Robert E. Hegel
Robert E. Hegel (born January 9, 1943; Chinese: 何谷理; pinyin: Hé Gǔlǐ) is an American sinologist specializing in the fiction of late imperial China.[1] [2] In 2000, the Institut de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres awarded Hegel the Prix Stanislas Julien for Reading Illustrated Fiction in Late Imperial China.Wilt Idema's review in China Information concludes that "Few books are a better introduction to the nature of [Ming and Qing vernacular fiction], and the changing ways of their reception, than Prof. Hegel's fine monograph.One reviewer said that "at one level" it is a "fascinating book", showing that the magistrate was scrupulous and energetic in investigating and applying the law and that the depositions conveyed details of daily life."However, as products of the same educational system that produced China's novelists and story writers, the magistrates who wrote these reports had a similar sense of careful composition and the ability to make texts mean more than they say.