Yu Yingshi
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Yu Ying-shih (; 22 January 1930 – 1 August 2021) was a Chinese-born American historian,
sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...
, and the
Gordon Wu Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung,Gordon WU Ying-Sheung biography
- website o ...
'58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Emeritus, at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. He was known for his mastery of sources for Chinese history and philosophy, his ability to synthesize them on a wide range of topics, and for his advocacy for a new Confucianism. He was a tenured professor at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
before his time at Princeton. He was the elder brother of philosopher and educator Paul Yu.


Early life

Yu's father, who had studied at Harvard, taught history in
Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...
, and at the start of the
second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
sent him to live with his aunt from 1937 through 1946 in rural
Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
province, where they would be safe from Japanese invasion. He later recalled that "although '' rujia'' 儒家 onfucianculture was in a degenerate state, it nevertheless controlled the activities of daily life: by and large, all interpersonal relationships—from marriage and funeral customs to seasonal festivals—adhered to the ''rujia'' norms, supplemented by Buddhist and Daoist beliefs and practices." Wartime shortages meant that sometimes the family had no money for rice, forcing them to eat potatoes. "I hate potatoes," he later told an interviewer. The situation was too chaotic for him to attend school, so he read whatever material he could find, for instance, his aunt's popular novels.


Academic career

In 1949, he enrolled in the department of History in
Yenching University Yenching University (), was a university in Beijing, China, that was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" comes from an alternative name for old Beijing, derived from its status ...
, but in 1950 came to Hong Kong for reunion with his family. He then studied in the newly founded
New Asia College New Asia College is a constituent college of the Chinese University of Hong Kong located in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. History New Asia College was founded in 1949 by Chinese scholars Ch'ien Mu (Qian Mu), Tang Junyi (Tang Chun ...
, later incorporated into
Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university an ...
. The founders of New Asia College, which Yu joined as a student, were staunchly anti-Communist, rejected the iconoclastic New Culture Movement but did not see Western liberal thought as the alternative. Yu studied with
Ch'ien Mu Ch'ien Mu or Qian Mu (; 30 July 1895 – 30 August 1990) was a Chinese historian, philosopher and writer. He is considered to be one of the greatest historians and philosophers of 20th-century China. Ch'ien, together with Lü Simian, Chen Yink ...
, a scholar rooted in traditional Chinese philosophy, and became the first graduate of the college. He is remembered both as an international prodigy at
weiqi Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to ...
and for the number of cigarettes he smoked. On Ch'ien's recommendation, he came to
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in the United States in 1955, and received his PhD in 1962. He then taught at various universities including
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
, Harvard,
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
and
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. As Yale historian Jonathan Spence commented, Yu is one of the few people to have been tenured at these three
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
universities. In 1973, he went back to his alma mater, New Asia College, as its Head of college and also the Pro Vice-Chancellor of University for two years, before returning to Harvard. In 1977, he moved to Yale to take up the position of Charles Seymour Professor in Chinese History. He then moved to Princeton in 1987 to be Professor of East Asian Studies until his retirement. In 1974, he was elected as a Fellow at
Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...
, and has kept this position until his death. In the 1970s, he became one of the members of the school board of
New Asia Middle School New Asia Middle School (), abbreviated as NAMS, is an aided secondary school founded in 1973. It is located at Farm Road, Kau Pui Lung, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The school was founded by Prof. Ch'ien Mu as a non-profit-making Chinese secondar ...
. When asked later why he had moved to Princeton he said: "They had a really interesting library", probably meaning the East Asian Library and the Gest Collection. He retired from Princeton in 2001.. He died at his home in
Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
during his sleep on 1 August, 2021.


