Julien

Julien, Stanislas Aignan, originally Noel (1797-1873), French Chinese scholar, was a native of Orleans, His father, a mechanic, wished him to become a priest, but his linguistic tastes soon became apparent, and his ability was recognised by his appointment in 1821, assistant professor of Greek at the College de France. The lectures of Abel Remusat, however, soon attracted him to the study of Chinese, which he acquired with such rapidity that at the end of two years he published a Latin translation of part of one of the nine classical books of China (Meny-tsze). In 1827 he became sub-librarian to the Institut de France, and in 1832 succeeded Remusat in the chair of Chinese at the College de France, of which in 1841 he was appointed administrateur. In 1839 he also became joint-keeper of the Academie Royale. He translated many Chinese tales and dramas, compiled for the Ministry of Agriculture a resume of the Chinese treatises on the cultivation of the mulberry, and in addition to a Chinese grammar published Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes, and a rendering of the work of Laow-tsze, founder of the Taon religion. His Histoire et Fabrication de la Porcelaine Chinoise is a classic. He was a Sanskrit and Pali scholar of some eminence.