Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. was a German-American sinologist

Sinology

Sinology in general use is the study of China and things related to China, but, especially in the American academic context, refers more strictly to the study of classical language and literature, and the philological approach...

.

Biography

He was educated at the universities of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

, Berlin

Humboldt University of Berlin

The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...

, and Greifswald (Ph.D., 1869). He was in the Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 maritime customs service from 1870 to 1897. In 1902, Professor Hirth was appointed to the professorship of Chinese in Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 (New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

).

Prior to World War II, a collection of Chinese manuscripts and printed books made by him was in the Royal Library at Berlin

Berlin State Library

The Berlin State Library is a library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.-Buildings:The State Library runs several premises, three of which are open for users, namely House 1 in Unter den Linden 8, House 2 in Potsdamer Straße 33 and the newspaper archive...

, and another of porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

s of considerable historical importance in the Gotha Museum; most of the Hirth collection from the Staatsbibliothek

Staatsbibliothek

Staatsbibliothek is the German word for state library. Another term often used is Landesbibliothek. Both types of library refer to the general type of regional libraries in tradition of the States of Germany...

 in Berlin is now in Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

. As an investigator he conducted researches in Chinese literature

Chinese literature

Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...

 by imitation of the methods of classical philology

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

.

Works

His chief publications include:

• China and the Roman Orient: Researches into their Ancient and Mediœval Relations as Represented in Old Chinese Records (1885)
• Ancient Porcelain: A Study in Chinese Mediœval Industry and Trade (1888)
• Text-Book of Documentary Chinese (two volumes, 1885-88)
• Chinesische Studien, volume i (1890)
• Ueber fremde Einflüsse in der chinesischen Kunst (1896)
• Scraps from a Collector's Note-book, Being Notes on Some Chinese Painters of the Present Dynasty, with Appendices on Some Old Masters and Art Historians (1905)
• The Ancient History of China (1908)
• Chau Ju-kua, (1911) with W. W. Rockhill
• The Story of Chang K'ie'n, China's Pioneer in Western Asia (1917)

External links