---
title: "Y.P. Mei"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Y.P. Mei"
aliases: ["Mei Yibao","Yi-Pao Mei","Yi Pao Mei"]
first_seen: "2026-08-31T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["Pierre F. Goodrich","China Institute of America","Wabash College","Yenching University","Mozi (Motse) scholarship"]
seek_code_commit: "7d6d9ed"
---


Chinese philosopher (Mei Yibao, 1900-1996), Tianjin-born, University of
Chicago PhD (1927), who taught philosophy at Yenching University in
Beijing from 1928 and served as its acting president and chancellor
(1942-46) while the university operated in wartime exile at West China
Union University in Chengdu. He was an early English-language
interpreter of the classical Chinese philosopher Mozi (Motse), publishing
*The Ethical and Political Philosophy of Motse* (1929) and *Motse, the
Neglected Rival of Confucius* (1934). After fleeing mainland China in
1949 he taught at a string of American universities — Chicago, Indiana,
Cincinnati, Princeton, Oberlin, Bowdoin, and Wabash — before settling as
visiting professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Iowa in 1953.

Matters to this vault as the figure at the center of a still-open
corroboration question: [[entity-pierre-goodrich|Pierre F. Goodrich]]'s
own foundation credits a 1950-51 meeting with Mei at Wabash College,
through their mutual China Institute of America connection, as formative
— but that specific meeting and Goodrich's 1948-65 trustee dates rest
only on Liberty Fund's own account. Two independent institutional records
(Wabash College's own honorary-degree list and a University of Iowa
archival finding aid) confirm Mei really was at Wabash right around the
claimed year, without confirming the meeting itself. See
[[question-corroborate-goodrich-mei-wabash-meeting]].

## References

- [[claim-goodrich-china-institute-of-america-trustee-met-mei-at-wabash]]
- [[claim-wabash-1951-honorary-degree-list-confirms-mei]]
- [[claim-university-of-iowa-archive-places-mei-at-wabash-post-1949]]