Raymond Dawson: Imperial China - Penguin Books 1976

Heftet 377 sider sender gjerne kr 58 i frakt og pakking

(The History of human society)

about the author

Raymond Stanley Dawson was born in London, 15 February, 1923, and was

educated at Emanuel School, evacuated from London to Petersfield,

Hampshire, and then went up to Oxford.

At the outbreak of war Dawson joined the Royal Air Force, and trained

in South Africa as a navigator, & flew missions until late in WW2.

After the war he returned to Oxford, graduated in Greats in 1947. He

was invited to stay on at the university to read Chinese.

The Scarbrough scheme that funded this post-war cohort of students was

designed to create a group of potential teachers of Asian languages in

post-war Britain.

He was appointed Lecturer in Chinese Religion and Philosophy, Durham

University in 1952, which marked the foundation of Chinese Studies in

that University. He also began a lifelong career as crossword setter

for the New Statesman. He began this sideline in 1952 under the name

of Setsquare, and produced a monthly cryptic crossword for the next 50

years.

In 1958 Dawson launched an Honours course in Chinese.

Dawson was Spalding Lecturer in Chinese Language and Civilisation,

1957-61; University lecturer in Chinese, Oxford University, 1961-90;

Fellow, Wadham College, Oxford, 1963-90 [Emeritus].

Dawson published a string of works for Oxford University Press,

including *The Chinese Chameleon: an analysis of European conceptions

of Chinese civilisation* [1967], and *Confucius* [1981] for the OUP

Past Masters series.

He served on the university's General Board and building up a strong

tradition of Asian language studies in Wadham.

Beyond the university he reached a wide audience with a steady flow of

accessible books on aspects of Chinese history and society,

translations of classic texts, and a much-reprinted Introduction to

Classical Chinese (1968).

He married in 1944, Eve Harding, by whom he had two sons and one

daughter.