From Michael ;
Hi JR,
I've kept these books that I found in one of my dad's boxes a long time ago. I always thought that they were my grandmother's, but after reading your blog about Jue Shee, I wonder if they may have been his. There is a name in Chinese and what looks like the initials "J. S.", which doesn't really fit with my grandmother's name. I could be completely wrong and these were from my mom's side of the family though. Mom, do you remember who these belonged to? The neat thing is that the copyright dates are 1901 and 1902. These are over 100 years old! 1901 and 1902 would correspond to the time that he was at Cal. It's pretty amazing that we have so many Cal alums in our family spanning something like 95 years. Anyway, maybe Auntie Soo-Yin remembers seeing these too.
We'll see all of you tomorrow in Phoenix!
Michael
edited 6/11/2012 Recently we obtained from Pomona University, Jue Shee's Pomona transcript. These textbooks were from a course he took in college prep ( high school level) elementary chemistry at Pomona Prep School in 1904. More information about new discoveries concerning Jue Shee's academic career can be found here.
These ARE Jew Shee's books, wow!!! Thanks for sharing them with us, Michael. I remember thumbing through those books on the Jue Joe Ranch. The first written Chinese character is: "Jew" (Jue). The second written Chinese character is: "Shee." Jew Shee used an enlarged small "s" when capitalizing the romanization of that letter. And he spelled his surname as "Jew," not Jue. He romanized his full name this way in another book, which was a philosophy book on "Humanism." His given birth name, "Shee" ("Shi," in Mandarin) means: "MAN OF THE EARTH" ("earth" meaning soil, land, ground), according to the Chinese Dictionary. The left half of the Shee calligraphy is the root symbol for "male." It depicts the sideview of a man. The right half of the calligraphy is one of many phonetic sounds for "earth." This one is "shi" pronounced with a "downward" tone above the letter "i." Jew Shee certainly lived up to his name by becoming a Mining Engineer. Auntie Soo-Yin.
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ReplyDeleteCORRECTION: I deleted the 2nd and 3rd comments in order to write a more clear comment: The online CEDICT Chinese/English Dictionary, by Paul Denisowski, shows the "Shee" (Shi) calligraphy EXACTLY the way Jew Shee writes it. You can go online and type in "an official" and you will see the same Chinese calligraphy as was written by Jew Shee in Michael's book. The MDBG Dictionary only shows the "Shi" phonetic character without the radical "man" symbol as a component, and this shi when standing alone means "scholar."
ReplyDeleteCORRECTION #2: So Jew Shee's given birth name of Shee (Shi)really means "AN OFFICIAL, OR A SCHOLAR/OFFICIAL," not Man of the Earth. And "Shee" is pronounced with a downward 4th tone above the letter "i." Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteOK, OK, CORRECTION #3: The MDBG Dictionary does show Jew Shee's calligraphy for "Shee" (Shi) exactly as he wrote it in his chemistry book that Michael has. It's the same as the CEDICT version because it is an expansion of that earlier dictionary. If you type in "an official" you will get the word with left-side radical for man and right-side character for scholar. The definition is the same in MDBG as well as CEDICT, "an official, or scholar/official." Auntie Soo-Yin.
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