Ch'ien Mu

Ch'ien Mu, (Chinese: 錢穆; pinyin: Qián Mù; 30 July 1895 – 30 August 1990), was a Chinese historian, educator, philosopher and Confucian, considered to be one of the greatest historians and philosophers in 20th-century China.

Life in China

His biographer sketches the "economic mold" of Seven Mansions, his ancestral home in Wusih, Kiangsu (now Wuxi, Jiangsu), to suggest that in his childhood world the "small peasant cosmos" of rituals, festivals, and beliefs held the family system together. He received little formal modern education, but gained his knowledge on Chinese history and culture through traditional home study.

He started his teaching career in universities in China the in 1920s.

Life in Hong Kong

Ch'ien arrived in Hong Kong in 1949. With help from the Yale-China Association, along with other scholars he cofounded New Asia College. He later received honorary doctorates from both Yale University and Hong Kong University.

Life in Taiwan

Ch'ien relocated to Taiwan in October 1967 after accepting an invitation from the then President Chiang Kai-shek in response to the Hong Kong 1967 Leftist Riots. He was given land in Waishuangxi in the Shilin District to build his home Sushulou (素書樓) while continuing as a freelance academic researching and giving lectures at universities in Taiwan. Ch'ien retired from teaching in 1984. After becoming one of the three constituent colleges of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in 1978 New Asia College inaugurated the Ch'ien Mu Lectures in his honour.

Guizhou

Guizhou (Chinese: 贵州; pinyin:  Guìzhōu; postal: Kweichow) is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.

Name

The area was first organized as an imperially-controlled Chinese administrative region during the Tang dynasty, and was named "Juzhou" (矩州, Middle Chinese: Kjú-jyuw). During the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, the element "Ju" ("carpenter's square") was changed to the more refined "Gui" ("precious"). The region formally became a province in 1413, with its capital at old Guizhou (modern Guiyang).

History

From around 1046 BCE to the emergence of the Qin Dynasty, northwest Guizhou was part of the State of Shu. During the Warring States period, the Chinese state of Chu conquered the area, and control later passed to the Dian Kingdom. During the Chinese Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), to which the Dian was tributary, Guizhou was home to the Yelang collection of tribes, which largely governed themselves before the Han consolidated control in the southwest and established the Lingnan province. During the Three Kingdoms period, parts of Guizhou were governed by the Shu Han state based in Sichuan, followed by Cao Wei (220–265) and the Jin Dynasty (265–420).