1552-1814

Zbigniew Wesoowski svd*

Abstract of the article: Some remarks on early Western (1552-1814) acquisition and study of Chinese

In this paper the author chronologically deals with the question of Western acquisition and study of Chinese languages, especially of Mandarin and Southern Min. The period under focus here is the stream of years which featured the encounter between the West and China (or the Chinese abroad) from 1552 to 1814.

The main body of the article is divided into three parts: The first deals with Spanish missionaries and their acquisition of Southern Min in the Philippines and the southern Chinese province Fujian. In the second part, the author presents the acquisition and studies of Chinese by the Jesuits and other members of various Catholic religious orders. In the third part the author discusses more so called speculative studies of Chinese, especially Chinese characters, in Europe. A particularly salient point of the article is the question of involvement in Chinese languages by Jesuits in China as compared with similar involvement by Spanish missionaries. Did the acquisition of Chinese language begin in mainland China with the Jesuits, or does up to date research overthrow this view? How are we to access the impact of Spanish missionaries in the Philippines, working among the Southern Min Chinese?

On the whole, the paper could be taken as a detailed blueprint for further in-depth studies on the subject matter.

Key words: early Western sinology, study of Chinese by missionaries, Western vocabularies and grammars of Chinese,

Timothy Hugh BarrettThe study of past sinology as part of the general intellectual history of the Western world is only now getting under way Henning KlterMathew Y. Chen Federico Masini

16Francis Xavier1506-155215521557Michele Ruggieri1543-16071579720Alexandro Valignani (1538-1606)St. Martin House/la casa di San Martino

William of Rubruck (1220-1293)the inhabitants of Cathay120612711279 []Marco Polo (1257-1324)Niccol PoloChristoph Harbsmeier

16

Matthew Y. ChenFrancisco VaroArte de lengua mandarina17033057vocabularios1900/

[1] Arte de la lengua china, (also cited as Lingua sinica ad certam revocata methodum) by Juan Cobo (?1592)

[2] Arte de la lengua china, by Domingo de Nieva (?1607)

[3] Gramtica espaola-mandarina, by Juan Bautista de Morales (15971664)

[4] Gramtica espaola-china, by Francisco Diez (16061646)

[5] Arte de la lengua chinchea, by Victorio Ricci (16211685)

[6] Gramtica espaola-china del dialecto de Amoy, by Francisco Mrquez (?1706)

[7] Arte de lengua china, by Francisco Frias (?1706)

[8] Arte de la lengua mandarina, by Juan de la Cruz (16451721)

[9] Gramtica y vocabulario espaolchinos, by Francisco Gonzlez de San Pedro (?1730)

[10] Arte snico de Fogan, by Esteban Jord (180355)

[11] Gramtica espaola-china, by Felipe Ontoria (18611892)

15651587Matthew Y. ChenJuan CoboHenning KlterMartn de Rada (1533-1578)Arte y vocabulario de la lengua china

Ay sinco lenguas algo diferentes: Chinas local vernaculars in early missionary sourcesHenning Klter 1616-17/

[1] Diccionario chino-espaolGonzlez 196634

[2] Diccionario espaol-chinoGonzlez 196634

[3] [Una lista de palabras en espaol y en caracteres chinos]Archivo del Real Monasterio de Santo Toms, vila, Tomo 38/ Nmero: 14

[4] Diccionario espaol-chino vulgarMiguel de Benavides16Gonzlez 196634

[5] Gramtica espaola-chinaFrancisco Mrquez17Gonzlez 1955

[6] Gramtica chinchea Victorio Riccio17Gonzlez 1955

[7] Gramtica espaola-chinadel dialecto de Fogn Francisco G. de Sampedro17Gonzlez 1955

[8] Vocabularia en las misma lengua Francisco G. de Sampedro17Gonzlez 1955

[9] Cabecillas, o lxico del dialecto de Emuy, o del mandarnMagino Ventallol17Gonzlez 196634

[10] Gramtica China y Espaola Fokien17Niederehe 1999

[11] Diccionario de la lengua Chin cheo17Loon 1967

[12] Arte de la lengua chio chiu Melchior de Manano17Universitat de Barcelona, 1027 British Library, 25317.

[13] Dictionarium Sino-HispanicumP. Petrus Chirino17Biblioteca Angelica di Roma, Ital.-lat 60 [/]

[14] Bocabulario de lengua sangleya por las letraz de el A.B.C.17British Library, 25317

[15] Arte foganero-latinoJuan Garcs Francisco18Gonzlez 1955

[16] Dicconario foganerolatinoJuan Garcs Francisco18Gonzlez 1955

Henning Klter [12] Arte de la lengua chio chiu[13] Dictionarium Sino-Hispanicum[14] Bocabulario de lengua sangleya por las letraz de el A.B.C. [3] [Una lista de palabras en espaol y en caracteres chinos]van der Loon [11] Diccionario de la lengua Chin cheo1894M. J. L. dHervey de Saint DenysFrancisco Mrquez [5] Gramtica espaola-china1941St. Domingo[12] Arte de la lengua chio chiuUniversitat de Barcelona 1027 British Library 25317.

Henning Klter1718Henning Klter1122

Henning KlterThe earliest Hokkien dictionaries33

1 Biblioteca Angelica Pedro Chirino (1557-1635)1604331

Dictionarium, Sino Hispa/nicum quo P. Petrus Chirino / societatis Jesu linguam /sinensium in Filipinis / addiscebat ad convertendos / eos Sinenses qui Filipinas / ipsas incolunt et quadra/ginta millium numerum excedunt

Pedro Chirino 1,000

2

Diccionario de la lengua Chincheo que contiene los vocablos tambien simples que compuestos, con los caracteres generales y peculiares a questo dialecto, segun lorden dle alfabeto espaol y las cinco tonadas chineses

van der Loon Jean-Pierre Abel-Rmusat ()1814

3[14] Bocabulario de lengua sangleya por las letraz de el A.B.C.17British Library, 25317.1,500

Santo Toms

4Diccionario espaol-chino 20,000

5Vocabulario de lengua espaola-china 17,000

Henning Klter16

Matthew Y. Chen

[1] 1584Michele Ruggieri1543-1607

[2] 1593 Juan Cobo1546-159222

[3] 1593? Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china, Miguel Benavides

[4] 1603

[5] 1606.Memorial de la vida christiana en lengua china Domingo de Nieva

Matthew Y. Chen1593Matthew Y. Chen

[1] 1569Tractado em que se ctam muito por estso as cousas da China, Gaspar da CruzEvora

[2] 1592 Beng sim po camJuan Cobo

[3] 1607Smbolo de la Fe, en lengua y letra ChinaIntroduccin del Smbolo de la Fe [1583Salamanca]Luis de Granada [1504-1588]Toms Mayor1608

[4] Tien Kai [ ?] or Escala del cielo, Domingo Coronado (16151665)

[5] 1676Tratados histricos, polticos, thicos, y religiosos de la monarcha de ChinaDomingo Fernndez Navarrete

15839101584Michele Ruggieri

[1] Dicionrio Portugus-Chins1584-15886,0001934Pasquale DElia18901963RESRicci Earlier System;

[2] 1598QuonhuaguanhuaVocabularium sinicum, odine alphabetico europaeorum more concinnatum et per accentus suos digestumSebastian Fernandes Tchong1562-1621Lazzaro Cattaneo 15601640RLSRicci Later System

[3] 1605 : 195744

123

[4] 1626Nicolas Trigault1577-1629 []15711644 RLSRicci Later System

[5] 1640 Vocabulario de Letra China con la Explication castellana Francisco Daz1602-16697,169

[6] 1653 Grammatica Sinica Martino Martini1614-1661

[7] 1692Vocabulario de la Lengua Mandarina1670Vocabulario da lingoa mandarinaFrancisco Varo1627-1687

[8] 16941699 Han u si ye. Sinicarum litterarum europea expositio. Dictionarium sinico-latinum, suis fratribus sinicae missionis tyronibus eleboratum per Fr. Basilium a Glemona Ord. Minorum stric. Observ., venetae Divi Antonii provinciae alumnum, A. D. 1694 Basilio Brollo da Gemona [1648-1704] 7,0001699Dictionarium sinico-latinum in quo litterae sinicae ordine alphabetico disopositae explicantur, adiunctio quoque indice ad easdem litteras inveniendas in fine, compositum a Ie Xin-fu, minorita italo, vicario apostolico, Revmo P. Pasilio a Glemona Ord. Min. S.P.N. Francisci Reform., et ab alio Ie Xin-fu. Frate Io. Baptista a Serravalle, missionario apostolico in provincia Xensi dcriptum

9,000Brollo da Gemona Basilio Brollo da Gemona

[9] 1703Francisco Varo [7]Arte de la Lengua Mandarina

[10] 1728 Notitia Linguae Sinicae Joseph Henri De Prmare1666-1736

1552-1814lingua universalis15-16

[1] 1605Francis Bacon1561-1626 Advancement of Learningthe high Levant characters real radical words

ideograms

[2] 1667-1670Athanasius Kircher 1602-1680 China monumentis: qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis naturae & artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata1667dipus gyptiacus166816691670 Johann Grueber (1623-1680)40324-3672,100aXunGnren2 hommepiet

[3] 1667Clavis Sinica[]/ Andreas Mller Gottfried Wilhelm LeibnizAndreas MllerAndreas Mller Christian Mentzel16221701Clavis Sinica

