| Generalissimo Fu Sinian 傅斯年 |
|
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 February 1896 Shandong, China |
| Died | 12 August 1950 (aged 53) Taibei,Taiwan |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Political party | Kuomintang |
| Occupation | Historian Linguist Educator |
Fù Sīnián (傅斯年, 1896—1950), was a famous Chinese educator and linguist, and one of the leaders of the May Fourth Movement in 1919. He studied experimental psychology at University College, London from 1920-23. He was also one of the creators of the Academia Sinica, and was named director of the Institute of History and Philology upon its founding in 1928.[1] After organization of the path-breaking Yinxu excavations same year, he published his East Yi West Xia theory about the origin of prehistory culture in current China, 1933.
Fu is known due to his pioneering historico-philological research of concepts "nature" xing 性 and "destiny" ming 命. Defying philosophysing, he developed their interpretation proceeding from the archaic morphemes 生 and 令.
His condemnation of the Chinese medicine guoyi as being not scientific remains a point of debate. Despite his own call for historical objectivity, Fu opposed the Japanese aggression with the quasi-historical claim that Manchuria and Mongolia were not entitled for independence from China.
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Fu was born on March 26, 1896 in Shangdong. It was a period immediately after the First Sino-Japanese War.[2] Famous Chinese intellectual, Liang Chi-Chao described the Chinese people at that time as "the smashing of the dream of the past two thousand years".[3] Thus,Fu and the men of his generation were grown up in a time when the traditional systems were being challenged and revolutions were about to happen.
In 1909, Fu attended the secondary school set up by Tianjin government. Fu was an excellent student in school, excelling in mathematics, English, and Chinese.[2] In 1913, Fu was accepted by the preparatory school of Peking University which was the best university in China at that time[2]. Fu's performance at preparatory school was impressive and was ranked first upon graduation in humanities division.[2]
In 1916, Fu went to the Chinese Department of Peking University to pursue his bachelor degree. During his study at university, Fu was gradually changed from a conservative to a radical in terms of the political standpoint.[2] In 1919, Fu participated in the famous May Fourth Movementand was one of the major students leaders.[4] On the morning of May 4, 1919, Fu led a group of approximate 3000 students to protest the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, which ceded the Shandong province to Japan.[5]
In 1920, Fu went to Europe for higher education. His first stop was University College London. Fu registered in the department of Psychology and took most courses at undergraduate level.[2] He also spent a considerable amount of time to study courses from medical school. Later in June 1923, Fu traveled to Berlin and studied at Berlin University because the high inflation in Germany after World War I helped he to get a favorable exchange rate. It seemed that Fu never intended to obtain a B.A degree at these oversea institutions. Instead, he even advised his friends to utilize this rare chance to pursue as much learning as possible.[2] This is totally different from present situation that students study abroad for obtaining certain certifications. At that time, a degree was not that crucial for these Chinese students, but the oversea experience was more important.
In Oct 1926, Fu accepted an offer from Zhongshan University and joined the faculty of humanity and social science.He became the department head in 1928 and established the Institute of History and Philology (IHP) of Academia Sinica.[2]
In 1929, Fu moved to the Institute of History and Philology to Peking and started to teach at Peking University where he originally graduated from. In 1945, Fu was appointed as the acting president of Peking University at the age of 50. In 1946, his second year as the acting president, he excluded many "turncoat" professors who supported the Wang Jingwei government, a puppet government controlled by Japanese force during World War II.[2] During his term, Fu also recruited many famous scholars at that time, such as Ji Xianlin and Zhu Guangqian.[2]
In 1947, after witnessing the drastic deterioration of the economy, Fu attacked the premier T. V. Soong and his clique. Fu published three famous articles calling Soong's resignation. And Soong indeed resigned after a few days due to the social pressure.[2] In 1948, Fu attempted suicide but was saved because the defeat of Kuomingtang(KMT) government in the civil war at mainland China. After that, Fu went to Taiwan with KMT in the earlier 1949. On 20 January 1949, he was appointed to be the President of National Taiwan University.[2]
In December 1950, Fu died in the Provincial Assembly of Taiwan at the age of 55 due to hypertension.[2]
In July 1949, Fu was accused for recruiting faculties who has communism background to National Taiwan University. An article published in a local newspaper said that the National University of Taiwan under Fu's leadership turned into a base for communism communities. [6] Fu originally had a deep belief in academic freedom. However, at this time, he had to compromise to the political pressure and fired the relevant scholars who were suspected to have some relation to the communism community. [6]
"There are only 21 hours available per day because the remaining 3 hours are reserved for self-reflection." [7]
Famous Chinese scholar Hu Shi said that Fu Sinian is one of the best educators and charismatic leaders at his time[2].