Wang Yunwu

Wang Yunwu

Wang Yunwu (July 9, 1888 to August 14, 1979) was named Hongzhen, Rixiang and Xiulu. His pen names were Xiulu, Zhirui, longlangfei and longyijiang. Modern publisher, general manager of Commercial Press. He was born in Shanghai. Guangdong Xiangshan (now Zhongshan) people, ancestral Nanlang Wangwu village.

In the spring of 1907, he was the president of Zhenqun society. In 1909, he was the provost of Zhabei preparatory school for studying in the United States. At the end of 1912, he was the editor in chief of Beijing English democracy daily and the English professor of Peking University, National University and China Public University.

In 1921, he was recommended by Hu Shi to work in the commercial translation institute. In the 25 years of the Commercial Press, he insisted on the publishing policy of "education popularization and academic independence"; Wang Yunwu reformed the organizational structure of the Commercial Press, "Encyclopedia series", published the world-famous "universal library", "Chinese Cultural History Series", "University Series" and other large-scale series, introduced foreign advanced scientific management methods, and used the civilian publishing perspective to promote the commercial press The industrialized management means lead the business to the new glory of the publishing industry. He has compiled five dictionaries of Wang Yun and five little dictionaries of Wang Yun. Wang Yunwu started and revived the Oriental library, compiled and published a large number of classic, Chinese and foreign masterpieces and textbook dictionaries. In 2013, the complete works of Wang Yunwu was published.

Life of the characters

Self taught

He was born on July 9, 1888 (June 1, the 14th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty) in a small merchant family in Shanghai. Wang family has been working and studying for generations. His father Wang guangbin abandoned agriculture and business to open a small shop in Shanghai. When Wang Yunwu was born, he had two elder brothers and two elder sisters in his family. Wang Yunwu spent his childhood in his hometown pansha village. His elder brother Rihua is nine years older than him, intelligent and diligent. When he was young, big brother became his best teacher. At the age of 6, he read three character classic and thousand character essay with his elder brother. At the age of 7, he returned to Shanghai with his elder brother and began to read Mencius at the age of 8. One day, when the eldest brother said that "if you treat your minister like a mustard, then you treat him like an enemy", Yun Wuji felt something because his cousin Lu Haodong was arrested in Guangzhou last year and killed by the Qing government. He said angrily to his elder brother, "the Empress Dowager treats her subjects as dirt mustard. Why don't they treat her as an enemy? Brother Lu Biao's action is just to kill the people's enemies. How can it be regarded as a rebellion? " His words surprised the elder brother, and reported to his father: "the fourth brother is not bad at studying, just in case he will go the wrong way when he grows up."

In 1897, when Wang Yunwu was 9 years old, his eldest brother returned to his hometown to take the exam and passed the "boy's test". However, before he became a scholar, he died of illness in the countryside. Therefore, people in the village said that his family's geomantic omen was not good and should not violate God's will. His father did not dare to let him take the road of studying for exams any more. He only sent him to a private school to learn a few more words so as to prepare for his future study of business.

In 1902, his father sent 14-year-old Wang Yunwu to a hardware store, asking him to be an apprentice and supplement his English at night school. Later, he left the hardware store to study English in ShouZhen library sponsored by American church.

In 1904, he entered a Tongwen library to study. In the spring of the next year, he also served as a teaching assistant. The library attached to Tongwen library gave him the opportunity to read widely the works of western scholars such as Spencer and Montesquieu.

In 1905, 17-year-old Wang Yunwu bought a set of Encyclopedia of Great Britain by way of mortgage. When he paid off the book three years later, he had read the encyclopedia thoroughly.

Since 1906, he has been teaching English in Shanghai Tongwen library, China public school, etc.

In the winter of 1906, Wang Yunwu was employed as an English teacher by Shanghai Yizhi library, teaching mathematics, history and geography, and began to enter the education field.

In the spring of 1907, he was the president of Zhenqun society. In one poem, he expressed his ambition at that time: "when the wind and the clouds disturb Asia, who will be taught by the mansion?". Strive for the future of the Central Plains, and build a man in the lofty sky. " In October, he transferred to China new public school as an English teacher, with Hu Shi (then known as Hong Xiang) and Zhu Jingnong as students. Hu Shi once said: "I have been in Chinese public school for two years and have been greatly influenced by Mr. Yao Kanghou and Mr. Wang Yunwu." Wang Yunwu continued to teach for four years.

In 1909, he was the dean of Zhabei preparatory school.

In 1912, he joined the KMT, first served as secretary of the provisional presidential palace in Nanjing, and then served in the Ministry of education of the Beiyang government. At the end of the same year, he was editor in chief of Beijing English democracy daily and professor of English at Peking University, National University and China Public University.

In May 1913, he resigned from the Ministry of education and became a professor of Chinese public university, teaching English, English literature and other courses.

Since 1917, he has worked as a compiler in Shanghai, founded citizen book company and started his career as a publisher.

