Giles's Chinese Sketches

FIRST EDITION. Sinologist Herbert A. Giles began his distinguished career was a British diplomat in China. There he wrote these literary and historical sketches to show that, contrary to prevailing Western views, “the Chinese are a hardworking, sober, and happy people, occupying an intermediate place between the wealth and culture, the vice and misery of the West.” Giles later became professor of Chinese at Cambridge for thirty-five years.

Chapters include Position of Women, Etiquette, Literature, Education, Dentistry, Medical Science, Loan Societies, Guilds, Pawnbrokers, Postal Service, Slang, Fortune Telling, Games and Gambling, Jurisprudence, Buddhism, Superstition, Feng-Shui, Money, and more.

Provenance: East Asian Institute of Karl Marx University (now Leipzig University), withdrawn, with neat stamp on verso of title.

$1,200