Chou I-ch'un (1883-30 August 1948), known as Y. T. Tsur, educator, public administrator, and government official. He was the principal of Tsinghua College from 1913 to 1918. He held office as a Senator (191 8-20) , as secretary general of the financial readjustment commission (192324), and as executive director of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture (1924-28). He served under Wu Tingch'ang (q.v.) in several National Government posts.

A native of Hsiuning, Anhwei, Y. T. Tsur was born in Hankow. After being graduated from St. John's University in Shanghai, he went to the United States, where he received a B.A. from Yale University in 1909. He then went to the University of Wisconsin for graduate work and received his M.A. in 1910.

After returning to China, Tsur in 1913 was appointed principal of Tsinghua College at Peking. That institution had been organized in 1911. Its students were chosen through competitive examination and were prepared for study in the United States on scholarships. The scholarship funds came from the portion of the Boxer Indemnity Fund that had been returned to China in 1 908. During the years of the First World War, Tsur laid the foundation for the institution's growth into one of the outstanding universities of China. Tsinghua's physical facilities were expanded, and a fine academic program was established. Nevertheless, Tsur was forced to resign from Tsinghua in 1918 after a disagreement with the ministry of foreign affairs of the Peking government, which had jurisdiction over the school because of its connection with the Boxer Fund.

From 1918 to 1920 Tsur served in the Parliament at Peking. Although the Parliament was dominated by Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.) and manipulated for his personal ends, Tsur emerged from his sally into politics with his reputation unscathed. He had no direct connection with the warlords; rather, he was associated with the group of American-educated civilian leaders in Peking, including C. T. Wang (Wang Chengt'ing, q.v.), whom he had known at Yale, and W. W. Yen (Yen Hui-ch'ing, q.v.).

Y. T. Tsur continued to be interested in education after he left Tsinghua, and he entered into what was to be a long relationship with Peking Union Medical College. With American assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation, channeled through the China Medical Board, Peking Union Medical College became one of the best medical centers in the Far East. About 1915 Y. T. Tsur had accepted an invitation to serve on its board of trustees.

Tsur also was known as a public servant and philanthropist. He worked tirelessly to relieve the suffering in the north China countryside after a series of droughts from 1919 to 1921. As a director of the International Famine Relief Commission, Y. T. Tsur did much to alleviate the sufferings of the peasantry. He also gained respect as a public administrator in 1923-24 when he served as secretary general of the commission for the readjustment of finances, under the chairmanship of W. W. Yen. That commission was charged with the following duties: to ascertain and verify the actual amounts of the principal and interest of domestic and foreign loans contracted by various departments of the central government and inadequately secured ; to study methods of readjustment and redemption on the basis of data thus obtained; and to formulate a financial policy for the government after the readjustment of loans had been made. According to many observers, the commission's successful completion of its work was due largely to Tsur's work as W. W. Yen's chief deputy.

Y. T. Tsur's organizational talent also served to make him one of the leading industrial promoters of north China. He was a close friend of Sun To-hsi, whose family owned a number of industrial firms in Tientsin and Shanghai. The Chung-fu Bank, established by the Sun family to provide credit facilities for its holdings, developed into one of the important private commercial banks of China. Y. T. Tsur directed its Peking branch for a number of years. He was also the founder and chairman of the board of the Jen-li Rug Company of Tientsin and a consultant to the Yung-li Chemical Works and other industrial enterprises.

In 1924 a new organization, the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture, was established to take charge of administering the Boxer Indemnity funds returned to China by the United States. The money was to be returned to China in 20 annual installments and was to be devoted to the development and application of scientific knowledge in China, as well as to the advancement of cultural institutions. Y. T. Tsur was asked to become the first executive director of the China Foundation. He held that post from 1924 until 1928 and remained a member of its board of trustees for many years.

In 1926, Yenching University asked Tsur to become a member of its board of managers. His cordial personal relations with bankers and other prominent men in Peking proved to be of great value to Yenching in its fund-raising drives. When the National Government came to power at Nanking in 1928, it enacted a law requiring that all heads of institutions of higher education be Chinese citizens. That decree created difficulties for many of the Christian colleges in China, which were generally headed by Westerners. Yenching resolved the dilemma by creating the titular position of chancellor. In 1933-34 Tsur served as acting chancellor of Yenching. In 1935 Y. T. Tsur's old friend Wu Tingch'ang (q.v.) was named minister of industry in the National Government. At Wu's invitation, Tsur accompanied him to Nanking to serve as his administrative vice minister; he held that post from 1935 to 1937. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937 and the subsequent reorganization of the National Government, the ministry of industry was absorbed by the ministry of economic affairs, headed by Wong Wen-hao (q.v.). Wu Tingch'ang then was sent to Kweichow as governor. Tsur again accompanied him, serving first as a member of the provincial government council and then as commissioner of finance of the provincial government. Because Kweichow was one of the poorest provinces of China, its public finance system was chaotic. Tsur worked hard under the difficult wartime circumstances to bring order to the province's financial situation. In December 1944, when the Japanese neared Kweichow, the central authorities at Chungking assigned a military man, Yang Sen (q.v.), to replace Wu Ting-ch'ang as governor. Wu was recalled to Chungking to serve as secretary general of the Central Planning Board, under the chairmanship of Chiang Kai-shek. Tsur accompanied Wu to Chungking. In 1 945, after the Japanese surrender, Tsur was given the portfolio of minister of agriculture and forestry. In 1947 he was named minister of health at Nanking. He resigned from his government post in December 1948 and retired to Hong Kong, where he stayed until his lifelong friend Wu Ting-ch'ang died in August 1950. Y. T. Tsur then retired to Peking.

Despite his wartime service in the National Government, Tsur had no formal connection with the Kuomintang. His government positions had been given him because of his connection with Wu Ting-ch'ang. Tsur was a specially invited delegate to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 1956. He died at Shanghai in the summer of 1958. One of his sons, Chou Hua-k'ang, a Yenching graduate who received his M.D. at Peking Union Medical College, became a senior physician in the department of medicine there.