1687 in literature

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.
• The Académie française publishes the first sections of its Dictionnaire in Frankfurt.

  New books

Prose

• Antoine Furetière – Couches de l'Académie
• Ihara Saikaku
• *The Great Mirror of Male Love
• *Transmission of the Martial Arts
• Gerard Langbaine – Momus Triumphans, or the Plagiaries of the English Stage Exposed
• Isaac Newton – Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
• Charles Perrault – Le Siècle de Louis le Grand
• George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax – Letter to a Dissenter

  Drama

• Aphra Behn – The Emperor of the Moon
• Florent Carton Dancourt
• *Le Chevalier à la mode
• *La Désolation des joueuses
• Sir Charles Sedley – Bellamira, or The Mistress
• Nahum Tate:
• *The History of King Lear
• *The 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, French historian
• June 24 – Johann Albrecht Bengel, German classicist and theologian
• August 26 – Henry Carey, English poet and dramatist
• November 7 – William Stukeley, English antiquary

  Deaths

• February 16 – Charles Cotton, English poet and translator
• March 27 – Edward Sheldon, English translator of religious works
• March 28 – Constantijn Huygens, Dutch poet and composer
• September 1 – Henry More, English philosopher
• November 3 - René Rapin, French Jesuit writer
• November 7 – Isaac Orobio de Castro, Portuguese Jewish philosopher and apologist
• December 16 – William Petty, English economist and philosopher
• Unknown date – George Dalgarno, Scottish linguist