Axel Schüssler

Axel Schuessler is a German sinologist and linguist, and Emeritus Professor at Wartburg College, Iowa, USA, known for his pioneering work in Old Chinese etymology and historical Chinese phonology.

Career Axel Schuessler has conducted research and taught in Sinology and historical Chinese linguistics for several decades. He served on the faculty of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, where he became Professor of Chinese and linguistics and is now Emeritus Professor. His work has focused especially on the reconstruction of Old Chinese.

Schuessler’s ABC dictionary is widely regarded as a landmark in Old Chinese studies, serving as a benchmark for further research into the origins and phonological development of Chinese vocabulary.

Old Chinese Reconstruction Categories

Minimal Old Chinese (OCM) The term “Minimal Old Chinese” refers to reconstructions limited to phonological features with reasonable consensus among scholars after Karlgren, chiefly following Baxter (1992) with adjustments in notation. Schuessler compiles reconstructed forms for graphs attested from early writing (circa 1250 BCE) down to the third century BCE.

Later Han Chinese In addition to Old Chinese, Schuessler introduces an intermediate layer he terms “Later Han Chinese,” covering roughly the second century CE, between Old and Middle Chinese periods.

Selected works