Claude-Philibert Dabry de Thiersant

Claude-Philibert Dabry de Thiersant (born April 5, 1826 in Belleville (Rhône) , † 1898 in Lyon ) was a French naval officer, diplomat and sinologist.

Live and act

Darbry initially served in the French Navy and took part in the Crimean War in 1853 . In 1856 he was promoted to captain ("capitaine"). From 1856 to 1862 he was stationed as a diplomat candidate ("élève consul") in the function of a government commissioner ("commissaire du gouvernement") in Tianjin and Chusan ( Zhoushan Islands ). In 1862 he was made a knight of the Légion d'honneur and entrusted with the management of the French consulate in Hankou (1863-1868). In 1868 Dabry added his father's name to that of his mother and called himself Dabry de Thiersant from then on. He held various positions in the consulates of Shanghai (1868–1869) and Canton (1869–1871). In 1878 he went to the Consulate General in Guatemala as chargé d'affaires . In 1884 he was retired as an authorized minister ("ministre plénipotentaire").

Illustration of acupuncture points in Dabry de Thiersant. La médecine chez les Chinois. Paris 1863

As a “defender of the honor of France and its trade interests” he believed he had to fulfill a “civilizing mission” and he wrote many reports as part of his function, for example on the state of the Chinese army, on Muslims and on Christians in China. His study of Chinese medicine , which he wrote together with Jean Léon Soubeiran (1827-1892), a professor of pharmacy from Montpellier, was much noticed. The Chinese sources used by Dabry and Soubeiran are still kept in the Montpellier University Library today .

Works

• Organization of the militaire des Chinois, ou la Chine et ses Armées. Suivi d'un aperçu sur l'administration civile de la Chine. Plon, Paris 1859 (digitized version)
• Together with Jean-Léon Soubeiran (1827–1892). La médecine chez les Chinois . H. Plon, Paris 1863 (digitized version)
• Le massacre de Tien-Tsin et nos intérêts dans l'empire chinois . Ch.Douniol, Paris 1872 (digitized version )
• Together with Jean-Léon Soubeiran (1827–1892). La matière médicale chez les Chinois . G. Masson, Paris 1874 (digitized version)
• Le catolicisme en Chine au VIIIe siècle de notre ère. Avec une nouvelle traduction de l'inscription de Sy-Ngan-Fou. Accompagnée d'une grande Planche. Au profit de l'œuvre de la propagation de la foi en Chine . E. Leroux, Paris 1877 (digitized version)
• La piété filiale en Chine . E. Leroux, Paris 1877
• The Mahométisme en Chine et dans le Turkestan oriental. E. Colas, Orléans 1878 Volume I (digitized version) Volume II (digitized version)
• Nos intérêts dans l'Indo-Chine. Avec une carte du Tomkin . E. Leroux, Paris 1884 (digitized version)
• The solution de la question du Tonkin au point de vue des intérêts Français. L. Cerf, Paris 1885 (digitized version)

literature

• Pierre Huard and M. Wong: Montpellier et la Médecine chinoise . In: Monspeliensis Hippocrates. December 1958, No 2, pp. 13-20
• Paul Demiéville: Aperçu historique des études sinologues en France. In: Acta asiatica. Bulletin of the Institute of Eastern Culture. Tokyo 1966, p. 56ff here: p. 85
• François Pouillon (ed.): Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française. Karthala, Paris 2008, p. 267 (digitized version)
• Raphael Israeli: Dabry de Thiersant and the opening of China by the French . Lambert, 2011 ISBN 978-3844315639