A Bicentenary in Robert Morrison's Scholarship on China and his Significance for Today

Barrett, T.H.

Abstract

Robert Morrison (1782–1834), the first Protestant missionary to China, was responsible for the completion of the earliest Chinese-English Dictionary in 1814. Though this work would not have reached publication without the help of Chinese assistants, and of the printer P. P. Thoms (1790–1855), even so Morrison's scholarly achievements in this and other aspects of Chinese studies were prodigious. This survey of recent research makes clear the continuing value of his writings to contemporary scholars, and also suggests that he was not simply more seriously engaged in attempting to understand China than his contemporaries but also more enlightened than a good number of his successors in missionary work.

Citation

Barrett, T. (2015). A Bicentenary in Robert Morrison's Scholarship on China and his Significance for Today. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 25(4), 705-716. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186314000868

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 5, 2014
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Mar 23, 2025
• Journal: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
• Print ISSN: 1356-1863
• Electronic ISSN: 1474-0591
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 705-716
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186314000868