One of the drawings of the "Macao Chronicle": Haiphong is a general map
More than 240 years ago, during the Qianlong period of the Chun Dynasty, two Chinese scholars, who were also local officials of the Chun Dynasty, collaborated to write a book called "Macao Chronicle" (記或作紀). This book later became one of the earliest books in the world to publish a book on the history of Macao, and it is also the only one of the ancient Chinese Fang Zhi books dedicated to Macao.
The two scholars who wrote the "Outline of Macao" were Yin Guangren, a native of Baoshan in Jiangnan (now part of Shanghai), and Zhang Rulin, a native of Xuancheng, Anhui. They were all scribes who had come to Guangdong as eunuchs through Baoju, and both had served as Macao tongzhi. At that time, the full name of this official position was "Guangzhou Province Coastal Defense Military and Civilian Tongzhi", which was established from the ninth year of Qianlong (1744), and was responsible for managing foreigners living in Macao and coastal defense matters (that is, the so-called "special management of Macao yi affairs, and also in charge of the capture of coastal defense"), and the official office was located in qianshanzhai not far from Macao, which was under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Province. During their successive official positions, Yin Guangren and Zhang Rulin were able to pay close attention to current affairs and local conditions, and they intended to write a work on the history of Macao in order to "fill in the gaps" of the zhi. In the tenth year of Qianlong (1745), Yin Guangren completed the first draft of this work during his tenure as Tongzhi in Macao, and handed it over to Zhang Rulin, who took over the official post, "the period was completed together", but this first draft was unfortunately lost, so it was not until the sixteenth year of Qianlong (1751) when Yin Guangren was the prefect of the Chaozhou Bureau in Guangdong, Zhang Rulin also happened to go to the Chaozhou Bureau to make a judgment, and the two gathered together before they re-"searched for the remains of paper" and "greatly increased the loss", and finally wrote the book "Macao Chronicle" that we see today.
The content of the "Macao Chronicle" is to describe the history, geography and social customs of Macao, and the whole book is more than 60,000 words, divided into two volumes and three parts. The first volume includes two articles, the situation and the official guard, of which the "Situation Chapter" writes about the geographical situation of Macao, the scenic spots of mountains and seas, and the tidal wind and weather, etc., and the "Official Shou Chapter" records the establishment of officials in Macao by the MingChun government and the portuguese settlement in Macao. Since yin Guangren and Zhang Rulin both served as Macao Tongzhi, the book uses a large number of original materials such as the archives of the Government Bureau, or is taken from their investigation and observations of "Lihai Island and Petitioners", which makes their accounts have high historical value and has become a precious material for confirming the kingship of Macao by the Ming Chun Government and studying the early history of Macao. For example, in the "Situation Chapter" and the "Official Shou Chapter", it is recorded that the Ming Dynasty set up three official offices in Macao: "Raising The Investigation, Preparing for the War, and Patrolling"; the Chun Dynasty set up a Guangdong Customs Supervision Office and a Taxation Hall in Macao; the Ming Chun Chinese Government issued many government decrees to restrict and manage portuguese people living in Macao; and set up Macao Tongzhi and moved to Xiangshan County to Wangxia Village to "specialize in inspecting all the lawsuits of the people" and exercising judicial power. Regarding the fact that the Portuguese paid the land rent silver to the Chinese government at that time, it is also clearly recorded in the "Official Shou Chapter": "The 500 taels of silver rented in Macao were requisitioned from Xiangshan County. The "History of Ming" contains that Hao Jing lost 20,000 lessons at the age of 20,000, and his rent loss was 500, and he did not know the origin of the cause, and the national dynasty was included in the "Complete Book of Enlistment". Therefore, the "Whole Book" is based on the Wanli publication book, but Macao has a land rent, which is about not close to the Wanli. "It shows that at that time, the Chinese government rented Macao to Portuguese people in the form of leasing.
Eleven illustrations are attached to the upper volume of the "Macao Chronicle", namely: General Map of Coastal Defense, Map of former Cottage, Map of Jingzhou Mountain, Map of County Office, Map of Macao on the Front, Map of Macao on the Side, Map of the Customs Department, Map of the Taxation Hall, Map of Senado, Map of Niangma's Corner, and Map of Humen. These illustrations are meticulously drawn, and they are quite accurate in the geographical orientation of Macao at that time, the distribution of residents, the location of the official palace, the architectural format, and the fortress church. For example, in the "Frontal Macau Map" and the "Side Macau Map", it is very clear to draw the Guangdong Customs Supervision Platform set up by the Chun Government in Macao and the location of the three tax ports of the Grand Wharf, Niangma Pavilion and Gasland. There are also clear outlines of the area of the Portuguese settlement at that time, the walls they built in the area from Shuipu Gate and Samba Gate to Sha Li Tou.
