weihaiwei, which he considered to be a microcosm of Chinese life. Writing with obvious affection, Johnston outlines the history, culture, festivals and local folklore of Weihaiwei and explores what the future could hold for the city."

Genres: China

560 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 2011

About the author

Academic, diplomat and tutor to the last Emperor of China. Johnston was born in the Morningside district of Edinburgh, the son of a lawyer. He entered the University of Edinburgh, but discontinued his studies there to take up a place at Magdalen College, Oxford (1894). In 1898 Johnston joined the Colonial Office and was posted to Hong Kong, becoming a District Officer in China. Johnston became famous as the tutor to Pu Yi, the Last Emperor of China and as the first foreigner to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing. In 1919, Johnston elected to take on the teaching of the 13 year old, having a great influence on the emperor, whose trust and friendship he gained. As Chinese Nationalism swept through the country in 1924, Johnston was forced to flee. He returned to Britain, becoming the Professor of Chinese at the University of London.

In 1934, Johnston looked for a residence in Scotland to retire to. He found a house on Eilean Righ, a small island in Loch Craignish, some 9 miles (15 km) NW of Lochgilphead. He moved there with his enormous library, which included a Chinese Encyclopaedia in 1734 volumes and a complete collection of Buddhist scriptures in 1500 volumes.

Johnston died in Edinburgh and was quietly cremated at Warriston Crematorium, with his ashes scattered on his beloved Eilean Righ.

Reviews

[Bettie]

Produced by Chris Curnow, Moti Ben-Ari and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

Description: Combining the keen eye of an anthropologist with the skill of a historian, this colorful volume records Reginald F. Johnston's experience as a colonial official in Weihaiwei more than sixty years ago. Johnston paints a detailed picture of the rich fabric of life in Weihaiwei--the customs, social structure, family life, religion, law, and history--at a time before the region was transformed by Western influences and Chinese reformers.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48782

Opening: Less than a dozen years have passed since the guns of British warships first saluted the flag of their country at the Chinese port of Weihaiwei, yet it is nearly a century since the white ensign was seen there for the first time. In the summer of 1816 His Britannic Majesty's frigate Alceste, accompanied by the sloop Lyra, bound for the still mysterious and unsurveyed coasts of Korea and the Luchu Islands, sailed eastwards from the mouth of the Pei-ho along the northern coast of the province of Shantung, and on the 27th August of that year cast anchor in the harbour of "Oie-hai-oie." Had the gallant officers of the Alceste and Lyra been inspired with knowledge of future political developments, they would doubtless have handed down to us an interesting account of the place and its inhabitants. All we learn from Captain Basil Hall's delightful chronicle of the voyage of the two ships consists of a few details—in the truest sense ephemeral—as to wind and weather, and a statement that the rocks of the mainland consist of "yellowish felspar, white quartz, and black mica." The rest is silence.