Ministers › Provincial Governors
Duanfang
Manchu reformer and collector who toured abroad to study constitutions in 1905, governed Liangjiang and Zhili and was killed by his own mutinous troops in Sichuan in 1911
A walled hilltop city with a tall brick gate tower stands above a pine-covered cliff, its wall running along the ridge, while a long wooden bridge crosses a wide river below and plains, islets and layered mountains stretch into the distance, with no person in view.
Also known as Zi Wuqiao · Hao Taozhai
- Roles
- Provincial Governors
Duanfang, of the Tohoro clan, courtesy name Wuqiao, styled Taozhai, belonged to the Manchu Plain White Banner and passed the provincial examination in 1882. He served as provincial judge of Shaanxi and governor of Hubei and of Hunan, founding modern schools in Hubei and opening a kindergarten in Wuchang. In 1905 he was one of the five ministers sent abroad to study constitutional government, and on his return he became governor-general of Liangjiang; transferred to Zhili in 1909, he was dismissed the same year after being impeached for having photographs taken along the route of Cixi's funeral procession. Recalled in 1911 to direct the Sichuan-Hankou and Canton-Hankou railways, he led Hubei troops into Sichuan to deal with the railway protests, and in November, at Zizhou, his soldiers mutinied and killed him. A major collector of bronzes, inscriptions and paintings, he published his bronzes in Taozhai jijin lu.
Life and times
Dates 1861 CE–1911 CE