Tsai Yüan-Pei

Ts’ai Yüan-P’ei

 

Born January 1868 in Shaohsing, Szechwan Province; died May 5, 1940, in Hong Kong. Chinese scholar and political figure.

Ts’ai Yüan-p’ei became head of the revolutionary society Kuang Fu Hui in 1904. In 1912, during the presidency of Sun Yatsen, he served as minister of education of the Republic of China. In 1916 he became head of Peking University. He supported both the movement for a new culture and the anti-imperialist May Fourth Movement of 1919. In 1927, Ts’ai Yüan-p’ei became a member of the Central Control Commission of the Kuomintang and president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After 1931 he opposed the imperialist aggression of Japan and the capitulatory policies of Chiang Kai-shek. Ts’ai Yüan-p’ei took part in the movement for friendship with the USSR.