The Yangtze valley and beyond : an account of journeys in China, chiefly in the province of Sze Chuan and among the Man-tze of the Somo territory 1899
byIsabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird
===
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. GEOGRAPHICAL AND INTRODUCTORY
II. "THE MODEL SETTLEMENT"
III. HANGCHOW.
IV. THE HANGCHOW MEDICAL MISSION HOSPITALS.
V. SHANGHAI TO HANKOW (HANKAU)
VI. THE FOREIGNERS-HANKOW AND BRITISH TRADE
VII. CHINESE HANKOW (HANKAU).
VIII. HANKOW TO ICHANG.
IX. ICHANG
X. THE UPPER YANGTZE
XI. RAPIDS OF THE UPPER YANGTZE
XII. RAPIDS AND TRACKERS
XIII. LIFE ON THE UPPER YANGTZE
XIV. THE YANGTZE AND KUEI FU
XV. NEW YEAR'S DAY AT KUEI-CHOW FU
XVI. KUEI FU TO WAN HSIEN
XVII. CHINESE CHARITIES
XVIII. FROM WAN HSIEN TO SAN TSAN-PU
XIX. SZE CHUAN TRAVELLING
XX. SAN-TSAN-PU TO LIANG-SHAN HSIEN
XXI. LIANG-SHAN HSIEN TO HSIA-SHAN-PO
XXII. HSIA-SHAN-PO TO SIAO-KIAO
XXIII. SIAO-KIAO TO HSIEH-TIEN-TZE
XXIV. HSIEH-TIEN-TZE TO PAONING FU
XXV. PAONING FU AND SIN-TIEN-TZE
XXVI. SIN-TIEN-ΤΖΕ ΤΟ TZE-TUNG HSIEN
XXVII. TZE-TUNG HSIEN TO KUAN HSIEN
XXVIII. KUAN HSIEN AND CHENGTU
XXIX. KUAN HSIEN TO SIN-WEN-PING
XXX. SIN-WEN-PING TO LI-FAN TING
XXXI. LI-FAN TING TO TSA-KU-LAO
XXXII. THE "BEYOND"
A
XXXIII. THE MAN-TZE, I-REN, OR SHAN-SHANG-REN
XXXIV. FROM SOMO TO CHENGTU FU
XXXV. DoOWNWARD BOUND
XXXVI. LUCHOW TO CHUNG-KING FU
XXXVII. THE JOURNEY'S END
XXXVIII. THE OPIUM POPPY AND ITS USE
ΧΧΧΙΧ. NOTES ON PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN CHINA
CONCLUDING REMARKS
ITINERARY
APPENDICES
INDEX
===
===
From Australia
There are 0 reviews from Australia
From other countries
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable!
Reviewed in the United States on 9 December 2018
Verified Purchase
This book, written more than 100 years ago, is wonderful. It is a book to be savored and shared.
Report
T. STEEL
5.0 out of 5 stars Some simply beautiful prose, and fascinating travel adventures of late 19th ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 February 2018
Verified Purchase
A much neglected writer.Some simply beautiful prose, and fascinating travel adventures of late 19th century. Isabella Bird neglected as a truly great pioneer of travel in a age when women were not supposed to be pioneers.Travelling completely alone.Her travels in Japan equally rivetting.
Report
たま
2.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece without complaining, just a part of the sentence or a part of the page is missing.
Reviewed in Japan on 6 January 2017
Verified Purchase
The content is an undisputed masterpiece. Travel back to the Yangtze River to the area where the Tibetans are.Since there are no sluice gates and dams, in torrents, I pull the boat with a rope.People who are swallowed by rapids and capsulated boats seem to be everyday events, but still supplies and people are very active.Feel the great power of China. Even though it is difficult to travel alone, anti-alien emotions strongly caused by various circumstances such as opium war, not only curse, but also mud and stones are thrown and injured.They are attacked by a mob and are likely to be killed, and they carry a revolver on their trip. Nevertheless, she evaluates and describes the good and bad Chinese as well as the Chinese. We hope that the modernization will go without a hitch, with a positive understanding of China and the Chinese. I respect the depth of the author's bosom.
The contents of the book itself is not complaining ★ 5, but only this book is missing some of the sentences, some lines of overlap, some pages are missing, and I read about 60% this bookI gave up and found the image of the book on the Internet, downloaded it and read more. I think that if it is a free book, but even if it is a fee of two hundred and tens of yen, I want it to be proofread about once and send out to the world. I think it's an insult to the author. Another copy is recommended.
