Ding WenJiang Studies

Ding Wenjiang is a legend in modern history in China. He is a remarkable geologist and a most famous pioneer among the scientists who receives the 20th century western education. Meanwhile, he is also the government official, the newsman, the entrepreneur, the statesman and the educationalist, and a leader in Beijing academic circles in 1920s and 1930s, and he is one of the most important people in Chinese New Culture Movement. "The Branch Unreliable Big Polemics", which is guided by Ding Wenjiang, is a significant historical event in the enlightenment of Chinese modern history. However, such a person who had remarkable contribution in the history, has not obtained fairly historic evaluation for a long time due to the lacking of understanding to history. Generally, he has been treated as a villain, and once been considered as "the reactionary warlord's accomplice". Based on the mass collections of Ding Wenjiang's historical materials, the paper analyses various history facts comprehensively for the hope of knowing Ding Wenjiang thoroughly and historically.First, the paper reviews Ding Wenjiang's teenage times and his historical experience and growing process of pursuing knowledge. Second, it describes his contribution on geology: training large understanding talents;hardworking and setting himself an example to others when he was working in geological research institute and geological investigation institute, which setting up a exemplary person for Chinese geological scholar;his sincerely love to talents, his assigning magnanimously the Chinese, the foreigner, the old man and the younger to the post, making the geological investigable institute which he is in charge of becoming a famous science center in the world with in a short time;one of creators and founders in the Chinese modern geology and paleontology. Third, it analyzes his political view: his active interferences to politics, his idea in meliorate politics, which causes misunderstanding, and leads to some controversy, but history proves him not an accomplice, but a person just fighting for his ideals and a patriotic scientist who is worth studying and surveying again. Fourth, it investigates his activity in scientific culture: holding scientific flag aloft, arousing and guiding "the branch unreliable war", which bring important and postive impact toward later Chinesescientific culture. Finally, on the base of these, it summarizes Ding Wenjiang's whole life: a person who has the remarkable contribution in Chinese modern history, a historical person far from perfect because of time and his own limitation.