REVIEWING THE HISTORY OF SOIL CLASSIFICATION IN CHINA, REMEMBERING GREAT SOIL SCIENTIST LI LIANJIE
回顾中国土壤分类历史,缅怀一代宗师李连捷教授

Professor Li Lianjie, a famous soil scientist, was born in 1908, died in 1992. Li Lianjie did soil geography and land resources research in his whole life, investigated many regions and made a great contribution to the genesis, classification, characteristics and distribution of soils in China. With the geological background, his soil genesis and classification studies were full of attention to the influence of geological factors or parent materials on soil formation. He began his soil survey career following J. Thorp after graduating from the Department of Geology and Geography, Yenching University in 1932. In 1930s, Li Lianjie went to many places to do soil survey in China, and established many great groups and series. J. Thorp introduced C.F. Marbut′s classification into China by establishing China soil classification system in 1936. Before 1950, the soil classification was influenced by C.F. Marbut′s classification in China. Actually, J. Thorp′s China soil classification system in 1936 was based on the material that was accumulated by Li Lianjie and his colleagues′ soil survey and classification works. After 1949, Li Lianjie participated and led many great comprehensive investigations of natural resources for agricultural development such as the Comprehensive Investigation of Xinjiang′s Natural Resources, the Comprehensive Investigation of Hainan Island′s Agriculture Development, the Comprehensive Investigation of Beijing Mountain Area′s Natural Resources, etc. He knew the genesis, classification, characteristics and distribution of soils in China very well from his field investigation throughout whole China. He also knew the characteristics of land resources very well and made many suitable and valuable advises in agricultural development. In 1950s, the Soviet Union′s soil classification was introduced to China. Because Li Lianjie deeply understood the geographical law of soil genesis and distribution from his experience of soil investigation, Li Lianjie promoted to establish the soil classification system based on the geographical law of soil genesis, according to the geographical genesis law and characteristics . In 1955, China established its first soil classification system that was based on the geographical genesis law and characteristics of China soils. After that, although there were many versions of soil classification, the principles and structure of soil classification did not change. China did the second national soil survey based on this soil classification system from 1978 to 1995. Professor Li Lianjie was a super adviser for the national soil survey and went to many places to guide the soil survey works. From this national soil survey, China got much material and data that make the possibility to develop new soil classification. Professor Li Lianjie always pursued revolution in soil classification. He appreciated the Soil Taxonomy of United States for its relatively quantitative classifying method, and introduced it to China by