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 […]

Yü P'ing-po (1899-), essayist, poet, critic, scholar, and professor. He was best known for his writings on the Hung-lou-meng and for the nation-wide campaign against them and him in 1954. A native of Tech'ing, Ghekiang, Yü P'ing-po was born into a family which had a long tradition of scholarship and literary endeavor. He was the […]

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 […]

Hsü Kuang-p'ing (1907-), was the wife of Lu Hsün (Chou Shu-jen, q.v.). After his death in 1936, she began to collect and edit his unpublished works to write articles about him. After 1949 she served the Central People's Government as a member of many committees and delegations. Little is known about Hsü Kuang-p'ing's background or […]

Wu Yu (1872-1949), scholar and poet whose intensely anti-Confucian writings contributed to the revolution in Chinese thought at the time of the May Fourth Movement. He taught at Peking and Szechwan universities. Little is known about Wu Yü's family background or early life. In his youth he apparently received a traditional education in the Chinese […]

T'ao Hsing-chih (1891-25 July 1946), educational theorist and reformer who based his ideas on those of John Dewey and Wang Yangming. His theories of "life education" were embodied in the mass education and rural education movements of the 1920's and in the work-study and "national crisis education" programs of the 1930's. Born into a family […]

Shen Yen-ping (1896-), known as Mao Tun, the foremost realist novelist in republican China. He ceased to function as a creative writer in 1949, and he served from 1949 to 1965 as minister of culture in the Central People's Government. Ch'ingchen, a suburban district of T'unghsiang hsien, Chekiang, was the birthplace of Mao Tun. He […]

Shen Yin-mo (1887-), professor of history and literary man who later won fame as a calligrapher. Wuhsing, Chekiang, was the native place of Shen Yin-mo. After receiving a traditional primary education in the Chinese classics, he attended the Chiahsing Normal School and later joined his brothers, Shen Shih-yuan and Shen Chien-shih, in Japan for advanced […]

Ch'ien Hsuan-t'ung (12 September 1887-17 January 1939), applied the critical methods of Hu Shih to the study of Chinese classical texts. He taught for many years at Peking University, where he contributed articles to the Hsin ch'ing-nien [new youth] and served as one of its editors. He was also a leader in the movement to […]

Ch'ü Ch'iu-pai (29 January 1899-18June 1935), Communist writer, became vice chairman of the propaganda department of the Chinese Communist party and wrote many pamphlets and articles. He unseated Ch'en Tu-hsiu to become general secretary of the party in 1927, but was criticized and removed from office in 1928. He became prominent in the League of […]