Work On The Chinese Language
Helped by the young Nicolas Fréret (1688–1749), he began the hard work of pioneering a Chinese-French dictionary, a Chinese grammar, and a system of 214 character keys.
In this work, they were joined by Nicolas Joseph Delisle (1683–1745), a friend of Fréret, who gave a more cultural and geographical tone to their work and discussions. Deslisle's brother, Guillaume Delisle, was already a renowned geographer. Delisle encouraged Arcadio Huang to read Europe's best known and popular writings dealing with the Chinese Empire. Huang was surprised by the ethnocentric approach of these texts, reducing the merits of the Chinese people and stressing the civilizing role of the European peoples.
A third apprentice, by the name of Étienne Fourmont (imposed by Abbé Bignon) arrived and profoundly disturbed the team. One day, Fourmont was surprised copying Huang's work.
Read more about this topic: Arcadio Huang
Famous quotes containing the words work and/or language:
“Each work of art excludes the world, concentrates attention on itself. For the time it is the only thing worth doing—to do just that; be it a sonnet, a statue, a landscape, an outline head of Caesar, or an oration. Presently we return to the sight of another that globes itself into a whole as did the first, for example, a beautiful garden; and nothing seems worth doing in life but laying out a garden.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)