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Xu Jingcheng

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Xu Jingcheng
(Hsu Ching Cheng) (Hsü Ching-ch'eng) (Hsü Ching-ch'eng)
A photograph of Xu Jingcheng
A photograph of Xu Jingcheng
Native name
許景澄
Born(1845-12-00)0 December 1845 invalid month invalid day
Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China
Died28 July 1900(1900-07-28) (aged 55)
Executed as one of six reformers during the Boxer Rebellion, Caishikou Execution Grounds, Beijing,Qing China
Pen nameZhúyún Chinese: 竹筠
OccupationDiplomat
Qing Vice Minister, Ministry of Personnel, Three Departments and Six Ministries
Hanlin Academy Bachelor of the six offices of scrutinity (Chinese: 翰林院庶吉士), compiler (Chinese: 翰林院編修), Academician Expositor-in-waiting (Chinese: 翰林院侍講(1868–1884)[1]
Qing Envoy to France, Italy, Holland, Austria, Germany(1884–1885)
Qing Envoy to Belgium, France, and Germany(1885–1890)
Qing Envoy to Russia, Austria, Holland, and Germany(1890–1892)
Grand Secretariat (Chinese: 內閣學士) and Attendant Gentleman of the Ministry of Rites (Chinese: 禮部侍郎銜)(1892–1895)

Senior Vice Minister of Department of Public Works, Qing China(Chinese: 工部左侍郎)(1895-1899)
Qing Envoy to Germany (1897)
Vice Minister of Zongli Yamen (Office of Foreign Affairs), Qing China (Chinese: 總理各國事務衙門大臣) (1895-1899)
Qing China(1895-1899)
Inspecter General, Chinese Eastern Railway (Chinese: 中東鐵路公司督辦)(1895-1899)
Senior Vice Minister of Ministry of Personnel, Qing China Chinese: 吏部右侍郎旋遷左侍郎 (1899-1900)
Minister of Education and Superintendant of the Imperial University of Peking (now Peking University, Qing China (Chinese: 京師大學堂（今北京大學）總教習，管學大臣) (1899-1900)
NationalityQing Chinese
Xu Jingcheng
Traditional Chinese許景澄
Simplified Chinese许景澄
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinXǔ Jǐngchéng
Wade–GilesHsü Ching-ch'eng

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Template:Chinese name Xu Jingcheng, also known as Hsu Ching Cheng, simplified Chinese: 许景澄; traditional Chinese: 許景澄; pinyin: Xu Jingcheng; Wade–Giles: Hsü Ching-ch'eng; 1845 – 28 July 1900) was a Chinese diplomat and Qing politician supportive of the Hundred Days' Reform.[2] He was envoy to Belgium, France, Italy, Russia, Austria, Holland, and Germany for the Qing imperial court and led reforms in modernizing China's railways and public works.[3] As a modernizer and diplomat, he protested the breaches of international law in 1900 as one of the five ministers executed during the Boxer Rebellion. In Article IIa of the Boxer Protocol of 1901, the Eight-Nation Alliance that had provided military forces (Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) successfully pressed for the rehabilitation of Xu Jingcheng by an Imperial Edict of the Qing government[4]:

Imperial Edict of the 13th February last rehabilitated the memories of Hsu Yung-yi, President of the Board of War; Li Shan, President of the Board of Works; Hsu Ching Cheng, Senior VicePresident of the Board of Civil Office; Lien Yuan, Vice-Chancellor of the Grand Council; and Yuan Chang, Vice-President of the Court of Sacrifices, who had been put to death for having protested against the outrageous breaches of international law of last year.

Civil Service and Diplomatic Career

Xu was born in Zhejiang in 1845, and was ranked jinshi in the 1868 imperial examination of the Qing court.[5] He began his civil service as a bureaucrat in the Hanlin Academy serving as the Bachelor of the six offices of Scrutiny (Chinese: 翰林院庶吉士), a compiler (Chinese: 翰林院編修), and an Academician Expositor-in-waiting (Chinese: 翰林院侍講)until 1884.[6]

As a compiler, he was a keen analyst of foreign and current affairs and was first promoted and appointed as envoy to Japan but failed to journey abroad due to the death of his father and his responsibilities as the eldest son in filial mourning. The end of the mourning period allowed Xu to begin his diplomatic service first as the Envoy to France, Italy, Holland, Austria, and Germany (1884–1885), and then as the first Qing Envoy to Belgium while also concurrently accredited to France and Germany from 1885 to 1890.[3] During this time, he was charged with inspecting and receiving the new Chinese turret ship Dingyuan Chinese: 定遠, a pre-dreadnought battleship and flagship of the Beiyang Fleet, manufactured by German shipbuilders AG Vulcan Stettin.[3] He wrote an Encyclopedia of Foreign Ships and recommended the modernization of the Qing fleet. Until 1892, Xu was envoy to Russia, Austria, Holland, and Germany.[3]

In 1890, he was recalled to Beijing and was appointed the Grand Secretariat (Chinese: 內閣學士) and Attendant Gentleman of the Ministry of Rites (Chinese: 禮部侍郎銜). In 1895, he was promoted as the Senior Vice Minister of Department of Public Works (Chinese: 工部左侍郎), one of the six top ministries of Qing China. During this time, he remained active in diplomacy, serving in various foreign delegations and as Envoy to Germany in 1897 and as the head minister of theZongli Yamen (Office of Foreign Affairs) from 1895 to 1899.[5] His foreign service also allowed him to serve as an intermediary with foreign railway companies and governments and he was charged with the modernization of major railways in China's industrializing northeast as the Inspecter General of the Chinese Eastern Railway from 1895 until 1899.[5] His final promotion as the Senior Vice Minister of Ministry of Personnel (Chinese: 吏部) 右侍郎旋遷左侍郎 also made Xu the Minister of Education and Superintendant of the Imperial University of Peking (now Peking University), posts he served until his execution in 1900.[5]

Execution

A Roman Catholic, Xu was marked with suspicion in the lead up to the Boxer Rebellion.[3] The anti-Christian, anti-foreign, and anti-imperialist movement converged on Beijing in June 1900 after months of violence in Shandong and the North China plain, forcing diplomats, foreigners, and Chinese Christians into the Legation Quarter. Xu, a liberal in the Qing court sided with five other members of the Imperial court, supported a diplomatic resolution and was opposed to an alliance with the Boxer fighters in a war against the foreign powers represented in the Legation Quarter. Along with Hsu Yung-yi, President of the Board of War (Ministry of War); Li Shan, President of the Board of Works (Ministry of Public Works); Lien Yuan, Vice-Chancellor of the Grand Council; and Yuan Chang, Vice-President of the Court of Sacrifices (Ministry of Rites), Xu issued a recommendation to Empress Cixi protesting the breaches of international law and urging the repression of the Boxers, the execution of Boxer leaders, and a diplomatic settlement with foreign armies. In his own written memorial (petition) to Cixi, Xu wrote, "the evasion of extraterritoriality rights and the killing of foreign diplomats are unprecedented in China and abroad."[3] Cixi, outraged, sentenced Xu to death for "willfully and absurdly petitioning the Imperial Court" and "building subversive thought" and was executed on July 28, 1900. His decapitated head was placed on display at Caishikou Execution Grounds in Beijing.[7]

Legacy

Xu Jingcheng is memorialized, along with Yuan Xu (Yuan Chang) and Xu Yongyi (Hsu Yung-yi) at Hangzhou's West Lake where a memorial commemorates the three Qing court officials as loyal officials.

