Elderly honoree aged 94 challenges students to surpass his achievements

Zhang Jinfan, who reads and writes every day even at the age of 94, has not yet retired from teaching Chinese legal history. While encouraging his students to surpass his achievements, he also told them that it would not be easy because he is still working.

On Sept 13, Zhang, a tenured and emeritus professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, was awarded the national honorary title of People's Educator on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Recalling his childhood, the prominent jurist from Longkou, Shandong province, told People's Daily that his greatest interest at the time was listening to his father tell stories about China's past and reading historical novels.

In 1950, Zhang went to the Renmin University of China to study legal history. Two years later, he took a school job, teaching and researching the subject.

With diligence and academic enthusiasm, he joined the China University of Political Science and Law in the 1980s. There, he served in a number of positions, including head of the school's Institute for Legal History Studies and the school's vice-president, and oversaw the enrollment of the nation's first batch of doctoral students in the field of Chinese legal history.

As the founder of Chinese legal history studies, he has built a bridge between China's past and future with his academic research and helped introduce the country's development of its rule of law to the world.

"Chinese legal history studies the history, but faces reality. One of the course's key purposes is to provide historical reference for the construction of the rule of law in reality," Zhang told Fangyuan magazine, a legal news outlet under the Supreme People's Procuratorate, in March.

Although his vision worsened due to macular disease in 2002, he still pays attention to legal news and measures taken by the country, because in his view, students of Chinese legal history must understand the changes from ancient times to the present, so as to find references in history to meet modern needs, according to the magazine.

"I used a 6.5x magnifying glass to read a few years ago. Now I have to magnify text by 12x. It's more and more difficult to read words," he told the magazine, but added that he still works about five hours a day.

If he works too much, sometimes his blood pressure rises, but once it stabilizes, he returns to his desk to continue reading and writing, "because life at work is what's most interesting to me," he said.

Recently, he has been writing tomes about his more than 70 years of theoretical and academic accomplishments. The first volume, published in February, consists of 22 books containing 9 million words. If the remaining two volumes are completed, the total number of words will exceed 30 million.

"The volumes are not only a collection of Zhang's academic achievements, but also a summary of the academic development of Chinese legal history over the past 70 years," Zhu Yong, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told Fangyuan.

"These books will help us understand the hardships, perseverance, firmness and confidence of the older generation of scholars, as well as the twists and turns, achievements and brilliant future for students who are on the road of studying Chinese legal history," he added.

Ma Huaide, president of the China University of Political Science and Law, said that Zhang has interpreted the spirit of education through his practical actions, calling for greater efforts in the cultivation of legal talent.

"I was proud to hear that Zhang was granted the title of People's Educator, and also moved after learning about his dedication to and passion for education and the rule of law," said Xie Juntao, a graduate of the university's civil and economic law school.

"Zhang's academic spirit will encourage me to keep moving forward on the road of the rule of law, and inspire me to improve my professional competence," Xie added.