[4] 1669An historical essay endeavouring a probability that the language of the Empire of China is the primitive language The antiquity of China, or An historical essay: endeavouring a probability that the language of the empire of China is the primitive language spoken through the whole world before the confusion of Babel John Webb16111672 John Webb

[5] 1697/1699Novissima Sinica (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz1646-1716sinophiliaJoachim Bouvet1655-1730

[6] 1730Museum Sinicum in quo Sinicae linguae et litterturae ratio explicator Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer1694-1738St. Petersburg Etienne Fourmont 1683-1745

[7] 1737Meditationes Sinicae 1742Linguae sinarum mandarinicae hieroglyphicae grammatica duplex Etienne Fourmont Abel-Rmusant1703Francisco VaroArte de la Lengua Mandarina/1728 Joseph Henri De Premare/Notitia Linguae Sinicae/

[8] 1792 A Grammar of the Chinese language expressed by the letters that are commonly used in Europe. From the Latin of F. John-Anthony Rodriguez. With a dedicatory letter from the translator, John Geddes, to the R. Honorable Mr. Dundas, dated May 29th 1792John-Anthony Rodriguez John GeddesDundas1792529Juan Rodriguez1724-1785Juan Rodriguez198Jos Villanueva Biblioteca Nacional, Sigla: 2511 [H. 303]

[9] 1801 An Explanation of the Elementary Characters of the Chinese; with an Analysis of their ancient Symbols and HieroglyphicsJoseph Hager [Giuseppe] (1757-1819)Bensley Heinrich Julius von Klaproth1783-1835 Leichenstein auf dem Grabe der chinesischen Gelehrsamkeit des Herrn Joseph Hager, Doctors auf der Hohen Schule zu PaviaJoseph Hager

1605-1811181412Jean Pierre Abel-Rmusat 1788-18321552-18141822Abel-Rmusat Elments de la grammaire chinoise/1814Joshua Marshman1768-1837 Elements of Chinese Grammar: Clavis Sinica1815Robert Morrison1782-1834Seramporethe Mission-pressA grammar of the Chinese language1812/

1552-1814

1692Francisco VaroVocabulario de la Lengua Mandarina1703Arte de la Lengua MandarinaFrancisco Varo1653 Martino Martini Grammatica Sinica

2010111552-1814

13153415528St. Francis Xavier1506-1552Melchior Nuez Barreto1520-1571This Jesuit was the first missionary to whom Chinese barriers were temporarily lowered. He went as far as Canton, where he spent a month each time (1555). A Dominican, Father Gaspar da Cruz, was also admitted to Canton for a month, but he also had to refrain from forming a Christian communityMichele Ruggieri1543-1607Matteo Ricci1552-1610

Martino Martini1614-16611643Lazare Cattaneo1560-1640In Beijing the Jesuits resided at the residence of Wang Honghui, but Korean war fears hindered their visit. Wang, who had sponsored the trip, was passed over in his bid for a higher office, and thus had no direct influence with the eunuchs who maintained the Emperors appointment schedule. Money was running out, and it became clear a meeting at Court was now impossible. The two months spent at Wangs residence were not idle, however. Ricci, Catteneo, and Zhong Mingren edited a Chinese vocabulary arranged in alphabetical order, romanized in the modified system originated by Ricci, including aspirants and indicators for the five tones of the Nanjing official language, which Ricci calls Quonhua (i.e., guanhua ). Apparently a manuscript (now lost) was produced, entitled Vocabularium sinicum, odine alphabetico europaeorum more concinnatum et per accentus suos digestum. Ricci later related how important Cattaneos contribution to the project was, Father Catteneo contributed greatly to this work. He was an excellent musician, with a discriminating ear for delicate variations of sound and he readily discerned the variety of tones. Nicolas Trigault refers to this work in his Chinese treatise Xiru ermu zi (1626).Nicholas Trigault1577-1628Sbastien Fernandez1562-1622Giuliano Bertuccioli1923-200115981626

16501654Brevis relatione de numero et qualitate Christianorum apud Sin1654

1653-1658Novus Atlas Sinensis17De bello TartaricoSinic Histori, Decas IGrammatica Sinica

Andreas Cleyer1634-16971689Christian Mentzel1622-1701Theophilus Siegfried Bayer1694-17381716 Clavis Sinica, ad chinensium scripturam et pronunciatorum mandarinicam1698Museum Sinicum: In quo Sinicae Linguae et Litteraturae ratio explicatur1730

20-2006Francisco Varo 1627-1687Thomas Francis Wade1818-1895

monosyllabae et indeclinabiles

Francisco Diaz1606-16461640Vocabulario de Letra China con la Explicacion Castellana Borgia Cinese 412

a (tsa, z)

318320102hun2932991179cchgjnm-ng

[]particula

++

optativumUtinam ego amem; utinam ego te amemIf only I could loveIf only I could love you

21optandi

Strange!Georg von der Gabelentz1840-1893Finalpartikeln

12342particulae terminativae

Basilii Glemona1648-1704Dictionario Sinici-Latina Brevis Explicatio90Particulas Numeralesfoliummanusgranumparmassacongeriebursa

16821703 1751696

16Juan Cobo1592Arte de la lengua China1640-1641

2007

The Paper LionEarly Western Study of the Chinese Language

(www.logoi.com/notes/jesuits.html)

The European Catholic missionaries who reached China in the late 16th century were the first Westerners who tried to learn Chinese in a systematic way. The pioneers were two Italian Jesuit priests: Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci. They learnt Chinese with local tutors in the Portuguese colony of Macao, against the will of their brothers, who thought that they were wasting their time, trying to do the impossible. Indeed, without any grammar or dictionary, and with poor teachers who only spoke Southern dialects, it was a miracle that they learnt Chinese so well!

Michele Ruggieri was able, with some help, to write a catechism in Chinese, and he even composed poems in Chinese. Matteo Ricci surpassed him: he is the author and translator, together with a number of Chinese Christian literati, of numerous works on subjects such as geometry, geography, morality, theology and so on. He also compiled a Chinese-Portuguese dictionary, never published. Another Jesuit, Nicolas Trigault, wrote a massive work in Chinese entitled The collection of sounds and writings of the Western scholars (1625), presenting to the Chinese public the Latin alphabet, while also offering the first system of "Romanization" (i.e. a way to render Chinese sounds in Latin letters).

How did these missionaries learn Chinese? Most of them thought that the Chinese language did not have grammatical rules, and that the only way to learn it was to be exposed to a good teacher, and to memorize sentences and patterns. In fact, this remained the way Westerners learnt Chinese for a long time, at least until the beginning of the 20th century. Such method was based on traditional Chinese pedagogy, which prized memorization of characters and of sentences extracted from the classics of Chinese literature.

As a matter of fact, more experienced missionaries prepared simple conversation textbooks for the newly arrived recruits. Some 17th- and 18th-century teaching materials used by beginners have survived in the Vatican Library in Rome or in the French National Library in Paris: most of them consist of dialogues in spoken Chinese, usually between a Westerner and a curious Chinese. The Chinese asks many questions about the customs and strange things of Europe, and the Westerner, beside trying to impress him with the description of mechanical clocks, oil painting in three dimensions and the like, always tries to talk about Christianity. The first Western grammar of Chinese was written in Latin by the Italian Jesuit Martino Martini in the mid-17th century, but was never published. In the latter part of the 17th century, however, missionaries from Spain (Dominicans, Augustinians and Franciscans) tried to fill the vacuum. Unlike the previous generation of Jesuit priests, these Spanish friars were bound to work not with the Chinese scholars, but among commoners. Thus they were interested in the spoken language, and not so much in the classical literature and the written classical language. They not only used dialogues, wrote dictionaries (of course by hand!), but finally were able to print a Spanish-language grammar of Chinese in Canton in 1703. Authored by Francisco Varo and Pedro de la Pifiuela (editor), the Arte de la lengua mandarina (Art of the mandarin language) was circulated mainly among missionaries in China, and maybe passed on to some interested merchants. Only few copies made it to Europe, and were avidly collected by linguists, who used (and at times plagiarized!) that knowledge to establish the basis for the modern study of Chinese in the West.

We find a funny description of the best method to learn Chinese in a manuscript grammar prepared by the Augustinian monk Jos Villanueva towards the end of the 18th century:

What should a European do who wants to learn Chinese? He should put away the Chinese characters and start with the Chinese syllables written as European words and annotated with the proper accents. He should not trouble to learn many syllables, but learn to pronounce those he reads with fluency and without hesitation. He must try to find some Chinese who speak and understand correct Mandarin, and should speak and converse with him as much as possible... Then after having trained for four or five months he should take a Chinese book, written in Chinese characters without admixture of European words... He should grasp the Chinese-European dictionary and look up each character patiently, one by one, and assure himself calmly of its meaning, without fear, realizing that he is carrying his cross. No doubt he will forget one character while he is looking for another. But he should not give up, only go on and look it up for the second, the fourth, and the sixth time. Often he will feel horrified and it will appear to him impossible to learn the characters. In each character he will see a fierceful lion wanting to attack him. When he realizes that it is a paper lion, he will laugh. After two months or at most three the fearful lion will be transformed in a peaceful ox ... .

Today such method would not find much acceptance, and nevertheless, many who study Chinese indeed still "feel horrified" and in each Chinese character continue to see a fierceful lion wanting to attack them!

