Ji Xianlin
Encyclopedia
Ji Xianlin was a Chinese
Indologist, linguist, paleographer
, historian
, and writer
who had been honored by the governments of both India
and China. He was born in Qingping County, now Linqing
, and died in the No. 301 Hospital, Beijing.
, then Shandong University
. In 1930, he was admitted to Tsinghua University
as a major in Western literature
. In 1935, he went to University of Göttingen as an exchange student, choosing in 1936 to major in Sanskrit
and less well known ancient language
s, such as Pali
, under Professor Ernst Waldschmidt
receiving his Ph.D. in 1941, and studied Tocharian
under Emil Sieg. In 1946, he returned to China, becoming a professor at Peking University
under the recommendation of Chen Yinke
, and began a long career as one of China's greatest scholars of ancient Indian languages and culture, during the course of which he made discoveries not only about such things as Buddhism
's migration from India to China, but also more mundane cultural changes, such as the spread of paper and silk making from China to India.
Ji founded the Department of Eastern Languages at Peking University soon after his arrival, becoming dean of the department and pioneering the field of Eastern studies in China, and authoring 40 articles and 13 academic papers in the next three years. In 1956, he was elected commissioner of the Chinese Academy of Science's Department of Social Science.
During the Cultural Revolution
(1966–1976), he secretly translated the Ramayana
from Sanskrit into Chinese retaining the poetic format, risking the punishment which befell those convicted as "intellectuals". In 1998 he published Memoirs from the Cowshed, his account of his life during that period, which attained great popularity in China.
In 1978, Ji became vice president of Peking University and director of the Chinese Academy of Science's Research Institute on South Asia. He also served as chairman of various professional organizations, including the Chinese Foreign Literature Association, the Chinese South Asian Association and the Chinese Language Society. During this period of his career, Ji published 11 academic books and over 200 papers in more than ten academic fields, including Chinese cultural research, comparative literature, and Sanskrit.
In 1998, he published a translation and analysis of fragments of a Tocharian
Maitreyasamiti-Nataka discovered in 1974 in Yanqi.
In addition to his translation of the Ramayana, Ji wrote seven books including a short history of India. and a history of Chinese cane sugar. The Ji Xianlin Collection consists of 24 volumes containing articles on ancient Indian languages, Sino-Indian cultural relations, Buddhism, comparative and folk literature, essays, translations of literary works, etc.
Despite deteriorating health and eyesight, Ji continued to work. In the summer of 2002, he was hospitalized for a dermatological condition. He died on July 11, 2009 in the No. 301 Hospital, Beijing. His son, Ji Cheng, said that Ji died of a heart attack
.
Ji's philosophy divides human culture into four parts: an Eastern group consisting of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic-Islamic culture, and Western culture, consisting of European-American culture. He advocates a greater degree of cultural exchange between East and West, in order to rejuvenate both cultures, and from the mid-1990s, he actively participated in discussions on the cultural problems between the East and West, based on the same ideology. This differs from the Eurocentrism
predominant in China, as elsewhere.
He is quoted as saying,
, as a special institution for the research on The Studies of Ji Xianlin, with notable scholars such as Tang Yijie, Le Daiyun, and Liu Mengxi as senior consultants.
In 2006, Ji received a lifetime achievement award from the government of China for his contributions to the field of translation; accepting the award, he stated: "The reason our Chinese culture has been able to remain consistent and rich throughout its 5,000 years of history is closely linked to translation. Translations from other cultures have helped infuse new blood into our culture".
On January 26, 2008, the government of India
announced that Ji had been awarded the Padma Bhushan
, the first time it was awarded to a Chinese person. According to Xu Ke Qiao, an expert on Sino-Indian cultural communication at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
, "A lot of what Chinese know about India's tradition and culture has come from Ji. He translated from the original Sanskrit and rendered them in poetry in Chinese. It is a tremendous achievement covering most of his life." This has been cited as an example of growing friendship between the two nations., Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee personally presented the Padma Bhushan to Ji on 6 June 2008. Mukherjee paid a visit to the ailing 97-year-old Ji, who is the first Chinese to receive the honour, at a military hospital where he has been staying and presented the medallion and award certificate.
is reported to have told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
that Ji was his mentor.
Ji was an unabashed patriot, saying, "Even when I am burned down to ashes, my love for China will not change." As a student at Tsinghua University, he signed a petition to Chiang Kai-shek
to oppose the Japanese invaders in Nanjing
. As an impoverished but brilliant student, he said, "I haven't disgraced my country; my scores are the only comfort that I can give to my motherland."
