Liu Fengzhang (1859-1935)

Liu Fengzhang (1859-1935)

Mom's 1935 photo of her Uncle Liu Fengzhang (1859-1935)
(Red-yellow duotone added in Adobe Photoshop to Mom's B&W photo)

When Mom visited China in March-April 1979, she located a copy of her Uncle Liu Fengzhang's Zhou Yi Ji Zhu (周易集註), a commentary on the I Ching, originally published in 1934. This scholarly work was long out of print. So Mom was determined to reprint the book with a new appendix on his life. Dad had studied with Mom's uncle and had spoken of him with high regards. When Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930) visited China (1899), Liu Fengzhang recommended scholars such as Lao Nai-hsuan (1843-1921) to help him translate the I Ching to German (1913) which was completed in 1923. This version was later translated to English by Cary F. Baynes (1883-1977) and had a profound influence in the West (Bolligen Edition, Princeton University Press, 1967). Mom encouraged Dad to write 7 pages of his reminiscences of her Uncle. She asked the Confucian scholar Hsü Fu-kuan (徐復觀), another student of Liu Fengzhang to contribute 6 pages. Finally, Mom wrote 13 pages in memory of her Uncle, adding a rare black & white photo she had taken of her Uncle in his last year. Then Mom had 100 copies reprinted in Taiwan by Taibei Xian Banqiao Shi (1982) and send complimentary copies to the Library of Congress, the Ivy Leagues colleges, Stanford, and some other major universities. The rest she gave as gifts to friends and relatives. She took pride in this project, saying that it will rekindle her Uncle's memory to future generations of scholars in philosophy.