Chinese as a foreign language

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This article contains Chinese text.Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Increased interest in China from those outside has led to a corresponding interest in the study of Chinese as a foreign language. However the teaching of Chinese both within and outside China is not a recent phenomenon. Westerners started learning Chinese language in the 16th century.

In 2005, 117,660 non-native speakers took the Chinese Proficiency Test, an increase of 26.52% from 2004.[1] From 2000 to 2004, the number of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland taking Advanced Level exams in Chinese increased by 57%.[2] An independent school in the UK made Chinese one of their compulsory subjects for study in 2006.[3]

Contents

[hide]

1 History

2 Difficulty

2.1 The characters

2.2 The tones

3 Where to learn

4 Notable non-native speakers of Chinese

5 See also

6 Notes

7 External links

[edit] History

The fanciful Chinese scripts shown in Kircher's China Illustrata (1667). Kircher divides Chinese characters into 16 types, and argues that each type originates from a type of images taken from the natural world

The understanding of the Chinese language in the West began with some misunderstandings. Since the earliest appearance of Chinese characters in the West,[4] the belief that written Chinese was ideographic prevailed.[5] Such a belief led to Athanasius Kircher's conjecture that Chinese characters were derived from the Egyptian hieroglyphs, China being a colony of Egypt.[6] John Webb, the British architect, went a step further. In a Biblical vein similar to Kircher's, he tried to demonstrate that Chinese was the Primitive or Adamic language. In his An Historical Essay Endeavoring a Probability That the Language of the Empire of China Is the Primitive Language (1669), he suggested that Chinese was the language spoken before the confusion of tongues.[7]

Inspired by these ideas, Leibniz and Bacon, among others, dreamt of inventing a characteristica universalis modelled on Chinese.[8] Thus wrote Bacon:

it is the use of China and the kingdoms of the High Levant to write in Characters Real, which express neither letters nor words in gross, but Things or Notions...[9]

Leibniz placed high hopes on the Chinese characters:

j'ai pens qu'on pourrait peut-tre accommoder un jour ces caractres, si on en tait bien inform, non pas seulement reprsenter comme font ordinairement les caractres, mais mme cal-culer et aider l'imagination et la mditation d'une manire qui frapperait d'tonnement l'sprit de ces peuples et nous donnerait un nouveau moyen de les instruire et gagner.[10]

The serious study of the language in the West began with the missionaries coming to China during the late 16th century. Among them were the Italian Jesuits Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci. They mastered the language without the aid of any grammar books or dictionaries, and became the first sinologists. The former set up a school in Macao, the first school for teaching foreigners Chinese, translated part of the Great Learning into Latin, the first translation of a Confucius classic in any European language, and wrote a religious tract in Chinese, the first Chinese book written by a Westerner. The latter brought Western sciences to China, and became a prolific Chinese writer. With his amazing command of the language, Ricci impressed the Chinese literati and was accepted as one of them, much to the advantage of his missionary work. Several scientific works he authored or co-authored were collected in Siku Quanshu, the imperial collection of Chinese classics; some of his religious works were listed in the collection's bibliography, but not collected. Another Jesuit Nicolas Trigault produced the first system of Chinese Romanisation in a work of 1626.

Matteo Ricci, a Westerner who mastered the Chinese language

The earliest Chinese grammars were produced by the Spanish Dominican missionaries. The earliest surviving one is by Francisco Varo (16271687). His Arte de la Lengua Mandarina was published in Canton in 1703.[11] This grammar was only sketchy, however. The first important Chinese grammar was Joseph Henri Marie de Prmare's Notitia linguae sinicae, completed in 1729 but only published in Malacca in 1831. Other important grammar texts followed, from Jean-Pierre Abel-Rmusat's lmens (sic) de la grammaire chinoise in 1822 to Georg von der Gabelentz's Chinesische Grammatik in 1881. Glossaries for Chinese circulated among the missionaries from early on. Robert Morrison's A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, noted for its fine printing, is one of the first important Chinese dictionaries for the use of Westerners.

In 1814, a chair of Chinese and Manchu was founded at the Collge de France, and Abel-Rmusat became the first Professor of Chinese in Europe. In 1837, Nikita Bichurin opened the first European Chinese-language school in the Russian Empire. Since then sinology became an academic discipline in the West, with the secular sinologists outnumbering the missionary ones. Some of the big names in the history of linguistics took up the study of Chinese. Sir William Jones dabbled in it;[12]instigated by Abel-Rmusat, Wilhelm von Humboldt studied the language seriously, and discussed it in several letters with the French professor.[13]

The teaching of Chinese as a foreign language started in the People's Republic of China in 1950 at Tsinghua University, initally serving students from Eastern Europe. Starting with Bulgaria in 1952, China also dispatched Chinese teachers abroad, and by the early 1960s had sent teachers afar as Congo, Cambodia, Yemen and France. In 1962, with the approval of the State Council, the Higher Preparatory School for Foreign Students was set up, later renamed to the Beijing Language and Culture University. The programs were disrupted for several years during the Cultural Revolution.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Education, there are 330 institutions teaching Chinese as a foreign language, receiving about 40,000 foreign students. In addition, there are almost 5,000 Chinese language teachers. Since 1992 the State Education Commission has managed a Chinese language proficiency exam program, which has tested over 142,000 persons. [12]

[edit] Difficulty

Chinese is rated as one of the most difficult languages to learn, together with Arabic, Japanese and Korean, for people whose native language is English.[14] A quote attributed to William Milne, Morrison's colleague, goes that learning Chinese is

a work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of springsteel, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah.[15]

Two major difficulties stand out:

[edit] The characters

The Kangxi dictionary contains 47,035 characters. However, most of the characters contained there are archaic and obscure. The Chart of Common Characters of Modern Chinese ( Xiandai Hanyu Changyong Zibiao), promulgated in People's Republic of China, lists 2,500 common characters and 1,000 less-than-common characters, while the Chart of Generally Utilized Characters of Modern Chinese ( Xiandai Hanyu Tongyong Zibiao) lists 7,000 characters, including the 3,500 characters already listed above. Moreover, most Chinese characters belong to the class of semantic-phonetic compounds, which means that one can know the basic meaning and the approximate reading of most Chinese characters, after acquiring some elementary knowledge of the language.

Still, Chinese characters pose a problem for learners of Chinese. To the 17th-century protestant theologian Elias Grebniz, the Chinese characters were simply diabolic. He thought they were

durch Gottes Verhngniss von Teuffel eingefhret/ damit er die elende Leute in der Finsterniss der Abgtterei destomehr verstricket halte.[16]

In Gautier's novella Fortunio, a Chinese professor from the Collge de France, when asked by the protagonist to translate a love letter suspected to be written in Chinese, replies that the characters in the letter happen to all belong to that half of the 40,000 characters which he has yet to master.[17]

[edit] The tones

Mandarin has four tones. Other Chinese dialects have more, for example, Cantonese has nine (in six distinct tone contours). In most Western languages, tones are only used to express emphasis or emotion, not to distinguish meanings as in Chinese. A French Jesuit, in a letter, relates how the Chinese tones cause a problem for understanding:

I will give you an example of their words. They told me chou signifies a book: so that I thought whenever the word chou was pronounced, a book was the subject. Not at all! Chou, the next time I heard it, I found signified a tree. Now I was to recollect, chou was a book, or a tree. But this amounted to nothing; chou, I found, expressed also great heats; chou is to relate; chou is the Aurora; chou means to be accustomed; chou expresses the loss of a wager, &c. I should not finish, were I to attempt to give you all its significations.[18]

[edit] Where to learn

Chinese courses have been blooming internationally since 2000 at every level of education.[19] Still, in most of the Western universities, the study of the Chinese language is only a part of Chinese Studies or sinology, instead of an independent discipline. The teaching of Chinese as a foreign language is known as duiwai Hanyu jiaoxue () in Chinese. The Confucius Institute, supervised by Hanban (),[20] or the National Office For Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, is responsible for promoting the Chinese language in the West and other parts of the world.

The People's Republic of China began to accept foreign students from the communist countries (in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa) from the 1950s onwards. Foreign students were forced to leave the PRC during the Cultural Revolution.[21] Today's popular choices for the Westerners who want to study Chinese abroad include the Center for Chinese Language and Cultural Studies in Taiwan and Beijing Language and Culture University in Beijing. The former was especially popular before the 1980s when China had yet to open to the other parts of the world.

Several Mandarin courses are available online through various commercial web sites specifically catering to native English speakers. Free and Paid-for courses are also offered via podcasts.

Edmonton in Alberta Canada, is the first city in North America to incorporate Chinese language and cultural education within the context of the Alberta curriculum in public school system from kindergarden to high school education. The English-Chinese bilingual program is accessible to all children of chinese or non-chinese descent.

[edit] Notable non-native speakers of Chinese

Frederick W. Baller: British missionary, linguist, translator, educator and sinologist

L. Nelson Bell: American Missionary father-in-law of Billy Graham

John Birch: American missionary and namesake of the John Birch Society

Arthur Calwell: Australian politician

Cng : Vietnamese prince

Wolfram Eberhard: German sociologist

Herbert Hoover: American President

Bernhard Karlgren: Swedish Sinologist

Kenneth Scott Latourette: American academic historian

Walter Henry Medhurst British missionary and translator

Ho Chi Minh: Vietnamese revolutionary

Michiko Nishiwaki: Japanese actress

Timothy Richard: American Baptist missionary

Kevin Rudd: Australian Prime Minister

Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky: Russian-born Bishop of Shanghai

Richard Sorge: Soviet spy

Hudson Taylor: British missionary and founder of the China Inland Mission

Elsie Tu: British-born Hong Kong politician

Samuel Wells Williams: American missionary, linguist, and diplomat

Ruth Weiss: Austrian-born Chinese-naturalised journalist

[edit] See also

Edmonton Chinese Bilingual Education Association

Japanese language education in Russia

Japanese language education in the United States

Language teaching

[edit] Notes

1. ^ (Chinese) "200512",[1] Xinhua News Agency, January 16, 2006.

