Mao Zuquan (; 1883–1952) was a Chinese politician and jurist of the Republic of China. He served in the early republican parliament, became an alternate member of the Kuomintang (KMT) Central Executive Committee in 1924, and participated in the 1925 Western Hills Conference. He later held senior posts in the Nationalist government, including president of the Administrative Court from 1933 to 1943 and secretary-general of the Judicial Yuan from 1943.
Early life and parliamentary career Mao was from Haimen, Jiangsu. A 1931 biographical directory gives his courtesy name as Qizao (祺藻), while a later Chinese biographical database records Yongxun (泳熏). The 1931 directory also records that he had served as a member of the House of Representatives and as a member of the Jiangsu provincial government and director of its Civil Affairs Department.
In 1912, Mao and Shen Jing helped organize a local Kuomintang branch in Haimen, according to a study by the Nantong Haimen District Zhang Jian Research Association.
Later Chinese biographical references state that he studied in Japan, joined the Tongmenghui, and sat in the House of Representatives when the first parliament convened in 1913. On 19 February 1915, Mao was appointed chief of the general-affairs section of the Jiangsu branch of the Chinese Revolutionary Party. The biographical references also list him as a member when parliament was restored in 1916 and 1922, and as a member of the Extraordinary Parliament in Guangzhou during the Constitutional Protection Movement in 1917. A Sun Yat-sen historical database independently identifies Mao among the Jiangsu legislators who attended the Extraordinary Parliament in Guangzhou.
Government appointment records show that Mao was named an adviser to the Grand Marshal's Headquarters in September 1917 and an adviser to Sun Yat-sen's military headquarters on 28 February 1924.
Kuomintang political career In September 1922, Sun Yat-sen appointed Mao to a nine-member committee charged with drafting plans to reorganize party affairs. An Academia Historica chronicle records that the committee met for about six weeks and prepared drafts of a party platform and general charter that were reviewed before the KMT issued its reform declaration on 1 January 1923.
On 21 January 1923, Sun appointed Mao deputy director of the KMT headquarters' Propaganda Department.
At the First National Congress of the Kuomintang in January 1924, Mao was elected an alternate member of the Central Executive Committee. On 22 January, the congress also appointed him to the committee that reviewed the party constitution; the surviving meeting record lists him among nineteen members of that committee. He subsequently headed the Investigation Department of the KMT's Shanghai Executive Bureau.
From 23 November to 2 December 1925, Mao participated in the Western Hills Conference at Western Hills in Beijing. The conference opposed the KMT's alliance with the Chinese Communist Party and established a rival party organization in Shanghai. Taiwan's National Library of Public Information identifies Mao as one of fourteen principal participants, alongside Lin Sen, Ju Zheng, Zou Lu, Zhang Ji, and others. A separate account by the Chinese Communist Party's Institute of Party History and Literature records that the conference adopted resolutions removing Communist Party members from the KMT, dismissing Soviet adviser Mikhail Borodin, and expelling Wang Jingwei from the party. The KMT's Second National Congress censured the conference participants in January 1926. By the KMT's Third National Congress in 1929, Mao's party membership had been restored.
In 1930, during the Central Plains War, Mao joined the anti-Chiang Kai-shek coalition. Chinese KMT reference works list him among participants in the preparatory meetings for the Enlarged Conference of the KMT Central Party Headquarters and as a member of its provisional-constitution drafting committee. The conference created a rival party and governmental organization in Beiping, but it collapsed after Zhang Xueliang intervened in support of Chiang in September 1930.
Government and judicial career Official appointment records date Mao's service as a member of the Jiangsu provincial government and director of its Civil Affairs Department from 1 November 1927 to 7 November 1928. He was appointed to the Public Functionaries Disciplinary Sanctions Commission on 6 April 1932 and transferred to other duties on 18 July 1933.
Mao was appointed president of the Administrative Court on 2 June 1933 and, on 18 August, was additionally appointed a presiding judge. A surviving Judicial Yuan file records his report that he had assumed office on schedule and that the court had formally begun operations; the file also documents an occasion on which presiding judge Yu Enbo served as acting president during Mao's absence. Mao left the presidency on 18 February 1943, when he was appointed secretary-general of the Judicial Yuan. One KMT reference work lists a later return to the presidency in 1947, but the official appointment data compiled by National Chengchi University records Zhang Zhiben as president from February 1943 until April 1949.
On 1 January 1944, Mao received the second class of the Order of Brilliant Star. In September 1946, while serving as Judicial Yuan secretary-general, he received members of the Taiwan Retrocession Tribute Group. Historian Hsu Hsueh-chi records that the delegation raised the treatment of Taiwanese accused as collaborators or war criminals, and that Mao agreed to convey their concerns. When asked about Japanese suspects who had already been repatriated, Mao replied that prosecutors may have been negligent and that the suspects could still be detained again if their crimes were established. In 1948, he was appointed a national policy adviser to the president.
Later life and death Mao remained in mainland China after the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan. An archived Chinese biographical database states that he was arrested in Shanghai in 1950 and died from illness while imprisoned in 1952, aged 69. A separate biographical index independently gives his lifespan as 1883–1952.
Personal life, family and legacy
Religious historian David A. Palmer identifies Mao as a disciple of Xiao Changming, founder of the Society for the Study of Religious Philosophy, which combined an academic approach to religion with meditation and spiritual-healing practices. Drawing on accounts preserved by the movement's followers, Palmer also records that Mao, Wang Zhennan, and Yu Youren attended rituals conducted by Xiao after Chiang Kai-shek's release in the Xi'an Incident.
Official files concerning Mao's presidency of the Administrative Court are preserved by Academia Historica, including records of the court's formal opening and an acting appointment made during his absence.
His youngest son, Sheng-taur "S. T." Mau (茅聲燾; 1943–2024), was a civil-engineering scholar. He chaired the civil-engineering department at National Taiwan University, later served as dean of engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and California State University, Northridge, and conducted research in earthquake engineering and dam safety. The National Taiwan University obituary identifies Mao Zuquan and Liu Guilan as his parents and states that he was the youngest of six children. The family later spanned mainland China, Taiwan, and the United States. Sheng-taur was born in wartime Chongqing, grew up and studied in Taiwan, and moved to the United States in 1968; he returned to Taiwan to teach in 1973 before settling permanently in the United States in 1984.. His remaining descendants reside in Los Angeles, California and Houston, Texas.
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