Xia Tong

Xia Tonghe

In 1893, Xia Tonghe took part in the guisike rural examination and won the examination. In 1898, Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty "personally wrote the imperial order" as a Jinshi (number one scholar) in the first grade of the 1898 movement of Emperor Guangxu, who was authorized to write by the Imperial Academy. In 1906, he was sent by the government to study at the University of law and politics in Japan. He was the first person in China to study as the number one scholar. He studied industry and economy and returned home.

Life

Xia Tonghe is a descendant of Tunpu people. His ancestor came to Guizhou from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province in the early Ming Dynasty (1389), and then settled in gaojianbao, Majiang county. It has been more than 600 years. Xia Tonghe was born in 1874 in a family of scholarly officials. His father Xia yuan served in Yunnan, Sichuan and other places. Xia Tonghe has been traveling with his father since he was a child, and he has seen a lot. The rich soil in Southwest China led his initial growth.

At this time, the Westernization Movement was in full swing, and all kinds of new ideas slowly but irresistibly began to penetrate into every corner of the huge empire. However, the imperial examination is still the only choice for all scholars, and Xia Tonghe is no exception.

In 1893, Xia Tonghe took part in Guizhou provincial examination in Guiyang. In the provincial-level unified examination held only once in these three years, Xia Tonghe ranked 29th. The admission quota of this examination is 50, and he can be granted an official post after he has been elected.

In March of 1898, Xia Tonghe came to Beijing to take part in the joint examination. The chief examiner of the joint examination was sun Jianai, the Secretary of the Ministry of household affairs. He was also a number one scholar and the founder of Peking University, the predecessor of Peking University. The examination will be held in the second year after the rural examination. All the people from all over the country will gather in the capital. The coming examination will give them a chance to enter the core circle of national politics and realize the ideal of "helping the world at the same time". In this examination, 346 Gongshi were recruited from thousands of Juren, and Xia Tonghe was 134th. They are the elites of imperial examination who have been selected at all levels. They will get the chance to enter the Forbidden City to accept the examination of the emperor. Therefore, they become the envy of the emperor.

In the early morning of April 24, 1898 (June 9, 1898), Xia Tonghe came to the palace of Baohe in the Forbidden City to take part in the palace examination. Emperor Guangxu, the chief examiner who was brewing a revolution, asked questions about "talent seeking, economy and military, Suiyuan and financial management". Xia Tonghe gave logical and careful answers to these four questions. When night fell, Xia Tonghe got up and handed in his answer paper and walked out of the hall of peace. At this time, the Forbidden City seems very quiet, but the future of both the country and the individual becomes more unpredictable, just like the dark night.

Two days after the palace examination (June 11), Emperor Guangxu flatly issued "the imperial edict to fix the country", which shocked the Chinese and foreign "reform movement of 1898". Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, who were also the imperial examination elites, were the main forces of the reform movement. What they tried to accomplish was to make China realize the bourgeois reform.

On June 12, all the Gongshi gathered outside the gate of Dongchang'an. The reform did not affect the established procedure. According to the custom of the Qing Dynasty, the examiners sent the top ten examination papers to Emperor Guangxu. Xia Tonghe, the emperor of Guangxu who just announced the reform on the first day, was appointed as a Jinshi (number one scholar) by the emperor Yubi. After the imperial ranking, the reform was advancing, but the title of the number one scholar was still the highest honor of the scholars of that era. After winning the first prize, Xia Tonghe was granted the post of Xiuzhuan and entered the Imperial Academy. The Imperial Academy is the highest academic institution in the country, and it is also the reserve base for officials. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, almost all the important officials came from the Imperial Academy. Entering the Imperial Academy means entering the official career and the core circle of national politics. For the number one scholar who came into being in the extraordinary year of the reform movement of 1898, Xia Tonghe was destined to have extraordinary experience in this extraordinary world.

Xia Tonghe, a native of Gaojian in Majiang County, was the number one scholar in the 1898 movement of the Qing Dynasty, becoming one of the only two literary number one scholars in Guizhou history. In 1904, Xia Tonghe went to Japan to study in law and politics. He entered the first class of the law and politics fast track course of the University of law and politics to study law and politics. He was the first person in Chinese history to obtain the dual status of champion and international student. During this period, Xia Tonghe studied hard and achieved excellent results. The full text of his examination article "on the fiscal policy of the Qing Dynasty" was published in Japan's "legal news". At the same time, Xia Tonghe also completed the compilation of "administrative law", which is one of the earliest books to introduce the modern administrative legal system in China. He is the organizer of Guangdong law and politics school, the predecessor of Sun Yat sen University. This school is the earliest specialized school to implement law and politics education in China, and has cultivated many active figures in China's political arena. In November 1905, Xia Tonghe became the supervisor (president) of Guangdong law and politics school (the predecessor of Sun Yat sen University). In 1913, Xia Tonghe was a member of the house of representatives when the first Congress was founded. He served as director of the Department of industry and Commerce of Jiangxi Province on September 8, 1917, and left on June 28, 1919. He died in 1925.

