Hanlin Academy

Hanlin Academy
翰林院
Active708 CE Tang dynasty, reign of Emperor Xuanzong–
(June 23, 1900 set on fire by the Gansu Braves)
Shut down following the Xinhai Revolution in 1911
FounderEmperor Xuanzong
Location
Chang'an, Luoyang, Beijing, Nanjing
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese翰林院
Traditional Chinese翰林院
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHànlín Yuàn

The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an. It has also been translated as "College of Literature" and "Academy of the Forest of Pencils."[1]

Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed secretarial and literary tasks for the court. One of its primary duties was to decide on an interpretation of the Chinese classics. This formed the basis of the Imperial examinations, which aspiring government bureaucrats had to pass to attain higher-level government posts. Painters working for the court were also attached to the academy.[2]

Academy members

Some of the more famous academicians of Hanlin were:

Bureau of Translators

Subordinated to the Hanlin Academy was the Bureau of Translators (Chinese: 四夷館/四译館; pinyin: Sìyí Guǎn/Sìyì Guǎn; Wade–Giles: Szu4-i2 Kuan3/Szu4-i4 Kuan3).[4] Founded by the Ming dynasty in 1407, after the first expedition of Zheng He to the Indian Ocean, the Bureau dealt with the memorials delivered by foreign ambassadors and trained foreign language specialists. It included departments for many languages[5] such as the Jurchen,[6][7][8] "Tartar" (Mongol),[9][10][11][12] Korean,[13] Ryukyuan, Japanese,[14] [15] Tibetan,[16] "Huihui" (the "Muslim" language, Persian)[17][18][9][19][20][21] Vietnamese[22] and Burmese languages,[22] as well as for the languages of the "various barbarian tribes" (Bai yi 百夷, i.e., Shan ethnic groups on China's southwestern borders), "Gaochang" (people of Turfan, i.e. Old Uyghur language),[9][20][23][24][25][26][27] and Xitian (西天; (Sanskrit, spoken in India). In 1511 and 1579 departments for the languages of Ba bai (八百; Lao) and Thai were added, respectively.[28] A Malay language vocabulary (Manlajia Guan Yiyu) 滿剌加館譯語 (Words-list of Melaka Kingdom) for the Malay spoken in the Malacca Sultanate was compiled.[29][30][31][32][33] A Cham language vocabulary 占城館 was created for the language spoken in the Champa Kingdom.[34][35]

When the Qing dynasty revived the Ming Siyiguan 四夷館, the Manchus, who "were sensitive to references to barbarians", changed the name from yi 夷 "barbarian" to yi 彝 "Yi people", and changed the Shan exonym from Baiyi 百夷 "hundred barbarians" to Baiyi 百譯 "hundred translations".[36]

The later Tongwen Guan set up by the Qing dynasty for translating western languages was subordinated to the Zongli Yamen and not the Hanlin.

1900 fire

The Hanlin Academy in 1744, after a renovation under the Qianlong Emperor

The Beijing Hanlin Academy and its library were severely damaged in a fire during the Siege of the International Legations in Peking (now known as Beijing) in 1900 by the Kansu Braves while fighting against the Eight-Nation Alliance, close to the British Legation as an intimidation tactic. On June 22-23, the fire spread to the academy:

The old buildings burned like tinder with a roar which drowned the steady rattle of musketry as Tung Fu-shiang's Moslems fired wildly through the smoke from upper windows.

Some of the incendiaries were shot down, but the buildings were an inferno and the old trees standing round them blazed like torches.

An attempt was made to save the famous Yung Lo Ta Tien, but heaps of volumes had been destroyed, so the attempt was given up.

— eyewitness Lancelot Giles, son of Herbert Giles[37]

The flames destroyed many ancient texts.[38]

The academy operated continuously until its closure during the 1911 Xinhai Revolution.

