”Chinese literature” is the theme of this book as it seems, but Alexander Wylie (伟烈亚力 1815–1887) had a rather wide definition of literature. The book of today, Notes on Chinese literature: with introductory remarks on the progressive advancement of the art and a list of translations from the Chinese into various European languages (中国文献录), has four sections, the first dealing with ”Chinese classics” as Yijing 易经 (I-ching), Shijing 诗经 (Odes or Poetry) etc. The second section deals with historical writings, documents, geography, and so on, and the third section is about philosophy, religion, astronomy, but also a text like Sunzi’s Art of War 孙子兵法. Only the fourth section deals with what we would today more clearly define as literature, e.g. the poetry of Li Bai 李白 (701-762), Su Shi 苏轼 (Su Dongpo 苏东坡, 1037–1101) and Xie Lingyun 谢灵运 (385–433), a famous Southern & Northern dynasties 南北朝 (420-589) nature poet, writing in the style of the Six Dynasties 六朝 (220–589). This section also mentions the well-known Neo-Confucian scholar Lu Jiuyuan 陸九淵 (象山先生 1139–1192).
Alexander Wylie was a missionary for London Missionary Society (LMS), and from 1846 managed the LMS Press in Shanghai. Wylie had taught himself Chinese to begin with, and was noticed by James Legge who recruited him for the job in Shanghai. Wylie later also became an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in China, and travelled much around China. He took part in translating Bible parts into Chinese, but also worked with Li Shanlan 李善兰 (1810 – 1882), prominent Chinese mathematician, to translate mathematical works into Chinese. Wylie already in 1853 summarised what he had learned about Chinese science in his work Jottings on the Science of the Chinese.
Whylie’s Chinese literature was first published in 1867 (Shanghai and London) and earned the status of a handbook, being republished in 1901, 1902 and 1922. We have the 1902 edition from Shanghai, and the full text is available online.