Tang Shaoyi

Tang Shaoyi

Tang Shaoyi (January 2, 1862 - September 30, 1938) was born in Xiangshan County, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. He was a political activist and diplomat in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. He was the president of Beiyang University (now Tianjin University) and Shandong University.

Tang Shaoyi studied in Shanghai since childhood. In 1874, Tang Shaoyi became the third group of children to study in the United States. Later, he entered Columbia University and returned to China in 1881. After that, he served successively as consul in Seoul, Consul General in Korea, inspector general of the National Railway Corporation, Minister of the tax department, and minister in charge of the Ministry of post and telecommunications. He also served as plenipotentiary to negotiate Tibet sovereignty with Britain. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, he was the representative of the north and the south, and served as the first prime minister in the Republic of China. In 1931, he became the head of Zhongshan County. After the fall of Shanghai, Chiang Kai Shek ordered Dai Li to send Zhao Lijun to assassinate him at home on September 30, 1938, when he was 75 years old.

Tang Shaoyi made important contributions to China's sovereignty, diplomatic rights and interests, and the promotion of democracy and Republic. Most of his early diplomatic activities had a great influence on the diplomacy of the late Qing Dynasty. Later, he turned to the Republican camp to promote the birth of the Republic of China, and served as prime minister to maintain the republican system. After leaving office, he actively opposed the monarchy, supported Sun Yat Sen's struggle to protect the law, advocated the executive party politics, collegiate system and inter provincial autonomy, and sought the peaceful reunification of China. In his later years, because of his ambiguous political attitude, he was assassinated and questioned by public opinion.

(overview chart source)

Life of the characters

Early life

Tang Shaoyi was born in Tangjia village, Tangjiawan Town, Zhuhai, Guangdong Province on December 3, 1862. In 1874, Tongzhi became the third group of children to study in the United States.

Career in Korea

In 1881, Tang Shaoyi was recalled to China and studied in the Westernization school attached to Tianjin Navy. The following year, Tang Shaoyi went to Korea to assist in customs affairs with the entourage of Mulinde, former German consul in Tianjin.

On October 17, 1884 (December 4, 1884), on the night of the completion of the Seoul post office, the pro Japanese Kaihua party held a banquet, preparing to take all the pro Qing party. Mulinde was also present. After hearing the news, Tang Shaoyi, fearless in the face of danger, rushed to the post office with a carriage carrying weapons, escorted Mulinde and the stabbed conservative minister min Yongyi back to Mulinde's home, and then invited American missionaries to heal min Yongyi. He left a deep impression on Yuan Shikai, who was also in North Korea, and made them a close friend. On October 19 (December 6), Yuan Shikai suppressed the coup and was appointed minister to the DPRK. Tang Shaoyi is the most important assistant of Yuan Shikai's office as a western language translator.

In 1885, Tang Shaoyi worked in Tianjin tax office. Later, he was sent to Korea to deal with taxes and became the clerk and right-hand assistant of Yuan Shikai, the Minister of Qing government in Korea.

At the end of the 15th year of Guangxu (1889), Tang Shaoyi was appointed as the commercial councilor in Longshan, that is, the consul in Seoul, Korea.

In September of the 17th year of Guangxu (1891), Yuan Shikai asked for leave to return home due to his mother's serious illness. He did not return home until the next year. During this period, recommended by Yuan Shikai, Tang Shaoyi acted for Yuan Shikai for more than seven months. Under his recommendation, Tang Shaoyi made a rapid progress. In 1892, Tang Shaoyi was ranked as the third ranking official, second only to Yuan Shikai, and became the second person sent to Korea by the Qing government before the Sino Japanese war.

In 1894, Japan took advantage of the Dongxue party uprising and sent troops to Korea. Because Yuan Shikai had been the enemy of Japan for more than ten years, it was regarded as a big obstacle, and Japan wanted to get rid of it. Yuan Shikai sent a telegram to Li Hongzhang asking for him to be transferred back, and offered to be represented by Tang Shaoyi. When the Japanese learned the news, they plotted to assassinate yuan. After hearing the news, Yuan Shaoying, an envoy of the Tang Dynasty, immediately called for help. On June 16 (July 18), Yuan Shikai changed his clothes and left. Tang Shaoyi escorted him to the Hanjiang River and boarded the British warship prepared by Zhu erdian.

In 1895, Tang Shaoyi was sent as Consul General of the Qing Dynasty to Korea.

In September, 1898, Tang Shaoyi returned to Korea because of his father's death, ending his nearly ten-year diplomatic career in Korea.

Outstanding achievements

In 1901, Yuan Shikai was promoted to governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang. He made Tang Shaoyi the customs official of Tianjin. During his term of office, Tang Shaoyi made great achievements in taking over the urban area of Tianjin occupied by the Eight Power Allied forces and taking back the management power of Qinhuangdao port. Yuan Shikai went to the court and praised Tang Shaoyi for his outstanding performance and ability.

