Pierre RYCKMANS 李 克曼: Economist’s Obituary

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Obituary | Pierre Ryckmans; Pierre Ryckmans (Simon Leys), an old China hand, died on August 11th, aged 78. Economist, Aug 23, 2014.
www.economist.com/news/obituary/ ... -78-pierre-ryckmans

Note:
(a) Pierre Ryckmans
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Ryckmans
(1935-2014; studied Chinese language, literature and art in Taiwan; taught Chinese literature at the Australian National University (Canberra), where he supervised the honours thesis of future Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; first use of the pen name for Les habits neufs du président Mao (The chairman's New Clothes: Mao and the Cultural Revolution, 1971; another work was Chinese Shadows (1974))
(i) French English dictionary
* habit (noun masculine): “costume, outfit” “article of clothing, garment”
* neuf
(numeral; ultimately from Latin novem "nine"): "nine"
(adjective masculine; from Latin Novus "new"): "brand new, very new"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/neuf
* compare nouveau (adjective masculine; also from Latin Novus): “new”
* du: “contraction of de + le (of the)”
* président (noun masculine; from Latin praesidens): “president, chairman”
www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries ... r%C3%A9sident/62998
(ii) Laura K Lawless, What's the Difference Between the French Adjectives Nouveau and Neuf?  About.com, undated.
french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/new.htm
(iii) In English, habit as clothing is
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_habit

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(continued)

(b) His pen name is Simon Leys: “‘Leys’ was a homage to ‘René Leys,’ a novel by the French author Victor Segalen, in which a Belgian teenager in old Peking regales his employer with tales of the hidden intrigues and conspiracies taking place within the imperial palace.”
(i) Victor Segalen
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Segalen
(1878-1919; Posthumous publications includes "René Leys" (1922))
(ii) For René Leys, see Yvonne Ying Hsieh, From Occupation to Revolution: China Through the Eyes of Loti, Claudel, Segalen, and Malraux (1895-1933). Summa Publications, Inc (1996) at 94.
books.google.com/books?id=sxrS3LwrMdsC&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=René+Leys&source=bl&ots=1OhTxgYIxM&sig=R6CmNXnNTK3Yt6COoMVrIfsrirQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=h8v4U8qfHMznsATcvYEQ&ved=0CFoQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=René Leys&f=false
(A) French English dictionary
* annales (noun feminine plural; from Latin of the same spelling): "annals"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/annales
* secret (adjective masculine; feminine form: d'après): "secret"
www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french-english/secret/
* après (from Latin ad [preposition; meaning: toward, to] + pressum [participle neuter
(preposition): "after"
* d'après: “according to”
www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/french-english/après/
(B) "an intimate friend of the Regent and the lover of of the Empress Dowager (Emperor Guangxu's window Longyu 隆裕太后 [也實行垂簾聽政])"

regent  攝政王載灃 (宣統帝生父，光緒帝之胞弟)


(c) The economist says Mr Ryckmans “visited China when he was a teenager—in 1955, to be precise, on a trip with a group of fellow students that had culminated in an audience with Zhou Enlai, second in command, after Mao Zedong, of the newly minted People’s Republic.”

I am no expert in Chia, but doubt Mr Zhou was second in command at that time. Zhou Enlai
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Enlai
(A skilled and able diplomat, Zhou served as the Chinese foreign minister from 1949 to 1958)

Again I do not know that tie, but as far as I can recall, PRC foreign minister is a mere mandarin, can not even set foreign policies.
(d) “He [Ryckmans] had not set out to write about politics, although he was himself a socialist, of the democratic, anti-totalitarian sort (George Orwell was a guiding light).”

George Orwell
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
(commitment to democratic socialism)

(e) “Nor was he a China bore: he was as happy discussing Cervantes, sailing or the life of Napoleon as he was pondering the epigrams of Confucius (whose ‘Analects’ he translated in 1997).”
(i) bore (n): “one that causes boredom”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bore
(ii) Miguel de Cervantes
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes
(1547-1616; Castilian; name a child with the name of the feast day of his birth)

, which was the feast day of Saint Michael the Archangel--Miguel in Spanish; his father surname is de Cervantes and his mother's, Saavedra.
(iii) epigram (n): “a terse, sage, or witty and often paradoxical saying”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epigram
(iv) analects (noun plural; ultimately from Greek analekta, neuter plural of analektos, verbal of analegein to collect, from ana- [up, back] + legein to gather — more at LEGEND):
"selected miscellaneous written passages”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/analects