Round and Square: Rachel Johnson

From Round to Square (and back)

For The Emperor's Teacher, scroll down (↓) to "Topics." It's the management book that will rock the world (and break the vase, as you will see). Click or paste the following link for a recent profile of the project: http://magazine.beloit.edu/?story_id=240813&issue_id=240610

A new post appears every day at 12:05* (CDT). There's more, though. Take a look at the right-hand side of the page for over four years of material (2,000 posts and growing) from Seinfeld and country music to every single day of the Chinese lunar calendar...translated. Look here ↓ and explore a little. It will take you all the way down the page...from round to square (and back again).
*Occasionally I will leave a long post up for thirty-six hours, and post a shorter entry at noon the next day.

Showing posts with label Rachel Johnson. Show all posts

Monday, October 28, 2013

From the Geil Archive (35)—Chinese Jews

Click Here for the "From the Geil Archive" Resource Center
To learn more about William Edgar Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (28 October 2012)–La Pensée Cyclique–Rural Religion in China (28)
Two years ago on Round and Square (28 October 2011)–Middles (13)—Belt Buckles

[a] Jewish Christmas RF

Click here for Rachel Johnson's other posts in the series "From the Geil Archive"

1-About Me 2-Naming (Un-)Conventions 3-Out of the Frying Pan
4-Jack of All Trades 5-Warring Pens 6-Thinking in Fives 7-Chinese Jews

Today's Round and Square Guest Contributor is Rachel Johnson. Rachel, from Burr Ridge, IL, just graduated from Beloit College with a BA in anthropology and a minor in Asian Studies. She was introduced to William Edgar Geil through a course taught by Rob LaFleur, and she is currently working in Doylestown, Pennyslvania with four other interns to research and digitize his archives with the Doylestown Historical Society. She and Geil share a mutual love of travel and of Chinese history and culture in particular, which is what drew her to study him further.

*** ***

Please note that all items marked "DHS" are property of the Doylestown Historical Society, and used with DHS permission. If you wish to use an image, you need permission of the Society. Please contact Robert LaFleur (lafleur@beloit.edu), and he will put you in contact with the appropriate people.

The traditional intersection of the Jews and the Chinese is a time-honored one. After all, just ask any American Jew what they do for Christmas. In a survey done last-minute at the Doylestown Historical Society, 4 out of 4 Jewish interns, or an impressive 100%, admit to having gone out for Chinese food at least once on Christmas. And statistics like that speak for themselves.

[b] Torah RF

Of course, the intersection runs deeper than this. Both cultures have historically immigrated in massive numbers to the US, and both faced deeply ingrained prejudice for many years, for instance. That said, this relationship is seldom studied. In fact, when I had the opportunity over the summer to study Jewish and Chinese immigrant communities in nineteenth century Nevada, I jumped on it. “How often does anybody focus on these two groups together? This never happens!” I thought.

Then I came to the Geil archives, and somebody pointed out the name of one of the subfolders. “Chinese Jews.” I knew I had to explore this further.

The three type-written pages in this subfolder deal with the history of Jews living in China, though Geil’s hurried typing and often hard-to-follow trains of thought make it somewhat difficult to follow. (For instance, at one point it seemed like he was insinuating that Jews mispronounced the Hebrew word “Bereisheet” [בְּרֵאשִׁית], the first word of the Torah, or the beginning of Genesis 1:1. Upon seeing this, I scowled, and turned to the other interns. “It’s Hebrew!” I exclaimed. “We invented the pronunciation! We can’t mispronounce it! It’s our word!” Then I reread the passage and realized he was referring to the obfuscation of the word by Jews in China who had adopted Chinese accents and whose ability to properly pronounce certain sounds, like that produced by the letter “R”, was diminished as they adapted to the new language. I calmed down, even though I still doubt that Chinese Jews pronounced “bray-steeth”, as Geil writes it, as “Pieleshitze” like he claims.)

Despite the challenges presented by the somewhat muddled text, I read these three pages over (and over again, to ensure I made no more embarrassing mistakes like the first) and I have to admit, I was impressed.

Geil talks about religion a lot. Well, duh, you’re likely saying. He’s a missionary. That’s sort of his job.

[c] Not a Taoist RF

Except, much of the time, he’s not talking about Christianity. He seems utterly, and earnestly, fascinated in the religions he encounters wherever he travels. Granted, he refers to Muslims as “Mohammads," mentioned the “Taoist pope," and called Japanese Confucians, Buddhists, and Shintoists “aggressive vegetarians,” (see Sarah Conn’s post, Confusion in Japan, for more details) so his fascination is not always coupled with a thorough understanding of the subject matter, but it is sincere nonetheless.

It would be easy—expected, even—for a devout missionary like Geil to dismiss other religions as worthless or blasphemous, but he doesn’t. Occasionally he throws around the word “heathen”, though it is generally in reference to cannibals and seems almost more endearing(ly condescending) than judgmental, but on the whole, he is surprisingly accepting of the spectrum of religious beliefs.

Don’t misunderstand me. He likely wouldn’t have won any awards for religious tolerance, and he certainly isn’t winning any awards for the accuracy of his information in regards to certain religions. But he makes the effort, and his interest seems genuine. And even though I winced at the “Taoist pope” line, I respect him for this interest. Geil’s religious fervor really is religious fervor. Of course, he is passionate about Christianity and is an ardent follower of Christ. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t stop to take a look around, explore the other options, talk to people about their religions, and this is exactly what he does. He is genuinely interested in religion as a whole, as a philosophy and as a way of life, and he is not afraid to expand his interest in religion beyond the purview of Christianity.

[d] Chinese Jews DHS

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

From the Geil Archives (27)–Thinking in Fives

Click here for the "From the Geil Archive" Resource Center
To learn more about William Edgar Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (15 October 2012)—Assignments (2)—Rice, Samurai, and Self

Two years ago on Round and Square (15 October 2011)—Asian Miscellany (5)—Work in Modern China

[a] Sacred RF

Click here for Rachel Johnson's other posts in the series "From the Geil Archive"

1-About Me 2-Naming (Un-)Conventions 3-Out of the Frying Pan
4-Jack of All Trades 5-Warring Pens 6-Thinking in Fives

*** ***

“5 is a number most remarkable to the man of the Central Kingdom.” So begins the introductory chapter of William Edgar Geil’s final published work, The Sacred Five of China, entitled, “The Magic of 5." In fact, from this point on he becomes obsessed with five. In his dedication, he cites the five people who made his book possible. He dates the dedication “5th sun of the 5th moon of the 5th year after visiting the Sacred 5 of China." His book is broken into five chapters (discounting the introduction and the epilogue), each broken down into five more subsections.

[b] Handwritten DHS

He seems determined to boil everything down to five elements, and in doing so, takes his first, only, and ultimately too-late step from casual observer of Chinese culture towards serious Chinese scholar. Sadly, this movement towards a greater and more in-depth understanding of the culture he so admired was cut short—since he died in 1925 and Sacred 5 was published posthumously in 1926. However, there can be little doubt that Sacred 5 is Geil’s most important, and most impressive work, and the biggest reason for this, in my mind, lies in the importance of the number five.

In this chapter Geil touches upon one of the most profound, persistent, and complex theories that form the framework of Chinese philosophy and religion: wuxing (五行), known most commonly in English as the Five Elements, Five Phases, or Five Agents.

Wuxing was first described to me (by none other than Rob LaFleur, in fact) as “thinking in fives." It is, very simply put, a system by which the patterns and movements of the universe can be broken down into five “elements” (or phases, or agents, et cetera) which represent totality. In Western philosophy there are commonly thought to be four elements: fire, air, water, and earth. These elements are the essence upon which everything else around us is based, according to ancient Greek thought. (Of course, Aristotle later added the quintessence, aether, though its addition was controversial and not wholly accepted at the time). In Chinese thought, however, there are always five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. So, too, are there five directions: East, South, Center, West, and North. In fact, everything from colors to planets to organs in the human body can be broken down into five literally quintessential parts, which represent, together, totality. More than just representing totality, they represent patterns, the movement between these parts, a continual cycle of flow and change which underlies every element of nature and the universe.

