Patrick Dewes Hanan, 87
At a Meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on Oct. 4, 2016, the following Minute was placed upon the records. On April 26, 2014, Patrick Hanan passed away. He was a gentle man and a gentleman “of the old school,” in the very best sense of that worn phrase. He was also the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Chinese Literature, Emeritus, at Harvard University and the former Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute (1987–1995). He was one of the founders of the field of vernacular Chinese literary studies outside of East Asia and taught generations of students, who have now gone on to teach their own students. He was scholar of vast erudition and “invention,” the term he fondly linked to his favorite writer, the inventive humorist Li Yu (1611–1680). Professor Hanan’s patent virtues of patience, kindness, and scholarly soundness were enlivened by an undercurrent of wit and the imp of...