Bai Dizhou (May 5, 1900 – October 12, 1934) was from Beijing. His given name was Zhenying, and he was also known as Huozhou, but he went by his courtesy name Dizhou. His ancestors came from the Mongolian Baijite clan and were enrolled in the Bordered Blue Banner during the Qing dynasty.

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From 1915 to 1920, Bai Dizhou studied at Beijing Normal School. He worked hard and consistently ranked at the top of his class. After graduation, he served as principal of the 17th Public Higher Primary School of Beijing (now Fangjia Hutong Primary School) and later of the 7th Higher Primary School (located at Zongxue Hutong, south of Xidan).

In 1924, he was admitted to the preparatory program of Peking University and simultaneously handled administrative affairs at the Beijing Education Association. In 1926, he entered the English Department at Peking University for his undergraduate studies, and in 1928 he transferred to the Chinese Department, studying phonology and phonetics under Qian Xuantong, Ma Youyu, Liu Bannong, and others. He also attended the language training class at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, where he studied dialect dictation under Zhao Yuanren.

He graduated from the Chinese Department of Peking University in 1930 and afterward served as Director of Academic Affairs at Beiping Municipal Normal School.

In October 1933, at Liu Bannong’s invitation, he became a teaching assistant at the Phonetics and Music Laboratory of the Literature and History Department at the Peking University Research Institute.

Bai Dizhou was an active participant in the Mandarin Movement and contributed a great deal to it:

In April 1919, when the Mandarin Unification Preparatory Society was founded, he was appointed as a member.

In 1920, while studying National Pronunciation at the Mandarin Training Institute, Bai Dizhou was recognized by Li Jinxi, who invited him to join in advancing the Mandarin Movement. In 1923, he accompanied Li Jinxi to Hangzhou to teach Mandarin.

When the Mandarin Society was reorganized as the Mandarin Unification Preparatory Committee in 1928, he served successively as member and executive member. During his tenure he made many trips to inspect Mandarin promotion work in various regions. As an executive member he submitted 16 proposals, including publishing popular reading materials, reviewing various Mandarin textbooks, urging the Ministries of Railways and Communications to promote National Phonetic telegraphs, promoting Zhuyin symbols, and surveying regional dialects.

That same year, Bai Dizhou became Director of the Organization Department at the Chinese Dictionary Compilation Office. Over several years he organized 200,000 cards and completed nearly 20 research projects. After the National Phonetic Alphabet Training Institute was established, he served as its Director of Academic Affairs and taught classes personally.

On September 5, 1931, “Mandarin Weekly” (a supplement of “Shijie Ribao”), the official publication of the Mandarin Society, was launched, with Bai Dizhou and He Zhaoxiong serving as co-editors.

From late 1932 to January 1933, Bai Dizhou suffered the enormous family tragedy of losing his wife, three children, and father in quick succession. In March 1933, Fu Sinian invited him to investigate the entering-tone changes in Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu, and he went to Shaanxi to conduct dialect surveys until mid-August. During that period he investigated dialects at 50 sites across 42 counties of the Guanzhong region, leaving behind a large body of survey material. This material was preserved by Luo Changpei and edited by Yu Shichang, and was published in 1954 as “Report on the Dialects of Guanzhong.”

In the summer of 1934, Bai Dizhou accompanied Liu Bannong to Guisui to survey dialects, spending three weeks there. Upon their return Liu Bannong died of relapsing fever, and Bai Dizhou hurried to Chang’an to lecture on behalf of the Mandarin Society. On September 23, he went to Zhengzhou to attend the National Congress on Gwoyeu Romatzyh.

On October 12, 1934, Bai Dizhou died at Lin Baoluo Hospital in Beiping and was later buried in the Western Hills. On the morning of November 11, 1934, the Mandarin Society held a memorial service for him, presided over by Li Jinxi, with Qian Xuantong delivering the eulogy. Friends and colleagues including Wei Jiangong, Luo Changpei, and Lao She published articles in his memory.

Works and Publications

In 1925, Bai Dizhou drafted the manuscript of “People’s Dictionary” for the Mass Education Promotion Association. The initial drafts of the “National Pronunciation Dictionary” (revised by the Mandarin Unification Preparatory Society beginning in 1926) and the “Vocabulary of Common Characters in National Pronunciation” (published by the Ministry of Education in 1932) were both authored by him. At the invitation of Zhonghua Book Company, he also recorded three sets of phonograph records: “Standard National Pronunciation,” “Standard Mandarin,” and “Selected Readings from Primary School Mandarin Textbooks.”

Books:

  • “Elegance vs. Excess,” co-authored with Tang Yue (1925)
  • “Learning Zhuyin Without a Teacher,” co-authored with Li Jinxi, Beiping Cultural Society (1929)
  • “Table of Modern Pronunciations of Guangyun Entering Tones,” mimeographed edition (1930)
  • “Guangyun Concordance,” mimeographed edition (1931)
  • “Guangyun Fanqie Phonetic Guide,” mimeographed edition (1931)
  • “Vocabulary of Common Characters in National Pronunciation,” Qian Xuantong (editor-in-chief), co-edited with Li Jinxi, Bai Dizhou, and Xiao Jialin, Mandarin Unification Preparatory Committee (1932)
  • “Index to the Jingdian Shiwen and Yiqiejing Yinyi,” supervised with Wei Jiangong (1932)
  • “Table of Common Characters Arranged by Rhyme in National Pronunciation,” co-authored with Li Jinxi, Beiping Peiwenzhai (Renwen Bookstore) (1932)
  • “Standard National Pronunciation and Mandarin Phonograph Textbook,” Zhonghua Book Company (1932)
  • “Report on the Dialects of Guanzhong” (posthumous), edited by Yu Shichang, Chinese Academy of Sciences (1954)

Articles:

  • “Is This a Conspiracy to Restore Classical Chinese?” “Mandarin Weekly” (Beixin), Issue 2 (1925)
  • “Interpretations of Beijing Dialect,” co-authored with Qi Tiehen, “Mandarin Weekly” (Beixin), Issues 11, 14, 15, 17, 19, 23, 24, 26 (1925)
  • “A Brief Discussion on the Evolution of Dictionary Radicals,” “Mandarin Weekly” (Beixin), Issues 18, 19 (1925)
  • “The Pronunciations of Two ‘Bai’ Characters,” “Mandarin Weekly” (Beixin), Issue 20 (1925)
  • “Several Questions on National Pronunciation” (in reply to Wu Jiren), “Mandarin Ten-Day Journal,” combined Issues 10 and 11 (1929)
  • “Tense-Marking in the Beijing Dialect,” “Weekly of the Institute of Language and History, Sun Yat-sen University,” Vol. 8, combined Issues 85–87 (1929)
  • “Statistics of Initials and Rhyme Groups in the Guangyun,” “Academic Quarterly of Women’s Normal University,” Vol. 2, No. 2 (1931)
  • “A Study on the Evolution of the Entering Tone in Northern Sounds,” “Academic Quarterly of Women’s Normal University,” Vol. 2, No. 2 (1931)
  • “A Study on the Initial Classes of the Jiyun,” “Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica,” Vol. 3, Part 2 (1931)
  • “Introducing the Vanguard of the Mandarin Movement—Lu Ganzhang,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issues 10–12 (1931)
  • “Discussion on Retroflex Rhymes,” Xiao Dichen, Zhao Yuanren, Bai Dizhou, “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issue 13 (1931)
  • “A Casual Talk on Mandarin,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issue 15 (1931)
  • “Discussion on ‘Shi’ and ‘Qian’,” Qi Tiehen, Bai Dizhou, Wei Jiangong, “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issues 14–17 (1931, 1932)
  • “A Comparative View of Zhongyuan Yinyun and Zhongzhou Yinyun,” “Chenbao Xueyuan,” Issue 18 (1931)
  • “The ‘ueng, ong’ Rhyme Problem,” Shen Bing and Huozhou, “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issue 19 (1932)
  • “Four Questions on Gwoyeu Romatzyh,” Pang Jingren and Bai Dizhou, “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issue 22 (1932)
  • “What is the ‘New National Pronunciation’?” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issues 28–30 (1932)
  • “From Fanqie to Pinyin,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issues 57–62 (1932)
  • “Miscellaneous Notes on Qin Sounds,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issues 98, 99 (1932)
  • “Examples of the Four Tones,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issue 100 (1933)
  • “The Evolution of the Entering Tone in Yanggu, Shandong,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issue 117 (1933)
  • “Notes on the Cause of Mr. Liu Bannong’s Illness,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issue 151 (1934)
  • “Records of Tone Experiments in Guanzhong,” “Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica,” Vol. 4, Part 4 (1934)
  • “The Evolution of Chinese Character Transcription Methods,” “Chinese Studies Quarterly,” Vol. 4, No. 4 (1935)
  • “Records of Homophone Pronunciations in the Yixian Dialect,” co-authored with Liu Fu and Wei Jiangong, “Chinese Studies Quarterly,” Vol. 4, No. 4 (1935)
  • “Prefatory Notes to the Table of Modern Pronunciations of Guangyun Entering Tones,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issue 182 (1935)
  • “Changes of the Entering Tone in Guanzhong,” “Collected Papers Celebrating Mr. Cai Yuanpei’s 65th Birthday” (1935)
  • “Draft Prefatory Notes to the Guangyun Concordance,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issue 252 (1936)
  • “Complete Table of Direct-Pronunciation Characters in Mandarin,” “Shijie Ribao Mandarin Weekly,” Issues 260, 261 (1936)