Was my forebear's Mandarin dictionary any good?

[kjthistory]

One of my ggg-grandfathers had a brother named George Carter Stent, who was born in Canterbury (Kent, England) about 1831. As part of my family history research, I'm writing up a narrative of his life.

Amongst a number of other works, in 1871 George published "A Chinese and English Vocabulary in the Pekinese Dialect" followed in 1874 by "A Chinese

Comments

[klausnick]

Stent's ability in studying Chinese, and particularly his aptitude for its colloquial form, attracted the attention and encouragement of the then British Minister (Sir) Thomas Wade.

In March 1869, he was recruited into the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, which was then being extensively reorganized and expanded under its second and most exceptional leader, Sir Robert Hart..
Stent's proficiency in colloquial Chinese was quickly put to use by the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs (CMC) which published his Chinese and English Vocabulary in the Pekinese Dialect in Shanghai in 1871. This became a very popular desk-book for the would-be speaker of Chinese, or the reader of Chinese light literature, and is seen as his major literary work.

During his time with the CMC, Stent seems to have spent much time exploring the Chinese language, particularly through its popular culture. In 1872 he contributed two articles to the Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of which he was a member (thus MNCBRAS): the first was entitled Chinese Legends; the second, entitled Chinese Lyrics, was later translated into German and published in Leipzig in 1875.

In 1874, Stent published his more conveniently-sized Chinese and English Pocket Dictionary. In the same year, W H Allen & Co of London published his first book in England, The Jade Couplet in Twenty-Four Beads. A Collection of Songs, Ballads, &c. This book included translations of some of the old Chinese ballads about the Emperor Ming Huang [明皇] of the T'ang Dynasty.

[kjthistory]

Thanks for this; I've seen the Takao Club's write-up before and it is indeed very useful. However, I'm hoping that somebody can give me more information on George's reputation and the experience of using his dictionaries.