Jonathan d spence biography

Jonathan D. Spence

English-born American historian (–)

Not to be confused with Jonathan Spencer.

Jonathan Dermot SpenceCMG (11 August – 25 December ) was a British-American historian, sinologist, and author specialised in Chinese history.

He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from to His most widely scan book is The Search for Modern China, a survey of the last several hundred years of Chinese history based on his popular course at Yale. A prolific author, reviewer, and essayist, he published over a dozen books on China.

Spence's major interest was modern China, especially the Qing dynasty, and relations between China and the West.[4] Spence frequently used biographies to examine cultural and political history. Another common theme is the efforts of both Westerners and Chinese "to change China",[5] and how such efforts were frustrated.[4]

Early life and education

Spence was born on 11 August to Muriel (née Crailsham) and Dermot Spence in Surrey in England.

Read In MemoriamPerspectivesMarch Jonathan D. His was a lettered family. Dermot Spence had attended Oxford and Heidelberg universities in the late s and spoke outstanding German.

His mother was a French researcher while his father worked at an art gallery and a publishing house.[6]

Spence was educated at Winchester College until He then spent two years in the British Army and was deployed to Germany.[6] He read history at Clare College, Cambridge and received his bachelor's degree in [6] While at Cambridge he was the editor of the campus magazine and was also the co-editor of British literary magazine Granta.[6] He went to Yale University on a Clare-Mellon Fellowship to examination the history and culture of China, receiving an MA and then a PhD in , when he won the John Addison Porter Prize.

As part of his graduate training, he spent a year in Australia to study under Fang Chao-ying and Tu Lien-che, scholars of the Qing dynasty.[7]

Academic career

Spence taught a popular undergraduate course at Yale University on the history of modern China, which formed the basis for his publication The Search for Modern China ().[8] He taught at Yale for more than 40 years.

During this time he wrote many books on China that furthered the understanding of the country and its culture with Western audiences. Some of his books during this period included The Search for Modern China (), which was published on the back of the Tiananmen Square massacre in , and God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan ().[6]

Spence was president of the American Historical Association between and [7] While his primary center was on Qing dynasty China, he also wrote a biography of Mao Zedong[9] and The Gate of Heavenly Peace, a study of twentieth-century intellectuals and their relation to revolution.[10][11] He retired from Yale in [12]

His book The Search for Up-to-date China was a New York Times best seller and documented the evolution of China starting from the decline of the Ming dynasty in the preliminary s to the pro-democracy movement of , while his manual Treason by the Book () documented the story of a scholar who took on the third Manchu Emperor in the s.[6]

Honors

Spence received eight honorary degrees in the United States as well as from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and (in ) from Oxford University.

He was invited to change into a visiting professor at Peking University[13] and an honorary professor at Nanjing University.[7] He was named Companion of the Organize of St Michael and St George in ,[14] and in , he was elected an Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.[15]

He received the William C.

DeVane Medal of the Yale Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (); a Guggenheim Fellowship (); the Los Angeles Times History Prize (), and the Vursel Prize of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (), named a MacArthur Fellow (), appointed to the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress (), elected a member of the American Philosophical Society (), and named a corresponding fellow of the British Academy ().[7]

In May and June , he gave the 60th anniversary Reith Lectures, which were broadcast on BBC Radio 4.[16][17]

In , Spence was appointed to deliver the annual Jefferson Lecture at the Library of Congress, the US federal government's highest honour for achievement in the humanities.[18]

Personal life

Spence's name in Chinese, 史景遷 (pinyin: Shǐ Jǐngqiān), was given to him by Fang Chao-ying to reflect his love of history and admiration for the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian.

He chose the surname 史 (Shǐ; literally "history") and personal designate 景遷 (Jǐngqiān), where 景 (jǐng) means admire (as in 景仰) and 遷 (qiān) was taken from the personal name of Sima Qian (司馬遷).[19][20][21] Spence became a U.S.

citizen in [22]

Spence's wife Annping Chin was a senior lecturer in history at Yale with a PhD in Chinese thought from Columbia.[12][23] He had two sons from a previous marriage (–) to Helen Alexander, Colin and Ian Spence, two stepchildren, Yar Woo and Mei Chin, a grandchild as well as two step-grandchildren.[24][20] Spence died from complications of Parkinson's disease on 25 December , at the age of 85 at his residence in West Haven, Connecticut.[12][24][20]

Bibliography

Books

  • The Search for Up-to-date China (; 2nd edition, ; 3rd edition )[8][25]
  • Tsʻao Yin and the Kʻang-hsi Emperor: bondservant and master ()[26]
  • To Change China: Western Advisers in China, – (Boston, Little Brown, ).[27]
  • Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-Hsi ()[28]
  • The Death of Woman Wang ().

    Story situated in 17th century Tancheng. ISBN&#;X[29]

  • The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci ()[30]
  • The Question of Hu (New York: Knopf, ) ISBN&#;). Biography of John Hu 胡若望, 18th-century Chinese who went to France with Jean-François Foucquet.[31]
  • Chinese Roundabout: Essays on History and Culture[32]
  • The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution – ()[33]
  • The Chan's Great Continent: China in Western Minds[34]
  • God's Chinese Son (New York: Norton, ) ISBN&#; Biography of Hong Xiuquan, head of Taiping Rebellion.[35]
  • (with Annping Chin): Chinese Century: A Photographic History of the Last Hundred Years (Random House, )
  • Mao Zedong.

    Penguin Lives. New York: Viking Push. ISBN&#;. OCLC&#;

  • Treason by the Book () ISBN&#;[37][38]
  • Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man () Viking, pages.

    ISBN&#;

Book reviews

References

Citations

  1. ^Jonathan D. Spence, Ts'ao Yin and the K'ang-Hsi Emperor: Bondservant and Master(New Haven: Yale University Press, ), p.

    xv. [1]

  2. ^ abKapp, Robert A. (1 July ). "History, Generations, and China Stories". The China Beat Blog Archive . DigitalCommons University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

    Jonathan Spence, the 39th Jefferson Lecturer, is our foremost scholar of Chinese history. Known for his literary craftsmanship as well as groundbreaking research, he has in his numerous books and articles achieved the unlikely feat of advancing Western understanding of Chinese history and culture.

    Archived from the original on 19 August Retrieved 1 January : CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

  3. ^ abRoberts, Priscilla "Spence, Jonathan D." pages – from The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing edited by Kelly Boyd, Volume 2, London:Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, page
  4. ^Jonathan D.

    Spence To Change China; Western Advisers in China, –. Boston: Little Brown,

  5. ^ abcdefGenzlinger, Neil (27 December ).

    "Jonathan Spence, Noted China Scholar, Dies at 85". The New York Times. ISSN&#; Retrieved 1 January

  6. ^ abcdFrederic E.

    Wakeman Jr., Jonathan D. SpenceArchived 1 April at the Wayback Machine at American Historical Association website (retrieved 10 March ).

  7. ^ abSchwarcz, Vera; Bruckner, D.J.R.

    (13 May ). "CHINA: THE Tough ROAD TO NOW". The Brand-new York Times. Retrieved 1 January

  8. ^Spence, Jonathan D. (). Mao Zedong. Viking. ISBN&#;.
  9. ^Lattimore, David (18 October ).

    "The Long Revolution". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 December

  10. ^Pye, Lucian W. (June ). "The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and their Revolution, – By Jonathan D. Spence. [New York: The Viking Press pp.

    $; London: Faber, £11·]". The China Quarterly. 90: – doi/S ISSN&#; S2CID&#; Retrieved 28 December

  11. ^ abcItalie, Hillel (27 December ).

    "Jonathan D. Spence, popular China scholar, dead at age 85". AP NEWS. Retrieved 28 December

  12. ^"Remembering Jonathan D. Spence". .

    Kenneth Pomeranz. Jonathan received his PhD from Yale University in and taught there until retiring in His numerous honors included a MacArthur fellowship and 10 honorary degrees. His many books, typically told through a biographical lens, showed us Ming intellectuals, Qing emperors, and 20th-century revolutionaries but also brought to life forgotten people; one celebrated book, The Death of Woman Wang Viking Press,used just a few fragmentary sources to re-create the nature of a peasant woman murdered by her husband in an impoverished 17th-century county.

    Peking University. 29 December Retrieved 1 January

  13. ^"Queen's Birthday Honors List Distinguishes Yale Professor Jonathan Spence". YaleNews. Yale University. 20 June Retrieved 1 January
  14. ^"Professor Jonathan Spence".

    . Clare College, Cambridge. Retrieved 28 December

  15. ^Earnshaw, Graham ().

    Jonathan Spence ’65 Ph.D., Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, whose scholarship shaped the field of China studies for half a century, died Dec. 25 at home in West Haven, Connecticut of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was

    "Reith Lecture: English Lessons". The China Beat.

  16. ^Hayford, Charles W. (). "Jonathan Spence's Third Reith Lecture: Dreams, Paradoxes, and the Uses of History". The China Beat.
  17. ^Jill Laster, "Eminent China Scholar Will Deliver Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities", Chronicle of Higher Education, 8 Rally
  18. ^Spence, Johnathan D.

    (). 天安门：知识分子与中国革命. Beijing: 中央编译出版社. p.&#;1.

  19. ^ abcHua, Sha (28 December ). "China Scholar Jonathan Spence Dies at Age 85". Wall Street Journal.

    Retrieved 28 December

  20. ^藍孝威; 李欣恬 (28 December ). "美着名汉学家史景迁逝世 享寿85岁 - 两岸要闻". 中时新闻网 China Times (in Chinese). Retrieved 1 January
  21. ^Skinner, David (). Jonathan Spence Biography, National Endowment for the Humanities.

