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Prof. Qiu Xigui 裘錫圭 has passed away today at the age of 89. His groundbreaking work on ancient Chinese scripts has significantly shaped the study of Chinese palaeography and grapholinguistics. A monumental loss for academia. https://t.co/Jn0aLn19kI pic.twitter.com/OmHxTgAqbz

— Maxim Persikov (Panates) (@gyankotsu) May 8, 2025

I was privileged to meet Qiu Xigui a quarter of a century ago when I went to China for the express purpose of consulting him concerning the authenticity of the Anau inscription (see "Selected readings" below).  I remember that he was having severe eye problems, and I brought him some medicine that required refrigeration.  As I gave it to him, I looked at his eyes carefully and recall how vital they were for the discernment that was necessary for the type of minute inspection that he was uniquely qualified to do.  That special quality of his eyes is evident even in photographs of him at a youger age.

Selected readings

• "Qiu Xigui"
• Victor H. Mair, "Notes on the Anau Inscription", Sino-Platonic Papers, 112 (July, 2001), i-Xi, 1-93.
• Qiu Xigui, translated by Gilbert Louis Mattos and Jerry Norman. 2000. Chinese Writing. Vol. 4. Berkeley:  Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of
  California.
• Zachary S. Hershey, "Power Shifts and Changing Scripts:  The Development of the Sinographic Script through Media and Authority", Sino-Platonic Papers, 264 (December, 2016), 175-201.  Qiu Xiqui's Chinese Writing was an important resource for this pathbreaking work on the material and political aspects of the development of the Sinographic script from its inception through its fundamental stabilization and standardization

[Thanks to Hiroshi Kumamoto]

May 9, 2025 @ 10:11 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Epigraphy, Obituaries

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