Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/Wang I-t'ang

General Wang I-t'ang

王揖唐字一堂

General Wang I-t'ang was born at He-fei Hsien, Anhui province, in 1877. He was a Metropolitan Graduate under the Ching regime. During 1907-8 he served as Military Councillor to Hsu Shih-chang who was then Viceroy of Manchuria. For a time he also commanded troops at Fengtien. Later he accompanied Minister Tai Hungtze to Russia to attend the coronation of Czar. He spent two years touring in European countries and also in America before he returned to China. When he was in Germany, he studied military science. Upon returning to Peking, he passed an examination held for returned students and was then sent to Japan to pursue higher education. After the First Revolution, General Wang through the introduction of Hsu Shih-chang, joined the secretariat of Yuan Shih-kaia When Yuan Shih-kai came to terms with the southern leaders regarding the cancellation of the Nanking Provisional government, General Wang was one of the four representatives sent to interview prominent persons at Nanking on his behalf. Subsequently President Yuan made General Wang his political councillor and also promoted him to be a Lieutenant General with the brevet rank of Full General. In 1912 he was instrumental in organizing the Kung-ho Tang, a political party, which later became a strong component of the Progressive Party. In. April 1913 the First Parliament was convoked. General Wang was a Senator representing Thibet. He rendered much service in electing Yuan Shih-kai as formal President in October 1913. After the dissolution of the First Parliament, Yuan Shih-kai called a special conference to revise the Provisional Constitution in 1914. General Wang wis a member of that Council representing Anhui province. In May 1914 Yuan Shih-kai created a States Council to act as the national legislature. General Wang was appointed a member of it. This post he held until August 1915 when he was appointed Civil Governor Kirin. He left Kirin in April 1916 and returned to Peking because he could not get along with the military authorities of that province. In the same month he was appointed Minister of the Interior which post he held until the end of June 1916 on the 6th of which month Yuan Shih-kai died. Having left politics, General Wang interested himself in educational works. He founded the Kuo Ming Univers’ty and the Chung Hua University, both in Peking. In the autumn of 1916 he went to Germany and France to study military organizations. Upon his return to China in April 1917, he became active in politics again. In June 1917 the First Parliament was for the second time dissolved. In November 1917 a Provisional Senate was created with General Wang as its President. The work assigned to this assembly was to remake the laws governing the parliamental election. After the completion of the work, he organized the An Fu Club, of which he was the nominal leader. In August 1918 the new Parliament which was then called the Anfu Parliament and which was based upon the revised election laws was convoked. General Wang was elected a member of the Lower House and eventually became its Speaker. In February 1919 an Internal Peace Conference was called to Shanghai to settle the differences between the north and the south. At first Mr. Chu Chi-chien was Chief Northern Delegate but he failed to accomplish anything on account of his being not an Anfu member. In August 1919 General Wang was appointed Chief Northern Delegate. But owing to the opposition of the people against him, the Conference was unable to go ahead and eventually came to a deadlock. In May 1919 he was given the Second Order of Merit. In August 1920, after the downfall of the Anfu Faction he was dismissed from the delegation and also ordered to be apprehended. Since that time until 1924 he was in Japan studying political and military science, although the Mandate ordering his arrest and depriving his honors was cancelled in February 1923. In 1923 he rendered into Chinese the Kaiser's Memoirs. This translation was published by the Commercial Press, Shanghai, in March 1924.