Asia-Pacific in the Making of the Americas: Toward a Global History

Main Contents and Features of Carter’s the Illustrations

The whole manuscript of the Illustrations consists of 103 leaves with 1876 Chinese characters. The title “紅毛番字” was inscribed on its front cover, with several words added: “Tseaou Si Mung.” On the inner page, the Chinese characters “樵西夢齊放(the author’s note: here “放” [fang; put, place] should be written as “傚” [fang; imitate]) were written, with Cantonese transliterations: “Tseaou se Mung tso fang Pe Ping Sew seang hung maou Fan tsze” and three Chinese characters “紫蘭堂” (Zilan Tang, meaning Violet Orchid Hall).  On the Contents Page of it were inscribed “紅毛番字卷壹目錄” (meaning Contents of Vol. One to Writing of the Red-haired People) and “樵西夢齊主人倣輯繡梓” (meaning edited, illustrated and printed by the master of “Tseaou Se Mung tse”), accompanied by the phonetic writing and English translation: “Tseaou Se Mung tse choo jin [master].”[29] The structure of the whole manuscript is as follows:  

第壹　正體字法名類　　　　第貳　大草字法名類　　　　第叁　中草字法名類　　　
第肆　半草字法名類　　　　第伍　大草篆法名類　　　　第陸　數目字法名類
第柒　年期月份名類　　　　第捌　各囯茶名疋頭　　　　第玖　各集號頭名類


(1) types of regular script; 
(2) types of capital letters in cursive script;
(3) types of script between cursive and semi-cursive scripts,
(4) types of semi-cursive script; 
(5) types of capital letters in cursive seal script;
(6) ways of writing numbers;
(7) expressions of date and time;
(8) tea and silk textile products exported to different countries;
(9) names of merchant shop in different markets

However, the headings and their arrangements in different parts of the manuscript are not consistent with this, and various kinds of vocabulary are inserted among them.  After the table of Contents, a 7-character short poem entitled “俚言” (Vulgar Language) is appended:

唐夷字法壹般同，若究精微學不窮。糊渾切思當省悟，見機而作事慵慵。此書比寶價無稱，串撮非凡細覽明。若效稿中當細辨，熟思其意究其精。 

The languages of the Chinese and the foreigners are the same in the sense that it take ceaseless efforts to learn their quintessence. Those who are muddle-headed should reflect and get awaken to this point, and those who act as they see fit may become too lazy. The book is comparable to an invaluable treasure, and readers will understand the brilliant organization when they read it carefully. If readers wish to learn what is written in the book, they should think carefully and explore the profundity of the book. 

After the writing, it is marked “丁巳孟秋編緝” (edited in the first month of autumn in the year of ding-si), and there is a poem inscribed by Qiu Jun 丘濬 (1421-1495).  The poet tells:

年去年來無定卜，一身飄泊楚江邊。思家有夢迷蝴蝶，歌枕無心   杜鵑。南囯山川經粵楚，北城風雪歷幽燕。故鄉千里復萬那，得音書托寫傳里。[30] 　　

​Year in and year out, I had no fixed abode, and wandered all alone to the Chu (Yangzi) River.  I dreamed of going back to my hometown, just like Zhuangzi who became a butterfly in his dream, and feeling the bitterness as cuckoos do, I had no intention to enjoy listening to songs and sleeping.  I went across the mountains and rivers of Yue and Chu in the south, and experienced the wind and snow of You and Yan in the north.  The hometown being thousands of miles away, how can I get one to carry my letter there?

This part ends with the remark: “此乃公司龜印，即廿四人圖記” (This is the official stamp of the Company, which means the “24 People’s drawing”) and a drawing of the trademark of Brown & Ives. 
________________________

[29] In this paper, characters/words in “{ }” indicate another written form of the preceding characters/words included in the original text; characters/words in "[ ]" are the English equivalents used in the original text to explain the preceding characters/words; “(?)” is added to the illegible parts of the original text; and the confusing characters/words are underlined.  Individual words in the original text are accompanied by Latin translations, of which some are kept at the discretion of the writer of this paper.  
[30] The last two lines should be read as “故鄉千里復萬里，那得音書托寫傳”.

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