Nanjing University philosophy lecturer who wrote “Practice Is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth”
Born in Wuxi, Jiangsu, he studied at Peking University and Renmin University and taught from 1962 in the politics (later philosophy) department of Nanjing University. Having lived through the Cultural Revolution, he wrote to refute the dogmatic “Two Whatevers”; the manuscript he sent to Guangming Daily in September 1977 was revised several times and published on 11 May 1978 as “Practice Is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth” under the name of a “special commentator”. It set off the nationwide truth-criterion debate and became the intellectual starting point of Boluan Fanzheng and reform and opening. He became deputy head of Jiangsu’s propaganda department in 1982, head in 1985 and vice-chairman of the Jiangsu CPPCC in 1987, and died in 2023.
Activities and affiliations
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1962–1982
People’s Republic of China state institutionsLecturer in philosophy, Nanjing UniversityMain
Education -
1982–1987
Communist Party of ChinaHead of propaganda, Jiangsu provincial party committee
Ideology and propaganda
Career Timeline
- 1955Entered Peking University’s journalism programme
- 1962Lecturer at Nanjing University
- 1977Sent the manuscript to Guangming Daily
- 1978“Practice Is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth”
- 1982Deputy head of Jiangsu propaganda; head from 1985
- 1987Vice-chairman of the Jiangsu CPPCC
- 2018Named a “pioneer of reform”