[c] Turtle? DHS

Geil seems to have a surprisingly firm understanding of the basis of this philosophy, which was seldom studied in depth by Western scholars at the time. While his understanding is somewhat perfunctory, it is nevertheless astute. He has taken to heart the importance of “five," and this magic number permeates his entire book, which discusses the five sacred mountains of China: Tai Shan, Hua Shan, Heng Shan, Heng Shan, and Song Shan. (Yes, there are two mountains called “Heng Shan." The characters in Chinese are different, but they are pronounced the same way. English isn’t the only language that is allowed to be confusing). So obsessed does he become with five that he takes the time to hand write each “5” in his otherwise typewritten manuscript. He fills handfuls of pages with writing out the title of his last book, every time with a different five. Sometimes it is written as a tally, sometimes as a Roman numeral, sometimes as an Arabic numeral. On some there are drawings of an odd turtle (borrowed from the ancient "Luo River Chart") with the numerals one through nine on its back, with five highlighted.

While Geil may not have been a world-class academic (there is still no evidence he ever graduated from Lafayette College, despite the pictures of him sitting at his desk writing while wearing his mortarboard) he was certainly on to something big here. His obsession with five showed that he had at least begun to understand and internalize this amazingly complex, intrinsically integral, and wholly fascinating theory, and with it, one of the most important foundations of Chinese culture and thought.

And, in keeping with the theme of today’s post, it is worth noting that this is my fifth blog post as one of the five guest contributors for Round and Square. Coincidence? Entirely, but nevertheless fitting.

[d] Thinking in fives DHS

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

From the Geil Archives (22)—Warring Pens

Click here for the "From the Geil Archive" Resource Center
To learn more about William Edgar Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (8 October 2012)—Rural Religion in China: Ancient Beliefs

Two years ago on Round and Square (8 October 2011)—Spring and Autumn Roles: Flatness in America

[a] Armed and ready RF

Click here for Rachel Johnson's other posts in the series "From the Geil Archive"

1-About Me 2-Naming (Un-)Conventions 3-Out of the Frying Pan 4-Jack of All Trades
5-Warring Pens

*** ***

Often, working with the Geil archives, the biggest challenge is to decipher who wrote what on the documents we are working with. Sometimes, we can recognize Geil’s handwriting, and his distinctive voice, right away. Sometimes, particularly when working with correspondences to and from Geil, it can be harder to tell who is speaking, especially when it comes to notes written in margins or comments and edits written in a different pen, in different handwriting.

There is one distinctive commenter who shows up occasionally, however, who is of particular interest. I have been referring to him casually, though not particularly creatively, as “the Red Penner,” since the notes are always in a bold, distinctive red pen, in the margins, on the backs, and occasionally right on the pages of Geil’s manuscripts. His comments are contained to the manuscripts for Geil’s books on China, certainly The Great Wall of China, and possibly others as well.

His comments, always insightful and occasionally passive-aggressive, sparked my interest. After deciding that he might make an interesting topic for a blog post, I settled down to do some research, hoping I might uncover a bit more on who this commenter was. (As it turns out, the answer was right in front of me, literally, but more on that in a moment.)

[b] Pagoda RF

Surprisingly, it was a fairly easy research project. On the back of one of Geil’s manuscripts, the Red Penner comments, “I lived at Pagoda Anchorage in 1882, when my father was Vice-consul there,” and continues to comment on the state of the tea trade, which had gone into decline. A quick Google search of “Vice-consul of Pagoda Anchorage 1882” (referring to the anchorage in the Mawei district of China that was the site of the Battle of Fuzhou during the Sino-French War) brought up the name Herbert Allen Giles, a name which kept tugging at the back of my mind as being very familiar.

A second Google search later had me rolling my eyes at my own stupidity. No wonder the name sounded familiar! Herbert Allen Giles pioneered the Wade-Giles Romanization system with Thomas Wade, one of the most prevalent and well-established systems of the 20th century. In addition, he wrote literally dozens of books on China. And had a son (okay, many sons, and daughters, but one in particular) named Lionel Giles, who was famous for his translations of Chinese texts, including The Art of War, The Analects of Confucius, The Sayings of Lao Tzu, and The Book of Mencius.

