A String of Chinese Peach-Stones

This Victorian account of Chinese society and politics focuses particularly on the customs and rituals of rural life.

Cornaby's work represents an important attempt to expand Western knowledge of central China in the late nineteenth century. Touching on folklore, topography, daily rituals and social norms as well as the devastating effects of the Taiping Rebellion, the Methodist missionary carefully documents Chinese society, focusing especially on a farming village.William Arthur Cornaby (1860–1921) was born in London and educated at the School of Mines before training as a Methodist minister. In 1885 Cornaby was sent as a missionary to Wuhan, central China, and A String of Chinese Peach-Stones (1895) was inspired by his experiences. Cornaby explains that his title suggests that the reader possesses 'a collection of desiccated tales, legends, and the like, picked up here and there along the highways and byways of China'. Cornaby's work covers the period 1849–1867, and discusses the major episodes of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) as well as providing a detailed account of village life in central China, with its farm work, foods, festivals, customs and rituals that remains of interest to anthropologists and historians today. Cornaby's aim was to educate his English readers and to interest them in the culture that so dominated his own life and work.