At 5:41 am on October 26, Pan Handian, a famous janitor , legal translator, , founder of the former Institute of Comparative Law of China University of Political Science and Law, and former director, died of illness at the age of 98.
In Pan Handian's 98 years of life, he mastered six foreign languages: Germany, France, Japan, Russia, Italy and England, and translated the constitutions of Romania, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and other countries. It also took 27 years to translate the "The Monarch" by the Italian Machiavelli.
Pan Handian is recognized as one of the founders of contemporary Chinese comparative law. In 1948, after graduating from the postgraduate degree of law at the School of Law of Soochow University, Pan Handian began legal research including comparative law. In the 1980s, he participated in the establishment of the Institute of Comparative Law of China University of Political Science and Law.
"The most direct purpose of my commitment to introducing and translating foreign legal and legal theories is to enable them to provide useful help in establishing a good legal system and legal system in our country," said Pan Handian.
Pan Handian was a low-key person throughout his life and rarely talked about his achievements. Most of the time, he sat quietly at the desk, lighted a yellow light, and buried his head in reading or writing.
A week before Pan Handian's death, his translation "The Power Struggle" was officially published. This is also one of the works he values most during his lifetime.
"Little Study" in his later years
is almost 100 years old, and Pan Handian often stays in his "Little Study". In this cramped room, books are all in sight, they are neatly zipped in bookcases, stacked on the desks and on the ground. Among these books, many are masterpieces of legal works by famous Chinese and foreign masters, and are collections and handwritten copies of the past.
Against the early years, students from China University of Political Science and Law often saw him in the foreign library of graduate school. My hair was gray, I wore glasses, and buried my head in books, and it was a day at first glance. Associate Professor Chen Xinyu of Tsinghua University School of Law said, "People who are familiar with him will find that he is reading books very slowly. Sometimes he will watch a cover for a long time."
Pan Handian always has endless books to read. Children recalled that when there were no fax machines and photocopiers in the past, the articles and materials needed had to be flipped page by page, the books should be viewed one by one, and they should be typed or handwritten and recorded. "In those years, in the vast world of books, he worked hard and lived happily."
Two years ago, Pan Handian fell ill. His legs and feet were no longer flexible and he rarely went out. He read less books than before. He had no energy to study at his desk, and he couldn't even hold his favorite brush. On the wall is a sketch of his wife Wang Zhaoyi who was young in the Red Building on the beach of Peking University. The following is: "A quiet Sunday in the gray building full of green windows."
Pan Handian. The picture comes from the official Weibo of China University of Political Science and Law
student Bai Sheng often visits Pan Handian. Wang Zhaoyi always reminds Bai Sheng that it is best not to talk to Pan Handian for more than an hour, so as not to waste too much energy. But when Pan Handian saw Bai Sheng coming, he often couldn't stop talking. The two often discussed new progress in the academic community and the recent situation of colleagues in the Dharma world, and talked for two or three hours.
On October 19, the "Power Struggle" by German jurist Yelin translated by Pan Handian was published by Commercial Press. Bai Sheng visited him with the sample book he had just published. Pan Handian was very excited and took a photo with his new book. In the photo, he was sitting on a white sofa, wearing a blue cotton jacket, holding a book in both hands, his head tilted slightly, and a gentle smile on his face.
They discussed holding a new book launch ceremony on his 99th birthday to share the results with everyone, and also took the opportunity to gather with friends and students whom they had not seen for a long time. Pan Handian happily agreed, but he failed to wait until his birthday on December 3rd.
is to accurately translate "The Monarch" and learn from scratch. Italian
In Pan Handian, the most important tag is "one of the founders of contemporary Chinese comparative law."
In 1920, Pan Handian was born in Shantou, Guangdong. His father graduated from Guangdong Law and Political Science School and is a famous local lawyer. Pan Handian has excellent grades since childhood and was admitted to the Law Department of the Law School of Shanghai Soochow University.
The Soochow School of Law where Pan Handian studied not only has many courses, but most of them are taught in English, but also uses the "case law" of British and American law to teach, which is very strict. Among the 71 students who enrolled with Pan Handian, only 25 of them successfully obtained a bachelor's degree, and Pan Handian was one of them.
Mr. Pan Handian’s undergraduate degree certificate from Soochow Law School.
When he was in school, Pan Handian took foreign language courses such as France, Germany, and Japan. After graduation, he studied Russian by himself and began to translate foreign legal works.
When the new China was first established, it was necessary to learn from the legislative experience of other countries to establish and improve China's legal system. Pan Handian also hoped to make contributions in this field.
After the 1950s, the Soviet school was popular in China. In 1956, the Chinese Society of Political Science and Law founded the magazine "Political and Legal Translation Series". The articles included in the magazine's first issue are all translated by Soviet law and law. Under such historical conditions, Pan Handian conducted in-depth research on the Soviet system and laws in accordance with the requirements of the state, but did not stop observing and understanding the dynamics of Western methodology. In his opinion, if a country wants to be strong and to go to the world, the laws and regulations of Western countries are important contents that the country must understand and master.
Constitution is the focus of Pan Handian's academic research. In the 1950s and 1960s, he translated the constitutions of more than ten countries including Britain, Morocco, Japan, and Somalia. Around the 1980s, the constitutions of the six countries of Romania, Japan, France, Germany, Canada and Italy were translated.
