Geoffrey Lloyd interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 7^th June 2005

Second Part

0:05:17 Appointed senior tutor, Edmund Leach was then Provost; sent to U.S. 1968-9 to investigate situation in a number of American campuses; talked to people who had demonstrated at Columbia and Berkeley; varied reasons for student protests from Vietnam to internal politics; period of the sit-in in Cambridge; student representation on committees; back in 1969 to problem of co-residence; not enough places for women in Cambridge; three colleges went co-residential, King’s, Clare and Churchill first; difficult for first generation of women; appointed women dons and tutors

6.03.07 Leach a controversial Provost because of his Reith Lectures; pretty autocratic; I found him rather difficult; decided after three years as senior tutor only to do another year; however, intellectually very stimulating; enjoyed dealing with undergraduates, one of whom was Charles Clarke; got to know him quite well as visited a friend of Clarke’s who had had a nervous breakdown together; found him very considerate and imaginative; students were not a problem within the college at that time, though later were when Bernard Williams was Provost

9:57:02 Didn’t have much to do with College administration until I became involved with the Research Centre; next personal development was going to the Far East; invited to Japan in 1981 by a translator of one of my books, Kawada Shigeru; marvellous person; Kawada was a pupil of Tanaka Michitaru, a pacifist, who had worked on Western humanist scholarship as a counterbalance to  nationalism; we travelled extensively with Kawada explaining Japanese culture; later invited him to Cambridge; he had never been outside Japan but adapted very easily; since then have been to Japan four or five times

14:49:02 1987 invited to Beijing to lecture; marvellous time to be there as it was very open; people talked openly about the Cultural Revolution and we never found anyone who supported it; my students were absolutely amazing; lecturing about Greek mathematics, medicine and philosophy; axiomatic style in Euclid’s proof debated; forced me to learn enough classical Chinese to be able to study Chinese mathematics, medicine and philosophy in the original; got permission for my host, Li Jun, to come to Cambridge to study together; also taught by a graduate student, Bridie Andrews, who took me through basics of Chinese classical grammar; didn’t make much progress with regular texts but when I concentrated on mathematical texts, as so interested, ideograms stuck; within about two years confident enough to read on my own; do not find modern Chinese so easy and have to collaborate on Japanese texts; chief collaborator is Nathan Sivin with whom I wrote ‘The Way and the Word’

20:36:23 Began to be heavily involved in Chinese studies; invited by head of  Institute of Natural Sciences, Liu Dun; Zhu Kezhen lectures televised; find students amazingly talented and very persistent; now half my time spent on comparative studies; memories of Joseph Needham; became a trustee of the Needham Research Institute 1989-90 when it appeared rather moribund; keen to help revitalize it; marvellous library which I had begun to use; 1991-2 became chairman; programme of reform with proper accounting and publication board; successfully raised finance so that it is now flourishing; have my office there although chairman now Lady Pamela Youde

28:20:10 Went to Darwin College in 1989 as Master; had little money but managed to raise some for fellowships; two Finley fellowships and a lively research fellowship programme; college founded in 1964 as co-resident research college; graduates come from all over the world; really enjoyed the eleven years spent there; Darwin Lectures

32:22:02 Memories of Eric Hobsbawm and Jack Goody; Ji and three sons; Ji a translator of 60-70 books; won Scott-Moncrieff prize twice; description of translations; always travel together

40:28:21 Have found that I couldn’t write for more than a few hours a day; find administration a great relaxation; would work at home until mid-morning, then go in to teach and do administrative work; Darwin allowed me to take off time in Spain where we have a place, fully equipped with dictionaries etc. where I have done lots of my writing; in Spain the relaxation is picking almonds or making olive oil by hand

43:05:06 Anthropology and history; reflections on life; King’s and Darwin and the value of collegiate interaction