conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a description for a book titled The Question of Hu about Jonathan, Chinese, Gate with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Jonathan the author's eleven books on Chinese history include The Gate of Heavenly Peace , Treason by the Book , and The Death of Woman Wang. His awards include a Guggenheim and a MacArthur Fellowship. He teaches at Yale University.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first five paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Question of Hu
  This is Foucquet's work, this is his passion—to make all these things clear, to unravel all the hidden meanings in the Chinese past. "In such an enterprise," writes Foucquet, "the act of labor becomes sweet, and even the harshest pains become in some way delicious."
  Yet the act of labor is also time-consuming and desperately difficult. Foucquet has already spent years roaming through all the early classical works and teasing out the clues that led him toward the truth. Just to transcribe the passages can take days, even weeks, when there is so much else to do. For a time, in Peking, Foucquet had Chinese secretary-assistants, who not only helped him by writing out long Chinese passages but also learned to copy his correspondence—in Italian, French, and Latin—by laying a sheet of thin Chinese paper over the original text and tracing it letter by letter, with perfect accuracy, even though unable to understand a single word. In 1718, however, allegedly because use of such assistants violated his vows of poverty, his superiors forbade him to employ any more Chinese. Foucquet believes their real reason was to stop him from bringing his work to fruition.
  Despite this prohibition, once he got to Canton Foucquet met two Chinese converts who attended the Jesuit church. They were good scholars, and eager to help him with his work—their collaboration was another of the activities seriously disrupted by his illness. The French ships will be leaving soon for France, and Foucquet with them. Is it possible that he could persuade one of the Chinese to come along? They could go to Paris and on to Rome. There are precedents for that kind of thing, and Foucquet has noted them carefully. Admittedly the only two Chinese in recorded history yet to visit France did not return to tell the tale. Michael Shen, who traveled to Europe with Father Couplet in the 1680s, met two kings, Louis XIV and James II, and did useful work at Oxford, but died at sea on the way home. Arcadio Huang, taken to Paris by Bishop De Lionne in 1714, married a Frenchwoman, had a daughter, settled down to work in the Royal Library, and died soon after from an illness, along with his little family. But Louis Fan is a more encouraging example of what the loyal service of a Chinese assistant for a Western priest can mean, right down to Fan's tenacious protection of Provana's body after his death, refusing to allow his beloved teacher to be buried at sea but bringing his corpse all the way back to China for a Christian burial in sanctified soil. Foucquet was still in Peking when Fan came through the city on the way to the imperial audience. By a strange coincidence the imperial permission for Foucquet to return to Europe—Western missionaries in China may leave only if the Emperor consents—was issued just a few days after Fan had instructed the Emperor on some of the geography and customs of that continent.
  And now both the papal legate, Mezzabarba, and Father Antoine Maghalaens, whom Emperor Kangxi is sending on an embassy to Portugal, have decided to take Chinese assistants with them—as Foucquet is well aware. They have made no secret of it, and although the Emperor, for national security reasons, tries to stop Chinese from traveling overseas, there are always some intrepid souls who are willing to go, whatever the possible cost.
  Domenico Perroni comes to Foucquet's room in the Jesuit residence to bring an oral message from the papal legate: Foucquet now has official permission to take his library to France. Written confirmation will follow later. Only last week Perroni made a similar visit, to bring the legate's instructions that Foucquet is to proceed to Rome after Paris. In Rome, he is to meet with the Pope and inform His Holiness about the general situation of the mission in China.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Question of Hu
  This is Foucquet's work, this is his passion—to make all these things clear, to unravel all the hidden meanings in the Chinese past. "In such an enterprise," writes Foucquet, "the act of labor becomes sweet, and even the harshest pains become in some way delicious."
  Yet the act of labor is also time-consuming and desperately difficult. Foucquet has already spent years roaming through all the early classical works and teasing out the clues that led him toward the truth. Just to transcribe the passages can take days, even weeks, when there is so much else to do. For a time, in Peking, Foucquet had Chinese secretary-assistants, who not only helped him by writing out long Chinese passages but also learned to copy his correspondence—in Italian, French, and Latin—by laying a sheet of thin Chinese paper over the original text and tracing it letter by letter, with perfect accuracy, even though unable to understand a single word. In 1718, however, allegedly because use of such assistants violated his vows of poverty, his superiors forbade him to employ any more Chinese. Foucquet believes their real reason was to stop him from bringing his work to fruition.
  Despite this prohibition, once he got to Canton Foucquet met two Chinese converts who attended the Jesuit church. They were good scholars, and eager to help him with his work—their collaboration was another of the activities seriously disrupted by his illness. The French ships will be leaving soon for France, and Foucquet with them. Is it possible that he could persuade one of the Chinese to come along? They could go to Paris and on to Rome. There are precedents for that kind of thing, and Foucquet has noted them carefully. Admittedly the only two Chinese in recorded history yet to visit France did not return to tell the tale. Michael Shen, who traveled to Europe with Father Couplet in the 1680s, met two kings, Louis XIV and James II, and did useful work at Oxford, but died at sea on the way home. Arcadio Huang, taken to Paris by Bishop De Lionne in 1714, married a Frenchwoman, had a daughter, settled down to work in the Royal Library, and died soon after from an illness, along with his little family. But Louis Fan is a more encouraging example of what the loyal service of a Chinese assistant for a Western priest can mean, right down to Fan's tenacious protection of Provana's body after his death, refusing to allow his beloved teacher to be buried at sea but bringing his corpse all the way back to China for a Christian burial in sanctified soil. Foucquet was still in Peking when Fan came through the city on the way to the imperial audience. By a strange coincidence the imperial permission for Foucquet to return to Europe—Western missionaries in China may leave only if the Emperor consents—was issued just a few days after Fan had instructed the Emperor on some of the geography and customs of that continent.
