Liu Yizheng

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisLiǔ.

Liu Yizheng

Liu Yizheng(Chinese:Liễu di trưng;pinyin:Liǔ Yízhēng;Wade–Giles:Liu I-cheng;1880–1956) was a Chinesehistorian,calligrapher,librarian,culturalscholar,educator,andacademicleader. He is known for his personal charisma, spirit and eruditeness. In modern Chinese academic field, it is said that the number of famous experts in various fields including in literature, history, geography, philosophy and even natural science he educated and enlighted was the most.Liu Yizheng andWang Bohangwere honorifically called Nanyong Double Pillars (Two pillars ofNanjing University) during the early period of the Republic of China.

Biography

Early life under the Qing dynasty

Born and educated under theQing dynasty(1644–1912), Liu passed the first level of the imperialcivil service examinationa few years before its abolition in 1905.In the early 1900s his mentor thephilologistMiao Quansun ( mâu thuyên tôn; 1844–1919) put him in charge of writing a textbook on Chinese national history that had been commissioned by the reformist high officialZhang Zhidong(1837–1909).Liu'sBrief Account of the Past(Lidai shilueLịch đại sử lược ), an adaptation of Japanese historian Naka Michiyo's ( na kha thông thế; 1851–1908)General History of China(Shina tsūshiChi na thông sử ), was published inNanjingby a government press in 1902.After a two-month visit toMeiji Japanin 1902 during which he was impressed by the new Japanese education system, Liu used his new textbook to teach history in schools that had been created as part of the late Qing "New Policies" (XinzhengTân chính, 1901–1911).In 1905 the new Ministry of Education (XuebuHọc bộ ) officially designated Liu'sBrief Accountas a national textbook.

Republican times

Afterthe Qing felland was replaced by aRepublican government,Liu opposedHu Shih's call for a "literary revolution" that consisted in replacingclassical Chinesewith more vernacular forms of writing, a kind of reform advocated by the intellectuals of theNew Culture Movement.Refusing to ascribe China's recent difficulties toConfucianismor traditional Chinese culture, Liu attributed them to theManchuriandomination, theOpium War,corrupt government, warlords, and all kinds of social problems which, he argued, is not the consequence of practice but the absence of practice of Confucianism.

In the 1920s Liu wrote several historical articles for theCritical Review(HsuehhengHọc hành ), a journal that was founded in 1922 atNational Southeastern University(later renamedNational Central UniversityandNanjing University).In some of these articles he defended the value of traditional historical scholarship, disagreeing withGu Jiegangand other advocates of theDoubting Antiquity School,who doubted the reliability of ancient Chinese historical records.Liu'sHistory of Chinese Culture(Zhongguo wenhua shiTrung quốc văn hóa sử ), a cultural history of China from times immemorial to the 1920s, was first serialized in theCritical Reviewfrom 1925 to 1929 before being published as a book in 1932.Though Liu's scholarship is usually viewed as conservative, his book laid the foundation for a discussion of China as a cultural entity rather than a racial one as was common at the time.

In 1927, Liu Yizheng served as the curator of National Study Library (Chinese Study Library) which later merged with National Central Library and formed the newNanjing Library.In the library he founded Live and Read System, providing long-term devoted readers with vacant rooms to live in. Many such readers later called the library theiralma mater.

Works

Liu Yizheng wrote several books on Chinese history, including on the history of education, commerce, and culture. His books also include Business Ethics, An Introduction to Edition, etc.History of Chinese Culture(Trung quốc văn hóa sử) andEssentials of National History(Quốc sử yếu nghĩa) are his most important works.