Albert Étienne Jean Baptiste Terrien de Lacouperie (died 1894) was an orientalist, specialising in comparative philology. He published a number of books on early Asian and middle-eastern languages, initially in French and then in English.
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Biographical detail on Albert Terrien de Lacouperie is scant, some notices drawing on Society records and prefaces. He is sometimes noted as born in 1845, though his date of death is firmly established.[1][2] He was born in Normandy, a descendant of the Cornish family of Terrien, which emigrated to France in the seventeenth century during the civil war, and acquired the property of La Couperie in Normandy. Some bibliographies append 'Baron' to his name.[3] His father was a merchant, and he received a business education.
In early life he settled at Hong Kong. There he soon turned his attention from commerce to the study of oriental languages, and he acquired an especially intimate knowledge of the Chinese language. In 1867 he published a philological work which attracted considerable attention, entitled Du Langage, Essai sur la Nature et l'Étude des Mots et des Langues, Paris, 8vo. Soon after his attention was attracted by the progress made in deciphering Babylonian inscriptions, and by the resemblance between the Chinese characters and the early Akkadian hieroglyphics.
The comparative philology of the two languages occupied most of his later life, and he was able to show an early affinity between them. In 1879 he came to London, was elected a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, and began to write works in English. In 1884 he became professor of comparative philology, as applied to the languages of South-eastern Asia, at University College, London.
In the 1880s he was also employed on several short-term contracts to work on the East Asian coin collection at the British Museum.[4] In 1892 he published his Catalogue of Chinese Coins from the VIIth Century BC to AS 621 including the series in the British Museum, for which the Académie des Inscriptions, France, awarded him the Stanislas Julien Prize, worth 1500 francs, 'for the best work relating to China'.[5]
His last years were largely occupied by a study of the 'Yh King,' or Book of Changes, the oldest work in the Chinese language. Its meaning had long proved a puzzle both to native and to foreign scholars. Terrien demonstrated that the basis of the work consisted of fragmentary notes, chiefly lexical in character, and noticed that they bore a close resemblance to the syllabaries of Chaldaea. In 1892 he published the first part of an explanatory treatise entitled The oldest Book of the Chinese, London, 8vo, in which he stated his theory of the nature of the 'Yh King,' and gave translations of passages from it. The treatise, however, was not completed before his death.
In recognition of his services to oriental study he received the degree of Litt.D. from the university of Louvain. He also enjoyed for a time a small pension from the French government, and after that had been withdrawn an unsuccessful attempt was made by his friends to obtain him an equivalent from the English ministry. He was twice awarded the 'prix Julien' by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres for his services to oriental philology. Terrien died at his residence, 136 Bishop's Road, Fulham, on 11 October 1894, leaving a widow.[6]
Besides the works mentioned, Terrien was the author of:
Many of these works were treatises reprinted from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and other publications. He also edited the Babylonian and Oriental Record from 1886.[6]
Lacouperie's ideas received attention from some Chinese intellectuals and nationalists, in support of anti-Manchu racist theories (founded on those of Herbert Spencer and the Yellow Book) that were current at the beginning of the twentieth century.[8] His theory of a Western origin of Chinese civilisation had reached Japan around the same time, the academic refutation did not stop it becoming a prevalent and populist notion.[9] The idea for a mythical script, native to 'Formosa', was founded on a formulation of the author, though he also noted the paucity in quality of information from that region.[10]
"Terrien De La Couperie, Albert Étienne Jean Baptiste". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.