Chen Yinque

Chen Yinke, or Chen Yinque, was a Chinese historian. One of the most original and respected scholars in twentieth-century China, Chen was elected to the first cohort of Academia Sinica academicians in 1948 and as an inaugural academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955. A polyglot with command of more than twenty languages, he was especially versed in classical scripts including Sanskrit, Old Turkic, and Tangut. His scholarship ranged broadly across literature, history, philosophy, and religious studies, distinguished by rigorous textual criticism. His notable works are Draft Essays on the Origins of Sui and Tang Institutions (隋唐制度淵源略論稿), Draft Outline of Tang Political History (唐代政治史述論稿), and An Alternative Biography of Liu Rushi (柳如是別傳).