Chiang Meng-lin (1886-18 June 1964), known as Chiang Monlin, educator. He served as dean (1919) and acting chancellor (1923-27) of Peking University and as minister of education in the National Government (1928-30). He then returned to Peking as chancellor of the university (1931-45). From 1948 to 1964 he was chairman of the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction in Taiwan.

A native of Yuyao, Chekiang, Chiang Monlin was born into a gentry family. He had three older brothers and an older sister. His grandfather had made a modest fortune in Shanghai as a banker, and his father owned land as well as shares in a number of native banks in Shanghai. Chiang's mother, the daughter of a local scholar, died when he was very young, and his father remarried. Although his stepmother was an able and benevolent woman, Chiang's relationship with her was less than satisfactory. At the age of six, Chiang began his formal education in the old-style village school, which he disliked because of the emphasis placed upon rote memorization. Soon his family sent him to a modern school, the Chung-hsi hsueh-t'ang (Sino-Western School), in the nearby city of Shaohsing. There, in addition to Chinese literature, classics, and history, he studied elementary science, English, and Japanese. One of his teachers was Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei (q.v.). After 1898 Chiang attended, in succession, a French Catholic school in Shanghai, a local school in Yuyao, and an American missionary school at Hangchow. While attending the missionary school, Chiang participated in the first wave of student demonstrations in modern China.

After leaving the missionary school, Chiang Monlin, at the age of 16, entered the Chekiang Provincial College at Hangchow. That institution, which previously had been known as the Ch'iu-shih shu-yuan, had been established in 1897. Some of its teachers were sympathetic to the reform movements of the period. Chiang read the anti-Manchu writings of such men as Chang Ping-lin and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao. At the age of 19 he passed the imperial examinations for the degree of sheng-yuan. He continued to study at the college until 1904, when he left Hangchow to attend Nanyang College in Shanghai in preparation for study in the United States. By that time he had come to the conclusion that Westernization was the only course open to China if she were to be saved from being partitioned by the great powers. Nanyang College had been established in 1896 with the advice of the American missionary Dr. John C. Ferguson. The curriculum of its preparatory department was similar to those of American high schools. Chiang was one of the outstanding students in the college.

In the summer of 1907 Chiang and a friend spent a month in Japan. He visited an exposition in Tokyo, and he was impressed by the industrial development and the general modernity of Japan. The following year he took, but failed to pass, a provincial examination held at Hangchow for a scholarship to studv in the United States. However, his father provided him with the necessary funds, and he sailed for the United States in late August 1908. Because he arrived in San Francisco after the autumn term at the University of California had begun, he spent the late months of 1908 improving his English. In 1909 Chiang matriculated at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. He spent his first semester studying agriculture. Then he transferred to education and continued his undergraduate studies in that field. Late in 1909 he met Sun Yat-sen, who was in San Francisco attempting to raise financial support and to establish a branch of the T'ungmeng-hui. Chiang Monlin, while a student at Berkelev, wrote editorials for the Chinese Free Press in San Francisco, a newspaper which supported Sun's revolutionary cause. Chiang received the LL.B. degree from the University of California in 1912 and then moved to New York to begin graduate studies in education at Columbia University. There his work was guided and influenced by John Dewey. He completed his thesis, entitled A Study in Chinese Principles of Education, in 1917. In it Chiang discussed similarities between traditional Chinese views of education and modern Western theories. He advocated the preservation of the best elements of Chinese culture as well as the incorporation into Chinese life of certain Western ideals. Although he recognized that China needed a strong and efficient government to protect itself from foreign aggression, he insisted that individual rights must be safeguarded by such a government. Chiang Monlin returned to China in 1917 after nine years abroad. After spending a few months at home in Chekiang, he went to Shanghai, where he worked for about a year as an editor at the Commercial Press. In 1918 he became the editor of the Hsin chiao-yu [new education], a monthly journal published under the auspices of Peking University and the Kiangsu Educational Association (see Huang Yen-p'ei). In addition to editing this magazine and contributing many articles to it, Chiang frequently wrote on educational topics for the monthly Chiao-yu tsa-chih [educational review]. In the summer of 1918 he took a trip to Manchuria and Korea, where he found evidence ofJapanese expansionism. The same year, he worked with Sun Yat-sen's wife, Soong Ch'ing-ling (q.v.), and David Yui (Yü Jih-chang, q.v.) in preparing for publication Sun Yat-sen's massive plan for the industrialization of China.

