 For the next 150 years the study of the Chinese language was overwhelmingly in the hands of missionaries, merchants, and diplomats to the “Middle Kingdom”, amateurs all, with several insights into the language mixed with fanciful speculations about its origin, nature, and development. Most of these studies had as their major goal ascertaining the extent to which Chinese philosophical and religious beliefs were or were not compatible with “the one true faith” in order for conversion work to go forward.