The Chinaman and the librarian: the meeting of Shen Fuzong and Thomas Hyde in 1687: a lecture for the Oxford Bibliographical Society

Conference item

In 1687 a young Chinese Christian convert named Shen Fuzong visited Oxford, where he spent a few weeks working in the Bodleian with Thomas Hyde, Bodley's Librarian. Shen was not only proficient in writing Chinese, but he could also speak and write Latin, and he is the first recorded visitor to England from China who could therefore communicate effectively with the English learned classes. Shen helped Hyde catalogue the Bodleian's oriental holdings, and after he left Oxford Shen continued to correspond with Hyde. The manuscript working papers of both men generated by Shen's visit survive in the Sloane manuscripts, as do several of Shen's letters to Hyde. This lecture explores this visit, and Shen's effect of Hyde's subsequent oriental work.

Authors: Poole, W

• Publication date: 2010-03-01
• Edition: Author's Original
• Language: English
• Keywords: Bodleian Library; Thomas Hyde; Shen Fuzong; protosinology
• Subjects: Early Modern Britain and Europe; Chinese; Intellectual History; History of science