The first systematic survey of the conceptual history of basic logical terminology in ancient China.

This edited volume investigates translations from the languages of China into the languages of Western societies, from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Rather than focusing solely on the activity of translation, the authors extend their explorations to cover the contexts within which the translators worked from different perspectives, touching on various aspects of the institutional and intellectual backgrounds that informed their writings. Studies of translation from literary Chinese into English constitute the majority of the contributions, but the volume is also illuminated by excursions into Latin, French and Italian, while the problems of translating the Naxi script are confronted as well. In addition, the wider context of the rendering of Chinese into other languages is explored through a survey of recent Japanese translation series. Throughout the volume, translation is presented not simply as a linguistic exercise but rather as a key element in world history, well worthy of further interdisciplinary investigation.

Joseph de Premare came to China from France in 1698 and worked as a missionary in Jiangxi until 1724 when he was banished to Canton by the Chinese government. While in exile at Canton, he composed the "Notitia Linguae Sinicae" a treatise on the structure of the Chinese language which formed the basis of academic sinology in Europe for more than a century, and was reprinted as late as 1893. In this study, Knud Lundbaek provides a comprehensive picture of Premare's philological and theological ideas, prominent among which was the concept of "figurism". The book also describes the intellectual milieu in which de Premare moved, including other famous figurist Jesuit scholars such as Joachim Bouvet and Jean-Francois Foucquet. This biography is a contribution to the history of European sinology as well as to the study of China's relations with the West.