This paper was first presented at the eighth conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia, Kuala Lumpur, 1980.

¹ An unpublished M.A. thesis, ‘Chinese Revolutionaries in Hong Kong’, by Man-ju, Ch'en, Hong Kong University, 1963Google Scholar is devoted entirely to this study. Other works on modern China such as I. Hsu's The Rise of Modern China, Mary Wright's China in Revolution and H. Schiffrin's Sun Υat-sen and the Origin of the Chinese Revolution also give references to the role of Hong Kong in the 1911 Revolution.

² Appointment to membership of the Legislative Council was the greatest honour and highest position that a Chinese could secure in Hong Kong. It was also an official recognition that he was the leader of the Chinese community. Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the Legislative Council was composed of a great majority of the highest ranking government officials and two to seven unofficial members appointed by the Governor. It was only beginning in 1880 that one of the unofficial seats was given to a Chinese. In 1896, a second seat was given to a Chinese, see Cheng, T. C., ‘Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Council in Hong Kong up to 1941’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Vol. 9 (1969), pp. 7–30.Google Scholar

³ Fora brief biography of Wu, see Boorman, Howard L. (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of Republican China (Columbia University Press, 1968), Vol. III, pp. 453–5Google Scholar; Ch'en Chi-sen , Wu T'ing-fang-i-shih (anecdote of Wu T'ing-fang) (Hong Kong, 1936). For his relation with Hong Kong, see Cheng, T. C., ‘Chinese Unofficial Members’, pp. 8–10Google Scholar; Yu Kai-hing, ‘Wu T'ing-fang yü Hsiang Kang chih kuan-hsi’ (Wu T'ing-fang and Hong Kong), in Essays in Chinese Studies Presented to Professor Lo Hsiang-lin (Hong Kong, 1970), pp. 255–78.Google Scholar For his career in China, see Shiu, Linda P., ‘China in Transition; The Role of Wu T'ing-fang 1842–1922’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1970).Google Scholar

⁴ According to H. L. Boorman and Chang Tsun-wu (see note 8), Wu received his early education at the Central School, the first government secondary school in Hong Kong. But Wu had left school in 1861 and the Central School was not opened until 1862. According to more reliable sources, Wu was educated from 1856 to 1861 at St Paul's College, a missionary school set up in 1843 by the Colonial Chaplain. In Wu's epitaph written by Dr Sun Yat-sen in 1925, it was stated that Wu entered St Paul's College at the age of 14 and left six years after. See Kuo-fu chu-chi. (collected works of Sun Yat-sen) (Taipei, 1973), Vol. VI, pp. 1449–50.Google Scholar

⁵ Wu's appointment was made provisionally in the temporary absence of an unofficial member, H. B. Gibb, of the Gibb, Livingston & Co. The Colonial Office was against giving Ng Choy (Wu) a permanent seat, but only for three years or until Gibb returned. See Earl of Kimberley to Sir John Hennessy, 24 September 1880, No. 56, C.O. 129/189, quoted in Endacott, G. B., Government and People in Hong Kong 1841–1962 (Hong Kong University Press, 1964), p. 95.Google Scholar

⁶ See Chang Tsun-wu ‘Wu T'ing-fang shih-mei-shih ti yen lun’ (speeches of Wu T'ing-fang in the United States), Thought and Word, 13:1 (1975)’ 28–36.Google Scholar

⁷ See Chang Tsun-wu, ‘Ch'ing-mo cheng-chih kai-k'o yun-tung chung ti Wu T'ing-fang’ (Wu T'ing-fang in the late Ch'ing political reform movement), in Collection of Essays in Memory of President Chiang (Taipei, 1976), pp. 929–61.Google Scholar

⁸ See Tsun-wu, Chang, Wu T'ing-fang yu hsin-hai k'o-ming (Wu T'ing-fang and the Revolution of 1911) (Taipei, 1976).Google Scholar

