Hu Shih

Hu Shih (simplified Chinese: 胡适; traditional Chinese: 胡適; pinyin: Hú Shì; Wade–Giles: Hu Shih, 17 December 1891 – 24 February 1962), born Simen (Chinese: 嗣穈; pinyin: Sì Mén; Wade–Giles: Ssu Men) and originally wrote under Hu Hung-hsing (simplified Chinese: 胡洪骍; traditional Chinese: 胡洪騂; pinyin: Hú Hóngxīng; Wade–Giles: Hu Hung-hsing) with the courtesy name Xijiang (Chinese: 希疆; pinyin: Xījiāng), was a Chinese philosopher, essayist and diplomat. He later changed his name to Hu Shih and his courtesy name to Shih-chih (simplified Chinese: 适之; traditional Chinese: 適之; pinyin: Shìzhī; Wade–Giles: Shih-chih). He also had a number of other noms de plume. 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, history, textual criticism, and pedagogy. He was also an influential redology scholar and held the famous Jiaxu manuscript (Chinese: 甲戌本; pinyin: Jiǎxū běn; Wade–Giles: Chia-hsü pen) for many years until his death.