Zhang Baixi

Also known as Zi Yeqiu · Qian Zhai

Zhang Baixi, courtesy name Yeqiu, styled Qianzhai, came from Changsha in Hunan and passed the metropolitan examination in 1874. He served repeatedly as provincial examiner and education commissioner and held posts in Beijing as subchancellor and vice minister of rites. Late in 1901 he was named minister in charge of education and charged with reopening the Imperial University, closed during the Boxer crisis, and the next year he drafted the first national school regulations, known as the Renyin system. In 1903 he revised them with Zhang Zhidong and Rongqing, and the new code issued the next year became the Guimao school system. He went on to head the Boards of Revenue and of Posts and Communications and died in 1907 with the posthumous name Wenda; both Peking University and Beijing Normal University count him among their founders.