Derk Bodde

Derk Bodde (born March 9, 1909 in Brant Rock , Massachusetts , USA ; † November 3, 2003 in Germantown , Pennsylvania , USA) was an American sinologist and China historian. He translated the (older) history of Chinese philosophy by the Chinese philosopher Feng Youlan and the Yanjing suishi ji by Dun Lichen (1855-1911) into English. An important study about Chancellor Li Si from the time of the Qin Dynasty comes from him . Bodde taught at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia .

Life

Derk Bodde's father Theodore Bodde immigrated from Holland to the USA in 1901. Theodore Bodde was an electrical engineer by profession and was invited by Jiao Tong Daxue to work there as a lecturer. In 1919 the Bodde family traveled to Shanghai. They stayed there for a total of three years, from 1919 to 1922.

In 1922 she returned to the USA. Derk Bodde published his first articles in St. Nicholas Magazine at the age of 13.

In 1930 Derk Bodde successfully completed his English studies at Harvard University and directly enrolled for further studies at the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

With the end of the first year Derk Bodde received the Harvard-Yenching scholarship and then went to Beijing from 1931 to 1937.

In his second year abroad, 1932/33, Bodde wrote two articles, one of which was published: A Perplexing Passage in the Confucian Analects .

In 1934 Derk Bodde took a philosophy course with Feng Youlan . In 1934 he published his most important work: History of Chinese Philosophy . During his time in Beijing, Bodde translated other works. One is the translation of Dun Lichen's Annual Customs and Festivals in Beijing .

In Beijing he also met his future wife Galia Speshneff. She was a Russian immigrant from Vladivostok. She and her family fled to China because of the Russian Revolution. The two married in 1935.

In 1935 Derk Bodde met the Dutch sinologist Jan JL Duyvendak. This then made Bodde the offer to do a doctorate in Leiden Holland. Bodde accepted the offer. Bodde laid the foundations for his dissertation in Beijing. These were the translations of biographies from the Shiji.

In 1937 Derk Bodde traveled to Leiden Holland with his wife and completed his doctoral thesis: China's First Unifier: A Study of the Ch'in Dynasty as Seen in the Life of Li Ssu (280-208 BC).

After completing his doctorate in Holland, Derk Bodde returned to the USA. There he then worked as a lecturer for the Oriental Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania. He kept his teaching post until his retirement in 1975. From 1946–47, Bodde invited the Chinese philosopher Feng Youlan as a guest lecturer. Feng Youlan gave two semester lectures on Chinese philosophy and classical Chinese. Bodde took the opportunity to work on the translation of the second part of the history of Chinese philosophy . In 1953 Derk Bodde published his translation, which he was able to complete with the help of the author.

In 1948 Derk Bodde received a Fulbright scholarship and went to Beijing for a year. During his stay in Beijing, the Communists came to power. Nevertheless, Derk Bodde decided to stay in Beijing to be part of this historic moment. He collected newspaper reports, interviewed locals and wrote down his impressions. He then used all of his notes for another book: "Peking Diary, a Year of Revolution".

In 1949 Bodde returned to the USA. 1950 Bodde received the professorship at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1959 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1961 to the American Philosophical Society .

In the 1950s and 1960s, Bodde dealt with the Chinese legal system. In cooperation with the legal institute, a course in Chinese law was developed and there was close collaboration between Derk Bodde and law professor Clarence Morris. This resulted in a book on the legal system in the Qing Dynasty.

In 1974 Bodde received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He traveled to England to work on the book series Science and Civilization in China by Joseph Needham. He stayed in Cambridge for three years.

In 1975 Derk Bodde retired.

In 1980 he was invited, the first to be Dr. Sun Yat-sen Distinguished Visiting Professor of Chinese Studies at Georgetown University as visiting professor.

Derk Bodde died on November 3, 2003 at the age of 94 in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

Derk Bodde wrote 96 books and articles and wrote another 75 book reviews.

Works

• Shakespeare and the Ireland Forgeries . Harvard Honors Theses in English No. 2. Pp. 68. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1930.
• Annual Customs and Festivals in Beijing, As Recorded in the Yenching Sui-shih-chi. By Tun Li-ch'en. Translated and annotated by Derk Bodde . Henri Vetch, Peiping 1936.
• A History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. I: The Period of the Philosophers (from the beginnings to circa 100 BC). By Fung Yu-lan. Translated by Derk Bodde with introduction, notes, bibliography and index . Henri Vetch, Peiping 1937.
• China's First Unifier: a Study of the Ch'in Dynasty as Seen in the Life of Li Ssu (280? -208 BC). Sinica Leidensia Series, Vol. III . EJ Brill, Leiden 1938.
• A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. By Fung Yu-lan. Edited by Derk Bodde . Macmillan, New York 1948.
• Peking Diary, a Year of Revolution . Henry Schuman, New York 1950.
• A History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. II: The Period of Classical Learning (from the second century BC to the twentieth century AD). By Fung Yu-lan. Translated by Derk Bodde with introduction, notes, bibliography and index . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1953.
• Law in Imperial China, Exemplified by 190 Ch'ing Dynasty Cases. . . with Historical, Social, and Judicial Commentaries. By Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1967.
• Festivals in Classical China, New Year and Other Annual Observances during the Han Dynasty, 206 BC-AD 220 . Princeton University Press and Chinese University of Hong Kong, Princeton and Hong Kong 1975.

literature

• Rickett, W. Allyn: In memoriam: Derk Bodde (1909-2003) in: Journal of the American Oriental Society. October 2003 .
• Le Blanc, Charles: Professor Derk Bodde (1909-2004) In Memoriam in: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 150, NO. March 1, 2006.
• Martin, Douglas: Derk Bodde, 94, a Longtime Scholar on China in: The New York Times, November 13, 2003.
• Le Blanc, Charles; BLADER Susan: Chinese Ideas about Nature and Society: Studies in Honor of Derk Bodde Hong Kong University Press, 1987.
• [1] , E Bruce Brooks, Jan. 2, 2007.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 上海 交通 大学, Chinese university founded in Shanghai in 1896
2. ^ 1923, "A Boy's Trip to an East Indian Volcano". St. Nicholas Magazine (December, 1923), 134-7.
3. ↑ 1925, "My House-boat Trip in China". St. Nicholas Magazine (January 1925), 276-83.
4. ↑ 1926, "My Trip to the Great Wall of China and the Ming Tombs". St. Nicholas Magazine (April, 1926), 570-7.
5. ↑ 1927, "Thundering Waters!" St. Nicholas Magazine (January, 1927), 170-6.
6. ↑ 1927, "The Dragon Speaks". St. Nicholas Magazine (July, 1927), 683-5.
7. ↑ St. Nicholas Magazine was an American children's magazine that was published from 1873 to 1941
8. ↑ Thesis: 1930 "Shakspere and the Ireland Forgeries" in: Harvard Honors Theses in English No. 2, Harvard University Press, 1930. page 68.
9. ↑ 哈佛 燕京 学 社, Foundation, established in 1928 by Harvard University and Yanjing University, is located on the Harvard campus
10. ↑ 中國 哲學 史上 下 冊
11. ↑ 敦 禮 臣
12. ↑ 燕京 歲時 記
13. ↑ FUNG Yu-lan translated by Derk Bodde, A History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. II: The Period of Classical Learning (from the second century BC to the twentieth century AD), Princeton University Press, 1953.
14. ↑ Member History: Derk Bodde. American Philosophical Society, accessed May 9, 2018 . 
15. ↑ BODDE Derk and MORRIS Clarence, Law in Imperial China, Exemplified by 190 Ch'ing Dynasty Cases. . . with Historical, Social, and Judicial Commentaries, Harvard University Press, 1967.