Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/Hsu Fu-lin

Mr. Hsu Fu-lin

徐博霖字夢凝

Mr. Hsu Fu-lin was born at Ho-ping Hsien, Kuangtung Province, in 1870. He became an orphan when he was only three years old. But he was a studious boy and now is one of the noted scholars in that province. Under the old Competitive Examination system, Mr. Hsu was a Senior Licentiate. From the Peking Law College he graduated and then he went to study in Japan. He graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Law from the Hosie University. After his return to China, Mr. Hsu became a secretary to the Judicial Commissioner—then called Ch'a Shih-of his own province. Mr. Hsu played an important part in the First Revolution. He was provincial assemblyman chosen by the Ho-ping district to Canton. In January 1912 he was in Nanking as a member of the National Council which drafted the Provisional Constitiution. This Council was transferred to Peking in March 1912 to act as the Legislature until the inauguration of the new two-chamber National Assembly. This Assembly was formally inaugurated in April 1913, and Mr. Hsu became a Member of the lower House representing Kuangtung Province. In January 1914 the National Assembly was dissolved by Yuan Shih-kai. Mr. Hsu then went to Japan. In April 1915 he returned to Shanghai and founded two political magazines called “Rightousness" and "New Chung Hua” the main object of which was to oppose the absolute rule of Yuan Shih-kai.

When Yuan Shih-kai launched his monarchical attempt, in the winter of 1915, Mr. Hsu and many other republican leaders published in Shanghai a daily paper called "Chung Hua Hsin Pao" which was then considered the only paper for the Republic. Through this paper Mr. Hsu rendered valuable service to the Republican Army headed by the late General Tsao Ao. A reward of $100,000 was put up by Yuan Shih-kai for the arrest of Mr. Hsu. Mr. Hsu was in Peking as member of the Lower House again from July 1916 until June 1917 when the National Assembly was again dissolved, this time by Li Yuan-hung as demanded by the different military leaders, who took strong exception to the draft of the New Constitution by the Assembly. Subsequently Mr. Hou went to Canton where a military government had been formed in which Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Tang Shao-yi and Wu Ting-fang took the leading role and whither the ex-Parliamentarians proceeded to re-establish Constitutionalism. Under this Canton new government Mr. Hsu at different times held the following positions: Chief Justice of the High Court, Minister of Justice, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.