Lo Chen-yü (3 August 1866-19 June 1940), an important Chinese classical scholar, archaeologist, and bibliographer, was a Manchu loyalist and a supporter of the Japanesesponsored regime in Manchoukuo. Although his native place was Shangyü, Chekiang, Lo Chen-yü was born in Huaian, Kiangsu. His father, Lo Shu-hsün (1842-1905; T. Yao-chin), opened a pawnshop in 1875 with some friends, but this venture failed in 1881, the year that Lo Chen-yü took the district examinations. Lo Shu-hsün, who had received an appointment as acting assistant magistrate of Chiangning, hastened to his official post and left his family to deal with his debts. Lo Chen-yü's mother, nee Fan, paid off the last of the debts in 1902, after twenty years of toil and saving, during which time she raised her five sons and six daughters. She died in 1903. Lo Chen-yü, the third son, also worked to help support the family. In 1891 he took the provincial examinations, but failed them. The defeat of China in the first Sino- Japanese war caused many young men to undertake new activities in the hope of building a stronger China. In 1896 Lo Chen-yü and a friend, Chiang Fu i 1866-1911; T. Po-fu), went to Shanghai and founded the Nunghsüeh she [agronomy society], an organization devoted to the translation of Japanese and Western literature on agriculture. The society's Xung-hsüeh pao [agronomy bulletin] began publication in 1897, and the Xung-hsüeh ts'ung-shu [agronomy collectanea] appeared in 1898. The two friends established a language school in 1898, the Tung-wen hsüeh-she [eastern culture society], which emphasized Japanese, but offered courses in English as well. Among the students at the school was Wang Kuo-wei (q.v.).

His work in Shanghai earned Lo Chen-yü a reputation as an expert in agricultural studies and modern education. In the winter of 1898 Lo accepted an invitation from Chang Chihtung (ECCP, I, 27-32), the governor general of Hupeh and Hunan, to go to Wuchang. He gave advice to the Hupeh bureau of agriculture, served as dean of the agricultural school, and then worked at the Chiang-Ch'u i-shu chü [Kiangsu and Hupeh translation bureau]. In 1901 Chang sent him to Japan to study that country's educational system. After returning to China, he accepted an invitation in 1903 from Ts'en Ch'un-hsuan (q.v.), the governor general of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, to serve as a consultant on the reform of the educational system in those provinces. In Canton, he greatly enriched his book collection by purchasing the Yüeh-hsüeh-lou library of the K'ung family. Tuan-fang vECCP, I'l, 780-82), the governor of Kiangsu, invited Lo to Soochow in the summer of 1904 for consultation on problems of education. Lo's efforts resulted in the establishing of the Kiangsu Normal School in Soochow.

In 1905 a new Board of Education was established at Peking. Lo Chen-yü was appointed to it, and he moved his family to- Peking. Both the Xung-hsüeh she and the Tung-wen hsüeh-she were closed in 1906 because Lo was unable to supervise their operations from Peking. Lo served as field inspector of schools, touring Chihli (Hopei) and Shansi in 1907 and traveling through Shantung, Honan, Kiangsi, and Anhwei in 1908. He became an acting assistant secretary in the Board of Education and assistant examiner of students who had returned from abroad in 1908. The following year, he was appointed dean of the agricultural college at Imperial University in Peking. After the revolution of 1911, Lo Chen-yü, Wang Kuo-wei, and Liu Ta-shen (Lo's son-inlaw and a pioneer in the study of oracle bones) moved their families to Japan. Lo lived in Kyoto for eight years, making occasional trips to China. Lo published a number of archaeological studies during this period, and in 1915 he made a trip to the Yin-ch'ü excavation sites at Anyang, Honan, where the discovery of oracle bones in 1899 had opened new vistas to scholars of ancient Chinese history. When Lo returned to China in 1919, he established residence at Tientsin, where he continued to do research. During the wedding celebration of P'u-yi (q.v.) in December 1922, Lo Chen-yü, along with many other Manchu loyalists, went to Peking to offer his congratulations to the former emperor. He joined P'u-yi's "court" in 1923 and worked to protect his safety and prerogatives in 1924, when P'u-yi was driven from the Forbidden City by Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.). P'u-yi went to live in the Japanese concession at Tientsin, and Lo became one of his three principal advisers. At the end of 1928, after the idea of restoring P'u-yi to the throne had been broached to the Japanese, Lo moved to the Japanese-controlled city of Dairen. A feud between Cheng Hsiao-hsü (qv.) and Lo Chen-yü developed during this period, and after P'u-yi moved to Port Arthur at the end of 1931, the two advisers came into conflict over the Japanese proposal that P'u-yi become head of a republic comprising Manchuria and Mongolia. Lo strongly urged insistence on the promised monarchy, while Cheng accepted the idea of a republic.

Manchoukuo, established on 1 March 1932, was a disappointment to Lo Chen-yü. P'u-yi became chief executive rather than emperor, and when he finally was enthroned in March 1934, the Japanese flooded Manchoukuo with Japanese nationals, making them citizens and important officials. After serving as president of the examination yuan from 1933 to 1938 Lo retired to his home in Dairen, where he lived until his death on 19 June 1940. In his autobiography, Chi-liao pien, Lo expressed regret that his loyalty to the Manchus had helped create Manchoukuo.

Lo Chen-yü's untiring efforts to collect, compile, and publish documents and studies constituted a major contribution to scholarship in China. He wrote on many subjects, but his best works were archaeological and historical studies. Typical of his writings are the Tunhuang shih-shih chi [the stone chambers of Tun-huang], of 1909; the Yin-ch'ü shu-ch'i ch'ien-pien [Anyang inscriptions], of 1911 (continued in 1933); and the Yin-ch'ü wen-tzu lei-pien [Anyang graphs, categorically arranged], of 1924. A complete list of his publications is to be found in Lo Hsueh-fang chu-shu mn-lu erh-chuan, which was reprinted in 1962 at Tokyo by Ching-chia in the journal Tohdgaku. Lo also reprinted a number of bibliographical rarities at his own expense. His service in achieving publication of the Ch'ing shih-lu [veritable record of the Ch'ing dynasty], published in Tokyo in 1937 by the Manchoukuo government, would have been sufficient to earn him the gratitude of all students of modern Chinese history.