In 1919, after the May 4th movement, Shanghai Commercial Press was eager to adapt to the trend of the times. Hu was invited to be the director of the compilation Institute, and Hu recommended Wang Yunwu.

In September 1921, Wang Yunwu took the post of deputy director of the compilation Institute of the commercial press. After taking office, he organized the compilation of a series of books introducing Chinese and foreign ancient books with the policy of "Education Popularization" and "academic independence", which was highly valued by the society.

In March 1925, he invented the four corner number checking method and compiled Wang Yun's five dictionaries, which won a certain reputation in the academic circles.

In February 1930, he was the general manager of the commercial press. He actively promoted the scientific management law, created a new situation of sunrise new books in the Commercial Press, published many valuable books, and made an important contribution to the cause of Chinese culture and education. It was not until April 1946 that he resigned as general manager of the commercial press.

In 1937, after the outbreak of the war of resistance against Japan, Wang Yunwu began to join the political circles, and was re elected as a member of the National Political Consultative Conference and a representative of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference for four terms.

In 1946, after the victory of the Anti Japanese War, he resigned from the position of the commercial press and became Minister of the Ministry of economy of the national government and representative of the constitutional state.

In April 1947, he served as vice president of the Executive Yuan and actively supported the anti Communist civil war policy.

In May 1948, Wang Yunwu became a member of the Executive Yuan and Minister of finance. In order to save the collapsing economy, he put forward a reform plan of currency system under the instruction of Chiang Kai Shek, in which gold yuan coupons were used instead of legal currency to limit prices, and it was carried out. But soon he was defeated and Wang Yunwu was impeached.

In April 1949, I went to Taiwan.

In 1954, he served as the vice president of Taiwan's "examination institute" and the vice president of Taiwan's administrative department. In 1964, he quit politics and resigned. After that, he devoted his main energy to the cause of culture and education again. In Taiwan, he was known as the "father of doctors", but he did not get a "diploma" until he received an honorary doctor of law degree from South Korea's Jianguo University in 1969. He has served successively as the design committee member of Taiwan Administrative Department of Taiwan authorities, the adviser of national policy of Taiwan authorities, the chairman of Taiwan Commercial Press, etc.

On July 6, 1979, Wang Yunwu was admitted to Taipei Veterans General Hospital with a cold. At that time, he had only a slight cough. After hospitalization, he began to have a fever, but he stopped taking medicine and was discharged a few days later. On August 4, he was hospitalized for pneumonia, claiming that he would be hospitalized for about a week. He died on August 14 at the age of 92. A few days before his death, he wrote postscripts for Zhang Yuanji's preface and postscript to the garden, which left an extremely valuable historical material for later generations to study the commercial press. Wang Yunwu once said: "life is like this, like a tour." His 92 year tour has left countless footprints in history. Merits and demerits are judged by posterity.

A good scholar makes an official

After the first uprising of Wuchang in 1911, the Shanghai revolutionary army flourished and the school closed. Wang Yunwu wrote for Tianduo daily, sponsored by Li huaishuang, and translated Nanfang Daily.

In December 1911, when Sun Yat Sen returned from Europe, the Shanghai fellow townspeople's Association of Xiangshan County hosted a banquet in Jianhong garden to welcome him. Wang was the host of the banquet. His welcome speech and his comments on the founding of the Republic of China were appreciated by Sun Yat Sen. In January 1912, the provisional government of the Republic of China was established, and Wang Yunwu was appointed as the Secretary of the presidential palace by Sun Yat Sen. He wrote to Cai Yuanpei, the director general of education, about his views on education policy and system. Unexpectedly, Mr. Cai, who had not met with him, invited him to work in the Ministry of education. With Sun Yat Sen's consent, he worked in the presidential palace in the morning and the Ministry of education in the afternoon. In March, the Ministry of education moved to Beijing. He served as the chief of the first section of the special department, and was also responsible for drafting University orders and special school orders. He joined the Kuomintang in September of the same year.

In the spring of 1916, he left Beijing for Shanghai. In July, he served as the special commissioner for the prohibition of smoking in Jiangsu, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces.

In addition to being in public office, he also began to write. In April 1912, he wrote an editorial under the pseudonyms of Xiulu and Chuxiu. Because the article criticized the current politics and caused the dissatisfaction of the northern warlords, the newspaper was sealed up.

During his time as a special commissioner of anti smoking, Geng Jie and his serious character made him inevitably infected with right and wrong. Exhausted, he decided to leave the administration to work as a translator and spend more time enriching himself. At that time, it was the end of the first World War. After the war, many international issues and international laws needed to be studied. So, his interest turned to this aspect, and he began to learn German and French at the same time. Wang Yunwu's selflessness and working ability are amazing. In his later years, recalling the translation of a Sino US contract at that time, he wrote: "I started to work immediately. From 5:00 p.m. on that day, I only slept for 2 hours at night. Up to 3:00 p.m. the next day, I actually worked for 22 hours and finished a manuscript of 26000 words..."

At this time, his students and friends in the classroom

Chinese PinYin : Wang Yun Wu