David Hawkes (sinologist)

David Hawkes (July 6, 1923- ) is a British Sinologist. He studied Chinese at Oxford University between 1945 and 1947 and was a research student at the National Peking University from 1948 to 1951. He was Professor of Chinese at Oxford from 1959 until 1971. From 1973 to 1983, he was a Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, of which he is currently an Emeritus Fellow.

David Hawkes translated the poetry anthology The Songs of the South in 1959. His A Little Primer of Tu Fu is an authoritative study and translation of the Tang poet Du Fu. His most important translated work is The Story of the Stone (also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber).

David Hawkes' translations include:

• Ch'u Tz'u: the Songs of the South, an Ancient Chinese Anthology. (1959, revised 1985)
• A Little Primer of Tu Fu. (1967)
• The Story of the Stone: a Chinese Novel in Five Volumes. (1973–1980. Hawkes was responsible for volumes 1–3, chapters 1-80)
• Liu Yi and the Dragon Princess. (Arias published in 2001, now to be published in entirety).

Other works include:

• The Story of the Stone: a Translator's Notebooks.
• Chinese: Classical Modern, and Humane
• Classical, Modern and Humane: Essays in Chinese Literature.

He is the father to Rachel May, and father-in-law to translator John Minford, who dedicated the book A Birthday Book for Brother Stone: For David Hawkes, at Eighty to him.