Yang Yun-ping Papers (楊雲萍文書)

Yang Yun-ping (楊雲萍, 1906-2000), who had a real name “Yang Yo-lian” (楊友濂), was one of the founders of the “Everyone” (《人人》雜誌), the first vernacular literary magazine in Taiwan. He was mentored by Kawabata Yasunari (川端 康成) and Kan Kikuchi (菊池 寛) when studied at the Institute of Japanese Culture in Japan, and that made great impact on his creative style. Yang began to dedicate himself to researches on Taiwan history and culture after returning to Taiwan, and got a teaching job at Department of History, National Taiwan University in 1947. The Yung Yun-ping Papers contains various forms of correspondence with government agencies, non-government organizations, and individuals as well as his manuscripts, with coverage date from the mid period of Japanese rule to post-war period.

Identification Description

Title
Yung Yun-ping Papers (楊雲萍文書)

Introduction
Yang Yun-ping (楊雲萍, 1906-2000), professor of Department of History at National Taiwan University, was a pioneer in the field of research on Taiwan history. After his death, his wife and son reached an agreement with the Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica on donation of documents left behind Professor Yang, including his correspondence and manuscripts. In addition, all those documents have been processed and digitized for open access in the future.

Be influenced by elder family members, Yang Yun-ping got a solid foundation in the basics of Sinology. Moreover, he was one of the founders of the first vernacular literary magazine "Everyone" in Taiwan. After finishing education at the Institute of Japanese Culture, Yang Yun-ping returned to Taiwan in 1933 and began to dedicate himself to researches on Taiwan history and culture, and had used to be in charged with editing jobs for several journals, such as the "Arts in Taiwan" and the "Folklore in Taiwan". In addition, he worked for the Institute for Compilation and Translation of Taiwan Province and got a teaching position at Department of History at National Taiwan University. Besides teaching and doing research, he was keen to participate in academic activities and made great contributions to the field of research on Taiwan.

The Yang Yun-ping Papers contains more than 800 items, including his personal manuscripts, correspondence with friends, government agencies and organizations, and manuscripts of other celebrities, spanning from the period of Japanese rule to post-war period. Yang Yun-ping’s personal manuscripts record his daily activities, including literature works and history research results, and the researchers could observe Professor Yang’s study path. The most precious correspondence of his are private letters with friends who were also interested in literary, and we could learn about how literary workers formed their association and the atmosphere of the literary scene during the war. We could also understand the special time background and what kind of situation those literary workers were in through some official records released by government agencies. Therefore, the Yang Yun-ping Papers is important first-hand data for studying Taiwan's literary history or the history of Taiwan during the period of Japanese rule.

Source of Collection

Producer: Yang Yun-ping

Coverage Dates
1929 - 1985

Biography
Yang Yun-ping (1906-2000)’s real name was “Yang Yo-lian”. He published an article on the “Taiwan People Daily” in 1924 with a name "Student Yunping from Shilin ", and after that, he was known by that name. Be taught by his grandfather, Yang Yong-lu (楊永祿), from an early age, he developed a strong foundation for Sinology. Finishing education at the Pachilan public school (now the Shihlin Elementary School) and the junior agriculture school, he passed the entrance test of the Taipei First High School of Taipei State (now the Taipei Municipal Jianguo Senior High School) and was one of two Taiwanese students in that school. He worked with his friend, Jiang Mong-bi, to organize the "Everyone" in 1925, which was the first vernacular literary magazine in Taiwan.

Yang Yun-ping went to Japan and studied at the Institute of Japanese Culture in 1926. He was mentored and encouraged by Kawabata Yasunari and Kan Kikuchi, and that lay basis not only for his concept of literature and art but also his creative style. He returned to Taiwan in 1933 and began to do research on history of the South Ming Dynasty, Taiwan history and culture, also served as a editor for several journals, such as the "Arts in Taiwan" and the "Folklore in Taiwan".

After the World War II, Yang Yun-ping was employed by the Institute for Compilation and Translation of Taiwan Province in 1946. He had taught history of the South Ming Dynasty and Taiwan history at National Taiwan University for more than 40 years, and retired in 1991. Moreover, he also participated in editing the "Taiwan's scenery" Journal, serving as a consultant at the Committee of Archives, and took part in the activities organized by the Lin Ben-yuan Foundation of Chinese Culture for many years. Generally speaking, he made great contributions to promote research on Taiwan.

