Add Or 2084-2106

Add.Or.2084-2106

23 drawings of the Honam Temple, Honam Island, bound into a volume with Add.Or.2107-2196.

By a Canton artist, c.1800-05.

All inscribed: ‘Joss House, Honam.’

Gouache, except for Add.Or.2106 which is in pen-and-ink.

Deposited c.1806.

Note: Honam Island, dividing the north-south channels of the Pearl River, lay opposite the British Factory in the suburbs of Canton. Lord Macartney’s embassy stayed there from 19 December 1793 to 8 January 1794. Macartney noted in his journal, ‘Our quarters are in an island, opposite to the English Factory, which is situated on the mainland in the suburbs of the city of Canton. The river that divides us is about half a mile broad. These quarters consist of several pavilions or separate buildings, very spacious and convenient, and some of them fitted in the English manner with glass windows and firegrates, which latter at this season, although we are on the edge of the tropic, are very comfortable pieces of furniture. Our habitations are in the midst of a large garden, adorned with ponds and parterres, and with flowers, trees, and shrubs, curious either from rarity or beauty. On one side of us is a magnificent ‘miao,’ or bronze temple, and on the other a large edifice from the top of which is a very fine view of the river and shipping, the city, and the country to a great extent’(J.L. Cranmer-Byng, ‘An Embassy to China’ (London, 1962), p.204).

The temple referred to in this passage is the ‘Temple of the Sea-Pennant’. It was a favourite spot amongst the foreign merchants at Canton for excursions. It consisted of a whole complex of small temples, pavilions, residential quarters for monks, as well as study rooms and stores for sacred Buddhist texts, all set in a walled enclosure. The garden contained a very old plant, ‘the eagle-claw orchid,’ which antedated the temple. There was a magnificent panorama from the temple which could be viewed from a special building (see Add.Or.2101).

The present set of drawings depicts the various parts of the temple; one drawing (Add.Or.2106) shows the whole temple-complex. Some of the buildings are inscribed with their names in Chinese characters, rough translations of which are given below. Add.Or.2139-62 is a similar set with minor variations.