Jian Youwen

Jian Youwen was a Chinese historian, public official, and Methodist pastor, who lived during the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic of China. He was born in Xiangqiao, Chaoshan, China in 1896. He was home-schooled and self-taught, and wrote his first scholarly work at the age of 14. He attended Oberlin College and the University of Chicago in the United States, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees. He returned to China in 1921 and taught religion at Yenching University. He joined the Nationalist Party in 1926 and became a close associate of General Feng Yuxiang, the "Christian Warlord". He held various official positions, such as salt commissioner, head of the political department, and member of the Legislative Yuan. He was also a founder and director-general of the Guangdong Institute of History and Culture. He was a versatile and prolific scholar, who contributed to many fields of humanities, such as history, archaeology, epigraphy, folklores, religion, art history, musicology, literature, and Near Eastern Studies. He published more than 100 books and about 1,000 academic articles over his career. He was especially renowned for his research on the Taiping Rebellion and the history of Central Asia. He translated the Akkadian creation myth into Chinese. He was considered one of China's greatest humanities academics by his contemporaries. He received many awards and honors, including the Grand Bauhinia Medal, the highest honour bestowed by the Hong Kong government. He died of natural causes in Hong Kong in 1978 at the age of 82.