Chang Chih-tung
Chang Chih-tung
(jäng` jûr`-do͝ong`), 1837–1909, Chinese Ch'ing dynasty statesman and educational reformer. He occupied the high post of governor-general for over two decades, first of Guangdong and Guangxi provs. (1884–89), and later of Hunan and Hubei provs. (1889–1907). In that position he vigorously pressed the late Ch'ing self-strengthening program, establishing an arsenal, iron- and steelworks, military and naval academies, and schools of mining, agriculture, commerce, and industry. Chang encouraged the early reform movement between 1895 and 1898 (see K'ang Yu-weiK'ang Yu-wei, 1858–1927, Chinese philosopher and reform movement leader. He was a leading philosopher of the new text school of Confucianism, which regarded Confucius as a utopian political reformer.
..... Click the link for more information. ), advocating a balance between study of the Chinese heritage and adoption of Western scientific and technical knowledge. In the end, however, he supported the coup of Empress Dowager Tz'u HsiTz'u Hsi,
Tsu Hsi,
Tse Hsi,
or Cixi
, 1834–1908, dowager empress of China (1861–1908) and regent (1861–73, 1874–89, 1898–1908).
..... Click the link for more information. against the Hundred Days' Reform (1898), convinced that K'ang was surrendering too much to Western culture. After the disastrous Boxer Uprising he urged radical educational change, including a public school system from kindergarten to university and abolition of the traditional civil service Chinese examination systemChinese examination system,
civil service recruitment method and educational system employed from the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 220) until it was abolished by the Ch'ing dowager empress Tz'u Hsi in 1905 under pressure from leading Chinese intellectuals.
..... Click the link for more information. . He was appointed (1907) head of the new ministry of education.
Bibliography
See W. Ayers, Chang Chih-tung and Educational Reform in China (1971).
Chang Chih-Tung
Born Sept. 2,1837, in Nanp’i Prefecture, Chihli Province; died Oct. 5, 1909, in Peking. Chinese state figure.
Chang Chih-tung was governor-general of Kwangtung-Kwangsi from 1884 to 1889 and of Hupeh-Hunan from 1889 to 1907; from November 1894 to February 1896 he served as governor-general in Nanking. In 1907 he became a member of the supreme ruling body, the Military Council, in Peking. He advocated moderate bourgeois reforms of the Chinese economy, political system, and culture. Chang Chih-tung opened a number of modern industrial plants in Wuhan, Nanking, and Canton. In the same cities he also founded several general-education schools and military academic institutions similar to those in Europe.