A Visit to Peking.

Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press,, 1879. Scarce offprint of this piece by one of the first America missionaries posted to China, including attractive plans of the Temple of Heaven and the Altar of Agriculture. On a visit to Beijing in 1878, Happer obtained access to the city's temples, normally off-limits to foreigners, and shed new light on the ceremonies at the core of Qing state religion. Happer (1818-1894) arrived in Macao in 1844 and spent the majority of his life building churches, hospitals, and schools in Guangzhou, founding the Canton Christian College (later Lingnan University) in 1888. This article was first published in the China Recorder, Volume X, Number 1, in the same year. He edited the highly respected journal between 1880 and 1884. Octavo. Altar plans and Chinese characters in text, decorative head- and tailpieces. Original purple wrappers, front cover lettered in black, gatherings sewn and glued into wrappers as issued. Contemporary pressmark at head of front cover. Wrappers chipped and worn, creasing and toning internally: a very good copy of a fragile publication. Cordier 216.