From the Ambassador's library

Liang Qichao. [Li Hongzhang or the Political History of China in the Last Forty Years] Lihunzhan’ ili Politicheskaya istoriya Kitaya za posledniye 40 let.

Translated by A. N. Voznesenskiy and Zhang Zintun. With a foreword by Zhang Zintun.

Saint-Petersburg: V. Berezovskiy, 1905. XV, [6], 346, [2] pages; 1 portrait. 8vo [215x160mm].

In contemporary full leather binding; gold-stamped; silk endpapers; gold-stamped lining; gold edging. The original chromolithographed cover bound in. Spine chipped, creased; corners lightly damaged. Pages lightly yellowed, dusted. Overall in good condition.

Book-plate of the Benckendorff's library on the front endpaper. Label of the London library of Boris Berezovsky on the inner front endpaper; owner’s marginalia. 

Liang Qichao (1873-1929) was a Chinese politician, journalist, and intellectual. His political essays as well as his translations of Western and Japanese books into Chinese were highly sought-after by the scholars and activists at the time. Li Hongzhang or the Political History of China in the Last Forty Years is a notable analysis of the Qing Empire’s decline with a specific focus on the actions of Marquess Suyi Li Hongzhang. 

The book was translated into Russian by sinologist Arsenii Voznesenskii and Chinese scholar Zhang Zintun.

In his foreword to the translation Zhang expressed hope that access to Liang Qichao’s book would help Russian readers gain a more realistic understanding of modern Chinese politics and especially a deeper insight into the character of Li Hongzhang, who, much to Zhang’s surprise, was highly respected in Russia at the time, and was even referred to as Bismarck of the Far East.

Being a known proponent of Sino-Russian friendship, Zhang talks fondly of the forming relationship between the two countries and mentions the Great Siberian Railway (which was being built at the time) as залог мирного общения народов на Великом океане [a guarantee of peaceful communication between peoples on the Great ocean].

Provenance: The copy was presented to Count Aleksandr Konstantinovich Benckendorff (1874-1920) Russian diplomat, ambassador to the United Kingdom. Subsequently it resided in the London library of Boris Abramovich Berezovsky (1946-2013). The book carries book-plates of both libraries.

OCLC locates two copies of this edition: in New York Public Library and in University of Hawaii at Manoa.