Hu Shih (redirected from Hu Shi)

Hu Shih (h shŭr), 1891–1962, Chinese philosopher and essayist, leading liberal intellectual in the May Fourth Movement (1917–23). He studied under John Dewey at Columbia Univ., becoming a lifelong advocate of pragmatic evolutionary change. While professor of philosophy at Beijing Univ., he wrote for the iconoclastic journal New Youth (see Chen Duxiu). His most important contribution was promotion of vernacular literature to replace writing in the classical style. Hu Shih was also a leading critic and analyst of traditional Chinese culture and thought. He was ambassador to the United States (1938–42), chancellor of Beijing Univ. (1946–48), and after 1958 president of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan.

Bibliography

See J. B. Grieder, Hu Shih and the Chinese Renaissance (1970).

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Hu Shih

 or Hu Shi

(born Dec. 17, 1891, Shanghai, China—died Feb. 24, 1962, Taiwan) Chinese Nationalist scholar and diplomat who helped establish the vernacular as the official written language. Hu studied under John Dewey at Columbia University and was profoundly influenced by Dewey's philosophy and pragmatic methodology. Back in China, he began writing in vernacular Chinese, the use of which spread rapidly. Because he eschewed dogmas such as Marxism and anarchism as solutions for China's problems, he found himself opposed by the communists but also distrusted by the Nationalists. In 1937, when war broke out with Japan, he and the Nationalists were reconciled, and Hu became ambassador to the U.S. He finished his life as president of Taiwan's Academia Sinica.