Professor Denis Crispin Twitchett (1925.9.23 ~ 2006.2.24) was a great master of Chinese history.  He taught for many years at the University of London, Cambridge University, and Princeton University, and was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1967.  Professor Twitchett’s research specialty was mediaeval Chinese history.  He was the main editor of the Cambridge History of China as well as founding editor of the Third Series of the scholarly journal Asia Major and editor of the Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature, and Institutions, a scholarly monograph series published by Cambridge University.

       Many scholars now at the Institute of History & Philology were taught by Professor Twichett.  In 1996, Professor Twitchett was invited by the Institute of History & Philology (IHP) to deliver the annual Fu Ssu-nien Memorial Lectures.  His three lectures were later compiled into a book entitled The Historian, His Readers, and the Passage of Time, a work which received wide acclaim from scholars in Taiwan and abroad.  In 1997, Professor Twitchett decided to relocate the editing of the journal Asia Major from Princeton University to the Institute of History & Philology.  Professor Twitchett assisted in the compilation and editing of Asia Major with much enthusiasm until his death in 2006.

       Professor Twitchett’s death is an immeasurable loss for colleagues at the Academia Sinica, and for all those who were once his students. Professor Twitchett’s family has decided to donate his book collection to the Institute of History & Philology.  Professor Twitchett’s collection comprises a total of 5,500 titles, and 7,500 volumes, most of which focus on research related to East Asia from the Han to the Tang Dynasties.  The Institute of History & Philology has decided to house this precious collection at the Fu Ssu-nien Library of the IHP.  The collection will be named “The Collection of Professor Denis Crispin Twitchett (1925 – 2006).”