Luo Zhenyu

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Luo Zhenyu (Chinese: 羅振玉) (1866 - 1940), courtesy name: Shuyun (叔蘊) was a Chinese philologist, epigrapher, antiquarian, and book collector.

A native of Suzhou, he began to publish works of agriculture in Shanghai after the First Sino-Japanese War. With his friends, he set up Dongwei Xueshe (東文學社), a Japanese language teaching school in 1896. One of the students there was Wang Guowei. From 1906 onwards, he held several different government posts, mostly related to agriculture. Being a loyalist to the Qing Dynasty, he fled to Japan when the Xinhai Revolution took place in 1911. He returned to China in 1919, taking part in the restoration activities. He worked for the Manchukuo for some time.

He toiled throughout his life to preserve Chinese antiques, especially the oracle bones, bamboo and wooden slips (簡牘 jiandu), and Dunhuang scrolls, all of which have become invalubale material for the understanding of ancient China. He was one of the first scholars to decipher the oracle bone script, and produced many important works of bronzeware script. He helped published Liu E's Tieyun Canggui (鐵雲藏龜), the first collection of oracle bones, and Sun Yirang's Qiwen Juli (契文舉例), the first work of decipherment of the oracle bone script. Luo's own work Yinxu Shuqi Kaoshi (殷虛書契考釋) still occupies an important place in the study of oracle bone script.

[edit] References

He Jiuying 何九盈 (1995). Zhongguo xiandai yuyanxue shi (中囯现代语言学史 "A history of modern Chinese linguistics"). Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe.
Zhongguo da baike quanshu (1980-1993). 1st Edition. Beijing; Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe.