¹ Leonard Blussé, Tribuut aan China: Vier eeuwen Nederlands-Chinese betrekkingen [Tribute to China: four centuries of Sino-Dutch relations] (Amsterdam: Onno Cramswinkel Uitgever, 1989). This work is also available in Chinese and Japanese translations. An updated version appeared as Leonard Blussé and Floris-Jan van Luyn, China en de Nederlanders: Geschiedenis van de Nederlands-Chinese betrekkingen [China and the Dutch: A history of Sino-Dutch relations] (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2008). Tristan Mosterd and Jan van Campen, Silk Thread: China and the Netherlands since 1600 (Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 2015) provides a gorgeously illustrated survey of the relations between the Dutch and Chinese, with an emphasis on the related objects in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

² Following the massacre, the leadership of the Chinese community in Batavia was more formalized as the Kong Koan 公館. Its extensive archives in Chinese and Malay have been largely preserved and now are kept at Leiden University. These minutes of the Kong Koan's regular meetings have been fully edited in fifteen volumes as Bacheng huaren gongguan (Baguo gongtang) dang'an congshu 吧城華人公館(吧國公堂)檔案叢書 (Xiamen: Xiamen daxue chubanshe, 2002–). For a first introduction to these materials, see Leonard Blussé and Chen Menghong, eds. The Archives of the Kong Koan of Batavia (Leiden: Brill, 2003). For an evaluation of studies on the Kong Koan archives, see Nie Dening 聂德宁, “Bacheng huaren gongguan dang'an wenxian ji qi yanjiu xianzhuang” 吧城华人公馆档案文献及其研究现状, Nanyang wenti yanjiu 128.4 (2006), 63–70.

³ Jealousy and suspicion were the main motivations for the continuous changes in the laws concerning the legal status of the Chinese community. See Patricia Tjiook-Liem, De rechtspositie der Chinezen in Nederlands-Indië 1848–1942 [The legal status of the Chinese in the Dutch East Indies 1848–1942] (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2009).

⁴ To counter the influence of nationalism among the Chinese in the Dutch East Indies, the colonial administration facilitated their access to Dutch-language education (including entrance to Dutch universities) by the establishment in 1908 of Sino-Dutch schools (Hollands-Chinese scholen). See M.T.N, Govaars-Tjia, Hollands onderwijs in een koloniale samenleving: De Chinese ervaring in Indonesië [Dutch-language education in a colonial context: The Chinese experience in Indonesia] (Afferden: De Vijver, 1999). This study was published in English as Dutch Colonial Education: The Chinese Experience, trans. Loree Lynn Trytten, foreword by Wang Gungwu (Singapore: Chinese Heritage Center, 2005).

⁵ American readers should keep in mind that European universities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries did not know a liberal arts system and that teaching programs were organized along the lines of chairs and departments. They also should keep in mind that European Sinology established itself as an academic discipline long before the modern social sciences did, and, in many cases, long before the proliferation of “language and literature” departments. The closest model for fields like Sinology and other Asian studies was provided by Oriental studies and by Classical studies, fields that employed philology as their dominant method in the study of ancient and foreign cultures.

