| Two
favorite sayings aptly described James Geiss (14 March 1950 - 19
December 2000): respice finem and something there is
that doesn't love a wall.
As reluctant as he was
to jump to ill-considered conclusions in his academic research,
he forged new frontiers in the subjects and directions of research.
He was keenly enthusiastic to help others. From historical
research projects to editing the Ming volumes of the Cambridge
History of China to babysitting and gardening projects with
neighbors, Jim always responded with a generosity that was simply
his nature.
Born on 14 March 1950
in New York City, Jim and his family moved to Morristown NJ in 1960.
He attended Delbarton, a Catholic preparatory school directed by
Franciscan brothers. His lifelong interest in Chinese studies
originated during this period and continued through his university
years at Williams College and Princeton University. He married
Margaret 
in 1972. He suddenly died of a pulmonary embolism on 19 December
2000 in Princeton NJ, his home for 28 years.
Jim completed his doctoral
research on Peking under the Ming (1368-1644) at
Princeton in 1979. His academic accomplishments are considerable
and he was among the vanguard in interpreting Ming history.
He published two chapters in the Cambridge History of China,
Vol. 7: and The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644 Part I,
"The Cheng-Te Reign" and "The Chia-Ching Reign"
(1988). These were complemented by the more specialized studies
"On the Significance of the Reign Title Chia-Ching" (1990)
and "The Leopard Quarter during the Cheng-Te Reign" (1987),
published in Ming Studies. In Chinese language,
he also published "Ming Wuzong Yu Baofang" ("Wuzong
and the Leopard Quarter", 1988) in the Gugong Bowuyuan
Yuankan, an article taken very seriously by Chinese scholars.
He was engaged in several
large projects still ongoing at the time of his early death.
The range of these unpublished studies -- material culture during
the Ming (especially food, prices and clothing, about which Jim
was the foremost expert), the Mongol influence on early Ming culture
and society, Wuzong's connection with Central Asia, and an assemblage
of research materials on the complex issues surrounding the execution
of the controversial eunuch Liu Jin -- only begins to suggest the
breadth and the depth of Jim's scholarly curiosity about Ming China.
Jim's expertise in Classical
Chinese also found expression in his work for a series of textbooks
in cooperation with Naiying Yuan and Haitao Tang, including the
recent The Grammar of Classical Chinese: A Basic Introduction,
Classical Chinese: A Basic Reader (1994),
Readings In Classical Chinese Poetry And Prose (1994),
Selections from Classical Chinese Historical Texts
(1993) and Selections from Classical Chinese Philosophical
Texts (1993). At the time of his death, he was revising
the Classical Chinese Grammar and collaborating
with Chu Hung-Lam in translating original Chinese texts for Louise
Levathes' popular book When China Ruled the Seas
(1994.) Princeton University Press published in September 2004 the
first three volumes of the completely revised seven volume Classical
Chinese: A Basic Reader. The other four volumes
will be published in 2005.
Many considered Jim
a scholar's scholar and his early death is a loss to intellectual
pursuits in general and sinology in particular.
In memory of Jim Geiss
and the spirit of learning and teaching that he espoused in both
word and deed, a very generous, initial contribution was made in
2001 by Jeanette D.
(1920-2003), Jim's mother-in-law, to establish the James P. Geiss
Foundation for research to further Ming studies. |
