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Weng T'ung-ho and the “One Hundred Days of Reform”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2011
Extract
It has been a common belief of students of Chinese history that the “One Hundred Days of Reform” of 1898 got under way only after Weng T'ungho, the imperial tutor and associate grand secretary, popularly known to foreigners as China's prime minister, strongly recommended the reformer K'ang Yu-wei to the Emperor Te-tsung in the spring of that eventful year. So strong has been this impression that Weng was alleged to have said that his own official career hinged upon whether or not K'ang could make a favorable impression upon the emperor in June 1898. Weng, therefore, has been regarded as the sponsor if not the official leader of the reform party. A critical examination of the contemporary Chinese sources, however, reveals that in the spring of 1898, when nationwide reform was in the air, Weng was in reality an opponent of systematic innovation, although he had previously endorsed K'ang and his program. It is the aim of this article to test the truth of the common belief that Weng was the key high official who persistently patronized the reform movement.
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References
1 Bland, J. O. P. and Backhouse, E., China under the Empress Dowager (Philadelphia, 1910), chs. 12–14Google Scholar, especially 184-88; Morse, H. B., The international relations of the Chinese empire (London, 1918), 3, ch. 4Google Scholar; Johnston, R. F., Twilight in the Forbidden City (London, 1934), 22–23Google Scholar; Vinacke, H. M., A history of the Far East in modern times (New York, 1947), 158–60Google Scholar; Cameron, M. E., The reform movement in China, 1898–1912 (Stanford University Press, 1931.), ch. 1, especially 28-35Google Scholar; also the popular Chinese text, Chen Kung-lu, Chung-kuo chin-tai shih (Shanghai, 1935),b ch. 10.
2 Published in Yin-ping-shih wen-chi,d ch. 9:2.
3 The original manuscript copy of K'ang-nan-hai tzu-pien nien-pue is not available, but fortunately it is abundantly quoted or paraphrased in Feng-tien, Chao, “A chronological life sketch of K'ang Yu-wei,” Historical annual (Yenching University), 2 (1934), no. 1.Google Scholar
4 Chao, 191.
5 Ibid., 194.
6 Po-chen, Chang, Nan-hai K'ang-hsien-sheng chuan (Shanghai, 1927),f 20. The author was K'ang's disciple.Google Scholar
7 North China herald, November 22, 1895.
8 Chao, 193. K'ang recalled that in 1895 he once strongly urged Weng to take measures to abolish the old examination system and asked him to resign the imperial tutorship as a moral protest, in case of resistance from the court. Weng refused.
9 Liang, Chin, Chin-shih jen-wu chih (Peiping, 1936),h 20. On June 28, 1895, Weng's diary records that he. had just had a long talk with the poet Li Tz'u-ming, who died in the winter of 1894.Google Scholar
10 Kung-lu, Chen, 855; also Fang Chao-ying in his biographical essay on Weng in Hummel, A. W., ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing period (Washington, D.C., 1944), 2:861Google Scholar.
11 Weng-wen-hung-kung jih-chi (hereafter cited as Weng's diary), June 5, 1894.
12 Ibid., February 24 and November 30, 1888.
13 Richard, Timothy, Forty-five years in China: reminiscences (London, 1916), 259. February 24, 1898.Google Scholar
14 Tung-hua-lu (Kuang-hsü), Jan. 24, 1898.
15 Hsiao-jo, Chang, Nan-tung Chang-chi-chih hsien-sheng chuan-chi (Shanghai, 1931),m61–62. For the historical value of this “modern” biography, see Dr. Hu Shih's preface.Google Scholar
16 Ibid., 58-59.
17 Weng's diary, June 12, 1898.
18 Ibid., June 1 and 12; also May 20, June 8 and 26, 1898.
19 Chang, 64.
20 “Meng-tai-an shih-hua,” in Chung-yang shih-shih chou-pao,n 3, no. 8, quoted in Chen Chin, “The political thought of the anti-reformists during the time of the ‘One Hundred Days of Reform,' ” in the Yenching journal of Chinese studies, June, 1939. Chen, in the pungently written first section of his article, treats Weng as a consistent “anti-reformist,” a conclusion with which the present writer does not as a whole agree.
21 The item “On the wrong accusation of Prime Minister Weng's recommendation of K'ang,” in a series of anecdotes “Ho-hsian-kuan soryen,” in the Jen-wen Yueh-kan,o April, 1930.
22 For the reasons why K'ang's reform scheme would enhance central power, see Kungchüan, Hsiao, Chung-kuo cheng-chih ssu-hsiang shih (Shanghai, 1947),p 2: ch. 21, especially 331Google Scholar.
23 Chang Chih-tung's unpublished letter to a friend mentioned in Chen Chiu, op. cit., as one of the pieces of evidence for taking Weng as an “anti-reformist.” Chen apparently fails to perceive that what Chang meant by reform was the kind of reform to be carried out by provincial authorities; it was, therefore, bound to incur the displeasure of Weng, who stood for central reform.
