潘重規   Pan, Zhong-Gui   1908~2003

Born in Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province, China in 1908, Zhonggui Pan had been talented, shrewd and diligent in study since his tender age. He was enrolled in the Department of Chinese Literature, National Southeastern University (now Nanjing University) in 1924, where he sat at the feet of Xie Wang and Kan Huang. The former excelled in the studies of Dream of the Red Chamber, and the latter specialized in historical Chinese semantics. Inheriting the research attitude from the two masters, Pan was careful and rigorous in terms of studying. After crossing the strait to Taiwan, he used to serve as professor, head of department, director of institute, and dean of college in foreign and domestic universities, relishing his endeavor of cultivating a great number of students. When Pan taught at National Taiwan Normal University, he orchestrated the Lecture Series of Four Books to advocate the thoughts of Confucius and Mencius, which always drew a capacity crowd. As an influential figure in academia, he also debated Dream of the Red Chamber with Shi Hu and defended traditional Chinese against simplified Chinese advocated by Jialun Luo. In his twilight years, Pan devoted himself to Tunhuangology by travelling far to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia) and museums in the United Kingdom and France for the purpose of examining the originals. He single-mindedly spent decades on promoting the lost knowledge of the Chinese people. In 1974, he won the Prix Stanislas Julien, the most prestigious award of Sinology in France. The Dunhuang Research Academy also conferred him the title of honorary fellow in 1992, and the Executive Yuan presented him with the National Cultural Award in 1995.