⁶ Duyvendak, J.J.L., “Early Chinese Studies in Holland,” T'oung Pao 33 (1937), 268–294CrossRefGoogle Scholar; J.J.L. Duyvendak, Holland's Contribution to Chinese Studies (London: The China Society, 1950); Hulsewé, A.F.P., “Chinese and Japanese Studies in Holland,” Chinese Culture 10.3 (1969), 67–75Google Scholar; Wilt L. Idema, “Dutch Sinology: Past, Present, and Future,” in Europe Studies China: Papers from an International Conference on the History of European Sinology, ed. Ming Wilson and John Cayley (London: Han-Shan Tang Books, 1995), 88–110 (also available in Chinese translation as Yi Weide 伊维德, “Helan hanxue: guoqu, xianzai yu weilai” 荷兰汉学过去现在与未来, Chuantong wenhua yu xiandaihua 1993.1, 79–86 and 1993.2, 89–91); Wilt L. Idema, Chinese Studies in the Netherlands, European Association of Chinese Studies Surveys 6 (1996); Erik Zürcher, “East Asian Studies,” in Tuta sub Aegide Pallas: E.J. Brill and the World of Learning (Leiden: Brill, 1983), 62–66; Harriet T. Zurndorfer, “Sociology, Social Science and Sinology in the Netherlands before World War II: With Special Reference to the Work of Frederik van Heek,” Revue européenne des sciences sociales 84 (1989), 19–32. For a survey of Dutch translations and retranslations of premodern Chinese literature, see Wilt L. Idema, “Dutch Translations of Classical Chinese Literature: Against a Tradition of Retranslation,” in One into Many: Translation and the Dissemination of Classical Chinese Literature, ed. Leo Tak-hung Chan (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003), 213–242. For a survey of China as a theme in Dutch literature, see Arie Pos, “Het paviljoen van porselein: Nederlandse literaire chinoiserie en het Westerse beeld van China” [The porcelain pavilion: Dutch literary chinoiserie and the Western image of China] (PhD thesis, Leiden University, 2008).

⁷ See for instance the contributions on Dutch China studies in He Peizhong 何培忠, ed. Dangdai guowai Zhongguoxue yanjiu 当代国外中国学研究 (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2006), 214–42, and in Huang Changzhu 黄长著, Sun Yuesheng 孙越生, and Wang Zuwang, comps. Ouzhou Zhongguoxue 欧洲中国学 (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2005), 420–45. Also see Zheng Haiyan 郑海燕, “Helan Zhongguo yanjiu de lishi fazhan” 荷兰中国研究的历史发展, Guowai shehui kexue 2005.3, 61–65, and Zheng Haiyan, “Helan Zhongguo yanjiu de zhuyao jigou” 荷兰中国研究的主要机构, Guowai shehui kexue 2005.6, 70–73.

⁸ This is available in an Chinese translation as Yi Weide 伊维德, ed. Helan de Zhongguo yanjiu: guoqu, xianzai yu weilai 荷兰的中国研究过去现在与未来, trans. Geng Yong 耿勇, Liu Jing 刘晶, and Hou Ji 侯喆 (Shanghai: Shanghai shehuikexueyuan chubanshe, 2021).

⁹ These thematic chapters are Rint Sybesma, “A History of Chinese Linguistics in the Netherlands” (127–58); Frank N. Pieke, “Contemporary China Studies in the Netherlands” (159–90); Mark Leenhouts, “Between Money and Curiosity: On the Study and Translation of Chinese Literature in the Netherlands and Flanders” (191–210); and Oliver Moore, “China's Art and Material Culture” (211–50). Albert Hoffstädt contributed “Dutch Sinology and Brill” (251–62). Maghiel van Crevel surveyed the situation of Chinese studies at the time in his “China Awareness, Area Studies, High School Chinese: Here to Stay, and Looking Forward” (263–73). When planning for the volume I also tried to commission a contribution on the study of Chinese law in the Netherlands but failed to find an author.

¹⁰ Johan Nieuhof's diary of the first embassy had been edited by his brother Hendrik with many supplementary materials. The highly influential engravings that accompanied the text were based on much simpler sketches made during the trip. Leonard Blussé and R. Falkenburg, Johan Nieuhofs beelden van een Chinareis [Johan Nieuhof's images of his China trip] (Middelburg: VOC publicaties, 1987) includes a modern edition of Johan Nieuwhof's manuscript diary of the first embassy and reproduces the original sketches. A Chinese translation by Zhuang Guotu 庄国土 was published as Heshi chufang Zhongguo ji yanjiu 荷使初访中国记研究 (Xiamen: Xiamen daxue chubanshe, 1989). Nieuhof's sketches and the etchings based on them are studied by Jing Sun, “The Illusion of Verisimilitude: Johan Nieuhof's Images of China” (PhD diss., Leiden University, 2013). See also Sun, Jing, “Joan Nieuhof's Drawing of a Chinese Temple in the Rijksmuseum,” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 63.4 (2015), 400–407CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The report on the second embassy was edited by Olfert Dapper. For a review of his geographical writings and his sources, see Wills, John Jr., “Author, Publisher, Patron, World: A Case Study of Old Books and Global Consciousness,” Journal of Early Modern History 13.5 (2009), 375–433CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Wills praises Dapper for his evenhandedness and open mind.

