Jian Youwen

{{Short description|Chinese historian (1896–1978)}} {{family name hatnote|Jian|lang=Chinese}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = Jian Youwen Jen Yu-wen | honorific_suffix = | image = File:Jian Youwen.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Jian Youwen (taken before 1949) | native_name = 簡又文 | native_name_lang = Chinese | birth_name =  | birth_date = 1896 | birth_place = Guangdong, Qing China | death_date = {{death date and age|1978|10|25|1896}} | death_place = Hong Kong | death_cause = | region = | citizenship = | residence = | other_names = Jen Yu-wen, Kan Yau-man | occupation = Historian, public official, religious leader | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards =  | website = | education = | alma_mater = Oberlin College (B.A) University of Chicago (M.A.) | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline = History | sub_discipline = Chinese history | workplaces = Yenching University Yale University (visiting scholar) University of Hong Kong | doctoral_students =  | notable_students =  | main_interests = Taiping Rebellion, Christianity in China | notable_works = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Jian Youwen''' (1896 – 1978 {{zh|t=簡又文 |s=简又文 |p=Jiǎn Yòuwén|w=Chien Yu-wen|j=Gaan2 Jau6 Man4}}, sometimes transliterated '''Jen Yu-wen''' or '''Kan Yau-man''' in older documents) was a Chinese historian, public official, and sometime Methodist pastor, known in particular for his writings on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He taught at Yenching University, the University of Hong Kong, and Yale University.

== Life and career== Jian was born in Guangdong in 1896, the son of Jian Yinchu and Jian Wenliu, and educated at Lingnan School, where he was baptized as a Christian. His older brother, Kan Tat-Choy, became a wealthy entrepreneur and later built St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Causeway Bay. In 1914, Jian attended Oberlin College where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1917, and obtained his master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1919, then returned to China in 1921. In 1922, he accepted a position as General Editor at the Hong Kong YMCA's publications division, and in 1924 was appointed associate professor of religion at Yenching University, a post he held until 1927.<ref>Dong Feng and Chi-wah Chan, "Biographical Sketch" in the Yale Jen Yu-Wen Papers</ref>

Jian joined the Nationalist Party in 1926 and developed a close relationship with General Feng Yuxiang, the "Christian Warlord", who appointed him head of his political department{{what|date=August 2018}} in 1927. After that party formed a government the same year, ushering what is known as the Nanjing decade, Jian held a variety of posts including salt commissioner, overseeing the traditional salt monopoly. His interest in politics grew, and from 1933 to 1946 he was a member of the Legislative Yuan. He recalled his experiences with the Kuomintang in his biography, 西北从军记 (''Xibei congjun ji'', ''Record of my military days in the northwest''), which was published posthumously in 1982.

Jian’s work in Chinese culture brought him close to many important artists. While in Mengshan, he served as a private tutor to the young Chen Wentong, who later gained fame as a ''wuxia'' writer under the pen name Liang Yusheng. He was a student and later close friend to the artist Gao Jianfu and, according to Eliza Ho, was an important influence on his work. In 1954, he wrote the libretto for a Cantonese opera with nationalist themes, 萬世流芳張玉喬 (''The Immortal Zhang Yuqiao, the Most Respectable Courtesan''). The opera is considered a contemporary classic of Chinese opera, and was premiered in the same year by the Sun Yim Yeung troupe.<ref>Yung Sai-Shing, "Cantonese Opera and Nationalism: A Classic Work Reinterpreted", [http://www.ln.edu.hk/ihss/crd/intangible.html public lecture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628062748/http://ln.edu.hk/ihss/crd/intangible.html |date=2011-06-28 }} delivered on February 27–28, 2009</ref> The production was directed by the celebrated composer and film director Tang Ti-sheng. He also found time to publish and edit two important literary magazines, 易經 (''Yijing'', in Shanghai and edited by Yao Xiexing),<ref>[http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4e4a788a0100fnne.html 关于简又文創办的《逸经》雜志], accessed March 6, 2012</ref> and ''Typhoon'' (in Hong Kong) during the 1930s. ''Yijing'' had a partial focus on humor, and Jian launched the journal in 1933 in coordination with the launch of 宇宙鋒 (''Yuzhou Feng'', ''Cosmic (sword) Edge'') by his friend and colleague Lin Yutang. Consequently, 1933 was commonly described in Chinese literary circles as "The Year of Humor".<ref>Qian Suoqiao, "Discovering Humor in Modern China: The launching of the ''Analects Fortnightly'' journal and the "Year of Humor" (1933)", in J Chey and JM Davis, eds., ''Humour in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches''. Hong Kong University Press: 2011, p. 191. {{ISBN|9789888083527}}</ref><ref>Sohigian, Dirhan John, "Contagion of Laughter: The Rise of the Humor Phenomenon in Shanghai in the 1930s", ''positions'' Spring 2007 15(1): 137-163</ref> Socially, Jian was renowned as a talented reteller of the coarse humor of the traitor Han Fuju.<ref>Lary, Diana. ''The Chinese People at War: Human Suffering and Social Transformation, 1937-1945''., Cambridge UP: 2010, p.139 {{ISBN|0521144108}}</ref> Later, in 1946, he founded and became first director-general of the Guangdong Institute of History and Culture.<ref>”Chien Yu-Wen”, in the ''Biographical Dictionary of Republican China'', Columbia University Press: 1971 {{ISBN|0231089589}}.</ref>