    Retrieved 14 September

  22. ^"Annping Chin, Senior Lecturer Emeritus". . Department of History, Yale University.

    His most widely read book is The Search for Modern Chinaa survey of the last several hundred years of Chinese history based on his popular course at Yale. A prolific creator, reviewer, and essayist, he published over a dozen books on China. Spence's major interest was modern China, especially the Qing dynastyand relations between China and the West. Another common theme is the efforts of both Westerners and Chinese "to adjust China", [ 5 ] and how such efforts were frustrated.

    Retrieved 28 December

  23. ^ abGenzlinger, Neil (27 December ). "Jonathan Spence, Noted China Scholar, Dies at 85". The New York Times. ISSN&#; Retrieved 28 December
  24. ^Spence, Jonathan D.

    (). The Search for Modern China (Third&#;ed.). New York: Wiley. ISBN&#;.

  25. ^Spence, Jonathan D. (). Tsʻao Yin and the Kʻang-hsi Emperor: Bondservant and Master – Jonathan D. Spence – Google Boeken. Yale University Press.

    ISBN&#;. Retrieved 15 February

  26. ^Goodrich, L. Carrington (January ). "To Change China: Western advisers in China – By Spence Jonathan. [Boston: Little Brown & Co., pp. $]". The China Quarterly.

    41: – doi/S ISSN&#; S2CID&#; Retrieved 1 January

  27. ^Spence, Jonathan D. (25 July ).

    For over fifty years, Jonathan Spence has been studying and writing about China. His books and articles form a body of work notable for groundbreaking research, fine literary quality, and extraordinary public value. If the West understands the culture and history of China better now than it did a half century ago, Jonathan Spence is one of the people to be thanked. He was born in Surrey, England, in

    Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-Hsi – Jonathan D. Spence – Google Boeken. Knopf Doubleday Publishing. ISBN&#;. Retrieved 15 February

  28. ^Spence, Jonathan D. (). The Death of Woman Wang. New York: Penguin Books.

    ISBN&#;.

  29. ^Robinson, Paul (25 November ). "Ming Mnemonics". Book Review Desk. The New York Times. Retrieved 1 January
  30. ^"The Faith Yes, Europe No&#;: THE QUESTION OF HU by Jonathan D.

    Spence (Alfred A. Knopf: $; pp.; )". Los Angeles Times. 20 November

  31. ^Lee, Lily Xiao Hong (). "Chinese Roundabout: Essays in History and Culture (Review)". China Review International. 1 (2): – doi/cri S2CID&#;
  32. ^Pye, Lucian W.

    (). "The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and their Revolution, – By Jonathan D. Spence. [New York: The Viking Press pp. $; London: Faber, £11·]". The China Quarterly. 90: – doi/S S2CID&#;

  33. ^"Nonfiction Novel Review: The Chan's Great Continent: China in Western Minds by Jonathan D.

    Spence, Author W. W. Norton & Company $ (p) ISBN ". September

  34. ^Wu, Qingyun (). "Reviewed work: God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Angelic Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, Jonathan D. Spence".

    Jonathan D. Spence - Wikipedia: Jonathan Dermot Spence CMG (11 August – 25 December ) was a British-American historian, sinologist, and author specialised in Chinese history. He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from to

    Utopian Studies. 8 (1): – JSTOR&#;

  35. ^Pyemay/June , Lucian W. (28 January ). "Mao: A Life; Mao Zedong". Foreign Affairs.: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  36. ^Spence, Jonathan D.

    (). Treason by the Book. London: Penguin Books. ISBN&#;.

  37. ^Bernstein, Richard (9 Parade ). "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Envy, Imperialism and Intrigue in 18th-Century China". The New York Times.

    Retrieved 1 January

  38. ^Spence, Jonathan D. (28 June ). "The Dream of Catholic China". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 1 January

Sources

  • Center on U.S.

    China Relations (2 March ). "Remembering Jonathan Spence". China File. Asia Society..

  • Lu, Hanchao (). "The Art of History: A Conversation with Jonathan Spence"(PDF). The Chinese Historical Review.

    11 (2): – doi/X S2CID&#;[permanent expired link&#;]

  • Bruce Mazlish, "The Question of the Question of Hu", History and Theory 11 (): –
  • Mirsky, Jonathan. Review of Chinese RoundaboutThe New York Review of Books, Volume 39, Issue No.

    17 (5 November ): 51–

  • Nathan, Andrew J. "A Culture of Cruelty: Review of The Search for Modern China" pages 30–34 from The New Republic, Volume (30 July ): 50–
  • Roberts, Priscilla. "Spence, Jonathan D.", The Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing edited by Kelly Boyd, Volume 2, (London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, ISBN&#;): –

External links