Qian Xuantong

Qian Xuantong (钱玄同, 188717 January 1939) was a Chinese linguist and writer considered to be a leading figure of the Doubting Antiquity School, along with Gu Jiegang. He was a professor of literature at National Peking University.

Biography Born in Huzhou, Zhejiang, Qian was named Qian Xia at birth and was given the courtesy name Deqian. Qian trained in traditional Chinese philology. After receiving his university education in Japan, Qian held a number of teaching positions in mainland China. He was a student of Zhang Binglin; some of Zhang's works were copied and printed in Qian's seal script handwriting. As a philologist, Qian was the first to reconstruct the vowel system of Old Chinese in the IPA.

A close friend of Lu Xun, Qian was a key figure in the May Fourth Movement and the New Culture Movement. Despite his close relationship with the Chinese classics, he promoted the abolition of Literary Chinese. He was also a strong supporter of Esperanto, at one time even proposed the substitution of Chinese by it. An open letter Qian wrote in response to an anti-Confucian essay by Chen Duxiu stated: In Culture The Era of Awakening (觉醒年代) — 2021 Drama by CCTV 电视剧.