¹¹ For a recent biography of Witsen, see Marion Peters, De wijze koopman: Het wereldwijde onderzoek van Nicolaes Witsen, Burgemeester en VOC-Bewindhebber van Amsterdam [The well-informed merchant: the world-wide researches of Nicolaes Witsen, burgomaster and VOC-director of Amsterdam] (Amsterdam: Bakker, 2010). Whenever he could obtain them, Witsen included relevant Chinese materials in his Noord en Oost Tartarye [North and East Tartary], his massive description of Asia north of the Great Wall first published in 1692 and collaborated with visitors to Amsterdam who knew Chinese.

¹² As the text is actually quite problematical, this should not surprise us. See Yang, Lien-sheng, “An Inscribed Han Mirror Discovered in Siberia,” T'oung Pao 42 (1953), 330–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹³ Idema, Wilt, “Confucius Batavus: het eerste Nederlandse dichtstuk naar het Chinees” [Confucius Dutchified: The first Dutch poem based on a Chinese source], Literatuur 16.2 (1999), 85–89Google Scholar.

¹⁴ See also Trude Dijkstra, “Confucius at ‘De Batavische Mercurius’: Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Pieter van Hoorn and the first Vernacular Translation of the Chinese Confucius,” in Cultural Encounters: Cross-Disciplinary Studies from the Late Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, ed. Désirée Cappa (Wilmington: Vernon Press, 2019), 109–24. “De Batavische Mercurius” was the business name of the print ship that produced Van Hoorn's poem. It was not Pieter van Hoorn but his son Johan van Hoorn who ended his career as the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. Dijkstra's discussion of Pieter van Hoorn's reception of Confucius is part of her larger research on China and Confucius in seventeenth-century Dutch print culture, to be published as The Chinese Imprint: Printing and Publishing Chinese Religion and Philosophy in the Dutch Republic, 1595–1700 (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).

¹⁵ van Campen, Jan, “De verzameling van de amateur-sinoloog J.Th. Royer in het Rijksmuseum” [The collection of the amateur-sinologue J.Th. Royer in het Rijksmuseum], Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 43.1 (1995), 3–35Google Scholar.

¹⁶ On the early Dutch collections of Chinese objects, also see Moore, “China's Art and Material Culture,” 213–19.

¹⁷ For a biography of Titsingh, see Frank Lequin, Isaac Titsingh (1715–1812) een passie voor Japan: leven en werk van de grondlegger van de Europese Japanologie [Issac Titsingh's passion for Japan: Life and work of the founder of European japanology] (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 2002).

¹⁸ Tonio Andrade, The Last Embassy: The Dutch Mission of 1795 and the Forgotten History of Western Encounters with China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021), 63–65 describes Titsingh's strenuous but often disappointing efforts to learn Chinese.

¹⁹ On the relation between Titsingh and Abel-Rémusat, see Barend ter Haar, “Oosterse lotus en Fries pompenblad: boeddhisme in het veld” [Eastern lotus and Frisian water lily leaf: Buddhism in the field], in Tjalling Halbertsma, Alpita de Jong en Barend ter Haar, De Predikant en de Boeddha: Beschouwingen bij de heruitgave van Joost Halbertsma's Het buddhisme en zijn stichter uit 1843 [The minister and the Buddha: essays for the reissue of Joost Halbertsma's “Buddhism and its founder” of 1843] (Gorredijk: Uitgeverij Noordboek, 2019), 54–60.

²⁰ For descriptions of these collections (and their dispersal) see Jan van Campen, De haagse jurist, 174–202, and Jan van Campen, Collecting China, 110–14. Also see Tonio Andrade, The Last Embassy, 282–90 for a description of Van Braam's display of his collection at his China Retreat outside Philadelphia. Andrade notes (p. 398, note 14) that “Art historian Dawn Odell is currently writing a book about Van Braam and his collection, whose working title is ‘Chinese art and the Global Eighteenth Century: The “Lost” Collection of Van Braam Houckgeest and Early American Cosmoplitanism.’”

