{{short description|American sinologist}} '''Andrew Henry Plaks''' ({{zh|t =浦安迪|p=Pǔ Āndí}}; born 1945) is an American sinologist who specializes in the study of the vernacular fiction of the Ming and Qing dynasties. From 1973 to 2007, he taught at Princeton University, becoming full professor in 1980. He moved to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2007, where he became Professor of East Asian Studies.<ref name="huji">{{cite web|title=Andrew H. Plaks |url=http://asia.huji.ac.il/en/page/1569 |publisher=The Hebrew University of Jerusalem |access-date=2014-12-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210034915/http://asia.huji.ac.il/en/page/1569 |archive-date=2014-12-10 }}</ref>
In 1968, he married Livia Basch (1947–2013), and they had two sons, Jason and Eric.<ref>{{cite web | title=Obituaries 2/13/13 | url=http://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/2013/02/13/obituaries-21313/ | publisher=Town Topics | date=February 13, 2013 | access-date=2014-12-05 }}</ref>
==Academic career== Plaks studied as an undergraduate in the Department of Oriental Studies at Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude with an A.B. in 1967. He stayed on at Princeton University for graduate study in East Asian Studies. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1973 with a dissertation on ''Archetype and allegory in the Hung-Lou Meng''. He was subsequently offered a position in the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, becoming an associate professor in 1976, and a full professor in 1980. Between April–June 2005, he was a Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Former Fellows SCAS |url=https://www.swedishcollegium.se/fellows/former-fellows/all-former-fellows }}</ref> In 2007, he retired from Princeton University, and moved to Israel to take up a position at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he became Professor of East Asian Studies.<ref name="huji"/>
==Contributions to the field== Plaks' 1987 book ''Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel'', which won the Joseph Levenson Book Prize, is an analysis of a group of four Ming dynasty novels which Plaks argues changed the genre: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Jin Ping Mei, and Journey to the West. Ellen Widmer, writing in the Journal of Asian Studies, says that the book creates "a far-reaching hypothesis about the consolidation of the novel form in China", namely, that the four novels can be taken as a milestone.<ref name="widmer-1988">{{cite journal | last =Widmer |first=Ellen | title=Review | journal=The Journal of Asian Studies | volume=47 | issue=4 | pages=869–871 | year=1988 | doi=10.2307/2057883 |jstor=2057883 }}</ref> He identifies a "figural density" and establishes that the key to understanding the novels is the use of irony, by which he means "every possible disjunction between what is said and what is meant." According to Plaks, the novels ask serious questions about sexuality, selfhood, heroism, power, and reality, while offering serious Neo-Confucian answers.<ref name="widmer-1988"/>
Another literary scholar, Paul Ropp, says that Plaks pays special attention to the 16th century editors, authors, and commentators who played different roles than those in earlier times. He also points out structural differences, such as their "paradigmatic length of one-hundred chapters [with one exception], narrative rhythms based on division into ten-chapter units, further subdivisions into building blocks of three- or four chapter episodes, contrived symmetries between the first and second halves of the texts, special exploitation of opening and closing sections, as well as certain other schemes of spatial and temporal ordering, notably the plotting of events on seasonal or geographical grids".<ref name="ropp-1990">{{citation | last=Ropp | first=Paul S. | chapter=The Distinctive Art of Chinese Fiction | title=The Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives | editor-last=Ropp | editor-first=Paul | location=Berkeley| publisher=University of California Press | year =1990 | page=326 | isbn=0-520-06441-0 }}</ref> Ropp says that although not everybody may agree with all of Plaks' ideas, he has pioneered the sophisticated criticism of the traditional Chinese novel, and his emphasis on the use of irony in the novels is especially important.<ref name="ropp-1990"/>
In 2018, the first volume of Dream of the Red Chamber, covering chapters 1-27, was published in Hebrew, translated jointly by Plaks and Amira Katz. This is the first translation of the novel into the Hebrew language.<ref name="plaks-2018">{{cite book |last1=Cao |first1=Xueqin |title=Dream of the Red Chamber |date=2018 |publisher=Bialik Publishing |location=Israel |url=http://www.bialik-publishing.com/index.php?dir=site&page=catalog&op=item&cs=4917&langpage=heb}}</ref> The second volume, covering chapters 28-53, was published in 2021.<ref name="plaks-2021">{{cite book |last1=Cao |first1=Xueqin |title=Dream of the Red Chamber |date=2021 |publisher=Bialik Publishing |location=Israel |url=https://www.bialik-publishing.com/index.php?dir=site&page=catalog&op=item&cs=5368}}</ref>
