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Heinrich Julius Klaproth (11 October 1783 – 28 August 1835) was a German linguist, historian, ethnographer, author, oriental studies and explorer.Screech, Timon. (2006). Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns: Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822, pp. 69-72. As a scholar, he is credited along with Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat with being instrumental in turning East Asian Studies into scientific disciplines with critical methods.Walravens, Hartmut. "Julius Klaproth. His Life and Works with Special Emphasis on Japan", Japonica Humboldtiana 10 (2006), p. 177.
Young Klaproth devoted his energies in quite early life to the study of Asiatic languages, and published in 1802 his Asiatisches Magazin (Weimar 1802–1803). He was in consequence called to Saint Petersburg and given an appointment in the academy there. In 1805 he was a member of Count Golovkin's embassy to China. On his return he was despatched by the academy to the Caucasus on an ethnographical and linguistic exploration (1807–1808), and was afterwards employed for several years in connection with the academy's Oriental publications. In 1812 he moved to Berlin.Screech, p. 70.
In 1815 he settled in Paris, and in 1816 Humboldt procured him from the king of Prussia the title and salary of professor of Asiatic languages and literature, with permission to remain in Paris as long as was requisite for the publication of his works. He died in Paris on 28 August 1835.
Klaproth was an orientalist, or an "Asiatologist", in that he had a good command not only of Chinese language, but also Manchu, Mongolian, Sanskrit, Turkish language, Arabic, Persian language, and even Caucasian languages. His wide range of interests encompassed the study of the development of individual countries in their Asian context, which contrast with the 21st century focus on specialization.
Klaproth's 1812 Dissertation on language and script of the Uighurs ( Abhandlung über die Sprache und Schrift der Uiguren) was disputed by Isaak Jakob Schmidt, who is considered the founder of Mongolian Studies. Klaproth asserted that the Uighur language was a Turkic languages language, which today is undisputed, while Schmidt was persuaded that Uighur should be classified as a "Tangut language" language.Walravens, p. 181 n14.
His great work Asia Polyglotta (Paris, 1823 and 1831, with Sprachatlas) not only served as a résumé of all that was known on the subject, but formed a new departure for the classification of the Eastern languages, especially those of the Russian Empire.
The Itinerary of a Chinese Traveller (1821), a series of documents in the military archives of St. Petersburg purporting to be the travels of "George Ludwig von —", and a similar series obtained from him in the London foreign office, are all regarded as spurious.
Klaproth's other works include:
Klaproth was also the first to publish a translation of Taika era Japanese poetry in the West. Donald Keene explained in a preface to the Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkōkai edition of the Man'yōshū:
Other works on Japan include:
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