On September 12, 1905, Emperor Guangxu approved Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong to stop the imperial examination. The imperial examination system, which had been practiced in China for more than a thousand years, was abolished.
History takes a sharp turn here. The village examination, originally scheduled for 1906, was cancelled and replaced by an examination for "returned international students". Ancient fames such as Juren and Jinshi will be awarded to "foreign students" who pass the examination.
Tang Shaoyi, a former "young child studying in the United States", was appointed as the chief examiner of this exam.
Tang Shaoyi, a famous political activist and diplomat in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, contributed to the Xinhai Revolution and the peace between the north and the south. He served as the General Office of the Prime Minister of the Qing Government, the first Premier of the Cabinet of the "Republic of China", and an official of the Kuomintang government. He used to be the president of Peiyang University, the first president of Shandong University, and the founder of Fudan University.
This is a political elite who has gone through the ups and downs of modern Chinese history and has left a personal mark at every juncture of history.
Tang Shaoyi (1862-1938), a native of Zhongshan County, Guangdong Province (now Zhuhai City), was born in Shaochuan, studied scriptures and history since childhood, and was very insightful. When he was 12 years old and a senior jukukan, he noticed that he was different from ordinary students, and often praised him in front of his friends. As a result, Tang Shaoyi's name was heard of by the county school administration. Coincidentally, in order to cultivate "new scholars", the Qing court had sent two batches of foreign students abroad, still looking for talents everywhere, and Tang Shaoyi, who was only 12 years old, was naturally favored by the county school administration and recommended to the province, so he received the official funds of the imperial court and was sent to study in the United States by the third batch.
Negotiators let weak countries "have" diplomacy
Tang Shaoyi went to the United States to study with the third batch of international students sent by the Qing court, and was promoted from elementary school and middle school to the liberal arts department of Columbia University. Tang Shaoyi graduated in 1881 and was one of the youngest students. This year, the Qing court issued an edict that the third batch of students studying in the United States "returned".
Tang Shaoyi, who was only 19 years old, returned to his motherland. As a key training object of the Qing court, he was sent to Korea to serve as the secretary of the deputy secretary of the Korean customs office (as the suzerain, China was directly in charge of Korea's foreign affairs, customs and other affairs at that time). He is very capable and highly praised. In 1885, Yuan Shikai was sent as an envoy to North Korea, mainly to "handle Korean negotiations and trade affairs". Yuan attached great importance to Tang Shaoyi, a subordinate who had studied foreign languages abroad since he was a child and was fluent in both Chinese and foreign languages, and the two became close friends. Tang was promoted to the position of secretary of negotiations and trade in Korea, and became Yuan's "chief general" during his time in Korea.
A few years later, before the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, there was information that the Japanese were determined to assassinate Yuan Shikai, who was the most powerful anti-Japanese force, and in order to assist Yuan in evacuating, Tang Shaoyi personally escorted Yuan Shikai to the British warship overnight with two guns, two knives, and two horses. With Yuan Shikai's vigorous support and his own special relationship with Li Hongzhang, Tang Shaoyi became China's first consul general in Korea after the First Sino-Japanese War at the age of 33; then he returned to his hometown of Guangdong with Li Hongzhang, who was reappointed as the governor of Liangguang; when Yuan Shikai became governor of Shandong, he assisted Yuan in handling the most difficult and delicate foreign affairs, and made great contributions to Yuan Ping's passage through the Boxer Rebellion and the Eight-Nation Alliance disaster in 1900.
In 1901, Yuan Shikai became the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, becoming one of the important ministers of the state, and Tang Shaoyi was also appointed as the Tianjin Customs Dao and became the "Daotai" lord until 1904. In an extremely complex environment, he participated in the takeover of occupied Tianjin from the Eight-Nation Alliance, handling foreign-related affairs, as well as supervising taxation and cleaning up finance. In Tianjin, he also founded the Telegraph School, which recruited "young children" around the age of 15 to come to Xi.
1904 year. Following the appearance of Liang Cheng, the first minister in the "Young Children Studying in the United States", Tang Shaoyi, with his outstanding ability to be proficient in foreign languages and familiar with foreign law, was appointed by the Qing court as the right attendant of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as the "Minister Plenipotentiary of the Great Qing Emperor's Special Mission", he was ordered to go to India to negotiate the Tibet issue with the British.
