Jonathan Spence ’65 Ph.D., Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, whose scholarship shaped the field of China studies for half a century, died Dec. 25 at home in West Haven, Connecticut of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 85.

史景迁（Jonathan Spence），耶鲁研究生院65届校友、耶鲁大学历史系斯特林讲席荣休教授，于2021年12月25日在康涅狄格州西黑文的家中因帕金森并发症去世，享年85岁。

President Peter Salovey, noting the community’s loss, called him “unsurpassed as scholar and teacher,” and Richard C. Levin, president of Yale from 1993 to 2013, spoke of him as “a towering figure, a scholar of unique insight and imagination.”

史景迁的学术影响了中国研究领域长达半个世纪。耶鲁大学校长苏必德（Peter Salovey）称史景迁为“无与伦比的学者和教师”，失去他是耶鲁的巨大损失；1993年至2013年担任耶鲁大学校长的理查德·查尔斯·莱文（Richard Charles Levin）称其为“一位灯塔式的人物，一位具有独特洞察力和想象力的学者”。

Spence transformed and popularized the study of China in the United States and across the world. Galvanized at first by the idea of China in the 17th century, he went on to write 14 books that spanned the entirety of modern Chinese history, among them “The Search for Modern China” (1990).

史景迁改变并普及了中国研究，范围波及美国乃至全世界。他最初被17世纪的中国思想吸引，一连写下14本书，其中包括《追寻现代中国》（1990），跨度纵贯整个中国近现代史。

His gift was to blend scrupulous archival research with literary flair to create narratives that illuminate the vibrancy of human lives in a foreign land. When he started writing in the 1960s, the American eye was not on China. With a novelist’s aptitude for character, detail, and pace, he brought the sweep of a distant civilization to life. His narrative gift made him what Peter Perdue, professor emeritus of history, called a “master craftsman” who “created a new amalgam of biography, documentary, literature, and drama.”

他善于将严谨的档案研究与文学天赋相结合，创造出能够令异国他乡人民生活焕发活力的叙事。当他在1960年代开始写作时，美国人尚未将目光投向中国。但他凭借小说家一般掌控人物、细节和节奏的才能，将一个遥远的文明带入美国人的日常生活。他所拥有非凡的叙事禀赋令耶鲁大学历史学荣休教授濮德培（Peter Perdue）赞其为“工匠大师”，“创造出传记、纪录片、文学和戏剧的新混合物”。

来源：Yale 日期：2022年1月9日

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