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Hu Shih Quotes

Hu Shih , also known as Hu Suh in early references, was a Chinese philosopher, essayist and diplomat. Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese liberalism and language reform in his advocacy for the use of written vernacular Chinese. He was influential in the May Fourth Movement, one of the leaders of China's New Culture Movement, was a president of Peking University, and in 1939 was nominated for a Nobel Prize in literature. He had a wide range of interests such as literature, philosophy, history, textual criticism, and pedagogy. He was also an influential redology scholar and held the famous Jiaxu manuscript for many years until his death. Wikipedia  

✵ 17. December 1891 – 24. February 1962
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Hu Shih: 3   quotes 0   likes

Famous Hu Shih Quotes

“The original dispute was one of poetic diction… From an interest in the minor problem of poetic diction I was led to see that the problem was really one of a suitable medium for all branches of Chinese literature. The question now became: In what language shall the New China produce its future literature? My answer was: The classical language, so long dead, can never be the medium of a living literature of a living nation; the future literature of China must be written in the living language of the people. "No dead language can produce a living literature." And the living language I proposed as the only possible medium of the future literature of China, was the pei-hau, the vulgar tongue of the vast majority of the population, the language which, in the last 500 years, had produced the numerous novels read and loved by the people, though despised by the men of letters. I wanted this much despised vulgar tongue of the people and the novels to be elevated to the position of the national language of China, to the position enjoyed by all the modern national languages in Europe.”

Hu Shih

The Chinese Renaissance (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934), p. 50

“India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”

Hu Shih

As quoted in Consolation of Mind (2004) by H. K. Suhas, p. 111

“It is only through contact and comparison that the relative value or worthlessness of the various cultural elements can be clearly and critically seen and understood. What is sacred among one people may be ridiculous in another; and what is despised or rejected by one cultural group, may in a sdifferent environment become the cornerstone for a great edifice of strange grandeur and beauty.”

Hu Shih

The Chinese Renaissance (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934), p. 46

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