Everything about Isaac Titsingh totally explained
Isaac Titsingh (born
10 January 1745 in
Amsterdam; died
2 February 1812 in
Paris) was a Dutch surgeon, scholar, merchant-trader and ambassador. During a long career in East Asia, Titsingh was a senior official of the
Dutch East India Company (the
Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or
VOC, literally "United East India Company"). He represented the European Asia-wide trading company in exclusive official contact with
Tokugawa Japan. He traveled to
Edo twice for audiences with the
Shogun and other high
bakufu officials. Later, he was the Dutch and
VOC Governor General in
Chinsura,
Bengal. Titsingh worked with his counterpart,
Charles Cornwallis, who was Governor-General of the
English East India Company. In 1795, Titsingh represented Dutch and VOC interests in
China, where his reception at the court of the
Emperor Qianlong stood in stark contrast with rebuffs to England's ambassador
George Macartney just prior to celebrations of Qianlong’s sixty year reign. In China, Titsingh effectively functioned as ambassador for his country at the same time as he represented the
VOC as a trade representative.
Japan, 1779-1784
Titsingh was the commercial
Opperhoofd or
Chief factor in Japan in 1779-1780, 1781-1783, and 1784. The singular importance of the head of the
VOC in Japan during this period was enhanced by the Japanese policy of
bakufu-imposed isolation. Because of earlier religious proselytizing during this period, no European or Japanese could enter or leave the Japanese archipelago on penalty of death. The sole exception to this "closed door," was the
VOC "factory" or trading post on the island of
Dejima in
Nagasaki bay on the southern Japanese island of
Kyūshū. In this highly-controlled context, the
VOC traders became the sole official conduit for trade and for scientific-cultural exchanges. The
VOC Opperhoofd was nominally accorded standing similar to that of a Japanese
daimyo during the obligatory once-a-year visits of homage to the Shogun in Edo. In such rare opportunities, Titsingh's informal contacts with
bakufu officials and
Rangaku scholars in Edo may have been as important as his formal audiences with the Shogun,
Tokugawa Ieharu.
India, 1785-1792
In 1785, Titsingh was appointed Director of the
VOC trading post at
Chinsura in Bengal. Chinsura is up-river from
Calcutta on the
Hooghly River, an arm of the
Ganges. He seems to have savored the intellectual life of the European community. Titsingh was described as “the Mandarin of Chinsura” (see
Mandarin (bureaucrat) and
scholar-bureaucrat) by
William Jones, the philologist and Bengal jurist.
Batavia, 1792-1793
Titsingh’s return to
Batavia (now
Jakarta,
Indonesia) led to new positions as
Ontvanger-Generaal (Treasurer) and later as
Commissaris ter Zee (Maritime Commissioner).
China, 1794-1795
Titsingh was appointed Dutch Ambassador to the court of the Emperor of China for the celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the reign of the Emperor Qianlong. In Peking, the Titsingh delegation included
Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest and
Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes, whose complementary accounts of this embassy to the Chinese court were published in the U.S. and Europe.
Titsingh's gruelling, mid-winter trek from
Canton to
Peking allowed him to see parts of inland China which had never before been accessible to Europeans. His party arrived in Peking in time for New Year's celebrations. By Chinese standards, Titsingh and his delegation were received with uncommon respect and honors in the
Forbidden City, and later in the
Yuang ming yuan (the
Old Summer Palace). Unlike the unsuccessful British embassy of the previous year under Lord
George Macartney, Titsingh made every effort to conform with the demands of the complex Imperial court etiquette -- including
kowtowing to the Emperor. Neither the Chinese nor the Europeans could have known that this would be the last appearance by any European ambassador at the Imperial court until after the
Opium Wars of the next century.
Return to Europe, 1796-1812
Titsingh returned to Europe where, among several other "firsts", he became the first to introduce the unique
Wasan/Euclidean mathematics of
sangaku to the West.
...link to sangaku overview, Princeton University
...link to sangaku explanation -- digitized photos and geometry graphics (text in Dutch)
He died in Paris (February 2, 1812), and he's buried in
Père-Lachaise cemetery. His gravestone reads: "Ici repose Isaac Titsingh. Ancien conseiller des Indes hollandaises. Ambassadeur à la Chine et au Japon. Mort à Paris le 2 Février 1812, agé de 68 ans." [Herelies Isaac Titsingh, formerly a councillor of the Dutch East India Company, Ambassador to China and to Japan. Died at Paris the 2nd of February 1812, aged 68 years.]
Legacy
Titsingh’s experiences and scholarly research in Japan were the genesis for posthumously published books, most notably:
- • Titsingh, Isaac. (1820). Mémoires et Anecdotes sur la Dynastie régnante des Djogouns, Souverains du Japon, avec la description des fêtes et cérémonies observées aux différentes époques de l'année à la Cour de ces Princes, et un appendice contenant des détails sur la poésie des Japonais, leur manière de diviser l'année, etc.; Ouvrage orné de Planches gravées et coloriées, tiré des Originaux Japonais par M. Titsingh; publié avec des Notes et Eclaircissemens Par M. Abel Rémusat. Paris: Nepveu.
•
. (1834). [Siyun-saiRin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, (1652)] Nipon o daï itsi ran [alsoknown as Nihon Ōdai Ichiran]; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon, tr. par M. Isaac Titsingh avec l'aide de plusieurs interprètes attachés au comptoir hollandais de Nangasaki; ouvrage re., complété et cor. sur l'original japonais-chinois, accompagné de notes et précédé d'un Aperçu d'histoire mythologique du Japon, par M. J. Klaproth. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. --Two examples of this rare book have now been made available online: (1) from the library of the University of Michigan, digitized January 30, 2007; and (2) from the library of Stanford University, digitized June 23, 2006. Click here to read the original text in French.Further Information
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