Sinology
Sinology is the study of China, which usually requires a foreign scholar to have command of the Chinese language. In China, sinologists are sometimes admirably and affectionately called "experts on China" (中國通). Sinology began with the missionaries, like Father Iakinf, that went to China and studied language, cultures and beliefs. They translated some parts of Classical Chinese literature into Latin and other Western languages, and the Bible into Chinese. They also wrote many letters from China that were avidly read when China began to be considered politically or economically interesting enough. Later, some secular scholars replaced missionaries and sinology won its place as a classic field of study in many universities. In Japan, Sinology (Shinagaku 支那学 in Japanese) was established with an effective combination of traditional Confucian study and Western Sinology. It was later reorganized as a part of Oriental Study. Famous recognized sinologists: Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin, Russian Séraphin Couvreur, French Herlee G. Creel, U.S. Rafe de Crespigny John DeFrancis, U.S. Paul Demiéville, French J.J.L. Duyvendak John K. Fairbank, U.S. Otto Franke, German Jacques Gernet, French Herbert Giles, British Marcel Granet, French Kuwabara Jitsuzo, Japanese François Julien, French Stanislas Julien, French Pyotr Ivanovich Kafarov, Russian Bernhard Karlgren, Swedish Naito Konan, Japanese James Legge, Scottish Simon Leys, Belgian Paul Linebarger, U.S. Perry Link, U.S. Henri Maspero, French Joseph Needham, British Jean-Pierre-Abel Rémusat, French Erwin Ritter von Zach, Austrian Jonathan Spence, U.S. Léon Vandermeersch Thomas Francis Wade, British Arthur Waley Richard Wilhelm, German Karl A. Wittfogel, German American
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