And whose name was written under the very same red pen note that had sparked my research, this time in Geil’s own handwriting. A note which I had glazed over, the name meaning nothing to me ten minutes ago.

Nevertheless, I was proud of my discovery. And it made so much sense! Lionel’s comments were detailed, in-depth, and always, without fail, spot on. His knowledge of Chinese history, culture, and especially language is impressive.

And yet, Geil seemed less than enthused with many of Lionel’s suggestions. Many of the comments were crossed out in blue pencil, a giant X over them, or a slash through them. Many of his simple edits go uncorrected in the final manuscripts. But my favorite comment by far, and the most telling, is on the back of one of the Great Wall of China manuscript pages. It reads simply, “I can’t make anything of the names in this chapter. But I suppose you wish them to stand in their present form.”

[c] Stubborn RF

Part of me wants to remonstrate with Geil for not taking more advice from this renowned translator. Part of me, the writer in me, understands the stubbornness that comes from writing something and not wanting it to be changed, no matter what.

Mostly, however, I am intrigued.

I want to know more about this little silent battle, this struggle between Giles and Geil (yes, the names confuse me, too) over the proper spelling of Ch’in Shih Huang, over which dynasty Geil meant when he wrote Tsu instead of Chou. It seems like Geil took some of Giles’ comments to heart, but he used his own discretion for what he would change and what he would keep, but I can’t help but wonder what his thought process was when he made these decisions.

I can’t help but marvel about how much information can be crammed into such a relatively small number of notes. Of the tens of thousands of documents in Geil’s archives, only a few dozen have comments from Lionel Giles, and yet in these few comments there is a wealth of information, both overt and subtle. I hope, as I continue to go through these archives, I can discover more about this odd and unlikely relationship.

[d] Remonstrance DHS

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

From the Geil Archive (17)—Jack of All Trades

Click here for the "From the Geil Archive" Resource Center
To learn more about William Edgar Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (1 October 2012)—Academic Autobiography: Tristes Tropiques (e)

Two years ago on Round and Square (1 October 2011)—Exilic Response: Burning Diploma


(a) Travel RF

Click here for Rachel Johnson's other posts in the series "From the Geil Archive"

1-About Me 2-Naming (Un-)Conventions 3-Out of the Frying Pan 4-Jack of All Trades

*** ***

In the eyes of the press, during Geil’s heyday he was a jack-of-all-trades.

At various times, Geil has been referred to as a doctor (referring, presumably, to his honorary doctorate from Lafayette University), a reverend, a war correspondent, a scientist, an anthropologist, and, my favorite, an archaeologist, as well as a missionary, explorer, and orator.

The most tantalizing title assigned to Geil, from my perspective, comes from an article posted in the Battle Creek Moon-Journal:

“’I find that there are camps for tourists and tourist camps,’ declared Dr. William E. Geil , of Doylestown, PA., noted explorer and archaeologist, in a talk regarding modes of out-of-door living with a Moon-Journal representative today at the Sanitarium, where he is a guest.”

(b) Archaeology DHS

While the exact year of this article’s publication is unknown, from context it can be inferred that it was published either in late 1923 or the first half of 1924, as he refers to the eminent election of Calvin Coolidge as the next president. I am unsure if this curious passage says more about Geil and his relationship with the press, or about the nature of archaeology in the early 1900s. Either way, Geil’s new title of archaeologist is befuddling.

The early 1920s were a fascinating time for archaeology. In 1921, work first began at the site at Zhoukoudian, China, that would eventually uncover the Peking Man. In 1922, Howard Carter first discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen, the Indus Valley city Mohenjo-daro was rediscovered, and
Beloit College’s very own Roy Chapman Andrews began his first expedition to Mongolia (which, admittedly, ultimately contributed more directly to palaeontology than archaeology, but which affected both fields greatly.) And 1923 saw great advances in all four of the aforementioned projects. It was in the early 20th century that archaeology really began to come into its own as a discipline, evolving from antiquarianism into a respected, serious, and gradually more systematic and scientific field.

