Scholars › Philosopher / Thinker
Liang Qichao
Reformer and journalist from Xinhui who worked with Kang Youwei in the reforms of 1898 and, in exile in Japan, edited the New Citizen journal
Mural of the event “Hundred Days' Reform”, which this person took part in.
Defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War ignited the imperialist scramble for concessions; Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao mobilized scholars in the 'Gongche Petition' demanding radical reform.
Also known as Zi Zhuoru · Haoren Gong
Liang Qichao, courtesy name Zhuoru, styled Rengong, came from Xinhui in Guangdong. He passed the provincial examination in 1889 and the next year became a pupil of Kang Youwei. In 1895 he joined Kang's petition of examination candidates against the peace terms with Japan, and from 1896 he edited the reformist Shiwu bao in Shanghai. During the reforms of 1898 he was put in charge of a translation bureau; after the coup he fled to Japan and in Yokohama founded the Qingyi bao and then the New Citizen journal (Xinmin congbao). Back home in 1912, he served as minister of justice and later of finance, wrote against Yuan Shikai's plan to become emperor in 1915 and helped Cai E organize the National Protection campaign. In his last years he taught at the Tsinghua research institute, and he died in Beijing in January 1929. Lin Zhijun's edition of his works, Yinbingshi heji, was published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1936.
Life and times
- 1873 CEBorn
Qing
Republican Era - 1898Hundred Days' Reform
Took partage 25Hundred Days of institutional reform, founding Peking University and awakening modern constitutionalism.- Hundred Days' Reform (1898 CE)Guangxu's Hundred Days' Reform & Martyrdom of Six Gentlemen
- Hundred Days' Reform (1898 CE)
- 1929 CEDied
Works
Literature · Sayings7- Many Days Lie AheadQingIdiom closing Liang Qichao's Ode to Young China: there is time ahead, said in encouragement
- A Future as Boundless as the SeaQingFamous line from Liang Qichao's Ode to Young China: a future vast as the ocean
- Devoted to One's Work, Happy Among CompanionsQingIdiom from the Book of Rites, revived by Liang Qichao: respect your work, enjoy your colleagues
- Snapping Off a Stanza to Suit One's PurposeQingIdiom used by Liang Qichao in On Respect for Work: quoting words out of their context
- Well Fed All Day, With a Mind Set on NothingQingIdiom quoted by Liang Qichao from the Analects: idle days with the mind on nothing
+2 more
- Full-Fed All Day with Nothing on One's MindQingIdiom from the Analects, quoted by Liang Qichao in his talk on dedication to work
- Doing What One Knows Cannot Be Done: Tan Sitong's Last DaysQingIdiom in Liang Qichao's life of Tan Sitong: striving on though success is impossible
- Literature · Prose5
- Ode to Young ChinaQingLiang Qichao's 1900 essay rejecting China as a senile empire and placing its hope in the young
- Biography of Tan SitongQingLiang Qichao's 1899 life of Tan Sitong, one of the Six Gentlemen executed after the 1898 coup
- Collected Works from the Ice-Drinker's StudioQingLiang Qichao's collected essays and monographs, edited by Lin Zhijun and published in 1936
- Collected Works from the Ice-Drinker's Studio: Respect for Work and Joy in WorkQing
- Collected Works from the Ice-Drinker's Studio: Respect for Work and Joy in Work (excerpt)Qing
Family tree
- Direct kin
Liang QichaoSecond son
