MORRISON, Robert.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Grammar of the Chinese Language. First edition of the first Chinese grammar written in English, completed by Morrison two years before the publication of Joshua Marshman's Clavis Sinica (1813). A copy of this scarce early missionary imprint last appeared at auction in 1992.Robert Morrison (1782-1834) joined the London Missionary Society in 1804 and sailed for Canton in early 1807. He faced opposition from the East India Company and the Portuguese authorities in Macao, so chose to live and conduct his linguistic research secretly among American merchants. Shipped from Macao to Calcutta, the manuscript of his grammar was published under Marshman's supervision with type cast at the expense of the East India Company. "It was a revolutionary undertaking, not only because it was the first of its kind in English, but also because Mandarin had never been used officially in writing and would remain strictly in colloquial use for at least another century" (Foley, p. 76).After serving as interpreter to Lord Amherst's abortive mission to Peking, Morrison returned to Britain in 1824, bringing with him a substantial library which became the core of the collection at the School of Oriental and African Studies. "As the report of the East India Company's select committee in Canton stated in 1827, Robert Morrison was considered the chief person who opened to his countrymen the road to the knowledge of the language of China" (ODNB).

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