24 British parliamentary papers, China no. 1 (1899), no. 268. MacDonald to Salisbury.
25 W. F. Hummel, “K'ang Yu-wei, Historical critic and social philosopher, 1858-1927,” Pacific historical review, December 1935.
26 Teh-hui, Yeh, ed., Chüeh-mi yao-lu (Hunan, 1904),q ch. 1:16. The exact date of Chen's memorial is not given, but most likely it was in the early summer of 1898.Google Scholar
27 Yü, Su, ed., I-chiao chung-pien (Wuchang, 1898),s ch. 2:20.Google Scholar
28 The Chinese title is I-chiao chung-pien; its English title is admirably translated by E. R. Hughes. For a brief study of this book, see Hughes, The invasion of China by the Western world (New York, 1938), 121-23.
29 Already within a year of the publication of K'ang's first major work The forged classics of the Wang Mang period in 1891, the conservative literati successfully persuaded the censors to memorialize that its printing blocks be destroyed. See W. F. Hummel, 345-46. Yeh Teh-hui, another Hunanese scholar and bibliophile, compiler of Chüeh-mi yao-lu (A collection of essays with a view to exposing a heresy), in early 1898 had already corresponded extensively with the conservative literati in an effort to form a common front against K'ang and his heresy. For their bitter attacks on K'ang, see Chien-nung, Li, Chung-huo chin-pai-nien cheng-chih shih (Shanghai, 1947),t 1:187-89.Google Scholar
30 See note 8 above.
31 It is interesting to note that Chang Chih-tung gave up hope of enlisting K'ang's help for his provincial reform program as early as 1895 after having shown a preliminary enthusiasm about K'ang's reform scheme. K'ang was the kind of person whom every high official wished to utilize, but in the end all found him impossible to harness; see Chen Kung-lu, 448 and 474.
32 MacDonald's comment on Weng, China, no. 1 (1899), no. 268.
33 Chang Hsiao-jo, 64.
34 Liang, Chin, Ssu-chao i-wen (Peiping, 1936),u21.Google Scholar
35 Early in 1898 Chang Yin-huan single-handedly contracted a British loan without the final consent of Weng, his superior, and revolutionized the diplomatic etiquette in spite of opposition from the rest of the government. In all these matters the emperor stood firm behind him, to the great displeasure of Weng; see Weng's diary, January 16, April 5, May 5, and May 17, 1898.
36 Wang Chao, a contemporary reformer, testified in his selected works entitled Hsiao-hang wen-tsun (Peiping, 1930)w ch. 1:10: “[in 1898] Chang Yin-huan enjoyed the utmost favor and confidence of the emperor. Chang, though not a member of the Grand Council, was summoned to audience every day. His power surpassed those of the grand councillors, princes of the blood, and other top-ranking officials.” For a fuller account of the career of this important man, see the present writer's article, “Chang Yin-huan, diplomat and reformer,” Tsing-hua journal, April, 1941.
37 Chin Liang, 21.
38 Weng's diary, June 11, 1898. “His majesty showed firm determination for reform. I said although Western learning is important, the canons of our sages are even more vital. They can never be forgotten. After retiring, I drafted the decree.”
39 The ambiguity of the wording of the decree may be illustrated by: “What we desire to attain is the elimination of useless things and the advancement of learning which, while based on ancient principles, shall yet move in harmony with the times.” Translation given in Bland and Backhouse, 186-87.
40 Chen Kung-lu, 456; A. W. Hummel, 861.
41 On the same day that Weng was dismissed, two significant events should be taken as the empress dowager's preparation for the coup. First, Jung-lu, her most trusted Manchu, was made governor-general of Chihli, in charge of the only modern armies in north China. Second, all newly appointed officials of second rank or above were required to return their thanks to the empress dowager.
42 A. W. Hummel, 63.
43 Ibid., 732.
44 This is exactly the conclusion reached by Chang Hsiao-ho, 64.
45 Chin Liang, 21.
46 Wang Chao's oral reminiscences recorded in Wang Shu-nan, Te-tsung i-shih (Peiping, 1930),x 46. Wang Chao further testified that after Weng's death in 1904, the emperor, upon hearing the request of a prince of the blood for conferring a posthumous title upon Weng, not only refused to do it, but became so indignant as to list a series of Weng's “crimes” which obstructed state affairs. Although Wang Chao's testimony cannot for the time being be entirely verified for lack of similar sources, it is nevertheless true that the posthumous title, a mere official routine, was not conferred upon Weng until after the death of the Emperor Tetsung in 1908. Wang Chao, a participant in the reform of 1898, is, no doubt, a more qualified observer than Bland and Backhouse.
47 It is significant to note that, throughout his tenure as British minister at Peking, Sir Claude MacDonald, among very few qualified Western observers, thought of Weng as “extremely obstructive,” though he also noticed the marked improvements which Weng had shown sometime before the reform movement made real headway. Among modern students, only P. H. Clements in his Boxer rebellion, a political and diplomatic review (New York, 1915), ch. 1, found it hard to reconcile the impressions of casual observers like Bland and Backhouse with those of Sir Claude, who had official contacts with Weng.