Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/Liang Chi-ch'ao

Mr. Liang Chi-ch'ao

梁啟超字卓如

Liang Hu-hao

Mr. Liang Chi-chiao was born at Hsing-hui Hsien, Kuangtung Province, in 1869. He studied under Kang Yu-wei at the latter's private school called Wan Mu Tsao Tang and has become the most prominent of Kang's pupils. Mr. Liang became a Provincial Graduate in 1889. The combination of the two names Kang and Liang is generally known in China to mean the central figures of the reform movement which was responsible for the famous reform decrees of 1898. Preceeding the reform movement, Mr. Liang started the first Chinese daily newspaper in Peking. It was a small leaflet containing only an editorial which was given away gratuitously. The reform decrees of 1898 was inspired by Kang and Liang who laid the plot to prevent the Empress Dowager from actively interfering in politics. This plot was finally reported to the Empress Dowager secretly by Yuan Shih-kai who was prompted to do so through fear of losing his own power should Kang's party become predominant. A coup d'etat was established by Empress Dowager. The reform leaders were proscribed. Six of them were arrested and decapitated. Both Kang and Liang, however, escaped from being arrested and fled to Japan. There they organized the Pao Huang Tang or Party supporting Emperor Kuang Hsu. It advocated a limited monarchy in preference to a Republic thus becoming greatly opposed to the Revolutionary Party headed by Sun Yat-sen and Huang Hsin. While in Japan, Mr. Liang edited several powerful papers among which may be mentioned Ching I Pao, Hsin Ming Chung Pao, Political Opinion, Kuo Feng Pao, and Hsin Wen Magazine. During his exile, Mr. Liang also visited America, England and Europe, and through such visits learned much of social and political conditions abroad about which he informed his fellow-countrymen through his writings. Mr. Liang returned to China after the revolution of 1911, which resulted in the establishment of the present Republic. Soon after his return he started a daily paper in Tientsin advocating the spread of political education and the diffusion of general knowledge among the Chinese. Mr. Liang was appointed Vice-Minister of Justice in Yuan Shih-kai's first Cabinet, but he refused to accept the office. Then he founded and edited the Yung Yen Pao (“Justice"), a bi-monthly periodical at Tientsin. Ever since his return to China, Mr. Liang had been working to organize a big political party to oppose the Kuo Ming Tang, headed by Sun Yat-sen and Huang Hsin, which was then the majority party in the Parliament. His success came in May 1913 when the three existing parties, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party and the Unionists Party, were amalgamated to become the Chin Pu Tung or Progressive Party and he himself became a leader of it. In September 1913 he was appointed Minister of Justice in Hsiung Hsi-ling's Cabinet of first-class men. This office he accepted. He resigned in February 1914, and was appointed Head of the Currency Bureau, which was afterwards incorporated in the Ministry of Finance in December of 1914, after his resignation from the Bureau. Liang Chi-chiao rendered signal service to the country between 1914 and 1915 through his powerful writings denouncing Japan's ambition as was shown in the Twenty-One Demands she presented. Toward the end of 1915, he opposed Yuan Shih-kai's imperialistic movement. He fled from Tientsin to Yunnan where he' enlisted the support of his pupli, General Tsai Ao. The third revolution consequently commenced. It resulted in the collapse of the imperialistic movement and the restoration of the Republic in June 1916. In the spring of 1917 the question as to whether China should join the European war on the side of the Allies arose. Mr. Liang was called to Peking by General Tuan Chi-jui, who was then Prime Minister, for consultation. Largely upon the advice of Mr. Liang, the Tuan Cabinet decided in favor of joining the war. In July 1917, General Chang Heun launched forth the monarchical movement to set the little Manchu Emperor on the Throne again. Mr. Liang played an important part as an adviser to General Tuan Chi-jui in overthrowing the movement. Upon the second restoration of the Republc, he was appointed Minister of Finance, and also director general of the Salt Administration. In December the Tuan Cabinet was overthrown, and Mr. Liang retired at the same time. Mr. Liang visited Paris during the Peace Conference. He arrived in London in February 1919 and returned to China at the beginning of 1920. He was advisor to Mr. Lu Cheng-hsiang, Chief Delegate of the Chinese Delegation. In 1923 Mr. Liang was elected a member of the P. E. N. Club, the International Writers' Club founded by John Galsworthy in October 1921. During the past two years Mr. Liang has been traveling in the different provinces and giving lectures in several high institutions of learning. He has considerable influence over the literary people in China on account of his forcible pen.