2. ^ "Get Ahead, Learn Mandarin", [2] Time Asia, vol. 167, no. 26, June 26, 2006.

3. ^ "How hard is it to learn Chinese?",[3] BBC, January 17, 2006.

4. ^ There are disputes over which is the earliest European book containing Chinese characters. One of the candidates is Juan Gonzlez de Mendoza's Historia de las cosas ms notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China published in 1586.

5. ^ Cf. John DeFrancis, "The Ideographic Myth".[4] For a sophisticated exposition of the problem, see J. Marshall Unger, Ideogram, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.

6. ^ Cf. David E. Mungello, Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology, Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1985, pp. 143-157; Haun Saussy, Great Walls of Discourse and Other Adventures in Cultural China, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001, pp. 49-55.

7. ^ Cf. Christoph Harbsmeier, "John Webb and the Early History of the Study of the Classical Chinese Language in the West", in Ming Wilson & John Cayley (ed.s), Europe Studies China: Papers from an International Conference on the History of European Sinology, London: Han-Shan Tang Books, 1995, pp. 297-338.

8. ^ Cf. Umberto Eco, "From Marco Polo to Leibniz: Stories of Intercultural Misunderstanding".[5] Eco devoted a whole monograph to this topic in his The Search for the Perfect Language, trans. James Fentress, Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell, 1995.

9. ^ The Advancement of Learning, XVI, 2.

10. ^ "Lettre au T.R.P. Verjus, Hanovre, fin de l'anne 1698".[6] Cf. Franklin Perkins, Leibniz and China: A Commerce of Light, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Machine translation: I thought we could perhaps one day accommodate these characters, if they were well informed, not only are usually represented as characters, but even at calculate and assist the imagination and meditation in a way that would affect astonishment the spirit of these people and give us a new way to educate and win.

11. ^ For more about the man and his grammar, see Matthew Y Chen, "Unsung Trailblazers of China-West Cultural Encounter".[7] Varo's grammar has been translated from Spanish into English, as Francisco Varo's Grammar of the Mandarin Language, 1703 (2000).

12. ^ Cf. Fan Cunzhong (), "Sir William Jones's Chinese Studies", in Review of English Studies, Vol. 22, No. 88 (Oct., 1946), pp. 304314, reprinted in Adrian Hsia (ed.), The Vision of China in the English Literature of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1998.

13. ^ Cf. Jean Rousseau & Denis Thouard (d.s), Lettres difiantes et curieuses sur la langue chinoise, Villeneuve-dAscq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 1999.

14. ^ According to a study by the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California in the 1970s, quoted on William Baxter's site.[8]

15. ^ Quoted in "The Process of Translation: The translation experience"[9] on Wycliffe's site.

16. ^ Quoted in Harbsmeier, op. cit., p. 300.

17. ^ "Sans doute les ides contenues dans cette lettre sont exprimes avec des signes que je n'ai pas encore appris et qui appartiennent aux vingt derniers mille" (Chapitre premier). Cf. Qian Zhongshu, "China in the English Literature of the Eighteenth Century", in Quarterly Bulltein of Chinese Bibliography, II (1941): 7-48; 113-152, reprinted in Adrian Hsia (ed.), op. cit., pp. 117-213.

18. ^ Translated by Isaac D'Israeli, in his Curiosities of Literature.[10] The original letter, in French, can be found in Lettres difiantes et curieuses de Chine par des missionnaires jsuites (17021776), Paris: Garnier-flammarion, 1979, pp. 468470. chou is written shu in modern pinyin. The words he refers here are: , , , , , and , all of which have the same vowel and consonant but different tones in Mandarin.

19. ^ Cf. "With a Changing World Comes An Urgency to Learn Chinese",[11] Washington Post, August 26, 2006, about the teaching of Chinese in the US.

20. ^ Abbreviated from Guojia Hanyu Guoji Tuiguang Lingdao Xiaozu Bangongshi ().

21. ^ Cf. L Bisong (), Duiwai Hanyu jiaoxue fazhan gaiyao ( "A sketch of the development of teaching Chinese as a foreign language"), Beijing: Beijing yuyanxueyuan chubanshe, 1990.

[edit] External links

"Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard", David Moser

Official site of Hanban

Study abroad in Chinese at Everything2

"Learn Chinese," (Learn Chinese - the social way)

Unsung Trailblazers of China-West Cultural Encounter

Matthew Y Chen

This year marks the 300th anniversary of the publication of the first grammar of Chinese in a European vernacular, Arte de la lengua mandarina [Grammar of the Mandarin language] (Canton, 1703). To commemorate this landmark event in the history of western sinology, the Beijing Foreign Studies University, in conjunction with Peking University, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is sponsoring an International Conference on Western Chinese Studies (September 1214, 2003, Beijing). It is an opportune time to pay tribute to the relatively obscure author of this groundbreaking work, Francisco Varo, and other unsung trailblazers of China-West cultural encounter.

From the earliest days of Sino- European contacts in the 16th century, the Jesuits took the central stage and played a leading role. But, away from the limelight, there were other significant players, notably Augustinians , Dominicans , Franciscans and the Missions trangres de Paris. In this article I will limit myself mainly to Francisco Varo and his fellow Dominicans. First, a few words about the Dominican Order. Officially known as Order of Preachers, it was founded in 1216 by St. Dominic of Guzman (11701221). Within decades of its foundation, the order had established itself at major universities of Europe, including Paris, Bologna, and Oxford. Thomas Aquinas (12241274), a favorite son of this religious organization, epitomized medieval Christian thinking, and has exercised a profound and lasting influence on catholic philosophy and theology. In 1582 the Dominicans launched a new province for the express purpose of preaching the Christian faith to the most august kingdom of China.1 Soon after they set foot on the Philippines, the Dominicans founded the University of Sto. Toms in 1619, almost three hundred years before (Aurora), the first catholic university in China, came into existence in 1903.

Francisco Varo (16271687) was born in Seville, Spain. At the tender age of 15, he joined the Dominican Order, and devoted his entire adult life to missionary work in China (1649 87). Varos long forgotten Arte de la lengua mandarina [Grammar of the Mandarin Language]2 has now been translated into English and made widely available by Coblin and Levi (2000). To put Varo in historical context, here are, in chronological order, some of the most notable early grammars of Chinese:3

1703. Arte de la Lengua Mandarina, by Francisco Varo. Canton (xylographic edition). (Completed in 1682)

1814. Clavis Sinica by Joshua Marshman. Serampore: Mission Press.

1815. A Grammar of the Chinese Language, by Robert Morrison. Serampore: Mission Press.

1822. lments de la grammaire chinoise, by Jean-Pierre Abel- Rmusat. Paris: Imprimerie Royale.

1831. Notitia linguae sinicae, by Joseph Henri Marie de Prmare. Malacca. (Completed in 1729).

1870. Syntaxe nouvelle de la langue chinoise, by Stanislas Julien. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.

1881. Chinesische Grammatik, by Georg von der Gabelentz. Leipzig: Weigel.

1898. , by Beijing.

Not surprisingly, the earliest grammars (Varo , Prmare , Marshman, Morrison) are compiled by missionaries, designed primarily for pedagogical purposes. In particular, Marshman and Morrison are best described as textbooks rather than real grammars. In Peyraubes words, Abel-Rmusats lments represents the first attempt at a logical synthesis and well-reasoned construction of the Chinese language (Peyraube 2001:345), and heralded the dawning of (secular) academic sinology.

This is not the place for a critical assessment of Varos Arte, for which I refer the reader to Breitenbachs doctoral dissertation (1996). I wish only to highlight some of the innovative elements in this pioneering work. Phonologically speaking, Chinese as a tonal language presented a novel challenge to European descriptivists. Matteo Ricci (15521610) and his fellow Jesuits compiled dictionaries, and developed a notational system for transcribing Chinese sounds (including tone marks). Nicolas Trigaults (15771628) (1626), in particular, fleshed out the phonological system of late Ming guanhua using European alphabets. But they provided only scant information on the phonetics of tone, and were completely silent on how tones change in connected speech (a phenomenon known as tone sandhi or )4. Varo was the first among European sinologists to give a detailed description of the phonetics of tone, formulate precise rules of tone sandhi, and make astute observations on the relationship between tone, syllable structure and compounding () as a strategy to avoid lexical ambiguity. Furthermore, he offered plausible phonetic explanations for the subtle tonal behavior he observed. If some of his phonetic speculations proved to be factually incorrect, they nevertheless evince a keen and inquisitive mind that exerted itself mightily to explain novel linguistic phenomena by means of physiological mechanism of speech articulation as a 17th century man understood it.5

