Edward H. Schafer
American historian and sinologist (1913-1991)
Edward Hetzel Schafer (August 23, 1913 – February 9, 1991) was an American historian, sinologist, and writer noted for his expertise on the Tang dynasty, and was a professor of Chinese at University of California, Berkeley, for 35 years. Schafer's most notable works include The Golden Peaches of Samarkand and The Vermilion Bird, which both explore China's interactions with other cultures and regions during the Tang dynasty.
Life and career
Edward H. Schafer was born on August 23, 1913, in Seattle, Washington. After completing secondary school, Schafer followed his family to Los Angeles, California, where they sought better economic prospects. The financial hardships brought about by the Great Depression prevented Schafer's family from sending him to university, and he spent seven years working at a wholesale grocery to save up the money required. Although he was unable to attend university during that time, Schafer spent as much time as he could reading and studying at the Los Angeles Public Library, even managing to teach himself the basics of ancient Egyptian.
Schafer was eventually able to enter UCLA as an undergraduate student and spent three years studying there before transferring to University of California, Berkeley, for his final year, graduating with a B.A. degree in anthropology. After graduating from Berkeley, Schafer won a grant to study Chinese and was admitted to the University of Hawaii as a graduate student, earning his M.A. in 1940 with a thesis entitled "Persian Merchants in China During the T'ang Dynasty". Schafer then entered Harvard University where he began work on his Ph.D., but his studies were interrupted in December 1941 by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' subsequent entry into World War II. During the war Schafer worked as a linguist for the Office of Naval Intelligence and was able to master Japanese, which he had begun studying at Harvard.
After the war's conclusion in 1945, Schafer returned to Berkeley and completed his Ph.D. in 1947 with a dissertation entitled "The Reign of Liu Ch'ang, Last Emperor of Southern Han; A Critical Translation of the Text of Wu Tai shih, with Special Inquiries into Relevant Phases of Contemporary Chinese Civilization".
“Edward H. Schafer” enters the record as american historian and sinologist (1913-1991). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Edward, Schafer and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5343250. VIAF identifies the subject as 108498676. The Library of Congress control number is n50020378. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1991, 1940 and 1941.
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This entry incorporates text from “Edward H. Schafer” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.