Report
Translated from Japanese by Amazon
See original ·Report translation
Jane Walby
5.0 out of 5 stars Good condition arrived on time.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2020
Verified Purchase
This was a gift but I read parts of it.
Report
==
==
The Yangtze Valley and Beyond
Isabella Lucy Bird
,
Graham Earnshaw
(Foreword)
4.06
50 ratings8 reviews
Isabella Bird was one of the greatest travelers and travel writers of all time, and this is her last major book, a sympathetic look at inland China and beyond into Tibet at the end of the 19th century. In describing the journey, Isabella provides a rich mix of observations and describes two occasions when she is almost killed by anti-foreign mobs. It many ways, Isabella created the model for travel writing today, and this one of her greatest works.
Genres
Travel
China
Nonfiction
Asia
Classics
History
British Literature
500 pages, Paperback
First published December 5, 1985
Book details & editions
16 people are currently reading
272 people want to read
About the author
Profile Image for Isabella Lucy Bird.
Isabella Lucy Bird
113 books102 followers
Follow
Isabella Lucy Bird Bishop (October 15, 1831 – October 7, 1904) was a nineteenth-century English traveller, writer, and a natural historian.
Works:
* The Englishwoman in America (1856)
* Pen and Pencil Sketches Among The Outer Hebrides (published in The Leisure Hour) (1866)
* The Hawaiian Archipelago (1875)
* The Two Atlantics (published in The Leisure Hour) (1876)
* Australia Felix: Impressions of Victoria and Melbourne (published in The Leisure Hour) (1877)
* A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879)
* Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880)
* Sketches In The Malay Peninsula (published in The Leisure Hour) (1883)
* The Golden Chersonese and the way Thither (1883)
* A Pilgrimage To Sinai (published in The Leisure Hour) (1886)
* Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan (1891)
* Among the Tibetans (1894)
* Korea and her Neighbours (1898)
* The Yangtze Valley and Beyond (1899)
* Chinese Pictures (1900)
* Notes on Morocco (published in the Monthly Review) (1901)
Show more
Ratings & Reviews
My Review
Profile Image for Sejin.
Sejin
3 reviews
Want to Read.
Rate this book
Write a Review
Friends & Following
No one you know has read this book. Recommend it to a friend!
Community Reviews
4.06
50 ratings8 reviews
5 stars
17 (34%)
4 stars
21 (42%)
3 stars
11 (22%)
2 stars
0 (0%)
1 star
1 (2%)
Search review text
Search review text
Filters
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Paul.
Paul
1,549 reviews
2,196 followers
Follow
June 18, 2022
Isabella Bird spent a great deal of her life travelling, writing about it and taking photographs. She travelled all over the world, often to places that were little known. This trip to China took place in the late 1890s when Bird was about 68 and involved travel along and close to the Yangtze for over two thousand miles. Bird appears to be indefatigable and did something few others had done. There were very few other Europeans in the areas of China she visited, the occasional missionary. Diplomat or trader as Bird very much went off the beaten track. I read the folio edition which has a wealth of Bird’s remarkable photographs in it.
Bird has a great love for facts and figures and the whole book is stuffed full of them. Lengths of journeys, populations of towns, villages and cities, exports, tonnage of exports, types of exports, destinations, means of travel. There are copious descriptions of architecture (grand and modest), accounts of food and drink, descriptions of religious practices and local culture.
I admire Bird for actually doing what she did, even if when she was not travelling on the river she was being carried in a sort of sedan chair. There were a number of close calls including being hit on the head by a rock when the welcome at one particular town was not very friendly.
Bird’s attitude to the Chinese seems variable. She can come out with statements like this:
“The mannerless, brutal, coarse, insolent, conceited, cowardly roughs of the Chinese towns, ignorant beyond all description, live in a state of filth which is indescribable and incredible, in an inconceivable beastliness of dirt, among odours which no existing words can describe, and actually call Japanese “hideous dwarfs”! I wondered daily more at the goodness of people who are missionaries to the Chinese in the interior cities, not at their coming out the first time, but at their coming back, knowing what they come to. The village people are quite different and doubtless have attractive qualities and it must be admitted that Christianity does produce an external refinement among those who receive it, which is very noticeable. Having relieved my hoarded disgusts by these remarks, I will proceed with my narrative.”
In contrast Bird can be positive at times towards the religion and culture. The whole does feel contradictory and it is certainly Eurocentric. Many of the good things come from the missionaries. Bird recognises the economic power of China and its potential. There’s a fair bit about opium, its use and cultivation. The passages where Bird is approaching Tibet and the interactions with the peoples there is also very interesting and sets a bit of a contrast with her interactions with the Chinese.
Bird does provide information and narrative coupled with some remarkable pictures she took herself and the book is worth reading for that. It was a remarkable achievement for someone in their late 60s. However this is tempered by the racism and periodic contempt for those she was living amongst.
reading-women-2022
20 likes
3 comments
Like
Comment
Profile Image for Kathy.
Kathy
776 reviews
Follow
February 17, 2012
This woman was amazing! After reading all she did, I feel like a wimp! From battling upstream in a boat being towed up deadly rapids, to walking at night in snow up to her neck in freezing clothing, to surviving riots and rocks, and sleeping with pigs, this woman did it all. And she comes out the other side expressing appreciation for all the good she saw: good people, good culture, beautiful scenery. While she doesn't sugar-coat her opinions when she thinks something is awful or wrong or disgusting, she is lavish in her recognition of that which has merit. Bless you, Isabella!
2 likes
Like
Comment
Profile Image for Valerie.
Valerie
2,031 reviews
185 followers
Follow
July 23, 2008
Nobody wields a parasol like this women, not even Amelia Peabody.
2 likes
Like
Comment
Cordelicacy
188 reviews
1 follower
Follow
January 30, 2022
Reading this book will make you feel like a poorly travelled, spoiled couch potato. On the other hand, it will also make you feel grateful for solid walls, dry interiors, warm water, food, and paved roads. Isabella Bird was a great traveler of the 19th century, leaving her footprints in Hawaii, Colorado, Korea, Japan, Kashmir, and elsewhere. It seems that she was drawn to places that were just beyond the realm of civilization as she and her peers knew it. As such, when it came to China, her ultimate destination was Somo, an area in what is now western Sichuan, which was a place that appears to have once been a sort of a no-man’s land between Tibet and China proper. In this book, she describes an arduous journey up the Yangtze River on boats and over land across Sichuan on foot or in a a sedan chair with a team of porters. As she approached her final destination, she was running from Qing officials who wanted her to stay within the official boundaries of the empire. Ms. Bird didn’t give a lot of information about what motivated her travels, but she does say that she hated being among other foreigners for significant amounts of time. Readers get the feeling that she may have collected information from her travels so she could be the most informed person in the room when she was back in the UK.
Bird’s descriptions of her travels up and down the Yangtze River in 1897 are especially informative to readers today because she experienced a river that no longer exists, as the Yangtze has been completely remade as a result of the Three Gorges Dam project. As such, she saw a Yangtze River that rose and fell with the seasons and thousands of coolies working as trackers. She saw all sorts of boats, including a few that literally exploded upon hitting river boulders after being washed downstream by rapids. As for her overland travels, she saw riots (that she seems to have triggered by virtue of being a foreigner in a time of intense distrust regarding foreigners). She saw stunning but mysterious stone buildings. She also apparently saw some of the most beautiful scenery and people of her life.
Show more
1 like
Like
Comment
Profile Image for Zee.
Zee
116 reviews
1 follower
Follow
August 15, 2019
For cultural, geographical, historical, and linguistic reasons this journal will have much more benefit and meaning for someone with prior interest and experience in China. Having both of these I found many of her observations to be relevant today, although there were several that are either offensive or haven’t aged well. Her account allows for a fascinating linkage between late dynastic and modern China that those familiar with the latter will appreciate. Definitely helpful for anyone desiring a more personal, less textbook insight into China’s cultural history, and recent enough to be make that history relatable.
china
Like
Comment
Carolyn Johnson
148 reviews
2 followers
Follow
November 4, 2018
Vivid writing about a long journey in this area of China in 1897, kept me reading every night before bed.
There were quite a few rude and prejudicial comments about the native peoples the author encountered, which I shrugged off. Ignorance and the common views of the times did not keep me from enjoying a very complete travel book.