At the end of the 19th century, the annexation of Tibet arose in Britain. In the name of preventing Russia from protecting India, Britain launched a war of aggression against Tibet. In August 1904, the British invaded Lhasa and forced some Tibetan officials to sign the Treaty of Lhasa, which effectively made Tibet a British sphere of influence. The Qing government did not recognize this treaty, and Britain had to reopen negotiations with China. The historic task of defending China's sovereignty over Tibet suddenly fell on Tang Shaoyi's shoulders.
In February 1905, China and Britain held negotiations in Calcutta, India. The British delegate Friexia faced Tang Shaoyi, a Qing minister dressed in court clothes and with beads on his chest, without even the slightest etiquette, leaning on the back of his chair with great contempt and holding Erlang's legs. Tang Shaoyi ignored it, shook his official uniform, and sat facing Friexia. After a long pause, Tang Shaoyi spoke in very fluent English, and he avoided the content of the negotiations and began to talk about the "outline of the constitutions of various countries", some of which were memorized like a stream, and then turned to a commentary on the political system, landforms, products, people, and customs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Frixia was sitting upright unconsciously, he didn't expect that there would be such a shrewd foreign communication among the Qing court ministers, so he had to quickly stand up, take off his gloves, and shake hands with Tang Shaoyi across the case to make up for the faux pas. Then, the two sides officially moved on to the topic.
Tang Shaoyi's attitude was tough after getting to the point, and his speech focused on one central point, that is, the "Anglo-Tibetan Treaty" signed by Britain and Tibet should be abolished, because this treaty set aside the sovereign central government, and the treaty signed by the British side and the local government of China is illegal. Although the meeting failed to achieve the predetermined goal of abolishing the treaty, Friecia was persuaded that he promised to bring Tang Shaoyi's resounding speech to the British side, and Tang Shaoyi's negotiations were initially victorious.
In 1906, the British Minister to China, Sadaoyi, was entrusted by the British government to reopen negotiations with the Qing government in Beijing. Tang Shaoyi was once again ordered to meet with Sa Daoyi as a special envoy of the Qing government.
After several fierce negotiations, in the end, Sa Daoyi, on behalf of the British government, and Tang Shaoyi, on behalf of the Qing government, signed the "Sino-British New Tibet-India Treaty," which abolished the so-called "Anglo-Tibetan Treaty" signed by Britain and Tibet two years earlier, and enabled the British government to recognize Tibet as a local government of China and subordinate to China. Against the backdrop of the decaying late Qing government, which was forced to sign a series of humiliating and unequal treaties with the Western powers, this cannot but be said to be a rare diplomatic victory.
The Xinhai Revolution should be a representative of peace again
On the night of October 10, 1911, the gunfire at the head of Wuchang City sounded the death knell for the burial of the feudal monarchy. The Qing court had already abolished Yuan Shikai and expelled him from Beijing, and the revolutionary situation was pressing, but the court was exhausted. Reluctantly, he still activated the deposed minister Yuan Shikai, asked him to go out of the mountain, and led his troops south to suppress the revolutionary army. Yuan Shikai judged the situation and seized the good opportunity of winning the first battle to propose peace to Li Yuanhong, and the British minister also mediated. Li Yuanhong also couldn't ask for it, so he consulted with the revolutionaries and made a resolution to "vacate the temporary presidential seat and wait for Yuan Jun to return anyway".
Tang Shaoyi
On 3 December, the Revolutionary Party announced Article 21 of the Outline of the Organization of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, which was intended to oversee the personal powers of the Provisional President. On December 7, Li Yuanhong proposed that Wu Tingfang lead a delegation as a representative of the revolutionary party and planned to negotiate peace with Yuan. Yuan Shikai's identity at this time was the "responsible cabinet" of the Qing government, and in order to negotiate peace, he once again used the "old buddy" Tang Shaoyi.
Tang Shaoyi, who was appointed to participate in the peace talks, was faced with an embarrassing situation: he was the plenipotentiary representative of the Qing Dynasty, and behind him was Yuan Shikai, who advocated a constitutional monarchy; and in his own heart, he harbored a "republican thought" that was very different from Yuan Shikai. As a result, there was a scene that had never been seen in the history of the Qing Dynasty - Tang Shaoyi, a first-class official of the imperial court, arrived in Shanghai not wearing official clothes, but a suit, tie, French fur hat, tweed coat, and a Westerner outfit. In contrast to him, Wu Tingfang, a Southern Revolutionary Party negotiator who came to greet him, was still wearing a Chinese robe.
