(According to Franco, Christianus Henriques; Chinese, Ngen). An
Austrian Jesuit missionary in China; born at Graz, Styria, 25
June, 1625; d. 18 July, 1684. He entered the Austrian province
of the Society of Jesus on 27 October, 1641, and in 1656 was
chosen for the Chinese mission. For two years he laboured on the
island of Celebes, and after 1660 was in the Chinese provinces
of Shan-si and Ho-nan. In 1671 he was called to the court of
Peking as mathematician, and was one of that group of scholarly
Jesuits with whom the great emperor Kang-he surrounded himself.
He professed a profound knowledge of the Chinese language and
literature, and was a collaborator in the great work:
"Confucius, Sinarium Philosophus, sive Scientia Sinensis latina
exposito studio et operâ Properi Intorcetta, Christiani
Herdtrich, Francisci Rougemont, Philippi Couplet, PP. Soc. Jesu"
(Paris, 1778). This earliest translation and elucidation gave
European scholars their first insight into the teachings of the
Chinese sage. Herdtrich was al