⁹ Brief biography of Huang is given in Cheng, T. C., ‘Chinese Unofficial Members’, pp. 11–12Google Scholar, and in Chan Hok Lam (Ch'en Hsüeh-lin), ‘Huang Sheng—Hsiangkang hua-jen t'i-ch'ang yang-wu chih hien-ch'ü’ (Huang Sheng—a distinguished Chinese in early Hong Kong), Chung Chi Journal, III (05 1964), 226–31.Google Scholar

¹⁰ The Morrison Education Society was founded at Canton in 1835 in memory of Robert Morrison for the purpose of promoting education in China and amongst overseas Chinese. In 1842, shortly after the British occupation of Hong Kong, the society moved its school from Macao to the Island. Huang Sheng was then brought to Hong Kong by the headmaster of the school, Rev. Samuel Brown. In 1847, when Brown left Hong Kong for the United States, he took with him three Chinese students: Huang Sheng, Yung Hung and Huang K'uan.

¹¹ Wang T'ao (1828–97) was a Chinese scholar well known for his association with James Legge in translating the Chinese Classics into English and for his numerous writings on reforms in China. For an interesting account of his life and career, see Mcleavy, H., Wang T'ao, 1828–1897: The Life and Writings of a Displaced Person (London, 1953).Google Scholar For his work in Hong Kong and his role in the cultural intercourse between China and the West, see Hsiang-lin, Lo, Hong Kong and Western Culture (Tokyo, 1964), pp. 43–85.Google Scholar A more recent study on Wang T'ao by Paul A. Cohen notes in particular Wang's contributions to the development of modern journalism in China, with details on his publication of the Hsün-huan jih-pao in Hong Kong. See Between Tradition and Modernity: Wang T'ao and Reform in Late Ch'ing China (Harvard University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

¹² Strictly speaking, the first daily in Chinese was the Chinese edition of the Hong Kong Daily Press, which was published by Jones Murrow and known as Chung-wai hsin-wen (news abroad and in China) in 1858. The translation and editing of the Chinese version was the work of Wu T'ing-fang based entirely on articles from the English. The Tsun Wan Yat Pao, on the other hand, was published independently as a Chinese newspaper, with Wang T'ao as the editor until 1885. News items took up about only one-third of the space, containing items selected from the Government Gazette issued in Peking, messages from Canton and also news from China and abroad. About one-third of the paper was devoted to an editorial written by Wang himself.

¹³ For short descriptions of Ho's life and career in Hong Kong, see Hsing-lien, Wu, Hsiang-kang hua-jen ming-jen shih-lu (the prominent Chinese in Hong Kong) (Hong Kong, 1936), II, 1–2.Google Scholar His role in Hong Kong is also related in Endacott, G. B., A History of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1973), p. 249–50Google Scholar; Hsiang-lin, Lo, Kuo-fu chih ta-hsueh shih-tai (Sun Yat-sen's university days) (Chungking, 1945), pp. 5–10.Google Scholar Recently, Ho's contribution to the reform movements in China has become a topic of studies in a number of works (see note 20). The most detailed account of his life is given in a new book by Dr Gerald Choa of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Kai (Hong Kong, 1981).Google Scholar

¹⁴ The Central School was set up by the Hong Kong government in 1862. It was the first government school put directly under the supervision of a government officer. The Central School was meant to be a model school for the promotion of the teaching of English and it soon proved to be very popular with the Chinese. The school still exists today under the present name, Queen's College. For its history, see Stokes, Gwenneth, Queen's College, 1862–1962 (Hong Kong, 1962).Google Scholar

¹⁵ This was quoted in Norton-Kyshe, J. A., A History of the Law and Courts of Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1971), p. 491.Google Scholar

¹⁶ The explanation given by Ho for his return was ‘for health reasons’. Yet in various other writings, Ho and Hu expressed more than once that they had declined the invitations of Chinese officials to serve as their private secretaries. It seems that they felt that the position of mu-fu was unimportant. See prefaces to the various articles in Hu-I-nan hsien-sheng chuan-chi (Hong Kong, 1916).Google Scholar

¹⁷ He was the founder of the Alice Memorial Hospital (1887), the Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital (1903), and the Ho Miu Ling Hospital (1906). These three hospitals were eventually merged with the Nethersole Hospital founded by the London Missionary (1893) to form the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, which now still exists as one of the largest public hospitals in Hong Kong. He also contributed immensely to the founding of the Hong Kong College of Medicine which in 1911 merged with the University of Hong Kong.