In 1949, Jian returned to Hong Kong where he became a professor at Hong Kong University. He was a visiting fellow at Yale from 1964 to 1965, the institution that now houses the Jen Yu-Wen Papers. He died in Hong Kong in 1978. His wife, Mabel Yuk-Sein Young, with whom he had two sons and two daughters, died in 1958.

==Academic work== Jian was renowned mainly for his expertise on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and was one of the first scholars to take a serious interest in the period.<ref>Lone, Stewart. ''Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Asia: From the Taiping Rebellion to the Vietnam War''. Greenwood Press: 2007, {{ISBN|0313336849}}, p.27</ref> His ''Taiping tianguo dianzhi tongkao'' (太平天國典制通考) was published as a three-volume work in Hong Kong by Mengjin Shuwu in 1957, and by Yale University as a single volume in 1978, translated by W J F Jenner as ''The Taiping Revolutionary Movement''. He wrote several other works on the Taiping period, all of which are considered authoritative.<ref>Uhalley, Stephen, "The Significance of Jen Yu-wen's Magnum Opus on the Taipings". ''The Journal of Asian Studies'', Vol. 33, No. 4 (Aug., 1974), pp. 679-685</ref>

Jian, an esteemed art collector of works from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and of Guangdong art,<ref>Crozier, R. ''Art & Revolution in Modern China: The Lingnan (Cantonese) School of Painting 1906-1951''. University of California Press: 1988, {{ISBN|0520059093}}.</ref> was the largest collector of Gao Jianfu's work, and assembled them as the "pavilion of one hundred swords" (百劍樓, ''Bǎi jiàn lōu''), a collection which formed the basis of his 1972 chronology of Gao. Unfortunately, financial difficulties in the 1970s forced him to sell part of the collection through Sotheby's. His work on Gao's art has formed the basis of commentary since, and also ties into his work on the Taipings by emphasizing the "revolutionary" dimension of the culture of Guangdong, or its frequent role as a cradle of cultural and political innovation in China. He described Guangdong as "the origin of revolution" (革命筞涴地, ''gémìng cèyuàndì''), and in the 1940s was active in the promotion of Guangdongese culture.<ref>Ho, Eliza. "From xin guohua (new national painting) to the founder of the Lingnan School: transformation of the representations of Gao Jianfu and his art by a regional discourse”</ref> The remainder of his art collection now resides at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in its Art Museum.<ref>[http://www.iso.cuhk.edu.hk/english/publications/newsletter/article.aspx?articleid=17867 Interview with professor James Watt], accessed 2012-03-06</ref> This single gift of over one thousand items constitutes the core of the Art Museum's holdings.