The next volume of the Macao Chronicle is the Macao Chronicle. The so-called "Australian" mainly refers to the Portuguese people living in Macao. The book has a detailed account of their physical appearance, living habits, customs and customs, property utensils, ship and cannon skills, language and writing, as well as their administrative facilities, churches, and forts in Macao, and also has a brief introduction to the situation of various Western countries and regions that were engaged in trade with China through Macao at that time. Since Macao was the center of trade and exchanges between China and the West during the Ming Dynasty, and the only window through which Chinese intellectuals at that time could glimpse the Western world and culture, these accounts not only vividly showed the social life conditions of early Macao, but also truly reflected the economic and cultural exchanges between China and the West at that time. For example, the book records the eating customs of the Portuguese people in Macao: "Eating like sweet spices, polysaccharide frosting, and cloves as grits." Every morning eclipse must strike the bell, filled with glass, recommended with white cloth, each person counting instruments, sprinkling rose dew, plum blossom pieces on the brain. There are few cases of daggers, men and women sit together, with black slaves to eat food, with silver forks to taste the hot. The one who sits on it is not used under the mattress of his right hand, which is called a 'tentacle', but if it is wet, it will be grabbed with the left hand. Strike a few sips of raw chickens first, and cut them. Wipe your hands with a white towel, wipe them away, and make it easier for new people. ...... Food surplus, pouring a vessel, such as a manger, black slave men and women fight with their hands. Remembering the Marriage of the Portuguese: "Marriage is not a matchmaker, and a man and a woman are coupled with each other." During the marriage, the parents carry the temple (press: refers to the Catholic church) to kneel, and the monk (press: refers to the priest) to recite the sutra, and the two harmonies are told, that is, the hands of the man and the woman are taken with both hands, and sent outside the door of the temple, which is called the seal. "It's all vivid and detailed. Regarding the introduction of Western artifacts into China, the book lists in detail five categories of grass and trees, animals, insects and fish, food goods, and utensils, of which the food goods alone include flower dew, medicine dew, foreign wine, foreign tobacco, opium, jewelry, wool, feather satin, incense, foreign money, silverware, etc., and the utensils include clocks, weapons, musical instruments, glass mirrors, etc. The book also introduces the beginning of the flow of Western techniques into China, mainly Western calendars, casting cannons, Western medicine, painting and so on. For Western painting, the book introduces: "There are paper paintings, leather paintings, leather fan paintings, and glass paintings. Its platform, palace, people, from ten steps away, the heavy door is open, the level can be counted, the pond is like the first house, and the people are more eyebrow-raising. There are also Paintings of Falang characters out of the water, weaving into various story paintings, and embroidery paintings. ”
"Macau Sketch" with picture: Frontal Macau map
At the end of the "Ao Fan Chapter", there is a "Macao Translation", which is a pronunciation of Portuguese words in Chinese characters, which is divided into five categories: heaven and earth, characters, clothing and food, number of instruments, and general, with a total of 395 Portuguese words. According to some scholars, the transliteration of these "Australian translations" is quite accurate. For example, Guanzha is translated as Boda Some Lugu, that is, porta de cerco; former Shanzhai is translated as Home Strike Linggu, that is, casa branca; Jingzhou is translated as Iliwan Lieti, that is, ilha verde; Macao is translated as Ma Jiao, that is, macau; Bingtou is translated as a troubled person, that is, goovernador, Portuguese governor also; Guan Ku is translated as Bei La Gu Lu Duolu, that is, procurador, Portuguese council member also. These can really be called "Macao pidgins" with older English qualifications than pidgins, which are rare materials in the history of Chinese and Western translation.
The second volume of the Macao Chronicle also contains ten illustrations, namely: male figure, female figure, Samba monastery monk figure, Banzhang Temple monk figure, Kaslan temple monk figure, Dragon Pine Temple monk figure, hard car figure, soft car figure, female car figure, and foreign boat map. The "male" and "female" here are depicted of Portuguese men and women living in Macao; "temple" and "temple" refer to the Catholic church in Macao; "temple monk" and "temple monk" refer to the missionaries of the Catholic church. These illustrations are realistic, the characters have the remarkable characteristics of Westerners with deep eyes and high noses, and the costumes have their own characteristics, which can be said to vividly reproduce the social scene of Macao at that time.
