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Ji Xianlin: A Gentle Academic Giant
On August 6, as Ji Xianlin, an outstanding
scholar in academic circles, celebrated his 94th birthday, the Ji Xianlin
Research Institute, launched by the China Confucius
Foundation, was opened in Beijing,
signifying the establishment of a special institution for the research on "The
Studies of Ji Xianlin."
As a prominent academician, Ji Xianlin is highly praised both at home and
abroad for his moral quality, his articles, and his scientific achievements as
well as his good personality. The Ji Xianlin Research Institute is based in
Shandong University, with some famous scholars, such as Tang Yijie, Le Daiyun,
and Liu Mengxi, as senior consultants. Any teacher or research personnel
interested in the research on Ji Xianlin can be part-time researchers of the
institute.
Brief Biography of Ji Xianlin
Ji Xianlin, a renowned paleographer (one who
studies the writing and documents from the past), historian, and writer, was
born in 1911 in Qingping County (today's Linqing City) of East China's Shandong
Province.
Ji Xianlin studied in Sanhejie Primary School and the No.1 Middle School in
Jinan
City before entering Shandong University. In 1930, Ji was admitted to Tsinghua
University as a major in Western literature. In 1935, he went to Germany
as an exchange student to study ancient languages such as Sanskrit, Pali,
Tocharian, and so on, receiving his PhD degree in 1941.
Ji returned to China in 1946, and in the autumn of the same year, became a
professor in Peking
University under the recommendation of Chen Yanluo. Ji founded the
Department of Eastern Languages soon after, acting as dean of the department and
blazing a trail in the field of Eastern studies in China.
In 1956, Ji was elected commissioner of the Chinese Academy of Science's
Department of Social Science.
Two years after the Culture Revolution (1966-1976), in 1978, he became vice
president of Peking University and director of the Chinese Academy of Science's
Research Institute on South Asia.
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