The most well-known story in Pan Handian's translation work is that Pan Handian spent 27 years translating the Italian Machiavelli's "The Monarch" into the Chinese version, although the book only has 126 pages and less than 100,000 words.
In 1958, when receiving the manuscript from the Commercial Press, Pan Handian was already a translator in five foreign languages in Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Russia. But when he was preparing to translate, he found that the meanings of the translations of the book "The Prince" vary greatly, and there was no consensus. Pan Handian started from scratch and learned Italian.
Pan Handian conducted in-depth research on the history and culture of Machiavelli and his era, and read all Machiavelli's works and research materials on Machiavelli. In order to let readers understand Machiavelli better, he wrote a refined biography for Machiavelli in the translator's preface, and also made more than 220 footnotes in the book, 70 of which are more than 70 words, and the longest one has more than 200 words.
He also made direct contributions to the formulation and revision of the Chinese Constitution. In the 1954, 1975 and 1978 constitutions, the word "Asylum" was mistranslated as "right to residence", but in fact, it means "right to asylum". After Pan Handian discovered it, he promptly fed it to Wang Shuwen, then director of the State Law Office of the Institute of Law of the Academy of Social Sciences, and it was revised when the Constitution was revised in 1982.
"As a comparative jurist, Mr. Pan not only regards comparative jurisprudence as a method, but also regards comparative jurisprudence as a way of life. He is a pure scholar," Bai Sheng described him in this way.
"I am just a diligent scholar"
diligence is Pan Handian's creed in studying. In 1991, Pan Handian, who was over 70 years old, retired from China University of Political Science and Law. After retirement, Pan Handian was not idle either.
In 1993, Xue Bo, who was still a graduate student in school, wanted to compile a dictionary of British and American legal affairs to facilitate the Chinese legal community. But at that time, due to the early rejection of Western methodology, China lacked scholars who were proficient in Britain, the United States and law. So Xue Bo found Pan Handian. As a graduate of Soochow University's Law School, Pan Handian has received a lot of British, American and legal education and is good at many foreign languages. It is most appropriate for him to serve as the general review of the dictionary.
From 1994 to 2003, Pan Handian, who was in his 80s, and Xue Bo went to Shanghai many times to visit classmates from Soochow University's Law School and invited them to join the editing of the dictionary.
Pan Handian participated in the event. The picture comes from the official WeChat of China University of Political Science and Law
According to Southern Weekend, the average age of these scholars participating in the compilation is 84 years old, but they are still rigorous in academic practice.In order to approve the entry of the "American Law", Mr. Lu Shengzu wrote more than 2,000 words of notes; Mr. Wang Yuye had poor eyesight and had to use natural light to read the manuscript, but there was no balcony at home, so he had to work at his daughter's house 8 kilometers away every time; and Pan Handian still hung a urine bag for reviewing the manuscript 48 hours before a surgery.
In 2003, the "Yuanzhao Anglo-American and French Dictionary" was born. At the beginning of the dictionary, there is a long list of thanks. However, in the dictionary, there are only two places where Pan Handian's name appear: "original origin" and "general review".
In an interview with Southern Weekend, Pan Handian, who is over 80 years old, talked about his original intention of participating in the review, "No, I should do it. As a professor of comparative law, I have such a thing in China, so of course I have to do it."
In 2003, Pan Handian was hired as a "distinguished doctoral supervisor" by China University of Political Science and Law. The following year, he began to recruit doctoral students at China University of Political Science and Law. "He 'didn't know that old age is coming' and devoted himself to teaching." In 2008, Bai Sheng was admitted to Pan Handian's doctoral laboratory. Although Pan Handian was 88 years old at that time, he spared no effort to guide students in academic research.
93 years old, the "Bordenheimer's Jurisprudence" translated by Pan Handian in 1945 was ready to be published. More than half a century has passed, and the manuscripts of that year have been yellowed and accumulated dust. Pan Handian wants to turn them out of the box and review and proofread them one by one.
During that time, Pan Handian worked more than ten hours a day, and seemed obsessed. It was common for him to eat day and night. He even had to urge him to eat several times. He had just put down his job and entered the study again. Because he was too devoted to his work, he was once sick and went to the hospital.
When evaluating Pan Handian, Gao Hongjun, a professor at the School of Law of Tsinghua University, said, "With his broad vision and outstanding research ability, Mr. Wang could have written more of his own works. But he thought that in the field of foreign law and comparative law, it is better to faithfully translate the original works and write reference books with lasting significance than to write so-called works or papers. This indifferent mind to fame and fortune and dedication to make wedding dresses left a deep impression on us younger generations."
On September 7, 2012, 92-year-old Pan Handian attended the "Pan Handian Law Road" conferencing meeting held by the Law Press. At that time, he had just been discharged from the hospital, but was very energetic, wearing a suit and a red and black tie. At the meeting, Pan Handian summarized his life in one sentence, "I am just a diligent scholar. I hope that through my efforts, more knowledge and systems outside the domain can be used for us, and finally a China with the rule of law will be established."
Reference materials: "The Figure of the Soochow of Wu: Approaching Pan Handian" (Bai Sheng, Peking University Press), Bai Sheng's blog "Quiet White Swan", "The Legal Elite for 30 Years Forgotten" (Southern Weekend)
Beijing News reporter Zhou Xiaoqi Editor Chen Xiaoshu Proofreader He Yan
