Yang Shuda

Yang Shuda (1885–1956), courtesy name Yufu and style name Jiwei, was a native of Changsha, Hunan, and a renowned Chinese philologist and scholar of historical documents. After studying in Japan in his early years, he went on to teach at Tsinghua University, Hunan University and other institutions. He was elected an academician of the Academia Sinica in 1948 and a member of the Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955. He devoted his life to the study of Chinese grammar, textual exegesis and ancient literature, and wrote such works as Ciquan, Hanshu Kuiguan and Jiwiju Jinwen Shuo. His scholarship spanned Eastern philosophy, culture and traditional Chinese language and writing, and his rigorous, deeply learned works are highly regarded in academic circles. This site includes three of his works—lectures on the Analects, on Han dynasty marriage and funeral customs, and on classical Chinese rhetoric—which show how he moved from philology into the classics and history, seeking principles through solid evidence, and which remain helpful for understanding the classics and ancient Chinese.