Liang Qichao
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Liang Qichao 梁啓超 | |
---|---|
Director of the Imperial Library of Peking | |
In office December 1925 – June 1927 | |
Preceded by | Chen Renzhong |
Succeeded by | Guo Zongxi |
Minister of Finance of the Republic of China | |
In office July 1917 – November 1917 | |
Premier | Duan Qirui |
Preceded by | Li Jingxi |
Succeeded by | Wang Kemin |
Minister of Justice of the Republic of China | |
In office September 1913 – February 1914 | |
Premier | Xiong Xiling |
Preceded by | Xu Shiying |
Succeeded by | Zhang Zongxiang |
Personal details | |
Born | Xinhui, Guangdong, Qing China | February 23, 1873
Died | January 19, 1929 Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beiping (now Beijing), Republic of China | (aged 55)
Political party | Progressive Party |
Spouses | Li Huixian (m. 1891)Wang Guiquan (m. 1903) |
Children | 9 children, including Imperial Examination |
Occupation |
|
Liang Qichao | |
---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | Liáng Qǐchāo |
Wade–Giles | Liang2 Ch'i3-ch'ao1 |
IPA | [ljǎŋ tɕʰì.ʈʂʰáʊ] |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Yale Romanization | Lèuhng Kái-chīu |
Jyutping | Loeng4 Kai2-ciu1 |
IPA | [lœːŋ˩ kʰɐi˧˥.tsʰiːu˥] |
Liang Qichao (Chinese: 梁啓超 ;
In his youth, Liang Qichao joined his teacher Kang Youwei in the reform movement of 1898. When the movement was defeated, he fled to Japan and promoted a constitutional monarchy and organized political opposition to the dynasty. After the revolution of 1911, he joined the Beiyang government, serving as the chief justice and the first president of the currency system bureau. He became dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai and launched a movement to oppose his ambition to be emperor. After Yuan's death, he served as the finance chief of the Duan Qirui cabinet and as supervisor of the Salt Administration. He advocated the New Culture Movement and supported cultural change but not political revolution.
Biography
Family
Liang Qichao was born in a small village in
Early life
Liang passed the
In 1890, Liang failed in his
Inspired by the book Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms by the reform Confucian scholar Wei Yuan, Liang became extremely interested in western political thought. After returning home, Liang went on to study with Kang Youwei, who was teaching at Wanmu Caotang in Guangzhou. Kang's teachings about foreign affairs fueled Liang's interest in reforming China.
In 1895, Liang went to the capital Beijing again with Kang for the national examination. During the examination, he was active in the Gongche Shangshu movement.[3]: 129 After failing to pass the examination for a second time, he stayed in Beijing to help Kang publish Domestic and Foreign Information. He also helped to organize the Society for National Strengthening , where Liang served as secretary. For time, he was also enlisted by the governor of Hunan, Chen Baozhen to edit reform-friendly publications, such as the Hunan Daily (Xiangbao 湘報) and the Hunan Journal (Xiang xuebao 湘學報).
Reform movements
As an advocate of
This proposal soon ignited a frenzy of disagreement, and Liang became a wanted man by order of Empress Dowager Cixi, the leader of the political conservative faction who later took over the government as regent. Cixi strongly opposed reforms at that time and along with her supporters, condemned the "Hundred Days' Reform" as being too radical.
In 1898, the Conservative Coup ended all reforms, and Liang fled to Japan, where he stayed for the next 14 years. While in
In 1899, Liang went to Canada, where he met Dr.
In 1900–1901, Liang visited Australia on a six-month tour that aimed at raising support for a campaign to reform the Chinese empire and thus modernize China through adopting the best of Western technology, industry and government systems. He also gave public lectures to both Chinese and Western audiences around the country. This visit coincided with the Federation of the six British colonies into the new nation of Australia in 1901. He felt this model of integration might be an excellent model for the diverse regions of China. He was feted by politicians, and met the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton.[6] He returned to Japan later that year.
In 1903, Liang embarked on an eight-month lecture tour throughout the United States, which included a meeting with President
While living in Japan in 1905, Liang supported the Constitutionalist movement within the Qing administration.[7]: 32
The descendant of Confucius Duke Yansheng was proposed as a replacement for the Qing dynasty as Emperor by Liang Qichao.[8]
Politician
For the construction of the modernization, Liang focused on two relative questions in politics. The first one was the ways that transformed people became citizen for modernization, and Liang thought Chinese needed to improve civic ethos to build the nation-state in the Qing dynasty, and the second one was the question of the citizenship, and Liang thought both of them were important to support the reformation in the Qing dynasty.[1] In Liang's view, Chineseness was a cultural concept rather than an ethnic concept.[7]: 32 Liang viewed China as weak not because of ethnic Manchu rule, but because of its cultural customs formed over millennia.[7]: 32 From his perspective, an "imperial strategy" to combine all Chinese ethnicities into one nation was the best path to a strong China.[7]: 32
With the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, constitutional monarchy became an increasingly irrelevant topic. Liang merged his renamed
Liang Qichao's thought was impacted by the West, and he learned the new political thought and regime of the Western countries, and he learned these from the Japanese translation books, and he learned the Western thought through Meiji Japan to analyze the knowledge of the West.[9]
In 1915, he opposed Yuan's attempt to make himself emperor. He convinced his disciple Cai E, the military governor of Yunnan, to rebel. Progressive party branches agitated for the overthrow of Yuan and more provinces declared their independence. The revolutionary activity that he had frowned upon was utilized successfully. Besides Duan Qirui, Liang was the biggest advocate of entering World War I on the Allied side. He felt it would boost China's status and also ameliorate foreign debts. He condemned his mentor, Kang Youwei, for assisting in the failed attempt to restore the Qing in July 1917. After failing to turn Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang into responsible statesmen, he gave up and left politics.
Despite the failures of his reforms, Liang Qichao's idea of Chinese nationalism based on the civic idea of Five Races Under One Union inspired Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang's nationalism, as well as the nationalist rhetoric of the CCP.
Contributions to journalism
As a journalist
Liang Qichao was the "most influential turn-of-the-century scholar-journalist," according to Levenson. Liang showed that newspapers and magazines could serve as an effective medium for communicating political ideas.
Liang, as a historian and a journalist, believed that both careers must have the same purpose and "moral commitment," as he proclaimed, "by examining the past and revealing the future, I will show the path of progress to the people of the nation." Thus, he founded his first newspaper, called the Qing Yi Bao (淸議報), named after a student movement of the Han dynasty.
Liang's exile to Japan allowed him to speak freely and exercise his intellectual autonomy. During his career in journalism, he edited two premier newspapers, Zhongwai Gongbao (中外公報) and Shiwu Bao (時務報). He also published his moral and political ideals in Qing Yi Bao (淸議報) and New Citizen (新民叢報).
In addition, he used his literary works to further spread his views on republicanism both in China and across the world. Accordingly, he had become an influential journalist in terms of political and cultural aspects by writing new forms of periodical journals. He published his articles in the magazine New Youth to expand the thought of science and democracy in the 1910s. Furthermore, journalism paved the way for him to express his patriotism.
New Citizen Journal
Liang produced a widely read biweekly journal called New Citizen (Xinmin Congbao 新民叢報), first published in Yokohama, Japan on February 8, 1902.
The journal covered many different topics, including politics, religion, law, economics, business, geography and current and international affairs. In the journal, Liang coined many Chinese equivalents for never-before-heard theories or expressions and used the journal to help communicate public opinion in China to faraway readers. Through news analyses and essays, Liang hoped that the New Citizen would be able to start a "new stage in Chinese newspaper history."
A year later, Liang and his co-workers saw a change in the newspaper industry and remarked, "Since the inauguration of our journal last year, there have come into being almost ten separate journals with the same style and design."
Liang spread his notions about democracy as chief editor of the New Citizen Journal. The journal was published without hindrance for five years but eventually ceased in 1907 after 96 issues. Its readership was estimated to be 200,000.