¹⁸ The China Mail was one of the earliest and then most popular English newspapers in Hong Kong. Its attitude generally reflected the interest and standpoint of the British merchants. Ho's critical review of Tseng Chi-tse's article was first published in the China Mail on 12 February 1887. This must have received the attention of the English communities as arguments along the line taken by Ho appeared in the editorial and correspondence column of the newspaper shortly after. Since then, Ho became a frequent contributor to the paper, under the name ‘Sinensis’. Thomas H. Reid, editor of the newspaper in 1894–1905, was a close associate of Ho.

¹⁹ The Wu-I-nan hsien-sheng chuan-chi was first published in Hong Kong in 1916, but the ‘Hsin-cheng chen-ch'uan’ was published in 1900 and reprinted several times in Hong Kong and in China before it was incorporated into Hu's collected works. Many of Ho and Hu's articles were also collected in Huang-ch'ao hsu-ai wen-pen , 1902.

²⁰ The two dissertations are by Chiu Ling-yeong, ‘The Life and Thought of Sir Kai Ho Kai’ (University of Sidney, Australia, 1968)Google Scholar and Jung-fang, Tsai, ‘Comprador Ideologists in Modern China: Ho Kai (1859–1914) and Hu Li-yuan (1847–1916)’ (University of California, Los Angeles, 1975).Google Scholar Other works with reviews on Ho's thoughts in the context of reform ideas in modern China include, for instance, Jan Chi Yu , Ho Chi yu Hu Li-yüan ti hai-liang ssu-hsiang (reform ideas of Ho Kai and Hu Li'yüan) (Peking, 1958)Google Scholar, and Wei-hsung, Yu, Wu-hsu pien-fa chih yuan-yen chi ch'i ying-hsiang (the causes and effects of the Wu-hsu reforms) (Taipei, 1977).Google Scholar

²¹ The meeting was held at a Chinese hotel in Hong Kong and was attended by Sun Yat-sen, Yang Ch'u-yün , Tse Tsan-tai , Huang Yung-shang, and Ch'cn Shao-pai . See Man-yu, Ch'en, ‘Chinese Revolutionaries,’ pp. 58–9Google Scholar, Tsan-tai, Tse, The Chinese Republic—Secret History of the Revolution (Hong Kong, 1924), pp. 8–9Google Scholar; Hsiang-lin, Lo, Kuo-fu chi, p. 89Google Scholar; Tzu-yu, Feng, Chung-hua min-kuo k'ai-kuo ch'ien k'o-ming shih (history of revolutionary activities before the establishment of the Republic of China) (Taipei, reprint, 1954), Vol. I, Ch. III.Google Scholar

²² The petition was not signed by Ho, but by Sun Yat-sen. See Yat-sen, Sun, Memoirs of a Chinese Revolutionary (Taipei, reprint 1953), p. 196Google Scholar; Jansen, M. B., The Japanese and Sun Yat-sen (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 86–91Google Scholar; hsiang-lin, Lo, Kuo-fu chi, p. 82.Google Scholar

²³ For a brief biography, see Cheng, T. C., ‘Chinese Unofficial Members’, pp. 18–19Google Scholar, and also Hsing-lien, Wu, ‘Prominent Chinese’, II, pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

²⁴ For the full context of the letter, see Beresford, Charles, The Break-up of China (London, 1899), pp. 216–33.Google Scholar

