preface
Preface
“Xi Lu Xu” 西魯序 or Preface Version, c. 1853 (Or. 8207 D, probably Canton background). Discovered in the British Museum by Xiao Yishan 蕭一山 in the early 1930's, and published in his book Jindai mimi shehui shiliao 近代秘密社會史料 (1935), juan 2:3b-7b. Transcribed using simplified characters in TDH I:41-46. An English translation can be found in Murray (1994, p. 211-220). For the dating of 1853 and Cantonese providence, see ter Haar (1998), p. 33.
Note: The “Xi Lu Xu” comes from a cache of materials gathered together by Mrs. Gertrude Ball of Hong Kong, and the “Xi Lu Xu Shi” apparently comes from papers acquired by General Chares G. Gordon, active in the Shanghai region from 1862-1864 (ter Haar 1998, p. 34-35). Both these documents were first studied by by historian and Chinese nationalist Xiao Yishan in 1932, while he was looking for sources on the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (taiping tianguo) in the British Museum (Murray 1994, p. 126 and ter Haar 1998, p. 32-35). The “Xi Lu Xu” and “Xi Lu Xu Shi” are now housed in the Oriental Reading Room under the document numbers OR 2339 (acquired 1881) and OR 8207 D (acquired 1919) (Murray 1994, pp. 237f. and ter Haar 1998, pp.32-35 and p. 369).
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