Chen Mengjia

Chen Mengjia (; 20 April 19113 September 1966) was a Chinese scholar, poet, paleographer and archaeologist. He was considered the foremost authority on oracle bones and was Professor of Chinese at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

He was married to the poet and translator Zhao Luorui (aka Lucy Chao, 1912–1998). Chen committed suicide in 1966, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution after being labeled a "capitalist intellectual" and Rightist and being persecuted by officials.

Life Chen was born and raised in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. His father was a Presbyterian minister.

In his youth Chen had been a poet, under the pen name Wanderer, his first poem was published when he was 18. He was a member of the Crescent Moon Society in Shanghai, a group of romantic poets during the early 20th century. In 1932 he joined the resistance against Japanese aggression in Shanghai during the January 28 Incident. At that time he also studied law in Nanjing, but in 1932 began to research classical Chinese literature and religion, before turning to the study of Chinese writing and archaeology at Yenching University in Beijing, where he specialised in the study of oracle bones and ancient Chinese bronzes.

In 1944 Chen and his wife Lucy Chao were both awarded humanities fellowships by the Rockefeller Foundation to study at the University of Chicago in the United States. Chen also received financial support from the Harvard-Yenching Institute. His life and achievements became known to wider audience outside China with the publication in 2006 of Peter Hessler's book Oracle Bones.

Chen Mengjia and his wife Lucy Chao collected Chinese antiques, especially furniture. Before his suicide, Chen wrote a letter to Ma Chengyuan of the Shanghai Museum, declaring his intent to donate the furniture to the museum. However, after the deaths of the couple, Chao's brother-in-law Zhao Jingxin refused to donate the collection, instead selling it to the museum.