Collection Details

Contents
The "Yang Yun-ping Papers" contains his manuscript, correspondence with friends or organizations, and personal collection, such as other celebrities’ manuscripts, documents, cards, photos and postcards. The collection spans the mid period of Japanese rule to the period of post-war.

Yang Yun-ping’s collection of manuscript contains his literary works, such as articles, rhymes, and screenplays, hand-written manuscripts, essays, letters with family members, and notes are also included. He also kept his correspondence with friends who were the literati or scholars from Taiwan, China and Japan, and half of the correspondence are between him and Japanese friends. Yang Yun-ping loved reading and publishing articles, and most of his correspondence with organizations are invitations for papers, information about author’s remuneration, advertisement letter, and general communication. In addition, there are some letters from the "Kominhokokai (literally "Public Service Association of Imperial Subjects")" established before the World War II. AT that time, the Taiwan Governor asked local scholars and literati to write articles to promote policies of Japanese government, and Yang Yun-ping was one of them.

System of Arrangement
Being arranged in accordance with nature and subject of documents, there are 4 series in the “Yang Yun-ping Papers”, including "personal manuscripts", “correspondence with individuals", " correspondence with organizations ", and "personal collection" formed by 19 files, 896 items, with total number about 6,000 pages. Collections are listed below.


•    YP00 個人手稿 Personal Manuscripts
           o    YP00_01 文稿 Literary Works
           o    YP00_02 書墨作品 Calligraphy
           o    YP00_03 詩作及歌謠 Poems and Rhymes
           o    YP00_04 研究心得隨筆 Notes from Research
           o    YP00_05 讀書筆札 Notes from Reading
           o    YP00_06 家庭書信 Letters to Family
           o    YP00_07 古籍抄錄 Transcription of Ancient Books
           o    YP00_08 目錄雜抄 Transcription of Table of Contents
           o    YP00_09 偶記短箋 Essays
•    YP01 個人往來函件 Correspondence with Individuals
           o    YP01_01 臺灣人物 Taiwanese People
           o    YP01_02 外國人物 Foreigners
•    YP02 機關團體往來函件 Correspondence with Organizations
           o    YP02_01 臺灣機關團體:戰前 Taiwanese Organizations: Before the End of World War II
           o    YP02_02 臺灣機關團體:戰後 Taiwanese Organizations: After the End of World War II
           o    YP02_03 外國機關團體 Foreign Organizations
•    YP03 個人收藏 Personal Collection
           o    YP03_01 收藏手稿 Manuscripts
           o    YP03_02 收藏文件 Documents
           o    YP03_03 收藏照片 Photographs
           o    YP03_04 收藏明信片 Postcards
           o    YP03_05 收藏圖書報刊 Newspapers and Magazines
 

       
Letter from Lin Hsien-t’ang to Yang Yun-ping
In October 1929, Lin Hsien-t’ang wrote a greeting letter to Yang Yun-ping and invited Yang to meet him at Gaoyige Hotel in Taipei.
       

Calligraphy of Yang Yun-ping

In January 1944, Yang Yun-ping transcribed the poem “Answering Someone in the Mountains” by Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai.

 

       
Letter from Hu Shi to Yang Yun-ping

In January 1959, Hu Shi, President of Academia Sinica, wrote to Yang Yun-ping regarding his thoughts after reading Yang’s article.

 

       

Poem from Yu Da-fu to Yang Yun-ping

In December 1936, Yu Da-fu transcribed a poem by Qing Dynasty scholar Gong Zi-zhen and gave it to Yang Yun-ping.

 

 

       

Yang Yun-ping

Date: May 30, 1935 (age 29)

 

       

Yang Yun-ping

Date: June 14, 1990
Place: Room 3, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts, National Taiwan University

 

Administration Information

Acquisition Information
Donated by Yang Gong-xi (楊恭熙) in 2004.

Access Informaiton
The Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica holds the rights of original documents and digital images. Please contact Historical Records Reading Room of the Archives for use, or access digital images via Taiwan Archival Information System.

Text and images are provided by the Digitization & Value-added Project of Taiwan Historical Archives in the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica