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Updated 2026-10-28
💬 Famous Quotes
"John Fryer (1839–1928) came to China in 1861 under the Church of England and from 1868 spent twenty-eight years translating at the Jiangnan Arsenal, orally translating more than a hundred scientific works and founding the science journal Gezhi Huibian (The Chinese Scientific Magazine). In 1896 he became professor of Oriental languages and literature at the University of California, Berkeley, yet China remained on his heart: in 1911 he gave 60,000 taels of silver to found the Shanghai school for blind children, and had his younger son George B. Fryer train in the education of the blind and go to China as its principal. In 1915 he told Huang Yanpei: "For decades my living came entirely from the Chinese people; I must find a way to repay them.""
📋 Basic Information
👤 Gender
Male
🏴 Nationality
British
✝️ Religion
Christianity
⛪ Denomination
Anglican
🏛️ Order / Mission
Church Missionary Society
🌍 Mission Region
China
🏯 Historical Era
Qing dynasty
1839
Born
Hythe, Kent, England
1861
Mission Began
Age 22
1896
Mission Ended
Age 57
1928
Passed Away
Age 89
Berkeley, California, USA
📖 Biography
John Fryer (Chinese name Fu Lanya (傅兰雅); August 6, 1839 – July 2, 1928), a native of Hythe, Kent, England, long served as a translator at the Jiangnan Arsenal. His ideal is set out clearly in his Jiangnan Zhizao Zongju Fanyi Xishu Shilüe (江南制造总局翻译西书事略) [An Account of the Translation of Western Books at the Jiangnan Arsenal]: “My only hope is that China may widely promote the sciences, until China and the West travel the same road. That is why all my life I have devoted myself to this work alone and to nothing else.” Over his lifetime he translated a large number of scientific and technical books, as well as some works of social science, making an important contribution to the spread and development of science in modern China.
Chronology
- 1839: Born in Hythe, Kent, England.
- 1861: Headmaster of St. Paul's College in Hong Kong.
- 1863: English instructor at the Tongwen Guan in Beijing.
- 1865: In Shanghai, the foreign firms HSBC, Jardine Matheson, Gongping (公平), Taiping (太平) and others jointly founded a mission school designed mainly for the sons of the business community, the Anglo-Chinese School in Shanghai. John Fryer was its headmaster; one of its Chinese liaisons was Fang Xingzhai (方性斋, also called Renxiao 仁孝) of the Fang family of Jiushu (桕墅).
- 1868: The translation department of the Jiangnan Arsenal opened, with Fryer as chief oral translator. There he specialized in translating books on natural science and technology.
- 1874: Helped found the Gezhi Shuyuan (格致书院, Shanghai Polytechnic Institution) in Shanghai, and was one of its Western directors.
- 1876: Edited the periodical Gezhi Huibian (格致汇编) as editor-in-chief; it was one of the earliest popular science periodicals in modern China.
- 1885: Opened the Gezhi Shushi (格致书室, Chinese Scientific Book Depot) in Shanghai, China's first science and technology bookstore.
- 1895: Held a fiction competition. His advertisements in Shenbao (申报), Wanguo Gongbao (万国公报) and The Chinese Recorder (教务杂志) stressed that entries should show the evils of opium, the examination essay and foot-binding, which shows that the fiction Fryer favored was realist fiction.
- 1896: The results of the fiction competition were announced, but the novels were never published and their fate is unknown. That same year he went to the United States to become the first Louis Agassiz Professor of Oriental Languages and Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He still often visited China, however.
- 1911: Funded the founding of the Shanghai School for Blind Children in Shanghai (opened in 1912), with his son George B. Fryer (傅步兰) as principal.
- 1914: Retired.
- 1926: Founded the Fryer School for the Deaf in Shanghai; in 1953 the school was taken over by the People's Government and later became the Shanghai Deaf Middle School.
- 1928: Died.
📚 Major Works
Jiangnan Arsenal translations (series)
1868-1896
More than seventy-five Western scientific works translated by Fryer during his years as chief translator at the Jiangnan Arsenal, covering mathematics, chemistry, physics, medicine and other fields.
A Chinese-language science periodical founded and edited by Fryer, one of the earliest popular science publications in modern China. It systematically introduced Western science and technology to Chinese readers. The Digital Collections of the National Diet Library of Japan hold an 1876 Gezhi Shuyuan edition (issues 1–3 and 5–6 bound together, 102 pages), catalogued as compiled by Fu Lanya (傅蘭雅 輯).
Translated orally by Fryer, on the use of drawing instruments, from a work by Burchett, written down by Xu Jianyin (徐建寅). Shidian Guji holds the 1870 Jiangnan Arsenal edition, from the Harvard-Yenching Library.
