Shen Zengzhi The Chronicle Compiled A Long,

The end of the Qing dynasty after the Opium War was one of the most turbulent period during the long history of China. All kinds of people played their different roles in this historical stage. The culture showed colourfully in addtion to the great changes in the field of politics and economy. The Chinese academic traditions had transformed thoroughly in the influence of the confliction between east and west. As a master of the era and the leading scholar, MR. SHEN ZENG-ZHI (沈曾植) was the representive figure in mordern academic transformtion.Mr. Shen (1850--1922) who had some different names as Zi-Pei, Yi-An, Mei-Sou etc. ,was born in peking ,but his hometown was JiaXing county Zhejiang province.He passed the royal examination in 1880,and gained the title of Jinshi. He hold several posts in central government for eighteen year .He helped Mr. Kang-you-wei (康有为) to make social and political reformations and became one of the sponsers of the famous organization QiangXueHui (强学会) in 1895.He had taken charge of the history lecture in LiangHu-ShuYuan (两湖学院) (Institution of Hunan-and-Hubei province) from 1898 to 1900. He was also the chancerllor of NanYang-Gongxue([南 洋公学)(the Former of the Jiao-tong University in Shanghai )in 1901.Then he was appointed local officals in Jiangxi and Anhui provinces from 1903 to 1910.He lived in Shanghai from 1911 .Ever since then he had neverstoped restorationist activities until his death.Mr. Shen saw internal disturbance and foreign aggression from his chi ldhood.He learned very hard and carried on good tradition of the older gene rat ions. He experted in history and geography of northwest China and foreign trade of the coastal provinces in southern China.He was eager to put his ideas into practise with his knowledge.Having been worked in the Ministry of Punishments for a long time, Mr. Shen became a good jurist and had rich knowledge on legal systems of the past ages.He worte some works on law by collecting and editing ancient decrees.Mr. Shen was proficient in Buddhism and Taoism.He made many reserches and worte a lot of notes on these two fields.He was good at writing poems and proses in classic elegance.This made him to be one of the most important writers of the wellknown school of the poetry named Tongguang style (同光体) which had wild influence in litterature history of late Qing dynasty .He had a poetry anthology named Hairilou (海日楼)which was his house building in Shanghai .Being an outstanding calligrapher called the first man of the Qing dynasty in the field, he had high appreciation on arts, such as inscriptions,stone rubbings,printed books,ancient paintings,etc.Mr. Shen who had broad vision was very cencern with contemporary affairs ,and centrated upon European and Japanese political and culturalthoughts as well, which were beyond traditional field of study.He enjoyed great prestige in academia both at home and aboard.Masters of sinology around world such as Paul Pel Hot , 内藤湖南(Naito Konan),etc. had greatest esteem for him and surely visited him when they arrived in China.In a word, Mr. Shen was a rare encyclopaedic scholar. But he have been forgotten for a long time.It is no doubt a gap in academic history of mordern time. So this chronicle are written to show the whole life of Mr.Shen. The annual biography are in five sections.A) 1850—1879,the period before he passed the royal examination.B) 1880—1997,the period of being offcials in central government.C) 1898—1902,the period of being in Wuchang and Shanghai.D) 1903—1910,the period of being offcials in local government.E) 1911—1922,the period after he relieved office.The dissertation which collected a great deal of available and original materials is attempted to give detail description on this learned man who was a milestone in mordern history of Chinese culture.It will probably gain good enlightment from his life and his cause for the development of Chinese academy.