Shen Baozhen
Shen Baozhen | |
---|---|
Viceroy of Liangjiang | |
In office 1875–1879 | |
Preceded by | Liu Kunyi |
Succeeded by | Liu Kunyi |
Personal details | |
Born | 1820 Minhou, Fuzhou, Fujian |
Died | 1879 | (aged 58–59)
Occupation | Politician |
Shen Baozhen | |
---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | Shěn Bǎozhēn |
Wade–Giles | Shen Pao-chen |
Southern Min | |
Hokkien POJ | Sím Pó-cheng |
Shen Baozhen (1820–1879),
.Biography
Born in
imperial examinations in 1847 and was soon appointed to the Hanlin Academy
.
His great administrative abilities attracted the attention of Zeng Guofan, who enlisted him in the effort to suppress the Taiping Rebellion.
Following the suppression of the rebellion in 1864, Shen became actively involved in the
Imperial Navy prior to the destruction of the arsenal and the fleet itself during the Battle of Fuzhou in the 1883–1885 Sino-French War. Concurrently, he also improved the land tax collection system in Jiangxi province.[1]
He also took part in obtaining a peace settlement with
counties of Taiwan , Fengshan , Chiayi , and Changhua . Shen elevated 2 prefectures, 4 subprefectures, and 4 counties, making the territories smaller and easier to administer. He also launched a military campaign against the aborigines and initiated a building program in southern Taiwan intended to establish a stronger Qing presence and prevent Japanese or European colonization of the area.[2]
He died in office in 1879. He was posthumously awarded the title of Senior Guardian of the Heir Apparent.
He is chiefly remembered in European histories for his belated opposition to the
Woosung Road Company's railroad, which he purchased and dismantled in its first year of operation,[3] limiting Shanghai's development for twenty years. Shanghai remained unconnected to China's growing rail network until the line's reconstruction in 1898 and its subsequent extension to Nanjing
in 1908.
Shen was married to Lin Puqing (林普晴; 1821–77), the third daughter of Lin Zexu. She exhibited great courage and determined tenacity when under siege by the Taiping rebels at Guangxin when she bandaged troops, cooked for them and cut her finger to write a message in blood.
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shen Baozhen.
Citations
- ^ Wright, Mary C. The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T’ung-Chih Restoration, 1862-1874. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962), 154.
- ISBN 9781315279190.
- ISBN 0-674-21535-4. Accessed 14 Oct 2011.
Bibliography
- Hummel, Arthur W. Sr., ed. (1943). . Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office.
- Pong, David. Shen Pao-Chen and China's Modernization in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
- Shen, Richard. 'The Yellow Riding Jacket' Xlibris, 2008[self-published source]