Vol. I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

Theories
of de
Guignes the
Sinologist
and Palin.
Birch's
Chinese
studies.
XVI Introduction.
de Guignes (1721-1800), an eminent Sinologist, tried to prove
that the epistolographic and symbolic characters of the Egyptians
were to be found in the Chinese characters, and that the Chinese
nation was nothing but an Egyptian colony. Following in his
steps, M. le Comte de Palin (or Pahlin) held that the Chinese
and Egyptian characters were identical in origin and meaning j
1
he believed that if either the ancient forms of Chinese characters,
or those which their values indicate, were given to them, true
hieroglyphs
similar to those that exist on the Rosetta Stone
would very often be found. And he thought that if the Psalms
of David were translated into Chinese, and they were then written
in the ancient characters of that language, the inscriptions in
Egyptian papyri would be reproduced. 2 Now whatever may have
been the opinions held by Young and Champollion about the
relationship of the Chinese language to the ancient Egyptian
language, or the similarity of the principles on which Chinese
and Egyptian writing had been developed, these scholars could
neither affirm nor deny effectively the statements of de Guignes
and de Palin, for both of them were ignorant of the Chinese
language. With Birch the case was very different, for he studied
Chinese under a competent master when still at the Merchant
Taylors' School, with the direct object of obtaining an appointment
in the Consular Service in China. The friend of the family who
had promised to obtain this appointment for him died un-
expectedly in 1831, with the result that Birch remained in
England. He continued his Chinese studies, and began to read
the works of Young and Champollion, thinking that his knowledge
of Chinese would enable him to read the Egyptian texts easily.
In 1834 he became an assistant in the Public Record Office, and
worked in the Tower until January, 1836, when he entered the
service of the Trustees of the British Museum. There he was
able to make use of his knowledge of Chinese and Egyptian, and
his first official task was to arrange and describe the Chinese
coins. 3 When this work was completed he was directed to describe
1 See his Essai sur le moyen de parvenir a la lecture ei a I' intelligence des
Hieroglyphes Egyptiens in Memoires de I'Academie. torn. XXIX, 1764 ; torn.
XXXIV, 1770.
See De Palin, N. G., Lettres sur les Hieroglyphes, Weimar, 1802 ; Essai sur
les Hieroglyphes, Weimar, 1804 ; Analyse de I' Inscription en Hieroglyphes du
Monument trouve a Rosette, Dresden, 1804 ; Nouvelles Recherches, Florence, 1830.
* Some of the descriptions which he wrote at this time are still in the coin
trays of the Department of Coins and Medals, and by the courtesy of my colleague,
the Keeper of the Department, Mr. G. F. Hill, I have been able to examine them.