Xiong Qinglai
Chinese mathematician
Xiong Qinglai, or Hiong King-Lai (simplified Chinese: 熊庆来; traditional Chinese: 熊慶來; pinyin: Xióng Qìnglái; Wade–Giles: Hsiung Ch'ing-lai, October 20, 1893 – February 3, 1969), courtesy name Dizhi (迪之), was a Chinese mathematician from Yunnan. He was the first person to introduce modern mathematics into China, and served as an influential president of Yunnan University from 1937 through 1947. A Chinese stamp was issued in his honour.
Biography
Xiong was born in Xizhai village (nowadays named Qinglai village to honour him) of Mile County, Yunnan province. He was the son of Xiong Guodong (熊国栋), a government official in Zhaozhou.
In 1907, Xiong accompanied his father to Kunming and enrolled in the Yunnan Higher School for preparatory studies. After two years, he began studying English and French. In 1911, he entered the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Higher Learning.
At the age of sixteen, Xiong Qinglai followed his parents' instructions and married Jiang Juyuan (b. 1893).
“Xiong Qinglai” enters the record as chinese mathematician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Xiong, Qinglai and Chinese can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8044714. VIAF identifies the subject as 59161625. The Library of Congress control number is n85074136. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893, 1969, 1937 and 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “Xiong Qinglai” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.