Dr. Mi Chu Wiens, the head of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress, recently launched a new book assembling a rich manuscript collection of more than 8,000 pieces to pay homepage to her grandfather, Mr. Chu Cheng (JU Zheng), who is well known as one of the founders of the first Republic in Asia a century ago.

JU Zheng (1876~1951) is the famous legalist, democrat, revolutionary, political and military strategist of the Republic of China era. In his youth he traveled to Japan to study, where he joined the ‘Tongmenghui (the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance)’ and co-founded the ‘Gong Jin Hui’. Back to China he became one of the leaders of the Wuchang Uprising on October 1911 and the ‘Xinhai Revolution (the 1911 Revolution)’ that eventually overthrew the rule of the Manchu feudal dynasty.

The book is prefaced by Prof. ZHANG Kaiyuan, and is divided into chapters of Introduction, the JU Family manuscript collection on the 1911 Revolution (photocopies of the JU Zheng manuscripts with captions, the most important part of the book), the ‘Meichuan Pu Jie (JU Zheng’s autobiographic records)’ between 1901 and 1921, the ‘Xinhai Zha Ji (Notes of the Year 1911, a.k.a. the ‘Meichuan Diary’). Annexed is the ‘Review of the collection and reservation of the JU Zheng Manuscript Archives’ that is written by Dr. Mi Chu Wiens. Based on the rare materials and the abundant historical details, this book is of great importance to the studies of the 1911 Revolution and JU Zheng himself.

Dr. Mi Chu Wiens received her PhD and MA in history at the Harvard University and the Bachelor degree at the Taiwan University. She has been working for the Library of Congress for more than 30 years as a specialist on Asian studies. During the past decade, Dr. Wiens devoted herself to the collection, compilation, interpretation, analysis and digitization of more than 1,000 kinds of rare holdings of the Library of Congress, including the Chinese ancient books since the Song and Yuan Dynasty, the cultural relics of the minorities (e.g. the Naxi pictographic manuscripts), the publications of the Missionaries in China (e.g. books stocked by William Gamble), and the important documents in relation to the China-U.S. cultural exchange since the reign of Emperor Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty. In 2007 she was conferred prize by the Library of Congress for her outstanding contributions and achievements.

In May of 2004 Dr. Wiens donated to the Shanghai Library more than 300 pieces of original documents of Mr. JU Zheng, spanning 50 years and including photographs, letters, manuscripts of speech, poetries and diaries.

Chu Cheng and the 1911 Revolution
By Dr. Mi Chi Wiens
Publisher : Zhonghua Book Company (August 2011)
ISBN: 978-7-101-08166-4
Hardcover: 4,513 pages