Chen Yuan
Chen Yuan (1880-1971), Ziyuan'an. Zodiac Sign: Dragon. A native of Xinhui County, Guangdong Province.
He graduated from Guangzhou Guanghua Medical College in 1910, co-founded Aurora Daily in 1911, was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the Provisional Government of Nanjing in 1912, and devoted himself to governance and teaching in 1913 due to political chaos.
From 1917 onwards, he successively wrote "YuanYeLi Kewen Kao", "Huo Zoroastrian Examination into China", "Manichaean Examination into China", "Hui hui into China History", "Yuandian Zhang School Supplementary Interpretation", also known as "Proofreading Interpretation", "Old Five Dynasties History Series", "Twenty Shi Shuo Leap Table", "Chinese and Western Hui History Calendar", "Shi Zhen Example", "Southern Song Dynasty Hebei Xinxing Taoist Examination", "Ming Dynasty Dianqian Buddhist Examination", "Early Qing Monk's Slander", "Introduction to Chinese Buddhist Classics", "Tongjian Hu Notes", and so on.
He successively founded Guangzhou Guanghua Medical College, Beijing Orphans' Work And Reading Garden and Beijing Civilian Middle School.
He served as the director of the Beijing Normal Library, the librarian of the Palace Museum, a professor at Yenching University, National Peking University, and Beijing Normal University, the president of the private Peking Furen University (1929-1952), and an academician of the Academia Sinica of the National Government (1948).
After the founding of New China, he joined the Communist Party of China in 1959 (before his death, he handed over 40,000 yuan of savings as a party fee to the organization). He successively served as president of Beijing Normal University (1952-1971), director of the Second Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1955), vice chairman of the Second and Third Committees of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and member of the Standing Committee of the First (By-election), Second and Third National People's Congresses.
In October 1951, Mao Zedong shared a table with Chen Yuan at a state banquet at Huairen Hall. Mao Zedong introduced to people: "This is Chen Yuan, who reads a lot and is a national treasure of our country..."
Mao Zedong and Chen Yuan at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai
After his death in Beijing in June 1971, his family followed his will and handed over all of his treasured more than 40,000 books and nearly 2,000 cultural relics. Most of the books are now in the National Library, and another 281 artifacts are now in the Capital Museum.
Former residence of Chen Yuan