Gu Jiegang

Gu Jiegang was a prominent Chinese intellectual who played a key role in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, which sought to modernize China and resist foreign imperialism. He was also a founder and the leading force of the Doubting Antiquity School, which challenged the mythological and legendary accounts of ancient Chinese history. He was a pioneer in the fields of historical linguistics, historical geography, and cultural anthropology, and made significant contributions to the study of ancient Chinese history and civilization. He was also a prolific writer who published many books and articles on various topics, such as the origins of Chinese writing, the development of Chinese philosophy, the history of Buddhism in China, and the impact of Western culture on China. He was a staunch advocate of democracy and human rights, and opposed the authoritarian regimes of both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. He was also a mentor and friend to many influential Chinese scholars, such as Hu Shih, Chen Yinke, and Qian Mu. He died of old age in Beijing in 1980, at the age of 87. He was widely respected and admired by his contemporaries and later generations, and is regarded as one of the most influential Chinese intellectuals of the 20th century.