Tang Shouqian (July 3, 1856 — June 6, 1917), courtesy name Zhexian (also written Zhexian), commonly known as Tang Zhe Lao, was a native of Tianle Township, Shanyin County, Zhejiang Province (present-day Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou), with ancestral origins in (present-day Fuzhou). Tang Shouqian was an industrialist and political activist of the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China. In his early years he engaged in the Reform Movement and the Constitutionalist Movement. In his later years, he led the Zhejiang Railway Company in successfully opposing the Qing government's sale of railway rights during the Railway Protection Movement, and briefly led the Zhejiang revolutionary government during the Xinhai Revolution, serving as the first Military Governor of Zhejiang. Zhang Jian praised him as one "long celebrated for his knowledge of current affairs, and later renowned for his work on railways".
Life
Early life Tang Shouqian was born on 3 July 1856 in the Tang family ancestral home in Datangwu Village, Tianle Township, Shanyin County, Shaoxing Prefecture, Zhejiang Province (present-day Jinhua Town, Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou). His original given name was Dengying 登瀛, his childhood name was Bingseng 丙僧, and his courtesy name was Xiaoqi 孝起 or alternatively Yixian 翼仙; he later changed his courtesy name to Zhexian 蛰先 or Zhexian 蛰仙, his academic name was Tang Zhen 汤震, and after passing the provincial examinations he changed his given name to Shouqian 寿潜. His father, Tang Peien, had served as a private secretary (shiye) in Zhouzhi County and Wugong County, Shaanxi, before returning home to work as a private tutor. Tang Shouqian entered the local school at age six, studying under Mr. Tang Yangshan and learning the Four Books and Five Classics. At eighteen he went to study in the provincial capital Hangzhou, and the following year married a woman surnamed Ye; a year after the marriage their eldest son was born. He failed the provincial examination in the fifth year of the Guangxu reign, placing fourth on the supplementary list. In 1886, the twelfth year of the Guangxu reign, he became a private secretary to Zhang Yao, Governor of Shandong. At the time the Yellow River floods were occurring, and Tang Shouqian devoted himself to investigating the Yellow River's water systems, consulting with waterworks labourers and elderly locals wherever he went, and advising Zhang Yao on river management. In the fourteenth year of Guangxu, he passed the provincial examinations, placing sixth on the main list; the following year he obtained the position of Grand Secretariat Secretary and met his lifelong friend Zhang Jian.
In April 1890, the sixteenth year of the Guangxu reign, Tang Shouqian published Dangerous Words (Wei Yan). In this work, he advocated relocating the capital to Chang'an, establishing a parliament, abolishing the Eight Banners, and building railways. The work was warmly received by society, went through multiple printings, and was said by contemporaries to compare favourably with Tang Zhen and Feng Guifen; Weng Tonghe also recommended the book to the Guangxu Emperor. That same year, he left Zhang Yao's service in Shandong and travelled north to sit the metropolitan examinations; after failing, he went to Shanghai and led a group of examination candidates in studying statecraft. In 1892, the eighteenth year of the Guangxu reign, he passed the imperial examinations and was selected as a Hanlin Academy Shujishi.Veritable Records of the Qing Emperor Guangxu, Volume 311: The 18th year of the Guangxu reign, Renchen. The first day of the month, Wuwu.... ○ An audience was held with the newly selected jinshi. By imperial decree: ...Tu Ji, Tang Shouqian, Wu Quancui...were all appointed as Hanlin Academy Shujishi. After three years, his term expired; he was initially appointed as magistrate of Xiangning County, Shanxi, but requested a transfer closer to home to care for his parents and was reassigned to Qingyang County, Anhui in the neighbouring province.Veritable Records of the Qing Emperor Guangxu, Volume 339: The 20th year of the Guangxu reign. Jiawu. Fourth month, Guihai. ...○ An audience was held with candidates from the Renchen examination who had completed their training at the Academy. By imperial decree: ...Chen Shupei, Zhou Xueming, Gao Xihua, Zhou Songsheng, Tang Youzhen, Liu Runheng, Yang Jiekang, Wang Degang, Zhong Dachun, Wu Yanxu, Fan Dequan, Wu Liangfen, Chen Xixian, Li Shuhan, Wang Dianjia, Du Binyu, Zhao Guotai, Ding Changyan, Li Pengfei, Yan Xie, Yin Changling, Tang Shouqian—all to be appointed as county magistrates at the first opportunity. Before taking up his post, on 18 March, Weng Tonghe summoned Tang Shouqian for a heart-to-heart conversation; Weng wrote in his diary that Tang Shouqian "would surely be a good official". In April, Kang Youwei launched the Memorial of the Examination Candidates, and the reformist faction began to organise nationally. Tang Shouqian served as magistrate for only three months before resigning to return home to care for his ailing parents; he then went to the Lizheng Academy in Jinhua (present-day Jinhua No. 1 High School) to serve as headmaster, promoting education in "practical learning"; many of his students later participated in the Xinhai Revolution. That same year, Tang Shouqian joined the Self-Strengthening Society (张曜幕友) organised by Kang Youwei, together with Zhang Jian. During the Hundred Days' Reform of 1898, Tang Shouqian was serving as a private secretary at the yamen of Zhejiang Governor Liao Shouheng; the Guangxu Emperor twice issued edicts (in May and July) instructing Liao Shouheng to summon Tang Shouqian, but Tang Shouqian each time pleaded his mother's serious illness as a reason to delay. In September, Cixi launched a coup and overturned the reforms, and the matter came to nothing.
