Derk Bodde

Derk Bodde (March 9, 1909 – November 3, 2003) was an American sinologist and historian of China known for his pioneering work on the history of the Chinese legal system.

Bodde received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1930. He spent six years (1931-1937) studying in China on a fellowship. He earned a doctorate in Chinese Studies from the University of Leiden March 3, 1938.[1]The title description of his thesis is: China’s first unifier, a study of the Chín dynasty as seen in the life of Li Ssŭ (280?-208 B.C.) ... door Derk Bodde ... – Leiden : E.J. Brill, 1938. - viii, 270 p. front (facsim.) 24 ½ cm.[2] When the Fulbright scholarship program was initiated in 1948, Bodde was the first American recipient of a one-year fellowship, which he spent studying in Beijing.

He spent several decades as Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and was a president of the American Oriental Society (1968–69).