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简介:The American Missionaries, The Mandarins, and the Opium War by Dominic Shi Fong Lee, P.E. is the story of Mr. Lee's family in service to the Qing Dynasty's government in the 1800's. Mr. Lee, as the oldest son in his family, received much family history in the form of published and unpublished manuscripts, paintings and scrolls after his father passed away in San Francisco.
The American Missionaries is of great historical value for its first person accounts of the people and life in China in the 1800's. The book has over 200 pictures, historical oil paintings, scrolls, photos, Chinese songs and poetries in original Chinese version at the end of each chapter. It is written with much historical accuracy about the entire episode of the Opium War between China and Great Britian in 1838 to 1842.
The story of American missiionaries caught in Canton's thirteen factory compound, his great-grandfather, Lee Chee Cheng, served as personal aide to Commissioner Lin Tse-Hsu, who was the architect to suppress the Opium trade and the love story of Chee Cheng with the daughter of an American Missionary, Susan King. As time progresses, Chee Cheng withnessed the Tai Ping Rebellion, the mistreatment of Chinese in the USA and his friendship with Mark Twain, America's favorite writer during his time.
His son, Chuen Shek was also a Mandarin who served in the Qing's Army as an amry officer. He also withnessed the Chinese Japanese war in 1895, the Boxer Rebellion in the 1900 where hundreds of American Missionaries, doctors and nurses were beheaded by the Qing's officals and the Boxers. The accounts were horrible and were never been published in any other document. He also witness the Japan Russian War in 1905 which was fought in Chinese soil. Later he secretly joined Dr. Sun Yet Sen's Alliance Association in Japan, and helped Dr. Sun overthrow the Qing government, which ended 267 years of Manchu rule in China in 1911.