Language Log

The Xiru ermuzi 西儒耳目資 (An Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati) by the Jesuit Nicolas Trigault (Jin Nige 金尼閣, 1577–1628), published in the late Ming, was an epoch-making work that theoretically explained a method for transcribing Chinese characters in the Latin alphabet, presented a table of all the syllables of Nanjing Mandarin at the time, and also included an index that made it possible to search for the romanized transcription of Chinese characters, which were arranged in the order of their radicals and number of strokes. C. Dehaisnes, who wrote a biography of Trigault, even states that this was the most important of all the books published by Jesuits in China.1) As well as showing the final form of a romanization system that people had been searching for since the time of Matteo Ricci (Li Madou 利瑪竇, 1552–1610), it also provided for a long time the basis of the phonetic transcription systems for Chinese used in Europe. As well, this book played an extremely important role in that it had an enormous influence on the Chinese character reform movement in modern China. However, until now only a single edition of the Xiru ermuzi had been known to exist, and all research has been conducted on the basis of this edition. In the following, I wish to introduce to readers the existence of two further editions, separate from the widely known standard edition, and discuss the background to the writing of the Xiru ermuzi and also some aspects of its influence.

Concluding Remarks

Until now, only the Tianqi 6 edition [VHM:  1626] of the Xiru ermuzi compiled by Wang Zheng had been known. The newly discovered IOM version [VHM:  in Russia] was a trial edition published by Trigault with the cooperation of Han Yun at the start of Tianqi 5 [VHM:  1625]. It had various shortcomings when compared with the current standard edition, but it developed through questions and answers a theory for transcribing Chinese characters in the Latin script and presented tables with the romanized equivalents of Chinese syllables. The basic form of the definitive edition of Tianqi 6 can already be observed in this trial edition. It is to be hoped that in the future this trial edition by Han Yun will be subjected to a more detailed examination as an important source for considering the origins of the Xiru ermuzi.

Meanwhile, the movable-type edition held by Shanghai Museum would appear to have been an experiment that was not brought to completion, but it nonetheless shows that there still existed an interest in and demand for the Xiru ermuzi during the Qing dynasty. In this sense, this work, too, is an important source of material.