Ji cultivated the unassuming appearance of a farmer or worker rather than a prestigious scholar, wearing bleached khaki
suits and cloth shoes, and carrying an old leather schoolbag; he is also similarly reputed as treating people of all walks of life with equal respect and sincerity. He has opined that the meaning of life lies in work, and he avoided distractions which would have detracted from his working time; in order to do one's work, however, he believed that one must stay healthy, so he exercised for his health. He is reported as having got up at 4:30 AM, breakfasting at 5:00 AM, and then beginning to write. He once said that he often felt compelled to get up at this early hour to work. Nevertheless, he wrote with great speed and efficiency, completing his famous essay "Forever Regret" within a few hours.
Often cited as fearless in his pursuit of academic truth, shown not only by daring to translate Ramayana during the Cultural Revolution, but also by his 1986 article, written against the advice of his friends, "A Few Words for Hu Shi", who at that time was in disrepute and whose work was shunned by most scholars. Ji, however, felt that academic progress required acknowledging not only Hu Shi's mistakes, but also his contributions to modern Chinese literature. His article was sufficiently convincing to many scholars that it caused a re-evaluation of the development of modern Chinese literature and the role of Hu Shi.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
Indologist, linguist, paleographer
Palaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...
, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who had been honored by the governments of both India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and China. He was born in Qingping County, now Linqing
Linqing
Linqing is a county-level city within the prefecture-level city of Liaocheng in western Shandong Province, China. It is located north-northwest of the prefectural capital Liaocheng. The city proper has about residents , whereas Linqing County as a whole had inhabitants in 1999. The city is...
, and died in the No. 301 Hospital, Beijing.
Biography
Ji attended Sanhejie Primary School and the No. 1 Middle School in JinanJinan
Jinan is the capital of Shandong province in Eastern China. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the history of the region from the earliest beginnings of civilisation and has evolved into a major national administrative, economic, and transportation hub...
, then Shandong University
Shandong University
Shandong University is a public comprehensive university in Shandong, China. It is one of the largest universities in China by student population and is supported directly by the national government....
. In 1930, he was admitted to Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...
as a major in Western literature
Western literature
Western literature refers to the literature written in the languages of Europe, including the ones belonging to the Indo-European language family as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque, Hungarian, and so forth...
. In 1935, he went to University of Göttingen as an exchange student, choosing in 1936 to major in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and less well known ancient language
Ancient language
Ancient language may refer to:*Any language attested from ancient times, see list of languages by first written accounts, historical linguistics*Languages of classical antiquity, see Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Tamil, Chinese, Latin, Arabic....
s, such as Pali
Páli
- External links :* *...
, under Professor Ernst Waldschmidt
Ernst Waldschmidt
Ernst Waldschmidt was a German orientalist and Indologist. He was a pupil of German indologist Emil Sieg....
receiving his Ph.D. in 1941, and studied Tocharian
Tocharian
Tocharian may refer to:* Tocharians, an ancient people who inhabited the Tarim Basin in Central Asia* Tocharian languages, two Indo-European languages spoken by those people...
under Emil Sieg. In 1946, he returned to China, becoming a professor at Peking University
Peking University
Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
under the recommendation of Chen Yinke
Chen Yinke
Chen Yinke was a sinologist and a fellow of Academia Sinica. His representative works are The Origins of Sui and Tang Institutions: A Brief Account 《隋唐制度淵源略論稿》, On the Political History of the Tang Dynasty 《唐代政治史述論稿》, and An Alternative Biography of Liu Rushi 《》.-Early life:Chen Yinke was born in...
, and began a long career as one of China's greatest scholars of ancient Indian languages and culture, during the course of which he made discoveries not only about such things as Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
's migration from India to China, but also more mundane cultural changes, such as the spread of paper and silk making from China to India.
Ji founded the Department of Eastern Languages at Peking University soon after his arrival, becoming dean of the department and pioneering the field of Eastern studies in China, and authoring 40 articles and 13 academic papers in the next three years. In 1956, he was elected commissioner of the Chinese Academy of Science's Department of Social Science.
During the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
(1966–1976), he secretly translated the Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
from Sanskrit into Chinese retaining the poetic format, risking the punishment which befell those convicted as "intellectuals". In 1998 he published Memoirs from the Cowshed, his account of his life during that period, which attained great popularity in China.
In 1978, Ji became vice president of Peking University and director of the Chinese Academy of Science's Research Institute on South Asia. He also served as chairman of various professional organizations, including the Chinese Foreign Literature Association, the Chinese South Asian Association and the Chinese Language Society. During this period of his career, Ji published 11 academic books and over 200 papers in more than ten academic fields, including Chinese cultural research, comparative literature, and Sanskrit.
In 1998, he published a translation and analysis of fragments of a Tocharian
Tocharian
Tocharian may refer to:* Tocharians, an ancient people who inhabited the Tarim Basin in Central Asia* Tocharian languages, two Indo-European languages spoken by those people...
Maitreyasamiti-Nataka discovered in 1974 in Yanqi.
