Jean Pierre Abel R%C3%A9musat

JeanPierre AbelRmusat was a French sinologist best known as the first Chair of Sinology at the Collge de France. Rmusat studied medicine as a young man, but his discovery of a Chinese herbal treatise enamored him with the Chinese language, and he spent five years teaching himself to read it. After publishing several wellreceived articles on Chinese topics, a chair in Chinese was created at the Collge de France in 1814 and Rmusat was placed in it.

Rmusat was born in Paris onSeptember 1788 and was educated for the medical profession, earning a doctorate in medicine in 1813. While studying medicine, Rmusat discovered a Chinese herbal treatise in the collection of the Abb Tersan and was immediately fascinated by it. He taught himself to read it by tirelessly studying the traditional Chinese dictionary Zhng z tng . In 1811, at the end of five years of study, he produced he work Essai sur la langue et la littrature chinoises , and a paper on foreign languages among the Chinese, which procured him the patronage of Silvestre de Sacy. In 1813, Rmusat published an essay in Latin on the nature of Chinese characters and Classical Chinese entitled Utrum Lingua Sinica sit vere monosyllabica Disputatio philologica, in qua de Grammatica Sinica obiter agiture autore Abelo de Remusat.

Source: Wikipedia