MEDHURST, W. H.

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Chinese Dialogues, Questions, and Familiar Sentences, First edition of this milestone in the history of printing in China. After the Treaty of Nanjing, the London Missionary Society quickly established its press in the newly opened treaty port of Shanghai, cutting large quantities of type and producing over 700,000 pages of text in its first year. When its imported ink ran out, the press turned to a local substitute, explaining this work's characteristic unevenness in printing.Chinese Dialogues contains bilingual phrases on a wide range of topics, such as "on sailors going ashore" and "on valuation of goods", as well as moral sayings ("Wine must be according to measure, there must be no coveting of cups and excess in drinking, lest after drinking there should be disorderly speaking, mutual striking, and reciprocal railing"). The text is arranged in columns, each Chinese character accompanied by its English translation and its dialectical pronunciation.The compiler, Walter Henry Medhurst (1796-1857), ran the mission press for its first three years of operation until 1847. Medhurst was the archetypal missionary-scholar. "His works were numerous, and included thirty-four Chinese and some sixty-two Malay volumes, as well as translations from the Chinese and his English writings. They exhibit unceasing activity of mind, a remarkable gift for languages, and an intellect not shackled by the disciplinary barriers between sacred and secular learning" (ODNB). His son issued a second ed

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