The Founding Of Sinology In France

With the rise of the Empire of Mongolia, and later the Age of Discovery, cultural exchanges between different countries became more and more frequent, this laid the foundation of the cultural collision between China and western countries in the next several centuries. At that time, the European understood China mostly from the travelers and businessmen. Not until the missionaries came into China did they become the most important key to the cultural exchanges between China and western countries. In the sixteenth century, the number of Portuguese missionaries in China occupied an absolute advantage, followed by the Italians and French, however, in the eighteenth century, although the number of French missionaries in China was still less than the Portuguese, a number of local scholars started to learn Chinese affaires, and France became the center of Chinese studies in Europe.December11,1814was the most important and memorable day of the Western Sinology, because on this day, the College de France announced the appointment of Abel Remusat as "Professor of Chinese language and literature, tartar and manchu"(La Chaire de langues et litteratures chinoises et tartares-mandchoues), which was the symbol of the foundation of Western Professional Sinology. The year2014is the200th anniversary of the foundation of Western Professional Sinology.French Sinology and Western Sinology was attached to Chinese native culture, this cultural exchange made the Western countries begin to accumulate the knowledge about China, and finally led to the foundation of Sinology. So, to find out how professional Sinology developed in France and eventually established in France, we must first start from the study of history.This thesis falls into three chapters. First introducing the important persons for the development of French professional Sinology, including the French Jesuits in China, French native scholars and officials; Second introducing the Chinese books in the Bibliotheque du Roi in France in eighteenth Century, transported by the French Jesuits from China; at last, the author uses Global History as a methodology to explore how the interact of these two factors affect the development of French Sinology.This thesis aims at getting the French history and the history of Sino-Western cultural exchanges in18th century straight, exploring how the interact of French native scholars and officials and Chinese books in France affects the development of French Sinology, to explore the reasons why the Professional Sinology born in France.