Joseph Henri Marie de Premare

Missionary and Sinologist; born in 1666 in Cherbourg, France; died in 1736 in Macao, China. He entered the Society of Jesus, 1693, and went to China in 1698 and labored as missionary in Kwang-si and after his banishment, in Macao. A deep student of the language and literature of China, he undertook to explain the rules and usage of the vulgar Chinese language and the style of the written literary language and to translate some Chinese literature. He thought he discovered in Chinese religious books and in the classics called "King" suggestions of Christian doctrines and allusions to the mysteries of Christianity.

New Catholic Dictionary

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