Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. (16 April 1845 in Gräfentonna, Saxe-Gotha – 10 January 1927 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

) was a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

Biography

He was educated at the universities of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, and

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rosto ...

(Ph.D., 1869). He was in the

Chinese Maritime Customs Service The Chinese Maritime Customs Service was a Chinese governmental tax collection agency and information service from its founding in 1854 until it split in 1949 into services operating in the Republic of China on Taiwan, and in the People's Rep ...

from 1870 to 1897. In 1902, Professor Hirth was appointed to the professorship of Chinese in

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

). Prior to World War II, a collection of Chinese manuscripts and printed books made by him was in the Royal Library at Berlin, and another of

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

s of considerable historical importance in the Gotha Museum; most of the Hirth collection from the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin is now in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

. As an investigator he conducted researches in Chinese literature by imitation of the methods of classical

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

Works

* Translates and annotates a merchant log dealing with the Superintendent of Customs or "

Hoppo Hoppo or Administrator of the Canton Customs ( zh, t=粵海關部, s=粤海关部, p=Yuèhǎi Guānbù), was the Qing dynasty official at Guangzhou (Canton) given responsibility by the emperor for controlling shipping, collecting tariffs, and ...

". * ''China and the Roman Orient: Researches into their Ancient and Mediœval Relations as Represented in Old Chinese Records'' (188

https://books.google.com/books?id=dk4uAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=using+this+route+first+appears+old+history+from+record+seems+road+considered+ancient+gate+pass+jiu+tangshu&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwikkbSrmOnKAhWFyT4KHfT1BL0Q6AEIKzAC#v=onepage&q&f=false]
''Ancient Porcelain: A Study in Chinese Mediœval Industry and Trade'' (1888)
* ''Text-Book of Documentary Chinese'' (two volumes, 1885–88) *
''Hsin-kuan wên-chien-lu: text book of documentary Chinese, with a vocabulary for the special use of the Chinese customs service'' (1885)
*
''新關文件錄'' (1909)

''Notes on the Chinese documentary style'' (1888)

''Notes on the Chinese documentary style'' (1888)
* ''Chinesische Studien'', volume i (1890)
''Index of the Characters in Dr. Hirth's "Text Book of Documentary Chinese," Arranged by Their Radicals: With a List Giving Their Tones'' (1892)

''Ueber fremde Einflüsse in der chinesischen Kunst'' (1896)

''Scraps from a Collector's Note-book, Being Notes on Some Chinese Painters of the Present Dynasty, with Appendices on Some Old Masters and Art Historians'' (1905)

''Syllabary of Chinese sounds'' (1907)
*
''Research in China ...: pt. 1. Descriptive topography and geology''
by Bailey Willis, Eliot Blackwelder, and R.H. Sargent. pt. 2. Petrography and zoology, by Eliot Blackwelder. Syllabary of Chinese sounds, by Friedrich Hirth'' (1907) *
''Chinese metallic mirrors: with notes on some ancient specimens of the Musée Guimet, Paris'' (1907)

''Research in China ...: pt. 1. Descriptive topography and geology, by Bailey Willis, Eliot Blackwelder, and R.H. Sargent. pt. 2. Petrography and zoology, by Eliot Blackwelder. Syllabary of Chinese sounds, by Friedrich Hirth'' (1907)

''Research in China ...: Systematic geology, by Bailey Willis'' (1907)
* ''The Ancient History of China to the End of the Chou Dynasty'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1908
1911 edition
*
''CHAU JU-KUA: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the twelfth and thirteenth Centuries, entitled Chu-fan-chï, Translated from the Chinese and Annotated by FRIEDRICH HIRTH and W. W. ROCKHILL'', (1911)
with W. W. Rockhill
''Research in China ...'' (1913)
* ''The Story of Chang K'ie'n, China's Pioneer in Western Asia'' (1917)
''Native sources for the history of Chinese pictorial art'' (1917)

Notes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirth, Friedrich Columbia University faculty Columbia University librarians Leipzig University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Greifswald alumni German sinologists German emigrants to the United States 1845 births 1927 deaths German male non-fiction writers

Biography

Works

See also

Notes

References

External links