Chen Wangdao, a famous Chinese writer and educator
Chen Wangdao (January 18, 1891 – October 29, 1977), formerly known as Sanyi, pen name Fotu and Xuefan, was a native of Yiwu, Zhejiang, and a famous Chinese thinker, social activist, educator, linguist, and founder of the Communist Party. He studied in Japan in his early years and graduated from Chuo University in Japan with a bachelor's degree in law. After returning to China, he actively advocated the new cultural movement, served as the editor of "New Youth", and translated and published the first Chinese full translation of the Communist Manifesto. He is a member of the Shanghai Initiating Group of the Communist Party of China. He has successively served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Fourth National People's Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the Third and Fourth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and a vice chairman of the Third Central Committee of the China Democratic League. He was elected as a member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and devoted his life to the teaching and research of progressive language movements and language science, established the scientific system of rhetoric in China, and had a deep understanding of philosophy, ethics, literary and artistic theory, and aesthetics. He is the chief editor of "Ci hai", and the author of "Rhetoric And Fan", "Brief Theory of Grammar" and so on.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as deputy director and minister of culture of the Cultural and Educational Committee of the East China Military and Political Committee, director of the East China Higher Education Bureau, president of Fudan University, member of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, deputy head of the language group of the Scientific Planning Committee of the State Council, and chairman of the Shanghai Federation of Philosophy and Social Sciences. He is a deputy to the Second, Third and Fourth National People's Congresses, a member of the Standing Committee of the Fourth National People's Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the Third and Fourth National Political Consultative Conferences, a vice chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a vice chairman of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, and a chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the China Democratic League.
In 1977, he completed the finalization of his last work, A Brief Treatise on Grammar (1978), on his sickbed. The book is divided into seven chapters, many of which are further developments of some insights from the late 1930s and early 1940s. The book uses more ink on the problem of word classes, not only talking about the basis for word class distinction, but also talking about the Chinese word class system. He divided the actual words of Chinese into four categories: body words, word use, dot words, and adverbs. Body words include nouns and pronouns; Words include verbs, adjectives, assertions, and weighing words; Point words include number words and referential words; Add adverbs to form 9 categories. Virtual words include three categories: prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliaries. In addition to real words and virtual words, there are another category of sensory words, a total of 13 categories. The syntactic part is relatively simple, and he divides the compound predicate into four types: juxtaposition, passing, joining, and carrying. This book is another important scholarly work after Rhetoric.
In addition, he has many papers. His treatises have been included in the four-volume "Collected Works of Chen Wangdao" or in the "Collection of Chen Wangdao's Language Treatises" and "Chen Wangdao's Rhetorical Treatises" according to the topic. Chen Wangdao was a professor at Fudan University, Shanghai University (referring to the former Shanghai University that operated from 1922 to 1927), National Anhui University, Guangxi University, Sun Yat-sen University and other universities.
On October 29, 1977, Chen Wangdao died at the age of 86. On January 23, 1980, in accordance with the spirit of the instructions of the Party Central Committee, the Organization Department of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China held a ceremony to cover the party flag for Comrade Chen Wangdao's urn at the Shanghai Revolutionary Cemetery.