Edward Harper Parker (3July 18491926) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

barrister and

sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

who wrote a number of books on the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

s and other Chinese topics. On his return to England he ended his career as a university professor.

Biography

He was educated at the Royal Institution School, Liverpool, and became a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

. He intended to engage in the tea trade, studied Chinese, and from 1869 to 1871, in the character of

student interpreter Student interpreter was, historically, an entry-level position in the British and American diplomatic and consular service, principally in China, Japan, Siam and, in the case of the United States, Turkey. It is no longer used as a title. A number o ...

, he traveled in

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

, and afterwards served at the British consulates in

Wenchow Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou �y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east o ...

, Fusan, and

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, and traveled in

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

, Eastern Asia, and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. He retired from the consular service in 1895, became reader in Chinese at

University College, Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

, in 1896, and in 1901 was appointed to a chair in Chinese at

Owens College Owens may refer to: Places in the United States *Owens Station, Delaware *Owens Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota *Owens, Missouri *Owens, Ohio *Owens, Virginia People * Owens (surname), including a list of people with the name * Owens Bro ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. This chair was part-time and he held it until his death.

Intellectual contributions

In his day, he was well known as a popular interpreter of current and historical events. But his greatest contribution historically may turn out to be an unusual outlook on colloquial Chinese language. He identified, most significantly, "characterless words" in Cantonese and Hakka, among other dialect groups. Chinese historical linguistics, as practiced both natively and among Westerners, did not begin taking these words seriously until almost the present day. (a
JSTOR
too)

Works

* ''Comparative Chinese Family Law'' (1879) * ''The Opium W'' ar'' (1887)
''Chinese Account of the Opium War'' (1888)
* ''China's Relations with Foreigners'' (1888)
''Up the Yangtsze'' (1892)

''Burma'' (1893)

''A Thousand Years of the Tartars'' (1895)

''The life, labours and doctrines of Confucius'' (1897)
* ''China'' (1901)
''John Chinaman'' (1901)

''China, Past and Present'' (1903)

''China and Religion'' (1905)

''Ancient China Simplified'' (1908)

''Studies in Chinese Religion''
(1910)
''China, her history, diplomacy, and commerce: from the earliest times to the present day'' (1917)
https://archive.org/details/chinaherhistory02parkgoog

References

;Attribution * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Edward Harper 1849 births 1926 deaths Academics of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology Academics of the University of Manchester British sinologists English barristers People educated at the Royal Institution School