After the failure of the reform movement, Tang Shouqian devoted most of his time to lecturing and writing, serving successively as headmaster of the Xunxi Academy in Huzhou and the Longmen Academy (present-day Shanghai High School) in Shanghai, and compiling works including Wuxue Zhishi Wenbian and Santong Kao Jiyao. In 1900, the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, during the Eight-Power Allied Forces' invasion of China and the occupation of Beijing and Tianjin, Tang Shouqian and his friend Zhang Jian jointly proposed the concept of the "Southeast Mutual Protection" among the governors-general of the southeastern provinces. In May, before the Qing government had declared war on the foreign powers, Tang Shouqian had already travelled to Nanjing to lobby for mutual protection; on 18 June he again went with Zhang Jian to Nanjing to lobby Liu Kunyi, Governor-General of Liangjiang. Later, the Qing court, recognising his contributions to the Southeast Mutual Protection and his fame from Dangerous Words, appointed him as Salt Transport Commissioner of the Two Huai region; Tang Shouqian again declined citing his mother's illness. In 1903, the twenty-ninth year of Guangxu, the Su Bao case broke out; since Cai Yuanpei was closely associated with the newspaper Su Bao, and Tang Shouqian was Cai's fellow provincial and close friend, Tang Shouqian strongly urged Cai Yuanpei to go to Europe to avoid trouble before the case erupted, thereby saving Cai from involvement.
The Zhejiang Railway Dispute After the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the imperialist powers launched a scramble to carve up China, plundering Chinese railway and mineral rights. Local populations across the country demanded the recovery of rights. In 1898, the Qing government pledged the Hu-Hang-Yong Railway to Britain, and a preliminary agreement was signed, though a formal contract was never concluded. In 1905, an American merchant named Beitz, intimidated by the wave of railway protection agitation surrounding the Guanghan Railway, sought instead to acquire the Zhe-Gan Railway. At the time, Tang Shouqian was in Shanghai collaborating with Zhang Jian and Xu Dinglin to establish the Dada Steamship Company. On 29 March, the American merchant Beitz hosted a tea reception in Shanghai inviting Zhejiang merchants and gentry; at the gathering, Tang Shouqian was furious upon hearing of the Americans' designs on the Zhe-Gan Railway, immediately refused to cooperate with the Americans, and subsequently joined Xia Zengyou and Zhang Yuanji in calling on Zhejiang residents in Shanghai to establish a railway company. In July, the Zhejiang Railway Company was established, with Tang Shouqian as company director-general; after receiving approval from the Qing government's Ministry of Commerce and Agriculture, the imperial court issued an edict ordering Sheng Xuanhuai to recover the Su-Hang-Yong Railway rights that had already been sold—but Sheng Xuanhuai outwardly complied while inwardly resisting. In August, Tang Shouqian joined Zhang Jian, Xia Zengyou, Zhang Yuanji, and others in mobilising the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce to call for a boycott of American goods. In 1906, the Zhejiang Railway Company began constructing the Su-Hang-Yong Railway, but even as construction was underway, the Qing government, under British pressure, again sold the railway rights—using the pretext of borrowing from Britain to loan funds to the Zhejiang Railway Company, while in fact attempting to pledge the self-financed Zhejiang railway to Britain. Tang Shouqian and all staff of the Zhejiang Railway Company were unable to accept this, and organised the "Zhejiang Citizens' Loan Rejection Association" to oppose Qing government interference in the Zhejiang Railway. In 1907, Foreign Ministry official Wang Daxie proposed separating the borrowing and construction matters, suggesting maintaining the Zhejiang Railway construction programme while changing the funding source from self-raised capital to a British loan. The Zhejiang Railway Company voted to organise a loan rejection association in resistance; revolutionary party members also participated and organised suicide squads, and the situation in Jiangsu and Zhejiang took on the character of a rebellion. As the completion of the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway drew near, Tang Shouqian and Chen Sanli prepared a Chinese merchant-operated railway company and appealed for the southeastern provinces to jointly build railways, travelling to Shantou and Guangzhou to promote the idea. In 1908, the Qing government appointed the rights-selling Sheng Xuanhuai as head of the Ministry of Posts and Communications; Sheng issued orders to ban the loan rejection association, secretly moved troops to attempt to suppress the Zhejiang railway agitation, forced the Zhejiang and Jiangsu railways to accept the loans, and simultaneously established the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Railway Bureau to try to marginalise the Zhejiang and Jiangsu railway companies. In response to the court's repeated attempts to impose loans, Tang Shouqian sent a public telegram in the name of the Zhejiang Railway Company expressing opposition, and directly attacked Wang Daxie, Sheng Xuanhuai, and Yuan Shikai behind them, opposing the Qing court's employment of these men. The Qing government viewed him as a thorn in its side, appointing Tang Shouqian as Provincial Judge of Yunnan and Superintendent of Education of Jiangxi in attempts to remove him from the Zhejiang Railway, but Tang Shouqian consistently refused.