Translated orally by Fryer, from David A. Wells's chemistry textbook, written down by Xu Shou (徐寿). Shidian Guji holds a woodblock edition.
Translated orally by Fryer, on naval drill, written down by Xu Jianyin (徐建寅). Shidian Guji holds the 1872 edition, from the Harvard-Yenching Library.
Translated orally by Fryer, on the formation of steam fleets, from a work by Bureau, written down by Xu Jianyin (徐建寅). Shidian Guji holds the 1873 Jiangnan Arsenal edition, from the Harvard-Yenching Library.
Translated orally by Fryer, from the algebra of William Wallace, written down by Hua Hengfang (华蘅芳). Shidian Guji holds a 1900 Shanghai lithographed edition, from the Japanese Cabinet Library (Naikaku Bunko).
Translated orally by Fryer, from the work on calculus by William Wallace, written down by Hua Hengfang (华蘅芳). Shidian Guji holds an 1896 Shanghai lithographed edition, from the Harvard-Yenching Library.
Translated orally by Fryer, from the trigonometry of John Hymers, written down by Hua Hengfang (华蘅芳). Shidian Guji holds the 1877 Jiangnan Arsenal edition, from the Harvard-Yenching Library.
Translated orally by Fryer, from John Tyndall's Sound, written down by Xu Jianyin (徐建寅). Shidian Guji holds an 1896 reprint.
Translated orally by Fryer, from Chambers's Political Economy, written down by Ying Zuxi (应祖锡); it had a marked influence on late-Qing reform thought. Shidian Guji holds a Jiangnan Arsenal edition, from East China Normal University Library.
Translated orally by Fryer, on surveying and map drawing, from a work by Frome, written down by Xu Shou (徐寿). Shidian Guji holds a Guangxu-era woodblock edition, from the Japanese Cabinet Library (Naikaku Bunko).
Translated orally by Fryer, on military surveying, written down by Zhao Yuanyi (赵元益). Shidian Guji holds a printed edition, from the Japanese Cabinet Library (Naikaku Bunko).
Translated orally by Fryer, from John Bourne's handbook of the steam engine, written down by Xu Jianyin (徐建寅). Shidian Guji holds a Guangxu-era edition, from the Japanese Cabinet Library (Naikaku Bunko).
Translated orally by Fryer, on fortification, written down by Xu Shou (徐寿). Shidian Guji holds a Guangxu-era Jiangnan Arsenal edition, from the Harvard-Yenching Library.
Translated orally by Fryer, from the China Sea Directory compiled by John W. King, written down by Wang Dejun (王德均). Shidian Guji holds a printed edition, from the Japanese Cabinet Library (Naikaku Bunko).
Translated orally by Fryer, on the manufacture of gunpowder, from a work by Richardson and Watts. Shidian Guji holds a Guangxu-era Jiangnan Arsenal edition, from the Japanese Cabinet Library (Naikaku Bunko).
Translated orally by Fryer, on gunnery, from a work by Richardson, written down by Ding Shutang (丁树堂). Shidian Guji holds an 1896 reprint.
Translated orally by Fryer, from J. Forbes Royle's Manual of Materia Medica. Shidian Guji holds the 1899 Jiangnan Arsenal edition.
Translated orally by Fryer, from the work on international law by Robert Phillimore, written down by Yu Shijue (俞世爵). Shidian Guji holds an 1896 reprint.
Translated orally by Fryer, the first systematic account of probability theory in Chinese, written down by Hua Hengfang (华蘅芳). Shidian Guji holds an 1896 edition.
Translated orally by Fryer, on mining machinery, written down by Wang Shushan (王树善). Shidian Guji holds the 1899 Jiangnan Arsenal edition, from the Harvard-Yenching Library.
Translated orally by Fryer, a collection of formulae, written down by Jiang Heng (江衡). Shidian Guji holds the edition in the Gujin Suanxue Congshu collectanea.
Translated orally by Fryer, translated from a mathematical work compiled by Brunn. Shidian Guji holds a woodblock edition.
By Fryer; one of the Gezhi Xuzhi primers, on drawing and perspective. Shidian Guji holds an 1885 woodblock edition.
By Fryer; one of the Gezhi Xuzhi primers, on drawing instruments. Shidian Guji holds a woodblock edition.
By Fryer; one of the Gezhi Xuzhi primers, on calculus. Shidian Guji holds the 1888 edition.
Translated orally by Fryer, an illustrated account of the exposition in the United States. Shidian Guji holds the 1892 Shanghai edition of the Chinese Scientific Book Depot, from the Harvard-Yenching Library.