Roman Catholic Influence

During his diplomatic career, Xu was also the mentor of the future Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Lou Tseng-Tsiang, and was instrumental in Lou's conversion to Roman Catholicism from Protestantism. Xu, as envoy to Russia took an early interest in Lou, a polyglot, in 1893 when he was posted to St Petersburg as an interpreter (fourth-class) to the Chinese embassy. During this time, Lou became increasingly religious under Xu Jingcheng's influence and instructions:

Europe's strength is found not in her armaments, nor in her knowledge — it is found in her religion [...]. Observe the Christian faith. When you have grasped its heart and its strength, take them and give them to China.

The execution of Xu during the Boxer Rebellion paved the way for Lou's service as the Qing delegate at the first and second Peace Conferences in The Hague (1899 and 1907), and as Minister to Belgium and Ambassador to Russia, roles previously held by Xu. Lou referred to Xu as his "second father" and never forgot his execution under the Qing court. When the 1911 Revolution broke out while Lou was Ambassador in St Petersburg, he took it upon himself, against the advice of his colleagues at other European capitals, to cable Beijing that there could be no hope of assistance from the Great Powers.[8] At the death of his wife Lou retired from an active life, and in 1927 became a postulant, under the name Dom Pierre-Célestin, in the Benedictine monastery of Sint-Andries in Bruges, Belgium. He was ordained priest in 1935. In his final years Lou hoped to return to China as a missionary to fulfill the instructions Xu Jingcheng had given him at the beginning of his career but his planned departure was postponed during the Chinese Civil War, and Dom Lou died in Belgium on 15 January 1949.

Publications

File:Encyclopedia of Foreign Ships, Xu Jingcheng
Encyclopedia of Foreign Ships, written by Xu Jingcheng while serving as Envoy to Germany

Xu, Jingcheng, Xu Wensu gong wai ji (in Chinese), [N.p.] [19--], OCLC 77791198 許景澄; 許景澄撰; Xu, Jingcheng (1968), Pami'er tu shuo, Qing chao fan shu yu di cong shu, 8.'">Qing chao fan shu yu di cong shu, 8. (in Chinese), Guang wen shu ju, OCLC 27467186 1845-1900, 許景澄; 許同莘著 [i.e. 編]; Jingcheng Xu, 1845-1900 (1968), Xu Wensu gong (Jingcheng) yi ji : 12 juan, shu zha 2 juan, ri ji 1 juan, wai ji 5 juan, fu lu 1 juan = Xu Wensu gong yi gao, Jin dai Zhongguo shi liao cong kan. Di 19 ji, 183'">Jin dai Zhongguo shi liao cong kan. Di 19 ji, 183 (in Chinese), Wen hai chu ban she, OCLC 706881002 {{citation}}: |last= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) 許景澄撰; Xu, Jingcheng, Xu Zhuyun xian sheng chu shi han gao : [10 juan] (in Chinese), s.n., 189-], OCLC 122712743 1845-1900, 許景澄，; 許景澄撰．; Xu, Jingcheng (1920), Xu Wensu gong wai ji, Xu Wensu gong ri ji, Xu Wensu gong shu zha (in Chinese), s.n, OCLC 122853987 {{citation}}: |last= has numeric name (help)

Notes

  1. ^ Hucker, Charles O (1985), A dictionary of official titles in Imperial China, Stanford University Press, ISBN 9780804711937
  2. ^ Leonhard, Robert R. "The China Relief Expedition Joint Coalition Warfare in China Summer 1900" (PDF). The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. p. 13. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e f 趙爾巽等撰; 趙爾巽; Zhao, Erxun (1976), Qing shi gao, 新華書店北京發行所發行, Beijing, OCLC 17045858
  4. ^ "Boxer Protocol".
  5. ^ a b c d "(Qing) Xu Jingcheng". Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of History and Philology (IHP) of Academia Sinica. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  6. ^ Hucker, Charles O (1985), A dictionary of official titles in Imperial China, Stanford University Press, ISBN 9780804711937
  7. ^ [http://archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttscgi/ttsquery?0:0:mctauac:TM%3D%B3%5C%B4%BA%BC%E1
  8. ^ Lou Tseng-Tsiang, Souvenirs et pensées (1945).

Further references

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