In addition to his translation of the Ramayana, Ji wrote seven books including a short history of India. and a history of Chinese cane sugar. The Ji Xianlin Collection consists of 24 volumes containing articles on ancient Indian languages, Sino-Indian cultural relations, Buddhism, comparative and folk literature, essays, translations of literary works, etc.
Despite deteriorating health and eyesight, Ji continued to work. In the summer of 2002, he was hospitalized for a dermatological condition. He died on July 11, 2009 in the No. 301 Hospital, Beijing. His son, Ji Cheng, said that Ji died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
.
Fundamental beliefs
Ji maintained that "Cultural exchange is the main drive for humankind's progress. Only by learning from each other's strong points to make up for shortcomings can people constantly progress, the ultimate target of which is to achieve a kind of Great Harmony."Ji's philosophy divides human culture into four parts: an Eastern group consisting of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic-Islamic culture, and Western culture, consisting of European-American culture. He advocates a greater degree of cultural exchange between East and West, in order to rejuvenate both cultures, and from the mid-1990s, he actively participated in discussions on the cultural problems between the East and West, based on the same ideology. This differs from the Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective and with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture...
predominant in China, as elsewhere.
He is quoted as saying,
- "The river of Chinese civilization has kept alternating between rising and falling, but it has never dried up, because there was always fresh water flowing into it. It has over history been joined by fresh water many times, the two largest inflows coming from India and the West, both of which owed their success to translation. It is translation that has preserved the perpetual youth of Chinese civilization. Translation is hugely useful!"
Awards
On Ji's 94th birthday, August 6, 2005, the China Confucius Foundation opened the Ji Xianlin Research Institute in BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, as a special institution for the research on The Studies of Ji Xianlin, with notable scholars such as Tang Yijie, Le Daiyun, and Liu Mengxi as senior consultants.
In 2006, Ji received a lifetime achievement award from the government of China for his contributions to the field of translation; accepting the award, he stated: "The reason our Chinese culture has been able to remain consistent and rich throughout its 5,000 years of history is closely linked to translation. Translations from other cultures have helped infuse new blood into our culture".
On January 26, 2008, the government of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
announced that Ji had been awarded the Padma Bhushan
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is awarded by the Government of India.-History:...
, the first time it was awarded to a Chinese person. According to Xu Ke Qiao, an expert on Sino-Indian cultural communication at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , established in 1977, is the premier and highest academic research organization in the fields of philosophy and social sciences as well as a national center for comprehensive studies in the People's Republic of China. It was described by Foreign Policy...
, "A lot of what Chinese know about India's tradition and culture has come from Ji. He translated from the original Sanskrit and rendered them in poetry in Chinese. It is a tremendous achievement covering most of his life." This has been cited as an example of growing friendship between the two nations., Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee personally presented the Padma Bhushan to Ji on 6 June 2008. Mukherjee paid a visit to the ailing 97-year-old Ji, who is the first Chinese to receive the honour, at a military hospital where he has been staying and presented the medallion and award certificate.
Personal life
Ji was also highly regarded for his moral values, character, and personality. Chinese premier Wen JiabaoWen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao is the sixth and current Premier and Party secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, serving as China's head of government and leading its cabinet. In his capacity as Premier, Wen is regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy...
is reported to have told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
that Ji was his mentor.
Ji was an unabashed patriot, saying, "Even when I am burned down to ashes, my love for China will not change." As a student at Tsinghua University, he signed a petition to Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
to oppose the Japanese invaders in Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
. As an impoverished but brilliant student, he said, "I haven't disgraced my country; my scores are the only comfort that I can give to my motherland."
Ji cultivated the unassuming appearance of a farmer or worker rather than a prestigious scholar, wearing bleached khaki
Khaki
This article is about the fabric. For the color, see Khaki . Kaki, another name for the persimmon, is often misspelled "Khaki".Khaki is a type of fabric or the color of such fabric...
suits and cloth shoes, and carrying an old leather schoolbag; he is also similarly reputed as treating people of all walks of life with equal respect and sincerity. He has opined that the meaning of life lies in work, and he avoided distractions which would have detracted from his working time; in order to do one's work, however, he believed that one must stay healthy, so he exercised for his health. He is reported as having got up at 4:30 AM, breakfasting at 5:00 AM, and then beginning to write. He once said that he often felt compelled to get up at this early hour to work. Nevertheless, he wrote with great speed and efficiency, completing his famous essay "Forever Regret" within a few hours.
Often cited as fearless in his pursuit of academic truth, shown not only by daring to translate Ramayana during the Cultural Revolution, but also by his 1986 article, written against the advice of his friends, "A Few Words for Hu Shi", who at that time was in disrepute and whose work was shunned by most scholars. Ji, however, felt that academic progress required acknowledging not only Hu Shi's mistakes, but also his contributions to modern Chinese literature. His article was sufficiently convincing to many scholars that it caused a re-evaluation of the development of modern Chinese literature and the role of Hu Shi.