Ji Xianlin

Ji Xianlin

Ji Xianlin (1911–2009) was born in the impoverished flatlands of Shandong Province, only weeks before the Qing government was overthrown, and educated in Germany in the 1930s. After the Second World War, he returned to China to co-chair the Eastern Languages Department at Peking University. A distinguished scholar of Sanskrit and Pali, Ji was best known as an influential essayist and public intellectual. The former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao paid visits to the author during his final years and made it known that he considered Ji a mentor.

Books

The Cowshed by Ji Xianlin

The Cowshed by Ji Xianlin

The Cowshed | Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Ji Xianlin recounts the authors imprisonment and struggle during the Cultural Revolution in China. The book is the author's harrowing account of his imprisonment in 1968 on the campus of Peking University and his subsequent disillusionment with the cult of Mao.