http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/language-a-key-to-survival/13440/zhu-english-through-the-vernaculars-of-the-canton-and-shiuhing-prefectures-c1857-c1862/
http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/language-a-key-to-survival/13443/zhu-english-through-the-vernaculars-of-the-canton-and-shiuhing-prefectures-c1862/
廣肇英語 (English through the Vernaculars of the Canton and Shuihing Prefectures, Guang-zhao yingyu), unknown publisher, 228 pages, c1862.
朱瑞生's (Zhu Rui-sheng) phrasebook very interesting. It instantly reminded me of 華英通語 Chinese-English Phrasebook (1855) and Fukuzawa Kukichi's revision (1860) (http://project.lib.keio.ac.
Zhu was a student of James Legge and a graduate of Anglo-Chinese College (second class at the end of 1850, registered as 朱亞祿 Chü A-luk) and in 1855 was sent to Australia to spread the gospel among the Chinese (the preface mentioned God).
I think you can find more information about him in the archives and reports of London Missionary Society in Hong Kong.
The Chinese font types look very familiar with LMS's ones. Meanwhile not too long before the Australian voyage, James Legge sent five students to California to carry out the same mission in 1853. 華英通語 Chinese-English Phrasebook (1855) may be connected with them.
his name was also mentioned in Wang Tao's diary that he taught someone the English language in Hong Kong.
Zhou Zhenhe of Fudan links Zhu's phrasebook with various phrasebooks and dictionaries published in Canton, California, New York, Hong Kong, and Shanghai from 1840 to 1870s. It makes very good sense to me about Chinese diaspora and English learning. Zhu's phrasebook fills in the gap perfectly.
I did a bit more research on Zhu. Interestingly both sides, dictionary/cultural exchange study and missionary study, are not good friends yet. He is frequently mentioned in missionary scholarship but it seems no mention about his phrasebook at all, not even Ian Welch, whom I guess you know.
Zhu left Victoria mission in March 1858 and continued to serve LMS in Hong Kong and later Hankou in 1860s. It makes much sense that he published the phrasebook in 1862, the same year his senior graduate in Anglo-Chinese College Tong King-sing (two years senior than Zhu only. I guess they must have known each other in school, not close definitely) published his 英語集全 (unlike Zhou, no God in his preface).
John Corbin, Ever Working, Never Resting; a Memoir of J Legg Poore (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1874), pp.
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Ever_working_never_resting_a_memoir_of_J_Legg_Poor?id=vp0HAAAAQAAJ&hl=am
1855
"A few weeks ago I received from Hong-Kong, through the wise liberality of my former Flock in Salford, chiefly from the young, 2000 copies of the New Testament in Chinese. I was very glad to get them; but here arose a difficulty. The Chinese landed at Melbourne, and passed into the interior after two or three days spent in equipping themselves for their journey and toil. At such a time they are not likely to give heed to moral teaching. If the New Testament were given to them, ignorant of its value, they would not burden themselves with it on the long and trying journey before them; besides which, if they were disposed to receive it, I could not act the colporteur. The books, therefore, remained on hand. Mrs. Poore, eager for the good of these poor wanderers, urged me to do something, and thought I was unrighteously withholding the precious gift. I had at a venture sent off one box, containing two hundred Testaments, to Castlemaine, and was anxiously pondering - what next? when lo! in the shipping intelligence was a paragraph that two Chinese evangelists had arrived from Hong-Kong, bringing introductory letter to me. This was startling. In due time I found them, and to my great delight the letters were from Dr. Legge, informing me that they had been under his care for more than ten years, and were of undoubted piety and considerable literary attainments. One of them, Ho-a-Low, is twenty years of age, and (p. 206) has especially a scholarly knowledge of his own language, able to translate Chinese into English, and vice versa, with ease, as also to speak readily in English: both have, indeed, this latter gift. The uncle of Ho-a-Low is chief Chinese preacher in Hong-Kong. Chu-a-Luk is twenty-three: his father is the senior member of the Church in Hong-Kong, he nad his companion being members also. Dr. Legge had encouraged them to come to Victoria, because, owing to the insurrection, free evangelical labour is greatly restricted, and in the hope that they would find employment here as interpreters, or even be engaged as evangelists to their countrymen. This was the great desire of his heart." (p. 207)
From William Young to the Rev. J. L. Poore, Secretary to the Committee for Promoting the Evangelisation of the Chinese, Melbourne
"...the first attempt at opening public Christian worship in Chinese. Having ascertained the willingness of the people to attend, the first thing to consider was the getting a suitable place in which to assemble. Of the few places that could be used for such a purpose, none appeared so eligible as the Mechanics' Institute. Upon application by Rev. Mr. Wells, the committee of that Institute, in a prompt and generous manner, allowed the free use of the building for the convening of the Chinese for the above-mentioned object. On the fifteenth of last month, our first Sabbath in Castlemaine, at nine o'clock a.m., Ho-a-Low, who was to conduct the religious (p. 213) exercises of the forenoon, was stationed at the Mechanics' Institute, to invite the Chinese, who might be passing at the time, to attend; while Chu-a-Luk and myself assisted by Wat-a-Che, went to the tents of the Chinese diggers, to persuade them to come to Divine service. Between forty and forty-five attended; ten others came late. The exercises commenced by singing a hymn; a chapter from the New Testament was read, and a prayer was offered; next followed a colloquial explanation of part of the chapter read; then a second hymn was sung, and we closed with a short prayer. The people listened with attention, and manifested the greatest decorum the whole time. At the close they were told there would be a similar service at three p.m., and their attendance was solicited. They went away pleased, and promised to come again in the afternoon. At the appointed time we went, as in the morning, to their tents, and piloted a goodly number to the place of worship. Chu-a-Luk conducted service; the order was the same as in the morning, and the number of hearers nearly the same. (p. 214)
...
No opposition has as yet been shown them by their countrymen. Chu-a-Luk, in particular, has such a number of relatives and acquaintances at these diggings, as to make his work peculiarly smooth and pleasant. They seem to hail his coming among them with delight, and it requires little persuasion on his part to induce them to attend our Sabbath engagements. (p. 215)
1856
"At the end of June, Mr. Poore was busy preparing for the anniversary of the Chinese Mission. The experiment had now been tried for a year. The results were satisfactory, and the friends of the mission were hopeful. The bishop, Dr. Perry, was away from the colony when the mission was established; but he had (p. 228) now returned, and gave to it his countenance and advocacy. Mr. Poore, having an engagement at Castlemaine, had taken occasion to go to the scene of the evangelists' labours, that he might see, hear, and judge for himself. It was on a Sunday afternoon that he went to the Chinese service. He found Chu-a-Luk conducting the service, and 130 Chinese present. He could only describe it as "a wonderfully blessed spectacle." (p. 229)
智環啓蒙 1856年第3號 砵非力金山地志 Hongkong to Port Philip - notes on the voyage and observatins at the gold diggings (communicated from Melbourne by a Chinese)
As far as I know or guess, Zhu Ruisheng may be a son of Zhu Qing 朱清 (or Choo Tsing, 1790-?, baptized by Robert Morrison in 1832) or Zhu Tak-leung 朱德郎 (or Choo Tih-lang, baptized Medhurst in England in 1838). In his Chinese Christians: elites, middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong, Carl T. Smith mentioned both of them.
I recall you know Zhu Qing already. The most detailed description about his life and baptism is in Su Ching's Open up, China!: studies on Robert Morrison and his circle (in Chinese), pp. 261-8.
Zhu Tak-leung was well known in his time and mentioned in Alexander Wylie's Memorials of Protestant Missionaries to the Chinese (p. 40). A painting of Medhurst and him was used as the frontspiece of Medhurst's China, Its State and Prospects, included in Brian Harrison's Waiting for China: the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, 1818-1843, and early nineteenth-century missions, and as the cover of Ulrike Hillemann’s Asian Empire and British Knowledge.
However, I am not so sure either of them was Zhu Ruisheng's father given "his father is the senior member of the Church in Hong-Kong" I think the materials you found in the LMS collection might have something related to this as you said.
John Corbin, Ever Working, Never Resting; a Memoir of J Legg Poore (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1874), pp.