Role of the newspaper
As one of the pioneers of Chinese journalism of his time, Liang believed in the "power" of newspaper, especially its influence over government policies. In 1896, he wrote an editorial for the first issue of Shiwu bao (Contemporary affairs) titled, On the Benefits of the Press to State Affairs.[10]: 32 In the editorial, Liang compared the circulation of information in a country to the blood and pulse of a body.[10]: 32 Liang wrote that China was weak due to blockages of communication between the rulers, ministers, the people, and between China and the outside world.[10]: 32–33 He criticized the Qing dynasty for its control on information, which to Liang implied a failure of political rationality.[10]: 32
Liang both praised Western freedom of the press and criticized Western media narratives of China for legitimizing colonization and conquest.[10]: 33
Using newspapers and magazines to communicate political ideas: Liang realised the importance of journalism's social role and supported the idea of a strong relationship between politics and journalism before the May Fourth Movement, (also known as the New Culture Movement). He believed that newspapers and magazines should serve as an essential and effective tool in communicating political ideas. The magazine New Youth became an important way to show his thought in the New Culture Movement, and his articles spread the ideas to the youth in that period. He believed that newspapers did not only act as a historical record, but was also a means to "shape the course of history."
Press as a weapon in revolution: Liang also thought that the press was an "effective weapon in the service of a nationalist uprising". In Liang's words, the newspaper is a “revolution of ink, not a revolution of blood.” He wrote, "so a newspaper regards the government the way a father or elder brother regards a son or younger brother — teaching him when he does not understand, and reprimanding him when he gets something wrong." Undoubtedly, his attempt to unify and dominate a fast-growing and highly competitive press market has set the tone for the first generation of newspaper historians of the May Fourth Movement.
Newspaper as an educational program: Liang was well aware that the newspaper could serve as an "educational program", and said, "the newspaper gathers virtually all the thoughts and expressions of the nation and systematically introduces them to the citizenry, it being irrelevant whether they are important or not, concise or not, radical or not. The press, therefore, can contain, reject, produce, as well as destroy, everything."
For example, Liang wrote a well known essay during his most radical period titled "The Young China" and published it in his newspaper Qing Yi Bao (淸議報) on February 2, 1900. The essay established the concept of the nation-state and argued that the young revolutionaries were the holders of the future of China. This essay was influential on the Chinese political culture during the May Fourth Movement in the 1920s.
Weak press: However, Liang thought that the press in China at that time was quite weak, not only due to lack of financial resources and to conventional social prejudices, but also because "the social atmosphere was not free enough to encourage more readers and there was a lack of roads and highways that made it hard to distribute newspapers". Liang felt that the prevalent newspapers of the time were "no more than a mass commodity". He criticized that those newspapers "failed to have the slightest influence upon the nation as a society".
Literary career
Liang Qichao was both a traditional
Liang shaped the ideas of democracy in China, using his writings as a medium to combine Western scientific methods with traditional Chinese historical studies. Liang's works were strongly influenced by the Japanese political scholar Katō Hiroyuki, who used methods of social Darwinism to promote the statist ideology in Japanese society. Liang drew from much of his work and subsequently influenced Korean nationalists in the 1900s.
Historiographical thought
Liang Qichao's historiographical thought represents the beginning of modern Chinese historiography and reveals some important directions of Chinese historiography in the twentieth century.
For Liang, the major flaw of "
During this period of Japan's challenge in the
Translator
Liang was head of the Translation Bureau and oversaw the training of students who were learning to translate Western works into Chinese. He believed that this task was "the most essential of all essential undertakings to accomplish" because he believed Westerners were successful - politically, technologically and economically.
Philosophical Works: After escaping Beijing and the government crackdown on anti-Qing protesters, Liang studied the works of
, translating them and introducing his own interpretation of their works. His essays were published in a number of journals, drawing interest among Chinese intellectuals who had been taken aback by the dismemberment of China's formidable empire at the hands of foreign powers.Western Social and Political Theories: In the early 20th century, Liang Qichao played a significant role in introducing Western social and political theories into Korea such as Social Darwinism and international law. Liang wrote in his well-known manifesto, New People (新民說):
- “Freedom means Freedom for the Group, not Freedom for the Individual. (…) Men must not be slaves to other men, but they must be slaves to their group. For, if they are not slaves to their own group, they will assuredly become slaves to some other.”
