Wilhelm Grube
Encyclopedia
Wilhelm Grube (17 August 1855 – 2 July 1908) was a German sinologist and ethnographer. He is particularly known for his work on Tungusic languages
and the Jurchen language
.
, Russia
in 1855. He studied Chinese
, Manchu
, Mongolian
and Tibetan
under Franz Anton Schiefner
at the University of Saint Petersburg
from 1874 to 1878.
In 1878, Grube moved to Germany to study at the University of Leipzig
under Georg von der Gabelentz, and he submitted his doctoral dissertation in 1880. The following year he taught a course on Tibetan grammar at the University of Leipzig, but he was unable to obtain a regular teaching position, and so in 1883 he took up a position as an assistant at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin
. He also had a junior teaching position at the University of Berlin
, and in 1892 he was awarded the title of extraordinary professor.
In 1897 he went to China with his wife, and they stayed there until 1899, acquiring a large collection which he deposited in the Ethnological Museum of Berlin when he returned.
region of the Russian Far East
, and one extinct language spoken by the Jurchen people of Manchuria
.
At the behest of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
, Grube worked on the linguistic materials brought back from the Amur region by Carl Maximowicz
and Leopold von Schrenck
during the 1850s. Based on these materials, in 1892 Grube published a vocabulary of the Gilyak language
(a language isolate
, also known as Nivkh), and in 1900 he published a vocabulary of the Gold language
(a Tungusic language, also known as Nanai).
By the nineteenth century, the Jurchen language that had been spoken by the ancestors of the Manchu people during the Jin Dynasty (1115–1234) was almost completely unknown, and the few surviving inscriptions in the Jurchen script
were undecipherable. However, in the early 1890s the Royal Library at Berlin
acquired a manuscript copy of the Vocabulary of the Bureau of Translators from Friedrich Hirth
which included a chapter on the Jurchen language that was missing from other known copies of this book. The Jurchen chapter of this book comprised a vocabulary list with each word written in the Jurchen script and also transcribed phonetically using Chinese characters (this contrasts with the vocabularies produced by the Bureau of Interpreters, which only included the phonetic transcription in Chinese characters). In 1896 Grube published a translation and study of the Jurchen vocabulary list that changed the status of Jurchen from a completely undeciphered language to a language that could be read and understood with the help of Grube's book. The year after its publication, S. W. Bushell
used Grube's translation of the Jurchen vocabulary to study the Jurchen inscription on a stele from Kaifeng
, and it has remained the principal source for the study of the Jurchen language ever since.
In addition to his linguistic studies, Grube also published extensively on Chinese philosophy, religion and mythology. He was also interested in Chinese literature, and posthumously published a German translation of the Chinese mythological novel, Fengshen Yanyi
('The Investiture of the Gods'), as well as German translations of a set of Chinese shadow play
scripts.
Tungusic languages
The Tungusic languages form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered, and the long-term future of the family is uncertain...
and the Jurchen language
Jurchen language
Jurchen language is an extinct language. It was spoken by Jurchen people of eastern Manchuria, the creators of the Jin Empire in the northeastern China of the 12th–13th centuries. It is classified as a Southwestern Tungusic language.-Writing:...
.
Biography
Grube was born in Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 1855. He studied Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Manchu
Manchu language
Manchu is a Tungusic endangered language spoken in Northeast China; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 70 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus...
, Mongolian
Mongolian language
The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...
and Tibetan
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
under Franz Anton Schiefner
Franz Anton Schiefner
Franz Anton Schiefner was a Baltic German linguist and tibetologist.Schiefner was born to a German-speaking family in Reval , Estonia, then part of Russian Empire. His father was a merchant who had emigrated from Bohemia...
at the University of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....
from 1874 to 1878.