On December 18th, the North-South Peace, which attracted attention from China and abroad, officially began at the Shanghai City Hall. The atmosphere of the peace talks was very harmonious, not at all like the saber-rattling negotiations between the two hostile sides, but more like a meeting of like-minded people.
In fact, Tang Shaoyi and Wu Tingfang, plenipotentiary representative of the South, were originally compatriots in Guangdong and friends for many years, and the two had worked together in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and had close contacts.
The two sides soon reached an agreement on an armistice and a boycott, and then entered into negotiations on the form of government——— a constitutional republic or a constitutional monarchy. Wu Tingfang took a resolute attitude, saying that "if the republic is not recognized, there can be no peace." He advised Tang Shaoyi that the Qing Emperor's autocracy had led to such a decline in China, why did it have to preserve the throne?
Tang Shaoyi replied with a smile: "My republican ideology is still earlier than you, I studied in the United States, and I have always been influenced by republican thoughts. Tang said that what the two sides are discussing today is not to oppose the purpose of the republic, but to seek ways to achieve peace.
Tang Shaoyi then telegraphed to Yuan Shikai about the prerequisites for the southern deputies' peace talks, but Yuan Shikai had no countermeasures for a while. Tang Shaoyi proposed a compromise plan: to convene a referendum on the National Convention. Yuan Shikai agreed. As a result, the two sides will further consult on issues such as the venue and number of delegates in the National Assembly. On the question of the number of deputies, it was proposed that each province should be represented by three people, each with one vote, and the 14 southern provinces would be convened by the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, and the eight northern provinces would be convened by the Qing government.
At this time, Sun Yat-sen returned, a highly influential politician and leader of the revolutionary party, and the revolutionary party used Sun Yat-sen's influence to change its tactics and take advantage of the situation on December 29 to elect Sun Yat-sen as provisional president in Nanjing, establishing the provisional government of the Republic of China, and at the same time exerting pressure on Yuan to force Puyi to abdicate in time.
Yuan Shikai believed that the revolutionary party was in breach of contract, and he was angry and waited for an opportunity to act. However, the former "buddy" Tang Shaoyi advised the former "boss": "The republic is a foregone conclusion, it is the desire of the people, and the only way is to deal with Sun Yat-sen." "After a long period of attacking each other, the north and the south have many opinions. Sun Yat-sen was in a difficult situation, with no money and no soldiers, so he had to give up the provisional president. Yuan Shikai became the coveted president, which forced the Qing emperor to abdicate.
After ascending the provisional presidential throne in Beijing, Yuan Shikai appointed Tang Shaoyi as the premier of the first responsible cabinet of the Republic of China.
The ups and downs of the sea in the tide of the times
During the North-South peace talks, Tang Shaoyi met with Sun Yat-sen in Shanghai. The two "in the same township, when they see each other, they talk in their native voices". After becoming premier of the cabinet on March 23, 1912, Tang Shaoyi believed that "Sun Yat-sen's thought and Yuan Shikai's strength" were the foundation for the development of China's unification. A week later, under the introduction of Huang Xing and Cai Yuanpei, Tang Shaoyi joined the Alliance. Among his 12 cabinet members, 9 were overseas students, including Cai Yuanpei, the chief of education, Liu Guanxiong (in the United Kingdom), and Song Jiaoren, the chief of agriculture and forestry (in Japan), which also showed that Tang Shaoyi tried to change the country's poor and weak appearance through the "exchange of blood" of senior officials, and promote China to move towards the road of democracy and republic.
Tang Shaoyi's extremely democratic behavior, coupled with the tendency to deal with political affairs, greatly surprised Yuan Shikai, who more than once reminded Tang to "do something and not do something". Later, Yuan Shikai finally understood that the person he chose had different dreams from sleeping with him, so he acted arbitrarily, forcing Tang Shaoyi to be unable to display his ambitions. Tang Shaoyi felt that instead of being the empty prime minister, it was better to throw away this "hat", and he was unofficial and light, so he submitted his resignation to Yuan Shikai. Since then, the two have broken politically completely.