²¹ A. Goslinga, Dr. Karl Gützlaff en het Nederlandse protestantisme in het midden van de vorige eeuw [Dr. Karl Gützlaff and Dutch Protestantism in the middle of the preceding century] ('s Gravenhage: Boekencentrum, 1941).

²² “Karl Gützlaff as Propagandist and Fundraiser, 1826–1849: Some Comparisons of Appeals and Sources for Support,” in Karl Gützlaff und das Christentum in Ostasien: Ein Missionar zwischen den Kulturen [Charles Gutzlaff and Christianity in East Asia: a missionary between cultures], ed. Thoralf Klein and Reinhardt Zőllner (Sankt Augustin: Steyler Verlagsbuchhandlung, 2005), 105–39. Jessie G. Lutz is also the author of Opening China: Karl F.A. Gützlaff and Sino-Western Relations, 1827–1852 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2008).

²³ For a brief account of Hoffmann's role in the history of Japanese studies in the Netherlands, see Boot, W.J., “Johann Joseph Hoffmann: Der erste Japanologe?” [Johann Joseph Hoffmann: the first japanologist?”], Hōrin 16 (2009), 83–104Google Scholar. Also see Frits Vos, “Mihatenu Yume—An Unfinished Dream: Japanese Studies until 1940,” in Leiden Oriental Connections 1850–1940, ed. Willem Otterspeer (Leiden: Brill, 1989), 354–77.

²⁴ Von Siebold had little Japanese, and Hoffmann acquired his knowledge of the language largely on his own.

²⁵ De Groot was actively involved in the training of future indologen (“indologues,” aspirants for general positions in the colonial administration). See C. Fasseur, De indologen: Ambtenaren voor de Oost 1825–1950 [The indologues: officials for the Dutch East Indies] (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, 1993).

²⁶ Koos Kuiper is also the author of Catalogue of Chinese and Sino-Western Manuscripts in the Central Library of Leiden University (Leiden: Legatum Warnerianum in Leiden University Library, 2005).

²⁷ Gustaaf Schlegel's father Hermann Schlegel (1804–1884), German by birth like Hoffmann and Von Siebold, was the director of the Museum of Natural History at Leiden.

²⁸ On the linguistic contributions of the early Sinologists, also see Rint Sybesma, “A History of Chinese Linguistics in the Netherlands,” 129–45, who highlights the contributions of Simon Schaank (1861–1935) in laying the groundwork for the later work of Bernhard Karlgren (1889–1978) in historical linguistics.

²⁹ Many interpreters were frustrated because their advice often went unheeded and because they had little or no opportunity to be promoted. One of the rare interpreters who had a stellar career in the colonial administration was Willem Pieter Groeneveldt (1841–1915). Groeneveldt also was a fine scholar, best known for his (repeatedly reprinted) Notes on the Malay Archipelago and Malacca, Compiled from Chinese Sources of 1880. For a biographical sketch and bibliography, see Kuiper, The Early Dutch Sinologists, 2:993–1000.

³⁰ For the important role of T'oung-Pao in international Sinology during the first fifty years of its existence, especially during the Interbellum years when it was edited by Paul Pelliot (1878–1945), see David B. Honey, Incense at the Altar: Pioneering Sinologists and the Development of Classical Chinese Philology (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 2001), 76–81.

³¹ De Groot's reputation suffered when European academic Sinology followed the lead of French Sinology in taking a philological turn. One of the first scholars to draw attention to the work of De Groot again was the British social anthropologist Maurice Freedman (1920–1975) who envisioned a comparative study of De Groot and Marcel Granet. See his “On the Sociological Study of Chinese Religion,” in Maurice Freedman, The Study of Chinese Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979), 351–69. Unfortunately, Freedman passed away before he could complete this project.

