Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat

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Cover of Iu-kiao-li, ou les deux cousines

Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (September 5, 1788 - June 4, 1832) was a French sinologist.

He was born in Paris and educated for the medical profession, but a Chinese herbal in the collection of the Abbé Tersan attracted his attention, and he taught himself to read it by great perseverance and with imperfect help. At the end of five years of study he produced in 1811 the work Essai sur la langue et la littérature chinoises, and a paper on foreign languages among the Chinese, which procured him the patronage of Silvestre de Sacy.

In 1814 a chair of Chinese was founded at the Collège de France, and Rémusat was placed in it. From this time he gave himself wholly to the languages of the Far East, and published a series of useful works, among which his contributions from Chinese sources to the history of the Tatar nations claim special notice. Rémusat became an editor of the Journal de savants in 1818, and founder and first secretary of the Société asiatique at Paris in 1822; he also held various Government appointments.

In 1826, Rémusat published Iu-kiao-li, ou les deux cousines, roman chinois (玉嬌梨), one of the first Chinese novels known in Europe (the Chinese original is a minor work, though). It was read by Thomas Carlyle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Goethe and Stendhal. A list of his works is given in Quérard's France littéraire s.v. Rémusat. His letters to Wilhelm von Humboldt are also of interest.

Shortly after his 1830 marriage to Jenny Lecamus, daughter of mayor Jean Lecamus, Rémusat died in Paris of cholera, and is buried along with his wife near the church of St Fargeau in Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry, Seine-et-Marne.

[edit] Selected works

Note sur quelques épithétes descriptives du Bouddha. Journ. des Sav., 1819, p. 625.

Sur la succession des 33 premiers patriarches de la religion de Bouddha. Journ. des Sav., 1821, p. 4.

Abel-Rémusat et Humboldt, Lettres édifiantes et curieuses sur la langue chinoise, 1821-1831

Les élémens de la grammaire chinoise, 1822

Aperçu d'un Mémoire sur l'origine de la Hiérarchie Lamaique. Journ. As., Vol. IV., 1824, p. 257.

Mélanges Asiatiques, ou Choix de morceaux de critique, et de mémoires relatifs aux religions, aux. sciences, à l'histoire, et à la géographie des nations orientales. Vols. I. and II., Paris, 1825.

Iu-Kiao-Li (Les Deux Cousines), Paris, 1826.

Nouveaux Mélanges Asiatiques, on Recueil de morceaux, &c., Vol. I. and II. 1829.

Observations sur trois Mémoires de De Guignes insérés dans le tome XI. de la Collection de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, et relatifs à la religion samanéenne. Nouv. Journ. As., 2e série, Vol. VII. (1831), pp. 265, 269, 301.

Observations sur Histoire des Mongols orientaux, de Ssanang-Ssetsen. Paris, 1832.

Foé Koué Ki; ou, Relations des royaumes bouddhiques: voyage dans la Tartarie, dans l'Afghanistan et dans l'Inde, exécuté, à la fin du IVe siècle, par Chy Fa Hian. Traduit du Chinois et Commenté par M. Abel Rémusat. Ouvrage Posthume. Revu, Complété, et Augmenté d'Éclaircissements Nouveaux Par MM. Klaproth et Landresse. Paris, l'Imprimerie Royale, 1836. The original Chinese title is 佛國記.

Mémoires sur un voyage dans l'Asie Centrale, dans le pays des Afghans, et des Beloutches, et dans l'Inde, exécuté à la fin du IVe Síècele de notre ère par plusieurs Samanéens de Chine. Mém. de l'Inst. royal de France, Acad. d. inscr. 1838, p. 343.