Born in Huzhou, Zhejiang, Qian was 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 remarkable seal script handwriting. As a philologist, Qian was the first to reconstruct the vowel system of Old Chinese in IPA.

A close friend of Lu Xun, Qian was a key figure in the May Fourth Movement. Despite his close relationship with the Chinese classics, he promoted the abolition of classical Chinese. He was also a strong supporter of Esperanto, at one time even proposed the substitution of Chinese by it. He and Liu Bannong did their best to promote vernacular Chinese, attacking such classical Chinese stylists as Lin Shu. His skepticism of the Chinese heritage was such that he at one time wanted to change his surname to Yi Gu (?? "suspecting things ancient"). He also did many important works for the standardization of Simplified Chinese character and of Mandarin, and for the design of pinyin.

His son Qian Sanqiang was a nuclear physicist who contributed to development of nuclear weapons in China.

References

• He Jiuying ??? (1995). Zhongguo xiandai yuyanxue shi (???????? "A history of modern Chinese linguistics"). Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe.
• Wu Rui ?? (1996). Qian Xuantong pingzhuan (????? "A Biography of Qian Xuantong"). Nanchang: Baihuazhou wenyi chubanshe.

External links

fr:Qian Xuantong no:Qian Xuantong zh:???

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