Zhang Zhongxing, a master of Chinese language, literature and culture studies, died of illness in Beijing Friday.

Zhang was hospitalized at No. 305 Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in downtown Beijing last September for heart and lung diseases. He died of respiratory failure early Friday morning following an infection in the lungs.

Zhang, born in north China's Hebei Province in January 1909, was a Beijing University graduate and worked as teacher for 14 years before he became an editor at the People's Educational Publishing House, China's leading textbook publisher, in 1950.

He had since devoted his life to compiling textbooks and literary works on Chinese language, literature and traditional culture, as well as logics and philosophy, and became one of the very few scholars who were insightful in both Chinese and Western philosophies.

Zhang was reputed as one of the top three masters of Chinese national culture at Beijing University, along with noted Chinese linguist, literary translator and Sanskritist Ji Xianlin and renowned Sanskritist and Indian culture specialist Jin Kemu.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2006)