³² On De Groot as a collector, see Oliver Moore, “China's Art and Material Culture,” 222–28. For the De Groot collection at Lyon see Deirdre Emmons, R.J. Zwi Werblowski, et al., Dieux de Chine: le pantheon du Fujian de J.J.M. de Groot (Lyon: Museum d'histoire naturelle, 2003). The De Groot collection at the National Museum of Ethnology can be viewed on the museum's website. Also see Wang Yuping 王玉冰, “Minsu wenwu de kuaguo liudongshi—yi Gao Yan cangpin weili” 民俗文物的跨国流动史—以高延藏品为例, Yishu yu minsu 2020.3, 19–26.

³³ Werblowski's monograph on De Groot was extensively reviewed by Barend ter Haar in T'oung Pao 92 (2006), 540–60. Ter Haar emphasizes the originality of De Groot's long period of fieldwork in Fujian and the fact that his view of Chinese culture and the role of the state was very much informed by his intensive contacts with ordinary Chinese rather that the literati elite. See also Barend ter Haar, “Een kleine revolutie: het Boeddhisme als een tekst” [A small revolution: Buddhism as text], in Tjalling Halbertsma, Aaltje Pietertje de Jong, and Barend ter Haar, De Predikant en de Boeddha: Beschouwingen en heruitgave van Joost Halbertsma's ‘Het buddhisme en zijn stichter’ uit 1843 (Gorredijk: Uitgeverij Noordboek, 2019), 93–98 where he discusses De Groot's fieldwork on Buddhism as a living tradition.

³⁴ One would have liked to see a more detailed discussion of how de Groot's sexual proclivity affected his scholarly publications. We are told that he ignored the sexual elements in Chinese religion, but this puritanical attitude is blamed on his strict Roman-Catholic upbringing.

³⁵ For a brief evaluation of De Groot's impact on German Sinology, see David B. Honey, Incense at the Altar: Pioneering Sinologists and the Development of Classical Chinese Philology (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 2001), 129–30. Honey misleadingly characterizes De Groot as a “diplomat-turned-scholar.” For a reevaluation of the negative comments on the work De Groot by his younger contemporaries such as Otto Franke (1863–1946) and Paul Pelliot (1878–1945), see Ter Haar in T'oung Pao 92 (2006), 557–60. For more recent German reactions to the scholarship of De Groot, see for instance Mechtild Leutner, “Zur Genese des Universismus-Konzeptes. J.J.M. de Groots Ansichten zur Religion in China in Vergleich mit W. Grube” [On the origin of the notion universism. J.J.M. de Groot's view of Chinese religion compared with those of W. Grube], in China, Nähe und Ferne: deutsch-chinesische Beziehungen in Geschichte und Gegenwart: zum 60. Geburtstag von Kuo Heng-yü [China, closeness and distance: German-Chinese relations in history and the present. For Kuo Heng-yu on his sixtieth birthday], ed. Bettina Granson and Mechtild Leutner (Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang1989), 155–74. For a rebuttal, see Ter Haar in T'oung Pao 2006, 550–52. Also see Elena Meilicke, “‘In die Tropen!’ Zur Verschränkung von Sinologie und Kolonialismus im Leben und Werk von J.J.M. de Groot” [‘To the tropics!’ On the intertwining of Sinology and colonialism in the life and work of J.J.M. de Groot], Berliner China Hefte: Beiträge zur Gesellschaft und Geschichte Chinas 33 (2008), 75–86.

³⁶ In his Het Daghet in het Oosten (Amsterdam: Veen, 1910), Borel's account of his stay Peking in 1909, he quotes as proof of the rising nationalism among Chinese an essay of a primary school student from the Dutch East Indies and little else.

³⁷ On Duyvendak's stay in Peking as legation interpreter and his later visits to China, see Barend ter Haar, “The Frustrations of Learning Chinese: The Case of J.J.L. Duyvendak,” in The China Experience and the Making of Sinology: Western Scholars Sojourning in China, ed. Guillaume Dutournier and Max Jakob Fölster (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, forthcoming).

³⁸ Honey, Incense at the Altar, 78–79 devotes one page to Duyvendak as a philologist in his discussion of T'oung Pao.

