Ji Chaoding
Ji Chaoding (Chinese: 冀朝鼎; Wade–Giles: Chi Ch'ao-ting; 1903–1963) was a Chinese economist and political activist. His book Key Economic Areas in Chinese History (1936) influenced the conceptualization of Chinese history in Europe by emphasizing geographic and economic factors as the basis of dynastic power.
Ji Chaoding (Chi Ch'ao-ting) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | October 9, 1903 Fenyang, Shanxi, Qing China | ||||||||||
| Died | August 9, 1963 (aged 59) Beijing, People's Republic of China | ||||||||||
| Other names | Richard Doonping, Hansu Chan | ||||||||||
| Spouses | Harriet Levine Chi (1906–1997); Luo Jingyi | ||||||||||
| Scientific career | |||||||||||
| Fields | Economics, History | ||||||||||
| Institutions | Institute of Pacific Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People's Republic of China | ||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 冀朝鼎 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Ji was educated at Tsinghua University in China, then in the United States at University of Chicago and Columbia University. He became a member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As an underground party member he was on the staff of the Institute of Pacific Relations in the 1930s before returning to China in 1939. He became a trusted adviser to the Ministry of Finance in the wartime Nationalist government but remained in China as a well-placed official in the new government of the People's Republic of China after 1949. Only after his death was his long-time Party membership acknowledged.
Joseph Needham, author of Science and Civilisation in China, called Ji a "learned and brilliant writer" and Key Areas "perhaps the most outstanding book on the development of Chinese history among Western books in those days."