The World of a Tiny Insect: A Memoir of the Taiping Rebellion and Its Aftermath

209 Pages·2013·1.09 MB·English

by  Zhang Daye

The World of a Tiny Insect

The World
of a Tiny insecT
A Memoir of the
Taiping Rebellion
and Its Aftermath
by Zhang daye
Translated, with an introduction,
by Xiaofei Tian
University of Washington Press
Seattle and London
© 2013 by the University of Washington Press
Printed and bound in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zhang, Daye, 1854–
[Weichong shijie. English.]
The world of a tiny insect : a memoir of the Taiping rebellion and its aftermath /
Zhang Daye ; translated, with an introduction, by Xiaofei Tian.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-295-99317-1 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0-295-99318-8 (paperback)
1. China—History—Taiping Rebellion, 1850–1864—Personal narratives.
2. China—History—1861–1912.
3. Zhang, Daye, 1854–
4. China—Biography.
I. Tian, Xiaofei, 1971– translator, author of introduction.
II. Title.
DS759.35.Z53613 2014 951'.034092—dc23 2013035414
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984.∞
Frontispiece: A page from the manuscript of The World of a Tiny Insect
in the collection of Taipei’s National Central Library.
conTenTs
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Map of Author’s Travels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Translator’s Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Preface by Zhang Daye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Part 1
Trip to Tiantai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
An Account of Taizhou Prefecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
The Six Counties of Taizhou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The “One-Headed Woman” at Huangyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Ten Poems on Xianju. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
The Birds of Xianju. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Part 2
Birth and Early Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
On the Run: 1861–1863 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
“Flames of War,” Ghost Troops, and Other Strange Happenings . . . 93
Epidemic, Greed, and the Woman Dismembered at Lu’s Dyke. . . . . 96
The Occupation of Shaoxing and Its Aftermath . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Edible Flora and Fauna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
The Pleasures and Horrors of Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Narrow Escapes on Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Reunion with Father and Father’s Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Part 3
The Nian Uprising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
The Assassination of Governor Ma Xinyi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Remembering Cousin Xuequan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Travels for Livelihood after Father’s Death. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Trip to Shaoxing for Father’s Burial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Return to Yuanjiang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Trip to Hangzhou. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Sojourn at Songjiang. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Sojourn at Suzhou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Trips to Hangzhou, Shaoxing, and Xianju . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Friends at Xianju. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
The Bandits of Xianju . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Appendix: A List of the Author’s Connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Works Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
acknoWledgmenTs
i still remember how I first stumbled upon this remarkable late-
nineteenth-century manuscript. When I was browsing a catalogue of
Qing dynasty manuscripts that have never been printed, the title—The
World of a Tiny Insect—caught my eye. Thinking that it might be a rare
work of entomology from premodern China, I sought it out and opened
its pages. Little did I expect that it would turn out to be another kind
of rare work; it grabbed me immediately, with its violence, its pain, and
its profound compassion for human cruelty and foolishness. From then
on, I embarked on a journey retracing the footsteps of the “tiny insect”
in his labyrinthine passage through time and space. While the discov-
ery was serendipitous, my work on this manuscript related closely to
my long-term research interest in travel writing, memory, trauma, and
manuscript culture. Subsequently, I gave a presentation on my finds at
the Manuscript Culture Conference I organized at Harvard University
in May 2010. I am grateful to the participants of the conference for their
input, especially Waiyee Li, for giving an illuminating discussion of my
paper, and Judith Zeitlin, for her astute insights.
I am much obliged to Professor Xia Xiaohong of Beijing University
for helping me search for the excerpted manuscript copy in the library
collection of the Institute of Modern History at the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences. Although the search did not turn up the manuscript, I
appreciate Professor Xia’s time and efforts in the scorching summer of
Beijing.
I thank Hannibal Taubes, senior student of Harvard College major-
ing in East Asian Studies, for being one of the first readers of my draft
translation, and for his enthusiastic, helpful comments, in an Indepen-
vii
dent Study course on Chinese travel literature we did together in the fall
semester of 2012. We both learned a great deal in that course.
A special note of appreciation is due my colleague Peter K. Bol for
his generous offer of help in creating the map that graced this book, at
a particularly busy time right before a new semester began. Occasional
grumbling could never conceal Peter’s chivalrous nature, for which I am
thankful as much as for his expertise in GIS.
I am grateful to the two anonymous readers for their detailed reports,
which were extremely helpful in my revision of the manuscript. I am also
deeply indebted to the superb editorial team at the University of Wash-
ington Press: Kerrie Maynes, Mary C. Ribesky, Marilyn Trueblood, Tim
Zimmermann, Rachael Levay, and, last but not least, Lorri Hagman,
whose warm encouragement and sage advice were instrumental in bring-
ing this book to print.
While one’s family always deserves thanks for enduring a time-con-
suming project, I want to thank my husband Stephen Owen especially
for always being available for consultation on a better turn of phrase,
and for reading through my translation and offering feedback. When I
was working on this project during a sabbatical leave in the fall of 2011,
my infant son, George, kept me company every day and opened up a new
world of wonder and love to me that I could never have imagined possible
without him: I am forever in his debt.
X.F.T.
viii Acknowledgments
The World of a Tiny Insect