Paul Henry King (1853-1938) was a British Commissioner in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, who was closely involved with the Chinese statesman, Li Hongzhang, during the of the Boxer Uprising of 1900, and also with the Tatsu Maru Incident, which triggered the anti-Japanese campaign in China of 1908. King was also a well-known writer on Chinese politics and culture, who was notably sympathetic to contemporary Chinese views opposing the semi-colonial presence of Western nations in China during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Paul Henry King, known to his family as 'Jol', was born on 3 June 1853; the son of Paul John King, Senior Registrar in Chancery, and Anna Maria, née Man. He was also grand-nephew of Sir Nicholas Conyngham Tindal, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. King was educated at Haileybury School, and served with the London Scottish Regiment for three years from 1870. [1] Following the example of his maternal uncle, John Alexander Man (later known as Man-Stuart), who was personal secretary to Horatio Nelson Lay and Robert Hart, King joined the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and went to China in 1874. [2] In 1881, he married Margaret, née Williamson (known to her family as 'Veronica') at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Shanghai, and the marriage service was conducted by Bishop George Evans Moule. [3] They had seven children, including: Wilfrid Henry Tindal King, who was employed by Jardine, Matheson & Co. in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taipei, 1908-1937; [4] Louis Magrath King, a British Consul in China, who married the Tibetan writer, Rinchen Lhamo; Carol Mary Langton King, a racing car driver; [5] and Patrick John Richardson King, a squadron leader and later wing commander in the Royal Air Force.
Paul King served as Commissioner in several treaty port cities in China during a long career of forty-seven years, which he described in his memoir, In The Chinese Customs Service, which was first published in 1924, with a revised edition issued in 1930. [6] He was appointed Commissioner at Canton (Guangzhou) in 1900, where he worked alongside and was a supporter of the Chinese Statesman, Li Hongzhang, during the period of the Boxer Uprising, when there was much uncertainty regarding the fate of the diplomatic enclave of Western nations in Peking (Beijing). [7] [8] Later, while serving at the same port, he was appointed to help conduct an inquiry into the Tatsu Maru Incident in 1908, when a Japanese ship was seized in Macao having been accused of illegally supplying arms to Chinese revolutionaries, but the seizure was opposed by Japanese officials and the Chinese Imperial Government capitulated, resulting in the subsequent boycott of Japanese goods in China. [9] [10] He was also present at the laying of the foundation stone of the Canton terminus of the Kowloon-Canton Railway in 1909. [6] King had a difficult working relationship with Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector General of the Chinese Customs Service. [11] King was placed in charge of the London Office of the Chinese Customs during World War I. [8] During this time he sourced and sent Chinese musical instruments to the members of the Chinese Labour Corps in France. [6] King was twice decorated for his service to China: first, by the Qing Imperial Court with the Order of the Double Dragon (for his involvement in the Tatsu Maru Incident), and, second, by the Government of the Republic of China with the Order of the Golden Grain. [3]
King authored a number of works of fiction and non-fiction, both singly and writing in partnership with his wife (sometimes under the pseudonym, 'William A. Rivers'), exploring various social and class themes relating to life in the treaty ports of China, notably miscegenation or 'Eurasianism,' as it was then commonly termed. [3] [12] King's book, Weighed in China's Balance (1928), is unusual for its attempt to give a balanced and sympathetic explanation of the Chinese perspective upon the semi-colonial presence of the Western powers in China as a result of the Unequal Treaties, a period which has since been described in China as the Century of National Humiliation, but the book was criticised by his contemporaries as being anti-missionary. [13] In later life, King and his wife donated books relating to China to the School of Oriental Studies. [14] Twenty-six volumes of Paul King's diaries and letterbooks, dated 1893-1920, were sold at auction on 12 November 2019 (Sale L19405 - Lot 277) at Sotheby's in London. [15]
Paul King died of a heart attack while living in Guernsey on 31 July 1938. [16] His obituary for the London Scottish Regiment described him as a great sportsman, his hobbies included: horse riding, fencing, boxing, skating, rowing, cricket, and golf. He was also a proficient linguist, able to speak French, German and Chinese fluently, as well as some Russian. [1] [17]
Works by Paul King:
Works about or mentioning Paul King:
Postal romanization was a system of transliterating place names in China developed by postal authorities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For many cities, the corresponding postal romanization was the most common English-language form of the city's name from the 1890s until the 1980s, when postal romanization was replaced by pinyin, but the system remained in place on Taiwan until 2002.