Poet and novelist
Liang advocated reform in both the genres of poem and novel. The Collected Works from the Ice-Drinker's Studio (飲冰室合集) is his representative works in literature compiled into 148 volumes.
Liang gained his idea of calling his work as Collected Works of Yinbingshi from a passage of Zhuangzi. It states that "Every morning, I receive the mandate [for action], every evening I drink the ice [of disillusion], but I remain ardent in my inner mind" (吾朝受命而夕飲冰,我其內熱與). As a result, Liang called his workplace as "The Ice-drinker's studio" (Yinbingshi), and addressed himself as Yinbingshi Zhuren (飲冰室主人), literally Host of the Ice-drinker's studio, in order to present his idea that he was worrying about all the political matters, so he would still try his best to reform the society by the effort of writings.
Liang also wrote fiction and scholarly essays on fiction, which included Fleeing to Japan after failure of Hundred Days' Reform (1898) and the essay On the Relationship Between Fiction and the Government of the People (論小說與群治之關係, 1902). These novels emphasized modernization in the West and the call for reform.
Educator
In the early 1920s, Liang retired from politics and taught at the Tung-nan University in Shanghai and Tsinghua University Research Institute in Peking. He founded the Jiangxue she (Chinese Lecture Association) and brought important intellectual figures to China, including Driesch and Rabindranath Tagore. Academically he was a renowned scholar of his time, introducing Western learning and ideology, and making extensive studies of ancient Chinese culture. He was impacted by a social-Darwinian perspective to researched approaches to combine the western thought and Chinese learning.[14]
As an educator, Liang Qichao thought children were the future of the development of China, and he thought the education was significant for children's growth, and the traditional education approaches needed to be changed, and the educational reformation was important in Modern China. He thought children needed to cultivate creative thinking and improve the ability of understanding, and the new school became important to instruct children in the new approaches in the education. [14]
During this last decade of his life, published studies of Chinese cultural history, Chinese literary history and historiography. Liang reexamined the works of Mozi, and authored, amongst other works, The Political Thought of the Pre-Qing Period, and Intellectual Trends in the Qing Period.[15] He also had a strong interest in Buddhism and wrote historical and political articles on its influence in China. Liang influenced many of his students in producing their own literary works. They included Xu Zhimo, renowned modern poet, and Wang Li, an accomplished poet and founder of Chinese linguistics as a modern discipline.
Publications
- Introduction to the Learning of the Qing Dynasty (1920)
- The Learning of Mohism (1921)
- Chinese Academic History of the Recent 300 Years (1924)
- History of Chinese Culture (1927)
- The Construction of New China
- The Philosophy of Lao Tzu
- The History of Buddhism in China
- Collected Works of Yinbingshi, Zhonghua Book Co, Shanghai 1936, republished in Beijing, 2003, ISBN 7-101-00475-X/K.210
Family
- Paternal grandfather
- Liang Weiqing (梁維淸) (1815 - 1892), pseudonym Jingquan (鏡泉)
- Paternal grandmother
