Arthur F. Wright

{{Short description|American sinologist (1913–1976)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Arthur F. Wright | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1913|12|3}} | birth_place = [[Portland, Oregon]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1976|8|11|1913|12|3}} | death_place = [[New London, Connecticut]], U.S. | residence = | fields = [[Sinology]] | workplaces = [[Yale University]] | alma_mater = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = [[Jonathan Spence]], [[Thomas Hong-Chi Lee]] | notable_students = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature =  | footnotes = | education = [[Stanford University]] ([[B. A.|BA]])<br />[[University of Oxford]] ([[MA (Oxon)|MA]])<br />[[Harvard University]] ([[M. A.|MA]], [[PhD]]) }} '''Arthur Frederick Wright''' (December 3, 1913 – August 11, 1976) was an American [[sinologist]] and historian. He was a professor of Chinese history at [[Yale University]].<ref>Library of Congress (LOC), [http://errol.oclc.org/laf/n88-58212.html Wright, Arthur F.]</ref> He specialized in Chinese social and intellectual history of the pre-modern period.<ref name="nyt1976">[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1976/08/14/75546507.pdf "Prof. Arthur Wright of Yale, 62, Scholar of Chinese History, Dies,"] ''New York Times'' (US). August 14, 1976; retrieved 2011-03-14</ref>

==Early life and education== Wright earned his undergraduate degrees at [[Stanford University]] and the [[University of Oxford]]. He then earned his master's degree in Chinese in 1940 and his [[Ph.D.]] in Chinese in 1947 from [[Harvard University]].<ref name="nyt1976"/>

==Career== Wright and his wife, [[Mary C. Wright]], joined the faculty of Stanford University in 1947; and both were made full professors in 1958. In 1959, Wright and his wife joined the faculty at Yale. In 1961, Wright became the Charles Seymour Professor of History at Yale.<ref name="nyt1976"/>

Wright believed that the scholar "should occasionally stand back and contemplate the whole continuum of time and of problems which give meaning to his specialized studies."<ref>Brown, Sidney D. "Review: Arthur F. Wright. (1957). ''Buddhism in Chinese History''," ''The Historian: a Journal of History'' (US). Vol. 22, 1959, p. 106.</ref>

==Selected works== In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Arthur Wright, [[OCLC]]/[[WorldCat]] encompasses roughly 70+ works in 200+ publications in 6 languages and 8,800+ library holdings.<ref>[http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/identities/default.htm WorldCat Identities] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230150412/http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/identities/default.htm |date=December 30, 2010 }}: [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n88-58212 Wright, Arthur F. 1913–1976]</ref> {{dynamic list}} * ''Studies in Chinese Thought'' (1953) * ''Buddhism in Chinese History'' (1957) * {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/confucianpersona0000unse/ |year=1962 |ISBN=1-896951-88-0 |title=Confucian Personalities |editor=Arthur F. Wright, [[Denis Twitchett]] |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]]}} * ''Confucianism and Chinese civilization'' (1964) * ''Perspectives on the Tʻang'' (1973) * ''[https://archive.org/details/suidynasty00arth/ The Sui Dynasty]'' (1978) (about the [[Sui dynasty]]) * ''The Confucian Persuasion'' (1980) * ''Studies in Chinese Buddhism'' (1990)

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Arthur F.}} [[Category:1913 births]] [[Category:1976 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American historians]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford]] [[Category:American sinologists]] [[Category:Harvard University alumni]] [[Category:Historians of China]] [[Category:Internees at the Weixian Internment Camp]] [[Category:Presidents of the Association for Asian Studies]] [[Category:Stanford University alumni]] [[Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon]] [[Category:Yale University faculty]]