Origin / agency
bestowed
Bestowed by Liang Sicheng.
Names Across Cultures / Scholar dossier
John King Fairbank
费正清John King Fairbank is a major figure in the history of Chinese studies, with work spanning history, science and technology, global connections, social history. This dossier distinguishes the person's scholarship from what can—and cannot—yet be verified about the Chinese name.
1907—1991United States
Name analysis
Four axes, kept separate.
Formation
hybrid
Liang Sicheng formed the name with sound correspondences to Fairbank’s English name and an auspicious ethical sense.
Usage status
self used · academic conventional · publisher conventional
Origin documented.
Script context
chinese language label
Mandarin: Fèi Zhèngqīng
The name biography
What the record can say.
Bestowed by Liang Sicheng; documented in biographical accounts of the Fairbanks in China.
Literal gloss is not historical intent
正清 can suggest uprightness and clarity.
Person, materials, and method
Scholarship in context.
John King Fairbank was one of the most important organizers of modern Chinese studies in the United States. His scholarship addressed late Qing diplomacy, the treaty system, Sino-Western relations, and the transformation of the modern state, while at Harvard he trained a large cohort of historians of China.
The Harvard center for Chinese studies established in 1955 emphasized modern and contemporary China and social-scientific methods, setting it apart from older sinology centered on classical texts. Fairbank's Western impact-Chinese response framework was later revised by China-centered approaches, local history, and global history, but his institution-building had an exceptionally deep influence.
Research areas: history · science · global-history · society. The claim ledger below separates sourced facts from editorial interpretation.
Claim / source ledger
Evidence is part of the page.
- ID
- john-king-fairbank-identity
- Confidence
- high
- Claim
- John King Fairbank is represented in the source dossier as a major figure in history, science and technology, global connections, social history.
- ID
- john-king-fairbank-name-usage
- Confidence
- high
- Claim
- 费正清 is the Chinese-language form documented by the cited name-specific source.
- Evidence
- ID
- john-king-fairbank-name-origin
- Confidence
- high
- Claim
- Bestowed by Liang Sicheng; documented in biographical accounts of the Fairbanks in China.
- Evidence
- ID
- john-king-fairbank-life-dates
- Confidence
- high
- Claim
- John King Fairbank lived 1907—1991.
- Evidence
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