Sat, Jun 21, 2014 page3

• Historian Yu Ying-shih wins Tang Sinology prize

  ‘ILLUSTRIOUS’: Yu Ying-shih’s half-century of research has reshaped the way academics view Chinese history and culture, the Tang Prize Selection Committee said

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  Chinese American historian Yu Ying-shih (余英時) yesterday won the Tang Prize in Sinology for his original research and insight into the intellectual history of China.

  “The 2014 Tang Prize in Sinology is awarded to Yu Ying-shih for his mastery of and insight into Chinese intellectual, political and cultural history with an emphasis on his profound research into the history of public intellectuals in China,” Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), who chairs the Tang Prize Selection Committee, read from the citation.

  “With an illustrious academic career spanning over half a century, professor Yu has reinterpreted the tradition of thought in China and revived the importance of intellectual history by shedding new light on the value, richness and current significance of Chinese culture,” Lee said at a ceremony in Taipei to announce the winner.

  Yu, a Princeton University emeritus professor, is regarded by many of his peers as “the greatest Chinese intellectual historian of our generation.”

  The 84-year-old brought previously neglected aspects of Chinese history into mainstream scholarship and has been credited with rescuing the Confucian heritage from “caricature and neglect,” and stimulating younger academics to “rediscover the richness and variety of Chinese culture after the ravages of Mao’s [Zedong 毛澤東] Cultural Revolution,” according to the Tang Prize Selection Committee.

  Yu is to receive a cash prize of NT$40 million (US$1.33 million) and a research grant of up to NT$10 million to be used within five years, as well as a medal and a certificate.

  Over the past 60 years, the China-born academic has published about 60 books and hundreds of essays in English and Chinese. In 1976, he published the essay collection Lishi Yu Sixiang (History and Thought, 歷史與思想) in Taiwan, which went on to become one of his most influential works.

  The collection highlights the interconnectedness of Chinese literature, history and philosophy, as well as the similarities and differences between Western and Eastern thought.

  Yu is particularly known for his research on the tradition of public intellectuals and the evolution of their identities and status.

  In a breakthrough research project, he counted Buddhist monks of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and Sui and Tang dynasties among public intellectuals, a pioneering concept at the time of its publication.

  Yu’s research on major Chinese intellectuals, including Zhu Xi (朱熹), have also reshaped the way academics understand these figures in Chinese history.

  In addition to his academic pursuits, Yu is an outspoken supporter of the democracy movement in China and is known to have sheltered young refugees who fled China after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

  In 2006, Yu won the US Library of Congress’ John W Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity.

  The Tang Prize was established in 2012 by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) to honor leaders in four fields: sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, Sinology and rule of law.

  Up to three winners in each category can share a cash prize of NT$40 million and a research grant of up to NT$10 million. An award ceremony for the winners in all four categories is to take place on Sept. 18 in Taipei.

  The Tang Prize in Sinology recognizes innovative research on China and its related fields, such as Chinese thought, history, linguistics, archeology, philosophy, religion, traditional canons, literature and art.
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