Xiliang (official)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this Manchu Bannerman name, there is no family name or patronymic.
Xiliang
錫良
Viceroy of the Three Northeast Provinces
In office
February 9, 1909 – April 20, 1911
MonarchXuantong Emperor
Preceded byXu Shichang
Succeeded byZhao Erxun
90th Viceroy of Yun-Gui
In office
May 1907 – February 1909
MonarchsGuangxu Emperor
Xuantong Emperor
Preceded byCen Chunxuan
Succeeded byLi Jingxi
93rd Viceroy of Sichuan
In office
April 1903 – May 1907
MonarchGuangxu Emperor
Preceded byCen Chunxuan
Succeeded byZhao Erfeng
Personal details
Born1853
Imperial Chinese Army
Years of service1894, 1900-1901

Xiliang

Qing Dynasty. Xiliang was a Qing loyalist who supported moderate reforms and strongly opposed Western imperialism in China. He enthusiastically supported the Self-Strengthening Movement and the New Policies, but he opposed the spread of European culture and was sympathetic to the Boxer Rebellion. His efforts at reform saw mixed results. While generally praised by his superiors, Xiliang was also hampered by opposing factions in the Imperial Court and intervention by Western powers. His provincial administrations occasionally provoked popular unrest and accusations of corruption. During the final years of the Qing, Xiliang became an advocate of constitutional government. He ultimately failed to change Imperial policy in time to prevent the 1911 Revolution
and retired from public life after the dynasty fell.

Personal life and education

Although Xiliang's father was an official in the

Confucian classics. He was awarded the Jinshi in 1874 at the extremely young age of 21.[2][3] Despite becoming the most prominent Mongol Bannerman in the Imperial administration during his career, he was heavily sinicized.[4] His writings consistently reference Chinese cultural and historical themes and he was an enthusiastic patron of Chinese poetry.[5]

Career

Xiiang served in various various in Shanxi from 1876 to 1894, during which time he gained a positive reputation for his handling of the Northern Chinese Famine and his energetic implementation of Governor Zhang Zhidong's Self-Strengthening reforms.[6] He was transferred to Shandong in 1894 where he served in the military secretariat during the First Sino-Japanese War and later in various administrative posts, generally receiving strong praise from his superiors.[7] China's defeat in the war, tension between peasants and Christian missionaries, and the German seizure of Jiaozhou Bay led Xiliang to develop nationalist and anti-foreign sentiments.[8] He was also influenced in that direction by Shandong's Governor Li Bingheng, who would later commit suicide after being defeated by Western forces in the Boxer Rebellion.[9] Nonetheless, Xiliang followed his Treaty obligations to protect missionaries and helped to capture and execute the remaining leaders of the anti-Christian Big Swords Society.[10]

Xiliang aligned himself with Empress Dowager Cixi against Kang Youwei's reformers, who he saw as too extreme.[11] By the time of the Boxer Rebellion Cixi had appointed Xiliang financial commissioner in Hunan.[3] Xiliang was sympathetic to the Boxer's anti-foreign and anti-Christian positions.[7] After Cixi requested support from the provinces, Viceroy Zhang Zhidong granted Xiliang permission to lead about 5,000 soldiers north to defend Beijing from the Eight-Nation Alliance.[12] After helping serve as a rear-guard during Cixi's flight from Beijing, he was promoted to Governor of Shanxi.[13][14] Xiliang's policy of militant resistance to Alfred von Waldersee's punitive expeditions originally won him Cixi's support, but he was eventually dismissed when he refused to back down after court policy changed.[15] Through his British connections, Zhang Zhidong managed to pressure Cixi not to appoint Xiliang as Governor of Hubei.[16]

In December 1901, Xiliang's political fortunes improved and he was sent to take up a position in Henan. Upon arrival he discovered that his post was a sinecure, and recommended that it be abolished as a waste of funds. His request was granted, and in appreciation Cixi soon promoted him to be Henan's Governor.[3] In this role Xiliang made some progress towards rationalizing the bureaucracy and modernizing government services, but caused popular unrest by raising taxes to meet Henan's onerous contribution to China's indemnity payments.[17]

In 1903, Xiliang was made

taels of silver of which 9,288,428 or 77.5% came from tax levies, 2,458,147 from public investments and 236,730 from government.[23] The administrators Xiliang appointed proved to be corrupt, and mismanagement meant that construction efforts made little progress. In late 1906, Sichuanese merchants, supported by the students studying in Tokyo, demanded that they be allowed to take over management of the company.[22][23] Xiliang responded by allowing shareholders to elect a board, but refused to allow them to replace the administrators he had appointed.[24]

