Paul H. King | Diaries as a commissioner in the Chinese Customs, with letterbooks, 1893-1920, 26 volumes

CHINA--KING, PAUL HENRY

Diaries as a Commissioner in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and related letterbooks, comprising:

i) Series of 24 annual diaries with daily entries describing King's life and work in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beihai, Wuhu, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, and other location in China, as well as periods of leave in Britain, providing a unique insight into the workings of the late-Imperial and Republican state as well as accounts of national events such as the Xinhai Revolution and local crises ranging from the explosion of the powder magazine in Hangzhou (December 1898) to a disastrous fire on "flower boats" (floating brothels) in Guagzhou, all volumes uniformly printed with English and Chinese characters and bound in tan paper wrappers with locations written on upper covers, 1893 to 1920, lacking the 1900 volumes, fragments only of 1893 and 1894 in a single volumes, and with summary entries only for 1909 and 1919 at the back of the previous year's volume 

ii) 2 Letterpress copybooks, labelled "Private Letters ... 10 Augt 1900 to 12 Apl 1901", covering the immediate aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, and "Letter Book. 22 Sept. 1905 to 9 Janry 1907", bindings worn and paper fragile with tears, one volume affected by damp

A UNIQUE RECORD OF CHINA AND THE CHINESE STATE AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. Paul Henry King (1854-1938) served in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service from 1874 until his retirement in 1921. The Customs was a unique institution that was part of the Chinese government but manned, at its higher echelons, by foreigners (chiefly Britons). As they were embedded within the Imperial bureaucracy, Customs officials tended to have a much deeper understanding of workings of Chinese government and society than other Westerners such as merchants or missionaries. King, for example, had a strong and respectful relationship with the statesman Li Hongzhang, and was twice decorated by the Chinese government. King went on to write several books on China including a memoir, In the Chinese Customs Service (1924). He was part of a remarkable family with deep connections to China: his uncle had fought with Gordon in China and later joined the Customs service; his wife (the novelist Veronica King) was the daughter of a missionary who travelled extensively in China; two of their sons later joined the consular service in China.