Franz Kühnert

Franz Emanuel Kühnert (born July 19, 1852 in Vienna ; died September 25, 1918 there ) was an Austrian astronomer and sinologist .

biography

Kühnert was a mathematician and scientist . In 1875 he became assistant to the k. k. Graduation bureaus under the direction of Theodor von Oppolzer . In 1885 he received his doctorate in astronomy . Due to Oppolzer's interest in describing eclipses (solar and lunar eclipses) in ancient China, too, Kühnert began studying the Chinese language .

A sentence by Kühnert about the position of astronomy in China served Joseph Needham as the epigraph for the third volume of his work Science and Civilization in China and was subsequently quoted again several times:

“This entire establishment of the Chinese calendar system with all the relevant precautions also allows us to take a look at the outstanding spirit of this people; And the Chinese are probably also barbarians in the eyes of some Europeans because they undertake to keep the astronomers - an extremely useless people in the opinion of these earth pilgrims in the highly cultural West - on an equal footing with the chiefs of sections and first secretaries of ministry. - O hideous barbarism! - "

- Franz Kühnert : The calendar system among the Chinese, p. 116.

In 1891, after the death of August Pfizmaier , Kühnert became a private lecturer and in 1898 professor of Chinese at the University of Vienna . This made him the first to hold a purely sinological chair at the University of Vienna, where he taught from 1891 to 1918. In the years 1892/1893 and 1895, the Ministry of Cultus and Education financed Kühnert stays for language studies in Beijing , Nanjing and Shanghai , where he studied various Chinese dialects .

Erwin Ritter von Zach was a student of Kühnert.

Works (selection)

The calendar system among the Chinese (1888)
About the rhythm in China (1896).
The Spiritual Life of the Chinese in Writing and Language (1888).
The particles si in Lao-tsi's Taó-tek-king (1891).
About the meaning of the three periods of Chang, Pu and Ki, as well as about the elements and the so-called election cycle among the Chinese (1892).
The Chinese Language at Nanking (1894).
The philosophy of Kongdsy (Confucius) based on the original text. A contribution to the revision of the previous views (1895).
About the rhythm in China (1896).
Syllabary of Nanking Dialectes or correcten pronunciation (正音) together with Vocabular to study the high-Chinese vernacular (1898).
The Schu-King-Eclipse (1989, with Gustav Schlegel).

literature

W (eldon) South Coblin: Franz Kühnert and the Phonetics of Late Nineteenth-Century Nankingese. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 128 No. 1 (January – March 2008) pp. 131–137.

Footnotes

^ ^A ^b Wolfdieter Bihl : Oriental Studies at the University of Vienna. Research between the Maghreb and East and South Asia. The professors and lecturers . Vienna: Böhlau, 2009; Pp. 57-59.
↑ Christopher Cullen: Heavenly Numbers. Astronomy and Authority in Early Imperial China . Oxford University Press, 2017; P. 17; see. Simon Winchester: Bomb, Book and Compass. Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China . London: Penguin, 2008 (first edition title: The Man Who Loved China ); P. 273.
^ Henri Cordier : Les Études chinoises (1891-1894). In: T'oung Pao Vol. 6 No. 1 (1895) pp. 99-147, here pp. 111-112.
^ ^A ^b Koos Kuiper: The Early Dutch Sinologists (1854-1900). Training in Holland and China, Functions in the Netherlands Indies . Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2017; P. 474.
↑ cf. Minerva Vol. 60 (1858?) P. 1246.
↑ In the work Kühnert criticizes the translation of the Da xue by the British missionary and sinologist James Legge ; Kühnert's writing, on the other hand, was criticized quite sharply by Arthur von Rosthorn in an article entitled Konfuzius, Legge, Kühnert .

personal data
SURNAME	Kühnert, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kühnert, Franz Emanuel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian astronomer and sinologist
DATE OF BIRTH	July 19, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vienna
DATE OF DEATH	September 25, 1918
Place of death	Vienna

[Bihl-1] A ^b Wolfdieter Bihl : Oriental Studies at the University of Vienna. Research between the Maghreb and East and South Asia. The professors and lecturers . Vienna: Böhlau, 2009; Pp. 57-59.

[2] Christopher Cullen: Heavenly Numbers. Astronomy and Authority in Early Imperial China . Oxford University Press, 2017; P. 17; see. Simon Winchester: Bomb, Book and Compass. Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China . London: Penguin, 2008 (first edition title: The Man Who Loved China ); P. 273.

[3] Henri Cordier : Les Études chinoises (1891-1894). In: T'oung Pao Vol. 6 No. 1 (1895) pp. 99-147, here pp. 111-112.

[Kuiper-4] A ^b Koos Kuiper: The Early Dutch Sinologists (1854-1900). Training in Holland and China, Functions in the Netherlands Indies . Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2017; P. 474.

[5] . Minerva Vol. 60 (1858?) P. 1246.

[6] In the work Kühnert criticizes the translation of the Da xue by the British missionary and sinologist James Legge ; Kühnert's writing, on the other hand, was criticized quite sharply by Arthur von Rosthorn in an article entitled Konfuzius, Legge, Kühnert .