During this period, many Chinese intellectuals and students were groping for new values and ideas to replace those of traditional China. A major center of this intellectual ferment was Peking University; Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei was its chancellor. On 4 May 1919 the students of Peking demonstrated against the officials whom they thought responsible for China's failure to gain a favorable settlement of the Shantung question at the Paris Peace Conference. The demonstration gave rise to similar protests in other cities throughout China. Although Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei sympathized with the students, he was shocked by the ensuing violence, and he resigned from Peking University. After declining repeated requests to resume the chancellorship, in July 1919 Ts'ai approved an arrangement whereby Chiang Monlin would take charge of the university in Ts'ai's absence. Chiang's association with Peking University, though interrupted at various times, lasted until 1945. After Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei's return in September 1919, Peking University was reorganized and was placed under the control of the faculty. Chiang Monlin was appointed dean of administration and was assigned responsibility for business affairs. The highest legislative body of the university was the academic council, composed of members elected by the professors with the deans as ex officio members. Thereafter, whenever Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei was absent from Peking, Chiang Monlin assumed the duties of chancellor. In 1921 Chiang was sent as an unofficial observer to the Washington Conference by the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Educational Associations. In 1922, after the conference ended, Chiang made a tour of Europe. From 1923 to 1927 Chiang served as acting chancellor of Peking University, which was a government university. It was a period of great strain for Chiang. Public finance was in such a chaotic state that funds for the university came only occasionally, often a year or two in arrears; professors received only part of their salaries. Further, Chiang had to attempt to mediate between the students, who became increasingly restive, and the government, which was inclined to suppress opposition by force. On 18 March 1926 Peking students held a public demonstration to protest the ineptness of the government headed by Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.) in handling the so-called Taku affair. Police guarding the executive mansion at Peking opened fire on the unarmed demonstrators. When the incident was over, 46 students were dead and 155 were wounded. Three of the dead and five of the wounded students were from Peking University. The arrival in Peking of Chang Tso-lin and his Fengtien armies posed a new problem for Chiang Monlin. Sun Pao-ch'i informed Chiang that he was on the personal blacklist of Chang Tsung-ch'ang (q.v.), the general whose Shantung troops supplied the garrison force for Peking. Chiang Monlin left his post at Peking University and sought sanctuary in the Legation Quarter, where he remained until he was able to escape to Shanghai in the summer of 1926. In Shanghai, Chiang, Ma Hsu-lun (q.v.), and other refugee intellectuals from Peking University remained inactive for a period. Chiang and Ma Hsu-lun visited their native Chekiang in 1926 in an attempt to persuade the provincial governor to align himself with the forces of the National Revolutionary Army, then advancing from south China. That move failed, but the Northern Expedition continued to advance, and in February 1927 its forces captured Hangchow. The entire province of Chekiang soon came under Nationalist control. Chiang Monlin was appointed a member of the interim provincial government of Chekiang and commissioner of education as well as secretary general of the Chekiang branch of the Central Political Council of the Kuomintang.

In 1928, after the National Government was established at Nanking, a new educational system, formulated in 1927 by a committee on educational administration of which Ts'ai Yuanp'ei had been a member, was instituted on an experimental basis in Chekiang and Kiangsu. Under that system, the entire country was to be divided into university zones. The president of the national university in each zone was to be responsible for all educational matters within its territory. Chiang Monlin was appointed president of National Chekiang University. The office of commissioner of education was abolished, and Chiang was made an official of the Chekiang provincial government. In October 1928 Chiang was named minister of education in the National Government. In 1929 he gave up the presidency of Chekiang University to devote his attention to his new post. He abolished the university zone system, which had been criticized by professional educators, particularly in Kiangsu. In December 1930, Chiang resigned his post as minister of education because he disagreed with other officials at Nanking about educational policy.

Chiang returned to north China to become chancellor of National Peking University. Although Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei had been reappointed chancellor in 1929, he had never assumed office, and the university had been administered by Ch'en Ta-ch'i. From 1931 to 1937, Chiang Monlin's major problems were caused by increasing Japanese pressure on north China. As a prominent intellectual leader, Chiang was a natural target of Japanese intrigue. On one occasion, shortly after the signing of the Tangku Agreement of 31 May 1933, which permitted the Japanese to sponsor a new government in northern Hopei, Chiang was invited to the Japanese garrison headquarters in the Legation Quarter at Peiping. He was locked in a room with a Japanese colonel, who accused Peking University of anti-Japanese activities and requested that Chiang, under the escort of Japanese gendarmes, go to Dairen that very night to see the Japanese military authorities there. Chiang refused to comply, and he was released. Thereafter, the Japanese changed their tactics and attempted to win over leading members of the university faculty and administration. The actions of the Japanese, however, belied their words. On 7 July 1937 the Sino-Japanese war began with military clashes near Peiping. At that time Chiang Monlin was at Kuling attending a meeting of intellectuals who had been called together by Chiang Kai-shek to discuss national problems. He flew to Nanking some days later and tried unsuccessfully to get back to Peiping, which fell to the Japanese on 29 July. From Nanking, Chiang Monlin went to Hangchow, where he received news that the fighting had spread to Shanghai. Recognizing that there would be a protracted war, Chiang paid a visit to his father in his native village. It was the last time he saw the elder Chiang, who died in 1939 at the age of 80.

