Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat

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Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat
Silvestre de Sacy
Notable studentsFulgence Fresnel
Stanislas Julien
Chinese name
Hanyu Pinyin
Léi Mùshā
Iu-kiao-li: or, the Two Fair Cousins
by Abel-Rémusat, titled Iu-kiao-li, ou les deux cousines

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

sinologist best known as the first Chair of Sinology at the Collège de France.[1] Rémusat studied medicine as a young man, but his discovery of a Chinese herbal treatise enamored him with the Chinese language, 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 Collège de France
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

Latin on the nature of Chinese characters and Classical Chinese entitled "Utrum Lingua Sinica sit vere monosyllabica? Disputatio philologica, in qua de Grammatica Sinica obiter agiture; autore Abelo de Remusat".[2]

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

Nestorian Stele, and both Chinese and Manchu editions of the accounts of the life of Confucius.[7] 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).[8] This work was the first scientific exposition of the Chinese language in Europe, and was later praised by Henri Maspero as "the first [work] in 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."[9]

Rémusat became an editor of the

Société asiatique at Paris in 1822; he also held various Government appointments.[4]

In 1826, Rémusat published Iu-kiao-li, ou les deux cousines, roman chinois (Yu Jiao Li, titled in English as

Quérard's France littéraire s.v. Rémusat. His letters to Wilhelm von Humboldt are also of interest.[4] In 1829, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.[12]

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.[13] He completed the first volume, "Classics", in 1832, but contracted cholera and died before it was printed.[13] 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, Seine-et-Marne.

Selected works

Much of the bibliography above has been drawn from Schlagintweit.[14]

In addition, Rémusat's practical and scholarly contributions in bringing the Dutch

Japanologist Isaac Titsingh's unfinished manuscripts to posthumous publication deserve acknowledgment. These works include Nihon Ōdai Ichiran
(日本王代一覧, "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.

See also

References

Footnotes
  1. ^ Pouillon, François. (2008). Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française, p. 810.
  2. ^ a b Honey (2001): 26.
  3. ^ Kistner, Otto (1869). "Full title of Essai sur la langue et la littérature chinoises". Buddha and his doctrines: a bibliographical essay. London: Tübner & Co. p. 27.
  4. ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911.
  5. ^ Honey (2001): 26-7.
  6. ^ Honey (2001): 27.
  7. ^ Honey (2001): 27-8.
  8. ^ Honey (2001): 28.
  9. ^ Henri Maspero, "La Chaire de Langues et Littératures chi noises et tartares-mandchoues", cited in Honey (2001): 28.
  10. ^ Abel-Rémusat (1817).
  11. JSTOR 2561081
    .
  12. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
  13. ^ a b Honey (2001): 29.
  14. ^ Schlagintweit, Emil (1863), Buddhism in Tibet, Leipzig: Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, Appendix A.
Works cited
  • Honey, David B. (2001). Incense at the Altar: Pioneering Sinologists and the Development of Classical Chinese Philology. American Oriental Series 86. New Haven, Connecticut: American Oriental Society.
Attribution

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rémusat, Jean Pierre Abel" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links

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