Naturally, the significance of Varos grammar lies chiefly in its place in the history of linguistic thought, esp. from a cross-cultural perspective. Varos Arte instantiates the first systematic rapprochement between Western linguistic categories and an alien language like Chinese, which lacks the characteristic morphological and syntactic features of European languages. It is difficult for us to imagine the daunting task of grappling with an alien tongue without the familiar handles of Latin or Spanish. Judging by todays standards, Varo did little more than forcing Chinese syntax into the straitjacket of Latinbased grammatical categories such as parts of speech, subject-predicateobject, case, tense, aspect, and so forth. While this obvious criticism is well justified, one should bear in mind the historical context in which Varo labored. In contrast to lexicography, etymology, phonology and stylistics, which have flourished since Classical times in China, reflections about grammar have been practically nonexistent in Chinese tradition (Peyraube 2001:341). In the absence of indigenous models, Varo made use of the prevailing taxonomy and conceptual framework at the time, namely that of Elio Antonio de Nebrija (14411522), whose intellectual debt he acknowledged by name.6 In truth, this practice is not very different from two hundred years later, or latter day grammarians, influenced variously by Otto Jespersen, Henry Sweet, or Noam Chomsky and other contemporary theorists. What the modern linguist Zhu Dexi (1982) said of fits Varo as well, only a fortiori:

Mr. Mas Wentong is often criticized for aping Latin grammar. In fact, as the first book to systematically investigate Chinese syntax, its scope and level of sophistication far exceed our expectations. We must not be too harsh on Mr. Ma. Tr. MC

Actually, Varos Arte is only the first Chinese grammar to appear in print. Varo's confrres in the Dominican order have left for posterity at least 30 grammars, and 57 dictionaries or 'vocabularios'. Some of the pre-1900 Dominican grammars are listed below. Since the time of completion / publication of these grammars are unknown, I have included the authors' dates of birth and death for reference.

Arte de la lengua china, (also cited as Lingua sinica ad certam revocata methodum) by Juan Cobo (?1592).

Arte de la lengua china, by Domingo de Nieva (?1607).

Gramtica espaola-mandarina, by Juan Bautista de Morales (15971664).

Gramtica espaola-china, by Francisco Diez (16061646).

Arte de la lengua chinchea,7 by Victorio Ricci8 (16211685).

Gramtica espaola-china del dialecto de Amoy, by Francisco Mrquez (?1706).

Arte de lengua china, by Francisco Frias (?1706).

Arte de la lengua mandarina, by Juan de la Cruz (16451721).

Gramtica y vocabulario espaolchinos, by Francisco Gonzlez de San Pedro (?1730).

Arte snico de Fogan, by Esteban Jord (180355)9 .

Gramtica espaola-china, by Felipe Ontoria (18611892).

Most of these grammars have languished unedited for years in the archives, some have been lost for ever, and all of them remain unknown except to a handful of specialists. Victorio Riccis Arte de la lengua chinchea and Mrquezs Gramtica espaola-china del dialecto de Amoy must be among the oldest grammars of any local dialect. More importantly, it is worth noting that several of these grammars predate that of Varo, in some cases by nearly a century. Citing an unpublished 1602 source,10 Gonzlez (1966, p. 387) asserts that Cobos Lingua sinica is the first grammar of Chinese ever written by a foreigner.11 Gonzlez also quotes (p.15) Varo as saying that Morales wrote a grammar of Chinese shortly after he landed on Chinese soil (in 1633). As for Diez, he apparently began his Gramtica around 1640 41 in the Philippines (p.35). The existence of some early grammar or grammars predating Varo is not in doubt. In his Arte Varo alluded on several occasions to an earlier grammar or grammars. For instance, speaking on the difficulties beginners encountered in learning Chinese, he stated:

Knowing this inconvenience, the priests of St. Dominic compiled a grammar as soon as they could; and the present grammar adheres to that former one in its basic rules. (Varo 1703, p.83 [2000, p.181]).

In contrast, the first Jesuit grammar (by Prmare, completed in 1726) did not appear until 1831. This comes as somewhat of a surprise, given the extraordinary breadth of Jesuit scholarship in all fields of sinology. Breitenbach (2000) attributes this to the oral tradition of language pedagogy that prevailed among the Jesuits.

The long succession of descriptive grammars is in keeping with the Dominican tradition of developing linguistic tools to serve their missionary goals. Thus when they set foot in the New World, they immediately went about writing grammars for the American Indian languages. One eminent linguist from the ranks of this religious order, Domingo de Santo Toms (1499 1570), wrote the first grammar of the newly discovered Americas, Gramtica o arte de la lengua general de los indios de los reynos del Per, and compiled the first dictionary Lexicn o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Per (both published in 1560, Valladolid), thereby earning himself recognition as the father of American philology. Likewise, when the Dominicans landed in the Philippines, they produced, in short order, the first grammar of Tagalog, Arte y reglas de la lengua Tagala in 1610, by Francisco Blancas de San Jos.12

It goes without saying that the driving force behind the missionaryscholars was first and foremost their desire to win over the hearts and minds of the Chinese for the Christian religion. To this end, they produced catechisms, learned tracts and other literature of a religious nature in the Chinese language. Of this genre of religious literature, Matteo Riccis [The True Meaning of God] occupies a deservedly prominent place of honour. What is less well known is the fact that soon after their arrival in the Philippines (in 1587), the Dominican friars were entrusted with the care of the local Chinese immigrants in Manila, learned the Chinese language, and published a number of religious tracts in this language. The earliest of these are listed below, together with two influential books by the Jesuits Michele Ruggieri (15431607) and Matteo Ricci for comparison.

1584. by Michele Ruggieri.

1593. , by Juan Cobo, Manila.13

1593? Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china, by Miguel Benavides.14 Manila.

1603. , by Matteo Ricci. Beijing.

1606 . Memorial de la vida christiana en lengua china, by Domingo de Nieva. Manila.

The significance of these early tracts is fourfold. First of all, as soon as the Dominicans found a permanent residence in the Philippines, they established a printing press in Manila, with the help of the local Chinese craftsmen. All three of their earliest works (Cobo 1593, Benavides 1593?, Nieva 1606) were produced by means of wood block printing. They represent the earliest incunabula philippiniana.15 Second, unlike the other early catechisms, Benavides Doctrina is composed in the Hokkien (southern Min, ) dialect. As such, it constitutes a rare source of information on the pronunciation, vocaulary and syntax of Hokkien spoken in Late Ming.16 More importantly, these tracts represent the earliest attempts of Christian missionaries to present to the Chinese readers not only the Christian faith but also a western worldview and belief/value system. Finally, it is remarkable that, despite its title, only three out of nine chapters of Cobos pertain to Christian theology proper, the remaining six chapters are concerned with secular subjects such as astronomy and natural history. Chapter 4 is dovoted to geography. The universe Cobo depicted remains the Ptolemaic geocentric system half a century after De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium of Copernicus (1543). More interesting, he used various types of observations and empirical evidence to demonstrate that the planet we inhabit is round contrary to the Chinese belief of a spherical heaven and square earth (). One of these demonstrations derives from the round shadow cast by the earth on the moon in an eclipse. Chapters 59 are devoted to a description of the flora and fauna. Thus, it was Juan Cobo that has the distinction of being the first to introduce European philosophy and science to China, at least in print.17 Why Cobo devoted such a disproportionate amount of space in his Apologa or to science and natural history is a question I will return to below.

In the broader cultural sphere, the early Dominicans broke new grounds as well. Here I will single out a few notable examples.

1569. Tractado em que se ctam muito por estso as cousas da China, by Gaspar da Cruz. Evora.

1592. Beng sim po cam , by Juan Cobo. Manila.

1607. Smbolo de la Fe, en lengua y letra China , by Toms Mayor. Manila.

n.d. Tien Kai [ ?] or Escala del cielo, by Domingo Coronado (16151665).

1676. Tratados histricos, polticos, thicos, y religiosos de la monarcha de China, by Domingo Fernndez Navarrete. Madrid.

Gaspar da Cruzs Tractado (in Portuguese) is the first European book written on China since the earliest sustained East-West contact that began in the 16th century. Apparently it soon fell into oblivion18 except as a source of later works, including Bernardino de Escalantes Discursos de la navegacin que los Portugueses hazen a los Reinos y Provincias del Oriente, y de la noticia q se tiene de las grandezas del Reino de la China (Sevilla, 1577), and Ioan Gonzlez de Mendoas Historia de las cosas ms notables, ritos y costumbres del gran Reyno de la China (Rome, 1585). Escalante never set foot on China, and pieced together his Discursos from published relaciones or reports and what he could glean from Portuguese sailors and Chinese migrants that settled in Portugal (cf. Sanz, p.44).19 Mendoas Historia proved to be a bestseller of his time. It was promptly translated into Italian (1586), French (1588), and English (1588).20

The title-page of the first European book on China. The Tractado of Gaspar da Cruz, Evora, 1569.

Cobos Beng sim po cam (1592) and Mayors Smbolo de la Fe (1607) are mirror images: the former being the first translation of a Chinese book into an European vernacular, the latter in reverse. , compiled by the Ming scholar in 1393 (date of preface), is an anthology of aphorisms and proverbs (in a tradition similar to catena or florilegium in the West). This book was presented by Miguel Benavides21 to the future King Philip III of Spain in 1595. The dedicatory note is worth quoting in part:22

The frontispiece of Beng Sim Po Cam the first Chinese book translated into an European vernacular, by Juan Cobo, 1592.

