Isaac Titsingh
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Isaac Titsingh (born 10 January 1745 in Amsterdam, died 2 February 1812 in Paris) [1]. Dutch surgeon, scholar, merchant-trader and ambassador. During a long career in East Asia, Titsingh was a senior official of the Dutch East India Company (the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC, literally "United East India Company"). He represented the European Asia-wide trading company in exclusive official contact with Tokugawa Japan. He traveled to Edo twice for audiences with the Shogun and other high bakufu officials. Later, he was the Dutch and VOC Governor General in Chinsura, Bengal. Titsingh worked with his counterpart, Charles Cornwallis, who was Governor-General of the English East India Company. In 1795, Titsingh represented Dutch and VOC interests in China, where his reception at the court of the Qianlong Emperor (formerly known as Chien-lung) stood in stark contrast with rebuffs to England’s ambassador just prior to celebrations of Qianlong’s sixty year reign. In China, Titsingh effectively functioned as ambassador for his country at the same time as he represented the VOC as a trade representative.
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[edit] Japan, 1779-85
Titsingh was the commercial Ooperhoofd or chief Dutch trader in Japan in 1779-80 and 1781-83, and 1784-85.[2] The singular importance of the head of the VOC in Japan during this period was enhanced by the Japanese policy of bakufu-imposed isolation. Because of earlier religious proselytizing during this period, no European or Japanese could enter or leave the Japanese archipelago on penalty of death. The sole exception to this "closed door," was the VOC "factory" or trading post on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki bay on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. In this highly-controlled context, the VOC traders became the sole official conduit for trade and for scientific-cultural exchanges. The VOC Opperhoofd was nominally accorded standing similar to that of a Japanese daimyo during the obligatory once-a-year visits of homage to the Shogun in Edo. In such rare opportunities, Titsingh's informal contacts with bakufu officials and Rangaku scholars in Edo may have been as important as his formal audiences with the Shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu.
[edit] India, 1785-92
In 1785, Titsingh was appointed Director of the VOC trading post at Chinsura in Bengal. Chinsura is up-river from Calcutta on the Hooghly River, an arm of the Ganges. He seems to have savored the intellectual life of the European community. Titsingh was described as “the Mandarin of Chinsura” (see Mandarin (bureaucrat) and scholar-bureaucrat) by William Jones, the philologist and Bengal jurist.[3]
[edit] Batavia, 1792-93
Titsingh’s return to Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) led to new positions as Ontvanger-Generaal (Treasurer) and later as Commisaris ter Zee (Maritime Commissioner).
[edit] China, 1794-95
Titsingh was appointed Dutch Ambassador to the court of the Emperor of China for the celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the reign of the Emperor Qianlong [4] In Peking, the Titsingh delegation included Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest[5] and Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes,[6] whose complementary accounts of this embassy to the Chinese court were published in the U.S. and Europe.
[edit] Return to Europe, 1796-1812
Titsingh retired and died in Paris (February 2, 1812).
He is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery. His gravestone reads: "Ici repose Isaac Titsingh. Ancien conseiller des Indes hollandaises. Ambassadeur à la Chine et au Japon. Mort à Paris le 2 Février 1812, agé de 68 ans." [Here lies Isaac Titsingh, formerly a councillor of the Dutch East India Company, Ambassador to China and to Japan. Dead at Paris the 2nd of February 1812, aged 68 years.]
[edit] Legacy
Titsingh’s experiences and scholarly research in Japan was the genesis for posthumously published books, most notably:
- Titsingh, Mémoires et Anecdotes sur la Dynastie régnante des Djogouns, Souverains du Japon, avec la description des fêtes et cérémonies observées aux différentes époques de l'année à la Cour de ces Princes, et un appendice contenant des détails sur la poésie des Japonais, leur manière de diviser l'année, etc.; Ouvrage orné de Planches gravées et coloriées, tiré des Originaux Japonais par M. Titsingh; publié avec des Notes et Eclaircissemens Par M. Abel Rémusat. Paris (Nepveu), 1820.
- Titsingh, Illustrations of Japan; consisting of Private Memoirs and Anecdotes of the reigning dynasty of The Djogouns, or Sovereigns of Japan; a description of the Feasts and Ceremonies observed throughout the year at their Court; and of the Ceremonies customary at Marriages and Funerals: to which are subjoined, observations on the legal suicide of the Japanese, remarks on their their poetry, an explanation of their mode of reckoning time, particulars respecting the Dosia powder, the preface of a work by Confoutzee on filial piety, &c. &c. by M. Titsingh formerly Chief Agent to the Dutch East India Company at Nangasaki. Translated from the French, by Frederic Shoberl with coloured plates, faithfully copied from Japanese original designs. London (Ackermann), 1822.
[edit] References
- de Guignes, C.-L.-J. (1808). Voyage a Pékin, Manille et l'Ile de France. Paris.
- Duyvendak, J.J.L. (1937). "The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court (1794-1795)." T'oung Pao 33:1-137.
- Jones, W. (1835). Memoirs of the life, writings and correspondence of Sir William Jones, by Lord Teignmouth. London.
- Leguin, F. (2002). Isaac Titsingh (1745-1812): een passie voor Japan, leven en werk van de grondlegger van de Europese Japanologie (Isaac Titsingh (1745-1812): A passion for Japan, Life and Work of the Founder of Japanology in Europe). Leiden.
- Nederland's Patriciaat, Vol. 13 (1923). Den Haag.
- O'Neil, Patricia O. (1995). Missed Opportunities: Late 18th Century Chinese Relations with England and the Netherlands. (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington).
- Screech, Timon. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822. London. [1]
- van Braam Houckgeest, A.E. (1797). Voyage de l'ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales hollandaises vers l'empereur de la Chine, dans les années 1794 et 1795 Philadelphia; _____. (1798). An authentic account of the embassy of the Dutch East-India Company, to the court of the emperor of China, in the years 1794 and 1795. London.
