Eighty-six years ago today, on January 17th, 1939 (the 27th day of the winter lunar month), Mr. Qian Xuantong, a Chinese linguist, died.

Money (September 12, 1887 ¨C January 17, 1939)

Qian Xuantong (1887-1939) was a China linguist. His name was Xia, and later his name was Xuantong, with the word Deqian. He was born in Wuxing, Zhejiang (now Huzhou City). In his early years, he studied in Japan and studied under Zhang Binglin. He has served as a professor at Peking University and Beijing Normal University. During the May 4th Movement, he participated in the New Culture Movement and advocated writing reform. He initiated and participated in the formulation of a plan for Mandarin Romanization. He has written papers such as "Literary Studies on Sound Pieces","Revisiting the Problems of Modern and Ancient Literature","Assumption of Sound Reading of Twenty-Eight Ancient Rhymes", and "Ancient Sound Wutless New Evidence".

On September 12th, 1887 (Dinghai, the 13th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty), Qian Xuantong was born. Originally from Xing Wu, Zhejiang Province (Gui'an County, Qinghu Prefecture). The surname is Qian, the name is Xia, and Xuantong is word line. When I was a teenager, my word was De Qian, and I changed it to dedicate it. The number is doubtful of the ancient, sometimes claiming to be doubtful of the ancient Xuantong. Zhenchang, my father, was a juren during the Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty. He was the head of the bureaucratic department. In his later years, he was the head of Shaoxing and Yangzhou Academies; Working in Suzhou again. At the age of sixty-two, Xuantong was born. Xuantong lived in Suzhou since childhood. Brother Qian Xun, named Nianhuan, served as counsellor and minister of Chinese embassies in Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Italy and other countries in the late Qing Dynasty. Mrs. Qian Xun, Shan Shili (born in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang Province), is one of the earliest intellectual women in China to step out of the boudoir and go global (earlier than Qiu Jin and He Xiangning went abroad). She is the author of Guimao Travel Notes, Gui Qian Notes, Art and Literature of Qing Boudoir, etc. Qian Xun is thirty-four years older than Xuantong. Shan Shili called Xuantong "Xuantong Xiaolang" ("Xiaolang" means "husband and brother") in the postscript of "A Brief of Art and Literature of the Qing Dynasty". Xuantong is about the same age as his nephew and grandson.

At the end of Guangxu's reign in Qing Dynasty, he went to Japan to study and entered the Normal Department of Waseda University. I met Zhang Taiyan (Bing Lin) in the People's Daily in Japan. Zhang Taiyan introduced him to join the Tongmenghui and listened to Zhang Taiyan's lecture on literary phonology. Many Zhangmen disciples he met later became famous scholars.

He returned to China during Xuantong's reign and served as a Chinese teacher at Jiaxing Middle School in Zhejiang Province. After the Revolution of 1911, Qian Xuantong first worked as a clerk and inspector in Hangzhou Education Office; In 1913, he went to Beijing and served as a teacher of Chinese and Confucian classics at National Beijing Normal School and its affiliated middle school. After that, he took part-time classes in National Peking University for a long time. In 1917, he joined the Mandarin Research Association of the Republic of China as a member, and concurrently served as the resident officer of the Mandarin Unification Preparatory Committee of the Ministry of Education, devoting himself to the Mandarin movement. Beijing Normal University is the predecessor of today's Beijing Normal University. Qian Xuantong taught at Beijing Normal University from 1913, and served as a full-time professor at Beijing Normal University for more than 20 years. The courses he taught mainly focused on phonology, including "Shuowen Research", "A Brief History of Confucian Classics", "A Brief Introduction to the Thoughts of Zhou to Tang and Qing Dynasties" and "A Brief Introduction to the Authenticity of Ancient Books in Pre-Qin Dynasty". He has served as the head of the Department of Chinese Languages for a long time.

In 1917, he posted to the magazine "New Youth" hosted by Chen Singh, advocated the literary revolution, became one of the pioneers of the "Fifty-Four" new cultural movement, became an advocate of new culture, attacked feudalism, advocated democracy and science warriors. He put forward the slogan of "choose the devils, the false species of Kyoto", clarified the objects of the new literary revolution. He put forward the thirteenth reform plan in the "About the Application of the Text and the Improvement of the Calculator"; in the "Writing Programme" of the Year of the Year; writing the way to turn straight down to the right; prescribe the grammatical order; primary textbooks, news papers note the alphabetical articles;

Phonology of Literature is a lecture note given by Qian Xuantong in Peking University Preparatory School in 1917. It is the first general work of phonology in China. For the first time, it divides the evolution of ancient and modern words into six periods: Zhou and Qin Dynasties, Han Dynasties, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and modern times, forming the first complete staging scheme of Chinese phonetic history. This concept of history transcends the traditional phonology research method, which is somewhat faced but has no history. It is also under the guidance of this historical concept that Literary Phonology Pian included modern sounds in the research content for the first time, pointing out that Zhongyuan Phonology is the upper source of modern northern sounds, which broadens the research scope of phonology. Starting from the concept of history, Qian Xuantong systematically discussed the development of ancient and modern phonology in five chapters. Starting from "the point of emphasis, especially in application, not archaeology", he focused his discussion on "Guangyun", which "is of great use in archaeology", and the phonetic alphabet-phonetic alphabet, which was discussed and formulated by the Pronunciation Unification Association and had not been officially promulgated at that time.

