Biographical Dictionary of Republican China by Howard L. Boorman; Richard HowardReview by: Immanuel C. Y. HsüJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 89, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1969), p. 253Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/598326 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 06:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofthe American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.134 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:34:52 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Reviews of Books 253

Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. HOWARD L. BOORMAN, Editor, AND RICHARD

HOWARD, Associate Editor. Vol. I, Ai- CH't, pp. 479; Vol. II, DALAI-MA, pp. 478. New York and London: COLUMBIA UNI-

VERSITY PRESS, 1967-68. $20 each volume.

With great enthusiasm and expectation, stu- dents of modern and contemporary China greet the publication of the first two volumes of a pro- jected five-volume set, Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, edited by Howard L. Boorman and Richard C. Howard and beautifully produced by Columbia University Press. The work is in- tended to be a supplement to Arthur W. Hummel's excellent set, Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644-1912), and is indeed a worthy sequel. Covering the pivotal period of 1911 to 1949, the work fills an important gap in our understanding of contemporary China.

Twelve years in the making, the project, which began in 1955, came to fruition in 1966. The original plans called for 800 entries but by the early 1960's the number was reduced to 600. Persons included are those involved in (1) do- mestic politics, (2) external relations, and (3) socio-economic developments. Two additional categories consist of women and particular indi- viduals such as calligraphers and artists, etc. However, cooks, professional courtesans, fortune tellers, and athletes are deliberately omitted.

The work has many characteristics. It includes biographies of living people as well as those who have died. Each entry starts with a brief identify- ing paragraph, followed by an account of the subject's background, early life, career, writings, and family. Contributors came from both the United States and abroad, and not a few of them

had formerly written for Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. However, unlike the Eminent Chinese, articles in the present work are unsigned for the obvious reason of discretion, since many of the subjects are still alive and their biographies have been executed by friends and acquaintances. Moreover, all articles have been drastically re- vised, edited, and rewritten so that, as the editors confess, "no article in the completed work corre- sponds exactly to the original manuscript sub- mitted" (p. x). Also, articles are not followed by a bibliography, as they are in Eminent Chinese, although there is a general bibliography at the end of each volume. The projected Volume Five is to be a full bibliography.

Among the 150 entries in the first volume, some of the more important figures include Chiang Kai- shek, Chou En-lai, Ch'en Yi, Chu Chia-hua, and Ch'i Ch'iu-pai. Volume 2, which has 200 entries, includes such names as Lin Piao, Liu Shao-ch'i, K'ang Yu-wei, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, Hu Shih, and Ho Ying-ch'in.

The contributors and the editors have suc- ceeded admirably in relating the biographies to the historical and social context in which their sub- jects lived. They have vividly recaptured the spirit and ethos of the times and the personalities they wrote about. Messrs. Boorman, now pro- fessor of history at Vanderbilt University, and Howard, now curator of the Wason Collections at Cornell University, deserve high commendation and gratitude from all of us for having performed splendidly a most painstaking and arduous task. We eagerly await the publication of the other three volumes.

IMMANUEL C. Y. Hst

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.134 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 06:34:52 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions