1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rémusat, Jean Pierre Abel

REMUSAT, JEAN PIERRE ABEL (1788–1832), French Chinese scholar, was born in Paris on the 5th of September 1788. He was educated for the medical profession, but a Chinese herbal in the collection of the Abbé Tersan attracted his attention, and he taught himself to read it by great perseverance and with imperfect help. At the end of five years’ study he produced in 1811 an Essai sur la langue et la littérature chinoises, and a paper on foreign languages among the Chinese, which procured him the patronage of Silvestre de Sacy. In 1814 a chair of Chinese was founded at the College de France, and Rémusat was placed in it. From this time he gave himself wholly to the languages of the Far East, and published a series of useful works, among which his contributions from Chinese sources to the history of the Tatar nations claim special notice. Rémusat became an editor of the Journal de savants in 1818, and founder and first secretary of the Paris Asiatic Society in 1822; he also held various Government appointments. He died at Paris on the 4th of June 1832. A list of his works is given in Quérard’s France littéraire s.v. Rémusat.