- Lady Li (黎氏) (1817 - 1873), daughter of Guangxi admiral Li Diguang (黎第光)
- Father
- Liang Baoying (梁寶瑛) (1849 - 1916), courtesy name Lianjian (蓮澗)
- Mother
- Lady Zhao (趙氏) (1852 - 1887)
- First wife
- Li Huixian (李蕙仙), married Liang Qichao in 1891, died of illness on 13 September 1924
- Second wife
- Wang Guiquan (王桂荃), initially Li Huixian's concubinein 1903
- Wang Guiquan (王桂荃), initially Li Huixian's
Issue and descendants
- Eldest daughter: Liang Sishun (梁思順) (14 April 1893 – 1966), became an accomplished poet, married Zhou Xizhe (周希哲) in 1925
- Zhou Nianci (周念慈)
- Zhou Tongshi (周同軾)
- Zhou Youfei (周有斐)
- Zhou Jiaping (周嘉平)
- Eldest son: Liang Sicheng (梁思成) (20 April 1901 - 9 January 1972), became a famous architect and teacher, married Lin Huiyin (10 June 1904 - 1 April 1955) in 1928
- Son: environmental activist, married firstly Zhou Rumei (周如枚), married secondly Fang Jing (方晶)
- Son: Liang Jian (梁鑑), son of Zhou Rumei
- Daughter: Liang Fan (梁帆), daughter of Fang Jing
- Daughter: Liang Zaibing (梁再冰)
- Son:
- 2nd son: Liang Siyong (梁思永) (24 July 1904 - 2 April 1954), married Li Fuman (李福曼)
- Daughter: Liang Baiyou (梁柏有)
- 3rd son: Liang Sizhong (梁思忠) (6 August 1907 – 1932)
- 2nd daughter: Liang Sizhuang (梁思莊) (1908 - 20 May 1986), married Wu Luqiang (-hant吳魯強) in 1933
- Daughter: Wu Liming (吳荔明)
- Son: Yang Nianqun (楊念羣) (20 January 1964-), male-line great-grandson late-Ch'ing era personage Yang Du
- Son: Yang Nianqun (楊念羣) (20 January 1964-), male-line great-grandson late-
- Daughter: Wu Liming (吳荔明)
- 4th son: Liang Sida (梁思達) (16 December 1912 – 2001), married Yu Xuezhen (俞雪臻)
- Daughter: Liang Yibing (梁憶冰)
- 1st son: Liang Renyou (梁任又)
- 2nd son: Liang Renkan (梁任堪)
- 3rd daughter: Liang Siyi (梁思懿) (13 December 1914 – 1988), married Zhang Weixun (張偉遜)
- 1st daughter: Zhang Yuwen (張郁文)
- 2nd son: Zhang Anwen (張安文)
- 4th daughter: Liang Sining (梁思寧) (30 October 1916 – 2006), married Zhang Ke (章柯)
- Zhang Antai (章安泰)
- Zhang Anqiu (章安秋)
- Zhang Anjian (章安建)
- Zhang Hui (章惠)
- Zhang Anning (章安寧)
- 5th son: Liang Sili (梁思禮) (24 August 1924 – 14 April 2016), married Mai Xiuqiong (麥秀瓊)
- Liang Zuojun (梁左軍)
- Liang Hong (梁紅)
- Liang Xuan (梁旋)
Liang Sishun, Liang Sicheng, and Liang Sizhuang were borne by Li Huixian. Liang Siyong, Liang Sizhong, Liang Sida, Liang Siyi, Liang Sining, and Liang Sili were borne by Wang Guiquan.
Legacy
Liang's pedigree book was once lost with only one page left. The family members recreated the naming method by giving sixteen characters in a sequence, each generation following one. Liang didn't follow it by using ‘思’ to his children.
See also
References
- ^ JSTOR 26222453.
- ^ Xiao (2002).
- ^ ISBN 9781736850084.
- ^ Ch 3, "Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and the Chinese Democracy Movement," Andrew Nathan, Chinese Democracy (1985): 45-66.
- ISBN 406205938X.
- ^ John Schauble, Australia visit shaped ideas of Mao favorite, The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 December 2000
- ^ ISBN 978-0-472-05650-7.
- ISBN 978-1443867726.
- )
- ^ ISBN 9780231204477.
- S2CID 162308125.
- ^ a b Horner, Charles (2009). Rising China and Its Postmodern Fate: Memories of Empire in a New Global Context. University of Georgia Press. p. 102.
- ^ Chen, Qineng (2005). "The "New History" in China: A Contrast to the West". Storia della Storiografia [History of Historiography]. 48: 112–118.
- ^ a b Bai (2001).
- ISBN 978-0-19-512504-7.
