"Ishmael Of Sinology": A Study On Herbert Allen Giles (1845—1935)

Herbert Allen Giles (1845-1935), one of the most well-known forerunners in Sinology, has been known to students of Chinese throughout the world for generations. Among other things, Giles has to his credit the voluminous Chinese-English Dictionary, the Wade-Giles system that has been in use for at least 80 years, the first history of the Chinese literature, at least in English, and the first history of pictorial art in China. His lifelong endeavors to popularize the study of Chinese language and literature, though negligible by modern standards as far as the number of students he had during his thirty-five years of professorship at Cambridge, calls for our admiration. Giles, taking up what is left over by Dr. James Legge's colossal efforts in translating the Confucian Canon, succeeded in making the Chinese language, literature and culture accessible to as many of bis countrymen as possible. However, the existing research on Herbert Allen Giles is disadvantageously marred by the scarcity of primary materials at the disposal of the researchers involved.Drawing on the archives of Cambridge University Library and the Bodleian Library of Oxford University and the existing literature, this dissertation attempts a comprehensive study on the life, career and achievement of Herbert Allen Giles through a combined method of history and linguistics. Great as his achievements in sinology are, the more fascinating aspect of Giles' life lies in his controversial personality. Giles was notorious for his rigorous and merciless criticism of the work of his contemporaries, both sinologists and missionaries, in almost every aspect of the budding field of sinology. As an outspoken controversialist, he was inclined to take sides on whatever interested him, no matter it was right or wrong. And once he was seized of a conviction he refused to comprise. His bravery, perseverance and pugnacity not only made him many enemies and his outcast from the H. B. M's consular service, but also helped him win many a battle for his work in the field of sinology. He figures predominantly in the dissemination of Chinese language and literature to the English world and contributes in no small measure to the emerging Sinology in the UK and the world at large.