Background
Berthold Laufer was born in Cologne, Germany, the son of Max and Eugenie (Schlesinger) Laufer. His parents were wealthy and gave him every advantage of education and culture.
(Excerpt from The Reindeer and Its Domestication The rein...)
Excerpt from The Reindeer and Its Domestication The reindeer was elevated by man into a domesticated animal at a very late period, and generally is still domesticated very deficiently. The time when this happened can no longer be determined; however, it cannot have taken place much earlier than five hundred years ago. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(How Jade influenced Chinese culture and religion.)
How Jade influenced Chinese culture and religion.
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(Complete photographic reprint of the original published: ...)
Complete photographic reprint of the original published: Brill, 1909; with 75 pages of plates, bibliographical references and index. For admirers and collectors of Oriental ceramics - whether their taste is for Chinese prototypes, or for the Korean and Japanese creations that they inspired - the reappearance of this landmark study in a full and unabridged reprint is decidedly an event.
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(Excerpt from Notes on Turquois in the East Hirth, profes...)
Excerpt from Notes on Turquois in the East Hirth, professor of Chinese at Columbia University, of New. York; to my friend Paul Pelliot, professor at the College de France in Paris; to Prof. Georg Jacob at the University of Kiel; and to Dr. Julius Ruska at the University of Heidelberg. The contributions courteously made by these gentlemen are clearly acknowledged as such in each particular instance. Berthold laufer. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Excerpt from Sino-Iranica: Chinese Contributions to the H...)
Excerpt from Sino-Iranica: Chinese Contributions to the History of Civilization in Ancient Iran; With Special Reference to the History of Cultivated Plants and Products The following pages represent Chinese contributions to the history of civilization in Iran, which aptly fill a lacune in our knowledge of Iranian tradition. Chinese records dealing with the history of Iranian peoples also contain numerous transcriptions Of ancient Iranian words. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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Berthold Laufer was born in Cologne, Germany, the son of Max and Eugenie (Schlesinger) Laufer. His parents were wealthy and gave him every advantage of education and culture.
For a time he thought of becoming a dramatist. Through all his later years he preserved an intense admiration for Shakespeare. His father wished him to be either a lawyer or a physician, but he preferred archeology. His formal education included ten years (1884 - 1893) in the Friedrich-Wilhelms Gymnasium at Cologne, two years (1893 - 1895) in the University of Berlin, and a year (1894 - 1895) in the Seminar for Oriental Languages, Berlin. In 1897 he received the degree of Ph. D. from the University of Leipzig.
Laufer chose Eastern Asia as his special field of study. In preparation for it he acquired a knowledge of an amazing number of the languages of India, Central Asia, and the Far East. In 1898, at the suggestion of his fellow countryman, Franz Boas, he settled in the United States. Through Boas he obtained an appointment to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and from 1904 to 1907 he was lecturer in anthropology at Columbia University. From 1908 until the time of his death, he was a member of the staff of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, eventually becoming curator of anthropology.
In connection with his chosen profession, he made a number of trips to the eastern part of Asia. In 1898-1899 he led the Jesup North Pacific Expedition to Saghalin and the Amur; from 1901 to 1904, the Jacob H. Schiff Expedition to China; from 1908 to 1910, the Blackstone Expedition to Tibet and China; and in 1923, the Marshall Field Expedition to China.
Throughout his later years, Laufer was unquestionably the outstanding Sinologist of the United States, and it was as a Sinologist that his chief contributions were made. In the Field Museum his special care was the Chinese exhibits. His advice was sought by younger American Sinologists, and to them he was lavish of his time and learning.
Within the broad field of Sinology, his chief interests were in anthropology and in cultural exchanges between the Chinese and other peoples, particularly of domesticated plants, mechanical appliances, and ideas. He was concerned not with recent or contemporary culture contacts, but with those preceding the nineteenth century. It was with these subjects that he dealt in his most important monograph, Sino-Iranica, Chinese Contributions to the History of Civilization in Ancient Iran with Special Reference to the History of Cultivated Plants and Products (1919). The Field Museum's collection of jade was his particular pride, and Jade (1912) was the title of his other chief monograph. His Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty (1909) was also a significant work.
In addition he wrote on such topics as Far Eastern linguistics, art, popular religion, folklore, and magic. He made much use of works in Chinese, but, while he did not employ these uncritically, sometimes he was misled by them.
He died after a leap or fall from the upper story of the hotel in which he resided in Chicago.
(Excerpt from Sino-Iranica: Chinese Contributions to the H...)
(Excerpt from The Reindeer and Its Domestication The rein...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
(Complete photographic reprint of the original published: ...)
(Excerpt from Notes on Turquois in the East Hirth, profes...)
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
(How Jade influenced Chinese culture and religion.)
He was a member of many learned societies, in some of which he had official duties.
Laufer was noted for persistent, hard work. He had two desks in the museum, each piled high with accumulated tasks, and his chair was so placed between them that he could turn from one to the other. He was usually generous, and in address he was courteous, quiet, and modest. He suffered from periods of intense despondency probably because he was highly sensitive and chronically overworked. Presumably for the same reasons, he was irritable and could be savagely critical of a fellow scholar. In appearance he was slight, of average height, and fair of hair and complexion.
Laufer was married to Mrs. Bertha Hampton.