No Wallet in 1925. And the Cambridge History of China.

            The Postcard

A postcard that was published by W. B. It was posted in Chelsea, London SW3 using a 1d. stamp on Wednesday the 23rd. September 1925. The postmark states 'British Goods Are best.'

The card was sent to:

Miss J. Martin,
10, Lennox Road,
Worthing. 

The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

"Dear Jenny,
Having rotten weather,
hoping you are having
better.
Don't forget to let us
know when & how you
are coming home.
Love Mum
xxx"

Denis Twitchett

So what else happened on the day that Jenny's mother posted the card to her daughter?

Well, the 23rd. September 1925 marked the birth in London of Denis Twitchett.

Denis Crispin Twitchett was a British Sinologist and historian, and is known as one of the co-editors of The Cambridge History of China.

Denis was the son of an architectural draughtsman, and attended Isleworth County Grammar School. During World War II he took a crash course in Japanese, and for the remainder of the war he was part of the Bletchley Park operations, acting as a listener at one of the forward listening stations in Sri Lanka. 

He also spent a great deal of time in Japan, and was able to learn from the best Japanese historians of China (who tended to focus on Tang China, a period which became his field of expertise also). 

Following demobilisation he read Modern Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London for a year (1946–47). 

Having won a scholarship to read Geography in 1943 while still a school pupil, he then took up his place at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, whence he graduated with a first-class degree in Oriental Studies in 1950.

He was a lecturer at the University of London (1954–56) and Cambridge (1956–60), as well as the Chair of Chinese at the Universities of London (1960–68) and Cambridge (1968–80).

Denis was the Gordon Wu Professor of Chinese Studies at Princeton University (1980–94), and a fellow of the British Academy from 1967. He greatly expanded the role of Chinese studies in Western intellectual circles.

He married Umeko Ichikawa in 1956. Together they had two children.

The Cambridge History of China

Starting in 1966, Professor Twitchett and historian John K. Fairbank (who taught at Harvard) began plans for the first comprehensive history of China to be published in the English language. 

Originally expected to be a six volume set of books, the series expanded as time passed, and eventually grew to the currently planned 15 volumes.

Drawing upon the most respected living historians for individual chapters of the books, the series (though still missing one volume as of 2022) is very highly regarded as an authoritative history of China. 

Twitchett wrote many sections, and guided the creation of the whole series from the start until his death.

Twitchett deliberately held off creating a book on China before the Ch'in dynasty because, as he put it in the preface to Volume 7, there was still so much work to be done on the period. Since that time the history has become better understood, and in 1999 a companion volume 'The Cambridge History of Ancient China, From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC' edited by Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy was published.

Denis died at the age of 80 in Cambridge, England on the 24th. February 2006.

Taken on: May 27, 2023

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