³⁹ Mullie's career is covered in a long entry by J. van Hecken in Nationaal Biographisch Woordenboek [National Biographical Dictionary] (Brussel: Paleis der Academiën), 8:517–32. For a detailed discussion of Mullie's grammatical works, see Rint Sybesma, “A History of Chinese Linguistics in the Netherlands,” 145–52.

⁴⁰ Royal Dutch Oil had been one of the major sponsors of the Utrecht chairs.

⁴¹ Robert van Gulik briefly occupied the chair in the 1960s. William Acker, appointed in 1970, soon left to move to Ghent.

⁴² Acker returned to the Netherlands in 1965 to become the librarian of the Sinological Institute at Leiden University and was later appointed to the chair of Chinese at the University of Ghent.

⁴³ Enabled to do so by the “Foundation for the Advancement of the Study of Chinese at Leiden University” (which drew its income from the Boxer Indemnity Fund), Duyvendak in 1930 established the Sinological Institute which combined the offices of the Chinese faculty and the Chinese library at a single location. This arrangement was maintained when the Sinological Institute moved to a new location in 1982, but it was ended when the university, in its unfathomable wisdom (financial considerations) decided to house all Asian collections together in a single section, “The Asian Library,” of the University Library.

⁴⁴ Also see Ph. de Heer, “A.F.P. Hulsewé, a biography,” in Thought and Law in Qin and Han China: Studies Presented to Anthony Hulsewé on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday, ed. W.L. Idema and E. Zürcher (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 10–14, and Ph. de Heer, “Bibliography of A.F.P. Hulsewé,” ibid., 15–25.

⁴⁵ The prim and proper Duyvendak may well have been offended by Van Gulik's lifestyle and interest in Tantrism, while Van Gulik considered Duyvendak a mediocre scholar. When speaking of Duyvendak after World War II, Van Gulik noted Duyvendak's principled opposition to the German occupation of the Netherlands, but stood by his evaluation of his scholarship.

⁴⁶ For an evaluation of Van Gulik's publications on Chinese art, see Oliver Moore, “China's Art and Material Culture,” 238–41.

⁴⁷ For a critical evaluation of Van Gulik's The Lore of the Chinese Lute, of 1941, see Xiao, Ouyang, “The Lore of the Chinese Lute revisited,” Monumenta serica 65.1 (2017), 147–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁸ Van Gulik found the model for his own Judge Dee novels in the first half of an anonymous novel of the Qing dynasty titled Wu Zetian sida qi'an 武則天四大奇案 [Four exceptional cases of the reign of Empress Wu Zetian] which he translated as Dee Goong An: Three Murder Cases Solved by Judge Dee (1949). On this translation see Idema, Wilt L., “The Mystery of the Halved Judge Dee Novel: The anonymous Wu Tse-t'ien ssu-ta ch'i-an and Its Partial Translation by R.H. van Gulik” Tamkang Review 8 (1977), 155–70Google Scholar. The second part of this novel has been translated by P.A. Rombouts as Dee Goong An, Second Part: Governor Dee Defies the Empress (Zeeland: Boekerij “De Graspeel,” 2016). For comments on Van Gulik's Judge Dee novels, see for instance William P. Alford, “Robert van Gulik and the Judge Dee Stories,” Orientations 12.11 (The Robert van Gulik Issue, 1981), 50–55; Wilt L. Idema, “Robert H. van Gulik (1910–1967),” in Mystery and Suspense Writers. The Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage, ed. Robin W. Winks and Maureen Corrigan (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998), 933–41; Sargeant, William Antony S., “Robert van Gulik and the Cases of Judge Dee,” The Armchair Detective 15 (1982), 292–304Google Scholar; Walravens, Hartmut, “Richter Di bei der Arbeit. Zu Robert van Guliks chinesischen Kriminalromane” [Judge Dee at work: on Robert van Gulik's Chinese detective stories], Orient Extremus 36 (1993), 223–234Google Scholar. Van Gulik illustrated his Judge Dee novels with his own drawings in the style of traditional Chinese woodcuts. On his sources for these drawings, see Piet Rombouts, Bronnen van illustraties in de rechter Tie-romans/Judge Dee Illustrations and their Sources (privately published, 2019).

