Ma Xiangbo

Ma Xiangbo SJ
File:Ma Xiangbai.jpg
Native name	Ma Liang
Orders
Ordination	1870
Rank	Priest
Personal details
Born	(1840-04-07)7 April 1840 Dantu, Jiangsu
Died
Nationality	Chinese
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Alma mater	Collège Saint-Ignace, Shanghai

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ma.

Ma Xiangbo
Traditional Chinese	馬相伯
Simplified Chinese	马相伯
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mǎ Xiàngbó Wade–Giles Ma Hsiang-po

File:Statue of Ma Xiang Bo, former principal of Xuhui High School.JPG

Ma Xiangbo's statue at Xuhui High School

Ma Xiangbo (Wade–Giles: Ma Hsiang-po; 1840–1939) was a Chinese Jesuit priest, scholar and educator in the late Qing Dynasty and Republican China. His original given name was Jianchang (建常) but was changed to Liang (良). "Xiangbo" was his courtesy name. He also adopted the Catholic name "Joseph". He was one of the founders of Aurora University, Fu Jen Catholic University and Fudan University.

Biography

Ma was born in Dantu, Jiangsu province to a prominent Catholic family. At the age of 11, he enrolled in a French Jesuit school in Shanghai, Collège Saint-Ignace (now Xuhui High School), where he remained first as student and later as teacher until 1870. In 1870, he was ordained priest in the Jesuit order. In 1886/87, he visited France and eventually devoted his life to higher education.

Ma founded the following institutions of higher learning:

• Aurora University (1903)
• Fudan University (1905)
• Catholic University of Peking, later renamed Fu Jen Catholic University, in co-operation with Ying Lianzhi.

His idea of establishing a highest body of learning was eventually realized in 1928 by his close friend, the educator Cai Yuanpei, who established the Academia Sinica.

His brother, Ma Jianzhong, was a prominent official in the Qing government.

References

• Boorman, Howard L., Richard C. Howard, and Joseph K. H. Cheng, eds. Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967.
• Hayhoe, Ruth, and Lu Yongling, eds. Ma Xiangbo and the Mind of Modern China 1840-1939. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1996.

External links

• Biography of Ma Xiangbo