==Religious beliefs== Jian was a devout Christian, not only in his personal affairs but especially in public life. His interest in the Taipings was in part stimulated by their unusual adoption of Christian beliefs, but he also argued strenuously for the gradual Christianization of China. He wrote essays against the Anti-Christian movement in China, and translated Marshall Broomhall's biography of Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to the country, as well as biologist John Merle Coulter's ''Religion and Science''. Countering the perception that Christianity, as a western faith, was harmful to China, Jian argued that Christianity could be shaped as a revolutionary force in a republican China.<ref>Pan-Chiu Lai and Jason Lam, ''Sino-Christian theology: a theological qua cultural movement in contemporary China''. Peter Lang ed, 2010. {{ISBN|3631604351}}</ref>

His best-known concrete action in this regard occurred when he became Director of the Guangzhou Bureau of Social Affairs in 1931. He inherited a proposal from his predecessor to convert the Guangzhou City god temple, which he saw as a relic of a superstitious and backward era, into a secular facility to promote the consumption of goods produced in Guangdong. Although the provincial government supported the change, the conversion was highly unpopular with local citizens and in particular the temple's fortune-tellers, who alternately threatened and bribed Jian. Nonetheless he prevailed; the temple was converted, and many of its artefacts were dispersed to local government offices and the YMCA.<ref>Poon, Shuk-Wah. ''Negotiating Religion in Modern China: State and Common People in Guangzhou, 1900-1937''. Chinese University Press: 2010. {{ISBN|962996421X}}</ref>

==Further reading== *Ho, Eliza. [https://archive.today/20121210144838/http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?acc_num=osu1232554641/ "From xin guohua (new national painting) to the founder of the Lingnan School : transformation of the representations of Gao Jianfu and his art by a regional discourse."] (includes link to pdf of full document). *[https://books.google.com/books?id=KWHREtBHNqYC&q=jen+yu-wen%2F&pg=PA366 Entry in the ''Biographical Dictionary of Republican China''] *[https://archive.today/20121215202327/http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=mssa:ms.1924&query=&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes&hlon=yes&big=&adv=&filter=&hitPageStart=&sortFields=&view=tp%23titlepage/ The Jen Yu-Wen Papers] at Yale University Library. *[http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AJian%2C+Youwen%2C&dblist=638&fq=ap%3A%22jian%2C+youwen%22&qt=facet_ap%3A/ Jian's bibliography] at WorldCat. *Yung Sai-Shing. [http://www.ln.edu.hk/cultural/Yung%20Sai%20Shing_Kwan%20Fong%20lecture-abstract_English.pdf/ "Cantonese Opera and Nationalism: A Classic Work Reinterpreted."]{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, a discussion of the importance of Jian's opera. *Jian Youwen, ''The Taiping Revolutionary Movement'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.worldcat.org/title/xi-bei-cong-jun-ji/oclc/12249606&referer=brief_results/ 西北从军记] - Jian‘s political memoir. *[https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2053135?uid=3739256&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=55830785873 Stephen Uhalley Jr.’s evaluation] of ''The Taiping Revolutionary Movement'' *[https://web.archive.org/web/20130821015828/http://corp.mus.cuhk.edu.hk/corp/trans/101.html A synopsis] of ''The Immortal Zhang Yuqiao''. *[http://dhk.hkskh.org/stmary/index.aspx St. Mary's Church], built by Jian's brother Tat-Choy. *[http://www.eywedu.com/20/96/30165.htm Yao Xiexing's remembrance] of Jian's publication ''Yijing'' (Chinese only). *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001453/http://www.luaa.hk/music/gp/lnwg.pdf Lingnan Evening Song] (嶺南晚歌), *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031009/http://www.luaa.hk/music/gp/lnkxg.pdf Lingnan Victory Song] (嶺南凱旋歌), and [http://www.luaa.hk/music/gp/lnzg.pdf Lingnan Battle Song]{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (嶺南戰歌), school songs with text by Jian for Lingnan Primary School, ([https://web.archive.org/web/20161104074849/http://www.luaa.hk/songs.php audio recordings]).

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jian, Youwen}} Category:1896 births Category:1978 deaths Category:Chinese people of World War II Category:Chinese Methodists Category:Artists from Guangdong Category:20th-century Chinese historians Category:20th-century Hong Kong historians Category:People from Xinhui, Jiangmen Category:Historians from Guangdong Category:Academic staff of Yenching University Category:Academic staff of the University of Hong Kong Category:Yale University faculty Category:Educators from Guangdong Category:Republic of China politicians from Guangdong Category:History of Guangzhou Category:Refugees of the Chinese Civil War Category:Oberlin College alumni Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:Politicians from Jiangmen Category:Writers from Jiangmen

Jian Youwen

Connections

Linked from

Links to (36 total)