Woo Tsin-hang

Woo Tsin-hang (吳敬恆 pinyin wu2 jing4 heng2) (March 25, 1865 - October 30, 1953), born Wu Tiao (朓 tiao3), courtesy name Chih-hui (稚暉 zhi4 hui1), was a Chinese-born Taiwanese linguist and philosopher who was the chairman of the 1912-13 Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation that created Zhuyin (based on Zhang Binglin's work) and standardized Guoyu pronunciation.

Woo Tsin-hang was born in Wujing (武進), Jiangsu province, during the Qing Dynasty,

In 1905, before the establishment of the Republic of China, he met Sun Yat-sen in Europe, then he joined the Tong Meng Hui. He also became the first Academic Scholar of the Humanity Division (人文組院士) of the Academia Sinica (中央研究院), and a representative in the National People's Delegate Conferences (國民大會). He immigrated to Taiwan and was the teacher of Chiang Ching-kuo. He died in Taipei at the age of 88.

He was also respected for his various styles of calligraphy, which is evident in the design of chu-yin, all of its symbols have the strokes and essence of calligraphy.

His publications can be found in The Collection of the Works of Mr. Wu Chih-hui (《吳稚暉先生集》).

Name

"Woo Tsin-hang," used in the Academia Sinica's Western publications, is his name pronounced in the Jiangsu dialect. His name is spelled Wu Ching-heng in Wade-Giles, and Wu Jingheng in pinyin.