世界日報
- Headquarters of the Zhenwei Combined Third and Fourth Army Groups
- Bound Volume of the World Daily Supplement
- Living English Readers
This page of the Beijing World Daily for 13 October 1926 carried a notice from the Fengtian army's combined Third and Fourth Army Group headquarters. It said that quartering troops inside the city had been a temporary expedient and that they would move elsewhere now that order in the capital was returning. It also admitted that unruly soldiers might still harass residents and began to explain how victims should report harm. Beside it, an advertisement offered monthly bound volumes of the paper's literary supplement, about 120 pages and more than 150 pieces each, and listed poems, fiction, a short play and essays. An advertisement promoted Lawrence Faucett's Living English, a six-volume junior middle school course. It stressed the direct and oral methods, exercises for every skill and Craigie pronunciation marks. The reading covers only parts of these items.
The reading covers three excerpts taken from a badly garbled OCR candidate. Only the first column of the military notice was transcribed because its columns are cut at the tile boundary, so the instructions to victims break off mid-sentence. The supplement advertisement's price and contents list are only partly legible, and the boundaries between titles are uncertain. The opening and closing words of the Living English advertisement are also fragmentary. This edition leaves out the darkened medicine advertisements on the right edge, the small-print bookseller agency list and the telephone bureau notice.
Translation
Headquarters of the Zhenwei Combined Third and Fourth Army Groups
Notice of the Headquarters of the Zhenwei Combined Third and Fourth Army Groups. Whereas: the stationing of this army within the city was originally a temporary expedient, and we are well aware that soldiers and civilians alike have found it inconvenient. Now that order in the capital is gradually being restored and public security is no longer in doubt, we shall select suitable locations and move elsewhere forthwith. We fear, however, that our inspections may not have been thorough, and it is hard to rule out that lawless soldiers may disregard law and discipline and harass the neighborhoods. Should anyone be harmed, they should, in accordance with this headquarters' two previous notices, [?] state their full name in detail, plus postage of a 2-fen stamp
Bound Volume of the World Daily Supplement
Each bound volume sells for 2 in silver dollars, plus postage of 2-fen stamps. … are likewise mostly [?] scholars of the day. The bound volume gathers a month's contents into a single book; its printing and binding are extremely fine, entirely different from the ordinary binding of old newspapers, crude in form. Each volume runs to about 120 pages, with more than 150 works; its contents are rich, giving [?] weight to both learning and interest. Every young person should have a copy for after-school hours. Baiwu Poems [?] Sixteen Items; Rain (fiction); The Thunder God (short play); Seven Miscellaneous Reflections; Liang Rengong [?] [?]; Four Miscellaneous Essays; A Faint Sigh; In a Small Restaurant; Mr. Zhou; The Manager of the Liansheng Shop; Diary on Horseback, with Preface; Exactly Three O'Clock; Translated Songs, [?] pieces; Miscellaneous Essays; Love Songs Imitating Things
Living English Readers
Two large sheets daily [?] [?] hundred and eighty-fifth issue. LIVING ENGLISH By LAWRENCE FAUCETT, B. D., M. A. Edited by FONG F. SEC, M. A., LL. D. The most advanced textbook for English in junior middle schools. Its material is practical — exactly suited to the psychology and interests of Chinese students; its arrangement is lively — removing every difficulty of first learning a foreign language. Living English Readers, complete in six volumes; Volume 1 now published, price 8 jiao. In English teaching, what matters is being able to use the language. This book adopts the most advanced methods of teaching foreign languages, applying the direct method and the oral method to things within the surroundings of teacher and pupils, as the occasion suits, so that interest arises continually and real results come easily. Each lesson is divided into text, pronunciation, idioms, grammar, dictation, conversation, translation, penmanship, composition and other exercises, so that pupils have ample opportunity to practise with ears, eyes, hands and mouths. The whole book marks pronunciation with Craigie's symbols, making pronunciation especially easy. The editor taught English at St. John's University for many years and knows well how to relieve Chinese students first learning English of … [?] shunning the obscure and unfamiliar
Context
Why Fengtian troops were quartered inside Beijing in 1926
The headquarters that issued the notice was the joint command the Fengtian clique set up after Guo Songling's mutiny was suppressed. Han Linchun took over the 4th Front Army that Jiang Dengxuan had led and formed a joint command with Zhang Xueliang's 3rd Front Army. That is the combined '3rd and 4th' army group named in the notice. The Anti-Fengtian War of 1925–26 ended in defeat for Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun and the end of the provisional executive government. Zhang Xueliang's army occupied the capital, and Wu Peifu's troops arrived a little later. The occupiers sacked Beijing, causing great chaos and the collapse of much of the Beiyang government's bureaucracy. Zhang and Han went on fighting the Guominjun at Changping in Beijing, and Han's command did not defeat it until August. Read against that record, the notice's call to move out because order in the capital was 'gradually being restored' was addressed to residents who had lived through the occupation and the looting. Its statement that security was no longer in doubt is the command's own assessment.