La religin de Santo Domingo ofrece a V.A., como en parias, las primicias de la riqueza de aquel grande reino de la China. Juzgan los chinos por sus grandes y verdaderas riquezas, no el oro, ni la plata, ni las sedas, sino los libros, y la sabidura, y las virtudes y el gobierno justo de su repblica: esto estiman, esto engrandecen, de esto se glorian y de esto tratan en sus conversaciones la gente bien compuesta (que es mucha). Ofrece, pues, a V.A. la religin de Santo Domingo este libro chino, traducido en lengua castellana... El primer libro que en el mundo se ha traducido de lengua y letras chinas en otra lengua y letras es este...

The order of St. Dominic presents in homageto your Royal Highness, the first fruits of the wealth of that great kingdom of China. The Chinese take to be their great and true wealth not gold, nor silver, nor silk, but books, wisdom, virtues and just government of their country: this is what the well-bred people (of whom there are many) esteem, aggrandize, take pride in, and talk about. The Order of St. Dominic, therefore, presents to your Royal Highness this Chinese book, translated into the Castillian language... The first book ever translated from the Chinese language and characters into a foreign language and alphabets any where in the world is none other than this one... Tr. MC

The original Introduccin del Smbolo de la Fe (1583, Salamanca) was written by the Dominican Fray Luis de Granada (15041588), the preeminent essayist of the Spanish Golden Century. Its Chinese translation appeared in 1607, thus predating by one year Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqis translation of Euclids Elements (1608). It is of some interest to note that Smbolo de la Fe is encyclopedic in nature, embracing subject matters ranging from astronomy to zoology, from an investigation into the human mind (del anima intelectiva) to the digestive system. The all-embracing list of contents may seem at odds with the title and apologetic nature of Introduction to the Symbol of Faith. In fact, Smbolo de la Fe expands on a leitmotif in natural theology, i.e. that the universe of creation is nothing but a reflection of God, an open book in which man can catch a glimpse of the creator. This basic tenet finds an eloquent expression in chapter 2 of the Smbolo ([1989] p.145f):

Qu es, Seor, todo este mundo visible sino un espejo que pusistes delante de nuestros ojos para que en l contemplsemos vuestra hermosura? ... qu es todo este mundo visible sino un grande y maravilloso libro que vos, Seor, escribistes y ofrecistes a los ojos de todas las naciones del mundo, as de griegos como de brbaros, as de sabios como de ignorantes, para que en l estudiasen todos, y conociesen quin vos rades? Qu sern luego todas las criaturas deste mundo, tan hermosas y tan acabadas sino unas como letras quebradas y iluminadas, que declaran bien el primor y la sabidura de su autor?

What is, Lord, the whole visible world if not a mirror that you set before our eyes so that we can contemplate in it your beauty?... What is this entire visible world if not a big and wondrous book that you, Lord, have written and offered to the eyes of all nations of the world, Greek or heathen, learned or ignorant, so that in it all may inquire and understand who you are? What then are all the creatures of this world, so beautiful and perfect if not as though they were richly illuminated letters23 that proclaim the elegance and wisdom of its author? Tr. MC

There is no question that the Smbolo de la Fe is the subtext of extended paragraphs and chapters of Juan Cobos Apologa or (1593), which explains the prominent place it accorded to such mundane matters as cosmography and natural history. This God-through-nature approach is very much in keeping with the Dominican tradition initiated by such leading medieval thinkers as St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas. It is this tradition that informed the earliest Dominican missionaries in China like Juan Cobo, Toms Mayor and Domingo Coronado, author of .24 Whether Cobo exerted any influence on the Jesuit missionary approach is a matter of conjecture. In commenting on Cobos , the historian of science, Liu Dun writes: ...Cobos was the first book to appear in China, in Chinese, with any scientific content, and therefore it is worth further studying the possible influence of Cobos work on Matteo Riccis proselytization methods in China. (Liu 1998, p.4). Perhaps a more promising line of inquiry may be to ascertain whether the kind of natural theology, of which Luis de Granada is a major exponent, was very much part of the Zeitgeist that informed Matteo Riccis formative years.

Illustration from Juan Cobos(1593), the first book to introduce Western science to China. It shows the round shadow cast by the earth on the moon in an eclipse as a proof of a spherical earth.

Of all the early Dominican authors on China, Navarrete exerted most impact on his contemporaries.25 His Tratados has been translated into English, German, French, and Italian, and attracted the attention of Bossuet, Leibniz, Quesnay, Voltaire, Locke (cf. Cummins 1962, 1993). Navarrete and his confrres played a pivotal role in the famous Chinese Rites controversy or , a cause clbre that, according to Cummins (1993, p.7), lasted 350 years, involved 9 popes , 2 emperors, 3 kings, the Roman & Spanish Inquisitions, the Propaganda Fide, Sorbonne, and some of the best minds of Europe. Cummins (1993, p.226) cites the Jesuit Henri Bernard-Maitre as saying that it was almost exclusively due to Navarrete that Europe came to learn of the Rites Controversy in East Asia.

There is considerable renewed interest in this matter, not as an arcane theological debate mainly of historical import, rather as a prism through which we can see refracted the many hues of ideologies and attitudes when religions come into contact and conflict, ranging from the exclusivist extra ecclesiam nulla salus [no salvation outside the church] through inclusivism (Christianity teaches the full truth, and is the fulfillment of what other religions have only dimly glimpsed), to pluralism (all religions are equally valid paths to salvations), and relativism (no unique or absolute truth). Clearly, these religious isms have broader cultural resonances. The Jesuit position on this matter is well articulated, richly documented and amply represented in the literature to the point of virtually drowning out all dissenting voices. In order to reconstruct the intellectual debate minus the fratricidal feuds, political rivalries and curial intrigues we need to revisit the underlying philosophical and theological arguments. In this regard, the early Dominicans have left valuable documents. Unfortunately, few of these tracts are widely known, and only two of them, namely Navarretes Controversias (1679) and Alexandres Apologie (1700) are even published at all. In my recent visit to the Provincial Archives of Avila, Spain, I was able to examine a fair sample of 1617th century documents. Among the unpublished manuscripts, I single out three, all written by Francisco Varo.26 Varos manuscripts are fairly extensive. For instance, the 1681 Tratado en que se ponen los fundamentos runs to 327 folios (recto and verso, or 654 pages). A close study of these sources can no doubt shed new light on the intellectual issues surrounding the first serious clash between Chinese and European world views.

1664. Tratado sobre los ritos chinos, by Francisco Varo. Ms.

1671. Manifiesto y declaraciones de la verdad de algunas cosas..., by Francisco Varo. Ms.

1679. Controversias antiguas y modernas de la mission de la gran China, by Domingo Fernndez Navarrete. Madrid.

1680. Tratado en que se ponen los fundamentos que los PP. misioneros dominicos de China tienen para prohibir a sus nefitos cristianos algunas ceremonias en honor de Confucio, by Francisco Varo. Ms.

1699. Apologie des Dominicains missionnaires de la Chine, by Nol Alexandre. Cologne.

By way of conclusion, it is fair to say that while the Dominican missionaries have had an auspicious beginning as cultural emissaries in China, their efforts have declined some what in the subsequent periods. Over the last four and half centuries or so, the totality of the Dominican contribution to Western sinology pales in comparison to that of the Jesuits. In terms of scope and instant popularity, there is nothing in the Dominican scholarship that remotely approaches, for instance, Jean- Baptiste Du Haldes Description gographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de lempire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise (1735, 4 vols), or Lettres difiantes et curieuses des Missions trangres par quelques missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jsus (17021776, 34 vols.), or its sequel Mmoires concernant lHistoire, les Sciences, les Arts, les Moeurs, les Usages, etc., des Chinois (17761791, 15 vols.). In terms of originality and lasting impact, Matteo Riccis stands head and shoulders above the rest. Riccis predecessors like Michele Ruggieri and Juan Cobo presented the Christian beliefs and values from an essentially Euro-centric perspective. In contrast, Ricci took the unprecedented step of attempting to meld Christianity with Chinese culture, in the process radically re-inventing Confucianism.27 Just as St. Thomas Aquinas baptized Aristotle, Ricci sought to christen Confucius and, simultaneously, sinicize Christianity. It was an act of imaginative daring or, some may say, hermeneutic adventurism. Whichever it may be, Ricci has profoundly changed the way we think and talk about cross-cultural encounters.

Having said that, we should not let the dazzling achievements of some to blind us to the contributions of the others. As we look back at the dawn of modern East-West cultural contact, let us remember the early Dominican friars who blazed the trail in many spheres of Western sinology.

Acknowledgements:

I am grateful to Frs. Bonifacio Sols and Donato Gonzlez for facilitating my access to the Dominican Archivo de la Provincia, Avila, Spain. Dr. Alicia Relinque, visiting Professor at the City University of Hong Kong (2003), has been very helpful with library research at the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid.

References

Benavides, Miguel (et al.). 1583? [1951]. Doctrina christiana en letra y lengua china. Manila. Facsimile version, with Spanish translation by Antonio Domnguez, and a historicobibliographical essay by Jesus Gayo Aragon. Manila. 1951.

Boxer, C.R. 1953. South China in the Sixteenth Century. London: the Hakluyt Society.

Breitenbach, Sandra. 2000. Introduction to Francisco Varo 1703 [2000], ed. by W. South Coblin & Joseph Levi.

Breitenbach, Sandra. 1996. Die chinesische Grammatik des Dominikaners Francisco Varo (16271687): Arte de la Lengua Mandarina (Kanton 1703). Ph.D. dissertation, University of Gttingen.

Chen, Matthew Y. 2000. Tone Sandhi: Patterns across Chinese Dialects. Cambridge University Press.

