Yu Ying-shih
Encyclopedia
Yu Ying-shih is a Chinese American
historian known for his mastery of sources for Chinese history and philosophy, his ability to synthesize them on a wide range of topics, and for his advocacy for a new Confucianism. He is an Emeritus Professor of East Asian Studies
and History at Princeton University
.
province, where they would be safe from Japanese invasion. He later recalled that “although rujia 儒家 [Confucian] culture was in a degenerate state, it nevertheless controlled the activities of daily life: by and large, all interpersonal relationships—from marriage and funeral customs to seasonal festivals—adhered to the rujia norms, supplemented by Buddhist and Daoist beliefs and practices.”
, but in 1950 came to Hong Kong for reunion with his family. He then studied in the newly founded New Asia College
, later incorporated into Chinese University of Hong Kong
. The founders of New Asia College, which Yű joined as a student, were staunchly anti-Communist, rejected the iconoclastic New Culture Movement
but did not see Western liberal thought as the alternative. Yu studied with Ch'ien Mu
, a scholar rooted in traditional Chinese philosophy, and became the first graduate of the college. He is remembered both as an international prodigy at weiqi (or Chinese chess) and for the number of cigarettes he smoked.
On Ch'ien's recommendation, he came to Harvard University
in the United States in 1955, and earned his PhD in 1962. He then lectured in various universities including University of Michigan
, Harvard, Yale University
and Princeton University
. He is one of the few people to have been tenured at three Ivy League
universities. In 1973, he came back to his alma mater, New Asia College. He became the Head of the College and also the Pro Vice-Chancellor of University, before returning to Harvard, then moving to Yale in 1977, and then to Princeton in 1987. He retired from Princeton in 2001.
(1890- 1969), the greatest modern scholar of Tang dynasty China, who was at first supported and then hounded to death by the revolution. His Harvard PhD thesis was published as Trade and Expansion in Han China; a Study in the Structure of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967). Scrupulous and thematically relevant monographs, mostly published in Chinese, explored the role of intellectuals, especially early modern moral and political critics such as Fang Yizhi (1611-71), Dai Zhen
(1723-77), and Zhang Xuecheng
(1738-1801), who had been neglected in earlier scholarship. Yű also mastered the scholarship around Honglou Meng, the novel known in English as Dream of the Red Chamber
, a masterpiece exploring the decline of a rich family at the height of the Qing empire in the late 18th century.
The insistent, modest, meticulous voice of history which Yű developed in these studies was the one he used in the debates over democracy in the 1980s and 1990s. Some people, including both the defenders of the state in Beijing and western modernization liberals, still insisted that democracy and Confucianism were incompatible. But Yu developed the philosophical and historical arguments perhaps implicit in the thought of his mentors: liberal Confucian values, once freed from the imperial ideology of the dynasties, are essential to democracy: The independent spirit of the scholar both models and creates responsible criticism of politics. Confucian values had always insisted on the critique of political power, moral judgment grounded in historic comparison, the voice of the people in governance, the contingent nature of the political mandate, public discourse, the responsibility of the individual for social action, and could even be developed for a contemporary view of women’s rights.
On November 15, 2006, it was announced that Yu Ying-shih was the third recipient of the John W. Kluge Prize
for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity. He shares the prize with John Hope Franklin
.
He is the older brother of Paul Yu
.
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
historian known for his mastery of sources for Chinese history and philosophy, his ability to synthesize them on a wide range of topics, and for his advocacy for a new Confucianism. He is an Emeritus Professor of East Asian Studies
Asian studies
Asian studies, a term used usually in the United States for Oriental studies and is concerned with the Asian peoples, their cultures, languages, history and politics...
and History at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
.
Early life
The Yu family spent the years 1937 through 1946 in rural AnhuiAnhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
province, where they would be safe from Japanese invasion. He later recalled that “although rujia 儒家 [Confucian] culture was in a degenerate state, it nevertheless controlled the activities of daily life: by and large, all interpersonal relationships—from marriage and funeral customs to seasonal festivals—adhered to the rujia norms, supplemented by Buddhist and Daoist beliefs and practices.”
University
In 1949, he enrolled in the department of History in Yenching UniversityYenching University
Yenching University was a university in Beijing, China. It integrated three Christian colleges in the city in 1919. Yenching is an alternative name of Beijing - derived from its status as capital of Yan state, one of the seven Warring States from 5th century BC to 3rd century BC.The university...
, but in 1950 came to Hong Kong for reunion with his family. He then studied in the newly founded New Asia College
New Asia College
The New Asia College is now one of the constituent colleges of the Chinese University of Hong Kong .- History :New Asia College has its origin in the Asia Evening College of Arts and Commerce established in September 1949 by Ch'ien Mu and several other scholars from mainland China...
