{{Short description|Chinese botanist}} {{Infobox scientist | image =File:Ren-Chang Ching.jpeg | caption = | name = Ren-Chang Ching | native_name = | native_name_lang = zh-Hans | other_names = Qin Renchang | birth_date = {{birth date|1898|02|15}} | birth_place = Wujin, Jiangsu, Qing dynasty | death_date = {{death date and age|1986|07|22|1898|02|15}} | death_place = Beijing, China | death_cause = | resting_place = Mountain Lu, Jiujiang | resting_place_coordinates = <!--{{coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}--> | fields = Botany | workplaces = Academia Sinica<br>Chinese Academy of Sciences | patrons = | education = University of Nanjing | spouse = | children = | awards = | thesis_title = <!--(or | thesis1_title = and | thesis2_title = )--> | thesis_url = <!--(or | thesis1_url = and | thesis2_url = )--> | thesis_year = <!--(or | thesis1_year = and | thesis2_year = )--> | doctoral_advisor = <!--(or | doctoral_advisors = )--> | academic_advisors = John George Jack | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = '''Ching''' | author_abbrev_zoo = | signature = <!--(filename only)--> | signature_alt = | website = <!--{{URL|www.example.com}}--> | footnotes = | module = {{Infobox Chinese|child=yes |c = {{linktext|秦|仁|昌}} |p = Qín Rénchāng |w = Ch'in Jen-ch'ang |altname = Zinong |s2 = {{linktext|子|农}} |t2 = {{linktext|子|農}} |l2 = <!--N/A--> |p2 = Zǐnóng }} }} {{family name hatnote|Qin|lang=Chinese}} '''Ren-Chang Ching''' ({{zh|c=秦仁昌|p=Qín Rénchāng}}; 15 February 1898 – 22 July 1986), courtesy name '''Zinong''', was a Chinese botanist who specialised in ferns.
==Life and work== Ren-Chang Ching was a Chinese botanist and pteridologist who made significant collections of plants from Mongolia to Yunnan. He was born in Wujin, Jiangsu, and studied botany and forestry at the University of Nanjing. On graduating in 1925 he taught at Southeastern University and from 1927 was Head of the Botany Section, Nanjing Museum. Here he switched his focus from trees to pteridophytes, which thereafter became his speciality. At this time, there were no experts on Chinese ferns in China and no single fern specimen was correctly identified in the small herbarium just started in Beijing. Ching started to correspond with pteridologists in the West (H. Christ, C. Christensen, W. R. Maxon and E. Copeland), thereby creating a basic library on Asiatic ferns for reference. In addition he started to make extensive collections of ferns, particularly from the provinces south of the Yangtze, but he knew he needed to see the type specimens in western herbaria.
Learning western languages so he could access the many Chinese herbarium specimens held in western institutions, Ching visited Europe following the Fifth International Botanical Congress in 1930. In Copenhagen, he consulted the fern expert Carl Christensen, and then worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for more than a year. He again visited Copenhagen in 1932 and then Vienna, Prague and other European herbaria before returning to China later that year, where he joined the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology (later Academia Sinica), Beijing. in 1933, Ching was one those who founded the Chinese Botanical Society, and soon afterwards founded the Mountain Lu Botanical Garden in Jiujiang.
When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Ching fled to Kunming (Yunnan Province), where, working at Yunnan University, he helped to found the Lijiang Botanical Station, where he was director until 1945. Ching remained in Yunnan until 1949, when he returned to Beijing to head the Taxonomic Section in the Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, where his energies were largely focussed on education and forestry. However, his interest in ferns continued for the rest of his life, with him finally publishing more than 140 papers and books on them. Major works were ''Icones Filicum Sinicarum ''(1930-1958) and the series ''Studies of Chinese Ferns''. He was also the principal author of the fern treatments in ''Flora Republicae Popularis Sinicae''.
(This section is essentially a rewrite of the corresponding JSTOR article.<ref name=JSTOR/>)
==Some plants he authored== (In the Adiantaceae)<ref name=ipniplant>{{cite web|title=IPNI: Plant name search (author Ching)|access-date=27 July 2018|url=http://www.ipni.org/ipni/advPlantNameSearch.do?find_family=&find_genus=&find_species=&find_infrafamily=&find_infragenus=&find_infraspecies=&find_authorAbbrev=Ching&find_includePublicationAuthors=on&find_includePublicationAuthors=off&find_includeBasionymAuthors=on&find_includeBasionymAuthors=off&find_publicationTitle=&find_isAPNIRecord=on&find_isAPNIRecord=false&find_isGCIRecord=on&find_isGCIRecord=false&find_isIKRecord=on&find_isIKRecord=false&find_rankToReturn=all&output_format=normal&find_sortByFamily=on&find_sortByFamily=off&query_type=by_query&back_page=plantsear }}</ref> <br> ''Adiantum annamense'' Ching—Acta Phytotax. Sin. 6: 315. 1957. <br> ''Adiantum breviserratum'' (Ching) Ching & Y.X.Lin—Acta Phytotax. Sin. 18(1): 104. 1980 <br> ''Adiantum capillus-veneris'' L. f. ''dissectum'' (M.Martens & Galeotti) Ching—Acta Phytotax. Sin. 6: 344. 1957 <br> ''Adiantum capillus-veneris'' L. f. ''fissum'' (Christ) Ching—Acta Phytotax. Sin. 6: 343. 1957 <br> ''Adiantum chienii'' Ching—Sinensia 1: 50. 1930 <br> ''Adiantum davidii'' var. ''longispinum'' Ching—Acta Phytotax. Sin. 6: 333. 1957
==Sources== *R.C. Ching and Z.H. Wang, 1982, "A Brief Report on the Progress of Pteridological Research in China", ''American Fern Journal'', 72(1): 1-2 *K.S. Shing (ed. A.C. Jermy and A.M. Paul), 1988, "Ching Ren Chang 1898-1986: A Bibliography", ''Taxon'', 37(2): 409-416. *Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E., Authors Pl. Names (1992): 118; Chaudhri, M.N., Vegter, H.I. & de Bary, H.A., Index Herb. Coll. I-L (1972): 452; Lanjouw, J. & Stafleu, F.A., Index Herb. Coll. A-D (1954): 125, 166; Vegter, H.I., Index Herb. Coll. T-Z (1988): 1045;
== References == {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=JSTOR>[https://plants.jstor.org/stable/history/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000150756 JSTOR Global Plants: Ren-Chang Ching]</ref> }}
== External links == *[https://plants.jstor.org/stable/history/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000150756 JSTOR Global Plants: Ren-Chang Ching] {{wikispecies}} {{botanist|Ching|Ching, Ren Chang}}
{{Founding members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ching, Ren-Chang}} Category:1898 births Category:1986 deaths Category:20th-century Chinese botanists Category:Chinese taxonomists Category:University of Nanking alumni Category:Biologists from Jiangsu Category:Scientists from Changzhou