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Ever_working_never_resting_a_memoir_of_J_Legg_Poor?id=vp0HAAAAQAAJ&hl=am
1855
"A few weeks ago I received from Hong-Kong, through the wise liberality of my former Flock in Salford, chiefly from the young, 2000 copies of the New Testament in Chinese. I was very glad to get them; but here arose a difficulty. The Chinese landed at Melbourne, and passed into the interior after two or three days spent in equipping themselves for their journey and toil. At such a time they are not likely to give heed to moral teaching. If the New Testament were given to them, ignorant of its value, they would not burden themselves with it on the long and trying journey before them; besides which, if they were disposed to receive it, I could not act the colporteur. The books, therefore, remained on hand. Mrs. Poore, eager for the good of these poor wanderers, urged me to do something, and thought I was unrighteously withholding the precious gift. I had at a venture sent off one box, containing two hundred Testaments, to Castlemaine, and was anxiously pondering - what next? when lo! in the shipping intelligence was a paragraph that two Chinese evangelists had arrived from Hong-Kong, bringing introductory letter to me. This was startling. In due time I found them, and to my great delight the letters were from Dr. Legge, informing me that they had been under his care for more than ten years, and were of undoubted piety and considerable literary attainments. One of them, Ho-a-Low, is twenty years of age, and (p. 206) has especially a scholarly knowledge of his own language, able to translate Chinese into English, and vice versa, with ease, as also to speak readily in English: both have, indeed, this latter gift. The uncle of Ho-a-Low is chief Chinese preacher in Hong-Kong. Chu-a-Luk is twenty-three: his father is the senior member of the Church in Hong-Kong, he nad his companion being members also. Dr. Legge had encouraged them to come to Victoria, because, owing to the insurrection, free evangelical labour is greatly restricted, and in the hope that they would find employment here as interpreters, or even be engaged as evangelists to their countrymen. This was the great desire of his heart." (p. 207)
From William Young to the Rev. J. L. Poore, Secretary to the Committee for Promoting the Evangelisation of the Chinese, Melbourne
"...the first attempt at opening public Christian worship in Chinese. Having ascertained the willingness of the people to attend, the first thing to consider was the getting a suitable place in which to assemble. Of the few places that could be used for such a purpose, none appeared so eligible as the Mechanics' Institute. Upon application by Rev. Mr. Wells, the committee of that Institute, in a prompt and generous manner, allowed the free use of the building for the convening of the Chinese for the above-mentioned object. On the fifteenth of last month, our first Sabbath in Castlemaine, at nine o'clock a.m., Ho-a-Low, who was to conduct the religious (p. 213) exercises of the forenoon, was stationed at the Mechanics' Institute, to invite the Chinese, who might be passing at the time, to attend; while Chu-a-Luk and myself assisted by Wat-a-Che, went to the tents of the Chinese diggers, to persuade them to come to Divine service. Between forty and forty-five attended; ten others came late. The exercises commenced by singing a hymn; a chapter from the New Testament was read, and a prayer was offered; next followed a colloquial explanation of part of the chapter read; then a second hymn was sung, and we closed with a short prayer. The people listened with attention, and manifested the greatest decorum the whole time. At the close they were told there would be a similar service at three p.m., and their attendance was solicited. They went away pleased, and promised to come again in the afternoon. At the appointed time we went, as in the morning, to their tents, and piloted a goodly number to the place of worship. Chu-a-Luk conducted service; the order was the same as in the morning, and the number of hearers nearly the same. (p. 214)
...
No opposition has as yet been shown them by their countrymen. Chu-a-Luk, in particular, has such a number of relatives and acquaintances at these diggings, as to make his work peculiarly smooth and pleasant. They seem to hail his coming among them with delight, and it requires little persuasion on his part to induce them to attend our Sabbath engagements. (p. 215)
1856
"At the end of June, Mr. Poore was busy preparing for the anniversary of the Chinese Mission. The experiment had now been tried for a year. The results were satisfactory, and the friends of the mission were hopeful. The bishop, Dr. Perry, was away from the colony when the mission was established; but he had (p. 228) now returned, and gave to it his countenance and advocacy. Mr. Poore, having an engagement at Castlemaine, had taken occasion to go to the scene of the evangelists' labours, that he might see, hear, and judge for himself. It was on a Sunday afternoon that he went to the Chinese service. He found Chu-a-Luk conducting the service, and 130 Chinese present. He could only describe it as "a wonderfully blessed spectacle." (p. 229)
智環啓蒙 1856年第3號 砵非力金山地志 Hongkong to Port Philip - notes on the voyage and observatins at the gold diggings (communicated from Melbourne by a Chinese)
