The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2

Finlayson, George, 1790-1823Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
593K words
Chapters
60

Tags

English Originals Historical GeographyTravel Landscape and CultureObservations of CivilizationTravel JournalDiplomatic MissionDocumentary NarrativeSoutheast AsiaEastern Travelogue19th CenturyExotic CultureCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2Author: Finlayson, George, 1790-1823,Language: English, Class: DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia, Release Date: Apr 27, 2014

Editor's review

This book is British physician George Finlayson's first-hand account of a mission to Siam and Cochin China (present-day southern Vietnam), set in 1821–1822. As a public-domain travel narrative, its value lies not in literary polish but in the first-hand perspective of a Western observer moving between Southeast Asian courts and ports: mission protocol, scenery along the route, local society, and trade conditions are all recorded in turn. Finlayson's medical background lends the narrative a recurring attention to climate, disease, and living conditions, giving the text a layer of practical observation beyond the ordinary travelogue. Readers may take it as a historical source for understanding early nineteenth-century Anglo-Siamese relations and the early foreign contacts of Vietnam's Nguyễn dynasty, or savor it as a case study in cross-cultural encounter. Because the author died shortly after the journey, the record is all the more precious, and it preserves an immediacy unpolished by later hands. Best read slowly, with maps and a chronology at hand.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the itinerary overview and place-name index first, then return to the main text to avoid being interrupted by unfamiliar place names.
  2. Read alongside a map of Southeast Asia and modern borders, marking the locations of Siam and Cochin China.
  3. Excerpt separately the author's notes on disease, climate, and living conditions to appreciate his medical observer's eye.
  4. After each chapter, write a two- or three-sentence summary tracing mission protocol, trade, and local society.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

What is the Chinese title of this book, and what is the author's background? The original book is an English travel narrative. The author, George Finlayson, was a British physician who traveled with a diplomatic mission; he lived from 1790 to 1823 and died shortly after the journey ended. A possible Chinese title is "An Account of the Mission to Siam and to Hue, the Capital of Cochinchina, in 1821–1822"; readers should rely on the information in the original English edition.
What period and geographic scope does the book cover? The account focuses on 1821–1822, and the journey involved Siam (present-day Thailand) and Hue, the capital of Cochinchina (in present-day central Vietnam). The content is centered on the mission's activities and also includes observations of ports along the route, court ceremonial, and local society; it is not a comprehensive survey of all of Southeast Asia.
Can someone with no background in Southeast Asian history read it? Yes, but it is advisable first to gain a basic understanding of the political landscape of Siam and Vietnam in the early nineteenth century and to have a map at hand. Many personal names, place names, and official titles in the book appear in older transliterations and can be confusing on a first reading; using a chronology and an annotated edition or a related introduction will make the reading smoother.
Is it suitable for use as an academic source for citation? It can be used as a primary English source for observing Southeast Asia through the eyes of a Western mission in the early nineteenth century, but when citing it one should take note of the limitations of the author's perspective and the prejudices of the era, and compare it with other contemporary accounts. It is advisable to verify the edition and page numbers of the original book and not to cite it solely on the basis of secondhand summaries.

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About the author

Finlayson, George, 1790-1823 Author · Scottish · 1790–1823

George Finlayson (1790–1823) was a Scottish surgeon and naturalist. In 1821–1822 he joined a mission to Siam and reached Hué, the capital of Cochin China, and on that basis left a travel account and natural-history records. His representative work is The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2. Because of his early death, public information is limited, and his life is known mainly through this travel book, which combines observations of the journey and local life with notes on the natural world. The narrative is plain and factually grounded, part diplomatic report and part naturalist's record, preserving first-hand material on the society and environment of Southeast Asia at the time. One work by him is held in this library.