Richard Rafes International Pioneer in Translation of Historical Material
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Jun 02, 2011 19:06 EDT Richard Rafes international pioneer in translation of historical material Richard Rafe Champion de Crespigny, is a retired Adjunct Professor with the China and Korea Centre, Australian National Universaty, in Canberra, Australia and author of many books about the Later Han and Three Kingdoms. He is also been acknowledged internationally as a pioneer in the translation and historiography of historical material concerning the Three Kingdoms period. During his early years as a scholar de Crespigny developed an interest in the Later Han via the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong.[1] BiographyEdit Biography sectionEdit De Crespigny's first degree was European history. Afterwards he began studying Chinese under Hans Bielenstein, a historian specialized in the restoration of the Han dynasty. During his first year as a student under Bielenstein, de Crespigny read the Brewitt-Taylor translation of the Sanguo yanyi. De Crespigny fell in love with the story. Apparently he has the same goals as Gongjin's Campaign Memorials; which is to find out what really happened some 1800 years ago.[2] His seminal dissertation in 1964 was "The Development of the Chinese Empire in the South; a discussion of the origins of the state of Wu of the Three Kingdoms", which provided the basis for much of his later work, including his most well-known monograph Generals of the South: the Foundation and Early History of the Three Kingdoms State of Wu. Since then Rafe de Crespigny has arguably become (one of) the best English sources for Later Han and Three Kingdoms information. Gongjin's Campaign Memorials frequently references to de Crespigny and with his work this Wiki would not have been what it is today. In 2010 de Crespigny released his latest masterpiece: Imperial Warlord: A Biography of Cao Cao.[2] http://www.richardrafes.org.