In addition to the main text and illustrations, the entire book of "Macao Chronicles" also notes a large number of poems in the relevant parts of the main text. Some of them are written by Yin Guangren and Zhang Rulin himself, some are songs with friends, and many are selected from other works with the theme of Macao. For example, the works of qu Dajun, a famous Lingnan poet at the time of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Gongyin, Liang Peilan, Fang Dianyuan, Fang Zhaokai and others are selected in the book. These poems are rich in content, but they are annotations and extensions of the text of the text, and they are also full of artistic characteristics and appreciation. For example, Qu Dajun's "Macao Poems" (the book is signed as Shi Jinzhong): "The most important of the Various Mouths in Guangzhou is Macao Xiong. Foreign countries frequently provoke, and the West has been fu rong for a long time. Soldiers are worried about barbarism, and food and hope are empty. The elbow armpit teaching is fine, and the former mountain will be skilled. Yin Guangren's "Haojing Night Moon Poem": "The moon rises and opens the mirror, and the light is a sea and the sky." The island is deep and snowy, and the pearls are swirling and the dragons are swirling. Jie Ge is all linghan, and the low star wants to swing the ship. The dust can't fly, who is guanghan immortal. "The writing is very imposing and the charm is endless. Qu Dajun recorded the Portuguese customs of Macao: "At the Temple of Sampa, the official was the King of the Fa (press: referring to the Catholic bishop of Macao at that time). Flower red devil, baohua white barbarian lady. Parrots with spring thoughts, whale salamanders spit out night light. Silver money Mo Feng buy, cross prepared round square. Fang Zhaokai (the signature of the book is deleted) records what he saw and heard at the Puji Zen Temple in Macau (now Wangxia Guanyin Hall): "The boy lived for a long time and knew Mandarin, and the baby mother first came to learn the sound of the bird. Mountains on both sides of the strait, sea mirror, six clock rhymes with organs. Zhang Rulin remembered the Portuguese forces in Australia: "Actually centurion, the position is extremely powerful. The columns of cannons are far away, and they are close to the shoulders. Dancing as a negative crossbow, the armor learns to be entangled. Shen Er guarded a corner, and the dove struck hard. "It can be said that it is a vivid portrayal of the social life in Macao on that day." There is also a western pistol like Ou Huairui's "Machine Inscription", which describes the Western pistol that Chinese first saw: "There are weapons at hand, from the island port." With the shape of the gun, the flame smoke is small and weak. Branches are trivial, steelmaking. Spokes of snakes, hollow keys. The nodes are short and long, and the spirals are bent. Fish is divided, canine teeth are embroidered wrong. The key is necessary, the stone and gold spray thin, blend with nature, do not burn and burn. Shooting at the devastation is tantamount to teasing. Strike quickly, not happy. Metamorphosis heavy equipment, clever and clever. The light is not at all, and the blade is threatening. Transform into a feast, do not know. The faith is bowing, and the holy iron is clothing. Gentleman's police, not in the middle. Leung Di describes the organ in Macau's Sam Pa Monastery (i.e., St. Paul's Church): "The organ resembles a phoenix, and its wings are jagged in the shape of a phoenix. The gilded casting cylinder is used as a bamboo weave, and the short and long sizes are inherited. With wood substitutes for sacs with leather, one mention and one pressure wind whirlwind. The wind is springing and the toothpicks are banging. On the floor of the three bars, ten miles inside and outside the salty smell. The sound is not a silk tree is a golden stone, and the in and out of the strong and strong is too pure. It is rumored that Shimajima is skillful, and the work of the organ is also a sign. "It's a lot of fun to read.
Because the book "Macao Chronicle" has such a high historical and literary value, it has been valued by people since its inception, and there are more than ten editions published successively. Among these editions, the earliest one is the Qianlong period of publication, which was published shortly after the cooperation of Yin Guangren and Zhang Rulin in the sixteenth year of Qianlong (1751). However, at present, this initial edition is very rare, and it is relatively easy to find the reprint of the Jiaqing Five-Year (1800) Jiangning Fan Bureau and the reissued edition of the Jiangning Fan Bureau in the sixth year of Guangxu (1880), in addition to the "Zhao Dynasty Series" during the Daoguang Period, the Guangxu Ten Year (1884) Guangzhou Cuijingtang Ben, the Guangxu Sixteenth Year (1890) "Linghai Strange Tales" book, the "Ru Fei Zhai Series" book, and the "Notes on novel Grand View" during the Republic of China.
