GROOT, J. J. M. DE (1854–1921), Dutch Sinologist and ethnographer. Born in Schiedam, Holland, Johannes Jacobus Maria de Groot enrolled in the polytechnic school at Delft in 1872. He subsequently studied Chinese with Gustave Schlegel at the University of Leiden.

In 1876 de Groot went to Amoy (present-day Xiamen, China) to continue his study of Chinese, and his stay in Amoy led to the publication of his first book, Les fêtes annuellement célébrées à Emoui (Amoy): Étude concernant la religion populaire des Chinois (translated from Dutch into French by Édouard Chavannes and published in 1886). From 1878 to 1883 de Groot traveled through Java and Borneo working as a Chinese interpreter. De Groot returned to Holland in 1883, but was likely working for the government of the Dutch East Indian Colonies since 1878, and in their employ he returned to China and lived there from...