On Joseph Edkins’s Chinese Language Study

Western scholarship on the Chinese language is a significant but under-explored area of research. Many Western works are yet to be discovered or analyzed. Joseph Edkins’s writing on the Chinese language is a case in point.Joseph Edkins (1823-1905) was a British Protestant missionary who spent57years in China,30of them in Beijing. He graduated from the University of London in1843and reached Shanghai on September1848. First he worked in the London Missionary Society Press in Shanghai. From1852to1858he edited the Chinese annual Chinese and Foreign Concord Almanach(later known as the Chinese and Western Almanac). He collaborated with Li Shanlan, Wang Tao and others to translate many Western scientific works into Chinese. Besides this, he was involved in Bible translation and an active member of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. In1860and1861he visited the Taiping Rebellion several times. In1860Edkins moved to Chefoo, and in1861to Tianjin. In1863he settled in Beijing. From1872to1875, he collaborated with W. A. P. Martin to publish the Chinese magazine Peking Magazine. Edkins was honoured in1875with a doctorate in divinity from Edinburgh University because of his outstanding Oriental Studies. In1880he resigned from the London Missionary Society to become a translator for the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. He was appointed by the Customs head to edit and translate a series of Western scientific works into Chinese, and the fruits were the16Primers for Western Knowledge published in1898. He died in Shanghai in1905.As a famous Sinologue, Edkins specialised in Chinese religions. He was also a linguist, a translator, and a philologist. Writing prolifically, he penned many books about the Chinese language, the Chinese religions, the Chinese Economic, and so on. He had a very wide range of his Chinese Studies, involving Chinese pronunciation, grammar, character, and comparison of Chinese and foreign languages.My study entitled "On Joseph Edkins’s Chinese Language Study" has seven parts: Introduction, chapters1-5and Conclusion.Introduction points out the significance of the present study, reviews research done in the area to date, and gives a preview of the methodology, structure and original propositions of the current dissertation. Chapter1introduces Edkins’s research on Mandarin Chinese and his studies on Chinese regional dialects. Chapter2examines Edkins’s research on Chinese phonetics and phonology, pays a special attention on his studies of ancient pronunciations of Chinese. Chapter3looks at Edkins’s studies of the Chinese grammar, analysizes his research on the Chinese parts of speech and syntax. Chapter4concerns Edkins’s analysis of Chinese characters, including details of his research on Chinese radicals and his interpretation and analysis of the liushu, or the six categories of Chinese characters. Chapter5puts in perspective Edkins’s historical comparative linguistic studies. It examines, his expounding on the world’s major language family and his research on Etymology. Conclusion marks the end of the current study.By reading through and reviewing Edkins’s English publications as well as drawing upon Chinese and Western scholarship, the current dissertation conducts synchronic and diachronic analysis of Edkins’s research from the perspectives of linguistics, historiography, etc. The following conclusions are drawn.1. Edkins’s studies of the Chinese language are comprehensive.2. His research was empirical and practical, illuminating on TCSL (Teaching Chinese as a Second Language).3. Much of his research is of great theoretical value, esp., in the area of Chinese research.4. His Chinese-centered cross-language comparison was a helpful tool for Western scholars in the second half of the19th century to learn Chinese.