Fu Ssu-nien
A Life in Chinese History and Politics

Wang's biography of Fu Ssu-nien examines Fu's important role in modern China's intellectual development.

Fan-sen Wang (Author)

9780521030472, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 November 2006

280 pages
23 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.431 kg

"The book addresses a very important period in the transformation of modern Chinese historical thinking...This book rests on superior scholarship and an exhaustive study of all the available published and unpublished sources, including archives and private papers. It provides a lively and sympathetic portrait of Fu Sinian and his times, and through this adds an important new dimension to the intellectual history of the May Fourth era and of prewar and wartime China under the Nationalists." The China Journal

Fu Ssu-nien, scholar, and political and social critic, was one of the most colourful, influential intellectual figures in twentieth-century China. Wang Fan-sen's biography of Fu's life and contributions offers an in-depth examination of his role in intellectual development in modern China. Fu's life in many ways embodied the dilemma faced by modern Chinese intellectuals: dissatisfied with the model of the traditional literati, they lacked a professional, academic model to take its place. Fu's early years as a student leader of the May Fourth movement and subsequent life as an activist were born of intellectual dissatisfaction: as an educator and founder of the Institute of Philology and History at Peking University and the Academia Sinica, he worked to fill the void by professionalizing Chinese research and education. This book, incorporating original, previously unpublished material from Fu's personal archives, fills a major gap in the cultural and intellectual history of modern China.

Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Chronology
Introduction: Fu Ssu-nien and post-1895 intellectual trends
1. Fu Ssu-nien's early years
2. The shaping of a new historical school
3. Toward a theory of plural origins of Chinese civilization: hypotheses on ancient Chinese history
4. Contra-introspective moral philosophy
5. The burden of the May Fourth mentality
6. Statism and the later days of a May Fourth youth
Conclusion: the defeat of a May Fourth youth
Appendix 1: a fragment from a short story attacking Ku Chieh-kang
Appendix 2: a transcript of a conversation between Fu Ssu-nien and Ch'en Pu-lei
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Cultural studies [JFC], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], Asian history [HBJF]