Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t2: Feng Chengjun
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.s2.t2
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Feng Chengjun
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Feng Chengjun (June 1887-February 4, 1946) was a Chinese, was an expert in translation, scholar in Chinese and foreign traffic history. He was styled Zi Heng and born in Xiakou County (now Hankou, Wuhan City), Hubei Province.
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He received old-style education in China. In 1903, he went to study in a secondary school in Belgium. Between 1905 and 1906, he studied in Université de Liège, Belgium. Between 1906 and 1910, he went to France and studied the science of law in Université
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[Figure: Feng Cheng Jun’s, *‘Xiyu Diming’* (Place names of the Western Regions)]
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de Paris. In 1910, he obtained the Bachelor Degree in Law and then started his research works in Collège de France. After the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911, he returned to China and successively served as Hubei Governor’s Secretary, First Secretary of the House of Representatives, Secretary of the Education Ministry and head of the third division of the Special Education Department. In 1920s, he successively served as a professor of the History Department of Peking University, professor of the History Department of Beijing Normal University, and also engaged in translating European works on Orientalism. He stopped working after he had a stroke in 1929 and committed himself to translation till he died of illness in Peiping (present-day Beijing) on February 4, 1946.
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His translation works include *Chinese Travelers* (by Chavannes, 1926), *Les seize Arhat’s protecteurs de la loi* (by Sylvain Lévi, 1930), *Buddhist Studies* (by Jean Przyluski, 1930), *Le catalogue geographique des yaksa dans la Mahamayuri* (by Sylvain Lévi, 1931), *Investigations on two sea routes starting from Cochin and Canton* (by Paul Pelliot, 1933) and *Asvaghosa, le Sutralamkara et ses sources* (by Sylvain Lévi, 1934). On top of that, he also compiled and published *Collected Translations of Textual Researches on the History and Geography of Western Regions and South China Sea*, ninth volumes, many of which were translated and introduced from European works, mainly the research results of France in Orientalism. His monograph *China Nanyang Traffic History* (1937) gives a detailed account of the historical interaction process between China and countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty. He also compiled *Place Names of the Western Regions* (1930.3+) and *Collection of Papers on the Historical Geography of the Western Regions* (1931). His studies were not limited to chronological historical data in Chinese. He integrated the experiences of the academic community of the west and adopted information source like Buddhist documents, which have laid a foundation for studying Chinese and foreign traffic history and broadened the vision of studies.
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(*Zhang Minyu*)