The Life of Joseph Joseph Richmond Levenson's Characters

Joseph Joseph Richmond Levenson (1920) was born in a Jewish family in Boston, Massachusetts. 194 1 When I graduated from Harvard University, my academic performance ranked first in the whole school and I was admitted as a doctoral student. Shortly after the Pacific War broke out, he joined the US Navy. 1946 After the end of the war, he returned to Harvard University to study for his doctorate, and received his doctorate in 1949.

After becoming famous, Joseph Richmond Levenson is usually regarded as one of the main representatives of Harvard School headed by Fei Zhengqing. His relationship with Fei began before he joined the army (1938— 1940), when he was a sophomore and a junior at Harvard University, and Fei Zhengqing was one of the instructors. During his post-war doctoral studies, he began to assist Professor Fei Zhengqing in the course of "Modern China" and participated in research projects in this field. One of his most important jobs here is to write the book Liang Qichao and China's Modern Thoughts. As early as the end of his studies in Joseph Richmond Levenson, Fei Zhengqing expressed the following views: Joseph Richmond Levenson is the most promising one in the field of East Asian studies he met after the war, and he will make great achievements, and he is likely to become a pioneer and leader in the field of Far East ideological history research that has not really started.

195 1 September, due to Fei Zhengqing's recommendation, Joseph Richmond Levenson took to the podium in Berkeley. 1953, Liang Qichao and the History of Modern China Thought was published by Harvard University Press. 1September, 959, Fei Zhengqing wrote: "I am glad to receive the new edition of Liang Qichao and China's Modern Thoughts. Sometimes I mistakenly think that it is expressing' Joseph Richmond Levenson's modern thoughts', and I have never lost my keen interest in reading it. " It should be said that their mentoring relationship is an interesting phenomenon. Unless we stay in some general mode and presupposition to deal with China's modern history and thoughts, we must admit that Fei Zhengqing and Joseph Richmond Levenson have great differences in specific research methods and writing styles. However, in the former's works, we are full of sincere admiration for this Gao Zu, and we have repeatedly expressed our admiration for the latter's contact talent and profound insights. In a commemorative article after Joseph Richmond Levenson's death, Fei Zhengqing introduced many personal contacts with the student and the academic thinking process of the latter, but he finally said that, as one of the most important representatives in the field of modern China studies, the road taken by Joseph Richmond Levenson does not seem to be an example of how a young scholar started, because what the former has and shows is "not an ordinary academic career, but an example of genius". Of course, we can see Fisher's vision and mind as the most important founder and organizer in the field of "China Studies" in modern America. On the other hand, it reminds us of the possible significance of the genius condition of humanities research. As far as the latter is concerned, it is an appropriate analogy to call Joseph Richmond Levenson a "Mozart historian".

About the time when Liang Qichao's "China's Modern Thoughts" was completed or earlier, Joseph Richmond Levenson was already brewing and promoting a research and writing plan on the trilogy of modern China. The result was a three-volume masterpiece "Confucian China and His Modern Fate", which was published in 1958, 1964 and 1965 respectively. The basic idea of the book was first put forward at the academic seminar in September 1952, but in an application submitted to Harvard Social Science Research Committee in the summer of 1953, we can already see the clear expression of the core concepts of the book.

1On April 6, 969, this talented historian, who was only 49 years old and at the peak, was unfortunately killed in a swimming accident.