Arthur Waley

Arthur David Waley (19 August 1889 – 27 June 1966) was a famous English Orientalist and Sinologist.

Life
Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent England, as Arthur David Schloss. He changed his surname to the maiden name of his grandmother, Waley, in 1914, because he was a Jew. He was appointed Assistant Keeper of Oriental Prints and Manuscripts at the British Museum in 1913. During this time he taught himself Chinese and Japanese. In 1929, he left to concentrate himself fully to his literary and cultural interests.

Selected works
 A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, 1918
 More Translations from the Chinese (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1919).
 Japanese Poetry: The Uta, 1919
 The Nō Plays of Japan, 1921
 The Tale of Genji, by Lady Murasaki, 1921-1933
 The Temple and Other Poems, 1923
 Introduction to the Study of Chinese Painting, 1923
 The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, 1928
 The Way and its Power: A Study of the Tao Te Ching and its Place in Chinese Thought, 1934
 The Book of Songs (Shih Ching), 1937
 The Analects of Confucius, 1938
 Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China, 1939
 Translations from the Chinese, a compilation, 1941
 Monkey, 1942
 Chinese Poems, 1946
 The Life and Times of Po Chü-I, 1949
 The Real Tripitaka and Other Pieces, 1952
 The Nine Songs: A Study of Shamanism in Ancient China, 1955
 Yuan Mei: Eighteenth Century Chinese Poet, 1956
 The Opium War through Chinese Eyes, 1958
 The Poetry and Career of Li Po, 1959
 Ballads and Stories from Tun-Huang, 1960
 The Secret History of the Mongols, 1963

References
 Alison Waley, A Half of Two Lives (London, 1982)
 Ivan I. Morris, Madly Singing in the Mountains: An Appreciation and Anthology of Arthur Waley (London,: Allen & Unwin, 1970).
 John Walter de Gruchy, Orienting Arthur Waley: Japonism, Orientalism, and the Creation of Japanese Literature in English Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2003. .

Other websites
 Warring States Project, University of Massachusetts Biography  
Waley's translation of The Way and its Power 


Category:1889 births
Category:1966 deaths
Category:English poets
Category:English scientists
Category:Jewish British scientists
Category:Jewish British writers
Category:British linguists