JOSEPH DE, a learned orientalist, born at Pontoise on the 19th of October 1721, was, in 1736, placed under the celebrated Fourmont by his cousin M. le Vaillant, professor in the university. Being endowed with the happiest dispositions, and directed by an able master, he, in a short time, acquired a knowledge of Chinese, and of the different idioms of the East. When Fourmont presented to the king his Chinese Grammar, in the year 1742, the young De Guignes accompanied him, and was received in the most flattering manner by the monarch, who immediately conferred on him a pension. On the death of his master, which took place in December 1745, De Guignes succeeded him at the Royal Library in the office of secretary-interpreter of the eastern languages. The Memoir on the Origin of the Huns having given the learned world a foretaste of the talents and erudition of De Guignes, he was admitted a member of the Royal Society of London in 1752, and an associate of the Academy of Belles-Lettres the following year. About the same time he was also appointed royal censor, and attached to the Journal des Savans. These different favours were the just recompense of the important labours in which M. de Guignes was engaged. The first two volumes of his History of the Huns appeared in 1756; and in 1757 the chair of Syriac in the Royal College having become vacant by the death of Jault, De Guignes was appointed to succeed him. Upon this occasion he pronounced a Latin discourse, the principal object of which was to prove, what certainly needed little demonstration, that the kings of France were much more friendly to letters than the princes of Asia. In 1769 he became keeper of the antiquities in the Louvre, and, in 1773, pensionary of the Academy of Belles-Lettres; in 1774 he resigned the chair of Syriac, not choosing to consent to the re-union of the Royal College with the university; and, lastly, in 1785, he was named one of the committee appointed by the academy for the publication of Notices of Manuscripts. The Revolution did not deprive De Guignes of his pensions, for, notwithstanding his great labours, he had never demanded them; but it deprived him of his moderate allowance as pensionary of the academy, keeper of antiquities in the Louvre, and redactor of the Journal des Savans. Faithful to his principles, and to the cultivation of letters, however, he made no remonstrance, declined accepting any favour, and consoled himself for the sufferings of his country, and the personal privations he experienced, by applying with greater assiduity to his favourite pursuits. These he continued, without intermission, until his death, which took place at Paris on the 19th of March 1800. De Guignes left a son, who had been consul at Canton, and who, on his return to France, published a relation of his voyage in three volumes 8vo, and an excellent Chinese Dictionary. The following is a list of the printed works of the father: 1. Abrégé de la Vie d'Etienne Fourmont, with a notice of his works, Paris, 1747, in 4to; 2. Mémoire Historique sur l'Origine des Huns et des Turcs, Paris, 1748, in 12mo; 3. Histoire Générale des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols, et des autres Tartares occidentaux, avant et depuis J.C. jusqu'à présent, preceded by an introduction containing historical and chronological tables of the princes who have reigned in Asia, Paris, 1756, 1758, in five vols. 4to; 4. Mémoire dans lequel on prouve que les Chinois sont une colonie Egyptienne, Paris, 1759, 1760, in 12mo; 5. The Chou-king, or sacred book of the Chinese, with a translation corrected from that of Father Gaubil, and most useful notes, Paris, 1770, in 4to; 6. An edition of the Eloge de Monckton and of the Art Militaire des Chinois, 1770, 1771; 7. Twenty-eight papers in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions. These papers or memoirs may be divided into three classes; the first of which has for its object to develop more fully various points which are only treated cursorily in the History of the Huns; the second includes the papers intended to establish his system of the Egyptian origin of the Chinese; and the third comprehends those of a miscellaneous character, such as the memoir on the commerce of the French in the Levant before the crusades, that on the Oriental Zodiac, and observations on the origin and antiquity of the Indians, as well as on the geography of their country. Besides the works mentioned above, De Guignes left several manuscripts, particularly, 1. Notices d'Ecrivains Arabes; 2. Mémoire sur le Commerce des Chinois avec les Russes; 3. Histoire de la Chine, translated from the Chinese Annals, and divided into three parts; 4. Mémoires Historiques et Géographiques sur l'Afrique, d'après les auteurs Arabes. Such were the works which occupied the life of this scholar. Considered as a learned man, he may be said to have possessed vast knowledge, and to have employed it in the most useful manner. Although he cannot be called an elegant writer, his style is easy and clear; and even the paradoxes which he defended prove, by his ingenious approximations and original views, that he was endowed with a lively imagination and extraordinary sagacity. But he was still more estimable for the excellence of his character than the extent of his acquirements. Invariable in his principles, the enemy of all intrigue, and having no other ambition than that of extending the boundaries of knowledge, he never solicited pensions, places, or encomiums, and knew too well the real value of time to waste it in the pursuit of objects so inglorious. He was a sincere lover of truth, even when it seemed adverse to the system which he laboured so strenuously to maintain; and the rectitude of mind which he uniformly displayed, constitutes a prouder title of distinction than even his great talents and unrivalled attainments.

In his History of Huns, Turks, and Moguls (the first two volumes of which appeared in 1756, and the others in 1758), the first part of volume first, which contains the chronological tables, and may give an idea of the work, is divided into eight books; the last of which contains the series of Christian princes who, in consequence of the crusades, founded states in Syria. In the succeeding volumes, the principal object of De Guignes has been to trace the history of the Western Tartars; that of other nations being treated only in as far as it is related to or connected with the fortunes of the race whose annals he had undertaken to illustrate. Profoundly conversant with the Chinese, the Arabic, and the ancient idioms of the East; and thoroughly acquainted with the Greek and Latin historians, the chroniclers of the middle ages, and the annals of the northern nations; he was the first who undertook to reconcile the recitals of the occidentals with those of the Chinese, to explain the one in favour of the other, to establish the origin and trace the route of the barbarous tribes who, under the different names of Huns, Avars, or Turks, overthrew the Roman empire, ravaged France, Italy, Germany, and all the countries of the north, destroyed the empire of the Caliphs, and established themselves in Europe, Persia, Syria, and a great part of Western Asia; and, lastly, to illustrate the events which connect the history of the Huns with that of almost all other nations. If this work be examined with critical severity, it will be found that the author has been too negligent of style, that the facts have not been subjected to a rigorous investigation, and that the monotony of the recital is not interrupted by any reflections calculated to interest the reader. But the object of De Guignes was to collect facts rather than to digest them according to a rigorous chronology; and the disorder which, in this respect, reigns in his work, proceeds partly from the multitude of sources whence he derived his information, and partly from the vice of the oriental writers amongst whom the irregular method of computing dates renders it impossible to restore the precise chronology of events. On this ground the writers in the Journal de Trévoux attacked the History of the Huns. De Guignes replied to this criticism, in a letter inserted in the Journal des Savans for 1757, and also at the end of the fifth volume of his History. The journalists rejoined; and the dispute terminated by a note appended to the same volume, in which the author refers to the Annales Chinoises. The History of the Huns has been translated into German by Daembert, who appears to have done ample justice to the original.