Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (; 5 September 1788 – 2 June 1832) was a French

sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

best known as the first Chair of Sinology at the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

. Rémusat studied medicine as a young man, but his discovery of a Chinese herbal treatise enamored him with the

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

, and he spent five years teaching himself to read it. After publishing several well-received articles on Chinese topics, a chair in Chinese was created at the

in 1814 and Rémusat was placed in it.

Life

Rémusat was born in Paris on 5 September 1788 and was educated for the medical profession, earning a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in medicine in 1813.Honey (2001): 26. While studying medicine, Rémusat discovered a Chinese herbal treatise in the collection of the Abbé Tersan and was immediately fascinated by it. He taught himself to read it by tirelessly studying the traditional Chinese dictionary '' Zhengzitong''. In 1811, at the end of five years of study, he produced the work ''Essai sur la langue et la littérature chinoises (Essay on Chinese language and literature)'', and a paper on foreign languages among the Chinese, which procured him the patronage of Silvestre de Sacy. In 1813, Rémusat published an essay in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

on the nature of

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

and

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...

entitled "Utrum Lingua Sinica sit vere monosyllabica? Disputatio philologica, in qua de Grammatica Sinica obiter agiture; autore Abelo de Remusat". Rémusat's early publications established his reputation in the academic community, and on November 29, 1814, a chair in Chinese was created for him at the

. This date, or, alternatively, the date of his inaugural lecture (January 16, 1815), has been termed "the birth-year of cademicsinology."Honey (2001): 27. Rémusat's course in Chinese at the Collège de France focused on lectures on grammar and the study of classical texts such as the '' Hallowed Documents (Shàngshū)'', the '' Laozi (Dao De Jing)'', the Nestorian Stele, and both Chinese and

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized Ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minority in China and the people from wh ...

editions of the accounts of the life of

Confucius Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...

. His lecture notes were eventually edited into book form, modeled on Joseph de Prémare's earlier grammar, and published in 1822 as ''Élémens de la grammaire chinoise, ou Principes généraux du Kou-wen ou style antique, et du Kouan-hou, c'est-à-dire, de la language commune généralement usitée dans l'empire chinois (Elements of Chinese Grammar, or General Principles of Gǔwén or Ancient Style, and of Guānhuà, that is to say, the Common Language Generally Used in the Chinese Empire)''.Honey (2001): 28. This work was the first scientific exposition of the Chinese language in Europe, and was later praised by Henri Maspero as "the first orkin which the grammar was isolated to take account of the proper spirit of the Chinese language, and not just as a translation exercise where all the grammatical forms of the European languages ..imposed their individual patterns." Rémusat became an editor of the '' Journal des savants'' in 1818. Amid other misunderstanding of his sources, his self-assured misreading of the Japanese ''mujintō'' (, "

desert island An uninhabited island, desert island, or deserted island, is an island, islet or atoll which lacks permanent human population. Uninhabited islands are often depicted in films or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes ...

) in an 1817 article for the journal was responsible for the name of the

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , is a list of islands of Japan, Japanese archipelago of over 30 subtropical and Island#Tropical islands, tropical islands located around SSE of Tokyo and northwest of Guam. The group as a whole has a total ...

. He was the founder and first secretary of the Société asiatique at Paris in 1822; he also held various Government appointments. In 1826, Rémusat published ''Iu-kiao-li, ou les deux cousines, roman chinois'' (''Yu Jiao Li'', titled in English as '' Iu-kiao-li: or, the Two Fair Cousins''), one of the first Chinese novels known in Europe (the Chinese original is a minor work, though). It was read by

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

and Stendhal. A list of his works is given in Quérard's ''France littéraire'' s.v. Rémusat. His letters to

Wilhelm von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a German philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1949, the university was named aft ...

are also of interest. In 1829, he was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. Around 1830 Rémusat was commissioned to inventory the Chinese items held in the French Royal Library, which inspired him to begin a translation of the bibliographical sections of the '' Wenxian tongkao'' to assist European scholars in studying Chinese scholarship.Honey (2001): 29. He completed the first volume, "Classics", in 1832, but contracted

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

and died before it was printed. Rémusat is buried along with his wife Jenny Lecamus – the daughter of Jean Lecamus, a former mayor of Paris – near the church of St. Fargeau in

Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Demographics Inhabitants of Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry are called ''Thierrypontains" or "Ferréopontains''. See also ...

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

. Rémusat was notably a lifelong "armchair Sinologist" who never actually set foot in China. This can in part be explained by him living during the time of China's isolationist Canton System (1757–1842), when Western traders were permitted only the barest minimum of contact with Chinese persons. A symbolic visit to Guangzhou might therefore have been less helpful for language and culture acquisition than it might initially appear.

Selected works

* . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . *
Vol. I
an
II
*
Vol. IIIIII
an
IV
from the novel by Zhang Yun during the early

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. *
Vol. I
an
II
* . * , Pt. I
II. Histoire du Tibet
istory of Tibet an
III. Histoire des Mongols
istory of the Mongols * , completed and expanded by Julius Klaproth and E.A.X.C. de Landresse. * . * , organized by a

Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

committee composed of C. B. Hase, J. B. F. Lajard, and Eugène Burnouf. * , a scholarly collection of his correspondence with

edited by Jean Rousseau and Denis Thouard. Much of the bibliography above has been drawn from Schlagintweit.. In addition, Rémusat's practical and scholarly contributions in bringing the Dutch

Japanologist , sometimes known as Japanology in Europe, is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese language, History of Japan, history, ...

Isaac Titsingh Isaac Titsingh FRS ( January 1745 – 2 February 1812) was a Dutch diplomat, historian, Japanologist, and merchant.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Isaak Titsingh" in . During a long career in East Asia, Titsingh was a senior official of the ...

's unfinished manuscripts to posthumous publication deserve acknowledgment. These works include '' Nihon Ōdai Ichiran'' (, ''Table of the rulers of Japan''), and also: * Rémusat, A., éditeur. ''Mémoires et Anecdotes sur la Dynastie régnante des Djogouns, Souverains du Japon, avec la description des fêtes et cérémonies observées aux différentes époques de l'année à la Cour de ces Princes, et un appendice contenant des détails sur la poésie des Japonais, leur manière de diviser l'année, etc.; Ouvrage orné de Planches gravées et coloriées, tiré des Originaux Japonais par M. Isaac Titsingh; publié avec des Notes et Eclaircissemens Par M. Abel Rémusat.'' Paris (Nepveu), 1820.

References

;Footnotes ;Works cited * Attribution:

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abel-Remusat, Jean-Pierre Academic staff of the Collège de France Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres French sinologists Members of the Société Asiatique Linguists from France 1788 births 1832 deaths Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales alumni International members of the American Philosophical Society