Five Months on the Yang-Tsze
With a Narrative of the Exploration of its Upper Waters and Notices of the Present Rebellions in China

Blakiston's 1862 account of his pioneering expedition up the Yangtsze river during the second Opium War.

Thomas Wright Blakiston (Author)

9781108013611, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 June 2010

436 pages, 16 b/w illus. 2 maps
21.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.55 kg

Thomas Wright Blakiston (1832–1891) was an army officer, explorer and naturalist who served with the British forces in Ireland, Nova Scotia and the Crimea before being posted to Canton during the second Opium War in 1859. While in Canton, Blakiston organised an expedition up the Yangtsze river and Five Months on the Yang-tsze (1862) is his account of his experiences navigating 'one of the greatest rivers in the world a distance of eighteen hundred miles'. Despite the region being subject to extensive insurgency, Blakiston was able to travel 900 miles further up the river than any European before him except Jesuits wearing local attire. His narrative, divided into nineteen chapters with illustrations by Alfred Barton, contains many observations relating to the politically volatile situation in China as well as descriptions of the local landscape, flora and fauna. It remained the standard account of the region for fifty years.

Preface
1. Up to Nanking
2. The Ming tombs
3. The Taipings at their capital
4. A naval squadron inland
5. Admiral Hope's exploration
6. Junk travelling in Hoo-Peh
7. Shi-Show to I-Chang
8. Gorges and rapids
9. Eastern Sz'chuan
10. Visits and ceremonies
11. The Gold-Sand river
12. Cross ranges
13. Chung-King
14. The four valleys
15. Sü-Chow and the western rebels
16. Ping-Shan
17. The Upper Yang-Tsze
18. Down the Kin-Cha Kiang
19. Return from the interior
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]