Lao Naixuan

Also known as Zi Jixuan · Hao Yuchu

Lao Naixuan, courtesy name Jixuan, styled Yuchu and in old age Renshou, came from Tongxiang in Zhejiang and passed the metropolitan examination in 1871. He spent many years as a county magistrate in Zhili, at Linyu, Nanpi, Wuqiao and elsewhere, and at Wuqiao in 1899 he wrote a study of the origins of the Boxer sects, urging that they be banned. A specialist in historical phonology, he wrote Dengyun yide on rime tables and, building on Wang Zhao's Mandarin alphabet, devised a phonetic script for teaching literacy. In the last Qing years he sat in the National Assembly, where he opposed Shen Jiaben in the debate over whether the new criminal code should follow ritual norms, and in 1911 he was acting director of the Imperial University in Beijing. After the fall of the dynasty he lived in Qingdao, studied the Book of Changes with the missionary Richard Wilhelm, and died at Qufu in 1921.