1 like
Like
Comment
Cassidy
219 reviews
1 follower
Follow
April 29, 2026
I picked this book up as the new travelling companion in a series of non-fiction texts I have been reading and I rather liked it. Not that I was expecting not to but here with its 19th century and somewhat imperialist or at least western centric and colonialist take on China's emerging nationhood and ascension into the international order, I could have been skeptical. It was still interesting to read about the travels and explorations that our narrator found herself in, exploring the vast depths of Yantgze. All of the obstacles she had to face and all of the discovery she found too. China is revealed to us in this time as much the saem as other nations, one that was emerging, redifining itself and crucially never stopping to step forward and develop itself, even if under the auspices of western nations that saw themselves as more inturding ally than helpful friend. This is after all the age of empire and colonialism where the west did rule the world and thought that it could bring enlightenemnt to others. I do think that with this I do not share the sentimenet of the fact that the only way China can rise up to be among these nations is by westernising itself, that change did not come and perhaps in trying to do so it only hastened and emphasises the laready growing fractures within. China does not have to christian, democratic or even welcoming to the west in order to succeed it just has to be China.
classics
non-fiction
Like
Comment
Profile Image for Helga.
Helga
107 reviews
Follow
August 20, 2019
I love all of Isabella Bird's travel books, mostly because she is very no nonsense and genuinely interested in different cultures. One of the best parts of this book are the photographs that she took during her trip in 1897. It is also hilarious how she makes fun of "amateur photographers" who need dark rooms, when she can develop photographs on a tiny boat during the night.
Like
Comment
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
==
세진님, 요청하신 이사벨라 버드 비숍의 마지막 주요 저작인 <양쯔강 유역과 그 너머>(The Yangtze Valley and Beyond, 1899)에 대한 요약과 평론입니다. 원칙에 따라 도서 제목은 한국어로 번역하고, 본문은 <해라> 체를 사용하여 서술했습니다.
<양쯔강 유역과 그 너머> 요약 및 평론
1. 서론: 제국주의 분할 직전, 중국 내륙의 거대한 기록
이사벨라 버드 비숍의 <양쯔강 유역과 그 너머>(1899)는 저자가 1896년부터 1897년까지 감행한 약 5,000마일에 달하는 대장정을 바탕으로 집필된, 그의 탐험 역사상 가장 방대하고 심층적인 서구 중심의 아시아 보고서이다. 당시 중국 청나라는 청일전쟁(1894~1895)의 패배 이후 서구 열강들에 의해 이른바 '세력권(Spheres of Influence)'으로 쪼개질 위기에 처해 있었다. 특히 영국은 양쯔강 유역을 자신의 지리적·상업적 독점권 하에 두기 위해 혈안이 되어 있었다. 저자는 이러한 국제 정치적 긴장감 속에서 상하이에서 출발해 양쯔강의 거친 협곡을 거쳐 사천성(쓰촨성) 내륙 깊숙한 곳, 그리고 더 나아가 티베트 국경 지대의 소수 민족인 소모(Somo) 영토의 만즈(Man-tze) 부족 사회까지 도달한다. 이 책은 제국주의적 침탈 직전의 중국 내륙이 지닌 생태, 경제, 민속을 정밀하게 기록한 19세기 말 탐험 문학의 기념비적 저작이다.
2. 내용 요약: 양쯔강의 험로와 미지의 부족 사회
본 서적은 저자의 일기와 서간문을 기초로 지리학, 인류학, 상업적 통계를 융합하여 서술되었으며, 수많은 사진과 스케치가 삽입되어 현장감을 더한다. 여정의 핵심은 크게 세 단계로 구분된다.
첫 번째 단계는 상하이에서 출발하여 양쯔강 상류로 거슬러 올라가는 험난한 수로 여정이다. 저자는 상하이의 외국인 조계를 시작으로 항저우, 한커우, 이창을 거쳐 양쯔강의 악명 높은 급류와 가파른 협곡(삼협)을 통과한다. 이 과정에서 저자는 배를 밧줄로 끄는 수많은 '추적꾼(Trackers)'들의 가혹한 노동과 양쯔강이 지닌 아시아 제1의 수로로서의 상업적 잠재력을 세밀하게 지형학적으로 묘사한다. 한커우 등지에서는 영국의 무역 현황을 점검하고, 중국인들의 시장 경제와 상업적 활기를 정밀하게 추적한다.
두 번째 단계는 사천성 내륙의 사회상 관찰과 배외주의(排外主義) 폭동과의 대면이다. 저자는 사천성의 중심부로 진입하며 아름다운 자연경관과 농업의 풍요로움에 감탄하는 동시에, 외지인에 대한 현지 민중의 강렬한 적대감과 마주한다. 여정 중 저자는 외국인을 '서양 귀신(洋鬼子)' 또는 '서양 개'라 부르며 돌을 던지는 분노한 군중들에게 둘러싸여 두 차례나 죽을 고비를 넘긴다. 저자는 선교사들의 활동과 선교 병원의 운영 실태를 보고하면서, 중국 사회에 뿌리 깊게 박힌 아편 중독의 참상과 잦은 자살 문제 등 음울한 사회적 단면들을 가감 없이 기록한다.
