Hu Xiansu | |
|---|---|
胡先骕 | |
 Hu in 1940 | |
| Born | (1894-05-24)24 May 1894 |
| Died | 16 July 1968(1968-07-16) (aged 74) |
| Resting place | Mount Lu, Jiangxi |
| Education | |
| Known for | Pioneer ofbotany andplant taxonomy in China |
| Children | 6 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral advisor | John George Jack |
| Notable students | |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Hu |
Hu Xiansu orHu Hsen-Hsu (simplified Chinese:胡先骕;traditional Chinese:胡先驌;Wade–Giles:Hu Hsien-Hsu, 24 May 1894 – 16 July 1968),courtesy nameBuzeng (Chinese:步曾), was a Chinesebotanist, scholar, literary critic and educator. He was the founder ofplant taxonomy in China and a pioneer of modern botany andpaleobotany research in the country.[2] One of his most notable achievements as a botanist was the identification of theliving fossilMetasequoia glyptostroboides (dawn redwood) in the 1940s, which was previously thought to have been extinct for over 150 million years.[2][3] This has been considered by some in the scientific community as one of the greatest botanical discoveries of the 20th century.[4]
Outside botany, Hu also made significant contributions in the field ofliterary critique and education. In 1922, in opposition of theNew Culture Movement that promotedvernacular literature, Hu co-foundedThe Critical Review, a major Chinese-language journal which advocated the preservation ofChinese classical literature.[5][6] From 1940 to 1944, Hu served as the inaugural president ofNational Chung Cheng University, what is now primarily[a]Jiangxi Normal University.Targeted as an intellectual during theCultural Revolution, Hu Xiansu endured repeatedstruggle sessions, the stress of which likely contributed to his fatal heart attack inBeijing on 16 July 1968.[7]
Hu Xiansu was born on 24 May 1894 (20 of the forth month in thelunar calendar) inNanchang,[b]Jiangxi to Hu Chengbi and Chen Caizhi. His family belonged to a lineage of scholar-officials. Considered aprodigy, he read theThree Character Classic and theThousand Character Classic at the age of three and knew thousands of characters, and at four he started to learn theAnalects and knew more than ten thousand characters.[8][9][10]
Hu's great-grandfatherHu Jiayu [zh] was a high-official in the Qing Court. Hu Xiansu was given thecourtesy name of Buzeng (Chinese:步曾;pinyin:bù zēng;lit. 'Following the steps of great-grandfather') by his father, indicated his family's desire for Hu to emulate his great-grandfather's success.
Hu's father died in 1902. He was raised by his mother and relatives thereafter.[8][9]
Theimperial examinations were abolished in 1905, and in 1906 Hu went to the Hongdu Middle School in Nanchang and started modern education. Hu studied a preparatory course at the Imperial University of Peking (nowPeking University) in 1909. In October 1911 theXinhai Revolution overthrew theQing dynasty, discontinuing the operations of the university and ending Hu's studies there.[9]
Hu went to theUnited States in December 1912 and enrolled in the University of California (nowUniversity of California, Berkeley). During his years in Berkeley, Hu became an active member of the newly foundedScience Society of China and joined the editorial board of the Society's journalScience. At the same time, Hu read English literature extensively.[11]
In 1914 Hu befriendedHu Shih in the United States, developing a lifelong friendship.[12][better source needed] In May 1916, Hu graduated with honours in botany and became members of thehonour societies ofSigma Xi andPhi Beta Kappa.[10] In 1918, he became a faculty member of Nanking Higher Teacher's School (now mainlyNanjing University).[8]
Hu went to the United States again in 1923 and studied inArnold Arboretum ofHarvard University, receiving his doctorate in 1925. His doctoral dissertation,[c] under the supervision ofdendrologistJohn George Jack, was the first comprehensive survey of plants in the whole of China.[2]
In 1920 and 1921, Hu conducted large-scale plant collections inZhejiang,Jiangxi andFujian. In 1921, Hu andzoologistPing Chih founded the first biology department in Chinese public universities (previously, only missionary universities in China had biology departments). In 1922, Hu, Ping, andYang Xingfo founded the Institute of Biology of theScience Society of China, the first biological research institute in China.[13]
In 1923, Hu along with colleaguesZou Bingwen [zh] andSung Shu Chien published the college-level textbookAdvanced Botany, the first such textbook compiled by Chinese scholars.[9] It became widely used in universities around China.[9]
In 1926, Hu resigned from the Department of Biology ofSoutheast University and became a full-time research fellow at the Institute of Biology of the Science Society of China.[2]
In 1928, Hu named the newgenusSinojackia, becoming the first Chinese to describe a new genus. The genus was named after his Harvard advisor John George Jack.[13]
In 1928, Hu moved to Beijing and co-founded the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology. The Fan Institute was named afterFan Yuan-Lien, an important educator and philanthropist. With long term financial support from the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture, the Fan Institute developed into a major scientific institute in China. Hu directed the botanical branch of the Fan Institute and from 1932 served as the director of the Institute until 1949. Meanwhile, he taught part-time in the biology departments of Peking University andBeijing Normal University.
