Maggs Bros.

Friedrich Hirth (1845-1927) is regarded as one of the Great German Historians and Sinologists of the 19th century. He came to China during the 1860s and worked for over 25 years in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. His work ‘China and the Roman Orient’ is a ground-breaking study about Chinese relations with and knowledge of the West during the classical and medieval period. “The mystery connected with that country in the Far West, described by ancient Chinese authors under the name of Ta-ts’in [i.e. Roman Orient], has occupied the sinological world at intervals since the beginning of the last century. The task which I thought had still to be performed was - 1. The collection of all Chinese texts embodying information on the subject; 2. The translation of these texts as far as they were new to the public, and the retranslation of portions already known but hitherto imperfectly rendered; 3. The identification of facts contained in these Chinese texts. My interpretation of these records leads to the conclusion that the ancient country of Ta-Ts’in, called Fu-lin during the middle ages, was not the Roman empire with Rome as its capital but merely its oriental part, viz. Syria, Egypt and Asia Minor…” (p. v-vi of preface).

The author had originally met Rosa von Fries while studying classics. She married Sigmund Ritter von Fries, who also worked at the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs in Shanghai. Uncommon.