Reference works

• Biographies of Kuomintang Leaders. Committee on International and Regional Studies, Harvard University, Privately mimeographed, 1948. Contains biographies of 460 persons. It is a translation of a Chinese Communist Party publication, “A List of the Various Cliques among Members of the Central Committees Elected by the 6th Congress of Kuomintang, 1945.” Out of date.
• Boorman, Howard L., & Richard C. Howard. Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. 4 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967-71. An index of personal names in the collection was put out by Janet Krompart at Columbia University Press in 1979.
• Chen Bangxian 陳 邦 賢, & Yan Lingzhou 嚴 菱 舟. Zhongguo yi xue ren ming zhi 中 國 醫 學 人 名 志 (Medical Biographies for China) . Beijing: Ren min wei sheng chu ban she, 1956.
• Chen Daojin 陳 道 瑾, & Xue Weitao 薛 渭 濤. Jiangsu li dai yi ren zhi 江 蘇 歷 代 醫 人 志 (Kiangsu Medical Biographies). Nanjing: Jiangsu ke xue ji shu ju ban she, 1985.
• Chen Yutang, ed. Zhongguo jin xian dai ren wu ming hao da ci dian 中 國 近 現 代 人 物 名 號 大 辭 典 . Hangzhou: Zhejiang gu ji chu ban she, 1993.
• China Biographical Database Project (CBDB), in conjunction with Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Beijing University, and Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA. Language: Chinese ; English. Cited description: “[…] an online relational database with biographical information about approximately 40,000 individuals as of July 2008, primarily from the seventh through fourteenth centuries. The data is meant to be useful for statistical and spatial analysis as well as serving as a kind of biographical reference. The long term goal of CBDB is systematically to include all significant biographical material from China s history and to make the contents available free of charge, without restriction, for academic use.” Contents: (1) Home; (2) History of the CBDB; (3) Collaborating Institutions and Editorial Committee; (4) Methodological Issues; (5) Mapping and Analyzing CBDB Data; (6) Structure of Data; (7) Work Progress; (8) Download CBDB Data; (9) Conferences and Papers; (10) First International Workshop on Biographical Databases for China’s History; (11)Discussion Forum; (12) FAQ; (13) Chinese Homepage. Availability: Free. For more Biographical Databases: see Heidelberg University East Asian Studies Database.
• China Weekly Review, Who’s Who in China. Shanghai: 5th edition 1937. Supplement 1940. 6th edition 1950. Generally limited information.
• Chu Pao-liang, ed. Twentieth Century Chinese Writers and Their Pen Names. 2 vols. Taibei: Center for Chinese Studies, 1989.
• Directory of Chinese Communist Officials. Washington: March, 1966. Head of title describes this work as an “Intelligence Research Aid” of the U.S. Government. Supplementary volume: Reference Aid, Directory of Chinese Communist Party Officials: Provincial, Municipal and Military. Washington: April, 1969. List of officials in office. This work does not provide detailed biographies.
• Fang Yi 方 毅 , et al., compilers. Zhongguo ren ming da ci dian 中 國 人 名 大 辭 典. Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1934. Reprint Taibei: Shang wu yin shu guan, 1966.
• Franke, Herbert ed. Sung Biographies. 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag, 1976.
• Fujita Masanori 藤 田 正 典, Gendai Chugoku jimbutsu hyo 現 代 中 國 人 物 表. Tokyo: Daian, 1969. Lists over 1600 persons and gives bibliographic info for further sources.
• Fukusha seishi sakuin 復 社 姓 氏 索 引. Compiled at Kyoto University by the Institute of Humanistic Studies, the “Late Ming Early Ch’ing Society and Culture Research Group,” 1995.
• Gendai Chugoku jimmei jiten 現 代 中 國 人 名 辭 典. Comp. by the Kazankai 霞 山 會 under supervision of the Asia Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Tokyo: Kazankai, 1966. Over 13,000 entries; the most comprehensive work of its kind. A new edition is in the process of publication. Minimal information.
• Giles, Herbert A. A Chinese Biographical Dictionary. Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1898.
• Goodrich, L. Carrington, & Fang Chao-ying, Dictionary of Ming Biography. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.
• Hashikawa Tokio, compiler. Chugoku bunkakai jimbutsu soran 中 國 文 化 界 人 物 總 覽. Peking: Chuka horei heninkan, 1940. Lists over 5000 names of people mostly living at the time (1920’s + 30’s).
• Hu Zhengzhi 胡 正 之, compiler. Zhongguo di hao biao ti yi lan 中 國 帝 號 標 題 一 覽. Beijing: Yenching University, 1939.
• Huang Zongxi 黃 宗 羲.   The Records of Ming Scholars   明 儒 學 案. Translated by Julia Ching, et al. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987.