So why, at the height of the age of glorified adventure archaeology as personified by such figures as Andrews, would such a glaringly erroneous article go uncorrected?

There is much that can be said about the state of journalism in the late 19th and early 20th century, about how often for editors, accuracy was the least of their worries. However, I think it runs deeper than that. I think this error is seated in the country’s thirst for adventure. After all, America was in the midst of the Roaring 20s. Fresh out of World War I and about to head blindly into one of the darkest decades of U.S. history, the nation reveled for the moment in the most romanticized, glorified, and exciting decade they had yet seen. There had to be something in the idea of Geil, not as a missionary, not as a writer or a doctor or a reverend, but as an intrepid explorer, that tantalized the nation’s imagination. And there was something undeniably romantic and the romantic (in the sense of the idyllic rather than the amorous) about an archaeologist, not as we know it, but as a thrill-seeker, an adventurer, a man going boldly forward to the ends of the earth in search of the great mysteries of the world.

Perhaps it is because of this desire to view the world in an idealized light, where people like Geil could be whatever the press, and the nation, wants them to be, be it a reverend, a war correspondent, or an archaeologist, that Geil is so frequently mislabeled.

(d) Geil RF

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

From the Geil Archive (13)—Out of the Frying Pan

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square Series "From the Geil Archive"
Click here for the "From the Geil Archive" Resource Center
To learn more about William Edgar Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (24 September 2012)—Academic Autobiography: John King Fairbank-c

Two years ago on Round and Square (24 September 2011)—Styling Culture: Quotations and Captions

[a] Mini Grove RF

Today's Round and Square Guest Contributor is Rachel Johnson. Rachel, from Burr Ridge, IL, just graduated from Beloit College with a BA in anthropology and a minor in Asian Studies. She was introduced to William Edgar Geil through a course taught by Rob LaFleur, and she is currently working in Doylestown, Pennyslvania with four other interns to digitize his archives with the Doylestown Historical Society. She and Geil share a mutual love of travel and of Chinese history and culture in particular, which is what drew her to study him further.

Click here for Rachel Johnson's other posts in the series "From the Geil Archive"

1-About Me 2-Naming (Un-)Conventions 3-Out of the Frying Pan

*** ***

          A rolling stone gathers no moss.
          You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
          Still waters run deep.

[b] Unstill RF

Proverbs are a universally renowned teaching tool. Every country and every culture has them. But how can something so fundamentally intertwined with language be universal? After all, would a non-native English speaker understand the meaning behind “a stitch in time saves nine,” even if they understood each individual word in the phrase? If one had never before seen a lemon, wouldn’t the phrase, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” lose something in explanation?

And what, you are undoubtedly asking yourselves, does all of this have to do with William Edgar Geil?

As it turns out, Geil took quite an interest in proverbs himself, taking time to stop and write down proverbs in their native tongue as he heard them, especially in Africa during his Great World-wide Tour, and translating them as best he and his translators could.And as he does so, a pattern begins to emerge.

While proverbs undoubtedly have a strong connection with language their true power lies in meaning, and in the ability to teach a lesson that will be remembered for life with just a few simple words. And there are some lessons everybody is taught, no matter what language they speak. Geil hits upon that time and again with the proverbs he records.

[c] Steps RF

Take, for instance, “sitting down won’t finish your journey,” a proverb he records while in Uganda, along with his transcription of the original,“Okuwumula si kew kutaka.” (All quotations from Geil are transcribed herein exactly as they were written in his manuscripts. I hereby absolve myself of any blame for the butchering of any languages other than English [or Chinese] in this post.) The English language has a very similar proverb---”the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Except, of course, that this particular proverb has its origins in Chinese culture and is attributed to Lao Tzu (or Laozi), and would have originally read, “a journey of a thousand li starts beneath one’s feet,” (千里之行，始于足下).