, later incorporated into Chinese University of Hong Kong
Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Chinese University of Hong Kong is a research-led university in Hong Kong.CUHK is the only tertiary education institution in Hong Kong with Nobel Prize winners on its faculty, including Chen Ning Yang, James Mirrlees, Robert Alexander Mundell and Charles K. Kao...
. The founders of New Asia College, which Yű joined as a student, were staunchly anti-Communist, rejected the iconoclastic New Culture Movement
New Culture Movement
The New Culture Movement of the mid 1910s and 1920s sprang from the disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Chinese Republic, founded in 1912 to address China’s problems. Scholars like Chen Duxiu, Cai Yuanpei, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, and Hu Shi, had...
but did not see Western liberal thought as the alternative. Yu studied with Ch'ien Mu
Ch'ien Mu
Ch'ien Mu , was a Chinese historian, educator, philosopher and Confucian considered one of the greatest historians and philosophers in 20th-century China....
, a scholar rooted in traditional Chinese philosophy, and became the first graduate of the college. He is remembered both as an international prodigy at weiqi (or Chinese chess) and for the number of cigarettes he smoked.
On Ch'ien's recommendation, he came to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in the United States in 1955, and earned his PhD in 1962. He then lectured in various universities including University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, Harvard, Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. He is one of the few people to have been tenured at three Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
universities. In 1973, he came back to his alma mater, New Asia College. He became the Head of the College and also the Pro Vice-Chancellor of University, before returning to Harvard, then moving to Yale in 1977, and then to Princeton in 1987. He retired from Princeton in 2001.
Writing
While still in Hong Kong, Yű started to write books and pamphlets in Chinese commenting on the problems of intellectuals and democracy in the People’s Republic. He was particularly tenacious over the years in presenting the achievements of Chen YinkeChen 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...
(1890- 1969), the greatest modern scholar of Tang dynasty China, who was at first supported and then hounded to death by the revolution. His Harvard PhD thesis was published as Trade and Expansion in Han China; a Study in the Structure of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967). Scrupulous and thematically relevant monographs, mostly published in Chinese, explored the role of intellectuals, especially early modern moral and political critics such as Fang Yizhi (1611-71), Dai Zhen
Dai Zhen
Dai Zhen was a notable Chinese scholar of the Qing Dynasty from Xiuning, Anhui. A versatile scholar, he made great contributions to mathematics, geography, phonology and philosophy...
(1723-77), and Zhang Xuecheng
Zhang Xuecheng
Zhang Xuecheng was a Qing Dynasty historian, writer and thinker. His magnum opus is On Literature and History , which was published posthumously in 1832. In Zhang's view, the Confucian Way developed over time in response to the concrete needs of the people for social organization...
(1738-1801), who had been neglected in earlier scholarship. Yű also mastered the scholarship around Honglou Meng, the novel known in English as Dream of the Red Chamber
Dream of the Red Chamber
Dream of the Red Chamber , composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was composed in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature and is generally acknowledged to be a pinnacle of...
, a masterpiece exploring the decline of a rich family at the height of the Qing empire in the late 18th century.
The insistent, modest, meticulous voice of history which Yű developed in these studies was the one he used in the debates over democracy in the 1980s and 1990s. Some people, including both the defenders of the state in Beijing and western modernization liberals, still insisted that democracy and Confucianism were incompatible. But Yu developed the philosophical and historical arguments perhaps implicit in the thought of his mentors: liberal Confucian values, once freed from the imperial ideology of the dynasties, are essential to democracy: The independent spirit of the scholar both models and creates responsible criticism of politics. Confucian values had always insisted on the critique of political power, moral judgment grounded in historic comparison, the voice of the people in governance, the contingent nature of the political mandate, public discourse, the responsibility of the individual for social action, and could even be developed for a contemporary view of women’s rights.
On November 15, 2006, it was announced that Yu Ying-shih was the third recipient of the John W. Kluge Prize
Kluge Prize
The John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity is awarded for lifetime achievement in the humanistic and social sciences to celebrate the importance of the Intellectual Arts for the public interest.-Overview:...
for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity. He shares the prize with John Hope Franklin
John Hope Franklin
John Hope Franklin was a United States historian and past president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and...
.
He is the older brother of Paul Yu
Paul Yu
Paul Yu was the President of State University of New York at Brockport between 1997-2004. During his presidency, SUNY Brockport rose to Tier 2 within the SUNY system...
.
External links
- Despotism, market and Confucianism in the age of Wang Yang-ming. Video lecture given by Yu Ying-shih at the Library of Congress in 2005
- Kluge Prize Winner 2006 - Yu Ying-shih
- Address of Yu Ying-shih on the Occasion of Receiving the John W. Kluge Prize at the Library of Congress
- China rediscovers its own history. Video lecture given by Yu Ying-shih at the Library of Congress in 2007
- China's return to tradition: how to interpret the new forces emerging in China. Video lecture given by Yu Ying-shih at the Library of Congress in 2007