Hu Xiansu

Hu Xiansu
胡先骕
Hu in 1940
Born(1894-05-24)24 May 1894
Died16 July 1968(1968-07-16) (aged 74)
Resting placeMount Lu, Jiangxi
NationalityChinese
Education
Known for
Children6
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisorJohn George Jack
Notable students
Author abbrev. (botany)Hu
Hu Xiansu and Hu Shih in 1925, Hu Shih titled this picture "the nemesis friends" due to the friendship between the pair despite disagreements over culture and politics.[1]

Hu Xiansu or Hu Hsen-Hsu (simplified Chinese: 胡先骕; traditional Chinese: 胡先驌; Wade–Giles: Hu Hsien-Hsu, 24 May 1894 – 16 July 1968), courtesy name Buzeng (Chinese: 步曾), was a Chinese botanist and scholar. He was the founder of plant taxonomy in China and a pioneer of modern botany and paleobotany research in the country.[2] One of his most notable achievements as a botanist was the identification of the living fossil Metasequoia glyptostroboides (dawn redwood) in the 1940s, which previously thought to have been extinct for over 150 million years.[2][3] This has been considered by some in the scientific community as one of the greatest botanical discoveries of the 20th century.[4]

Outside botany, Hu also made significant contributions in the field of literary critique and education. In 1922, in opposition of the New Culture Movement that promoted vernacular literature, Hu co-founded The Critical Review, a major Chinese-language journal which advocated the preservation of Chinese classical literature.[5][6] From 1940 to 1944, Hu served as the inaugural president of National Chung Cheng University, what is now mainly[a] Jiangxi Normal University. Targeted as an intellectual during the Cultural Revolution, Hu Xiansu endured repeated struggle sessions, the stress of which likely contributed to his fatal heart attack in Beijing on 16 July, 1968.[7]


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