Xiao Jialin (1897-1968)

Courtesy name Xiaocun, and art name Dichen, he was from Jiulong Xiao Village, Taoshu Administrative Village, Chitian Township, Fengxin County, Jiangxi. He graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Beijing Normal University, focusing on phonology. Xiao Jialin was a major promoter of the “Mandarin Movement” in 20th century China, a linguist, a dictionary compiler, and a grassroots educator.

In September 1919, he served as a committee member when the National Language Unification Preparatory Committee was established, during which he also served as an editorial board member of the “National Language Weekly”.

From September 3 to October 29, 1926, he participated with Qian Xuantong, Li Jinxie, Wang Yi, and Bai Dizhou in the proofreading work of the “Revised National Pronunciation Dictionary”.

In 1928, he was a standing committee member of the reorganized National Language Unification Preparatory Committee.

In September 1928, the Chinese Great Dictionary Editorial Office was officially established, where he became the chief of the “Public Dictionary” section.

Xiao Jialin made significant contributions to the implementation of the Mandarin Romanization, and the remarkable results of promoting Mandarin in Shandong are closely related to his diligent efforts:

In 1927, Xiao Jialin published an article titled “Mandarin Romanization and Chinese Characters”.

After the promulgation of the Mandarin Romanization in 1928, he served as the editor-in-chief of the “Mandarin Romanization Weekly”, which was launched on September 4, 1929, and ceased publication in September 1930 due to printing difficulties, with a total of 52 issues. It resumed publication on June 4, 1932, initially as a weekly, but changed to a biweekly from issue 37 onwards.

In July 1930, the “Mandarin Romanization Promotion Association” was established, with Xiao Jialin presiding over the association. At that time, the membership consisted of only a few dozen people, including Du Zijing, Wang Faqing, Wang Yuchuan, and Li Zhonghao. The “Mandarin Romanization Weekly” and summer training classes were organized by this association. In September 1931, Xiao Jialin reported on the situation of the Mandarin Romanization training classes at the thirteenth standing committee meeting of the National Language Unification Preparatory Committee. In 1932, during his tenure as editor-in-chief of Shandong’s “Public Weekly”, he published a special issue on Mandarin Romanization in volume 4, issue 38; in volume 5, issue 3 of the “Public Education Monthly”, he published “How to Write Compound Words in Cursive”, which established writing regulations for word classes; he subsequently published an article titled “Tools for Public Education”.

From September 24 to 26, 1934, he participated as a representative from Shandong in the National Mandarin Romanization Representative Conference held in Jinan.

In the process of promoting Mandarin, Xiao Jialin also became an active promoter and practitioner of grassroots education:

In 1928, he served as the director of the Chinese Department at Jiangsu Provincial Donghai Middle School under Sun Yat-sen University.

In 1933, while serving as the head of the research division of the Experimental Department at the Shandong Provincial People’s Education Center, he personally organized and taught a phonetic symbol workshop.

During his time in Shandong, he participated in the editorial work of the “Phonetic Shandong Farmer’s Newspaper,” a small publication led by Dong Weichuan at the time, aimed at promoting phonetic symbols and popularizing education.

He wrote a preface titled “After Organizing Shandong Folklore” for the publication of “Shandong Folklore (Volume 1)” (edited and published by the Editorial Division of the Shandong Provincial People’s Education Center) in August 1933, in which he affirmed the role of “folklore” in the study of customs, local conditions, and thoughts.

In July 1935, after the establishment of the National Language Promotion Committee, he was appointed as a committee member and deputy chairman. During the Anti-Japanese War, he continued to teach at the National Language Training Class. On July 26, 1940, he participated in the second plenary session of the National Language Promotion Committee of the Ministry of Education held in Chongqing.

In 1944, at the National Social Education Institute established in Chongqing Bishi using three old sites, he succeeded He Rong as the second director of the National Language Specialization Program. The purpose of the program was “to cultivate high-level national language teachers, unify the national language, popularize phonetic literacy among the masses, and quickly eliminate illiteracy in society.” The number of graduates was small, with most working in the southern mainland and various provinces and cities in Taiwan, but it made significant contributions to social education experiments and phonetic literacy education in Nanjing as well as the Chinese language teaching research organized by the National Social Education Institute’s broadcast station. In May 1946, the institute gradually moved to Suzhou.

In April 1946, the Ministry of Education established the “Taiwan Province National Language Promotion Committee,” and Xiao Jialin was appointed as a committee member, doing a great deal of preparatory work for the promotion of the national language in Taiwan.

In December 1950, he worked at the People’s Education Press and concurrently served as a member of the New China Dictionary Committee, assisting President Wei Jiangong with the daily operations of the dictionary press and began working on the compilation of “New Chinese Dictionary” with a focus on the arrangement of radicals, personally participating in the design of the main framework of the dictionary. In November 1954, this version of “New Chinese Dictionary” was successfully published.

On December 1, 1954, the dictionary editorial office (New China Dictionary Press) was entirely placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture’s Publishing Bureau, specifically the Ancient Books Publishing House.

On July 1, 1956, the Dictionary Editing Office (Xinhua Lexicography Division) was merged into the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Together with the editorial staff from the Chinese Dictionary Compilation Office and some members of the Institute of Linguistics, they formed the Lexicon Editing Office, thereby beginning the compilation work for the Modern Chinese Dictionary. Afterwards, she served as an Associate Researcher at the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (now the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences).

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In the summer of 1957, all staff of the “Modern Chinese Dictionary” Editing Room posed for a group photo in front of the office. In the second row, the first on the right is Wang Shuda, the second on the right is Xiao Jialin; in the third row, the sixth from the left is He Danjiang, and the seventh from the left is Sun Chongyi.

Main Works and Publications:

“Introduction to Guoyu Romanization,” published by the Guoyu Romanization Promotion Association in 1931, was directly compiled using Guoyu Romanization.

“Research on Retroflex Finals” (published in “Guoyu Weekly,” Issue 51)

“Commonly Used Characters in National Sounds” (1932), edited by Qian Xuantong, compiled by Li Jinxu, Bai Dazhou, Xiao Jialin, with Zhao Yuanren and Wang Yi as contributors. (1932)

“People’s Dictionary” (July 1932), edited by Xiao Jialin. This book extensively searches for commonly used terms, using the Bei Ping dialect as the standard, intended for generally educated members of the public.

“New Rhyme of China” (1941), edited by Wei Jianggong, Li Jinxu, Lu Qian, and Xiao Jialin, published as a “National Rhyme Book.”

Main compiler of the “Xinhua Dictionary” (First Edition) (1954).

Main compiler of the “Modern Chinese Dictionary” (Trial Edition) (1956).