It was at Cornell that he first conceived of the Chinese renaissance movement. Rowing on Lake Cayuga, he was inspired to begin thinking of modernization that would deeply influence Chinese culture.
On this page, Hu Shih is shown in 1914, when he received his bachelor's degree from Cornell. Lake Cayuga is visible beyond the campanile in the photograph of the Cornell campus.
(File photo)
China's greatest contemporary scholar received his PhD at Columbia and returned home in 1917 to develop his thoughts on literary reformation.
On August 7 of that year, Hu Shih began his long association with the National Peking University. He first taught philosophy and later was dean of the College of Arts. From 1941 to 1949, he was chancellor.
In the photograph of Peking University scholars, Hu Shih is the second from the right. Second from the left is Dr. Tsai Yuan-pai, chancellor of Peita when Hu Shih went there.
The calligraphy (bottom) is Dr. Hu's copy of a poem by Tao Yuan-ming of the Chin Dynasty. It concerns sadness at exile from one's beloved motherland.
(File photo)
Dr. Hu was acclaimed both at home and abroad. In trips through Europe and America, he gained a reputation as an outstanding lecturer as well as a scholar's scholar.
At home, he was involved in some of China's most sweeping intellectual reforms. Concrete measures for transforming the written Chinese language into the vernacular pai hua were first advanced in the periodical New Youth.
Cover (left) and title page of Experimental Poems, written in pai hua, are reproduced above. Below, at right, is cover of a New Youth issue. At left, Dr. Hu is seen in his New York study in November, 1957, just before coming to Taipei as Academia Sinica president.
(File photo)
At Columbia University, Hu Shih came under the influence of the great American philosopher-educator John Dewey (top). When Dr. Hu returned to China, he introduced and popularized the Dewey-James philosophy of pragmatism.
Ever underlying his own beliefs was Dewey's abiding faith in the scientific method, which he sought to apply in the social sciences, humanities and even the precepts he laid down for his own life.
But as with Dewey, the logic of pragmatism went hand in hand with idealistic faith in the perfectibility of mankind. He was deeply interested in the United Nations from its beginnings and was a delegate at two sessions. Bottom, he addresses the General Assembly in 1957.
(File photo)
In both speech and writing, China's great scholar railed against arranged marriage, just as he hammered away at such other burdens of the past as bound feet.
But his marriage to Kiang Tung-hsiu in 1917 was arranged and turned out to be one of the most richly rewarding associations of his life. He loved his wife dearly and that love was reciprocated in full measure by the woman who bore him two sons.
Top, Dr. Hu is shown with his son Hu Tsu-wang, daughter-in-law Hu Tseng Shio-chao and grandson Hu Fu.
Bottom, he and Mrs. Hu attend an Academia Sinica reception October 30, 1961, to welcome her to Taiwan. She came from the United States to be with her husband after his first heart attack.
(File photo)
Gentle and unassuming, Dr. Hu nevertheless had a tremendous impact on the great personalities of his time, reaching from Sun Yat-sen through President Chiang Kai-shek and such Americans as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.
At top, he acts on behalf of the National Assembly in certifying Chiang Kai-shek as the duly elected presidential candidate in 1954. At center, he talks with President Eisenhower at the Grand Hotel in Taipei June 18, 1960.
Bottom, Hu Shih, second from left, front row, poses with other members of the newly established China Committee of UNESCO. The year was 1946 and Dr. Hu was president of National Peking University. Third from left, front row, is Chu Chia-hua, then minister of education.
(File photo)
It was the morning of February 24, and Hu Shih cast his vote for seven new members of the Academia Sinica. He was in a happy frame of mind, among the fellow-scholars whom he loved so well and served so unselfishly.
Late that afternoon, in the Tsai Yuan-pai Memorial Building shown here, Dr. Hu presided at a reception. He was obviously tired but in good spirits. Joking with his guests, he repeatedly urged them to eat and drink heartily.
Toward evening, while bidding farewell to departing members, he was stricken by a heart attack and collapsed. A half hour later, his spirit was gone. The half smile around his lips attested that he had died as he would have wished: in the harness of scholarship.
(File photo)
For days, the mortuary was thronged by those who come for a lost look at Chino's great man of scholarship. From President Chiang Kai-shek to pedicab drivers, all had tears to shed for on intellect that had won universal respect and admiration.
The line passing the bier was ceaseless by both day and night. They come not out of curiosity but to do honor to one who represented almost every outstanding value that Chinese culture has to offer.
Tens of thousands lined the streets as the funeral cortege passed by. It was the largest such procession in Taiwan's history—a tribute to one of the few truly civilized men of our time.