²⁵ In supporting the Open Door policy and calling for the help of the British to interfere with China's internal politics, Ho and Wei Yuk had been criticized as ‘traitors’ to China and her people. Yet Tsai Jung-fang, in his study of comprador ideologies, called them ‘comprador patriots’, as they were concerned with the integrity of China, the freedom and development of trade and commerce. See Jung-fang, Tsai, ‘Comprador Ideologists’, pp. 156–57, 233.Google Scholar

²⁶ Li Chun sent his brother Li Tz'u-wu to Hong Kong to meet the revolutionaries who were Hu Han-min and Li Chi-t'ang . The meeting was held on November 7 at which Wei Yuk was also present. For account of the meeting see Man-yu, Ch'en, ‘Chinese Revolutionaries’, p. 232.Google Scholar

²⁷ Biography of Ho Tung is given in Boorman, (ed.), Biographical Dictionary, II, pp. 75–6Google Scholar; Gittins, Jean, Eastern Windows and Western Skies (Hong Kong, 1975)Google Scholar: Hsing-lien, Wu, ‘Prominent Chinese’, I, pp. 1–3.Google Scholar

²⁸ Biography of Lau is given in Hsing-lien, Wu, ‘Prominent Chinese’, II, pp. 5–6.Google Scholar

²⁹ Chou was known in Hong Kong as Sir Shouson Chow because he was knighted by King George V in 1925. For his biography see Boorman, (ed.), Biographical Dictionary, I, pp. 388–9Google Scholar, and Hsing-lien, Wu, ‘Prominent Chinese’, I, pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

³⁰ These figures were provided in Wong, K. C. and Lien-teh, Wu, History of Chinese Medicine (Shanghai, 1936), pp. 440–2.Google Scholar See also Biggerstaff, K., The Earliest Modern Government Schools in China (Ithaca, 1961), pp. 68–9.Google Scholar

³¹ In addition to the Education Commissions of 1871–75, Yung was also responsible for the purchase of machinery for the Kiangnan Arsenal and also a scheme for the setting up of a modern banking system in China. For his biography and work, see Wing, Yung, My Life in China and America (New York, 1909)Google Scholar, and Hsiang-lin, Lo, ‘Yung Wing and Foreign Schemes’, in Hong Kong and Western Culture, p. 86–156.Google Scholar

³² For a list of the names and native places of these students in English, see Fargue, La, China's First Hundred (Washington, 1942), pp. 173–6.Google Scholar

³³ Ibid., pp. 33–4, 134–6; Hsiang-lin, Lo, Hong Kong and Western Culture, p. 141.Google Scholar

³⁴ Lien-teh, Wu, Plague Fighter, The Autobiography of a Modern Chinese Physician (Shanghai, 1935), p. 120.Google Scholar

³⁵ The Yellow Dragon, No. I, September 1903, p. 9.Google Scholar The article was written by Dr Bateson Wright, who was Headmaster from 1904 to 1909. The Tientsin University, as so-called in the Yellow Dragon, was in fact the Chung-hsi hsueh-t'ang (Sino-Western Academy) set up by Sheng Hsuan-hui in 1895, which was renamed Peiyang College in 1903.

³⁶ Ibid., No. 9, June 1904, p. 156.

³⁷ Ibid., No. 3, November 1905, p. 41.

³⁸ Ibid., No. 2, October 1906, pp. 41–2.

³⁹ Ibid., No. 4, December 1906, pp. 87–8.

⁴⁰ Ibid., No. 3, November 1908, pp. 51–4.

⁴¹ Ibid., No. 7, April 1910, pp. 346–7.

⁴² Ibid., No. 1, September 1910, pp. 9–10.

⁴³ Ibid., No. 2, October 1910, p. 26.

⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 30.

⁴⁵ Ibid., No. 2, October 1910, p. 26; No. 10, July 1911, pp. 179–89; No. 1, September 1911, p. 198.

