Luther Carrington Goodrich (September 21, 1894 – August 10, 1986) was an American
sinologist and historian of China. A prolific author, he is perhaps best remembered for his work on the ''Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644''.
Life
Luther Carrington Goodrich was born on September 21, 1894, in
Tongzhou, a southeastern suburb of
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, where his parents were serving as
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
missionaries. His father, Chauncey Goodrich (b.1836), had published ''A Pocket Dictionary (Chinese-English) and Pekingese Syllabary'' in 1891 and among the nephews of Chauncey's great-grandfather Josiah (born 1731) were a
US Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
and
US Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
.
As a young child, he lived through the
Siege of the International Legations
The siege of the International Legations occurred in 1900 in Peking, the capital of the Qing Empire, during the Boxer Rebellion. Menaced by the Boxers; an anti-Christian anti-foreign peasant movement, 900 soldiers, sailors, marines, and civilian ...
in Beijing; he was able to remember some of these events even in his old age, when he must have been one of the last survivors.
[Edwin G. Beal, Jr.]
L. Carrington Goodrich
/ref> He attended the Chefoo School in Yantai
Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao on the ...
( Shandong), the Oberlin Academy in Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, and Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...
, from which he graduated in 1917. In 1918, soon after the United States entered World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Goodrich joined the US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
and was sent to France, where he worked with the Chinese Labour Corps in France, workers who were brought to France during the war, and were now participating in the post-war rebuilding of the country.Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, but soon left for China, where he worked for the China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation. Back at Columbia in 1925, he received his master's degree in 1927 and Ph.D. in 1934. Continued at Columbia as a faculty member, attaining the rank of full Professor in 1945.Santiniketan
Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...
in India, Japan, and Australia), he spent the rest of his career at Columbia University; even after his retirement from teaching, he still remained associated with Columbia as Dean Lung Professor Emeritus of Chinese.Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.
The Association provides members with an Annu ...
.[Thomas D. Goodrich]
"Luther Carrington Goodrich (1894–1986) : a bibliography"
''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 113.4 (1993): 585–592.
Major works
* with Henry C. Fenn. ''A Syllabus of the History of Chinese Civilization and Culture.'' (NY: The China Society of America, 1929).
* "Chinese Studies in the United States," ''Chinese Social and Political Science Review ''15 (April 1931): 62–77.
* ''The Literary Inquisition of Ch'ien-Lung.'' (Baltimore: Waverly Press, American Council of Learned Societies Studies in Chinese and Related Civilizations, 1935).
* with Henry C. Fenn. ''A Syllabus of the History of Chinese Civilization and Culture.'' (New York: The China Society of America, 3d, 1941).
* ''A Short History of the Chinese People.'' (New York,: Harper, Rev., 1951).
* Ryusaku Tsunoda and -- , ''Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories: Later Han through Ming Dynasties.'' (South Pasadena Calif.: P.D. and I. Perkins, Perkins Asiatic Monographs, 1951).
* "Archaeology in China: The First Decades," ''The Journal of Asian Studies ''17.1 (1957): 5–15
* with Henry C. Fenn. ''A Syllabus of the History of Chinese Civilization and Culture.'' (New York: China Society of America, 6th, 1958).
* ''A Short History of the Chinese People.'' (New York,: Harper & Row, Harper Torchbooks University Library 3d, 1963).
* ''The Literary Inquisition of Ch'ien-Lung.'' (New York,: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., American Council of Learned Societies Studies in Chinese and Related Civilizations, 2d, 1966).
* with W. A. C. Adie. ''A Short History of the Chinese People.'' (London,: Allen & Unwin, 3rd, 1969). .
* Hans Widmann and --. ''Der Gegenwärtige Stand Der Gutenberg-Forschung. Hrsg. Von Hans Widmann. Mit Beiträgen Von L. Carrington Goodrich t Al.
T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is der ...
'' (Stuttgart,: A. Hiersemann, Bibliothek Des Buchwesens, 1972). .
* "Arthur William Hummel, March 6, 1884-March 10, 1975," ''Journal of the American Oriental Society (1975):
* with Fang Zhaoying, ed. ''Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644.'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976). .
* translated: Yüan Ch'ên, Hsing-Hai Chien. ''Western and Central Asians in China under the Mongols: Their Transformation into Chinese.'' (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag Wort und Werk, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series Paperback, 1989). .
References
External links
* L. Carrington Goodrich Papers
Columbia University Library
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodrich, L. Carrington
1894 births
1986 deaths
American sinologists
Williams College alumni
Presidents of the Association for Asian Studies