THE CENTRAL KINGDOM, CONTINUED GO BACK TO THE PREVIOUS PERIOD HDT WHAT? INDEX THE CENTRAL KINGDOM CHINA 1800 Although the punishments for dope smuggling in China were increased and an anti-opium trade offensive was begun, the smuggling of suspicious vegetable substances would remain uncontrollable. Stewart Dean, an in-law of John Jacob Astor, became captain of the China trader Severn, sailed from New- York harbor to Canton with a shipment of furs and pelts, cochineal and American ginseng, and would return the following year. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX CHINA THE CENTRAL KINGDOM 1802 February 17, Wednesday: Issachar Jacox Roberts was born in Sumner County, Tennessee. After learning to read and write in “occasional sessions in country schools” in the western part of the American south, he would study for about 6 months at a Baptist institution of education in Greenville, South Carolina known as “Furman University” but would be expelled for erratic behavior, and after that there would be no formal education of any sort. Although he would lose his connection with the Southern Baptist Convention of the Baptist faith, he would nevertheless become a Christian missionary to China. “HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” BEING A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME (JUST AS THE PERSPECTIVE IN A PAINTING IS A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN SPACE), TO “LOOK AT THE COURSE OF HISTORY MORE GENERALLY” WOULD BE TO SACRIFICE PERSPECTIVE ALTOGETHER. THIS IS FANTASY-LAND, YOU’RE FOOLING YOURSELF. THERE CANNOT BE ANY SUCH THINGIE, AS SUCH A PERSPECTIVE. March 11, Thursday: Colonel Robert Patton took over as Governor of St. Helena (he would serve until July 13, 1807 and would recommend to the East India Company that it import Chinese coolies for a rural workforce). Fall: Joseph Smith, Sr., who would be the father of Joseph Smith, Jr., was beginning a business in the crystallization of ginseng (considered a remedy for the plague) and its exportation through the port of New- York to China. His shipment would not succeed and by the late spring of the following year the family would have lost not only this venture but also its farm in Tunbridge, Vermont. China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE CENTRAL KINGDOM CHINA 1803 An American factory was established at Guangzhou (Canton) in China. THE TASK OF THE HISTORIAN IS TO CREATE HINDSIGHT WHILE INTERCEPTING ANY ILLUSION OF FORESIGHT. NOTHING A HUMAN CAN SEE CAN EVER BE SEEN AS IF THROUGH THE EYE OF GOD. China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX CHINA THE CENTRAL KINGDOM 1804 May: John Jacob Astor became full owner of the China trader Severn. “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE CENTRAL KINGDOM CHINA 1805 Under Ching Shih, a former prostitute from the Canton area born in 1775 who had made herself a great pirate leader, the 5 most powerful crime families in China combine into a single syndicate. The syndicate defined zones of influence, and created an elaborate series of hand signs, passwords, and initiation rites to reduce the risk of accidental confrontations between unsuspecting fellow criminals. (Ching Shih bore sons to one pirate leader, Zheng Yi, then married his adopted son Zhang Pao following his death. Cutting a deal with the Chinese government in 1843 according to which of her navy of 17,318 pirates only 126 were executed for crimes and only 250 others awarded any sort of punishment, she would retire to Canton and take charge of a gambling and prostitution house.) Linear regression analysis, perhaps one of the oldest topics in mathematical statistics, a way in which to approximate the solution of overdetermined systems (sets of equations in which there are more equations than unknowns) began in this year when the least squares method was published by Adrien-Marie Legendre. Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss, who would begin to publish about this in 1809, who was generally recognized as the Princeps mathematicorum or greatest mathematician since antiquity, actually had been using this technique of analysis since his calculation of the orbit of Pallas in 1795 but had not considered it as any big deal (until in this year Legendre made a really big deal about being 1st to proclaim it and asserted priority as himself having pioneered the technique). Both Gauss and Legendre applied the method to the problem of determining, from astronomical observations, the orbits of bodies about the sun (non-linear regression analysis is a whole lot more difficult to calculate and would need to wait for a later timeframe). CHINESE “MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX CHINA THE CENTRAL KINGDOM 1807 September 4, Friday: Robert Fulton initiated regular steamboat service between New-York and Albany. The Reverend Dr. Robert Morrison, initial Protestant missionary to China, arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Macao at the mouth of the Pearl River leading to Canton. Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 4th of 9th M 1807 / Nothing of note has occur’d that I recollect that is worth inserting, & some may think it wholly superfluous for me thus to journalize but there is a peculiar satisfaction in it to me, & I have believed it right for some Years Spent the evening At Aunt Martha Goulds & C R’s, while setting at both places, as well as at times thro’ the day, my mind was Solemnized so that I felt but little disposition to join in conversation - Oh saith my soul at this time, may an holy solemnity cover my mind at all times & on all occasions RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS NEVER READ AHEAD! TO APPRECIATE SEPTEMBER 4TH, 1807 AT ALL ONE MUST APPRECIATE IT AS A TODAY (THE FOLLOWING DAY, TOMORROW, IS BUT A PORTION OF THE UNREALIZED FUTURE AND IFFY AT BEST). September 7, Monday: A Presbyterian missionary sent to China by the London Missionary Society, the Reverend Dr. Robert Morrison, had declared his intention to be the bringing of “the light of science and revelation” to “peacefully and gradually shed their lustre on the Eastern limit of Asia and the islands of the rising sun,” lands which up to that point had been very much in the dark. He stood fresh off the boat on a Canton dock with the bee in his bonnet to convert all these teeming multitudes of Chinamen to the truth and power of Christianity and thus earn an entire galaxy of stars for his heavenly crown — and he bore in his hand a letter of introduction from then Secretary of State James Madison. He was wondering who to show this precious letter to first. Let us have a moment of silence, and contemplate the possibilities. [Moment of Silence] In result of the bombardment of Copenhagen that had proceeded from August 16th to September 5th, and in return for an understanding that the British would attempt to leave Copenhagen within six weeks, Denmark signed a capitulation document surrendering all its navy and naval stores. Under threat from France, King Gustaf IV Adolf ceded Pomerania to the French. Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE CENTRAL KINGDOM CHINA 7 day / This Afternoon rode to Portsmouth with couzin Z C, spent the evening at P L’s with my dear H then returned & lodged at Z C’s the next morning returned to P L’s & walked with him to meeting where my mind was favord with access to the spring of life & to me is was a very favor’d tho’ silent meeting, Oh! that I may render due thanks from the heart to him from whom cometh every blessing, & those of this kind I esteem the greatest — After meeting, J Rodman & I went to H Almys & dined. I made a pleasant visit there, & left J & returned to P L, again where I lodged & this / 2 day [Monday] / morning rose at a little past 4 OClock & walked home in about two hours - It has been a day of tumult the Militia has paraded the Streets with the sound of Drums & Fifies which with their appearance allways affect my mind with seriousness & put me to inspecting the ground of my faith in the Christian Religion, & I have thought this day that my objections to appearing as a military man is founded & something more than meer traditional Religion, for I think I have seen that wars & fightings are an offence to the Almighty & that he hath no delight in them, Oh that the pure spirit of Christianity may more & more abound in my heart —- Called at Earls, & Sarah introduced me to a man who lived in the other part of the house that had a Galvance machine I examined it & took several Shocks, it is a wonderful thing & past my finding out that a few peaces of metal Should have such an effect on the human frame, but it is like many other things, that we are but ignorant beings, & to impress on our minds with the Greatness & goodness of God — Spent the remained of the evening at C R: with a precious covering over my mind. Oh that I may be thankful — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT China “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX CHINA THE CENTRAL KINGDOM 1808 The balance of foreign trade began to turn against China.