==Bibliography== * {{cite book|last = Plaks|first = Andrew H.|year = 1976|title = Archetype and Allegory in the Dream of the Red Chamber|publisher = Princeton University Press|location = Princeton, N.J.|isbn = 0691046166|ref = none|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/populationofbrit0w45well}} <ref>{{cite journal |last =Pollard |first = David|title = Review|journal =Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |volume =40 |issue = 2 |pages =420–421 |date =1977 |url = http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=3780876&fileId=S0041977X00044487|doi = 10.1017/S0041977X00044487 | s2cid=161979606 |url-access =subscription }}</ref> * {{cite book |last1=Plaks |first1=Andrew H. |author-mask=1|first2=Kenneth J. |last2=DeWoskin |year = 1977 |title = Chinese Narrative : Critical and Theoretical Essays |publisher = Princeton University Press| location = Princeton, N.J. |isbn = 0691063281|ref = none}} * {{cite journal |last =Plaks |first = Andrew H.|author-mask =1|title =Full-Length Hsiao-Shuo and the Western Novel: A Generic Reappraisal |journal =New Asia Academic Bulletin |volume =1 |pages =163–176 |date =1978 |url = http://hkjo.lib.hku.hk/archive/files/be0364d5978d0088d79ce2b282e15bca.pdf |ref= none}} * {{cite journal |last =Plaks |first = Andrew|author-mask =1|title =Shui-Hu Chuan and the Sixteenth-Century Novel Form: An Interpretive Reappraisal |journal =Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews |volume =2 |issue = 1 |pages =3–53 |date =1980 |jstor = 495478|doi = 10.2307/495478|ref= none}} * {{cite journal |last =Plaks|first = Andrew|author-mask =1|title =After the Fall: Hsing-Shih Yin-Yüan Chuan and the Seventeenth-Century Chinese Novel |journal =Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |volume = 45|issue = 2|pages =543–580 |date =1985 |jstor = 2718972|doi = 10.2307/2718972|ref= none}} * {{cite book |last = Plaks|first = Andrew|author-mask =1|year = 1987 |title = The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel: Ssu Ta Ch'i-Shu |publisher = Princeton University Press| location = Princeton, N.J. |isbn = 0691067082|ref = none}} * {{cite book |author = Plaks, Andrew H. |author-mask = 1|translator = 沈亨寿 (Shen Hengshou) |year = 1993 |title = 明代小說四大奇书 (Ming Dai Xiao Shuo Si Da Qi Shu) |publisher = Zhongguo he ping| location = Beijing Shi |isbn = 7800372618|ref = none}} (translation of ''The Four Masterworks'') * {{cite book |editor-last=Plaks |editor-first=Andrew H. |editor-last2=Peterson |editor-first2=Willard J. |editor-first3=Yingshi |editor-last3=Yu |editor-first4=Ta-tuan |editor-last4=Ch'en |editor-first5=Frederick W. |editor-last5=Mote |year = 1994 |editor-mask=1 |title = The Power of Culture : Studies in Chinese Cultural History |publisher = Chinese University Press| location = Hong Kong |isbn = 9622015964|ref = none}} * {{citation |first = Andrew|author-mask =1| last =Plaks| title = The Novel in Pre-Modern China | editor-first = Franco | editor-last =Moretti| location = Princeton| publisher =Princeton University Press | year =2006 |ref = none}} * {{cite book |last = 浦安迪 |author-mask = 1|year = 2003 |title = 紅樓夢批語偏全 (Hong Lou Meng Pi Yu Pian Quan) |publisher = Beijing da xue chu ban she| location = Beijing |isbn = 7301059132 |ref = none}} * {{cite book |translator-last=Plaks |translator-first=Andrew H. |translator-first2=Irene |translator-last2=Eber |author=Zisi |author-link=Zisi|year = 2004 |title = דרך האמצע וקיומה |trans-title=The Doctrine of the Mean |publisher = Bialik Institute |ref = none}} * {{cite book |author=Zengzi |author-link=Zengzi |translator=Andrew Plaks |language=he |title=תורת הגדול |trans-title=Great Learning|date=|publisher=Bialik Institute}} * {{cite journal|author-mask = |last = Plaks|first = Andrew|url = http://newleftreview.org/II/47/andrew-plaks-leaving-the-garden |title= Leaving the Garden: Reflections on China's Literary Masterwork|journal = New Left Review|volume = 47|date = 2007 |ref = none}} * {{cite book |author=Cao Xueqin |author-link=Cao Xueqin |translator1=Andrew Plaks |translator2=Amira Katz |language=he |title=חלום המשכנות האדומים|trans-title=Dream of the Red Chamber |volume=1 |date=2018 |publisher=Bialik Institute}} * {{cite book |author=Cao Xueqin |translator1=Andrew Plaks |translator2=Amira Katz |language=he |title=חלום המשכנות האדומים |trans-title=Dream of the Red Chamber |volume=2 |date=2021 |publisher=Bialik Institute}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{portal|China|Novels}} * [http://shalem.ac.il/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/02/Andrew-Plaks-Long-English.pdf Andrew Plaks] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051917/http://shalem.ac.il/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/02/Andrew-Plaks-Long-English.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }} at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Plaks, Andrew H.}} Category:American sinologists Category:Princeton University alumni Category:Princeton University faculty Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem