Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/Wei I

Mr. T. S. Wei

魏易字冲叔

(Wei I)

Mr. T. S. Wei was born at Hangchow, Chekiang province, in 1880. He received his Chinese education at home, having belonged to a family of literati. His parents died in his childhood, and it was his guardian who sent him to St. John's College (now University). Shanghai, for foreign education after he had mastered the rudiments of Chinese learning. Mr. Wei was a good student, good in his conduct and good in his studies. He was a member of a famous class which graduated in 1903, some of the other members being Dr. Y. T. Tsur and Dr. Hawkling Yen. Mr. Wei, however, left the College shortly before his graduation. In 1900 Mr. Wei went to Peking in response to an invitation from Chang Pai-hsi, then President of the Board of Education, and was subsequently appointed a member of the Translation Bureau in the Board. Here he served for some time. As there was a high demand for teachers at that time and he discovered that he had been gifted with a talent for teaching ,he accepted an appointment as teacher of English in the Normal College in Peking. From 1904 to the outbreak of the first revolution in 1911, he was engaged in teaching. He was professor in the Peking University, the College of Language, the College of Economics and the College of Laws. His students are now occupying prominent positions in every walk of life. Some of them have since become high officials. Shortly before the 1911 revolution Mr. Wei was secretary to the Governor of the Ta Ching Bank (now the Bark of China). In 1913 he was appointed Advisor to the then Prime Minister, Hsiung Hsi-ling. Concurrently he served as Director of the Press Bureau, and the foreign and Chinese correspondents in Peking received much genuine assistance from him in their collection of news. In 1914 he became secretary to the National Oil Administration of which Hsiung Hsi-ling was Director General. For three years he worked faithfully for the Administration and Mr. Hsiung. He was the last man to leave the Administration. In 1917 Mr. Wei was appointed secretary of the Salt Administration. Shortly before, he was offered the position of Salt Commissioner, but he declined it. In t'e same year he was transferred to the Directorate-General of Flood Relief and Conservancy and rendered no small service in relieving the flood affected people of Chihli. In March 1918 he was appointed secretary of the Commission for the Improvement of the River System of Chihli, immediately after its formation. In the spring of 1919 he was given the additional office of chief of the Administrative Department of the Grand Canal Improvement Board. Mr. Wei although having never studied abroad, having not even left his own country, has a wonderful command of the English language and is well acquainted with the international situation and foreign customs and manner through his constant reading of foreign books. He is jokingly called the “Encyclopedia" by his associates. Many Western returned students envy him his profound Chinese learning. He is a distinguished collaborator of Ling Chin-nan, the famous Chinese scholar, in the translation of more than fifty English classic novels into the Chinese language including the Travels of Marco Polo, Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Ivanhoe, Talisman and Alhambra.