The position of Shaw Professor of Chinese is one of the permanent professorships at the University of Oxford, England. It was established in 1876 as the Professor of Chinese, and is now associated with a professorial fellowship at University College, Oxford. The professor is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies. [1] The chair was renamed the Shaw Professorship in 1993 in recognition of the donation by Run Run Shaw of £3,000,000 to the university for developing Chinese studies, part of which was used to endow the chair. [2]
The people to have held the professorship since its establishment are:
The Chu ci, variously translated as Verses of Chu, Songs of Chu, or Elegies of Chu, is an ancient anthology of Chinese poetry including works traditionally attributed mainly to Qu Yuan and Song Yu from the Warring States period, and also a large number of works composed several centuries later, during the Han dynasty. The traditional version of the Chu ci contains 17 major sections, anthologized with its current contents by Wang Yi, a 2nd-century AD librarian who served under Emperor Shun of Han. The early Classical Chinese poetry is mainly known through the two anthologies the Chu ci and the Shi jing.
"Li Sao" is an ancient Chinese poem from the anthology Chuci traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan. Li Sao dates from the 3rd century BCE, during the Chinese Warring States period.
The White Lotus Rebellion was a rebellion initiated by followers of the White Lotus movement during the Qing dynasty of China. Motivated by millenarian Buddhists who promised the immediate return of the Buddha, it erupted out of social and economic discontent in the impoverished provinces of Hubei, Shaanxi, and Sichuan(including modern Sichuan and Chongqing). The rebellion began in 1794, when large groups of rebels claiming White Lotus affiliations rose up within the mountainous region that separated Sichuan province from Hubei and Shaanxi provinces. A smaller precursor to the main rebellion broke out in 1774, under the leadership of the martial-arts and herbal-healing expert Wang Lun in Shandong province of northern China.
Fang La was a Chinese rebel leader who led an uprising against the Song dynasty. In the classical novel Water Margin, he is fictionalised as one of the primary antagonists and nemeses of the 108 Stars of Destiny. He is sometimes associated with Manichaeism but was most likely not a follower of the religion.
David Hawkes was a British sinologist and translator. After he was introduced to Japanese through codebreaking during the Second World War, Hawkes studied Chinese and Japanese at Oxford University between 1945 and 1947, before studying at Peking University from 1948 to 1951. He then returned to Oxford, where he completed his D.Phil. and later became Shaw Professor of Chinese. In 1971, Hawkes resigned his position to focus entirely on his translation of the famous Chinese novel The Story of the Stone, which was published in three volumes between 1973 and 1980. He retired in 1984 to rural Wales before returning to live in Oxford in his final years.
William Edward Soothill, was a Methodist missionary to China who later became Professor of Chinese at University College, Oxford, and a leading British sinologist.
Dirk ter Haar FRSE FIP DSc was an Anglo-Dutch physicist.
Timothy James Brook is a Canadian historian, sinologist, and writer specializing in the study of China (sinology). He holds the Republic of China Chair, Department of History, University of British Columbia.
Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China is a history book which explores the relationship between Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism during the 17th and 18th centuries in China ; tourism to Chinese Buddhist sites, and the patronage of Buddhist monasteries in China by Buddhist and Neo-Confucian gentry during this period. This philanthropy allowed these patrons to "publicize [their] elite status outside the state realm" and promoted the growth of a society of gentry.
The position of Savilian Professor of Geometry was established at the University of Oxford in 1619. It was founded by Sir Henry Savile, a mathematician and classical scholar who was Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton College, reacting to what has been described by one 20th-century mathematician as "the wretched state of mathematical studies in England" at that time. He appointed Henry Briggs as the first professor. Edward Titchmarsh said when applying that he was not prepared to lecture on geometry, and the requirement was removed from the duties of the post to enable his appointment, although the title of the chair was not changed. The two Savilian chairs have been linked with professorial fellowships at New College, Oxford, since the late 19th century. Before then, for over 175 years until the middle of the 19th century, the geometry professors had an official residence adjoining the college in New College Lane.
Sir Thomas Morison Legge CBE was a British physician who served as medical inspector to improve industrial hygiene.
Jie Zhitui, also known as Jie Zitui, was an ancient aristocrat who served the Jin prince Chong'er during the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. Chinese legend holds that when Chong'er finally ascended to power as the duke of Jin, Jie either refused or was passed over for any reward, despite his great loyalty during the prince's times of hardship. Jie then retired to the forests of Jin in what is now central Shanxi with his mother. Supposedly, the duke so desired to repay Jie's years of loyalty that, when Jie declined to present himself at court, he ordered a forest fire to compel the recluse out of hiding. Instead, Jie and his mother were killed by the fire on Mt Mian. By the Han, Jie was being revered in central Shanxi as a Taoist immortal. He was annually commemorated with a ritual avoidance of fire that, despite many official bans, eventually became China's Cold Food and Qingming Festivals.
The Yellow River Map, Scheme, or Diagram, also known by its Chinese name as the Hetu, is an ancient Chinese diagram that appears in myths concerning the invention of writing by Cangjie and other culture heroes. It is usually paired with the Luoshu Square—named in reference to the Yellow River's Luo tributary—and used with the Luoshu in various contexts involving Chinese geomancy, numerology, philosophy, and early natural science.
Yuan Xian, courtesy name Zisi or Yuan Si, was a Chinese philosopher who was a major disciple of Confucius. Classic Chinese sources stated he was modest and incorruptible, and adhered strictly to the teachings of Confucius despite living in abject poverty.
The position of Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature is one of the permanent chairs at the University of Oxford. The position was established in 1907. It is associated with a fellowship at The Queen's College, Oxford. The people to have held the position are:
Glen Dudbridge FBA was a British Sinologist, specialising in the literature and religious culture of China, ranging between the eighth and seventeenth centuries AD, with particular attention to narrative traditions and to vernacular culture.
Tian Yuan Tan is a Singaporean scholar of Chinese literature. Since 2019, he has served as Shaw Professor of Chinese at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of University College. Prior to his appointment at Oxford, he was Professor of Chinese Studies at SOAS, University of London.
Dorothea Hosie née Dorothea Soothill, also known as Dorothea, Lady Hosie was a British amateur film maker and writer on China. She assisted her father and her husband, Alexander Hosie, with their writing but when they died she published books on her own account. During the Second World War she was vice-principal of an evacuated private school in Somerset.