See also

References

  1. ^ Stevens, Keith (13 April 1996). "The Han Lin Academy and a Chinese Deity". Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 36: 231–233. JSTOR 23890208.
  2. ^ Chung, A. L. Y. (1966). "The Hanlin Academy in the Early Ch'ing Period (1644-1795)". Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 6: 100–119. ISSN 0085-5774. JSTOR 23881435.
  3. ^ Baldrian-Hussein, Farzeen (1996). "Alchemy and Self-Cultivation in Literary Circles of the Northern Song Dynasty – Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037-1101) and His Techniques of Survival –". Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie. 9: 15–53. doi:10.3406/asie.1996.1109. ISSN 0766-1177. JSTOR 45276183.
  4. ^ Wild, Norman (1945). "Materials for the Study of the Ssŭ i Kuan 四 夷 譯 館 (Bureau of Translators)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 11 (3): 617–640. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00072311. JSTOR 609340. S2CID 154048910.
  5. ^ "ͼ ݹż 䱾 Կ". Archived from the original on 19 October 2013.
  6. ^ Shou-p'ing Wu Ko (1855). Translation (by A. Wylie) of the Ts'ing wan k'e mung, a Chinese grammar of the Manchu Tartar language (by Woo Kĭh Show-ping, revised and ed. by Ching Ming-yuen Pei-ho) with intr. notes on Manchu literature. pp. xix–.
  7. ^ Translation of the Ts'ing wan k'e mung, a Chinese Grammar of the Manchu Tartar Language; with introductory notes on Manchu Literature: (translated by A. Wylie.). Mission Press. 1855. pp. xix–.
  8. ^ de Lacouperie, Terrien (1889). "The Djurtchen of Mandshuria: Their Name, Language, and Literature". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 21 (2): 433–460. JSTOR 25208941.
  9. ^ a b c Morris Rossabi (28 November 2014). From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia: The Writings of Morris Rossabi. BRILL. pp. 98–. ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
  10. ^ Shou-p'ing Wu Ko (1855). Translation (by A. Wylie) of the Ts'ing wan k'e mung, a Chinese grammar of the Manchu Tartar language (by Woo Kĭh Show-ping, revised and ed. by Ching Ming-yuen Pei-ho) with intr. notes on Manchu literature. pp. xxvi–.
  11. ^ Alexander Wylie; Henri Cordier (1897). Chinese Researches. pp. 261–. termed 1407 certain number of students were appointed by imperial authority instructed in knowledge writing language tribes.
  12. ^ Translation of the Ts'ing wan k'e mung, a Chinese Grammar of the Manchu Tartar Language; with introductory notes on Manchu Literature: (translated by A. Wylie.). Mission Press. 1855. pp. xxvi–.
  13. ^ Ogura, S. (1926). "A Corean Vocabulary". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 4 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00102538. JSTOR 607397. S2CID 145363934.
  14. ^ Mai, Yun (2005). "漢語歷史音韻研究中的 一些方法問題 [Some Methodological Problems in Chinese Phonetics]". 浙江大学汉语史研究中心简报 [The Briefing News of Research Center for History of Chinese Language]. 18 (2). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  15. ^ Chiu, Chichu (21 December 2012). 中國翻譯史學會論文投稿: 16世紀日本譯語的出版及傳抄 [The Publishing and Writing of Chinese-Japanese Dictionary in the 16th Century]. 書寫中國翻譯史: 第五屆中國譯學新芽研討會 [Writing Chinese Translation History: Fifth Young Researchers' Conference on Chinese Translation Studies] (in Chinese). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  16. ^ Lotze, Johannes S. (2016). Translation of Empire: Mongol Legacy, Language Policy, and the Early Ming World Order, 1368-1453 (PDF) (PhD). Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  17. ^ Ido, Shinji (2018). "Chapter 2: Huihuiguan zazi: A New Persian glossary compiled in Ming China". Trends in Iranian and Persian Linguistics. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–52. doi:10.1515/9783110455793-003.
