Hi everyone, Laszla Montgomery here with another China History podcast episode for you.

I thought I might finally pull this topic out from under the bottom of the pile and give it a

CHP once over. Wade and Giles, they too made it to the original list of potential CHP topics

compiled 15 years ago this year when I came up with this zany idea to present

some sort of China history podcast show. And from time to time, some of you, especially students

of Mandarin, have asked me when, Wait and Giles, were going to get their brush with greatness

on the China History podcast.

Well, that day has come.

I'm familiar with all the brilliant synologist stars here in the U.S. today.

I met some of them.

I read their articles, their books, their substacks, and I listen to them on all the big podcast shows. I feel so fortunate, and I know others do too, that there are so many brilliant and insightful

synologists established and up and coming in the think tanks and universities the world over,

not to mention other professional amateur and feral sonologists, many Chinese and many not Chinese.

In the USA, coast to coast, and you can throw in Alaska and Hawaii,

the number of people today commenting on and teaching about China has never been bigger.

And like every generation of synologists that came before

today's greats, they owe a debt of gratitude to those who came before them, going all the way

back to Lo Ming Tian, better known as the 16th and 17th century Jesuit father Michel Ruggieri.

During his period in China, he first laid the groundwork for later Jesuits and future European synologists, and every generation of Western sonologists has, since then, built on Ruggieri's

scholarship going up to our day. Without any of the books and resources that we take for granted,

Ruggieri learned both colloquial and classical Chinese, and with this mastery, he, along with Mateo Ritchie, compiled the first Chinese-Portuguese dictionary,

translated the Confucian classics,

...