⁴⁹ When Van Gulik published his Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Period in a limited edition in 1951, he unconvincingly claimed that his interest in the subject was the result of his Japanese publisher's insistence on the need for a female nude on the cover of his Judge Dee novels. The provenance and authenticity of some of the materials reproduced in Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Period has proven to be even more problematical than suggested by Van Gulik's own introduction. See Cahill, James, “Judge Dee and the Vanishing Ming Erotic Colour Prints,” Orientations 34.11 (2003), 40–46Google Scholar; James Cahill, “Introduction,” in R.H. van Gulik, Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Period, with an Essay on Chinese Sex Life from the Han to the Ch'ing Dynasty, B.C. 206–A.D. 1644, with introductions by James Cahill, Wilt L. Idema and Sőren Edgren (Leiden: Brill, 2004), ix–xxvi; Sőren Edgren, “A Bibliographical Note on van Gulik's Albums of Erotic Prints,” ibid., xxvii–xxx. Also see the follow-up essays of Cahill and Edgren written after the Shibui collection (a major source for Van Gulik) became available: Cahill, James, “The Sibui Printed Books in Chinese and Japanese Erotic Pictorial Art,” Orientations 40.3 (2009), 43–48Google Scholar; Edgren, Sőren, “The Bibliographic Significance of the Colour-Printed Books from the Shibui Collection,” Orientations 40.3 (2009), 30–36Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ For an evaluation of the contribution of Van Gulik to the study of Chinese sexual culture, see the introduction by Paul R. Goldin in the 2003 edition of R.H. van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China: A Preliminary Survey of Chinese Sex and Society from ca. 1500 B.C. till 1644 A.D. (Leiden: Brill, 1961), xiii–xxx. Also see Charlotte Furth, “Rethinking Van Gulik: Sexuality and Reproduction in Traditional Chinese Medicine,” in Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State, ed. Christina Gilmartin et al. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 125–46; Furth, Charlotte, “Rethinking Van Gulik Again,” Nan Nü 7.1 (2005), 71–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hinsch, Bret, “Van Gulik's Sexual Life in Ancient China and the Matter of Homosexuality,” Nan Nü 7.1 (2005), 79–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵¹ Even earlier the diplomat Chen Zhimai 陳之邁 (1908–1978) who first had met Van Gulik in Chongqing had provided a quite detailed biographical sketch as Helan Gao Luopei 荷蘭高羅佩 (Taipei: Chuanji wenxue chubanshe, 1969) which focuses on Van Gulik as a Sinologist (Chen's account of Van Gulik's early years is at times misleading). While this is a work of friendship it is not uncritical when discussing Van Gulik's scholarly publications on Chinese art. Chen's little book also includes two English articles by him commemorating Van Gulik, while Fang Hao 方豪 (1910–1980) contributed a translation of the obituary for Van Gulik by Anthony Hulsewé that originally had appeared in T'oung-Pao 54.1 (1968), 116–24. Chen's biographical sketch and Fang's shorter note are also included in Yan Xiaoxing 严晓星, comp., Gao Luopei shiji 高罗佩事辑 (Hangzhou: Haidun chubanshe, 2011; rev. ed. Hangzhou Xiling yinshe chubanshe, 2019), which collects materials testifying to Van Gulik's contacts with Chinese literati. Another early biographical sketch of Van Gulik was provided by Thomas Lawson, “Robert Hans van Gulik Ambassador Extraordinaire,” Orientations 12.11 (The Robert van Gulik Issue, 1981), 12–22. Janwillem van de Wetering, Robert van Gulik: His Life, His Work (Miami Beach: Dennis Macmillan, 1987) is very short on information.

⁵² Shi Huiye 施辉业, trans. Da hanxuejia Gao Luopei 大汉学家高罗佩 (Haikou: Hainan chubanshe, 2011).

⁵³ C.D. Barkman and H. de Vries-van der Hoeven, Les trois vies de Robert van Gulik: une biographie, trans. Raoul Mengarduque (Paris: C. Bourgeois, 1997).

