Feng Jinglan

Feng Jinglan
冯景兰
Born(1898-03-09)9 March 1898
Died29 September 1976(1976-09-29) (aged 78)
Beijing, China
Alma materPeking University
Colorado School of Mines
Columbia University
Scientific career
FieldsGeology
Mineralogy
InstitutionsChina University of Geosciences (Beijing)
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinFéng Jǐnglán

Feng Jinglan (9 March 1898 – 29 September 1976), courtesy name Huaixi (淮西 or 怀西), was a Chinese mineralogist and geologist. He was one of the founders of mineralogy in China. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Biography

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Feng was born into a landlord's family in the town of Qiyi [zh], in Tanghe County, Hebei, on 9 March 1898, to Feng Taiyi (冯台异), an assistant to the Qing government official Zhang Zhidong, and Wu Qingzhi (吴清芝).[1] His elder brother Feng Youlan (1895–1990) was a philosopher.[1] His younger sister Feng Yuanjun (1900–1974) was a writer.[1] He secondary studied at Henan Provincial Second School in Kaifeng. In 1916, he was admitted to Peking University.[1] In 1918, he pursued advanced studies in the United States on government scholarships, first studying mine geology in Colorado School of Mines and then studying mineralogy, petrology and physiography in Columbia University with a master's degree in 1923.[1]

He returned to China in 1923 and that same year became an instructor at Zhongzhou University (中州大学).[2] In his spare time, he studied the sand dunes near Kaifeng and explored the control of the Yellow River.[2] In 1927, he went to Heishanzhai (黑山寨) in Changping, Hebei to investigate the geology of gold deposits, which was one of the earliest modern deposit geological work in China.[2]

In 1927, he was recruited as a technician of Guangzhou Geological Survey Institute, where he investigated the geology and mineral resources along the railway near Guangzhou.[2] He discovered and named Danxia landform in Mount Danxia of Renhua County.[2][3]

In 1929, he moved to Peiyang University, he remained at the university until 1933. During this period, he investigated the geology and mineral resources along the Shenyang–Haikou railway in Liaoning, the genesis of Xuanlong Iron Ore in Hebei, and the geology of Northern Shaanxi. In 1933, he joined the faculty of Tsinghua University. From 1933 to 1937, during the summer vacation, he and others investigated the geology and mineral resources of Pingquan, Datong, Zhaoyuan and Mount Tai.

After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Tsinghua University was forced to move south to form National Southwestern Associated University with Peking University in Kunming, where he concurrently served as dean of the Institute of Technology and head of the Department of Mining of Yunnan University. During this period, he mainly studied the copper mines in Sichuan and Yunnan. After war, he moved back to Beijing with the university.

After the establishment of the Communist State, he was hired as a professor by Beijing Institute of Geology (now China University of Geosciences (Beijing)).[4] In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, Feng was labeled as a "reactionary academic authority".[3] In November 1969, he was sent to the May Seventh Cadre Schools to do farm works with his wife in Xiajiang County, Jiangxi, working until the spring of 1972.[3]

On 29 September 1976, he died of a heart attack in Beijing, aged 78.[4]

Legacy

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After Feng's death, his children donated 100,000 yuan saved during his lifetime to China University of Geosciences (Beijing) in October 1998 to establish the "Feng Jinglan Prize" to reward teachers and students with outstanding academic achievements who have made outstanding contributions to the development of geological education.

Honours and awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Fang Jixiao (方继孝) (21 March 2019). 冯氏三兄妹的家风 [The domestic discipline of Feng's family]. chinawriter.com.cn (in Chinese). Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e Cheng Fangjie (程方洁) (27 October 2018). “中国丹霞”的发现者——冯景兰 [Feng Jinglan, the discoverer of Danxia landform]. xinhuanet.com (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Feng Zhongchao (冯钟潮) (7 March 2018). 纪念父亲冯景兰诞辰120周年 [Commemorating the 120th anniversary of the birth of my father Feng Jinglan]. gmw.cn (in Chinese). Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  4. ^ a b Zhang Ming (张明) (2 July 2012). 【冶金人物】冯景兰 ["Metallurgical character" Feng Jinglan]. csteelnews.com (in Chinese). Retrieved 14 August 2021.

Bibliography

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  • Zhao Jinzhong (赵金钟) (2015). 院士世家 [Academician Family] (in Chinese). Zhengzhou, Henan: Henan Science and Technology Press. ISBN 9787534975363.
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