⁴⁶ Ibid. No. 3, November 1906, p. 68. According to the Chinese sources the 1906 examination was the first metropolitan examination for students returning from Japan as well as the West (the 1905 examination was for fourteen men who had studied in Japan). Forty-two candidates entered but only thirty-two passed. The examination consisted of two papers: one dealt with the candidates’ special subject as specified on his diploma, and the other with languages, one question to be answered in Chinese and another in a foreign language. Five of the successful candidates received the coveted chin-shin and twenty-seven the chü-jen . See Yen, W. W., ‘The Recent Imperial Metropolitan Examinations’, Chinese Recorder (1907), pp. 34 ff.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ The Yellow Dragon, No. 10, 07 1907, p. 214.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Ibid., No. 2, October 1911, p. 208. Biography of Lo is also given in Who's Who in China, 5th edn (Shanghai, 1932), p. 57.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Before the abolition in 1865 of the Board of Education, a semi-official body in charge of supervising public education, reports on the progress of all government schools were made by the Board; very little was therefore said about the Central School. It was only with the report of 1865, which was submitted by F. Stewart, Headmaster of the School, that more detailed information on the school was given. The report was published annually in the Hong Kong Government Gazette up to 1879, and after that year, in the Hong Kong Administration Report.

⁵⁰ Objections were raised as early as 1867. The most open attack on the policy was expressed in a pamphlet entitled, The Central School, Can It Justify Its Raison D'Etre? by an anonymous writer. The pamphlet was published in Hong Kong in 1877, attacking the policy of secular education in government schools and also stressing that the public had never been benefited by the service of the students as the Chinese trained here usually got situations out of the Colony.

⁵¹ The Yellow Dragon, No. 3, 11 1899, p. 48.Google Scholar

⁵² Ibid., No. 3, November 1903, pp. 46–52.

⁵³ Ibid., 1904, No. 4, June 1904, pp. 151–2, and No. 10, July 1905, pp. 191–2. 1905, No. 6, March 1906, pp. 120–2. 1906, No. 6, March 1907, pp. 130–2. 1907, No. 5, March 1908, p. 122, 1908, No. 6, March 1909, pp. 111–13. 1909, No. 6, March 1910, pp. 326–7.

⁵⁴ A number of them, especially those who later rose to important positions in the central government, had received higher education abroad and won success in the imperial examinations held for returned students which were held annually between 1905 and 1911.

⁵⁵ As adviser and secretary to the Governor-general of Liang-Kuang, Wen had won the title of Taotai in 1903. He then held at different times various posts such as Director of the Imperial Chinese Telegraphs and President of the Canton Military College before he was appointed Junior Amban. For his biography see Who's Who in China (Shanghai, 1925 edn), pp. 859–60.Google Scholar See also the Yellow Dragon, No. 4, 12 1910, pp. 64–5, No. 9, June 1920; p. 236 and No. 1, July 1922, p. 223.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Liang had served as secretary to the Canton–Hankow Railway administration; attaché to the treaty revision commission in Shanghai 1901–04; and director of foreign affairs in Swatow 1907–08. For his biography, see Who's Who in China (Shanghai, 1925 edn), p. 502.Google Scholar See also the Yellow Dragon, No. 10, 07 1903, pp. 198–9Google Scholar; No. 9, June 1920, p. 237 and No. 4, December 1921, p. 67.

⁵⁷ Ch'en was the first among the successful candidates in the 1906 imperial examination for returned students. He was then appointed secretary to the Board of Education, transferred to the Board of Finance after a few months, and was appointed chairman of the Committee for Currency Reform in 1907. Since then he was involved in the financial reforms of the late Ch'ing before he became Vice-Minister of Finance. For Ch'en's biography, see Boorman, (ed.), Biographical Dictionary, I, pp. 170–2.Google ScholarYellow Dragon, No. 10, 07 1907, pp. 214–15 and No. 4, December 1921, p. 23.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Liang was little mentioned in the Yellow Dragon, probably because he was an early graduate and he left the school before the school magazine was published. His short biography is given in , Ch'ing-mo min-ch'u chung-kuo kuan-shen jen-ming lu (Chinese officials and gentry of the late Ch'ing and early Republican years) (Peking, 1918), p. 480.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Feng was one of the important leaders of the revolutionary movement before 1911.

He was the director of the T'ung-meng hui (Union League) in Hong Kong and was responsible for the activities in the Hong Kong–Canton–Macao area from 1905 to 1910. For his biography, see Boorman, (ed.), Biographical Dictionary, I, pp. 31–2.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Feng, , Hua-ch'iao k'o-ming k'ai-kuo shih (history of the revolution and the overseas Chinese) (Chungking, 1946), p. 1.Google Scholar

⁶¹ This refers to the thesis by Ch'en Man-ju, ‘Chinese Revolutionaries in Hong Kong’. The eight attempts described occurred between 1895 and 1911.

⁶² The findings of more recent studies by political scientists indicate that the influence of education upon political attitudes is more complicated, uncertain, and variable than it was originally thought to be. It may reinforce or weaken prejudice; and it may lead to radicalism or to conservatism. See Lane, Robert E., Political Life (Glencoe, 1959)Google Scholar; Stemen, Charles Hubert, Education and Attitude Change (New York, Institute of Human Relations Press, 1961)Google Scholar; and Coleman, James C. (ed.), Education and Political Development (Princeton, 1965), pp. 3–32.Google Scholar

⁶³ A short biography of Tze and his activities in Hong Kong is given in Feng Tzu-yu, K'o-ming i-shih (reminiscence of the Revolution) (Taipei, reprint, 1957), II, pp. 23–5 and in Duncan, C., Tze Tsan-tai (London, 1917).Google Scholar

⁶⁴ The South China Morning Post, 14 04 1913.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ The article was written n 1937, when the early school register was still in the possession of Queen's College. The writer gave details of Sun's entry as follows:

The Yellow Dragon, Vol 37, 01 1937, p. 94.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ For details of Sun's learning at the Medical College, see Lo Hsiang-lin, Kuo-fu chih.

⁶⁷ The speech was recorded in Chinese in the Wah Tze Yat Pao (Chinese Mail), on 11 February 1923.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Ch'en Shao-pai was the son of a gentry-scholar and had been prepared in the conventional manner for the imperial examinations and a career as a government official. But under the influence of his uncle, who had been converted to Christianity in Canton, Ch'en abandoned the traditional study and went first to Canton and then to Hong Kong, studying at the College of Medicine. As a fellow student and close associate of Sun, Ch'en played a leading role in planning a series of uprisings at Canton and in the Yangtze area between 1895 and 1905. Ch'en, however, was best known for establishing and editing during 1899–1905 the Chung Kuo jih-pao (China daily news), the first Chinese newspaper to advocate openly revolution and the overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty. For his biography, see Boorman, (ed.), Biographical Dictionary, I, pp. 229–31Google Scholar, and Te-yun, Ch'en (ed.), Ch'en Shao-pai hsien-sheng ai-assu-lu (an obituary record of Ch'en Shao-pai) (Canton, 1934).Google Scholar

