D. C. Lau (; 6 March 192126 April 2010) was a Chinese
sinologist and author of the widely read translations of
Tao Te Ching,
Mencius and
The Analects and contributed to the
Proper Cantonese pronunciation movement.
D. C. Lau studied Chinese under Prof.
Xu Dishan at the
University of Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the f ...
, but fled to Mainland China in 1941 just before the Japanese occupied Hong Kong. In 1946, he was offered one of the first scholarships for a British university and studied Western philosophy in
Glasgow University
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, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
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(1946–49). In 1950, Lau would take up a post at
London University's School of Oriental and African Studies
SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury a ...
, developing SOAS into a world-renowned centre for the study of Chinese philosophy.
He was appointed in 1965 to the newly created Readership in Chinese Philosophy and in 1970 became
Professor of Chinese in the University of London. In 1978 he returned to Hong Kong to take up the Chair of Chinese Language and Literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. On his retirement in 1989, he began to computerise the entire body of extant ancient Chinese works, with a series of sixty concordances.
[Biographical information from Penguin Classics version of The Analects (1979)]
Bibliography
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References
1921 births
2010 deaths
Chinese sinologists
Alumni of King's College, Hong Kong
Academics of SOAS University of London
Hong Kong expatriates in the United Kingdom
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