In 1904, the Qing government appointed Tang Shaoyi as Minister of plenipotentiary treaty, and went to India to negotiate Tibet related issues with British representatives. During the talks, Tang Shaoyi took a tough attitude and advocated the abolition of the Lhasa treaty signed by Britain and Tibet, because the treaty was illegal without the Qing government. Although the meeting failed to achieve the goal of abrogating the treaty, it convinced Felicia that he promised to bring Tang Shaoyi's speech to the British side. Tang Shaoyi's initial victory frustrated the British plot to split Tibet. On April 4 of the same year (April 27, 1906), after several fierce negotiations, Tang Shaoyi and SA Daoyi, on behalf of the Chinese and British governments, finally signed the Sino British renewal of the Tibet India treaty and abolished the Lhasa treaty, which made the British government recognize Tibet as a local government of China and belongs to Chinese territory. Tang Shaoyi's achievements in the negotiation on the Tibet issue promoted him to the right Minister of the Ministry of foreign affairs. After that, Tang Shaoyi participated in and presided over the negotiations between China, Japan and Russia on the Northeast issue. Under the unfavourable objective conditions, he tried to avoid losing too much rights and interests, restrained Japan's ambition of expanding and invading in Northeast China, and completely rejected Russia's request to retain its interests in Northeast China.

Since 1906, Tang Shaoyi has been appointed as the supervisor of the National Railway Corporation, the Minister of the tax department, and the left servant of the Ministry of post and telecommunications. After he presided over the railway administration, he made great efforts to expand China's administrative power in foreign-funded railways and recover the losses of railway loans. As a result of his efforts, the renewal loan of Shanghai Nanjing railway was changed from the original 10% discount to 9.55% discount, and the general management office was changed from the original composition of two Chinese and three foreign staff to only one Chinese general office, with foreign staff in charge of the Department functions. In the negotiation of Guangzhou Kowloon Railway, Tang Shaoyi fought for the right to use people and money from the British and was managed by the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. After he presided over the work of the national administration of Taxation, he called the general tax department of the customs, Mr. Hurd, and the tax departments of the customs to the capital for training. In the past, foreigners who had monopolized the position of the Department of customs and revenue for decades had to work under the jurisdiction of the Minister of the tax department.

In 1907, Tang Shaoyi was appointed governor of Fengtian, and was responsible for the foreign negotiations in Northeast China. He planned to introduce British and American capital and build a railway across the northeast to restrict Japan. After that, Tang Shaoyi planned to unite with the United States to control Japan, and planned to rely on American capital to develop northeast China to contain Japan. The following year, the United States returned part of the Boxer Indemnity to the Chinese government, and Tang Shaoyi was sent as a special envoy to the United States. During his stay in the United States, he encouraged American consortia to invest in the northeast, and visited Europe, Japan and other eight countries in the name of investigating finance. However, Japan won over the United States to sign the Japan US agreement first, which made Tang Shaoyi's plan fail.

In September of the 34th year of Guangxu (October 1908), Tang Shaoyi went from Shanghai to the United States via Japan, and then from the United States to Europe. In July of the next year, he returned to Beijing and secretly visited the United States as a special envoy of the Qing government to promote the Sino German US alliance and tax reduction and increase. Although he was received by the president of the United States, he made no progress.

In 1910, Tang Shaoyi was appointed Minister of the Ministry of post and communication, and soon resigned.

the Peace Talk between South and North

On August 19, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out. On October 13 (December 3), the Revolutionary Party announced Article 21 of the outline of the provisional government of the Republic of China, which aims to supervise the personal power of the provisional president. On October 17 (December 7), Li Yuanhong proposed that Wu Tingfang be the representative of the revolutionary party to lead the delegation, and planned to talk with Yuan Shikai, the then Prime Minister of the Qing government. In order to negotiate peace, Yuan Shikai again used Tang Shaoyi to hold peace talks with Wu Tingfang, the Plenipotentiary of the people's army. The next day, Tang Shaoyi went to Hankou as the Plenipotentiary of Yuan Shikai's peace talks. Before departure, Yuan Shikai explained to Tang Shaoyi: "the principle of avoiding war and restoring order is to avoid national division. As for the monarchy, it must not be changed. ". Yuan Shikai instructed Tang Shaoyi to give in to any conditions except "democracy". However, Tang Shaoyi has a "republican ideal" in mind, and his guiding ideology of peace negotiation is "the Qing government is not enough to preserve, but the Republic should be promoted". Yuan Shikai's staff wrote to the Times reporter Moli Xun: "Tang Shaoyi cut her braids in room 4 of the railway sleeper last night." As the official of the imperial court, Tang Shaoyi arrived in Shanghai in Western costume instead of official uniform. In contrast, Wu Tingfang, who came to greet him, was still wearing a Chinese robe.

From October 28 to November 12 (December 18-31), Tang Shaoyi and Wu Tingfang held five negotiations, involving armistice, government, national assembly and other major issues. Armistice agreements were reached in Hubei, Shaanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Fengtian. In fact, the core issue of the negotiation is that China should implement monarchy

Chinese PinYin : Tang Shao Yi