The government authorities at Nanking made plans to evacuate the three great universities of north China—Peking and Tsinghua of Peiping and Nankai of Tientsin—to Changsha in Hunan province. Chiang Monlin left Hangchow for Nanking and then went to Hankow and Changsha. On 1 November 1937 the joint institution composed of the three refugee universities held its first classes at Changsha. Some 200 professors and 1,000 students had gathered at the makeshift campus. At the end of February 1938, the institution was forced to move to Kunming in Yunnan province because the Japanese were advancing toward Hankow. After its removal to Kunming, it was renamed Southwest Associated University. Its first semester began in May 1938. The university was run by an executive committee composed of the three senior administrators of its constituent institutions: Chiang Monlin of Peking University, Y. C. Mei (Mei Yi-ch'i, q.v.) of Tsinghua, and Chang Po-ling of Nankai.

Just before the end of the war Chiang visited the United States and toured American universities, hoping to arrange for an increase in the exchange of teachers and students between the United States and China. In June 1945 T. V. Soong, then premier, invited Chiang Monlin to serve as secretary general of the Executive Yuan. Chiang resigned from Peking University, and Hu Shih was named to succeed him. Chiang held the Executive Yuan post from 1945 to 1947. Then he became a councillor of the National Government.

By 1948 the Chinese Communists had won a series of important victories in the civil war that had broken out soon after the Japanese surrender in 1945. It was the opinion of many Chinese and of many American officials in China that rural poverty was one of the major causes of the Communist victories. Accordingly, on 1 October 1 948 a Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction was established as a cooperative undertaking of the Chinese and American governments. It was composed of three Chinese and two American commissioners. The three Chinese members of the Commission were Chiang Monlin, Shen Tsung-han, and James Yen (Yen Yang-ch'u). The American commissioners were Raymond T. Moyer and John Earl Baker. The five commissioners elected Chiang Monlin chairman, and he held that post until his death 16 years later. The objective of the commission was to increase farm production and to raise rural standards of living through technological assistance and other means. The commission moved to Taiwan in 1949 and continued its program of rural reconstruction there. Under Chiang Monlin's direction, the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction in Taiwan gained international recognition through its programs for irrigation, water control, forestry and soil conservation, rural health and sanitation, improvement of crop and livestock strains, and the mechanization of agriculture. In Taiwan, Chiang Monlin was also known as an articulate advocate of birth control; he did much to focus attention on the problems posed by rapid and sustained population growth on the island.

In 1958 Chiang became the head of the Shihmen Development Commission in Taiwan; he lived to see the completion of the eight-year, US$88 million Shihmen reservoir project. In 1963 he was awarded the Special Grand Cordon of the Brilliant Star and a certificate of merit in recognition of the contributions made by the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction to the successful land reform program in Taiwan. In March 1963, as chairman of the board of directors of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture, Chiang presided over the first board meeting to be held in Taiwan. The China Foundation, established in 1924 to administer the Boxer Indemnity funds returned to China by the United States, had moved its headquarters to New York in 1950 after the Communists had seized power on the mainland of China.

Chiang Monlin died of cancer of the liver in Taipei on 19 June 1964. His funeral, held on 23 June, was attended by Chiang Kai-shek, Ch'en Ch'eng, and other senior government officials. He was buried in the Yangmingshan Cemetery at the side of his first wife, who had died in 1 957. He had remarried in 1 960, but had divorced his second wife in 1964. He was survived by one daughter, Mrs. Wen-hui Wu, and by a son who lived on the mainland. In his book Tidesfrom the West, written during the late years of the Second World War and published by the Yale University Press in 1947, Chiang recounted the history of modern China as it was reflected in his own life. He stressed the merits of traditional Chinese culture, but pleaded strongly for the rapid development of science and for the fostering of democratic principles in China to safeguard national security. His doctoral thesis, A Study in Chinese Principles of Education, was published by the Commercial Press at Shanghai in 1924. A collection of speeches and articles from the 1918-25 period, Kuo-tu shih-tai chih ssu-hsiang yü chiao-yü [thought and education in a transitional period], was published in 1933. Chiang also wrote Meng-lin wen-ts'un [collected essays of Chiang M