Memoirs of the Chief Incidents of the Public Life of Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart., Hon. D.C.L. of Oxford
One of the King's Commissioners to the Court of Pekin, and Afterwards for Some Time Member of Parliament for South Hampshire

The personal account of sinologist Sir George Thomas Staunton about his involvement in nineteenth-century Anglo-Chinese relations.

George Thomas Staunton (Author)

9781108014922, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 June 2010

248 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.32 kg

Sir George Thomas Staunton (1781–1859), sinologist and politician, was a key figure in early nineteenth-century Anglo-Chinese relations. Staunton secured a post as a writer in the East India Company's factory in Canton in 1798 and was the only Englishman at the factory to study Chinese. He translated China's penal code and was promoted to chief of the Canton factory in 1816. He was a member of Britain's Amherst embassy to Peking in 1816–1817 to protest against mandarins' treatment of Canton merchants. The embassy failed to obtain an imperial interview but, despite being threatened with detention by the Chinese, Staunton insisted that the British should not submit to the emperor. Staunton returned to England in 1817, and served as a Tory MP between 1818 and 1852. Staunton's Memoirs, which were printed privately in 1856, provide a unique insight into nineteenth-century British perceptions of China.

Birth and education
Background to relations with China
First impressions at Canton
Second mission to China
Publication of the Chinese penal code
Return to China
Final visit to China
Relations with China
Opium wars
Parliamentary affairs
Formation of Royal Asiatic Society
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]