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| Anthony C. Yu | |
|---|---|
| Name | Anthony C. Yu |
| Birth date | 1938-09-08 |
| Birth place | Canton (Guangzhou), Republic of China |
| Death date | 2015-02-16 |
| Death place | Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Occupation | Scholar, translator, literary critic, professor |
| Alma mater | Southern Methodist University; Princeton University; Harvard University |
| Notable works | Translation of Journey to the West, studies of Chinese literature, scholarship on Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism |
| Awards | MacArthur Fellowship, PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize |
Anthony C. Yu was a Taiwanese-American scholar, translator, and literary critic best known for his magisterial English translation of the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. He served for decades as a professor at University of Chicago, where his work bridged studies of Chinese literature, comparative literature, religious studies, and theater. His scholarship engaged figures and texts across traditions, connecting Chinese classics with European, American, and Asian intellectual histories.
Born in Guangzhou in 1938 and raised in Shanghai and Taiwan, Yu emigrated to the United States to pursue higher education during the Cold War era that also shaped migration from Republic of China (1912–1949) territories. He completed undergraduate studies at Southern Methodist University before undertaking graduate work at Princeton University and Harvard University, where he studied under scholars linked to traditions represented by Ezra Pound, Ernest Fenollosa, and mentors connected to the study of Chinese poetry, Ming dynasty drama, and classical Chinese philology. His education connected him to networks at institutions including Yale University and Columbia University through conferences and collaborative projects.
Yu joined the faculty of the University of Chicago where he held appointments in departments such as Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Religious Studies. He taught alongside colleagues in programs associated with Harvard-Yenching Institute, the American Council of Learned Societies, and exchange networks tied to Peking University and Fudan University. His courses covered texts from the Tang dynasty and Song dynasty to modern writers like Lu Xun, Ba Jin, and Mo Yan, and he supervised students who became scholars at institutions such as Princeton University, Yale University, Harvard University, and University of California, Berkeley. Yu also participated in symposia with scholars from the British Academy, the Modern Language Association, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Yu’s scholarly output included work on classical Chinese poetry, Ming dynasty drama, narrative theory, and the intersection of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. He published essays engaging authors and texts including Su Shi, Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Cao Xueqin, and dramatists of the Yuan dynasty such as Guan Hanqing. His comparative work drew on thinkers and writers including William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, John Milton, Walter Benjamin, and Northrop Frye to place Chinese literary production within global traditions. Major monographs and collected essays addressed poetics, ritual, and performance, bringing Yu into intellectual conversation with institutions like the Modern Language Association, the Association for Asian Studies, and the International Comparative Literature Association.
Yu’s translation of Journey to the West presented the fourteenth-century novel attributed to Wu Cheng'en in an annotated, five-volume English edition that combined literary translation with religious and cultural exegesis. The project placed Yu in dialogue with earlier translators and commentators such as Arthur Waley, W.J.F. Jenner, and Chinese commentarial traditions preserved in editions circulating through Beijing and Nanjing. His edition incorporated manuscript variants, Buddhist and Daoist source materials, and comparative references to texts like the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, and narrative patterns found in Ramayana and Mahabharata traditions. The translation influenced subsequent work at publishing houses and scholarly presses associated with University of Chicago Press, Columbia University Press, and translators working on Chinese classics in multiple languages.
Yu’s criticism emphasized intertextuality, ritual performance, and theological subtext, drawing connections among Confucian classics, Buddhist scriptures, and dramatic genres. He engaged with European and American critical traditions, bringing perspectives from New Criticism, Structuralism, and Hermeneutics into conversation with readings of Ming drama and vernacular fiction. His comparative essays linked Chinese narratives to the works of Homer, Virgil, Chaucer, and modernists like T.S. Eliot and James Joyce, and he frequently contributed to journals and collections published under the auspices of organizations such as the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council.
Yu received recognition including fellowships and prizes that acknowledged both his translation and scholarship. Honors associated with his career include the MacArthur Fellowship and the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize, along with fellowships from institutions like the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation, and visiting appointments at Princeton University and Oxford University. He was elected to scholarly societies including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and participated in international colloquia sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the American Philosophical Society.
Yu balanced academic life with engagement in cultural and religious communities spanning Taiwan, China, and the United States. His students and collaborators include scholars now teaching at Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles, Cornell University, and New York University, ensuring the diffusion of his methods across departments and disciplines. His translation of Journey to the West remains a standard reference in courses and libraries at institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, and Stanford University, and his essays continue to shape scholarship in comparative literature, sinology, and religious studies. Category:Translators