In May 1907, Xiliang was transferred to become Viceroy of Yun-Gui (the title being a contraction of the two provinces it oversaw, Yunnan and Guizhou). There he spent the majority of his term reforming the local military garrison and suppressing opium production (Yunnan was second only to Sichuan in opium production at the time, and it dominated the local economy).[25] He oversaw construction of the Yunnan Military Academy, which was opened in 1909.[26] In early 1908, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen launched a series of attacks into China from his base in French Indochina, hoping to gain a foothold in south China. After previous attempts in Guangxi and Guangdong were repulsed, Sun ordered a small group to attack Hekou, Yunnan. Xiliang was greatly alarmed when they managed to capture the town and kill the garrison commander, and he personally led a column of troops to drive the rebels out. After several weeks of fighting he succeeded, putting a final end to Sun's border-hopping strategy.[27]

Mukden
, hosted by Xiliang.

Impressed by his handling of the crisis, Emperor

an outbreak of pneumonic plague that swept Manchuria during the winter 1910-1911.[31] Xiliang helped manage the investment of over one million Chinese dollars into public health infrastructure and hosted an International Plague Conference of epidemiologists considered "one of the first major international gatherings that visibly promoted a global perspective on human healthcare".[32] Prominent Chinese physician Wu Lien-teh said of Xiliang and the other officials helping combat the plague, "no finer or more courteous types of gentlemen existed in China."[33]

Following the end of the plague, Xiliang's retirement request was finally granted and he left office in April 1911. He was recalled by the Imperial Court in October for advice on how to deal with the Wuchang Uprising, but he finally returned home for good the same day that Puyi abdicated, February 12, 1912.[34] He refused job offers from Yuan Shikai and offers of land from Zhang Zuolin, the latter of whom expressed deep admiration for Xiliang. He eschewed politics after his retirement.[35] He died in 1917.[3]

Notes and References

  1. ^ Xiliang is his personal name. In Xiliang's time, most Manchu Bannerman did not use their family name.[1]
  1. ISBN 9780295804125. Archived
    from the original on January 5, 2014. Retrieved March 2, 2012. Manchu men had abandoned their original polysyllabic personal names infavor of Han-style disyllabic names; they had adopted the Han practice of choosing characters with auspicious meanings for the names; and they had assigned names on a generational basis... Except among some Hanjun such as the two Zhao brothers, bannermen still did not, by and large, use their family name but called themselves only by their personal name—for example, Yikuang, Ronglu, Gangyi, Duanfang, Xiliang, and Tieliang. In this respect, most Manchus remained conspicuously different from Han.
  2. ^ Des Forges 1973, p. 1.
  3. ^ a b c d Zhao 1928.
  4. ^ Rhoads 2000, Chapter 1.
  5. ^ Des Forges 1973, p. 4-5.
  6. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 2–3.
  7. ^ a b Des Forges 1973, pp. 3–5.
  8. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 4–7.
  9. ^ Bays 1978, pp. 107.
  10. ^ Esherick 1987, pp. 119–120.
  11. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 8–9.
  12. ^ Bays 1978, pp. 73–74.
  13. ^ Wu 1936, p. 134.
  14. ^ Des Forges 1973, p. 17-18.
  15. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 17–25.
  16. ^ Bays 1978, pp. 107–108.
  17. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 26–27.
  18. ^ Gao 1997, p. 55.
  19. ^ Wu 2001, p. 83.
  20. ^ Gao 1997, p. 56.
  21. ^ Des Forges 1973, p. 61.
  22. ^ a b Wu 2001, p. 84.
  23. ^ a b Gao 1997, p. 57.
  24. ^ Des Forges 1973, p. 68.
  25. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 88–101.
  26. ^ Meng 2018.
  27. ^ Li 1956, pp. 223–224.
  28. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 139–142.
  29. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 142–144, 147–149.
  30. ^ Rhoads 2000, Chapter 3.
  31. ^ Des Forges 1973, p. 178.
  32. ^ Brazelton 2020, pp. 579–588, Robert Perrins, quoted in Brazelton.
  33. ^ Corsi 2017, Quoted from Wu Lien-teh's autobiography Plague Fighter.
  34. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 180–184.
  35. ^ Des Forges 1973, pp. 184–185.

Bibliography

Government offices
Preceded by
Viceroy of the Three Northeast Provinces

1909–1911 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Viceroy of Yun-Gui
1907–1909 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Viceroy of Sichuan
1903–1907 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Xiliang_(official)&oldid=1196030512"