Shen Chün-ju (1874-11 June 1963), legal scholar and official in the Ch'ing, National, and Central People's governments. A prominent member of the China Democratic League, he became its chairman in 1956.

Chiahsing, Chekiang, was the birthplace of Shen Chün-ju. Little is known about his family background or early years. After passing the chü-jen examinations in 1903 and the chin-shih examinations in 1904, he served for a time as a secretary of the seventh rank in the Board of Punishments at Peking. He then went to Japan, where he studied at Tokyo Law College and came to know a number of T'ungmeng-hui members. As the movement toward constitutional government gained momentum in China at the end of the Ch'ing dynasty, Shen returned to Chekiang. In 1909 he became the vice chairman of the Chekiang provincial council, which aimed to lay the foundations of self-rule in the province, and superintendent of the Chekiang Higher Normal School at Hangchow.

After the 1911 revolution and the establishment of the Chinese republic, Shen Chün-ju became commissioner of education for Chekiang, general secretary of the National Assembly at Peking, and a member of the Kuomintang. After the so-called second revolution of 1913, he was among those members of the Kuomintang who left the party in October 1913 to join with members of the Chin-pu-tang [progressive party] in forming the Min-hsien-tang [people's constitution party]. Shen's action, which coincided roughly with Yuan Shih-k'ai's order for the dissolution of the Kuomintang, reflected his belief that China needed reconstruction, not revolution, and that Yuan Shih-k'ai represented a stabilizing force. However, when Yuan suppressed the Parliament, Shen, who opposed Yuan's plan to become monarch, went to Shanghai and established a law practice. When a military government headed by Sun Yat-sen was established at Canton in September 1917, Shen became its procurator general. He later returned to Peking to serve in Parliament once again, but little is known about his activities in the 1920's.

After the National Revolutionary Army occupied Chekiang on the first leg of the Northern Expedition, Shen Chün-ju became secretary general of the Chekiang provincial government in 1927. Beginning in 1930 he served as dean of the Shanghai Law School. That he soon won the esteem of Shanghai lawyers was evidenced by his election as chairman of the Shanghai Lawyers Association. Although he no longer held any official posts, Shen continued to be active in politics. He helped found the China League for the Protection of Civil Rights (Chung-kuo min-ch'üan pao-chang t'ung-meng) in December 1932 and the Shanghai Association for National Salvation in December 1935. Together with Tsou T'ao-fen (q.v.) and some 200 writers, newspapermen, and lawyers, he participated in the formation of the Cultural Workers' National Salvation Association in January 1936. Finally, at the end of May, the All-China Federation of National Salvation Associations (usually referred to as the National Salvation Association) was established. This national organization soon issued a statement, reportedly written by Shen, entitled "The First Political Principles in Resisting Japan and Saving the Nation." In July, Shen joined with Chang Nai-ch'i, T'ao Hsing-chih (qq.v.), and Tsou T'ao-fen in writing and publishing "A Number of Essential Conditions and Minimum Demands for a United Resistance to Invasion," which advocated cessation of the Kuomintang-Communist xivil war, negotiations with the Red Army, release of political prisoners, and establishment of a united front against the Japanese. Mao Tse-tung, then in Yenan, responded in August with an open letter in which he stated that the Chinese Communists were willing to cooperate with the Kuomintang. This response led some National Government officials to believe that the National Salvation Association was working with the Chinese Communists.

On 23 November 1936, after supporting strikes in Japanese-owned factories at Shanghai, Shen Chün-ju was arrested on charges of associating with Communists and attempting to overthrow the government. Others arrested at the same time were Tsou T'ao-fen, Chang Nai-ch'i, Wang Tsao-shih, Li Kung-p'u, Sha Ch'ien-li, and Shih Liang, all of whom were active leaders of the National Salvation Association. They became known as the Ch'i chün-tzu [seven gentlemen]. Altogether, Shen and his associates spent about 250 days under surveillance, first at the Shanghai municipal police station and then (after 4 December) at the detention house of the higher court at Soochow. In the Shanghai prison, Shen practiced calligraphy in the morning without interruption ; in Soochow, where he had many relatives and former students, he was kept busy by visitors. During the trial in April 1937 Shen, because he was the eldest of the seven, was regarded as the leader of the group. On 31 July, after the Sino-Japanese war had begun and a united-front policy had been put into effect, Shen and his fellow prisoners were released on bail.