In 1933, Hu played a leading role in the founding of theBotanical Society of China, serving as its second president.
In 1934, Hu founded theLushan Forest Botanical Garden inJiujiang, Jiangxi.[2] In the same year he named the newplant familyTorricelliaceae, becoming the first Chinese botanist to describe a new family. Over his career, Hu named and described several hundred new species of plants.[2]
Through Hu's influence, the Lushan Forest Botanical Garden established wide exchange networks with botanical gardens and research institutes around the world. In 1936, fearing for the likelihood of a potentialoutbreak of war in northern China, Hu established the Yunnan Institute of Agriculture and Forest (later renamedKunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences) in southwestern China.[2][14]
Between 1938 and 1940, Hu co-authoredThe Miocene Flora of Shandong Province,China withRalph W. Chaney, it was the first work investigating China'sCenozoic fossil plants, and is considered the cornerstone of current knowledge of Asian Cenozoic plants.[2]
In the 1940s, Hu andWan-Chun Cheng identified the modern existence of the genusMetasequoia inSichuan,[3] naming the newly discovered species ofMetasequoia theglyptostroboides, which was previously known only from fossils.[15] The name of this species was derived from its resemblance to the Chinese swamp cypress (Glyptostrobus).[16]
Between 1940 and 1944, he served as the inaugural president (principal) of theNational Chung Cheng University (now primarily[d]Jiangxi Normal University).[17]
In the 1950s, SovietagronomistTrofim Lysenko's anti-Mendelian doctrines in genetics known asLysenkoism dominated biological science and agricultural practices in China.[e] The Mendelian doctrine and its practitioners were shunned. Despite this environment, Hu was openly critical of Lysenkoism, being the first major academic in China to publicly denounce it as pseudoscience.[2] After refusing to publicly apologise and rescind the statements against Lysenkoism, Hu was publicly denounced by the state, and the textbook which he wrote containing related material was banned.[19] Later on Hu was not elected as an Academician to the Chinese Academy of Sciences despite his contributions to Chinese sciences, something partially attributed to his opposition to Lysenkoism.[20]
Between 1950 and 1968, he served as a researcher at the Institute of Plant Taxonomy and theInstitute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.[2]
In May 1968 during the midst of theCultural Revolution, Hu's workplace informed him that his salary had been suspended. His home was repeatedly ransacked; the books, calligraphy, and paintings he had collected throughout his lifetime were confiscated by the workplace.[21][7]
As an intellectual, one of the groups targeted during the Cultural Revolution, Hu endured repeatedstruggle sessions, in which he was ordered to wear aKuomintang flag to signify his past relation. On 15 July, he was notified to go to his workplace the next day to attend extended struggle sessions, the stress that the news caused on Hu was massive; in the early morning of 16 July 1968, Hu was found dead on his bed, having suffered a heart attack.[21][22][23] Hu's funeral was held in theBabaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery on 15 May 1979, during which academics and officials from across the country came to pay their respects, and Hu's workplace posthumously reinstated his suspended salary.[7] He was buried at the Metasequoia forest in the Pine and Cypress district of theLushan Botanical Garden atMount Lu on 15 May 1984.[21][7]
In the aftermath of his death, interest towards Hu's works reduced. In the 1990s, interest in Hu's works reemerged.[2]
Hu is considered one of the foremost contributors to Chinese sciences in the 20th century. The discovery of theMetasequoiaglyptostroboides in particular is considered one of the most significant in botany within the 20th century.[4]
Hu helmed the effort advocating the creation of a national botanical garden in China, which would eventually become theChina National Botanical Garden, earning him the title "father" of the project upon its eventual completion in 2022.[24]
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