Wu Ting-fang

{{Short description|Premier of the Republic of China (1842–1922)}} {{EngvarB|date=June 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Wu Ting-fang | honorific_suffix = [[Justice of the peace|JP]] | native_name = {{nobold|伍廷芳}} | native_name_lang = zh | image = Wu Tingfang by Gutekunst 1902 (cropped).jpg | image_size = | caption = Wu in 1902 | order = [[Premier of the Republic of China|Premier of China]] | term_label = Acting | president = [[Li Yuanhong]] [[Feng Guozhang]] (acting) | term_start = 23 May 1917 | term_end = 12 June 1917 | predecessor = [[Duan Qirui]] | successor = [[Jiang Chaozong]] (acting) | office1 = [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Republic of China)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]] | term_start1 = 1921 | term_end1 = 1922 | predecessor1 = [[Lu Zhengxiang]] | successor1 = [[Wang Daxie]] | office2 = [[List of ambassadors of China to the United States|Chinese Ambassador to the United States]] | term_start2 = 8 March 1908 | term_end2 = 12 August 1909 | monarch2 = [[Guangxu Emperor]] [[Xuantong Emperor]] | predecessor2 = [[Zhou Ziqi]] | successor2 = Zhang Yintang | term_start3 = 23 November 1896 | term_end3 = 12 July 1902 | monarch3 = Guangxu Emperor | predecessor3 = Yang Yu | successor3 = [[Liang Cheng]] | office4 = Chinese Unofficial Member of the [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong]] | appointer4 = [[Sir John Pope Hennessy]] | term4 = 1880–1882 | birth_date = 30 July 1842 | birth_place = [[Malacca]], [[Straits Settlements]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1922|06|23|1842|07|30}} | death_place = [[Canton (Guangzhou)|Canton]], [[Guangdong]], [[Republic of China (1912-1949)|Republic of China]] | party = [[Republican Party (China)|Republican Party]] [[Progressive Party (China)|Progressive Party]] | children = [[Wu Chaoshu]] | occupation = Calligrapher, diplomat, politician, writer | alma_mater = [[St. Paul's College, Hong Kong|St. Paul's College]] [[Lincoln's Inn]] | profession = Lawyer | awards = [[Order of Rank and Merit]]<ref name="Wu Ting-fang Ng Choy, Geni.com">Wu Ting-fang Ng Choy, Geni.com|</ref> [[Order of the Precious Brilliant Golden Grain]]<ref name="Wu Ting-fang Ng Choy, Geni.com">Wu Ting-fang Ng Choy, Geni.com|</ref> [[Order of the Rising Sun]].<ref name="Wu Ting-fang Ng Choy, Geni.com">Wu Ting-fang Ng Choy, Geni.com|</ref> }} {{Infobox Chinese | c = 伍廷芳 | p = Wǔ Tíngfāng | w = Wu3 T'ing2-fang1 | mi = {{IPAc-cmn|wu|3|-|t|ing|2|f|ang|1}} | y = Ng Tìhngfōng | j = Ng5 Ting4-fong1 | ci = {{IPAc-yue|ng|5|-|t|ing|4|f|ong|1}} | altname = Ng Choy | c2 = 伍才 | p2 = Wǔ Cái | w2 = Wu3 Ts'ai2 | y2 = Ng Chói | j2 = Ng5 coi4 }} [[File:Ng Choy (LegCo).jpg|thumb|Wu as a barrister]] [[File:Wu-Ting Fang (LOC).jpg|thumb|Wu c. 1908]]

'''Wu Ting-fang''' ({{zh|c=伍廷芳}}; 30 July 1842{{snd}}23 June 1922) was a Chinese calligrapher, diplomat, lawyer, politician, and writer who served as [[Minister of Foreign Affairs]] and briefly as Acting [[Premier of the Republic of China|Premier]] during the early years of the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]. He was also known as '''Ng Choy''' or '''Ng Achoy'''<ref name="LincolnsInn">{{cite web |title=Wu Ting Fang |url=https://www.lincolnsinn.org.uk/images/word/Library/WuTingFang.pdf |publisher=[[Lincoln's Inn]] |access-date=24 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621115850/https://www.lincolnsinn.org.uk/images/word/Library/WuTingFang.pdf |archive-date=21 June 2018}}</ref> ({{zh|c=伍才|p=Wǔ Cái}}).

