The liberal of the New Culture Movement who led the vernacular-language campaign and later served the Nationalists as a diplomat
A Columbia-trained pragmatist under John Dewey, he led the literary revolution that replaced classical Chinese with the written vernacular. A critic of both New Youth's Marxists and the Nationalist abandonment of constitutionalism, he died in Taipei in 1962.
A philosopher trained under John Dewey in the United States, he proposed literary reform in New Youth in 1917 and launched the vernacular-language movement. In the May Fourth years he urged “more study of problems, less talk of isms”, parting ways with Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu as they turned to Marxism. He was a professor and later president of Peking University and served as ambassador to the United States during the war with Japan. After 1949 he worked in the United States and Taiwan, while the mainland mounted a mass campaign against his thought in the 1950s. He died of a heart attack in Taipei.
Also known as: Hu Shi
Activities and affiliations
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1938–1942
Republic of China state institutionsROC Ambassador to the United States
Diplomacy and international organization -
1946–1948
Republic of China state institutionsChancellor, National Peking University
Education -
1958–1962
Republic of China state institutionsPresident, Academia Sinica
Scholarship and theory
Career Timeline
- 1917Advocated vernacular literature in A Preliminary Discussion of Literature Reform
- 1917–1926Professor at Peking University
- 1919Debated problems and isms with Li Dazhao
- 1938–1942Ambassador of the Republic of China to the United States
- 1946–1948President of Peking University
- 1958–1962President, Academia Sinica in Taiwan
Related historical events
Conflict with the Nationalist government over human rights and constitutionalism
In 1928 Hu Shih founded the monthly journal Crescent Moon together with Wen Yiduo, Chen Yuan, Liang Shih-chiu, and Xu Zhimo. In March 1929 he published "Human Rights and Law" (人權與約法) in that journal, calling for a written constitution that would protect citizens' rights and hold the government accountable under it. He followed it with "When Can We Have Constitution: A Question for The Outline of National Reconstruction" (我們什麼時候才可有憲法?：對於《建國大綱》的疑問), where he charged the Nationalist government with betraying the ideal of constitutionalism in the Outline of National Reconstruction. He advocated Western-style democracy and rejected Sun Yat-sen's claim that the people were incapable of self-rule. He kept pressing the constitutional question against the Nationalist government, and as editor of the Free China Journal he criticized Chiang Kai-shek until the paper was shut down. This marks the turn from cultural reform to open conflict with state power, a phase distinct from the ideological campaign later mounted against him on the mainland.