Papers of Joseph Edkins

The papers consist of a single letter from Joseph Edkins to Thomas William Rhys Davids concerning the philosophy behind Primitive Buddhism including Nirvana and karma.

Joseph Edkins was a British Protestant missionary who spent 57 years in China. He was a Sinologue, specialising in Chinese religions. He was also a linguist, a translator, and a philologist ad was author of many books about the Chinese language and the Chinese religions especially Buddhism. Born in Gloucestershire he became a Protestant minister and was sent by the London Missionary Society, to Shanghai. He worked in the London Missionary Society Press and undertook the translation of many western scientific works into Chinese. He was an active member of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

He returned to England in 1858 and was married to Jane Rowbotham Stobbs. They returned to Shanghai. In 1860 the Edkins family moved to Yantai, Shandong, and in 1861 to Tianjin. After his first wife's death he married Janet Wood White i 1863 and they moved to Beijing. He travelled to England in 1873 but was back in China by 1876.
In 1880 he resigned from the London Missionary Society to become a translator for the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. He was widowed a second time in 1877 and married Johanna Schmidt in 1881. He was appointed to edit and translate a series of Western scientific works into Chinese, resulting in 16 Primers for Western Knowledge (西學啟蒙十六種) published in 1898, which comprised textbooks about zoology, botany, chemistry, geography, physiology, logic and other subjects. In 1903 he survived typhoid and was still writing at the age of 81. He died in Shanghai on Easter Sunday, 1905.

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T.H. Rhys Davids was Secretary and Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1887-1905. It is therefore likely that he received the letter and deposited it at the Royal Asiatic Society under the auspices of his official roles.

The material was catalogued by Nancy Charley, RAS Archivist, in 2022.

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The original letter was written by Edkins. It is unknown whether Edkins made the copy and sent it to Rhys Davids or whether the copy was made by Rhys Davids.

Within the Society's collections are several books written by Joseph Edkins. Further details can be found here.