Lufei Kui (, 17 September 1886 – 9 July 1941) was a Chinese educator, essayist, linguist, and
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
. His
courtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theob ...
was Bohong (). He founded the influential publisher
Zhonghua Book Company
Zhonghua Book Company (), formerly spelled Chunghwa or Chung-hua Shu-chü, and sometimes translated as Zhonghua Publishing House, are Chinese publishing houses that focuses on the humanities, especially classical Chinese works. Currently it has ...
, and was an early advocate for
simplified Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, as prescribed by the ''Table of General Standard Chinese Characters''. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one o ...
.
Early life
Lufei was born in a
scholar-official
The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats (), were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class.
Scholar-officials were politicians and governmen ...
family in
Hanzhong
Hanzhong (; abbreviation: Han) is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shaanxi province, China, bordering the provinces of Sichuan to the south and Gansu to the west.
The founder of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang, was once enfeoffed as th ...
,
Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...
, though his parents had come from
Tongxiang
Tongxiang City () is a county-level city, part of Jiaxing, in northern Zhejiang Province, China, bordering Jiangsu province to the north. It had a population of 1,029,754 as of the 2020 census even though its built-up (''or metro'') area is sm ...
,
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
. His mother was a niece of
Li Hongzhang
Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; 15 February 1823 – 7 November 1901) was a Chinese politician, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in important ...
, a famous Chinese politician during the late
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...
. In his early years, Lufei was taught in
classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
by his mother. Beginning in 1898, he attended to Nanchang English School () and started to learn English and Japanese. He was influenced by new thought and was thus pro-revolutionary.
Career
In the spring of 1903, Lufei went to
Wuchang
Wuchang forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. It is the oldest of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the ri ...
, where he launched the "Xinxuejie Bookstore" (). As the manager, he sold many pro-revolution books and booklets. He joined the underground revolution movement and became a surveillant. In 1905 he became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper ''Chubao'' () and after the closure of the newspaper under the pressure of Governor
Zhang Zhidong
Zhang Zhidong () (4 September 18375 October 1909) was a Chinese politician who lived during the late Qing dynasty. Along with Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang, Zhang Zhidong was one of the four most famous officials of the late Qing ...
he fled to
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
. There, he was employed as the manager and editor of a publishing company. In late 1906, Lufei joined Wenming Books, a textbook publishing company as an editor, and also became the headmaster of Wenming Primary School. As his contributions and responsibilities increased at Wenming Books, he started to become a major figure in education and publishing in Shanghai.
In 1908, Lufei joined The
Commercial Press
The Commercial Press () is the first modern publishing organisation in China.
History
In 1897, 26-year-old Xia Ruifang and three of his friends (including the Bao brothers Bao Xian'en and Bao Xianchang) founded The Commercial Press in Shang ...
and soon was in charge of publication and communications. In 1909, the Commercial Press started the first professional magazine in education in China, the ''
Education Magazine'' (), and Lufei became its Editor-in-Chief. Lufei believed that education was the key in making a better nation. He published many essays and thesis on the magazine to introduce his ideas in educational reforms.
In 1909, Lufei published an article titled "General Education Should Use Vernacular Characters" () ''on Jiaoyu Zazhi''. This is the first time in history to advocate the promotion of simplified Chinese characters. In 1922, Lufei published another article "Deliverance on Coordinating Chinese Characters" (), in which he suggested that educators should respect the simplified characters invented by the folk and should adopt these characters in their teaching. He also proposed to simplify complex characters systematically.
Lufei is also known as the founder of
Zhonghua Book Company
Zhonghua Book Company (), formerly spelled Chunghwa or Chung-hua Shu-chü, and sometimes translated as Zhonghua Publishing House, are Chinese publishing houses that focuses on the humanities, especially classical Chinese works. Currently it has ...
, one of the most influential contemporary publishing company, in textbooks, dictionaries, translations of important books in the world, as well as in
classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
and Chinese historical publications. Lufei founded Zhonghua Book Company in 1912 on the same day as the founding of
Republic of China (1912-1949)
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
and immediately published a new set of textbooks for schools in the post Qing dynasty republic. In the 1930s, Zhonghua was one of the most successful publishing companies in East Asia. By the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
, the annual income of Zhonghua was over 10,000,000 yuan and had over 40 branches throughout China. In Shanghai and Hong Kong, it had over 3,000 employees. Under the management of Lufei, Zhonghua published a series of important books for Chinese cultural and historical studies, such as ''
Zhonghua Da Zidian
The ''Zhonghua Da Zidian'' () is an unabridged Chinese dictionary of characters, originally published in 1915 by the Zhonghua Book Company in Shanghai. The chief editors were Xu Yuan'gao (徐元誥), Lufei Kui (陆费逵), and Ouyang Pucun (歐� ...
'', ''
Cihai
The ''Cihai'' is a large-scale dictionary and encyclopedia of Standard Mandarin Chinese. The Zhonghua Book Company published the first ''Cihai'' edition in 1938, and the Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House revised editions in 1979, 1989, ...
'', ''Sibu Beiyao'' () and the ''
Gujin Tushu Jicheng
The ''Gujin Tushu Jicheng'' (), also known as the ''Imperial Encyclopaedia'', is a vast encyclopedic work written in China during the reigns of the Qing dynasty emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng. It was begun in 1700 and completed in 1725. The wor ...
''.
[中华书局与中国近现代文化,复旦大学历史系等编,上海人民出版社,2013 (Zhonghua Book Company and China's Modern Culture)]
During the war, due to his influence, Lufei's life was threatened by Japanese agents. He moved the headquarters of Zhonghua to
Kunming. Then he went to Hong Kong in order to produce enough books for the endangered nation. In 1941, Lufei died of
cerebral hemorrhage.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lufei, Kui
1941 deaths
1886 births
20th-century essayists
Businesspeople from Shaanxi
Chinese publishers (people)
Educators from Shaanxi
Linguists from China
Republic of China essayists
Writers from Hanzhong
20th-century linguists