In 1878, Grube moved to Germany to study at the University 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...
under Georg von der Gabelentz, and he submitted his doctoral dissertation in 1880. The following year he taught a course on Tibetan grammar at the University of Leipzig, but he was unable to obtain a regular teaching position, and so in 1883 he took up a position as an assistant at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin
Ethnological Museum of Berlin
The Ethnological Museum in Berlin is one of the largest ethnological museums in the world. It houses half a million pre-industrial objects, acquired primarily from the German voyages of exploration and colonialization of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries...
. He also had a junior teaching position at the University of 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 in 1892 he was awarded the title of extraordinary professor.
In 1897 he went to China with his wife, and they stayed there until 1899, acquiring a large collection which he deposited in the Ethnological Museum of Berlin when he returned.
Scholarship
Grube is principally remembered for his pioneering studies of three little-known languages, two spoken in the AmurAmur Oblast
Amur Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , situated about east of Moscow on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers. It shares its border with the Sakha Republic in the north, Khabarovsk Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the east, People's Republic of China in the south, and Zabaykalsky...
region of the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
, and one extinct language spoken by the Jurchen people of Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
.
At the behest of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
, Grube worked on the linguistic materials brought back from the Amur region by Carl Maximowicz
Carl Maximowicz
Carl Johann Maximowicz was a Russian botanist. Maximowicz spent most of his life studying the flora of the countries he had visited in the Far East, and naming many new species...
and Leopold von Schrenck
Leopold von Schrenck
Leopold Ivanovich von Schrenck was a Russian zoologist, geographer and ethnographer.-Biography:Schrenck was a Baltic German born and brought up near Chotenj, south-west of St Petersburg. He received his doctorate from the University of Tartu, and then studied natural science in Berlin and Königsberg...
during the 1850s. Based on these materials, in 1892 Grube published a vocabulary of the Gilyak language
Nivkh language
Nivkh or Gilyak is a language spoken in Outer Manchuria, in the basin of the Amgun , along the lower reaches of the Amur itself, and on the northern half of Sakhalin. 'Gilyak' is the Manchu appellation...
(a language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
, also known as Nivkh), and in 1900 he published a vocabulary of the Gold language
Nanai language
The Nanai language is spoken by the Nanai people in Siberia, and to a much smaller extent in China's Heilongjiang province, where it is known as Hezhe...
(a Tungusic language, also known as Nanai).
By the nineteenth century, the Jurchen language that had been spoken by the ancestors of the Manchu people during the Jin Dynasty (1115–1234) was almost completely unknown, and the few surviving inscriptions in the Jurchen script
Jurchen script
Jurchen script was the writing system used to write Jurchen language, the language of the Jurchen people who created the Jin Empire in the northeastern China of the 12th–13th centuries. It was derived from the Khitan script, which in turn was derived from Chinese...
were undecipherable. However, in the early 1890s 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...
acquired a manuscript copy of the Vocabulary of the Bureau of Translators from Friedrich Hirth
Friedrich Hirth
Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. was a German-American sinologist.-Biography:He was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Greifswald . He was in the Chinese maritime customs service from 1870 to 1897...
which included a chapter on the Jurchen language that was missing from other known copies of this book. The Jurchen chapter of this book comprised a vocabulary list with each word written in the Jurchen script and also transcribed phonetically using Chinese characters (this contrasts with the vocabularies produced by the Bureau of Interpreters, which only included the phonetic transcription in Chinese characters). In 1896 Grube published a translation and study of the Jurchen vocabulary list that changed the status of Jurchen from a completely undeciphered language to a language that could be read and understood with the help of Grube's book. The year after its publication, S. W. Bushell
Stephen Wootton Bushell
Stephen Wootton Bushell CMG MD was an English physician and amateur Orientalist who made important contributions to the study of Chinese ceramics, Chinese numismatics and the decipherment of the Tangut script.-Biography:...
used Grube's translation of the Jurchen vocabulary to study the Jurchen inscription on a stele from Kaifeng
Kaifeng
Kaifeng , known previously by several names , is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, Central China. Nearly 5 million people live in the metropolitan area...
