Tang Yijie (; 16 February 1927 − 9 September 2014) was a Chinese scholar and professor at

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

, who has been described as China's top scholar on philosophy and

Chinese studies Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization p ...

. He spearheaded the Confucian Canon project, seeking to compile all known classical works on

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

, and was the first director of the Institute of Confucian Studies at Peking University.

Life and career

Tang was born in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

in 1927. His father, Tang Yongtong, was a scholar of Chinese traditional philosophy and President of

(PKU). Tang Yijie entered PKU in 1946 and graduated in 1951. While at PKU, he was in the same class with Shen Chong, although he did not know her personally. He participated in the nationwide anti-American protests in 1946 after Shen was allegedly raped by American soldiers. In 1958, Tang was affected by the

Anti-Rightist Movement The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged " Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign wa ...

, when he objected to his wife being declared a "Rightist" and expelled from the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP). After the start of the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

in 1966, he lost his teaching position at Peking University and was sent to the countryside to perform manual labour. In 1973, he became part of the "Liang Xiao" ( 梁效) criticism group, and was investigated after the end of the Cultural Revolution. He was not able to resume teaching until 1980, when he was 51. Tang wrote more than two dozen books on schools of Chinese philosophy. In the last decade of his life, he led the monumental " Confucian Canon" (儒藏) project, which involves 400 scholars. The project seeks to compile all known classical works on Confucianism, estimated to comprise more than 5,000 works with approximately a billion

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

. The project is due to be finished in 2025. In 2010, the Institute of Confucian Studies was established at Peking University, and Tang Yijie was named its first director. In May 2014, CCP

general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping, pronounced (born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission ...

visited Tang at Peking University, and lauded him for his "exceptional contribution" to the promotion of traditional Chinese culture.

Political views

Tang Yijie supported political reforms in China. During the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

, he joined a group of eminent scholars to plead to the government for leniency for the dissident

Wei Jingsheng Wei Jingsheng (; born 20 May 1950) is a Chinese human rights activist and dissident. He is best known for his involvement in the Chinese democracy movement. He is most prominent for having authored the essay " The Fifth Modernization", which ...

, who had been imprisoned for a decade for advocating democracy.

Family

Tang Yijie met Yue Daiyun, a fellow student at Peking University, in 1949, and married her in 1952. They remained married until his death. Yue is a scholar of

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

. The couple have a son and a daughter.

Death

Tang Yijie fell ill in 2013 and died on 9 September 2014 in Beijing, at the age of 87.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tang, Yijie 1927 births 2014 deaths Philosophers from Tianjin Peking University alumni Academic staff of Peking University Educators from Tianjin 20th-century Chinese philosophers 21st-century Chinese philosophers