John Ching Hsiung Wu (also John C.H. Wu;

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

: 吳經熊;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Wu Jingxiong'') (born 28 March 1899,

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

– 6 February 1986) was a Chinese jurist and author. He wrote works in Chinese, English, French, and German on Christian spirituality, Chinese literature (including a translation of the ''

Tao Te Ching The ''Tao Te Ching'' (, ; ) is a Chinese classic text written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion d ...

'') and on legal topics. On his ''Tao Te Ching'' translation,

Thomas Merton Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968) was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and giv ...

said Wu's work was "absolutely necessary for us not only to progress but even to survive."

Biography

A graduate of the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a Public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of C ...

, he was the principal author of the constitution of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. He maintained a correspondence with U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...

and later produced scholarly work examining Holmes' legal thought. Previously a Methodist, he was a convert to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

after reading

Thérèse of Lisieux Thérèse of Lisieux (french: Thérèse de Lisieux ), born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin (2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), also known as Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (), was a French Catholic Discalced Carmelite ...

's biography. Wu served as an adviser in the Chinese delegation to the 1945

United Nations Conference on International Organization The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), commonly known as the San Francisco Conference, was a convention of delegates from 50 Allied nations that took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San Francisco, Calif ...

in San Francisco and served as the Chinese ambassador to the Vatican in 1947-49. In 1957, Wu was appointed a judge of the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that arise ...

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. After the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution, officially known as the Chinese People's War of Liberation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and also known as the National Protection War against the Communist Rebellion in the Republic of China (ROC ...

, Wu worked as a professor at the

Seton Hall University School of Law Seton Hall University School of Law is the law school of Seton Hall University, and is located in downtown Newark, New Jersey. Seton Hall Law is the only private law school in New Jersey, and, according to the ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranking ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

until retiring to Taiwan in 1967.

Works by John C. H. Wu

*Juridical Essays and Studies (Shanghai, China: Commercial Press, 1928) (Shanghai, China: Commercial Press, 1933) *Some Unpublished Letters of Justice Holmes ( hanghai, China s.n., 1935) *The Art of Law and Other Essays Juridical and Literary (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1936) *Essays in Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy ( hanghai Soochow University Law School, 1938) (1981)
The Science of Love
A Study in the Teachings of Thérèse of Lisieux (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Press, 1941)(Hong Kong: Catholic Truth Society, 1941) *Justice Holmes to Doctor Wu: An Intimate Correspondence 1921-1932 (New York: Central Book Co., 1947) *From Confucianism to Catholicism (Huntingdon, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Press, 1949) *Beyond East and West (New York:

Sheed and Ward Sheed and Ward was a publishing house founded in London in 1926 by Catholic activists Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward. The head office was moved to New York in 1933. The United States assets of Sheed and Ward have been owned by Rowman & Littlefield ...

, 1951) (Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1951) (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1952) (Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1969) (Beijing: She hui ke xue wen xian chu ban she, 2002) *The Interior Carmel: The Threefold Way of Love (London: Sheed & Ward, 1954) (Taipei, Taiwan: Hwakang Bookstore, 1975) *Fountain of Justice: A Study in Natural Law (New York; Sheed and Ward, 1955)(London: Sheed and Ward, 1959)(Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1971) *Justice Holmes: A New Estimate (Philadelphia: Brandeis Lawyers Society, 1957) *Cases and Materials on Jurisprudence (St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co., 1958) *Chinese Humanism and Christian spirituality (Jamaica, New York: St. John's University Press, 1965) *Sun Yat-sen: The Man and His Ideas (Taipei: Published for Sun Yat-sen Cultural Foundation by the Commercial Press, 1971) *The Four Seasons of T`ang Poetry (Rutland, Vermont: C.E. Tuttle Co., 1972) *Zhongguo zhe hsuëh hinese philosophy(Taipei, Taiwan: China Academy, 1974) *The Golden Age of Zen (Taipei, Taiwan: United Publishing Center, 1975) (Taipei: Hua kang ch`u pan yu hsien kung ssu / tsung ching hsiao Hua kang shu ch`eng, 1975) (New York: Doubleday, 1996. ) *Tao Teh Ching (translation) (New York: St. John's University Press, 1961) ao jing (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1997)(Boston: Shambhala, 2003) *"Chinese Legal and political Philosophy," p. 213–237in ''The Chinese Mind: Essentials of Chinese Philosophy and Culture,'' ed. Charles A. Moore (Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1967)

Notes

References

External links

*
Papers of John C. H. Wu
MSS 122, Seton Hall University. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, John C. H. Republic of China poets Chinese jurists Roman Catholic writers Chinese Roman Catholics Converts to Roman Catholicism 1899 births 1986 deaths Ambassadors of the Republic of China Taiwanese poets Writers from Ningbo University of Michigan Law School alumni Poets from Zhejiang Chinese spiritual writers 20th-century Taiwanese poets Ambassadors of China to the Holy See Tianjin University alumni University of Shanghai alumni Soochow University (Suzhou) alumni