Rediscover Karl Friedrich Neumann.docVIP

Rediscover Karl Friedrich Neumann 　　A small-scale exhibition of the Books of the Last Empire was held in the Nuremberg University Library， Germany， in the winter of 2012. On display were ancient Chinese literature works， books on history， art， philosophy， Chinese medicine， religion， etc.， including the Chinese pharmacological bible Compendium of Materia Medica， the earliest Chinese painting textbook Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting， and the world’s first Chinese grammar book―the precious Arte de la lengua mandarina ―written by Brother Francisco Varo of the Spanish Dominican Order in Fujian in 1682 and published in Guangzhou in 1703. 　　It attracted great attention from the German public and media despite the small number of exhibits totaling about 30. A man named Karl Friedrich Neumann is closely linked to the explanation as to when and how these valuable Chinese books came to Germany， and， thus begins the rediscovery of this little-known German sinologist. 　　On March 28， 1830， the British sailing ship “Sir David Scott” set sail on the long journey to China. Count Franz Graf von Pocci， a German painter in the 19th century， depicted various kinds of passengers on the ship in a cartoon： a gentleman happily haranguing， a professor attentively reading， a daredevil holding a rifle， a careerist clenching a map， an explorer holding high a telescope， etc. The painter used his imagination and exaggeratedly pictured Neumann as the most visible sculpture at the bow. His complacent look and confident smile indicated his great expectations of this long journey. 　　The 37-year-old Neumann had plenty of time to look back upon his unhappy childhood and troubled youth during the voyage. In 1793， he was born into a poor Jewish family. His mother died young and his father was determined to get rid of him after marrying another woman. So when Neumann reached 13， his father declared him an adult and drove him out of the family home to live by himself. Neumann did some odd jo