, and it has remained the principal source for the study of the Jurchen language ever since.
In addition to his linguistic studies, Grube also published extensively on Chinese philosophy, religion and mythology. He was also interested in Chinese literature, and posthumously published a German translation of the Chinese mythological novel, Fengshen Yanyi
Fengshen Yanyi
Fengshen Bang, also known as Fengshen Yanyi in Chinese, and translated as The Investiture of the Gods or The Creation of the Gods, is one of the major vernacular Chinese epic novels written during the Ming Dynasty...
('The Investiture of the Gods'), as well as German translations of a set of Chinese shadow play
Shadow play
Shadow play or shadow puppetry Shadow puppets have a long history in China, India, Turkey and Java, and as a popular form of entertainment for both children and adults in many countries around the world. A shadow puppet is a cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen...
scripts.
Works
- 1881. Die Sprachgeschichtliche Stellung des Chinesischen. T. O. Weigel.
- 1892. Linguistische Ergebnisse 1: Giljakisches Wörterverzeichniss nebst Grammatischen Bemerkungen (vocabulary and grammar of GilyakNivkh languageNivkh or Gilyak is a language spoken in Outer Manchuria, in the basin of the Amgun , along the lower reaches of the Amur itself, and on the northern half of Sakhalin. 'Gilyak' is the Manchu appellation...
). Part 1 of Leopold von Schrenck (ed.), Die Völker des Amur-Landes. - 1896. Taoistischer Schöpfungsmythus. Reimer.
- 1896. Die Sprache und Schrift der Jučen (the languageJurchen languageJurchen language is an extinct language. It was spoken by Jurchen people of eastern Manchuria, the creators of the Jin Empire in the northeastern China of the 12th–13th centuries. It is classified as a Southwestern Tungusic language.-Writing:...
and writingJurchen scriptJurchen script was the writing system used to write Jurchen language, the language of the Jurchen people who created the Jin Empire in the northeastern China of the 12th–13th centuries. It was derived from the Khitan script, which in turn was derived from Chinese...
of the Jurchen). Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz. - 1898. "Pekinger Totenbräuche"; Journal of the Peking Oriental Society Vol. IV: 79–141.
- 1900. Linguistische Ergebnisse 2: Goldisch-deutsches Wörterverzeichnis (vocabulary of the Gold languageNanai languageThe Nanai language is spoken by the Nanai people in Siberia, and to a much smaller extent in China's Heilongjiang province, where it is known as Hezhe...
). Part 2 of Leopold von Schrenck (ed.), Die Völker des Amur-Landes. - 1901. Zur Pekinger Volkskunde. Volume 7 of Veröffentlichungen aus dem Königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde. Berlin: W. Spemann.
- 1902. Geschichte der Chinesischen Litteratur; Volume 8 of Litteraturen des Ostens in Einzeldarstellungen. Leipzig: C. F. Amelangs.
- 1908–1909. Die Religion der Alten Chinesen. In Religionsgeschichtliches Lesebuch. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.
- 1909. Die chinesische Philosophie.
- 1910. Religion und Kultus der Chinesen. Leipzig: R. Haupt.
- 1912. With Herbert Mueller. Fêng-shên-yên-i: Die Metamorphosen der Goetter (translation of the Chinese mythological novel Fengshen YanyiFengshen YanyiFengshen Bang, also known as Fengshen Yanyi in Chinese, and translated as The Investiture of the Gods or The Creation of the Gods, is one of the major vernacular Chinese epic novels written during the Ming Dynasty...
). Leiden: Brill. - 1915. With Emil KrebsEmil KrebsEmil Krebs was a German polyglot and sinologist. He mastered 68 languages in speech and writing and studied 120 other languages.-The early years:...
. Chinesische Schattenspiele (collection of Chinese shadow play scripts). Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz.