{"id":3011,"date":"2015-02-10T20:39:32","date_gmt":"2015-02-11T01:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/preserving\/?p=3011"},"modified":"2015-02-10T20:39:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-11T01:39:32","slug":"tse-tsan-tai-the-search-for-eden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/2015\/02\/10\/tse-tsan-tai-the-search-for-eden\/","title":{"rendered":"Tse Tsan Tai: The Search for Eden"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"eden2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tse Tsan-tai (1872-1938) was known as a revolutionary, newspaperman, social and political reformer, scholar, businessman, journalist, inventor, historian, and Christian theologian. Born in Sydney and baptised James Yee, Tse moved to Hong Kong with his family where he received his formal education. As a young revolutionary, he started the Furen Literary Society, espousing the guiding\u00a0principals of \u201cOpen up the People\u2019s Minds\u201c, and \u201cLove your Country with all your heart\u201c.\u00a0The society\u00a0advocated\u00a0the overthrow of the Qing government and the establishment of a new republic\u00a0for\u00a0China. After his society’s attempts failed, Tse turned to the\u00a0newspaper and other publications to broadcast\u00a0his message to the world. He published The Situation in the Far East,<\/i> a political cartoon cautioning against European ambition to partition China. In 1903, Tse co-founded the South China Morning Post with Alfred Cunningham, which still remains an important publication in Hong Kong.\u00a0In addition to these political activities, Tse was also credited as\u00a0the first Chinese to invent and fly an airship.<\/p>\n

Being a Chinese Christian was difficult and dangerous at the turn of the 20th century. During the Boxer rebellion and into World War I, numerous Christian missionaries were massacred. Nonetheless, Tse considered himself equally\u00a0a patriot and a Christian,\u00a0remaining\u00a0steadfast and undeterred by\u00a0the risks.\u00a0Furthermore, he\u00a0embarked on a controversial theory\u00a0that the origin of Eden was actually in China. He believed that this deposition might\u00a0force various factions\u00a0to reconcile and stop further violence.<\/p>\n

In 1914, Tse published\u00a0The Creation, the Garden of Eden and the Origin of the Chinese,\u00a0<\/em>in which he attempted to prove, based on the geographical description in the Bible, that the Garden of Eden was located in China.<\/p>\n

And, during my study of the Bible and Ancient\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
Chinese History, on Sunday the 25th October, 1914,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
I discovered a clue to the unravelling of the mystery,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
and it suddenly dawned upon me, like a flash of light,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
that the Cradle of the Human Race was not where it\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
is now reputed and believed to be, but, in Chinese\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
Turkestan in the plateau of Eastern Asia,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
and also that the Chinese race originated there.\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
I felt so happy and delighted with my discovery,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
that I immediately followed up the clue, and com<\/span>menced\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
writing this, my book, and forgetting food and\u00a0sleep,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
finished the draft at 8 a.m., on Wednesday, the\u00a028th October, 1914,<\/span><\/em>
when the thunder pealed and the lightning flashed.\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
The revision and re-writing of my\u00a0book was completed\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
after seven days and seven nights\u00a0ceaseless labour,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
on the Ist November, 1914, after\u00a0which, I rested for three days.\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
I know that without\u00a0God’s inspiration and help, it would\u00a0<\/span><\/em>
have been impossible\u00a0for me to write this book as I have done.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Tse\u2019s book tried to eliminate the notion that Christianity in China was a device of Western powers, especially at a time when the West was strong-arming a weak China into making\u00a0coastal concessions. Tse places the location of Eden in the far west of China, known as Chinese Turkestan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tse Tsan Tai also supported the reformation of traditional time-honored practices in China. He worked with Alicia Little, a British novelist, missionary, and reformer, to eradicate the practice of foot binding. This particular copy at Harvard was sent to Alicia Little by Tse to help promote his Eden theory. The accompanied letters are tipped in at the beginning of the book.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
Description:<\/dt>\n
Tse Tsan Tai. The creation :the real situation of Eden, and the origin of the Chinese.\u00a0Hongkong : Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., printers and publishers, 1914.<\/span>\u00a0<\/dd>\n
Persistent Link:<\/dt>\n
http:\/\/nrs.harvard.edu\/urn-3:FHCL:13614580<\/a><\/dd>\n
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Repository:<\/dt>\n
Widener Library<\/dd>\n
Institution:<\/dt>\n
Harvard University<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tse Tsan-tai (1872-1938) was known as a revolutionary, newspaperman, social and political reformer, scholar, businessman, journalist, inventor, historian, and Christian theologian. Born in Sydney and baptised James Yee, Tse moved to Hong Kong with his family where he received his formal education. As a young revolutionary, he started the Furen Literary Society, espousing the guiding\u00a0principals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2559,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3011"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3053,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3011\/revisions\/3053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/preserving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}