Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/Hsu Shih-ch'ang

Mr. Hsu Shih-ch'ang

徐世昌字潮人

Mr. Hsu Shih-chiang was born at Tientsin in 1858. He became an orphan when a youth and was brought up by the late Yuan Chia-san, father of the late President Yuan Shih-kai. Mr. Hsu was born of a literary family and was given a good education. He passed through the successive literary examinations and became a Hanlin or Metropolitan Graduate in 1886. Subsequently Mr. Hsu was appointed a Leader of the College of Literature. In November 1903 he became Senior Councillor of the Board of Commerce. In June 1904 he was made Probationary Grand Councillor. One year later he became a Minister of Government Council. In October 1905 Mr. Hsu was appointed President of the Board of the Civil Administration. In February 1906 he was promoted to be a Grand Councillor of the State. In November 1906 he was removed from the Grand Council in consequence of certain reform measures which he recommended to the Throne and which offended the Court. But in January 1907 he was appointed to accompany Prince Tsai Chen on a Special Mission to Manchuria. Upon his return to the Capital, he was asked to be the President of the Board of the Interior. In April 1907, he was appointed Viceroy of Manchuria, where he stayed until February 1909, when he was recalled and appointed President of the Board of Communications. Five months afterwards, he became concurrently the Director-General of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway. In March 1910 Mr. Hsu was made Assistant Grand Secretary of the State and Grand Councillor of the State in August 1910. In Prince Ching's Cabinet, which was organized in May 1911, he was given the position of Associate Prime Minister. This office he resigned shortly afterwards in order to accept the office of the Vice-President of the Privy Council on November 1, 1911. Although he is a literary man, Hsu was appointed Chief of the General Staff in December 1911. The next month he was authorized by an edict to be High Commissioner for the Emperor, the most honorable position he could ever desire under the Manchu Dynasty. In February 1912, he was relieved of the office of Chief of the General Staff. On the resignation of the Prince Regent, President Hsu was again appointed, together with Shih Hsu, Grand Guardian of the Emperor. After that First Revolution, Mr. Hsu retired to private life. Being a "sworn” brother of the late President Yuan Shih-kai, Mr. Hsu became Secretary State in May 1914. served the Republican government in that capacity until end of October that year when he tendered his resignation. After the First Revolution and the establishment of the Republic, Mr. Hsu took a trip to Japan and there he met a number of prominent Japanese officials. He did not stay there as long as it was expected because of his sickness mecessitating his early return to China. Being a "sworn” brother of Yuan Shih-kai, Mr. Hsu could not very well stay away from politics. In May 1914 he was appointed Secretary of State in the place of the Prime Minister when Yuan Shih-kai had taken over the administrative power'. "Mr. Hsu took leave of absence in October 1915 when Yuan Shih-kai had launched his monarchical movement. Subsequently Mr. Hsu was given the title of "The Four Friends of Sungshan" by Yuan Shih-kai who considered him as the mountain Sungshan, in Honan, his own province, and Hsu Shih-ch'ang, Chao Erh-hsun, Li Ching-hsi and Chang Chien as the other four famous mountains in China. In March 1916, at the time when Yuan Shih-kai's movement was about to fail, Mr. Hsu was again appointed Secretary of State. He remained in this position just for one month and was relieved by Marshal Tuan Chi-jui who became Secretary of State for two months and then Prime Minister after the death of Yuan Shih-kai. Mr. Hsu retired to Honan, where his home was, for some time. He returned to Peking in November 1916 to mediate between the President Li Yuan-hung and the Premier Tuan Chi-jui. During the unsettled period, 1917-1918, he remained detached from Peking politics, but without losing his influence over the contending factions. On September 4, 1918, Mr. Hsu was elected President of the Republic of China, at a joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives of the so-called “Tuchuns' Parliament,” by 425 out of 436 votes. Mr. Hsu received the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature from the University of Paris in 1921. In June that year he sent Mr. Chu Chichien to represent him on the occasion of awarding this degree by the authorities of the University at Paris. Mr. Hsu vacated the Presidency on June 1, 1922 and left for Tientsin on the following day. Ever since that time he has been living in retirement in his Tientsin home.