  18. ^ Ido, Shinji (2015). "New Persian vowels transcribed in Ming China". Iranian languages and literatures of Central Asia: from the 18th century to the present. Association pour l'Avancement des Études Iraniennes. pp. 99–136.
  19. ^ Hecker, Felicia J. (1993). "A Fifteenth-Century Chinese Diplomat in Herat". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 3 (1): 85–98. doi:10.1017/S1356186300003692. JSTOR 25182641. S2CID 153758529.
  20. ^ a b Morris Rossabi (28 November 2014). From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia: The Writings of Morris Rossabi. BRILL. pp. 94–. ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
  21. ^ "p. 5" (PDF). Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  22. ^ a b "Thông báo về việc các GS Nhật Bản sang trao đổi khoa học, tham gia đào tạo cao học Hán Nôm" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  23. ^ Association for Asian Studies. Ming Biographical History Project Committee; Luther Carrington Goodrich (15 October 1976). Dictionary of Ming biography, 1368–1644. Columbia University Press. pp. 1042, 1126. ISBN 9780231038010.
  24. ^ Heinrich Julius Klaproth (January 1985). Abhandlung über die Sprache und Schrift der Uiguren. Buske Verlag. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-3-87118-710-0.
  25. ^ Heinrich Julius Klaproth (1820). Abhandlungen über die Sprache und Schrift der Uiguren. pp. 6–.
  26. ^ Heinrich Julius von Klaproth (1820). Abhandlung über die Sprache und Schrift der Uiguren, nebst einem Wörterverzeichnisse und anderen uigurischen Sprachproben (etc.). Königl. Dr. pp. 6–.
  27. ^ Heinrich Julius Klaproth (1812). Abhandlung über die Sprache und Schrift der Uiguren. pp. 41–.
  28. ^ Norman Wild (1945), "Materials for the Study of the Ssŭ i Kuan 四夷(譯)館 (Bureau of Translators)", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 11 (3): 617–640, doi:10.1017/s0041977x00072311, JSTOR 609340, S2CID 154048910; pp. 617-618.
  29. ^ Vladimir Braginsky (18 March 2014). Classical Civilizations of South-East Asia. Routledge. pp. 366–. ISBN 978-1-136-84879-7.
  30. ^ Edwards, E. D.; Blagden, C. O. (1931). "A Chinese Vocabulary of Malacca Malay Words and Phrases Collected between A. D. 1403 and 1511 (?)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 6 (3): 715–749. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00093204. JSTOR 607205. S2CID 129174700.
  31. ^ B., C. O. (1939). "Corrigenda and Addenda: A Chinese Vocabulary of Malacca Malay Words and Phrases Collected between A. D. 1403 and 1511 (?)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 10 (1). JSTOR 607921.
  32. ^ Phyllis Ghim-Lian Chew (7 December 2012). A Sociolinguistic History of Early Identities in Singapore: From Colonialism to Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 79–. ISBN 978-1-137-01233-3.
  33. ^ Donald F. Lach (15 January 2010). Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume II: A Century of Wonder. Book 3: The Scholarly Disciplines. University of Chicago Press. pp. 493–. ISBN 978-0-226-46713-9.
  34. ^ Edwards, E. D.; Blagden, C. O. (1939). "A Chinese Vocabulary of Cham Words and Phrases". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 10 (1): 53–91. JSTOR 607926.
  35. ^ Vladimir Braginsky (18 March 2014). Classical Civilizations of South-East Asia. Routledge. pp. 398–. ISBN 978-1-136-84879-7.
  36. ^ Wild (1945), p. 620.
  37. ^ "BOXER REBELLION // CHINA 1900". HISTORIK ORDERS, LTD WEBSITE. Archived from the original on 12 February 2005. Retrieved 20 October 2008.
  38. ^ Diana Preston (1999). The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners That Shook the World in the Summer of 1900. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 138–140. ISBN 0-8027-1361-0.

Further reading

Foreign language vocabularies