Rafe de Crespigny
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Dr Rafe de Crespigny (full name: Richard Rafe Champion de Crespigny; born 1936) is a retired Adjunct Professor with the China and Korea Centre, Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. He specialises in Chinese history, geography and literature in the Han Dynasty period and has been acknowledged internationally as a pioneer in the translation and historiography of historical material concerning the Three Kingdoms period.
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[edit] Education
Dr. de Crespigny received his tertiary education at University of Cambridge (B.A. Honours History 1957; M.A. History 1961) and from the Australian National University (B.A. ANU Honours Chinese 1962; M.A. Oriental Studies Honours 1964; Ph.D. Far Eastern History 1968).
During his early years as a scholar and academic, he benefited from the guidance of such sinologists as Hans Bielenstein, Patrick Fitzgerald and Hsü Cho-yün, Miyazaki Ichisada and developed an interest in the late Han via the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. His seminal dissertation in 1964 was "The Development of the Chinese Empire in the South; a discussion of the origins of the state of Wu of the Three Kingdoms", which provided the basis for much of his later work, including his most well-known monograph Generals of the South: the Foundation and Early History of the Three Kingdoms State of Wu.
[edit] Publications
Some of Dr. de Crespigny's other publications include China: The Land and its People (Melbourne, 1971); China This Century ( Melbourne 1975; 2nd Edition Hong Kong 1992), both discussions of modern Chinese history. But undoubtedly his most significant works are those in relation to late Han Dynasty politics. Among these are Northern Frontier: The Policies and Strategy of the Later Han Empire (Canberra, 1984); and, To Establish Peace (Canberra, 1996), a partial translation of Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian. He has also written more than a dozen articles, published in such journals as Papers on Far Eastern History and Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia.
The defining work of Dr. de Crespigny's career would have to be Generals of the South, which narrates the rise of the Sun clan and the formation of the Three Kingdoms tripartite. It builds on the broad range of his translation experience and is telling about his historical interests. Like Northern Frontier, the work focuses on the narrative of strategies, campaigns and personalities. The approach owes a great deal to the narrative tradition of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Generals of the South discusses the population and development of Southern China from the second century A.D. onwards as well as the military defence of the south via the boundary of the Yangtze River. It contains the best discussion of the Battle of Red Cliffs and early Chinese riverine warfare available in English. The work also provides an important prelude to further research into the north-south division which occurred in the fifth century (see Northern and Southern Dynasties) and the cultural divisions which endured long after that.
[edit] Associations and appointments
Dr. de Crespigny is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is also a Fellow of the Oriental Society of Australasia and a member of the Australian Institute of International Affairs; the Asian Studies Association of Australia; the Historical Association (UK); the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia; and, the International Congress for Asian and North African Studies.
- Congress for Asian and North African Studies [formerly International Congress of Orientalists]:
- Secretary-General of the 28th Congress at Canberra 1971
- Member of Consultative and Executive Committees, 29th Congress at Paris 1973
- Consultant to the 30th Congress at Mexico City 1975
- Member of the Executive Committee of the 32nd Congress at Hamburg 1986
- 1971-72 Visiting Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge University
- 1972 & 1984 Academic Exchange Visitor of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) to *the Federal Republic of Germany
- 1978 Visiting Professor, Asian Studies Program, University of Hawaii
- 1978 Guest Professor, College of Chinese Culture, Taiwan
- 1983-97 Hon. Treasurer, Australian Committee for the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust
- 1986 Visiting Fellow, Sinologisch Instituut, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
- 1991-2001 Master of University House, ANU
[edit] Retirement
At present de Crespigny is compiling a Dictionary of Later Han biography 20-220 AD and writing a chapter for a forthcoming volume in the Cambridge History of China series.
[edit] Honours
Rafe de Crespigny was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 for services to Australian society in Asian studies.