- Bai, Limin (2001). "Children and the Survival of China: Liang Qichao on Education Before the 1898 Reform". Late Imperial China. 22 (2): 124–155. S2CID 31206872.
- Chang, Hao. Liang Ch'i-Ch'ao and Intellectual Transition in China. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.
- Huang, Philip: Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and Modern Chinese Liberalism (1972). Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.
- Kovach, Bill and Rosenstiel, Tom. The Elements of Journalism. New York: Random House, 2001.
- Levenson, Joseph. Liang Ch'i-Ch'ao and the Mind of Modern China. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970.
- Li Xiaodong [李曉東]: Kindai Chūgoku no rikken kōsō – Gen Puku, Yō Do, Ryō Keichō to Meiji keimō shisō [近代中国の立憲構想-厳復・楊度・梁啓超と明治啓蒙思想] (2005). Tokio: Hōsei daigaku shuppankyoku.
- Li Xisuo [李喜所] (ed.): Liang Qichao yu jindai zhongguo shehui wenhua [梁启超与近代中国社会文化] (2005). Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe.
- Tang, Xiaobing. Global space and the Nationalist Discourse of Modernity" the Historical Thinking of Liang Qichao. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996.
- Wang, Xunmin. Liang Qichao zhuan. Beijing: Tuan jie chu ban she, 1998.
- Wu, Qichang. Liang Qichao zhuan. Beijing: Tuan jie chu ban she, 2004.
- Xiao, Xiaoxui. China encounters Western ideas (1895 - 1905): a rhetorical analysis of Yan Fu, Tan Sitong and Liang Qichao. Ann Arbor: UMI dissertation services, 1992.
- Yang Gang [杨钢] and Wang Xiangyi [王相宜] (ed.): Liang Qichao quanji [梁启超全集] (1999). Beijing: Beijing chubanshe. (dates of letter before mid 1912 messed up).
- Xiao, Yang (2002). "Liang Qichao's Political and Social Philosophy" (PDF). In Cheng, Chung-ying; Bunnin, Nicholas (eds.). Contemporary Chinese Philosophy. Malden: Blackwell. pp. 17–36.
- Hsu, Immanuel. The Rise of Modern China: Sixth Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Further reading
- Lee, Soonyi. "In Revolt against Positivism, the Discovery of Culture: The Liang Qichao Group's Cultural Conservatism in China after the First World War." Twentieth-Century China 44.3 (2019): 288–304. online
- Li, Yi. "Echoes of tradition: Liang Qichao's reflections on the Italian Risorgimento and the construction of Chinese nationalism." Journal of Modern Chinese History 8.1 (2014): 25–42.
- Liang Chi-chao (Liang Qichao) 梁啓超 from Biographies of Prominent Chinese .1925.
- ISBN 978-0374249595.
- Shiqiao, Li. "Writing a Modern Chinese Architectural History: Liang Sicheng and Liang Qichao." Journal of Architectural Education 56.1 (2002): 35–45.
- Vittinghoff, Natascha. "Unity vs. uniformity: Liang Qichao and the invention of a 'new journalism' for China." Late Imperial China 23.1 (2002): 91-143, sharply critical.
- Wang, Ban. "Geopolitics, Moral Reform, and Poetic Internationalism: Liang Qichao's The Future of New China." Frontiers of Literary Studies in China 6.1 (2012): 2-18.
- Yu, Dan Smyer. "Ensouling the Nation through Fiction: Liang Qichao's Applied Buddhism." Review of Religion and Chinese Society 2.1 (2015): 5-20. online[dead link]
- Zarrow, Peter. "Old Myth into New History: The Building Blocks of Liang Qichao's 'New History'." Historiography East and West 1.2 (2003): 204–241.
External links
- CCTV article on the Chinese Revolution
- Book Review: Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and the Mind of Modern China
- Liang's former residence in Xinhui, Guangdong province (Photo) Archived September 16, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
- Democracy in China
- Kang Youwei-Liang's teacher
- Memorial hall for Liang Qichao at his former residence in north China's Tianjin City (Photo)