Ji Xianlin
Born 6 August 1911 · China
Died 11 July 2009
Translated and preserved ancient Sanskrit and Tocharian texts into modern Chinese.
🔔 Add birthday reminderJi Xianlin was a Chinese Indologist, linguist, paleographer, historian and writer who has been honored by the governments of both India and China. Ji was proficient in many languages including Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, English, German, French, Russian, Pali and Tocharian, and translated many works. He published a memoir, The Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, about his persecution during the Cultural Revolution.
✨ A detail that surprised us
During the Cultural Revolution, Ji Xianlin secretly translated the Ramayana into Chinese while risking imprisonment for intellectual dissent.
1. 🌏 In 1936, Ji Xianlin chose to study Sanskrit and ancient languages like Pali at the University of Göttingen, Germany, under Professor Ernst Waldschmidt, setting the stage for his pioneering Indological research.
2. 📜 By 1941, Ji had earned his PhD and delved into the obscure Tocharian language with Emil Sieg, later translating rare fragments of the Tocharian Maitreyasamiti-Nataka discovered in Yanqi in 1974.
3. In 1946, Ji returned to China to become a professor at Peking University, where he founded the Department of Eastern Languages and authored 40 articles and 13 academic papers in just three years.
4. 🔥 During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Ji secretly translated the Ramayana from Sanskrit into Chinese, preserving its poetic form despite the grave risk of persecution.
5. 🍬 In the 1960s, Ji unexpectedly became an expert in the history of sugar, sparked by a Dunhuang scroll sent to him in 1981 that inspired detailed research on the China-India sugar exchange.
6. In 1978, Ji was appointed vice president of Peking University and led the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Research Institute on South Asia, publishing over 200 papers across ten academic fields.
7. ❓ How did Ji Xianlin’s mastery of nine languages, including the rare Tocharian, enable him to reveal forgotten cultural exchanges between India and China, reshaping our understanding of ancient Asian history?
Awards & Honours
- 🏅Padma Bhushan
🔍 One thing most people don't know
Ji Xianlin mastered at least nine languages, including the nearly extinct Tocharian, which he studied under Emil Sieg in Germany in the 1940s.
🖼️ Through the Years
📅 The Journey
🗝️ Discoveries
"He studied Buddhism, [...] the depth of the language philology, the use of historical methods, and long-term thinking for Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges."
— Ji Xianlin
🎥 Speeches & Recordings
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📖 Curated Sources
🌱 What changed because of them
Ji Xianlin established the foundation for Eastern language studies at Peking University, which became a major center for Indology in China. His research on Buddhist migration and Sino-Indian cultural exchanges influenced academic institutions and deepened cross-cultural understanding. His translations and historical studies continue to inform both Chinese and Indian scholarly communities.
💬 Social Buzz
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