The Letters of Shen Fuzong to Thomas Hyde, 1687-88

摘要

The earliest surviving direct correspondence ofa learned nature between a Chineseperson and an Englishman comprises severalletters sent between May 1687 andFebruary 1688 by a young Christian convertfrom Nanjing, Michael Shen Fuzong(c. 1658-1691), to the Oxonian orientalscholar and librarian Thomas Hyde (1636-1704). This correspondence had beensparked off by the visit of Shen to London in1687 in the entourage of visitingJesuits, and Hyde, always keen to attract nativespeakers of orientallanguages, soon persuaded Shen to visit Oxford. This article presents the surviving letters of Shen to Hyde, in their original Latin and Chinese texts, with English translations, and also provides an extensive contextual introduction and full annotations to the letters themselves.