Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare

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In 1724, after the Yongzheng Emperor virtually banned Christianity over the Chinese Rites controversy, he was confined with his colleagues in Guangzhou and later banished to Macau, where he died.

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His Notitia linguae sinicae, written in 1736 and first published in 1831, [1] was the first important Chinese language grammar in a European language. His letters can be found in the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses de Chine series. [2]

Father de Prémare is among the missionaries who furnished Jean-Baptiste Du Halde with the material for his "Description de la Chine" (Paris, 1735). Among his contributions were translations from the Book of Documents (Du Halde, II, 298); eight odes of the Classic of Poetry (II, 308); and the first translation into a European language of a Chinese drama, "The Orphan of Zhao" (III, 341), titled L'Orphelin de la Maison de Tchao. [3] Premaré sent the translation to Étienne Fourmont, a member of the Académie française. [4] [5] However, the play came into the possession of Father Du Halde instead, who published it in his Description Géographique, Historique, Chronologique, Politique et Physique de l'Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinois in 1735, although he had no permission from Prémare or Fourmont to do so. [4] Prémare's translation inspired Voltaire's 1753 tragedy L'Orphelin de la Chine . [6]

De Prémare's writings also include a defense of figurism proposed by Joachim Bouves of Christianity were mystically embodied in the Chinese classics. [7]

Works

Notes

  1. Peverelli, Peter (23 March 2015). The History of Modern Chinese Grammar Studies. Springer. p. 23. ISBN   9783662465042.
  2. Brucker, Joseph. "Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 8 Jun. 2013 Online version.
  3. Liu 1953 , 201.
  4. 1 2 Liu 1953 , 202.
  5. Hawkes 1985 , 108.
  6. West, Stephen H.; Idema, Wilt L. (2015). The Orphan of Zhao and Other Yuan Plays: The Earliest Known Versions. New York City: Columbia University Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN   978-0-231-53810-7.
  7. Brucker, "Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare."

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References