Tang Shaoyi moved to Tianjin, determined to propagate his democratic ideas through the media and support Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary ideas, so he founded the "Republic of China Daily" with Wang Zhaoming and Hu Hanmin. Due to resource constraints, the newspaper could not be sustained, so Tang had to return to his hometown of Guangdong, and soon moved to Shanghai. He also followed Sun Yat-sen's concept of "industry to save the country" and cooperated with friends to establish China's earliest insurance company.
In 1916, the "emperor" Yuan, who had committed many injustices, fell ill and died. Tang Shaoyi suddenly felt that there was hope for China again, and that Sun Yat-sen could lead the people of the whole country to take the road of democracy. Tang Shaoyi believed that the quality of the people was not high, and that the improvement of China should start with education, so he founded Fudan University. At this time, its proposition is: do not shed blood, start with reform, improve democratic awareness, and improve people's livelihood.
After Yuan's death, Beiyang changed the "general" (unification), and it was a chaos. The far-sighted people of the Extraordinary Congress unanimously elected Sun Yat-sen as the generalissimo of the sea and land in Guangzhou and set up the generalissimo's office. In order to follow Sun Yat-sen, Tang Shaoyi went out again and served as the chief financial officer, and then as one of the seven presidents. In February 1919, Tang Shaoyi was ordered to go to Shanghai on behalf of the southern regime to negotiate peace with Zhu Qichao, a representative of the Beiyang government. Tang Shaoyi's righteous and tactful persuasion moved Zhu Qichao, and the two sides expressed their tendency toward peace. It is a pity that due to the deliberate sabotage of the "Duan (Qirui) administration", the peace talks between the north and the south were aborted, and the north and the south fell into a bloody struggle again.
Tang Shaoyi was pessimistic because of this, and he could not return to the south to return to Sun Yat-sen, so he decided to stay in Shanghai.
During the May Fourth Movement, Tang Shaoyi showed his consistent patriotic wisdom and telegraphed the Beiyang warlord government to express his support for patriotic students. He telegraphed Paris and demanded that his son-in-law, Gu Weijun, the Chinese delegate to the Paris Peace Conference, refuse to sign the peace treaty.
The last bright color: the county magistrate of Buyi
In the years that followed, Tang Shaoyi took a wait-and-see attitude towards the Kuomintang government in Nanjing, and Chiang Kai-shek asked him to go out of the mountains several times to take up his post, and he only held the vacant title of member of the Central Supervisory Committee of the Kuomintang. However, in 1929, when the Nanjing government decided to upgrade Sun Yat-sen's hometown Zhongshan County to a national model county and decided to establish the "Zhongshan County Discipline and Administration Implementation Committee", Tang Shaoyi readily agreed to the invitation of Sun Ke and others to serve as the chairman of the committee to supervise the implementation of discipline and administration by the county government. Later, regardless of the level of fame and salary, he volunteered to take office and became the magistrate of Zhongshan County.
At the beginning of her tenure as county magistrate, Tang Shaoyi focused on implementing the plan to build a model county. By encouraging the raising of funds to set up industries, build ports and highways, and vigorously develop education, the people's livelihood in Zhongshan was greatly improved, and the cultural and educational undertakings flourished for a while. During his tenure in office as one of the "seven products," he paid great attention to being honest and honest in government, eliminating the bad Xi of officials and officials, and making small inspections to solve some practical problems in a timely manner. To this day, there is still an anecdote about him in Zhongshan, saying that when he was building a road, he encountered the land father-in-law blocking the road, and the migrant workers did not dare to move, so he knocked the land father's head with a cane, and then asked the migrant workers to do it. After the road was repaired, the manhole cover of the sewer was always stolen, so he ordered the manhole cover to be engraved with the words "50 yuan for stealing and selling; 60% for reporting or quoting, 60% of the reward", and no one stole it later.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong publicly used Tang Shaoyi's example of "becoming a prime minister and then a county magistrate" several times to educate cadres to be able to go up and down.
However, Tang Shaoyi's actions were squeezed out by the Guangdong warlord Chen Jitang. In October 1934, Chen Jitang instigated the county soldiers to mutiny in Zhongshan through his cronies, surrounded Tang Shaoyi's apartment, and forced him to resign. Afterwards, Tang Shaoyi lived in Shanghai with his family and no longer asked about politics.
On September 30, 1938, Tang Shaoyi was assassinated by an unknown person in her apartment, which is still an unsolved case. The instruction he left to his children was: "Things can be content, and people are always happy, and people are self-exalted when they have nothing to seek."