In fact, Geil was often very aware of these similarities. Just under his transcription of “Nambere nyineka atalieikere bitemba enju,” or, “When the master of the house is away, the frogs will climb up the thatch,” he writes, “i.e. When the cat’s away the mice will play.” And on the backside of one of his manuscript pages, he scrawls in pencil the very note which inspired this post, (and which he later quotes in A Yankee in Pigmy Land):

“Airukire enjura omu rufunjo,
He runs from the rain into the papyrus
Out of the frying pan into the fire.”

[d] Fuzzy DHS

Of course, to some extent proverbs are, along with poetry, lost in translation. They are often so intrinsically linked to a particular turn of phrase, cultural or historical context, or even location that they cannot always fully carry over into another language or another culture. And, of course, we have only Geil’s interpretations of these proverbs to go off of, and we must keep in mind that he did not himself know the languages he was writing down.

However, it is my belief that Geil was on to something. Something he could never quite internalize or vocalize, but which seemed to speak to him through these proverbs he so meticulously recorded. He has stumbled upon a sort of social universalism, the idea that regardless of geographical location, religion, language, race, or any of the other factors that seem to separate us (in the broader sense of humanity as a collective) there are some lessons that everybody learns, some truths that are universal and unavoidable...such as the age-old belief that a situation, if left to its own devices, will go from bad (the frying pan or the rainstorm) to worse (the fire or the papyrus grove).

[e] After the storm RF

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

From the Geil Archive (9)—Naming (Un)Conventions

Click here for the "From the Geil Archive" Resource Center
To learn more about Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (18 September 2012)—Writing and Time: Reading Logs (a)

Two years ago on Round and Square (17 September 2011)—Remonstrance (6)—Filial Nourishment

[a] "Pygmies" with a capital "I" DHS

Click here for Rachel Johnson's other posts in the series "From the Geil Archive"

1-About Me 2-Naming (Un-)Conventions 3-Out of the Frying Pan

Today's Round and Square Guest Contributor is Rachel Johnson. Rachel, from Burr Ridge, IL, just graduated from Beloit College with a BA in anthropology and a minor in Asian Studies. She was introduced to William Edgar Geil through a course taught by Rob LaFleur, and she is currently working in Doylestown, Pennyslvania with four other interns to digitize his archives with the Doylestown Historical Society. She and Geil share a mutual love of travel and of Chinese history and culture in particular, which is what drew her to study him further.

*** ***

In today’s selection from the Geil archives, we get to see a fascinating side of Geil…how others saw him, at the time. This comes in the form of a list of “helpful” suggestions---at least one of which ended up being more helpful than intended.

On Saturday, January 19, 1903, Geil was aboard the S.S. Anversville, crossing the Atlantic Ocean. He chronicles a conversation he had over dinner with two fellow shipmates, wherein he asks the two men for suggestions as to what he should name his latest book (referred to as his “Across Africa” book). He then goes on to list said suggestions, stating first that most were given “in jest.

And, indeed, many of the suggestions listed seem to be—at best—tongue in cheek, though some likely were more serious than others. Such suggestions include In the Darkest Heart of Africa (perhaps reminiscent of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, first published less than four years prior to his writing this), In Brightest Africa, which provides a curious juxtaposition to the previous suggestion, Mr. and Mrs. Pigmy, which is perhaps the most jarringly irreverent suggestion of all, and, of course, A Yankee Thru Pigmyland, possibly a joking reference to his previous A Yankee on the Yangtze, but one which he certainly took to heart.

These suggestions show that, despite his popularity, despite his numerous publications, despite everything, Geil was not always taken seriously, even at the time of his travels. Certainly, he was respected, but lest we assume that his contemporaries saw him as the infallible Big White Chief (a title he bestowed upon himself), we can be reminded, on occasion, that even this larger-than-life missionary and explorer had his share of troubles along the way.

More importantly, we are reminded that not everything is all fire and brimstone with Geil himself. The fact that he recognized the jokes in the suggestions his companions gave him, and, what’s more, recorded them in his Great World-wide Travel journal, suggests that he could take a joke with the best of them…and perhaps, though this might be wishful thinking, perhaps there is some of that same tongue-in-cheek self-deprecation in his final title, A Yankee in Pigmyland.

[c] Entitled DHS