Chou Tso-jen Orig. Chou K'uei-shou T. Ch'i-ming H. Chih-t'ang Chou Tso-jen (1885-), essayist, scholar, and translator of Western works into pai-hua [the vernacular]. With his brother Lu Hsün (Chou Shu-jen, q.v.), he brought new prominence to the essay form in the 1920's and 1930's. Born in Shaohsing, Chekiang, Chou Tso-jen, like his two brothers, Lu […]

Chang Ping-lin 章炳麟 Orig. Chang Hsueh-ch'eng 章學乘 Chang Chiang 章絳 T. Mei-shu 枚叔 H. T'ai-yen 太炎 Tao-han 菿漢 Chang Ping-lin (25 December 1868-14 June 1936), scholar and anti-Manchu revolutionary, was an editor of the noted newspaper Su-pao and of the T'ung-meng-hui's Min-pao [people's journal] and a leader of the Kuang-fu-hui [restoration society]. A prominent classical […]

Yü Ta-fu (1896-September 1945), a founding member of the Creation Society and one of the most important Chinese writers of the 1920's. The youngest of three boys born into a poor but scholarly family in Fuyang, Ghekiang, Yü Ta-fu received his early education in a variety of schools, including the Hangchow First Middle School. He […]

Yen Fu (8 January 1854-27 October 1921), naval officer who became the foremost translator-commentator of his day. Through his translations, the works of such Western thinkers as Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer, John Stuart Mill, and Adam Smith were introduced to China. The only son of a practitioner of Chinese medicine. Yen Fu was born in […]

Lin Ch'ang-min (16 July 1876-December 1925), scholar and government official who devoted his life to the development of constitutionalism and parliamentary government in China. He met an untimely end after joining Kuo Sungling at the time of Kuo's 1925 revolt against Chang Tso-lin. Although he was born in Hangchow, Lin Ch'ang-min was a native of […]

Huang Lu-yin (1898-13 May 1934), writer whose short stories and novels enjoyed great popularity after 1925. Many of her writings depicted young Chinese in their search for new standards and values during the May Fourth era. A native of Fukien, Huang Lu-yin was born into a gentry family. On the day of her birth, her […]

Ku Hung-ming (1857-30 April 1928), European-educated scholar and long-time subordinate of Chang Chih-tung who was known as a trenchant critic of the Westernization of China and a staunch defender of traditional Confucian values. The ancestors of Ku Hung-ming had come from T'ungan, Fukien, near Amoy. However, his family had resided for generations before his birth […]