David R. Knechtges

David R. Knechtges (born 1942) is an American sinologist and professor in the University of Washington's Department of East Asian Languages and Literature, and an expert on Chinese literature of the Han Dynasty and Six Dynasties period.

Knechtges earned a BA in Chinese from Washington in 1964, followed by an MA from Harvard University in 1965 and a PhD in Chinese Language and Literature from Washington in 1968. He taught at Yale University and Harvard for several years before joining Washington's East Asian faculty in 1972.^[1]

Knechtges has written or edited six books on ancient Chinese literature, and is best known for his ongoing translation of the Wen-xuan, a major collection of early Chinese literature, the work's first ever translation into English.

In 2006, Knechtges was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Selected Works

• The Han Rhapsody: A Study of the Fu of Yang Hsiung (53 BC - AD 18). Cambridge, London, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
• Wen-xuan or Selections of Refined Literature, vol. 1, "Rhapsodies on Metropolises and Capitals". Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982.
• The Han Shu Biography of Yang Xiong (53 BC - AD 18). Tempe, Arizona: Center for Asian Studies, Arizona State University, 1982.
• Wen xuan or Selections of Refined Literature, vol. 2, "Rhapsodies on Sacrifices, Hunts, Travel, Palaces and Halls, Rivers and Seas." Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.
• Wen xuan, vol. 3. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.
• Court Culture and Literature in Early China. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing, 2002.
• As editor and co-translator:
  • (with Gong Kechang) Studies of the Han Fu. American Oriental Series 84. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1997.
• As co-editor:
  • (with Paul Kroll) Studies in Early Medieval Chinese Literature and Cultural History: In Honor of Richard B. Mather and Donald Holzman. Provo, Utah: T'ang Studies Society, 2003.
  • (with Taiping Chang) Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Part One. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2010.

References

External links

• Works by or about David R. Knechtges in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Audio of 2009 lecture, "How to View a Mountain in Medieval China."