• Hummel, Arthur W., ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period (1644 1912). 2 vols. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943-44. The electronic version is a beta version of an online database containing all the biographies in Hummel and is is available at the Dartmouth College Qing Research Portal, coordinated by Pamela Crossley. The database is searchable, although some functions are still in the works. Users are required to download some software (for free).
• Klein, Donald W. Who’s Who of Communist China. New York: 1959. 3 volumes mimeographed containing about 450 biographies.
• Klein, Donald, & Anne B. Clark. Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism, 1921 1965. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971. Contains over 500 biographies of influential Communists from the founding of the Party to 1965.
• Li Jie 李 藉, compiler. Zhong xi dui yi Riben xian dai ren ming di ming biao 中 西 對 譯 日 本 現 代 人 名 地 名 表. Chongqing: Zheng zhong shu ju, 1945.
• Li Shengping 李 盛 平 . Zhongguo gong chan dang ren ming da ci dian 中 國 共 產 黨 人 名 大 辭 典 . Beijing: Zhongguo guang bo chu ban she, 1991.
• Loewe, Michael, ed. A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods (221 BC AD 24). Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000.
• O’Neill, P.G. Japanese Names: A Comprehensive Index by Characters and Readings. New York.: Weatherhill, 1972 .
• Namba Tsuneo 難 渡 常 雄, compiler. Shina jimmei jisho 支 那 人 名 辭 書. Tokyo: 1929. Three volumes, list about 24,000 names from ancient times to the Qing. Character index at end.
• Pan Asian Newspaper Alliance, Asia Who’s Who. Hong Kong: (3rd edition) 1960. Contains 600 biographies of Chinese on the Mainland, 270 on Taiwan, 50 from Hong Kong, and 70 from Malaysia and Singapore.
• Perleberg, Max. Who’s Who in Modern China. Hong Kong: Ye Olde Printerie, 1954. Contains more than 2,000 biographical sketches covering the period from the beginning of the Republic to 1953, but unreliable and must be used with care.
• Riben xing ming ci dian 日 本 姓 名 詞 典 . Beijing: Shang wu yin shu guan, 1979.
• Shen Zhihong 沈 治 宏, et al., compilers. Song Biographies in Local Gazetteers. 4 vols. Chengdu: Sichuan ci shu chu ban she, 1997. Includes over 2,200,000 words. It contains more than 100 thousand biographic items, collected from the Song Yuan fang zhi cong kan 宋 元 方 志 叢 刊 , Tian yi ge Ming dai fang zhi xuan kan 天 一 閣 明 代 方 志 選 刊 , Tian yi ge Ming dai fang zhi xuan kan xu bian 天 一 閣 明 代 方 志 選 刊 續 編 , and Riben cang Zhongguo han jian di fang zhi cong kan 日 本 藏 罕 見 中 國 地 方 志 叢 刊 . Compiled at Chengdu Sichuan United University, Gu ji zheng li yan jiu suo.
• Tan Zhengbi 譚 正 璧 , et al., compilers. Zhongguo wen xue jia da ci dian 中 國 文 學 家 大 辭 典 (Dictionary of Chinese writers). Shanghai: Guang ming shu ju, 1934. Reprint Taibei: 世 界 書 局, 1967. Gives western dates, lists works.
• Union Research Institute. Who’s Who in Communist China. Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1966. Contains about 1200 biographies. Supplementary volume Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1969.
• Wixted, John Timothy, compiler. Japanese Scholars of China (A Bibliographical Handbook). Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
• Wu, Eugene. Leaders of Twentieth Century China: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Chinese Biographical Works in the Hoover Library. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1956.
• Xu Youchun 徐 友 春, ed. Min guo ren wu da ci dian 民 國 人 物 大 詞 典 . Shijiazhuang: Hebei People’s Press, 1991.
• Zanning 贊 寧. Song Gao seng zhuan 宋 高 僧 傳 (Buddhist Biographies for Song).
• Zhong gong ren ming lu 中 共 人 名 錄. Compiled by the Zhonghua Minguo guo ji guan xi yan jiu suo 中 華 民 國 國 際 關 系 研 究 所. Taibei: Zhonghua min guo guo ji guan xi yan jiu suo, 1967.
• Zhong gong ren ming lu 中 共 人 名 錄. Compiled by Zhong gong ren ming lu bian xiu wei yuan hui. Taibei: Guo li zheng zhi da xue guo ji guan xi yan jiu zhong xin, 1989.
• The Chinese Biographical Database contains 2,500 biographies as of 12/02/98. It has developed new ways to utilize historical database materials via the internet. This database project aspires to develop a dynamic, scholarly moderated database that is not for downloading but for utilization and expansion online. The Project Director is Marilyn A. Levine, Lewis Clark State College. This pilot project has been funded by a research grant from the Idaho State Board of Education.( CJL: No longer online as of 5/2014)