세 번째 단계는 티베트 접경지 소모 영토와 만즈(蠻族) 부족의 발견이다. 저자는 중국인 정착지를 넘어 문명화되지 않은 미지의 영역으로 여겨지던 만즈 부족의 산악 지대로 들어간다. 이곳에서 목격한 소수 민족의 삶은 중국 본토의 유교적 사회 구조와 전적으로 달랐다. 저자는 그들의 독특한 석조 건축 양식, 여성의 높은 사회적 지위, 그리고 중국 관료 체제와는 차별화된 부족장 중심의 자치 구조를 관찰한다. 이 미답의 부족 사회에서 보여준 독창적인 문화적 정체성을 인류학적으로 기록하며 책은 대단원의 막을 내린다.
3. 평론: 제국주의적 후견론과 인간적 연민의 이중주
<양쯔강 유역과 그 너머>는 이사벨라 버드의 후기 저작 중 가장 복합적인 텍스트이다. 서구의 제국주의적 프레임과 저자 개인의 인도주의적 시선이 충돌하고 융합하는 지점은 다음과 같이 분석될 수 있다.
첫째, 무역과 지리에 대한 '정찰 장교' 수준의 객관적 분석이다. 영국 왕립지리학회 회원으로서 저자의 관찰은 단순한 감상을 넘어선다. 양쯔강 각 구간의 수심, 기온, 고도, 기압을 정밀하게 측정하고 사천성 일대의 실크 산업, 석탄 무역, 농업 생산력을 수치화하여 제시한 대목은 이 저작이 지닌 높은 학술적 가치를 증명한다. 저자는 서구 열강이 중국을 강제로 분할하려 하기보다, '문호 개방(Open Door)' 정책을 유지하고 청나라 중앙 정부를 강화하여 무역의 거점으로 삼아야 한다는 냉정한 제국주의적 통찰을 숨기지 않는다.
둘째, 유교 체제의 정체성과 민중의 사적 활력에 대한 이중적 시선이다. 저자는 청나라 관료 체제의 부패, 사법 권력의 부재, 그리고 이성보다 미신에 의존하는 샤머니즘적 태도를 강하게 비판한다. 그러나 동시에 중국 민중이 보여주는 지치지 않는 노동 윤리와 근면함, "일하는 것이 곧 행복"인 듯 밝게 움직이는 서민들의 활기에는 깊은 경의를 표한다. 군중 폭동으로 목숨을 위협받았음에도 불구하고, 저자는 중국인 개인의 성실성과 거대한 잠재력을 인정하는 세계인으로서의 균형 감각을 보여준다.
셋째, '오리엔탈 크라이스트'의 예견과 문화적 자각이다. 서구 개신교 선교사들의 헌신을 예찬하면서도, 저자는 서구의 신학적 도그마와 예배 형식을 아시아인들에게 그대로 강요하는 선교 방식에 회의를 품는다. 동양인의 정신세계로는 이해하기 힘든 서구식 개념을 주입하기보다, 동양의 사상과 표현 방식에 맞는 '아시아적 기독교(Oriental Christ)'의 출현이 필요할지도 모른다는 저자의 통찰은, 그가 오랜 아시아 여행을 통해 서구 중심주의적 사고를 일정 부분 탈피하고 타 문화의 내재적 정체성을 인정하기 시작했음을 보여주는 결정적 대목이다.
4. 결론: 한 제국의 황혼을 기록한 거대한 파노라마
결론적으로 <양쯔강 유역과 그 너머>는 20세기라는 거대한 격변의 시기를 맞이하기 직전, 청나라 제국의 마지막 황혼기를 가장 웅장하고 입체적으로 담아낸 다큐멘터리이다. 이사벨라 버드는 제국주의의 첨병이자 감시자라는 시대적 한계를 지니고 있었으나, 동시에 국경과 인종의 장벽을 넘어 인간 보편의 삶을 정면으로 응시하고자 했던 위대한 탐험가였다. 사천성의 거친 협곡과 미지의 소수 민족 사회를 관통한 그의 발자취는, 서구화의 파도 속에서 소멸해 가던 아시아 내륙의 원형을 보존한 인류의 거대한 유산이자 시대를 개척한 한 여성의 위대한 종착지이다.
==
==
==
No comments:
Post a Comment