The Sinological Erasure of Chinese Morality, 1800–1820

Abstract:This article focuses on the emergence of British Sinology at the beginning of the nineteenth century, tracing Sinologists’ intellectual (mis)representation of China through coupled studies of language and religion. I use Joshua Marshman’s Elements of Chinese Grammar (1814) as an initial case study that demonstrates how linguistic studies establish language learning as a gateway into cultural exploration and critique. Within these studies, literary translation often facilitated language acquisition. The writings of Confucius—prominent in Imperial China’s Civil Service Examination— were readily available and were frequently utilized within Sinologists’ philological studies and translation exercises. Yet extant Chinese religious ritual practices, including Confucianism, undermined British assertions of Chinese immorality. British suppositions of imperial superiority over the Qing Empire relied upon the nullification of Chinese morality, including any semblance of religious practice. Analyses of Marsh-man’s translated Works of Confucius (1809) and William Milne’s translation of the Kangxi emperor’s Sacred Edict (1817) reveal the transformation of Confucianism from religion to moral philosophy to sociopolitical theory, thereby creating a space wherein Chinese integrity could be questioned.