The present paper concentrates on the construction of a generalized variational principle(non Gurtin-type and not involving convolutions)for thermopiezoelectricity.The traditional approach(Lagrange multiplier method)might fail due to the variational crisis occurring during the derivation of generalized variational principles.The paper reveals that the phenomenon of the variational crisis is the inherent character of the multiplier method,to overcome the variational crisis,several novel methods have been proposed,of which the semi-inverse method is emphasized.Following Chandrasekharaiah's generalized linear thermoelasticity theory for piezoelectric media,a classical generalized variational principle is established directly from the field equations and boundary/initial conditions via the send-inverse method.Present theory provides a more complete theoretical basis for the finite element applications,and variational based meshless method(element-free method),and the other direct variational methods such as Ritz's,Trefftz's and Kantorovitch's methods.