With the Japanese invasion of Shanghai and east China, Shen Chün-ju moved with the National Government to Hankow, where in December 1937 he organized the All-China Association to Support Activities for Resistance and National Salvation. He was responsible for the publication of the Ch'üan-min chou-k'an until Hankow fell to the Japanese. After moving with the National Government to Chungking, he became a member of the People's Political Council. In February 1939 he was appointed to the Supreme National Defense Council. He and his associates in the national salvation movement joined the League of Chinese Democratic Political Groups in 1941. After it became the China Democratic League in 1944, Shen continued to be a leading member, second only to Chang Lan (q.v.) in age and prestige. He represented the Democratic League at the Political Consultative Conference at Chungking in January 1946. When the National Government ordered the dissolution of the Democratic League in 1947 on the grounds that it was a Communist front organization, Shen and other league leaders fled to Hong Kong. In January 1948 the Democratic League pledged its support to the Chinese Communist party.

Shen Chun-ju served as vice chairman of the preparatory committee for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He attended the conference in September 1949 as a representative of the China Democratic League, and he was elected vice chairman of the conference's National Committee. With the establishment of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, he became a member of the Government Council, a member of the Government Administration Council's commission on political and legal affairs, and president of the Supreme People's Court. He continued to be responsible for financial matters and the youth movement of the China Democratic League, and he became national vice president of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association when it was organized later that year. In April 1951 he was deputy chief of a Sino-Soviet Friendship Association delegation to Moscow for the May First celebrations. He then went to East Berlin as head of the Chinese delegation to the opening ceremony of German-Chinese Friendship Month on 6 June. He went to East Berlin once again in September to attend a council meeting of the International Democratic Lawyers Association, and he was elected vice chairman of the association's council. Shen was appointed to the committee for drafting the constitution in 1953. The following year, he was a delegate from Shanghai to the National People's Congress, and he was elected vice chairman of the congress's Standing Committee. In the governmental reorganization that followed the congress, Shen was replaced by Tung Pi-wu (q.v.) as president of the Supreme People's Court. Toward the end of 1954, Shen was elected chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and reelected vice chairman of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Association. By this time, he also had become vice chairman of the All-China Association of Social Science Workers. At the memorial meeting for Chang Lan, who died in February 1955, Shen Chun-ju was elected acting chairman of the China Democratic League. He was formally elected chairman in February 1956. During the antirightist campaign of 1957 many of the "democratic" personages who had spoken frankly during the Hundred Flowers Campaign were reprimanded for their criticisms of party and government. On 17 June, Shen issued a statement concerning the China Democratic League and the "mistaken" views expressed by Chang Po-chun and Lo Lung-chi (qq.v.). He said, in part: "with reference to matters in the Democratic League in recent years, owing to ill health, I very seldom have a hand in the handling, but I do have the responsibility. The Democratic League held a national work conference in March 1957 and after that date, Chang and Lo, the two vice chairmen, took greater charge of the affairs of the league. I thought this a very good arrangement, but I did not anticipate their having ulterior motives. I was very indignant recently on seeing in the press the mistaken views of Chang and Lo . . . ." He promised that an enlarged meeting of the standing committee of the Democratic League would clarify the political stand of theleague. In November 1958 he addressed the Third Congress of the China Democratic League, pointing out that the league was a political party of bourgeois character and that most of its members had not entirely relinquished their bourgeois standpoint. Therefore, he said, it was necessary for the league to accept the leadership of the Chinese Communist party in all of its work. Shen Chun-ju served as a delegate to the 1959 National People's Congress, and he was reelected vice chairman of its Standing Committee. He died in Peking on 11 June 1963. He was survived by four sons and a daughter.