Fu Ssu-nien, scholar, and political and social critic, was one of the most colourful, influential intellectual figures in twentieth-century China. Wang Fan-sen's biography of Fu's life and contributions offers an in-depth examination of his role in intellectual development in modern China. Fu's life in many ways embodied the dilemma faced by modern Chinese intellectuals: dissatisfied with the model of the traditional literati, they lacked a professional, academic model to take its place. Fu's early years as a student leader of the May Fourth movement and subsequent life as an activist were born of intellectual dissatisfaction: as an educator and founder of the Institute of Philology and History at Peking University and the Academia Sinica, he worked to fill the void by professionalizing Chinese research and education. This book, incorporating original, previously unpublished material from Fu's personal archives, fills a major gap in the cultural and intellectual history of modern China.

"this eminently readable book deserves the attention of all those interested in modern Chinese culture and intellectual history." American Historical Review Feb 2002

"The book addresses a very important period in the transformation of modern Chinese historical thinking...This book rests on superior scholarship and an exhaustive study of all the available published and unpublished sources, including archives and private papers. It provides a lively and sympathetic portrait of Fu Sinian and his times, and through this adds an important new dimension to the intellectual history of the May Fourth era and of prewar and wartime China under the Nationalists." The China Journal