Lu Hao-tung had known Sun Yat-sen from childhood in the same native village in Kwangtung. They became close associates while they were studying at the College of Medicine in Hong Kong. In the 1895 uprising at Canton, Lu became the first revolutionary martyr, but before that he had made an original design of the revolution flag which is still in use by the Nationalists in Taiwan. See Tzu-yu, Feng, K'o-ming i-shih, II, pp. 10–17.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ The most noted of these was Ho Kai, though he never joined the Hui officially. Other active members from the upper circle of the Chinese communities were: Huang Yung-shang son of Huang Sheng; Li Chi-t'ang , son of a merchant of very high social standing, Li Shing; Li Yu-t'ang , himself a very successful merchant, a man of wealth and position; Yu Yü-chi , a banker: Huang Yin-ch'ing , a comprador who later turned journalist and educator; Kuan Sin-yen , a medical practitioner. For their biographies see Hsing-lien, Wu, ‘Prominent Chinese’, II, pp. 1–2, 17–18; I, p. 53; II, p. 78; I, pp. 93–4, 97.Google Scholar For biographies of Huang Yung-shang, Li Chi-t'ang and Yu Yu-chih, see also Feng, , K's-ming i-shih, I, pp. 6, 92–5 and 45.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ The first issue of such newspapers was Chung Kuo jih-pao (China daily news) which was published in January 1900. Others included the Shih chieh kung-i pao (the world daily news), and the Kuang-tung jih-pao (Canton daily news). Most of these were small-scale daily papers, generally light and satirical in contents, and they catered well to the lower strata of the Chinese society in Hong Kong. For a brief description of the nature of each of these papers, see Fen-Tzu-yu, , K'o-ming i-shih, I, pp. 126–7, II, 46–7, III, 142–53.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Yang had probably brought Cantonese official attention upon himself by indiscriminately telling people his role in the Waichow insurrection (1900). At the direction of the Chief of Police at Canton, four assassins were sent and Yang was murdered on the evening of 10 January 1901 while he was teaching. For accounts of the murder and the subsequent court trials in Hong Kong, see Man-yu, Ch'en, ‘Chinese Revolutionaries’, pp. 128–34.Google Scholar

⁷² According to the report of the history master at the Queen's College, this was a very popular essay title for Class II students. See the Yellow Dragon, No. 3, 1904, pp. 47–8.Google Scholar

⁷³ Sun and Ch'en were both students of the Medical College; while Yang and Yu were school-mates at another school. When the four met, Yu was employed in clerical work with the Hong Kong government while Yang kept a shop at Gough Street, Hong Kong island, the first floor of which was soon used as a club-house for the four to hold their political discussions. See Man-ju, Ch'en, ‘Chinese Revolutionaries’, pp. 42–6.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Queen's College, as well as the Anglo-Chinese secondary schools receiving government grants, was open to students of all races. At Queen's College, the student population was predominantly Chinese, though all the masters were British (a few Chinese were employed as assistant masters). The non-Chinese students included a number of Indians, British, Portuguese, and Japanese. The number of English boys, however, dropped sharply with the opening in 1902 of the Kowloon British School and in 1905 the Victoria British School.

⁷⁵ These possessions were lost during the Japanese occupation. But the contemporary issues of the Yellow Dragon often contained acknowledgement of receipt of these exchanges and also short reviews on their contents.

⁷⁶ Wang later held very important posts in the Nationalist government. He was in 1927–28 Minister of Justice at Nanking. From 1928 to 1931, he was President of the Judicial Yuan and was appointed Chairman of the Commission for Rehabilitation of Domestic and Foreign Loans. From 1931 to 1936 he served as judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice at the Hague. In March 1937, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1942, he was appointed Secretary General of the Supreme National Defence Council. During 1947–57 he was again President of the Judicial Yuan. For his brief biography, see Boorman, (ed.), Biographical Dictionary, III, pp. 376–8.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Since 1908, Ch'en Chin-t'ao, serving as Governor of the Ta Ch'ing Bank, had been engaged in currency reform rather than in politics. When Yüan Shih-k'ai took over control of the Manchu government after the Wuchang revolt, he offered Ch'en the post of vice-president of the Board of Finance, but Ch'en declined the appointment. Wu T'ing-fang, on the other hand, had settled in Shanghai since early 1910 after his recall from the United States and turned his attention to community affairs. After the outbreak of Wuchang revolt, Wu convened an emergency meeting of public-spirited residents and officials that established the Shanghai revolutionary government. Wu and Wen Tsung-yao served as secretaries for foreign affairs.

⁷⁸ This refers to the years between 1912 and 1928, when the Republic was torn by two attempts on the restoration of monarchy, antagonism between the north and the south and the split among Sun's followers as well as among the warlords who occupied central and northern China.