Chen, Matthew Y. 2003. Francisco Varo (16271687), a pioneer in the history of Chinese linguistics. Paper presented at the International Conference on Western Chinese Study, Beijing Foreign Studies University, September 1214. To appear in Journal of Chinese Linguistics.

Chen Qinghao . 1990. --- . . 21.4: 7387.

Cobo, Juan. 1593 [1986]. [Apologa de la Verdadera Religion / Testimony of the True Religin], Canton 1583. Facsimile edition, prepared by Fidel Villaroel. University of S. Toms Press, Manila, 1986. With English and Spanish translations, and introductions by Alberto Santamara, Antonio Domnguez, and Fidel Villaroel.

Cobo, Juan. 1593 [1959]. Beng sim po cam Espejo Rico del Claro Corazn. Manila. Facsimile edition, by Carlos Sanz, Madrid: Librera General. 1959.

Cummins, J.S. 1962. The Travels and Controversies of Friar Domingo Navarrete 1618-1686. Cambridge: the Hakluyt Society. 2 vols.

Cummins, J.S. 1993. A Question of Rites. Friar Domingo Navarrete and the Jesuits in China. Cambridge: Scolar Press.

Da Cruz, Gaspar. 1569. Tractado em que se ctam muito por estso as cousas da China. Evora. English translation in Boxer 1953.

Gayo Aragn, Jess. 1951. Ensayo histrico-bibliogrfico. In Benavides 1593 [1951]. University of Sto. Tomas, Manila, p.1-104.

Gonzlez, Jos-Mara. 1964. Historia de las Misiones Dominicanas en China. Vol.1: 16321700. Madrid: Juan Bravo.

Gonzlez, Jos-Mara. 1966. Historia de las Misiones Dominicanas en China. Vol.5: Bibliografas. Madrid: Juan Bravo.

Jensen, Lionel M. 1997. Manufacturing Confucianism. Duke University Press.

Jimnez, J.A.C. 1998. Spanish friars in the Far East: Fray Juan Cobo and his book Shi Lu. Historia Scientiarum vol. 73, pp. 181 198.

Liu Dun. 1998. Western knowledge of geography reflected in Juan Cobos Shilu (1593). Paper presented at the Conference on the History of Mathematics: Portugal and the East II, Macao, October 11-12, 1998.

Luis de Granada. 1583 [1989]. Introduccin del Smbolo de la Fe. Salamanca. Edited by Jos Mara Balcells. Madrid: Catedra. 1989.

Missions trangres de Paris. 1997. Missions trangres & langues orientales : contribution de la Socit des Missions trangres la connaissance de 60 langues dAsie : bibliographie. Archives & Bibliothques Asiatique, Missions trangres de Paris. Series Recherches asiatiques. Montral (Quebec): lHarmattan.

Peverelli, Peter J. 1986. The History of Modern Chinese Grammar Studies. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Leiden. Peyraube, Alain. 2001. Some reflections on the sources of the Mashi Wentong. In Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung and Joachim Kurtz (eds.). New Terms for New Ideas. We s t e rn Knowledge and Lexical Change in Late Imperial China. pp. 341356.

Qutif, Jacobus and Jacobus Echard. 171921. Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum. Paris. 2 volumes. Supplement by Remigius Coulon and Antonius Papillon. Rome and Paris, 19091934.

Sanz, Carlos. 1958. Primitivas relaciones de Espaa con Asia y Oceana. Madrid: Librera General.

Sun Chaofen (ed.). 1997. Studies on the History of Chinese Syntax. Berkeley: Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Monograph series, n.10.

Van der Loon, P. 196667. The Manila incunabula and early Hokkien studies. Asia Major v.12:142, v.13:95186.

Varo, Francisco. 1703 [2000]. Arte de la lengua mandarina. Canton. Facsimile edition, with English translation by Coblin, W. South & Joseph Levi. Francisco Varos Grammar of the Mandarin Language (1703). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2000.

Zhu Dexi 1982. . .

Notes:

1 Cf. Gonzlez 1964, v.1, p.31.

2 The term arte in the Spanish original derives from Lat. ars grammatica, or the art of grammar.

3 For a historical survey, see Gonzlez (1966), Peverelli (1986), Sun Chaofen (1997), Breitenbach (2000), Peyraube (2001).

4 For an overview, see Chen 2000.

5 For a detailed analysis of Varos chapter on tone sandhi, see Chen 2003.

6 Varo left Europe on his China-bound journey through Mexico in 1646, and was unlikely to have been acquainted with the Grammaire de Port-Royal or Grammaire gnrale et raisonne, of Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot, published in 1660.

7 There is a long debate concerning which locality the name Chincheo refers to in the 17th century documents: todays Quanzhou / Chuanchow or Zhangzhou / Changchow ? Boxer (1953) devotes an entire appendix (p.313326) to this question, and concludes that it was used as a generic term to refer to the Bay of Amoy / Xiamen in general. The dialect in question is then the Amoybased lingua franca of Southern Ming.

8 A relative of Matteo Ricci.

9 I examined a microfilm version of Jords Arte sinico in the Archivo de la Provincia of Sto.Toms, Avila, Spain. Its basic descriptive schema resembles that of Varo.

10 De la propagacin de la fe en las Filipinas, by Francisco Montilla, a Franciscan. Cobos Lingua sinica is also registered in Qutif-Echard 1721, v.2:306a307a. However, P. van der Loon (196667, p. 18) notes that no other contemporary author makes mention of a grammar or dictionary by Cobo and that such a work may never have been completed.

11 Jimnez (1998:182) claims Martn de Rada (1535-1578), an Augustinian, wrote an Arte y vocabulario de la lengua chinense.

12 The linguistic contribution of the Missions trangres de Paris seems to be quite substantial as well, as documented in a recent bibliography. See Missions trangres de Paris 1997.

13 A modern facsimile edition is now available, prepared by Fidel Villarroel, with Spanish and English translations and an extensive introduction.

14 This booklet in Chinese characters carries no date, and no Chinese title. J. Gayo Aragn (1951) pegs the date at 1593, and proclaims Benavides Doctrina as the first book ever printed in the Philippines. P. van der Loon (1966-67, p.25) on the other hand, dates it between 1587 and 1607.

15 The Dominicans are also credited with having produced in 1604 the first typographic (movable types) book in the Philippines, Ordinationes Generales Provinciae Sanctissimi Rosarii Philippinarum. See P. van der Loon (1966-67, op. cit., p.25ff).

16 For a philological study of Hokkien based on philippine incunabula, see P. van der Loon (1966-67), and philological notes by Antonio Domnguez to Benavides 1593? [1951].

17 See Jimnez 1998, and Liu 1998, esp. introductions by Alberto Santamara, Antonio Domnguez and Fidel Villaroel to Cobo 1593 [1986].

18 His Tractado is available in English translation, as part of Boxer (1953).

19 Gaspar da Cruz himself was allowed to stay in Canton for only one month in 1556 (see Gonzlez, 1966, p.12)

20 Gonzlez (1966, p.12) remarks that Mendoza (Mendoa) borrowed extensively from Gaspar da Cruz: El P. Juan Gonzlez de Mendoza copia, en gran parte, el libro de P. de la Cruz, en su clebre Historia de las cosas ms notables... de China, 1585. No hay ms que confrontar los dos libros para convencerse de ello.

21 Incidentally, Benavides (15521605) was the first Dominican to minister to the Chinese in the Philippines (1587 90), and later Archbishop of Manila (1603-05).

22 From the introduction to the facsimile edition prepared by Sanz 1959. For a recent paper on Beng sim po cam, see Chen Q.H. 1990.

23 letras quebradas y iluminadas, literally broken and illuminated letters, refers to the way copyists cut up in two halves an initial letter in a manuscript for decorative purposes. See Balcells footnote 16 on p.146.

24 The full title cited by Gonzlez (1966, p.70) reads: Escala del cielo, en el cual por el conocimiento de las creaturas se da a conocer el Creador de todas ellas. [Ladder to Heaven: in which by means of the knowledge of the creatures one attains the knowledge of the Creator of them all]. Little else is known about the content of this work.

25 Navarrete is the subject of a recent book by Cummins (1993). Book VI (Tratado Sexto) of Navarretes Tratados histricos, polticos etc. is available in English translation by Cummins (1962).

26 Varos manuscripts are located in the Provincial Archives of the Dominican order in Avila.

27 Jensen (1997, p.9) went so far as asserting that Confucius is a figment of the Western imagination. He adds: There is as much that is genuinely Chinese in Confucianism [i.e. as manufactured by Western intellectuals] as there was in chinoiserie. (p.144)

Professor Matthew Chen has studied in Hong Kong, Rome, and obtained his Ph. D. in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972. He has taught for many years at the University of California, San Diego, before joining CityU in 1999. He is currently CityUs Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and a member of the Core Team of our Centre for Cross- Cultural Studies. His publications focus mainly on phonology, historical linguistics, and tonology in particular, with a recent book entitled Tone Sandhi: Patterns across Chinese Dialects (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). Holding a degree in philosophy and theology, he has an abiding interest in the intellectual issues surrounding the early cultural contacts between China and the West.