How the joint command handled soldiers' misconduct
The notice concedes that inspections might not have been thorough and that lawless soldiers could still disregard discipline and harass neighborhoods. It directs victims to follow two earlier notices from the headquarters, apparently by giving their full names in writing. The transcribed column breaks off before the procedure is complete. The same two commanders had already acted against looting. When Wu Junsheng's army pillaged the surrounding area during the August fighting, Han and Zhang removed Wu and the other officers involved. The notice fits the joint command's effort to appear disciplined, though the page alone cannot show whether any complaint was acted on. The pressure on the Fengtian leadership was growing at the time. The Kuomintang had launched its Northern Expedition in July 1926, and on 1 December 1926, less than two months after this notice, Zhang Zuolin became commander-in-chief of the administration he had installed to lead the Beiyang government.
Liu Bannong's World Daily supplement
The literary supplement whose bound volumes are advertised here was run by Liu Bannong, a poet and linguist. He studied in England and France from 1920 to 1925 and then returned to China to teach at university. According to Yuan Yidan's study of Liu, in 1926, soon after coming home, Liu accepted his old friend Cheng Shewo's invitation to run the World Daily supplement. The appointment drew a protest from an old New Culture ally. When Qian Xuantong saw the announcement, he protested that he did not want his writing to appear alongside the likes of Mingzhu and Chunming waishi. Yuan observes that Liu presented the supplement as a mix of teaching and entertainment but leaned toward learning when he had to choose between learning and interest. This advertisement uses the same pairing to sell the volumes to students. Yuan also notes that Liu's editorship lasted little more than half a year, so these monthly volumes collect a short-lived experiment.
Lawrence Faucett and the Living English readers
Lawrence Faucett, the author named in the advertisement, went to China in 1922 and began work as an assistant professor of English at St. John's University in Shanghai, an Episcopalian institution. In July 1925 he resigned from the Episcopalian mission. The advertisement says the editor taught at St. John's 'for many years', but the Warwick biography records only these few years from 1922 to 1925. Faucett was basically an advocate of 'Direct' principles of teaching. He was also a committed advocate of a pronunciation-mark system devised by William Craigie and promoted it through publications issued by the Commercial Press in Shanghai. Those commitments match the advertisement's direct and oral methods and its use of 'Craigie's symbols'. The biography says the four Living English Readers were published, though at an uncertain date. This advertisement offers a six-volume set with Volume 1 already published, so the newspaper dates a first volume on sale by October 1926 and shows a different series plan from the one in the biography. The co-editor, Fong F. Sec, was Chief Editor of the Commercial Press, which later published his Step by Step readers with Faucett.
Original
鎭威第三四方面聯合軍團司令部
鎮威第三四方面聯合軍團司令部佈告照得本軍駐守城內原屬一時權宜之計深知軍民均感不便目下京師秩序逐漸恢復治安無虞自當採擇相當地點即行遷移他處惟誠恐查察未周難免有不逞軍人罔遵法紀擾害閭閻倘有被害之人應遵照本部前兩次佈告 [?] 明詳細姓名加郵費二分郵票
世界日報副刊合訂本
合訂本每本實售大洋二加郵費二分郵票者， 亦多一時 [?] 學之士， 合訂本乃彙集一月所載， 裝爲一冊， 印刷裝潢， 均極精美， 與尋常以舊報裝訂， 形式粗劣者， 完全不同， 每冊約一百二十頁， 作品在一百五十種以上， 內容豐富， 講學與趣味 [?] 重， 青年課餘， 所當人手一編也。 白屋詩 [?] 十六則雨 （小說） 雷神 （短劇） 雜感七首梁任公 [?] [?] 雜文四篇輕微的歎欵小飯店裏周先生連陞店掌櫃馬上日記並序正三點譯歌 [?] 篇雜文擬物的情歌
英語活用讀本
每日兩大張 [?] [?] 百八十五號 LIVING ENGLISH By LAWRENCE FAUCETT, B. D., M. A. Edited by FONG F. SEC, M. A., LL. D. 最進步的初級中學英語科用書取材切實 - - 恰能適合中國學生的心理和興趣編制活潑 - - 化除初習外國語時之一切困難英語活用讀本全書六冊第一冊出版定價八角英語教學， 貴能活用， 此書採取最進步的教授外國語方法， 就師生環境所及之事物， 用直接法及口演法， 因時致用， 故能興趣環生， 易收實效。 每課分課文， 讀音， 習語， 文法， 默聽， 會話， 繙譯， 書法， 構思以及其他練習， 務使學童在耳目手口上， 均有充分的練習機會。 全書用克賚基符號注音， 俾發音格外便利。 編者曾任聖約翰大學英語科講席多年， 深知如何解除中國學生初習英語下忌生冷