  And now both the papal legate, Mezzabarba, and Father Antoine Maghalaens, whom Emperor Kangxi is sending on an embassy to Portugal, have decided to take Chinese assistants with them—as Foucquet is well aware. They have made no secret of it, and although the Emperor, for national security reasons, tries to stop Chinese from traveling overseas, there are always some intrepid souls who are willing to go, whatever the possible cost.
  Domenico Perroni comes to Foucquet's room in the Jesuit residence to bring an oral message from the papal legate: Foucquet now has official permission to take his library to France. Written confirmation will follow later. Only last week Perroni made a similar visit, to bring the legate's instructions that Foucquet is to proceed to Rome after Paris.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know four more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Hu is living in the church of St. Louis, the Jesuit church attached to the Maison Professe. He has a little corner room off one of the galleries that circle, at two different levels, the soaring nave. By day, the light flows into the church through the windows in the spacious dome, making a shimmering richness out of the marble sculptures and wooden carvings, and the four massive paintings that tell stories from the reign of the church's patron saint. By night the elaborately posed men and angels writhe in the cool darkness. Hu's room has in it a bed, a wicker chair, and a table. One window, which Hu keeps always open, gives onto the world outside. It is infinitely less spacious or comfortable than the apartment at the Baynes house, but Hu expresses himself well satisfied.
  It is the superior of the Maison Professe, the eighty-one-year-old Father Gaillard, who has given Foucquet permission to lodge Hu here, but only for a few weeks, until Hu and Foucquet leave for Rome.
  Hu is out in the streets again. He has been wandering at will, leaving each morning with the expense money he is given daily for his food. He buys whatever suits his fancy whenever he is hungry, and eats it wherever he happens to be. He postures, he clowns, he chants. He is becoming quite well known in the Marais, perhaps even farther afield. It is as if he has entered the carnival world that Paris becomes once the great spring fairs reopen and all the rules relax. It is a world of wildness and freedom, where freaks, exotics, topsy-turvy beings are accepted by the crowds, clustered around, cheered on their way with shouts and laughter.
  Hu seems content. He has not made any drawings since Port Louis, he talks no more of writing up his travels. He refuses, absolutely, Foucquet's final request that he settle down and begin to copy Chinese texts. Foucquet says he will never pay him if he does not work. Hu shrugs. When Foucquet brandishes the work contract at him, the one made in Canton, Hu tries to grab it out of his hands.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: BAV, Borg Cin 511. Miscellaneous materials in Chinese. Item 5 is a letter by Hu Ruowang to Foucquet, 1 sheet, 54 cm. X 23 cm.
  BAV, Borg Lat 523. Collection "Borgia Latino," number 523. Folio pp. 84–85 contains Foucquet's "Breve Diario" of events in April-June 1723.
  BL, Add Mss 20583A. British Library, London, Store Street Depository. "Catalogue des livres Chinois apportés de la Chine par le père Foucquet Jésuite en l'année 1722," 48 pp., folio pp. 1–25.
  BL, Add Mss 26816. British Library, London, folio pp. 144–150, "Lettre du P. Foucquet au P. de Goville Supérieur des Jésuites François à Canton, le 4 Août 1721." Folio pp. 151–186, Foucquet to Hervieu, Canton, 1 June 1721. Folio pp. 189–206V, Foucquet reply to Goville and Goville's enclosure ref. Foucquet's hostility to Jesuits.
  Foucquet, Jean-François. "Risposte date dal. P. Gio-Francesco Fouquet [sic] della Compagnia di Giesu," Propaganda Fidei, Monday, 16 August 1723, BL, Add MSS 26817, folio pp. 179–189.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: BAV, Borg Cin 511. Miscellaneous materials in Chinese. Item 5 is a letter by Hu Ruowang to Foucquet, 1 sheet, 54 cm. X 23 cm.
  BAV, Borg Lat 523. Collection "Borgia Latino," number 523. Folio pp. 84–85 contains Foucquet's "Breve Diario" of events in April-June 1723.
  BL, Add Mss 20583A. British Library, London, Store Street Depository. "Catalogue des livres Chinois apportés de la Chine par le père Foucquet Jésuite en l'année 1722," 48 pp., folio pp. 1–25.
  BL, Add Mss 26816. British Library, London, folio pp. 144–150, "Lettre du P. Foucquet au P. de Goville Supérieur des Jésuites François à Canton, le 4 Août 1721." Folio pp. 151–186, Foucquet to Hervieu, Canton, 1 June 1721. Folio pp. 189–206V, Foucquet reply to Goville and Goville's enclosure ref. Foucquet's hostility to Jesuits.
  Foucquet, Jean-François. "Risposte date dal. P. Gio-Francesco Fouquet [sic] della Compagnia di Giesu," Propaganda Fidei, Monday, 16 August 1723, BL, Add MSS 26817, folio pp.