From 1918 to 1919, Qian Xuantong was one of the rotating editors of New Youth magazine. During this period, he mobilized Lu Xun to write articles for New Youth. Lu Xun's novel Diary of a Madman is the first work that Qian Xuantong urged him to write, and he used Lu Xun as a pen name for the first time. As we all know, Diary of a Madman is not only a vernacular essay, but also the first shot to attack cannibalism ethics. Qian Xuantong's contribution to teaching and academic research is also remarkable. His "Philology Phonology" is the earliest phonology textbook in colleges and universities in China. For decades, it has had a great influence, and it is still cited by phonologists. Many contemporary phonologists such as Luo Changpei, Wei Jiangong, Bai Dizhou, Zhao Yintang, Wang Jingru, Ding Shengshu, etc. are his students or have received his teachings. Huang Xianfan, a famous historian, was his graduate student. Qian Xuantong has many original ideas on "Confucian classics". He has two famous sayings: "Archaeology seeks its truth, and practical application seeks its suitability." His articles on ancient history and Confucian classics published in Ancient History Discrimination have many unique views and great influence. Guo Moruo praised Qian Xuantong's views on the study of ancient history very much, saying, "These views are the same as unexpected views, but they all came before me." (Research on Ancient Chinese Society) Qian Xuantong made outstanding contributions to the Mandarin Movement and character reform. He applied the profound academic research of character phonology to the practical work of national language unification and character reform. He is not only a theorist of the Mandarin Movement, but also a practitioner of language work. In his early years, he actively promoted the change of Chinese to Pinyin characters, and used the International Phonetic Alphabet to formulate Chinese Pinyin alphabets. Later, he worked with Zhao Yuanren, Li Jinxi and others to formulate the "Mandarin Roman Pinyin French Style".

In 1935, he was ill and insisted on drafting the First Batch of Simplified Words. Suffice it to say. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the three major tasks of character reform were to simplify Chinese characters, popularize Putonghua, and formulate and implement the Chinese Pinyin Plan. Qian Xuantong did a lot of solid foundation-laying work as early as half a century ago, and he can be called the forerunner of character reform. Qian Xuantong opposed the feudal cultural system and imperialist aggression.

After the May 30th Massacre in 1925, he wrote an article "On Resisting Imperialism". He combined the two combat tasks of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, and advocated actively resisting the political and economic aggression of imperialism, while "awakening Chinese people" with *, scientific thoughts and modern cultural knowledge, so that Chinese people can love their own country. He also said "Europeanization", saying that the road to fundamental reform in China is "Europeanization". His explanation of "Europeanization" is that "the modern culture of the whole world is not privately owned by Europeans, but Europeans heard about it earlier and took a few steps ahead of us." After the September 18th Incident, he hated Japanese imperialism.

In 1933, the Japanese invaded the north of China, he had sent his relatives to Shanghai to live, and he wanted to leave the north of China to the south. In that year he wrote a letter to Li Jingxi, Lu Jingxi, and Lu Jingxi, saying that he had "neither the ability to practice Qingdao to defend the society", but only to teach "trick money, it was boring, it was boring! it was shameful!" to see the pain of his spirit. Lu Jingxi bridge events occurred, the war against the Japanese began, Beijing fell, and the university of Pinhang was moved to Shaanxi due to his illness, he was not able to follow the school to Shaanxi, nor was he able to stay in South China, and in the spring of 1938, he regained the old name "Summer

On January 14, 1939, Qian Xuantong also went to Conte School to deal with Li Dazhao's legacy book "Nine Links" and sold it to the then Beijing Women's Normal University to help solve the living difficulties of Li Dazhao's children. On January 17, Qian Xuantong suddenly bled in his right brain and died in a German hospital. After Qian Xuantong's death, the progressive journal "Literature" at that time published "Mourning for Mr. Qian Xuantong" signed Le Yan, saying: During the cultural movement of the May 4th Movement, Qian Xuantong's "fighting spirit was manifested in almost any contemporary fighter" and "is a representative figure in the modern transformation period in the history of academic thought in China. He also said: "After the fall of Pingjin, the cultural circles in the north were under the iron hooves of the violent sun, and the living conditions were very miserable. However, Mr. Qian maintained his noble integrity. Although he was close to Qian Dasun and had friendly friendship with Zhou Zuoren, he was still not surrounded or insulted. This precious expression of the national spirit also moved and excited us. In his prime, he led the young as a fighter, in his middle age he used scholars to work hard in academic studies, and in his later years he used righteous men to maintain his reputation. Mr. Qian is finally a perfect person who is worthy of himself and the country and nation."

Money was the first to propose the abolition of the Chinese slogan, and his son, Money Three, was a famous physicist.