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 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 Wars 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 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 ...

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

, and traveled in

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, Eastern Asia, and North America. He retired from the consular service in 1895, became reader in Chinese at University College, Liverpool, in 1896, and in 1901 was appointed to a chair in Chinese at Owens College, Manchester. 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