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John Ching Hsiung Wu

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John Ching Hsiung Wu
Wu Jingxiong
Born(1899-03-28)March 28, 1899
Ningbo, Qing China
DiedFebruary 6, 1986(1986-02-06) (aged 86)
OccupationJurist, Author
Alma materShanghai Baptist College
Peiyang University
Soochow University
University of Michigan (JD)
GenreLaw, Catholicism, Tang poetry

John Ching Hsiung Wu[a] (also John C.H. Wu; Traditional Chinese: 吳經熊; pinyin: Wu Jingxiong) (28 March 1899, Ningbo – 6 February 1986) was a Chinese jurist and author. He wrote works in Chinese, English, French, and German on Christian spirituality, Chinese literature (including a translation of the Tao Te Ching) and on legal topics. On his Tao Te Ching translation, Thomas Merton said Wu's work was "absolutely necessary for us not only to progress but even to survive."[1]

Biography

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A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, he was the principal author of the constitution of the Republic of China (ROC).[2] He maintained a correspondence with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.[3] and later produced scholarly work examining Holmes' legal thought. Previously a Methodist, he was a convert to Roman Catholicism after reading the biography of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

Wu served as an adviser in the Chinese delegation to the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco and served as the Chinese ambassador to the Vatican in 1947-49.[4] He resigned in August, by which time the ROC Foreign Ministry had already re-located to Taipei due to Nationalist losses in the Chinese Civil War.[5]: 186  Wu requested that the ROC delay naming his replacement because of what he described as the delicate situation.[5]: 186 

In 1957, Wu was appointed a judge of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.[4] After the Chinese Communist Revolution, Wu worked as a professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law in New Jersey until retiring to Taiwan in 1967.[4]

Works by John C. H. Wu

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  • Juridical Essays and Studies (Shanghai, China: Commercial Press, 1928) (Shanghai, China: Commercial Press, 1933)
  • Some Unpublished Letters of Justice Holmes ([Shanghai, China]: s.n., 1935)
  • The Art of Law and Other Essays Juridical and Literary (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1936)
  • Essays in Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy ([Shanghai]: Soochow University Law School, 1938) (1981)
  • The Science of Love: A Study in the Teachings of Thérèse of Lisieux (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Press, 1941)(Hong Kong: Catholic Truth Society, 1941)
  • Justice Holmes to Doctor Wu: An Intimate Correspondence 1921-1932. New York: Central Book Co. 1947.
  • From Confucianism to Catholicism (Huntingdon, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Press, 1949)
  • Beyond East and West. New York: Sheed and Ward. 1951 – via Internet Archive. (Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1951) (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1952) (Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1969) (Beijing: She hui ke xue wen xian chu ban she, 2002)
  • The Interior Carmel: The Threefold Way of Love (London: Sheed & Ward, 1954) (Taipei, Taiwan: Hwakang Bookstore, 1975)
  • Fountain of Justice: A Study in Natural Law (New York; Sheed and Ward, 1955)(London: Sheed and Ward, 1959)(Taipei: Mei Ya Publications, 1971)
  • Justice Holmes: A New Estimate (Philadelphia: Brandeis Lawyers Society, 1957)
  • Cases and Materials on Jurisprudence (St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co., 1958)
  • Chinese Humanism and Christian spirituality (Jamaica, New York: St. John's University Press, 1965)
  • Sun Yat-sen: The Man and His Ideas (Taipei: Published for Sun Yat-sen Cultural Foundation by the Commercial Press, 1971)
  • The Four Seasons of T`ang Poetry (Rutland, Vermont: C.E. Tuttle Co., 1972) ISBN 978-0-8048-0197-3
  • Zhongguo zhe hsuëh [Chinese philosophy] (Taipei, Taiwan: China Academy, 1974)
  • The Golden Age of Zen (Taipei, Taiwan: United Publishing Center, 1975) (Taipei: Hua kang ch`u pan yu hsien kung ssu / tsung ching hsiao Hua kang shu ch`eng, 1975) (New York: Doubleday, 1996. ISBN 978-0-385-47993-6)
  • Tao Teh Ching (translation) (New York: St. John's University Press, 1961) [Dao teh jing (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1997)] (Boston: Shambhala, 2003)
  • "Chinese Legal and political Philosophy," [pp. 213–237] in The Chinese Mind: Essentials of Chinese Philosophy and Culture, ed. Charles A. Moore (Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1967)

Notes

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  1. ^ Sometimes erroneously written as John Chin Hsung Wu.

References

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  1. ^ "Daily Diminishing". resurgence.org. The Resurgence Trust. Retrieved November 6, 2022.
  2. ^ Note (2019). "Dr. Wu's Constitution" (PDF). Harv. L. Rev. 132: 2300–2321.
  3. ^ Justice Holmes to Doctor Wu: An Intimate Correspondence 1921-1932. New York: Central Book Co. 1947.
  4. ^ a b c Howe, Marvine (10 February 1986). "John C.h. Wu of Taiwan, 86; Diplomat and Legal Scholar". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  5. ^ a b Moody, Peter (2024). "The Vatican and Taiwan: An Anomalous Diplomatic Relationship". In Zhao, Suisheng (ed.). The Taiwan Question in Xi Jinping's Era: Beijing's Evolving Taiwan Policy and Taiwan's Internal and External Dynamics. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781032861661.
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