Liu Fu (1891-14 July 1934), teacher, linguist, and man of letters. A devoted student of Chinese language and literature, he was an early advocate of the pai-hua [vernacular] movement. His writings proved that he was a master of the new literary style as well as an able theorist.

Born in Chiangyin, Kiangsu, Liu Fu came from a family which he came to describe as being ch'ing-p'in [poor but pure]. He and his younger brother, Liu T'ien-hua, received their early education at a local elementary school and then proceeded to the prefectural middle school in Ch'angchou, where Liu Fu began the study of Western languages. However, the school was forced to close as a consequence of the 1911 revolution. Liu immediately left Ch'angchou for Chinkiang, where he continued his language studies; his brother joined the revolutionary youth movement.

In 1912 the brothers were reunited. They went to Shanghai, where Liu was able to earn his living by writing and by translating works of Western literature. His brother pursued musical studies. In 1914Liu T'ien-hua returned home to teach, but Liu Fu remained in Shang-hai. It was a contribution to Hsin ch'ing-nien [new youth] that first brought Liu Fu public notice. The editors, Ch'en Tu-hsiu and Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei (qq.v.), were so impressed that Ts'ai, then chancellor of Peking University, invited Liu to join his faculty. In 1917 Liu joined the faculty of Peking University as an instructor in Chinese. Liu Fu soon became deeply involved in the debates then raging on the use of the vernacular language for serious, literary purposes. Several of his essays of this period were remarkable for the cogency with which he advanced and defended the new views. Particularly notable were his eloquent reply in Hsin ch'ing-nien to W'ang Ching-hsuan's denunciation of the "new writing" and his able seconding of Hu Shih in an essay which stressed equally the need for reform in content and spirit of writing and for modernizing grammer and idiom. Like Hu Shih, Liu held that good writing had always been grounded in the vernacular. He applied this theory particularly to the study of the Shihching [book of odes] and Ch'u-tz'u [songs of the south], classic anthologies dating, for the most part, from late Chou times.

Liu was also a poet and became famous for his short lyrics. Several of the best of these, "Chih-pu" [weaving], "Chiao wo ju-Jio puhsiang t'a" [tell me how to forget her], and "T'ing yü" [listening to the rain], were subsequently set to music by Y. R. Chao (Chao Yuen-ren, q.v.), and the songs enjoyed considerable popularity. In addition, Liu's varied language interests led in 1919 to the publication of Chung-kuo wen-fa t'ung-lun [an exposition of Chinese grammar].

In 1920 Liu went to Europe for advanced studies, ultimately obtaining a doctorate from the University of Paris in 1925 under Sylvain Levi. His stay in Paris affected his intellectual interests; and, possibly under the influence of Paul Pelliot and his circle, he began to study the vernacular literature of T'ang times and earlier. The Pelliot collection of Tunhuang manuscripts at the Bibliotheque Nationale was an important source for such studies. Liu copied a number of the most interesting manuscripts by hand, and published them in 1926 under the title Tun-huang to-so [gleanings from Tun-huang]. In France, Liu also studied of the tones the Chinese language and published the results of his research in 1924 as Ssu-sheng shih-yen lu [record of experiments involving the four tones] .

In late 1925 Liu returned to China. He was appointed a professor in the department of Chinese literature at Peking University. Soon, he gave up that post to became chairman of the department of Chinese literature at the Universite Franco-Chinoise. During this period, Liu continued to write, producing in 1926 both a collection of poems, Yang-pien chi [the whip], and a version of Dumas' La Dame aux camelias. The same year, he also published an annotated edition ofHo-tien [what stories these ?], a collection of ghost tales by Chang Nan-chuang (fl. 1800), and T'ai-p^ing t'ien-kuo yu-ch'u-wei wen-chien shih-liu-chung [sixteen interesting documents of the Taiping], based on materials he had gathered in European libraries. In 1927 he published the anthology Fa-küo tuan-p^ien hsiao-shuo chi [French short stories]. In July 1929 he became dean and director of studies at Fu-jen University, and in May 1930 he was appointed dean of the women's college at Peking University. In this last post, Liu's experiences were far from pleasant, and in July 1931 he was happy to accept one of the five new research professorships established at Peking University by the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture. The other appointees were Chou Tso-jen, T'ang Yung-t'ung, Ch'en Shou-i, and Hsü Chih-mo. Liu then devoted himself to the study of linguistics. Problems of phonology and grammar engrossed him, as did analysis of the Tunhuang materials, especially the ballads and folk songs. During this period, Liu produced several important works of scholarship, including Chung-kuo wen-fa chiang-hua [lectures on Chinese grammar] of 1932. At the same time, he maintained a variety of other, non-academic interests. In 1929 he wrote a personal account of the Northern Expedition entitled Liu-li [adrift]. He was a devotee of Mei Lan-fang (q.v.) and of the classical operas in which Mei appeared. Liu also wrote essays on a wide variety of topics, and he was admired for his fluent, direct, and natural style. In 1930 he produced the valuable Sung- Yuan i-lai su-tzu-p'u [demotic characters of the Sung and Yuan periods and later]. He became increasingly concerned with national affairs and created a considerable stir in 1931 when he wrote the Kuomintang elder Chang Chi concerning the advisability of establishing a p'ei-tu [cocapital] at Sian. In 1932 Liu produced the Chung-kuo su-ch'u tsung-mu [catalogue of Chinese folk songs]. The same year, his brother, Liu T'ien-hua, who had become a successful musician and teacher, died at Peiping. In the summer of 1934 Liu Fu went on a field trip to Suiyuan province, where he hoped to collect typical ballads of the northwest frontier. Soon after reaching Suiyuan, however, he became ill and was rushed back to Peiping. He died at the hospital of Peking Union Medical College on 14 July 1934.