Zheng Xiaoxu
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Zhèng Xiàoxū (Traditional Chinese: 鄭孝胥; Simplified Chinese 郑孝胥; Wade-Giles: Chêng Hsiao-hsü; 2 April 1860 - 28 March 1938). Chinese statesman, diplomat and calligrapher.
Although Zheng traced his ancestral roots to Minhou, a small town near Fuzhou, he was born in Suzhou in Jiangsu province. In 1882, he obtained the intermediate degree in the imperial examinations, and three years later he joined the secretariat of the prominent statesman Li Hongzhang. In 1891, he was appointed secretary to the Chinese legation in Tokyo, and in the following years he performed consular duties at the Chinese consulates in Tsukiji, Osaka and Kobe respectively. During his tenure in Kobe, he worked closely with the Chinese community and played an instrumental part in establishing the Chinese guild (Zhōnghuá huìguǎn 中華會館) there. In Japan, Zheng also interacted with a number of influential politicians and scholars, such as Ito Hirobumi, Mutsu Munemitsu and Naito Konan.
Following the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese war in 1894, Zheng was forced to leave Japan. Having returned to China, Zheng joined the secretariat of the reformist statesman Zhang Zhidong in Nanjing and followed him to Beijing, where Zheng obtained a position in the Qing foreign office, the Zongli Yamen. Following the abortive Hundred Days' Reform in 1898, Zheng left his post in Beijing and took up a number of important government positions in central and southern China. After the collapse of the imperial system in 1911, Zheng remained loyal to the Qing dynasty and refused to serve under China’s Republican government. Instead he withdrew from political life entirely and retired comfortably in Shanghai, where he devoted his time to calligraphy, poetry and art.
In 1923, the former emperor Puyi summoned Zheng to Beijing in order to reorganize the imperial household. Zheng became a close adviser of Puyi and followed him to Tianjin after his expulsion from the Forbidden City. Zheng remained loyal to the throne and secretly met with Japanese officials and groups such as the Black Dragon Society to discuss a restoration of the Qing dynasty in Manchuria. Following Japan's occupation of the territory in 1931, Zheng played an important role in establishing the puppet state of Manchukuo, becoming its first prime minister the following year. He also composed the lyrics of the national anthem of the Manchukuo. Zheng had hoped that Manchukuo would become a springboard for the restoration of Qing rule in the whole of China, but he soon found out that the real rulers of Manchukuo, the Japanese Kwantung Army, did not share his ambitions. In 1935, he resigned from his office and three years later he died suddenly under unclear circumstances.
Although Zheng Xiaoxu is mostly remembered for his collaboration with the Japanese, he is still recognized as an accomplished poet and calligrapher. Zheng kept an extensive diary, which is still valued by historians as important source material.
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- Aisin-Gioro Puyi. From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi. Translated by W. J. F. Jenner. Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 2002. ISBN 7-119-00772-6.
- Boorman, Howard L., Richard C. Howard, and Joseph K. H. Cheng, eds. Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967.
