Arthur William Hummel, March 6, 1884-March 10, 1975Author(s): L. Carrington GoodrichSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 95, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1975)Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/599453 .

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ARTHUR WILLIAM HUMMEL*

March 6, 1884-March 10, 1975

I first became acquainted with Arthur Hummel in the year 1924-25 when he came to Peking to teach Chinese history at the College of Chinese Studies. He had already been an instructor in English for two years at the Higher School, KIobe, Japan (1912-14), following his formal education at the University of Chicago (A.B. 1909, A.M. 1911). In 1914 he received the degree of B.D. from the same university, and then served for ten years (1914-24) as teacher and

principal of the Ming-i Middle School, Fenchou, Shansi province. The occasion which brought us particularly together was a week-end excursion to Miao Feng Shan, one of the lesser sacred mountains of China, not far from Peking. Our fellow hikers were Sidney D. Gamble and his associate, Franklin Ching-han Lee. It was at the time of the Spring pilgrimage. Arthur Hummel was perhaps the best equipped, through his knowledge of the history, the folklore, and the

religious life of the Chinese, to appreciate the significance of the colorful customs and observances which we witnessed on the long trail. Our paths crossed again after his return to the United States in 1927 when he assumed the post of chief of the Division of Chinese Literature (subsequently named the Orientalia Division) of the Library of Conigress. We were both members of the Committee for the Promotion of Chinese studies of the American Council of Learned

Societies, of which he became chairman during the years 1930-34. As I was to spend two years away fron my post as lecturer in Chinese history at Coliimbia University (1930-32) I was permitted to invite him to take my place, and he

accepted, coming up from Washington one day a week. During the next few years there ensued several summer semi- nars conducted under the auspices of the ACLS to promote Chinese and Japanese studies. Dr. Hummel was a mainstay of these sessions, teaching at four of them:-at Harvard in 1932, at the University of California (Berkeley) in 1934, at Columbia in 1935, and again at the University of California in 1937. He also was a special lecturer at the University of Mlichigan in 1939 and at the University of Colorado in 1940, possibly under the same auspices. These summer sessions gave a measurable lift to instruction in the field, especially on the college level.

During his years at the Library of Congress Hummel was busy in building up the collection of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other books. At the time of his arrival the Chinese holdings totalled approximately 100,000 volumes, the Korean somne 1700 volumes, and the Japanese 9,000. By 1954 the figure for the Chinese had jumped to 291,472, for the Korean 7,000, and for the Japanese 403,000,-the remarkable leap in the last being accounted for in large part by transfers of books taken over from Japanese military and intelligence agencies after W'orld War II. To this growth in actual holdings must be added the temporary deposit of nearly 3,000 rare Chinese books placed for protective custody in the Library of Congress in 1941, just a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor. They came from the National

Library of Peiping, an(t were that collection's most treasured items. The Chinese government, through its ambas- sa(lor, Dr. IHu Shih, in making the transfer, declared that the volumes might be microfilmed, and that the films might be made available to any library throughoult the world. This generous action necessitated, as Dr. I-umniel wrote in liis report of 1946, "nearly four years of uninterrupted effort," each book having to be subjected to detailed study to see whether it was indeed unique. The end result has been that Chinese libraries everywhere, from this continent to .Australia, have benefitted. Three sets of microfilms were given to the Chinese, one each to Nanking, Peiping, and Tai-

pei, and the original works returned to the Chinese government in Taiwan in 1965. He was active during his years at the Library also in writing the valuable notes on acquisitions which appeared annually in the Report of the Librarian of Congress (1928-40) and subsequently in the Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions (which began publication in 194-3 as a supplement to the Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress) until his retirement in 1954. At thle same time, in his first years, he was translating the preface of Ku Chieh-kang (born 1895) to his Kul shih pien (a symposium on ancient Chinese history), which he published in 1931 as the Autobiography of a Chinese Historian, and which served as his doctoral dissertation at the University of Leyden. IIis years in Peking, during which he had Inade contact with the group of critical historians at the Peking National University, provided excellent background for this important monograph.

Coincidentally there was growing in Ihis mind the need for a comprehensive work on modern Chinese history which would put to use the massive collections at the Library of Congress and provide an accurate background for the under- standing of Chinese developments. There must have been in his mind, during these years of financial depression, the need also to put to work and give training in research to the modest number of American Ph.D.s in Chinese history. So was conceived the project sponsored by the Library of Congress and the ACLS (1933), with funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. It was to result a decade later (1933/44) in a majestic opus entitled Eminent Chinese of fhe Ch'ing Period (1103 pages) giving the life stories of 805 noteworthy figures (with many others incidentally treated), who lived from about 1600 to 1911. Mostly Chinese, the number included as well important MIanchus, Mongols, and a

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few others. It was published by the United States Government Printing Office, but has proved of such value not alone in North America but all over the world that it was later photographically reproduced in New York and in Taiwan. To say that Hummel was the editor of this work is not enouglh. He inspired it, as well saw that each entry -was scril- pulously correct, and written in flawless English. He provided it too with excellent indexes. Of the ECCP, as it is

widely called, the eminent scholar, Dr. Hu Shih (who told me once that he had read every biography), wrote in his

preface: "It is the most detailed and the best history of Chinia of the last three hundred years that one can find any- where today."

This was Dr. Hummel's crowning achievement. In the opinion of the undersigned, Arthur Iluimmel, as teacher, librarian, and editor, was the most significant contributor to sinology in this country during his generation. The American Oriental Society honored him with its presidency in 1940, and the Far Eastern Association (later known as the Association for Asian Studies) followed suit in 1948.

Dr. Hummel was the son of William Frederick and Caroline W\ilhelllina Hlummel. I--le maried Ruth Emnily Book- walter (October 8, 1911) who predeceased him. I-e is survived by two children, Arthur William, Jr., and Sharman Bookwalter.

L. Carrington Goodrich Dean Lung Professor Emeritus of Chinese

Columbia University

* The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Edwin C. Beal, Jr., of the Library of Congress in providing some of the information about Dr. Hummel.

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