Introduction
IHP Research Fellow Pak-yuen Liu (1945–2021), a renowned scholar of Qin and Han dynasty institutions, after graduating from Hong Kong Baptist College in 1970, continued his studies at the New Asia Institute of Advanced Chinese Studies under the mentorship of scholars Keng-wang Yen, Fu-kuan Hsu, and Han-sheng Chuan. He later obtained his doctorate at the Université Paris Diderot - Paris VII in France. Liu’s monograph Les Institutions Politiques et la Lutte pour le Pouvoir au Milieu de la Dynastie des Han Anterieurs (Political institutions and the struggle for power in the early Han dynasty), a revised version of his dissertation, was awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien in 1984. Following graduation, he first taught at the New Asia Institute of Advanced Chinese Studies and subsequently held an appointment at Soochow University. He joined the IHP in 1987 and was promoted to Research Fellow in 1991. Following his retirement in 2010, Liu was reappointed as an Adjunct Research Fellow and served as Director of the New Asia Institute of Advanced Chinese Studies from 2011 to 2013. His more representative works include Lishi yu zhidu: Handai zhengzhi zhidu shishi (History and institutions: An interpretation of Han dynasty political systems), Jiandu yu zhidu: Yinwan Han mu jiandu wenshu kaozheng (Wooden slips and institutions: Textual research of the Yinwan Han dynasty tomb slips), Qin Han shi luncong (Collected treatises on Qin and Han history), and Shizhe yu guanzhi yanbian: Qin Han huangdi shizhe kaolun (The evolution of envoys and official systems: Qin and Han dynasty imperial envoys), among others.
The fonds of Pak-yuen Liu includes manuscripts, reading and research notes, class syllabi, correspondences, photographs as well as a number of Keng-wang Yen’s writings and other articles written in memoriam, reflecting Liu’s academic career, networks—especially those between teacher and student—and research interests.
The fonds of Pak-yuen Liu includes manuscripts, reading and research notes, class syllabi, correspondences, photographs as well as a number of Keng-wang Yen’s writings and other articles written in memoriam, reflecting Liu’s academic career, networks—especially those between teacher and student—and research interests.