Yang Jingnian (; 17 October 1908 – 4 September 2016) was a Chinese economist and translator from Miluo, Hunan Province.
In 1932, Yang attended National Chengchi University in the Administration department. Graduating in 1936, he joined the Nankai University economic research institute. Nine years later, in 1945, he studied politics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, specializing in economics. In 1948, Yang earned a D.Phil. from Oxford, and that same year he became a professor at Nankai University.
Yang's most notable translations were The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith; The Economic Development of France and Germany, 1815-1914 by John Clapham; and History of Economic Analysis by Joseph Schumpeter. In an interview in 2006, a 98-year-old Yang said his secret for longevity was a balanced attitude, constant use of the brain, learning new things frequently, and physical exercise. In 2008, he published an autobiography when he turned 100 years old.
Life
Childhood
Yang was born in Miluo, Hunan, China on 17 October 1908. His father, Yang Haizong (), had considerable discord with his wife, Li Yuxia (), and angrily left home when Jingnian was still a child, never to be seen again. At the age of one month, Yang was sent by his mother to be raised by his maternal grandfather. When Yang was 10 years old, his mother remarried.
Although he lived a poor villager's life, Yang's grandfather became a scholar and passed the county level exams during the end of the Qing dynasty. He placed much emphasis on Yang's education, which began at four years of age; the young Yang moved on to reading his grandfather's books. At the age of 13, Yang was already well versed in the four books and five classics, and was proficient in literary Chinese.
Early studies
At the beginning of the Chinese Civil War in 1927, after graduating from Hunan First Normal University, Yang was admitted to the infantry department of the Changsha branch of Whampoa Military Academy, in order to join the Revolution. Three months later, due to the Mari Incident (), he decided to leave the Whampoa Academy because of his sentiments, as a person raised in a poor family, towards socialism and the Communist Party. For several years he made his living as a teacher.
In 1932, he was admitted to the KMT Central Politics University. Unlike many others who enrolled in order to get a government office, Yang went there since they required no tuition fees. During his studies he became aware of the KMT top cadre, and mainly the university's dean Chen Guofu's tendency to demand absolute obedience, and realized he could not yield to such an attitude. He therefore abandoned the idea of a public service career and planned to continue his studies abroad. This ambition required two years of experience in the desired field of study, which he intended to complete as an economics student at Nankai University.
After a short career at the Jiangsu civil affairs bureau, Yang passed the Nankai University entrance exams. His studies at Nankai University lasted for one year until the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and all students were dismissed. During that period, Yang managed to make a living by finding jobs with some help from the Nankai economic institution director, the Chinese economist Fang Xianting, and other friends. His mind was still set on studying abroad, however, which made him quit his developing career in the Ministry of Finance.
Attending Oxford University
In his first attempt to gain admission to Oxford University, in 1939, Yang failed the exams by 0.9 points, as the foreign students quota was limited to 20 students. Due to World War II, he had to wait until 1945 in order to get a second chance, and this time he went to Oxford, attending Corpus Christi College through India with a delegation of 100 Chinese students funded by public budgets. Life as a student in England was quite comfortable, with a scholarship that allowed Yang to study without having to work for his living. He related to his time in Oxford as an experience which opened his eyes to the world.
Back in China
In August 1948 Yang received his PhD in Oxford and was about to move to the United States, but he was called back to Nankai University by Franklin Ho (), who had become president there. Initially the boat company denied him his ticket to China, but some help from past colleagues at the political science university who served in the Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom got him the needed tickets.