Writing

While still in Hong Kong, Yu started to write books and pamphlets in Chinese commenting on the problems of intellectuals and democracy in the People's Republic. He was particularly tenacious over the years in presenting the achievements of
Chen Yinke Chen Yinke, or Chen Yinque (3 July 18907 October 1969), was a Chinese historian, linguist, orientalist, politician, and writer. He was a fellow of Academia Sinica, considered one of the most original and creative historians in 20th century China ...
(1890–1969), the greatest modern scholar of Tang dynasty China, who was at first supported and then hounded to death by the revolution. His Harvard PhD thesis was published as ''Trade and Expansion in Han China; a Study in the Structure of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967). Scrupulous and thematically relevant monographs, mostly published in Chinese, explored the role of intellectuals, especially early modern moral and political critics such as
Fang Yizhi A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external Cheli ...
(1611–71),
Dai Zhen Dai Zhen (, January 19, 1724 – July 1, 1777) was a Chinese philosopher of the Qing dynasty. Hailing from Xiuning, Anhui Dai was a versatile scholar who made great contributions to mathematics, geography, phonology and philosophy. His philos ...
(1723–77), and
Zhang Xuecheng Zhang Xuecheng (; 1738–1801) was a Qing dynasty historian, writer and philosopher. His father and his grandfather had been government officials, but, although Zhang achieved the highest civil service examination degree in 1778, he never held hig ...
(1738–1801), who had been neglected in earlier scholarship. Yu also mastered the scholarship around ''Honglou Meng'', the novel known in English as ''
Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known for ...
'', a masterpiece exploring the decline of a rich family at the height of the Qing empire in the late 18th century. The insistent, modest, meticulous voice of history which Yu developed in these studies was the one he used in the debates over democracy in the 1980s and 1990s. Some people, including both the defenders of the state in Beijing and western modernization liberals, still insisted that democracy and Confucianism were incompatible. But Yu developed the philosophical and historical arguments perhaps implicit in the thought of his mentors: liberal Confucian values, once freed from the imperial ideology of the dynasties, are essential to democracy: The independent spirit of the scholar both models and creates responsible criticism of politics. Confucian values had always insisted on the critique of political power, moral judgment grounded in historic comparison, the voice of the people in governance, the contingent nature of the political mandate, public discourse, the responsibility of the individual for social action, and could even be developed for a contemporary view of women's rights. Yu developed a critical view of the revival of Confucianism in mainland China. He commented "the Chinese Communists are not Confucianists." He held that there were two kinds of Confucianism to be found in China's history: "the Confucianism that had been persecuted, the other is the Confucianism that has persecuted people." He termed the state sponsorship of Confucianism in China today "the kiss of death." In October 2014 it was reported that Beijing had ordered the banning of works by Yu Yingshi. Yu gave a televised speech on 22 November 2019 in which he said that some Taiwan media act as the mouthpiece of the PRC in Taiwan.


Prizes and honors

Yu Ying-shih was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 2004. On 15 November 2006, he was named the third recipient of the
John W. Kluge Prize The John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity is awarded since 2003 for lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences to celebrate the importance of the Intellectual Arts for the public interest. Overview The prize is awarded by ...
for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity. He shared the 2006 prize with
John Hope Franklin John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Histo ...
. He is the inaugural winner of the Tang Prize in Sinology, which recognizes scholars conducting "revolutionary research" and is selected by the
Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...
. Yu used his Tang Prize winnings of NT$10 million to establish the Yu Ying-shih Fellowship for the Humanities. Asteroid 28966 Yuyingshih, discovered by Bill Yeung in 2001, was named in his honor. The official was published by the
Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...
on 6 April 2019 (). Yu received honorary doctorate in arts from the
University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...
in 1992 and honorary doctorate in law from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1977. To honour his contribution to sinology, New Asia College and
Chung Chi College The Chung Chi College is one of the constituent colleges of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and one of the three original colleges that joined to form the CUHK in 1963. Founded in 1951 by representatives of Protestant churches in ...
have set up the series "Yu Ying-shih Lecture in History" in 2007 to invite distinguished scholars to speak about Chinese history.


Major works


Yu Ying-shih
WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...
. * * * * * * : ::* Vol 1 史學、史家與時代 (history, historians and their times) ::* Vol 2 中國思想傳統及其現代變遷 (Traditional Chinese Thought and its present day transformation) ::* Vol 3 儒家倫理與商人精神 (Confucian ethic and the spirit of capitalism) ::* Vol 4 中國知識人之史的考察 (Chinese intellectuals and their historical investigations) ::* Vol 5 現代學人與學術 (Modern scholars and scholarship) ::* Vol 6 民主制度與近代文明 (Democracy and modern civilization) ::* Vol 7 文化評論與中國情懷(上) (Cultural critique Pt I) ::* Vol 8 文化評論與中國情懷(下) (Cultural critiques Pt II) ::* Vol 9 歷史人物考辨 (Historical textual studies) ::* Vol 10 宋明理學與政治文化 (Studies in Song and Ming Lixue and political culture) * . Volume 1 (2016). Sixth century B.C.E. to seventeenth century. Volume 2 (2017) Seventeenth century through twentieth century. *


References


Further reading

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External links


Despotism, market and Confucianism in the age of Wang Yang-ming
Video lecture given by Yu Ying-shih at the Library of Congress in 2005



* ttps://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4043 China rediscovers its own history Video lecture given by Yu Ying-shih at the Library of Congress in 2007
China's return to tradition: how to interpret the new forces emerging in China
Video lecture given by Yu Ying-shih at the Library of Congress in 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Ying-shih 1930 births 2021 deaths Alumni of the Chinese University of Hong Kong American sinologists Charter 08 signatories Chinese emigrants to the United States Educators from Tianjin Harvard University alumni Historians of China Chinese University of Hong Kong faculty Kansai University alumni Members of Academia Sinica New Asia College Princeton University faculty Taiwanese people from Tianjin University of Michigan faculty Writers from Tianjin Members of the American Philosophical Society