He is famous for his calligraphy. His calligraphy is preserved in couplets, fans, plaques and other forms. His ink remains include the couplet "Malay West pole, dragon lies in Nanyang" inscribed for Qiu Fengjia's former residence in Chaozhou. The ruins include the No.1 Xia yuan street in Guiyang and the No.1 Xia yuan street in his hometown.

After the founding of the Republic of China, Guangdong law and politics school was renamed as Guangdong Public Law and politics special school. Chen Rong, a teacher of the former law and politics school, served as the president. Xia Tonghe first returned to Guizhou, then Guizhou elected him as a member of the house of Representatives, and went north to Beijing.

As the first member of the bourgeois parliament in Chinese history, Xia Tonghe first joined the Kuomintang, the earliest member of the national party. At that time, all parties in the parliament launched fierce competition for more seats in order to seek more rights. In order to avoid disputes, Xia Tonghe left the Kuomintang, and in May 1913, he initiated the establishment of the independent party organization, the transcendent Council. It "reconciles the party's views with the spirit of impartiality, and maintains the state as its purpose.".

In July of the same year, he was elected as a member of the Rules Committee of the constitution Drafting Committee, and later was elected as one of the six members of the drafting committee. Among these young members with an average age of only 33 years old, Xia Tonghe was the one with the highest reputation in the past, but he was not conservative. During the three-month constitution drafting period, Xia Tonghe put forward many views with Republican spirit. For example, on the issue of presidential election, he put forward such an American style presidential election method that the electoral organs are organized to elect the president after the people's primary election.

Just during Xia Tonghe's conscientious participation in the drafting of the constitution, Wang Tianpei from Tianzhu, Guizhou, who was studying in Baoding Military Academy at that time, invited two companions to Beijing. They were courageous enough to express their dissatisfaction with Yuan Shikai. Finally, they were arrested for their extreme words. When Xia Tonghe heard about this, he immediately generously tried to rescue Wang Tianpei. After he got out of prison, he was sent back to Baoding military academy by Xia Tonghe. After graduating from the military academy, Wang Tianpei went all the way to battle, made great achievements and grew into a generation of famous generals in the Northern Expedition.

After Yuan Shikai dissolved the parliament in 1914, Xia Tonghe successively held the posts of Qian Shi of the political affairs hall, experimental committee member of the governor, senior adviser of the governor's office of Hunan Province, director of the Preparatory Office of the National Taxation Department of Hunan Province, Qian Shi of the Legislative Affairs Bureau, etc.

From 1917 to 1919, Xia Tonghe became the first director of the industrial and Commercial Department of Jiangxi Province. He once assisted Chen Guangyuan, one of the "three governors of the Yangtze River" in Jiangxi Province. He made a certain contribution to the maintenance of local peace and was awarded the second-class Medal of Jiahe by the president.

At the beginning of 1919, Li Shengduo, President of the Jiangxi Provincial Senate, prepared to organize Xianju company to mortgage the Chengmenshan iron mine in Jiujiang to the Japanese. This matter caused great dissatisfaction among members. Members thought that the mine belonged to Jiangxi Province and firmly opposed mortgage loans and private mining. At that time, Shenbao and Minguo Daily carried out follow-up reports.

In the negotiation process of this case, as the leader of the competent department of mines, Xia Tonghe, director of the Provincial Department of industry and commerce, inevitably became the object of investigation and questioning by members. In fact, the fundamental reason for the mortgage loan of Chengmenshan iron mine is the lack of military expenditure, and its complexity is far beyond the control of a director of industry. However, as a person with good legal literacy, Xia Tonghe went to the parliament twice for questioning and submitted his resignation twice.

At that time, because of social unrest and warlords' scuffle, the Parliament could not play much role and most of them were ignored. As an administrative official, Xia Tonghe respected the parliament, accepted its questions and finally resigned, which reflected his bearing as a legal administrator. As a successful representative of the parliament, this case has become one of the most important cases in the history of Jiangxi Parliament.

In June 1919, Xia Tonghe resigned from the post of director of Industry Department of Jiangxi Province and returned to Beijing. In his later years, he devoted himself to Buddhism. From 1919 to 1921, Xia Tonghe organized dozens of wealthy families in Beijing to purchase nearly ten hectares of land for Guangji temple, one of the eight famous inner temples in Beijing, to support monks in the temple and to do Buddhist services, which solved the financial problem of the temple and enabled the temple to continue to flourish.

In 1925, Xia Tonghe suffered a heart attack and died at his residence in Pichai Hutong, Beijing.

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Xia Tonghe's life experience is rich, and his footprints are all over the country. In addition to the administrative law, which established his position in the history of modern administrative law in China, he also wrote a preface to the poetry collection of Luo Fu waiting for Heshan people by Zheng Guanying, a famous industrialist in modern times, and a Qian table, which is famous for the overseas Chinese businessmen in Guangdong Province in Southeast Asia It is one of the top ten gardens in Guangdong

Chinese PinYin : Xia Tong