(Nicolas Trigault1577-1629

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The contribution of Xiru Ermuzi to the history of dictionaries' compiling

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A Help to Western Scholars(15771628) (1610),,16281114 1625(15521610) 25 520 5

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Xiru ermu zi

Author: Trigault, Nicolas (1577-1628)

Imprint: Hangzhou : Wang Zheng , 1626

Language: Chinese

Format: Book

Xiru ermu zi (An Aid to the Eye and Ear of Western Scholars) is an important source for the system of romanization of late Ming guanhua . Based on the later of Riccis two transcription schemes, Trigaults work is essential to study of the Chinese phonology and linguistics of the period.

For a fuller explanation see Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China, v. 1, p. 260, 263, 268, 270, 425, 866, 869, 873.

Full text of original ed. held by the Bibliothque national de France is available online. [Slow download, approx. 275 graphic items.]

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Jesuit Archives (ARSI) JapSin II, 127

Xiru ermu zi

By Jin Nige (zi , Nicolas Trigault, 15771628).

Three ce, bamboo paper, bound in one volume, European style. Published by (Philip) Wang Zheng (zi , hao , , 15711644) in 1626 (Tianqi 6) in Shaanxi.

The title page of the first ce bears the title in seal characters with the date on the left: , and on the right the name of the publisher: . An outer circle contains the Latin alphabet with linguistic signs; on top there are (vowels), below (Western signs for the five vowels) and on both the left and the right . The verso of this folio gives the title of the first ce: Yiyin shoupu (General introduction to phonology). The outer circle gives the Chinese equivalent of the sounds of the Latin alphabet (the phonological signs are given on the title page). The inscription on the top and at the two sides are the same as those on the title page; at the bottom is: .

Ce 2 has for its title: Liebian yunpu and lists the Chinese characters according to the rhymes. Ce 3 has for title: Liebian zhengpu and lists the Chinese characters according to the radicals, while the equivalent sounds are given in Latin spelling. The verso of the title pages in ce 2 and 3 are the same as in ce> 1, except for the title, given in the middle.

There is a preface (one and one-half folio) by Trigault himself, at the end of which there are two seals: the emblem of the Society of Jesus and . According to Hs Tsung-tse (Xu Zongze 1949, p. 321), prefaces were also written by Zhang Wenda , Wang Zheng and Han Yun , only the first two of which he reproduces (pp. 322325). These three prefaces are not extant in the Jesuit Archive edition.

Ce 1 has a table of contents (one folio). Both ce 1 and 2 give the name of Chen Baohuang: , who is mentioned also at the end of the last folio of ce 3, together with two others (Li Congqian and Li Canran): | | .

From the title it is clear that this book was written primarily for Western scholars to help them to learn the Chinese characters and to pronounce them. Previously Matteo Ricci had written the Xizi qiji , which had aroused great admiration among his scholar friends. Trigaults book made an equal impression on the literati of the time. Wang Zheng in his preface has high praise for the ingenious method of this book. He points out that in the European alphabet there are five vowels and twenty consonants which one can memorize within a day and that once these have been mastered there will be no difficulty in learning how to pronounce the Chinese characters. This book had a definite influence on the Chinese scholars of phonology, men like Fang Yizhi (d. 1671?; ECCP 1:232233) and Liu Xianting (16481695; ECCP 1:521522).

According to the prefaces, the Xiru ermu zi went through three revisions and it took five months to prepare it. The book was printed in 1626 at the expense of Zhang Wenda (zi , jinshi of 1583), a native of Jingyang (Shaanxi), who had been Minister of the Ministry of Personnel at the beginning of the Tianqi reign (16211627).

The Ty bunkashi daigei (Tokyo, 1940), vol. 5, p. 343 gives the title page of the 1626 edition of the Xiru ermu zi, which was published in Hangzhou. It contains the following announcement:

, , , , , , , , , , , .

At the margin there is a line that reads: , | . Here we have a clear mention of two different sets of printing blocks, namely, that of the Jingfengguan and that of the Liya (the Li government-office) of Wulin (Hangzhou). So far we have found no way of identifying the Jingfengguan, but we are of the opinion that this must refer to the printing house where the original edition was published in 1626. In 1625 Wang Zheng left Beijing for his native place, Jingyan (Shaanxi), to observe mourning for the death of his stepmother. During his stay there he invited Nicolas Trigault to come from Shanxi to preach in Shaanxi, where Trigault wrote his Xiru ermu zi and had it published the following year. The Hangzhou edition was published from the Liya printing blocks, after he had gone there in 1627 or later.

Hs Tsung tse (Xu Zongze 1940, pp. 187188) discusses the different editions of the Xiru ermu zi. He describes the original 1626 edition, which was then kept in the Dongfang tushuguan in Shanghai. The book is in six ce and is divided as follows: (two ce, 111 folios), (two ce, 155 folios) and (two ce, 135 folios). Juan 1 contains six prefaces: one each by Zhang Wenda, Wang Zheng, Han Yun, Zhang Zhongfang and Trigault, and a sixth (for unknown reasons the name of the author of this preface is not given). All together these six prefaces cover twenty-four folios. Except for the prefaces, the description of this edition agrees with our copy.

When the Siku quanshu was being compiled (1772), books were sent to the capital from all over the empire. The Siku caijin shumu (Catalogue of books sent to the capital) lists the Xiru ermu zi as one of the books sent for the first time from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It is said to have been in ten volumes (), cf. Siku caijin shumu (Beijing, 1960), p. 33. According to the reviewer of the Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao, even then the book was not complete, but he did not mention what was missing (SKTY 1:949). Hs Tsung-tse mentions other incomplete copies of this book at the London Royal Library, the Vatican Library and the Bibliothque Nationale (Paris). The Shunde Wen Shi cangshumu (Catalogue of the Wen family library of Shunde [Guangdong]) lists a handwritten copy of the Yiyin shoupu, (the first ce). The Xiru ermu zi was reproduced by Peking University in 1922.

Cf. Couplet, p. 14 (Vocabularium Sinarum ad vocabula Europaea & pronuntiationes iuxta accentus, 3 vol.); Pfister, p. 117; Feng 1938, p. 138; DMB 2:12941296 (Trigault); ECCP 2:807809 (Wang Zheng); Fang Hao 1954, 5:7077; JWC 1:183184; Kond Moku , Shina gakugei daijiten (Tokyo, 1943), p. 678; Wang Li , Hanyu yinyunxue (Beijing, 1956), pp. 158160; Luo Changpei (18991958), Yesuhuishi zai yinyunxue shang de gongxian , in: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan , vol. I, no. 3 (1930), pp. 267338; Lu Zhiwei (18941970) Jin Nige Xiru ermu zi suo ji de yin , in: Yanjing xuebao , vol. 33 (1947, 12), pp. 115128; Yu , Mingdai zhi waiguoyu zishu in: Nanyang zazhi , vol. I, no. 5 (1946, 3).

Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 430-432.

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Editions claimed:

Trigault, Nicolas, 1577-1628.

Xiru ermu zi /

-- 3 v. in 1. ; 22 cm.

Beiping : Beiping Wenkuitang 22 [1933]

OCLC# 45334141 (NUI)

Xiru ermu zi /

-- 3 v. (on double leaves) ; 22 cm.

Beiping : Guoli Beijing daxue, Beiping tushuguan [1933?]

""

OCLC# 34445114 (CUT) [Note rec. below. Same edition?]

Xiru ermu zi / [N. Trigault].

: : , 1933.

3 v. (double leaves) ; 22 cm. -- "."

Originally published: 1626.

OCLC# 17288768 (7 held)

Xiru ermu zi / [Nicolas Trigault].

: , 1957.

3 v. in 1 ; 21 cm. Originally published: Beijing : Guoli Beijing daxue , 1933.

Series: Pinyin wenzi shiliao congshu

OCLC# 30679771 (3 held)

Xiru ermu zi / ; [].

Taibei : Tianyi chubanshe , [1977?]

3 v. ; 20 cm. On double leaves.

Reprint of the 1933 ed. issued by and .

Fang Shiduo , b. 1912

LCCN 77-839024 ; OCLC# 25121721 (4 held)

Xiru ermu zi / .

1. -- p. 425-653 [229] p. ; 27 cm.

Shanghai : Shanghai guji chubanshe , 1995. Re-issued 2002.

Series: Xuxiu Siku quanshu ; [259:5]

Series: Xuxiu Siku quanshu . Jingbu . Xiaoxuelei

"."

Bound with : Menggu zi yun -- Yun lue yi tong -- Bing yin lian sheng zi xue ji yao -- Yin yun zheng e.

OCLC# 43293183 (1995 ed.) ; # 41664931 (2002 ed.)

Xiru ermu zi : 3 / .

Jinan : Qi Lu shushe chubanshe , 1997.

p. 537 ; 27 cm.

Series: Siku quanshu cunmu congshu. Jingbu ; 213

Series: Siku quanshu cunmu congshu . Jingbu, Xiaoxuelei ,

6.

OCLC# 42078067 (2 held)

Xiru ermu zi : / .

. -- p. 537-768 : ill. ; 27 cm.

Tainan Xian Liuying Xiang : Zhuangyan wenhua shiye youxian gongsi , 1997.

Series: Siku quanshu cunmu congshu. Jingbu ; 213

Series: Siku quanshu cunmu congshu. Jingbu xiaoxuelei

"(1626)".

.

Fu "Siku quanshu zongmu, Xiru ermu zi wujuan shu" tiyao .

Yu xialie tongben: Gujin yunhui juyao xiaobu (2) : () / Fang Risheng zhuan .

Fang Risheng , 16th cent.

OCLC# 44004762 (CVU)

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Subject headings: