Denis C. Twitchett

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Denis Crispin Twitchett (1925-2006) was a British Sinologist. He was a lecturer at the University of London (1954-56) and Cambridge (1956-60), the Chair of Chinese at the universities of London (1960-68) and Cambridge (1968-80), and the Gordon Wu Professor of Chinese Studies at Princeton University (1980-94). He was a fellow of the British Academy from 1967. He greatly expanded the role of Chinese studies in Western intellectual circles.

During World War II, Twitchett took a crash course in Japanese and for the remainder of the war he was part of the Bletchley Park operations acting as as a listener at one of the forward listening stations in Sri Lanka. After the war he gained a degree in geography at Cambridge. He also spent a great deal of time in Japan and was able to learn from the best Japanese historians of China (who tended to focus on Tang China, a period which became his field of expertise also). He married the daughter of one of these Japanese historians (Umeko Ichikawa) in 1956. Together they had two children.

[edit] The Cambridge History of China

Starting in 1966, Professor Twitchett and fellow Sinologist John K. Fairbank (who taught at Harvard) began plans for the first comprehensive history of China to be published in the English language. Originally expected to be a six volume set of books, the series expanded as time passed and eventually grew to the currently planned 15 volumes. While he was at Princeton, Twitchett worked closely with fellow Sinologist Frederick W. Mote (who had a related wartime experience).

Drawing upon the most respected living historians for individual chapters of the books, the series (though still incomplete as of late 2007) is very highly regarded as an authoritative history of China. Twitchett wrote many sections and guided the creation of the whole series from the start until his death.

The series in historical order is as follows

Volume 1 - The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 BC to AD 220 (edited by Twitchett and Michael Loewe). Published in May 1987.
Volume 2 - (China from 220 to 587, still unpublished)
Volume 3 - Sui and Tang China, Part I (edited by Twitchett). This covers the political history of the time. Published in December 1979.
Volume 4 - Sui and Tang China, Part II (still unpublished. This is supposed to cover cultural and economic topics related to the Sui and Tang Dynasties).
Volume 5 - The Sung Dynasty and its Precursors, 907 - 1279 (edited by Twitchett and Paul Jakov Smith). To be published in October 2008.
Volume 6 - Alien Regimes and Border States, 910 - 1368 (edited by Twitchett and Herbert Franke). This covers the northern states of the Khitan, the Jurchen, and the Mongols. Published January 1995.
Volume 7 - The Ming Dynasty, 1368 - 1644, Part I (edited by Frederick W. Mote and Twitchett). This covers the political history of the Ming. Published March 1988.
Volume 8 - The Ming Dynasty, 1368 - 1644, Part II (edited by Twitchett and Frederick W. Mote). This is a set of essentially unrelated chapters about cultural and economic topics from the Ming period. Published April 1988.
Volume 9 - The Ch'ing Empire to 1800, Part 1 (edited by Willard J. Peterson). This covers the political history of the first Manchu rulers, from Nurhaci to the Qianlong Emperor. Published February 2003.
Volume 10 - Late Ch'ing 1800–1911, Part 1 (edited by John K. Fairbank). This covers the political history of the last 111 years of Manchu rule over China. Published in June 1978.
Volume 11 - Late Ch'ing 1800 – 1911, Part 2 (edited by John K. Fairbank and Kwang-Ching Liu). Published October 1980.
Volume 12 - Republican China, 1912 - 1949, Part 1 (edited by John K. Fairbank and Twitchett). Published October 1983.
Volume 13 - Republican China 1912 - 1949, Part 2 (edited by John K. Fairbank and Albert Feuerwerker). Published July 1986.
Volume 14 - The People's Republic, Part 1 (edited by Roderick MacFarquhar and John K. Fairbank). Published September 1987.
Volume 15 - The People's Republic, Part 2 (edited by Roderick MacFarquhar and John K. Fairbank). Published March 1992.

Twitchett deliberately held off creating a book on China before the Ch'in because, as Twitchett put it in the preface to Volume 7, there was still so much work to be done on the period. Since that time the history has become better understood and in 1999 a companion volume "The Cambridge History of Ancient China, From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC" by Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy was published.