The year 1687 in literature involved some significant events.

Events

• A Latin edition of the works of Confucius is published in Paris, the first translation of his works into any Western language. Confucian Sinarum Philosophus is the work of Jesuit scholars and Chinese converts to Christianity.

New books

• Ihara Saikaku - Transmission of the Martial Arts
• Gerard Langbaine - Momus Triumphans, or the Plagiaries of the English Stage Exposed
• Isaac Newton - Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy)
• Charles Perrault - Le Si cle de Louis le Grand (The Century of Louis the Great)
• George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax - Letter to a Dissenter

New drama

• Aphra Behn - The Emperor of the Moon
• Sir Charles Sedley - Bellamira, or The Mistress
• Nahum Tate:
  • The History of King Lear (adapted from Shakespeare's Lear, but with a happy ending)
  • The Island Princess (adapted from Fletcher's Island Princess)

Poetry

• John Dryden - The Hind and the Panther
• Matthew Prior - The Hind and the Panther Transversed to the Story of the Country and the City Mouse

Births

• March 7 - Jean Lebeuf, historian (died 1760)
• June 24 - Johann Albrecht Bengel, theologian (died 1752)
• August 26 - Henry Carey, poet and dramatist (died 1743)
• November 7 - William Stukeley, antiquary (died 1765)

Deaths

• February 16 - Charles Cotton, poet and translator (born 1630)
• March 28 - Constantijn Huygens, poet (born 1596)
• November 7 - Isaac Orobio de Castro, Jewish philosopher and apologist (born c. 1617)
• December 16 - William Petty, philosopher (born 1623)
• date unknown
  • George Dalgarno, linguist (born 1626)
  • Ren Rapin, Jesuit writer (born 1621)

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