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Yu Ying-shih (; 22 January 1930 – 1 August 2021) was a Chinese-born American historian,
sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...
, and the Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Emeritus, at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
. 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 university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
and
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
before his time at Princeton. He was the elder brother of philosopher, educator, and university president
Paul Yu Paul Yu () was a Chinese-American academic who was the President of State University of New York at Brockport (SUNY Brockport) between 1997–2004. Early life and education Born in Chongqing, China, Yu moved with his family to Hong Kong in 1949 ...
.


Early life

Yu's father, who had studied at Harvard, taught history in
Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...
, and at the start of the
second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...
sent him to live with his aunt from 1937 through 1946 in rural
Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...
province, where they would be safe from Japanese invasion. He later recalled that "although ''
rujia Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...
'' 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
Yenching University Yenching University () was a Private university, private research university in Beijing, China, from 1919 to 1952. The university was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" come ...
, but shortly came to Hong Kong for reunion with his family. He then studied in the newly founded
New Asia College New Asia College is a List of the constituent colleges of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, constituent college of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a public university in New Territories, Hong Kong. The College was founded in 1949 by a g ...
, later incorporated into
Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public university, public research university in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. Established in 1963 as a federation of three university college, collegesChung Chi College, New Asia Coll ...
. The founders of New Asia College, which Yu joined as a student, were staunchly anti-Communist, rejected the iconoclastic
New Culture Movement The New Culture Movement was a progressivism, progressive sociopolitical movement in China during the 1910s and 1920s. Participants criticized many aspects of traditional Chinese society, in favor of new formulations of Chinese culture inform ...
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. Yu came to
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in the United States to pursue his PhD in Chinese history. He then taught at various universities including
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, Harvard,
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
and
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
. As Yale historian
Jonathan Spence Jonathan Dermot Spence (11 August 1936 – 25 December 2021) was a British-American historian, Sinology, sinologist, and author specialised in History of China, Chinese history. He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from 199 ...
commented, Yu is one of the few people to have been
tenured Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...
at these three
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
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, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...
, 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 in Hong Kong, founded in 1973 by Ch'ien Mu as a non-profit Chinese secondary school. The school sits on the former campus of New Asia Collegeon Farm Road, Kau Pu ...
. 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 The East Asian Library and the Gest Collection (pronounced "Guest") in the Princeton University Library is the university's principal collection of materials in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages, as well as works on Chinese, Japanese and Kore ...
. He retired from Princeton in 2001.. He died at his home in
Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...
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 Chin ...
(1890–1969), the greatest modern scholar of Tang dynasty China, who was at first supported and then hounded to death by the revolution. Yu was moved to study Chen upon encountering Chen's draft work "On ''Love in Two Lives''" at the Harvard-Yenching Library. In 1983, Yu published his
polemical Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...
essay, ''On the Scholarly Spirit and the Late State of Mind of Chen Yinke''. Yu contended that Chen's shift from history to poetry had profound moral and political implications. 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 Fang Yizhi (Chinese: 方以智, as a politician: Mi Zhi, Man Gong, Lu Qi, Long Mian Yuzhe, as a monk: Dazhi, Wu Wu, Hongzhi, Yao Monk Di, 1611 – November 9, 1671) is a Chinese politician, polymath monk and author of scientific textbooks in the ...
(1611–71), Dai Zhen (1723–77), and Zhang Xuecheng (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'' or ''The Story of the Stone'' is an 18th-century Chinese novel authored by Cao Xueqin, considered to be one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It is known for its psychological scope and it ...
'', 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) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 2004. On 15 November 2006, he was named the third recipient of the John W. Kluge Prize 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, the American Studies ...
. 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, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...
. 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. Funct ...
on 6 April 2019 (). Yu received honorary doctorate in arts from the
University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...
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, a public university in New Territories, Hong Kong. The college is one of the three original colleges that joined to form the CUHK in 1963. F ...
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 O ...
. * * * * * * : ::* 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

* *


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 Academic staff of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Kansai University alumni Members of Academia Sinica New Asia College Princeton University faculty Taiwanese people from Tianjin Historians from Tianjin University of Michigan faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society