⁷⁹ When the provisional government at Nanking under Sun Yat-sen was replaced by the Peking government under Yüan Shih-k'ai, Ch'en Chin-t'ao was again named Vice-minister of Finance, but he did not take up the post. During 1912–13 Ch'en was abroad, first as China's delegate to an international Conference of Bills of Exchange at the Hague and then as Chinese Financial Commissioner with headquarters at London. After 1916, Ch'en served successively as Finance Minister in the northern government under Li Yüan-hung (1916), Tuan Ch'i-jui (1917) and the southern government, under Sun Yat-sen (1921). In 1929, he was appointed Professor of Economics at Tsinghua University in Peking. In 1939, he was called to public service by Wang Ching-wei and became the Finance Minister of the Japanese-sponsored government at Nanking.

⁸⁰ When the provisional republican government was set up at Nanking, Wen Tsung-yao was appointed Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Director of Trade in Shanghai. When Yüan Shih-k'ai became the President of the Peking government, Wen was offered the post of Resident in Tibet. But he declined the offer. Instead he participated in the Second Revolution of 1913 and also in the movement against Yüan's restoration of the monarchy. Wen's career was then closely associated with Ts'en Ch'un-hsuan , one of the southern leaders who later disagreed with Sun. Therefore when a new government was set up by Sun Yat-sen at Canton in 1921, Wen went into retirement. Liang Lan-hsün, on the other hand, continued to serve as Superintendent of Customs, a post which he had held at Canton since 1916.

⁸¹ The Yellow Dragon, No. 9, 06 1921, pp. 236–8.Google Scholar

⁸² After his retirement from government office, he organized the Kwang-tung Navigation Company. In 1921, after Sun Yat-sen had been elected President Extraordinary of the government at Canton, Ch'en served for a time as personal adviser to Sun. Then he completely retired and returned to his native district, spending his years in literary pursuits. See Boorman, (ed.), Biographical Dictionary, I, pp. 229–31.Google Scholar

⁸³ Li received an English education at St Stephen's College after having been educated by a private tutor, specializing in Chinese. He was a member of the T'ung-meng hui in Hong Kong. In 1913, he was elected senator from the province of Kwangtung to the first parliament, which was dissolved in 1914. Henceforth his political career was connected with the southern government and he served as M.P. when the old parliament was reconvoked in 1916 and 1922. For his career, see Who's Who in China (Shanghai, 1925), pp. 471–2.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Ma Hsiao-chia studied in St Stephen's College. He was member of the 1913 and the 1916 parliaments and, also with Li, returned to Kwangtung to join Sun in 1917. When Sun was forced to leave Canton, Ma came back to Hong Kong to be engaged in educational work, teaching at St Stephen's and then St Paul's College. He returned to politics again when parliament was reconvoked in 1922. See Ibid., pp. 589–90.

⁸⁵ Ma Su attended St Joseph College at Hong Kong and joined Sun in 1911 as his English secretary. But after 1914, he stayed mostly abroad, studying in London, Columbia and New York universities. At the Washington Conference in 1921–22, Ma served as a special delegate appointed by the Kuomintang. He was also editor of the China Review, published in New York. See ibid., pp. 591–2.

⁸⁶ Ibid., pp. 82–3.

⁸⁷ Ibid., pp. 390–1.

⁸⁸ Ibid., pp. 305–6.

⁸⁹ Who's Who in China, 5th edn (Shanghai, 1932), p. 57.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Ibid., pp. 98–9.

⁹¹ Cheng received part of his education at Queen's College in the 1890s. He later went to London and was the first Chinese to receive the LL.D. degree in England and was the leading Western trained legal expert in Republican China. He was the last Chinese ambassador of the Nationalist government to London, 1946–50. His biography is found in Boorman, (ed.) Biographical Dictionary, II, pp. 275–8Google Scholar, and also in his autobiography, East and West (London, 1954).Google Scholar