The Chinese Maritime Customs Service was a Chinese governmental tax collection agency and information service from its founding in 1854 until it split in 1949 into services operating in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and in the People's Republic of China. From its foundation in 1854 until the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the agency was known as the Imperial Maritime Customs Service.
Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet, was a British diplomat and official in the Qing Chinese government, serving as the second Inspector-General of China's Imperial Maritime Custom Service (IMCS) from 1863 to 1911. Beginning as a student interpreter in the consular service, he arrived in China at the age of 19 and resided there for 54 years, except for two short leaves in 1866 and 1874.
Paul Georg von Möllendorff was a German linguist and diplomat. Möllendorff is mostly known for his service as an adviser to the Korean king Gojong in the late nineteenth century and for his contributions to Sinology. In English-language publications, Möllendorff is often credited with having designed a system for romanizing the Manchu language, which was in fact the creation of his compatriot Hans Conon von der Gabelentz.
Prosper Marie Giquel was a French naval officer who played an important role in the modernization of 19th century China. His Chinese name was 日意格.
John Otway Percy Bland, who wrote as J. O. P. Bland, was a British writer and journalist, best known as the author of a number of books on Chinese politics and history. He lived in China for most of the period 1883–1910.
Dong Fuxiang (1839–1908), courtesy name Xingwu (星五), was a Chinese general who lived in the late Qing dynasty. He was born in the Western Chinese province of Gansu. He commanded an army of Hui soldiers, which included the later Ma clique generals Ma Anliang and Ma Fuxiang. According to the Western calendar, his birth date is in 1839.
Bertram Lenox Simpson (1877–1930) was a British author who wrote about China under the pen name "B. L. Putnam Weale". Lenox Simpson was the son of Clare Lenox-Simpson, who had been in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service since 1861; he had a brother, Evelyn, a mining engineer who worked in China, and a sister, Esme. His education was at Brighton College, after which he too joined the Service. He was in China during the Boxer Rebellion and during the siege of the legations. After this, he became Brigade Interpreter for the British Expeditionary Force.
George Bunker Glover was an American who served as a diplomat and also a commissioner in the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service during the late nineteenth century.
Hosea Ballou Morse was a British North America-born British customs official and historian of China. He served in the Chinese Imperial Maritime Custom Service from 1874 to 1908, but is best known for his scholarly publications after his retirement, most prominently The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, a three volume chronicle of the relations of the Qing dynasty with Western countries, and The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China, 1635–1834.
Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor (1857–1938) was a long time official in the Imperial Maritime Customs Service in China and a sinologist best known for his translation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, published in 1925, the first of China's classical novels to have a complete translation into English.
Sir Anthony Hastings George KCMG was a British diplomat, who served as British Consul-General in Shanghai and Boston during the Second World War.
Sir Francis Arthur Aglen was a servant of the Chinese Imperial Customs, later to be the Chinese Maritime Customs, rising through the service to become Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service from 1911 to 1927 after the death of Sir Robert Hart.
Sir Frederick William Maze was a British civil servant and Chinese customs commissioner, serving as Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service from 1929 to 1943.
Margaret Williamson King (1861-1949) was a Scottish author born in Ardrossan Road, Saltcoats, Ayrshire Scotland. She used various pen names, including Veronica King and Madge King, and with her husband, William A. Rivers.
Rinchen Lhamo, also written as Rin-chen Lha-mo, was a Tibetan writer. Her book, We Tibetans, was published in English in 1926 by Seeley Service & Co.
Byron Brenan CMG,, was a British diplomat who served in China from 1866. His last position before retirement was as British Consul General in Shanghai from 1899 to 1901.
Louis Magrath King (1886–1949), born at Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China. King was appointed as a British Consul at Dartsedo in 1913, which was then a trading town on the border between the Chinese Empire and Tibet. King was the son of Paul Henry King, a Commissioner in the Chinese Customs Service, and writer Margaret Williamson King, and the grandson of Scottish missionary Alexander Williamson. King's sister, Carol Mary Langton King was a racing car driver.
Juliet Bredon, also known as Juliet Lauru, was a writer. She lived in China for many years and wrote about her experiences there.
George Carter Stent (1833–1884) was an English soldier in India and China, an agent of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, and a translator of Chinese texts into English.
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