Ji Xianlin, a Chinese linguist, paleographer, historian, and writer who has been honored by the governments of both India and China, died Saturday morning in Beijing. He was 97.

Ji died at 8:50 a.m. at the No. 301 hospital of the Chinese army, People's Daily reported, citing an announcement by Peking University where he once served as vice president.

Ji received a lifetime achievement award from the Chinese government in 2006 for his contributions to the field of translation. On January 26, 2008, the Indian government announced that Ji had been awarded the Padma Bhushan, an honor established in 1954 to recognize distinguished service of a high order in any field to the nation. It was the first time that a Chinese person received the award.

A file photo of Ji Xianlin [People.com.cn]

Ji was born in 1911 in Qingping County (today's Linqing City) of East China's Shandong Province. He studied at the Sanhejie Primary School and the No.1 Middle School in Jinan City before entering Shandong University. In 1930, Ji was admitted to Tsinghua University as a Western literature major.

In 1935, he went to Germany as an exchange student to study ancient languages including Sanskrit, Pali and Tocharian, and received a doctoral degree in 1941.

Ji returned to China in 1946, and in the autumn of the same year, became a professor at Peking University under the recommendation of his teacher Chen Yinluo. Soon afterwards, he founded the Department of Eastern Languages and served as its dean. It was there that Ji blazed a trail in the field of Eastern studies in China.

In 1956, Ji was elected commissioner of the Chinese Academy of Science's Department of Social Science.

Two years after the end of the Culture Revolution (1966-1976), he became vice president of Peking University and director of the Chinese Academy of Science's Research Institute on South Asia.

Ji also served as chairman of various professional organizations, such as the Chinese Foreign Literature Association, the Chinese South Asian Association, and the Chinese Language Society.

His body of work consists of 24 volumes, including articles on ancient Indian languages, Sino-Indian cultural relations, Buddhism, comparative and folk literature, essays and translations of literary works.

(CRI July 12, 2009)