Zhang Xunru (July 1905— ), original name Zhang Qingze. A native of Dongguang County, Hebei.

Zhang Xunru was originally a historical archivist who studied language and script as a hobby, later becoming a linguist.

In his youth he was admitted to the Second People’s Night School Normal Class organized by Peking University, and later attended senior high school at Dongcheng Middle School. He was unable to graduate because the school closed, and transferred to an English institute for one year of study.

In 1925, through the introduction of Wei Jiangong, he took a position at the Committee for the Aftermath of the Qing Household.

In 1926, when the Palace Museum was founded, he took a post at its Archives Hall.

In 1929, he concurrently served as clerk at the Chinese Great Dictionary Compilation Office, and in 1934 became a commissioned compiler.

In 1947, he served as National Language advisor at the Preparatory Class of Peking University.

In 1948, he returned to the Chinese Great Dictionary Compilation Office as a specially appointed compiler.

In December 1955, the Palace Museum Archives were transferred to the State Archives Bureau. Zhang Xunru successively served as group leader and associate researcher.

In 1959, he was transferred to the Archival Science Research Office of the History and Archives Department at Renmin University of China.

In August 1961, he was transferred back to the Central Archives, where he worked until retiring in 1971.

Personal Works:

  • “Thirteen Rhyme Categories of the Beiping Phonological System” (also titled “A Small Beiping Homophone Dictionary”), reviewed by Wei Jiangong, with prefaces by Li Jinxi, Luo Xintian, and Wei Jiangong. Published by the Chinese Great Dictionary Compilation Office (1937)
  • “Compilation of Minor Rhyme Categories of the Beiping Phonological System”, Kaiming Bookstore (1949)
  • “Neutral-Tone Vocabulary of Beijing Speech”, Zhonghua Book Company (1957)

Personal Papers:

  • “A Sample of Hejian Dialect” (“Shijie Ribao · National Language Weekly”, October 1, 15, and 22, 1932)
  • “The Function of Retroflex Finals in the National Language” (“National Language Monthly”, Issue 54, 1947)
  • “A Comparison of Stress and Unstress in the National Language” (“National Language Monthly”, Issue 57, 1947)
  • “Tone Changes in the Usage of National Language Characters” (“National Language Monthly”, Issue 59, 1947)
  • “My Views on National Language Teaching” (“Huabei Ribao · National Language Weekly”, July 24, 1947)
  • “‘Shang’ and ‘Xia’” (“Xinsheng Bao · Language and Literature”, September 8, 1947)
  • “‘He’ and ‘He’” (“Xinsheng Bao · Language and Literature”, September 29, 1947)
  • “Preface to ‘Neutral-Tone Vocabulary of the National Language’” (“Huabei Ribao · National Language Weekly”, October 23, 1947)
  • “Polyphonic Characters with Grammatical Category Changes” (“Huabei Ribao · National Language Weekly”, December 11 and 18, 1947)
  • “Polysyllabic Words in the National Language” (“National Language Monthly”, Issue 63, 1948)
  • “A Survey of the Usage of the Suffix ‘zi’” (“National Language Monthly”, Issue 65, 1948)
  • “A Survey of Reduplicated Words in the National Language” (“National Language Monthly”, Issue 67, 1948)
  • “A Survey of Measure Words in the National Language” (“National Language Monthly”, Issue 81, 1949)
  • “The Usage of the Word ‘qi’ in Spoken Language” (“Guangming Daily”, October 22, 1950)
  • “Retroflex Finals and Neutral Tone in Beijing Speech” (“Guangming Daily”, April 14, 1951)
  • “Reading Lu (Zhiwei)’s ‘Monosyllabic Word Vocabulary of Beijing Speech’” (“Guangming Daily”, August 18 and September 1, 1951)
  • “The Function of the Neutral Tone in Beijing Speech” (“Chinese Language”, Issue 5, 1956)