Liang Qichao: Between the Old and the New

Today, we’ll tell the life story of an encyclopedic figure at the turn of the 20th century, who was best known for his advocacy for modernization and social reform, as well as his contributions to Chinese literature, philosophy, and political thought.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Liang Qichao, leading intellectual, political activist, historian and educator who lived during the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican era.

Throughout this year, a series of events will be held across the country to pay homage to his legacy. For example, a digital library on his major works went online via the National Library of China earlier this year, and a book documenting more than 400 letters written between he and his children from 1898 to 1928 will be published.

Liang Qichao was born in 1873 in the present-day Jiangmen of south China’s Guangdong Province. He received traditional Confucian training, and it is said that by the age of six, he had already read the Four Books and Five Classics, the canonical Confucian works. By the age of sixteen, he had become a successful candidate in the imperial examination at both the county level and the provincial level.

In 1890, Liang went to the nation’s capital Beijing to participate in the metropolitan examination, the top level of the imperial examination system. Although he failed the exam, a chance encounter with a particular book and a certain individual in that year ultimately changed the trajectory of his life.

When he traveled home by way of Shanghai, he came across a book called Concise Records of the World. As one of China’s earliest books introducing world geography, it broadened Liang’s vision and drew his interest in western history, politics, and culture.

The clash between China and the West began with the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842. The Qing’s defeat in this war opened a series of military failures and territorial concessions. In response, the Qing government initiated the Self-Strengthening Movement in 1861. It was an economic and military campaign to drive the empire’s modernization by adopting and utilizing Western technologies. By 1890, elite scholars in China had been receptive to the need for an overall institutional change to renovate the country.

Later that year, Liang was introduced to Kang Youwei, an enthusiastic advocate of reform. Kang reinterpreted the Confucian classics to leverage tradition as a justification for the sweeping innovations he prescribed. Two years earlier, he submitted a petition to the reigning emperor Guangxu to explain that only reform in politics and government structure could save China from further defeat. Liang Qichao admired Kang’s unique views and bold actions. He abandoned the orthodox teachings he had pursued and became a disciple of Kang Youwei.

After the Qings’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao led more than 1,000 participants of the imperial examination to protest the humiliating terms of the treaty with Japan. In reaction to the Qing’s repeated defeats and humiliations, as well as the inadequacy of the Self-Strengthening Movement, they petitioned for further reforms to strengthen the nation.

After the protest and petition, Liang Qichao was invited to preside over the Shanghai-based newspaper The Chinese Progress. Under Liang, the newspaper developed into the most influential reformist newspaper during the late Qing Dynasty. By embracing the effectiveness of the Western press in disseminating ideas and influencing public opinion, Liang became the first Chinese to use a newspaper as a platform to educate the public and win them over to the reformist cause.

The endeavors of Liang and Kang finally won support for change from the sympathetic emperor Guangxu, who ushered in the Hundred Days of Reform in 1898. The reformers managed to put into effect a nationwide reform program through imperial decrees, seeking to move the Qing empire towards comprehensive and unprecedented institutional change. Suggested changes included streamlining the government, strengthening the armed forces, establishing modern schools, and revamping the 2,000-year-old imperial examination system, just to name a few.

Had the reforms succeeded, China could have entered the modern era without revolutions, like the Meiji Japan. Unfortunately, as its name suggested, it lasted barely over 100 days. Empress Dowager Cixi and her conservative supporters put it to an abrupt end by placing the emperor under permanent house arrest and executing or imprisoning many of the reformers.

Liang narrowly escaped arrest himself and went into exile in Japan, where he pursued an influential career as a writer and publisher and became known as the forefather of Chinese journalism. It was during his stay in Japan that Liang underwent the fundamental transformation from a Confucian intellectual into a modern nationalist.

He abandoned the pre-1898 belief in the Mencian ideal of the “benevolent ruler” and emphasized the need for each individual to assert his rights actively. He concluded that national power depended on each individual’s cultivation of “self-reliance, self-respect and the spirit of independence.” His thoughts were crystalized in the widely circulated 1902 essay Discourse on the New Citizen.

His writings during this period had a far-reaching impact on the minds of educated Chinese. Hu Shi, a leading scholar in the emergence of modern China, attributed the success of the 1911 Revolution, which led to the downfall of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China, first and foremost to Liang Qichao. American journalist Edgar Snow also credited Liang as the “spiritual father” of the 1911 Revolution.

Liang concluded his exile in Japan and returned to China in 1912. Hoping to expand constitutional democracy, he joined the cabinet and sided with Yuan Shikai, President of the Republic of China. However, Yuan was neither republican nor democrat. He viewed the presidency as a steppingstone to the imperial throne. When Yuan attempted to revive the imperial throne and place himself upon it in 1915, Liang organized successful resistance by penning a sensational article in the newspaper.

After 1917, Liang retired from politics and taught at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Later he served several other positions including director of the present-day National Library of China.

During what would be the last decade of his life, he wrote many books documenting Chinese cultural history, Chinese literary history and historiography. He founded the Chinese Lecture Association and brought many intellectual figures to China, including Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and German philosopher Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch.

Liang proposed that evolution in literature hinged upon the transformation of archaic literature into vernacular literature. The new style of writing he advocated gained great popularity, paving the way for the emergence of vernacular Chinese during the May 4th Movement in 1919.

Liang also influenced many of his students in producing their own literary works. They included legendary poet Xu Zhimo and renowned linguist Wang Li, who established linguistics as a modern discipline in China.

As a father, Liang Qichao was committed to the education and development of his children. He believed that education was the key to social progress and instilled this value in his children from a young age. All nine of his children went on to achieve substantial success in their own right. For example, his eldest son Liang Sicheng is widely seen as a master architect who is best known for his work in preserving ancient architecture, including the restoration of the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. He also designed the national emblem of China and the Monument to the People’s Heroes at Tian’anmen Square.

In the 1920s, Liang Qichao’s health began to deteriorate. He suffered from kidney disease and other health problems. In 1926, he was admitted to the Peking Union Medical College Hospital for treatment. The hospital was founded by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1921 and was considered to be one of the best in China at the time. Despite a successful surgery by a top medical team, Liang’s health did not improve. He passed away in 1929 at the age of 56.

In the years that followed, controversy arose regarding Liang Qichao’s death and the role of the hospital. A most widely circulated version accused the hospital of mistreating Liang and causing his death. For instance, American sinologist Wilma Fairbank recorded in her biography of Liang Sicheng titled The Soul of Chinese Architecture, that Liang Qichao had the wrong kidney removed, accusing the hospital of malpractice.

However, despite these accusations, there has been little evidence to suggest that the hospital was responsible for Liang’s death. In 2006, the hospital held a medical record exhibition, where Liang’s medical records were presented along with an article written in English by Liang explaining what had happened in the hospital’s defense. The conclusion was, the surgery performed by the hospital was based on a misjudgment about the cause of his illness, which was a misdiagnosis but not a medical accident.

As a prolific writer and a political activist, Liang Qichao played a crucial role in the advocacy for modernization and social reform in China at the turn of the 20th century. Confronting fundamental social changes, Liang Qichao proposed and attempted to answer crucial questions regarding the relationship between citizens and the nation and the tension between cultural identity and global integration. 

The vision that Liang and other intellectuals of that time had for China was lost in a cloud of world wars and revolutionary forces that forever changed the course of China’s development path. However, his legacy is ever present in the form of continuous public discourse and educational reform, making Liang Qichao both a historical figure and a contemporary one whose influence holds significant importance for issues we confront today.

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Lü Weitao, translator Yang Guang, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.