⁵⁴ The overwhelming majority of the articles on Van Gulik produced in the PRC deal with his Judge Dee novels in their Chinese translations.

⁵⁵ The qin, the favorite musical instrument of the traditional Chinese gentleman, is a seven-stringed zither, but Van Gulik used the translation “lute.”

⁵⁶ Also see Shi Ye and Freerk Heule, “An Evaluation of Robert van Gulik's The Gibbon in China and its Place in Modern Sinological Discourse,” Southeast Review of Asian Studies 35 (2013), 141–60.

⁵⁷ R.H. van Gulik, T'ang-yin-pi-shih “Parallel Cases from under the Pear-Tree”: A 13th Century Manual of Jurisprudence and Detection (Leiden: Brill, 1956).

⁵⁸ Zürcher first visited the PRC for an extended period of time in the fall of 1964. The diary he kept during that period and the letters he wrote to his wife have been edited by his son and his daughter-in-law as Erik-Jan Zürcher and Kim van der Zouw, eds. Het Verre Oosten: Oog in oog met het China van Mao [The Far East: Face to face with Mao's China] (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016). An English version appeared as Three Months in China: Between the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, trans. Vivien Collingwood (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017).

⁵⁹ Blussé also organized several programs to train young scholars from Asian countries to use the Dutch colonial sources concerning their home countries. For an evaluation of his contribution to scholarship see Nie Dening, “Bao Leshi jiaoshou yu Huaqiao Huaren lishi yanjiu: dang'an wenxian ziliao de souji he yunyong” 包乐史 教授与华侨华人历史研究：档案文献资料的搜集和运用, Huaqiao Huaren lishi yanjiu 2003.3, 71–77, and the section devoted to him in Zhang Xiaolan 张小兰, ed. Butong xunchang de Zhongguo zhi lü 不同寻常的中国之旅 (Beijing: Zhongguo duiwai wenhua jiaoliu xiehui, 2018), 121–84.

⁶⁰ Rint Sybesma currently holds a chair in Chinese linguistics.

⁶¹ The most recent survey of contemporary China studies in the Netherlands, in Leiden and beyond, is still Pieke, “Contemporary China Studies in the Netherlands,” 163–87. On the Documentation Center see also “Reminiscences and Ruminations: Playful Essays to Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Documentation and Research Center for Contemporary China, Leiden,” Supplement to China Information 9.1 (1994). In later reorganizations of the Faculty of Arts, the Documentation Center lost is independent structure, but the importance of contemporary China studies in the Leiden program was insured by the establishment of a chair in contemporary China studies, first occupied by Anthony Saich. When Saich left Leiden for Harvard in 1999, he was succeeded in 2000 by Axel Schneider who left Leiden for Göttingen in 2009. Schneider was succeeded by Frank N. Pieke.

⁶² In contrast with Zürcher, Schipper had spent many years on Taiwan (1963–1970) where he had studied the living tradition of Daoïsm in Tainan and even had been initiated as a Daoist priest himself. As Schipper had studied in Paris and taught there for most of his career, his scholarship is best evaluated in the context of French Sinology. It should be pointed out, however, that his return to the Netherlands stimulated Schipper to produce Dutch translations of the Zhuangzi, the Daode jing, and the Lunyu.

⁶³ Following Ter Haar's departure for Oxford, he was succeeded in 2013 by Hilde De Weerdt.

⁶⁴ For a look back at my early career, see Wilt Lukas Idema, “My Passage to Chinese Literature,” in My China Story: China in the Eyes of Sinologists, Ge Jiangxia and Xin Bingfeng (Egelsbach: Flieder-Verlag, 2018), 2–30.

⁶⁵ For the study of modern and contemporary Chinese literature, see Mark Leenhouts, “Between Money and Curiosity,” 195–210. For a detailed survey of the translation and reception of Lu Xun, see Yi Bin 易彬, “Helan wenban Lu Xun zuopin de chuanbo yu jieshou yanjiu” 荷兰文版鲁迅作品的传播与接受研究, Zhongguo xiandai wenxue yanjiu 2018.10, 151–71.