The "Notes on Macao" published in Taiwan since the 1960s, such as the "Chinese FangZhi Series" and the "Chinese Historiography Series", are all photocopied according to the above-mentioned popular publications. In addition, it is said that the "Macao Chronicle" also published a Japanese translation and a Portuguese translation, but unfortunately the author has not seen it. As far as the popular periodicals in China are concerned, compared with the original qianlong periodicals, there are many typos, and some of them have abridgements. For example, the "Zhao Dynasty Series" basically deleted the poems, recitals, and accompanying illustrations recorded in the original book, and the text was only half of the original book, which could only be regarded as an abridged version.
Because of the above problems in popular publications, for the majority of readers, it is necessary to carefully collate and sort out the journals to read this book completely and accurately. In view of this, the author once used the first edition of this book Qianlong as the base book, and the school used the popular books, and participated in the relevant classics of the Ming Dynasty, punctuated and segmented the original book, corrected the errors, and handed it over to the Guangdong Higher Education Publishing House in 1988 as one of the "Lingnan Series" for publication. However, proofreading can only solve the problem of ambiguity in the text of the journal and the inconvenience of reading sentences, but it cannot play a role in helping readers understand the contents of the book and examine the historical facts, let alone make in-depth discussions on the issues involved in the book. In order to achieve this goal, on the basis of the proofreading book, the author has repeatedly annotated the contents of the book "Macao Chronicle" in recent years, and has obtained more than 1,000 entries. These comment entries mainly include the following aspects:
(1) Examination of important historical facts, especially those whose accounts are incorrect or inconsistent with other historical materials. For example, the "Official Observance Chapter" records the first visit of Portuguese merchant ships to China: "In Ming Zhengde, Flang Ji (according to: referring to Portugal) burst into tribute, and the guards were not allowed to do so." However, according to the records of the time collected by Ming Hu Zongxian's "Compilation of Charts for the Sea", the governor of Guangdong gave a rather friendly reception to the Portuguese merchant ships that came to China this time, and did not "not allow it to be done without exception", so it was noted. Another example is the saying in the "Ao Fan Chapter": "After the Flang machine, it is also called the Kingdom of Ganla, and now it is called Francis, or Francis." The commentary points out that the Ming Dynasty Flang machine refers to Portugal, the Ganzhi La refers to Spain, and francis refers to present-day France, which is a mixture of these three countries.
(2) The interpretation of geographical names. The book "Macao Chronicle" deals with many Chinese and foreign names, many of which are different from the names of present-day places. For example, Macau was originally called "Haojing", Taipa Island is called "Chicken Neck" in the book, Coloane Island is called "Jiu'ao", Xiaohengqin Island in Zhuhai Isle is called "Rudder Tail", and Jiuzhou Archipelago is called "Jiuxingzhou Mountain". There are also some foreign place names, such as calling Portugal "Flang Ji" and "Bordugar", Spain "Great Luzon", "Ganzhi La", the Netherlands "Helan", "Helan", "Hongmaofan", Denmark "Lian", Thailand "Siam" and so on. These are annotated so that the reader knows where they are, so as not to make a mistake or be confused.
(3) Biography. There are also many characters involved in the book "Macao Chronicle", including Chinese and Portuguese personalities who have played a certain role in the history of Macao, as well as literati and writers who wrote poems on the theme of Macao. For all of these characters, the notes do their best to introduce their biographies so that the reader can understand them.
(4) A brief interpretation of more special properties, a more difficult system of canons, and citations. For example, some Western plants, trees, animals, insects, fish, and utensils recorded in the "Ao Fan Chapter", the ancient Chinese system of buying, drawing plates, and inscriptions, as well as the titles of books such as "Breaking Evil", "Kuangyuan Magazine", "KunYu Waiji" and so on, are all introduced one by one.
(5) Proofreading on the text of the version.
Now this comparative note, with the strong support of the Macao Cultural Affairs Department, will be published and distributed in Macao. Hereby, I would like to deeply thank all the Macao friends who have worked hard for the publication of this book, and I sincerely hope that it will be helpful to the vast number of readers and provide a basis for further study of macao's history and culture.