Michael Shen Fu-Tsung

Michael Shen Fu-Tsung arrived with Philippe Couplet by boat from Portuguese Macau in October 1682.

[4] Shen was presented to King Louis XIV on September 15, 1684, and he demonstrated how to use chopsticks and how to write Chinese characters.

[5] He is described as participating in a royal dinner with Couplet, wearing green silk with deep blue brocade, decorated with Chinese dragons.

[4] After his visit in France, Shen Fu-Tsung also went to Oxford where he met with Thomas Hyde in 1685,[6] and he taught him some Chinese.

[10] Shen Fu-Tsung was able to catalogue the Chinese books that were present in the Bodleian Library, and to describe their content, something which nobody had been able to do until then.

Michael's Chinese name in characters : 沈福宗 ("Shen Fu-Tsung") [ 3 ]