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. 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Australian National University, or ANU, is a public university located in Canberra, Australia. ... History studies time in human terms. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... Han Dynasty in 87 BC Capital Changan (202 BC–9 AD) Luoyang (25 AD–190 AD) Language(s) Chinese Religion Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy History  - Establishment 206 BC  - Battle of Gaixia; Han rule of China begins 202 BC  - Interruption of Han rule 9 - 24  - Abdication to Cao Wei 220... Look up translate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Historiography is a term with multiple meanings that has changed with time, place and observer, and is thus resistant to a single encompassing meaning. ... The Three Kingdoms period (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a period in the history of China, part of an era of disunity called the Six Dynasties. ...

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). The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... The Australian National University, or ANU, is a public university located in Canberra, Australia. ...

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. Sinology is the study of China, which usually requires a foreign scholar to have command of the Chinese language. ... For other uses, see Romance of the Three Kingdoms (disambiguation). ...

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. Sima Guang (Chinese:司马光; Wade-Giles:Szuma Kuang, 1019-1086) was a Chinese historian, scholar and statesman of the Song Dynasty. ...

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. The Yangtze River or Chang Jiang (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), or Drichu in Tibetan (Tibetan: འབ; Wylie: bri chu) is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa, and the Amazon in South America. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article is about China. ...

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

Retirement

He has recently completed his Biographical Dictionary of the Later Han 23-220 AD (published by Brill in 2007), a continuation of Michael Loewe's biographical dictionary which deals with the Qin, Former Han, and Xin periods 221BC-24AD (published by Brill in 2000). Just as with other major reference works, the names "de Crespigny" and "Loewe" will probably come to be terms that refer to these works, and as such will likely be their most enduring legacy.

He is writing a chapter for a forthcoming volume in the Cambridge History of China series.

Honours

Rafe de Crespigny was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 for services to Australian society in Asian studies. Australian Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award created by the Australian Government in 2001. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...

External links

• Publications of Rafe de Crespigny available on line
• Dr Rafe de Crespigny's Curriculum Vitae