Deciphering the Chinese language: CHEN Sijie's academic pursuits

CHEN Sijie, a graduate student (Year3) majoring in Chinese Philology at the School of Literature of ZJU, shows a remarkable academic journey. Graduating with top honors in all 19 undergraduate courses, he published four CSSCI papers and one AMI paper during his master’s degree. Also, he received the national scholarship three times during his undergraduate and graduate studies and undertook important investigative research work in multiple international projects. The core of CHEN's scholarly pursuit lies in passion, curiosity, and observational skills, all centered around his love for the Chinese Language.

I want to learn Chinese Language, that's what I truly love

When he was a child, CHEN showed a special hobby—reading dictionaries. Learning new words from the dictionary is fascinating, especially rare words. No matter how rare a word is, it has its own history. When choosing his educational path, his heart led him to affirm, I want to learn Chinese Language, that's what I truly love.

The course Ancient Chinese I taught by Professor WANG Weihui became an important turning point in his academic journey, which reignited Chen's passion. Under the guidance of Prof. WANG, CHEN delved into the language materials to identify problems from “Records of the Grand Historian”. “Studying the history of Chinese language is like solving a detective case, where one must seek the most accurate sequence of events to uncover the truth,” he said.  

CHEN (left) and his mentor Prof. WANG

This is the best assignment I've seen. The praise from Associate Professor YAO Yongming for his assignments, greatly encouraged CHEN and further solidified his research direction.

Good articles are all refined through revision

His undergraduate thesis, which is about to be published in CSSCI, was refined through seven meticulous revisions over three years. “Good articles are all refined through revision, Prof. WANG does it in this way, so students should do even better.”

Enduring loneliness and failures are the biggest challenges in CHEN’s academic career. Research can be painful at times, but the sense of achievement in thoroughly solving a problem can eliminate all fatigue. That feeling cannot be replaced by anything else. He emphasized, When encountering new problems, we shouldn’t easily give up, but encourage ourselves to face challenges, change perspectives, broaden the scope of reading, and eventually welcome the moment of enlightenment.

During the undergraduate years, CHEN participated in many research projects. During his master's degree, he presented papers multiple times at academic conferences and published several papers in core journals. His academic level has been affirmed by many famous scholars at home and abroad. One said “his academic level has reached that of a doctoral student or postdoctoral researcher!” after reading part of his master's thesis.

Treating Chinese as a lifelong career

At the beginning of his senior year, CHEN joined Professor ZHUANG Chusheng and his team to investigate dialects. Despite grappling with phonetics, CHEN saw each challenge as an opportunity for growth, to broaden his understanding of Chinese language and culture.

CHEN investigated dialects in Qingyuan city

With the accumulation of investigation experience, CHEN almost completely renewed his language perspective. Previously, my understanding of the ancient language came from the dry texts of classics; now, it comes alive through the vivid language encountered in fieldwork.” He tried to combine Chinese historical linguistics with dialectology, and gradually found his own research direction.

The pronunciation of "鼻" (bí, nose) is a controversial issue in phonology. By chance, CHEN found flaws in previous dialect materials about the origin of the entering tone of "鼻". He was so excited that he wrote the first draft in six days. With the encouragement and guidance of his mentor, CHEN polished the draft, which was a successful practice in solving problems in Chinese historical linguistics.

“CHEN has the courage to challenge authority and propose new theories, showing the scientific spirit and boldness of a young scholar. It is not easy for a master's student to write such an outstanding paper. As a mentor, I feel deeply proud. Prof. WANG evaluated. Although CHEN often compares his study to a detective game, whenever he faces the vast ancient texts, he always reminds himself to have a heart of awe, to respect the thousand years of historical context and the civilization gene of the Chinese nation.

In the future, CHEN Sijie will continue his studies and pursue theoretical linguistics. He looks forward to deeper reflections on the facts of language, to better understand the ancients, himself, and the world.

Adapted and translated from the article written by HAN Mingzheng

Translator: HAN Xiao ('2025, Higher Education)

Photo: the interviewee

Editor: TIAN Minjie