==Education and career in Hong Kong== {{Refimprove|section|date=January 2023}}

Wu was born in the [[Straits Settlement]], now modern-day [[Malacca]], in 1842 and was sent to China in 1846 to be schooled.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thechinastory.org/ritp/wu-ting-fang-%E4%BC%8D%E5%BB%B7%E8%8A%B3/|title=Wu Ting-fang 伍廷芳|publisher=TheChinaStory.org|access-date=25 March 2017|archive-date=21 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021201424/http://www.thechinastory.org/ritp/wu-ting-fang-%E4%BC%8D%E5%BB%B7%E8%8A%B3/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He studied at the [[Anglican Church|Anglican]] [[St. Paul's College, Hong Kong|St. Paul's College]], in Hong Kong where he learned to read and write in English. After serving as an interpreter in the Magistrate's Court from 1861 to 1874,<ref>http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4401147.pdf. Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils in Hong Kong up to 1941, T C Cheng</ref> he married [[Ho Miu-ling]] (sister of Sir [[Kai Ho]]) in 1864.<ref>{{cite book |last=Judge |first=Joan |date=2015 |title=Republican Lens: Gender, Visuality, and Experience in the Early Chinese Periodical Press |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Republican_Lens/5jolDQAAQBAJ |publisher=University of California Press |page=52 |isbn=978-0520284364}}</ref>

He studied law in the United Kingdom and was [[called to the bar]] at [[Lincoln's Inn]] (1876). Wu became the first ethnic Chinese [[barrister]] in history. He returned to Hong Kong in 1877 to practise law. He was admitted as a [[barrister]] in Hong Kong in a ceremony that May before Chief Justice [[John Jackson Smale|John Smale]] who observed:

<blockquote>I am glad to see a Chinaman running in the race the most highly intellectual in the world. I am glad to see that a Chinaman ... has become a member of the English Bar. In England, every office becomes open to talent without favour or affection. A distinguished American statesman {{bracket|[[Judah P. Benjamin]]}} has become, and now is an ornament of the English bar, and all the Bar will gladly hail the time when a Chinaman shall distinguish himself as much as the eminent counsel to whom I refer. I have seen stranger things happen.<ref name=Norton>{{cite book|title=History of the Laws and Courts of Hong Kong|last=Norton-Kyshe|first=James William|date=1898|publisher=T Fisher Unwin|place=London|volume=II}}</ref>{{rp|262}} </blockquote> In 1880, Wu became the first ethnic Chinese [[Unofficial member]] of the [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong]]<ref name= Norton />{{rp|297}} and was appointed acting Police Magistrate.<ref name= Norton />{{rp|303}}

==Service under the Qing dynasty== [[File:Chinese minister Wu Tingfang being interviewed by Marguerite Martyn, 1909.jpg|thumb|Journalist [[Marguerite Martyn]] illustrates her interview in [[Washington, D.C.]], with Wu, retiring minister from China to the United States. From the ''[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]'' of October 24, 1909.]] He served under the [[Qing dynasty]] as [[Minister (diplomacy)|Minister]] to the United States, Spain, and [[Peru]] from 1896 to 1902 and from 1907 to 1909, having started out as legal adviser and interpreter to powerful diplomat and viceroy [[Li Hongzhang]].<ref name=Norton />{{rp|491}} As the minister, he lectured widely about [[Culture of China|Chinese culture]] and [[Chinese history|history]], in part working to counter discrimination against Chinese emigrants by increasing foreign appreciation of their background.<ref name="wong1995">Wong, K. Scott. (1995) Chinatown: conflicting images, contested terrain. ''MELUS'' 20(1):3–15.</ref> To further this end, he wrote ''America, Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat'' in English in 1914.<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/609 Wu Tingfang, ''America, Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat'' Stokes (1914)]; Bastian Books (2008) {{ISBN|0-554-32616-7}}</ref>

Wu is mentioned several times in the diaries of Sir [[Ernest Satow]] who was British Envoy in China, 1900–06. For example, on 21 November 1903: "Wu Tingfang came in the afternoon, and stopped talking for an hour and a half about his [[Commercial code (law)|commercial code]] and connected subjects. His idea is to draft also a new [[criminal code]], and put both into force at the outset in the open ports."<ref name="ruxton2006">Ian Ruxton, ed. ''The Diaries of [[Sir Ernest Satow]], British Envoy in Peking (1900–06)'', Lulu Press Inc., April 2006 {{ISBN|978-1-4116-8804-9}} (Volume One, 1900–03, p. 389)</ref>

Wu had an opportunity to implement his ideas about Chinese law reform between 1903 and 1906, when he (together with [[Shen Jiaben]]) were put in charge of reforming the Qing imperial code. His efforts included modernising the criminal code and abolishing inhumane methods of capital punishment such as [[Lingchi|death by a thousand cuts]], decapitation and [[posthumous execution]], and use of [[torture]] in interrogations. He also reformed the governmental structure for the administration of justice, ending the traditional combined approach. Sun Yat-sen praised Wu's contributions, saying that he began a "new epoch" for Chinese criminal law.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://knews.cc/zh-tw/history/vr422.html |title=Knews.cc |website=knews.cc |access-date=6 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328231410/https://knews.cc/zh-tw/history/vr422.html |archive-date=28 March 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In an interview with American journalist [[Marguerite Martyn]], Wu Tingfang argued in favor of [[women's suffrage]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Martyn|first=Marguerite|author-link=Marguerite Martyn|title=Wu Ting Fang tells Marguerite Martyn why the American woman should vote|newspaper=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]|place=[[St. Louis, Missouri]]|date=1909-10-11|page=1B}} - [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96354628/ Clipping] from [[Newspapers.com]].</ref>

==Service post Xinhai Revolution== He supported the [[Xinhai Revolution]] of 1911 and negotiated on the revolutionaries' behalf in Shanghai. He served briefly in early 1912 as Minister of Justice for the [[Nanjing]] Provisional Government, where he argued strongly for an [[independent judiciary]], based on his experience studying law and travelling overseas.<ref name="xu1997">Xu Xiaoqun. (1997) The fate of judicial independence in Republican China, 1912–37. ''The China Quarterly'' 149:1–28.</ref> After this brief posting, Wu became Minister of Foreign Affairs for the ROC. He served briefly in 1917 as Acting Premier of the Republic of China.

He joined [[Sun Yat-sen]]'s [[Constitutional Protection Movement]] and became a member of its governing committee. He advised Sun against becoming the "extraordinary president" but stuck with Sun after the election. He then served as Sun's foreign minister and as acting president when Sun was absent. He died shortly after [[Chen Jiongming]] rebelled against Sun in 1922.

==Vegetarianism==

Wu was a vegetarian who consumed eggs and milk ([[Ovo-lacto vegetarianism|ovo-lacto vegetarian]]).<ref>[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1908-05-05/ed-1/seq-7/ ''Wu Ting-Fang, Vegetarian'']. ''[[The Sun (New York City)|The Sun]]'' (5 May 1908).</ref><ref>[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015415/1911-11-24/ed-1/seq-9/ ''How Wu Ting Fang "Saturated" Some of His American Friends'']. ''The Hawaiian Star'' (24 November 1911).</ref><ref name="Liande 1959">Wu, Liande; Wu, Lien-tê. (1959). ''Plague Fighter: The Autobiography of a Modern Chinese Physician''. W. Heffer. p. 274. "Dr. Wu Ting-Fang was a strict vegetarian though he believed in the taking of milk and eggs and always said that he would live for 120 years."</ref> He believed that a non-flesh diet would prolong his life and he would live over a hundred years.<ref>Keith, M. Helen. (1916). [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31210000211043&view=1up&seq=366 ''Is Vegetarianism Based on Sound Science?'']. ''[[Scientific American]]'' 82: 358-359.</ref> Wu abstained from alcohol and tobacco after reading [[Mary Foote Henderson]]'s book ''The Aristocracy of Health''.<ref>Benedict, Carol. (2011). ''Golden-Silk Smoke: A History of Tobacco in China, 1550–2010''. University of California Press. p. 285. {{ISBN|978-0-520-26277-5}}</ref><ref>Wilson, Brian C. (2014). ''Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and the Religion of Biologic Living''. Indiana University Press. p. 103. {{ISBN|978-0-253-01447-4}}</ref> He gave speeches on vegetarianism and authored an article "How I Expect to Live Long", published in November 1909 for the ''[[Ladies' Home Journal]]''.<ref name="Pomerantz-Zhang 1992">Pomerantz-Zhang, Linda. (1992). ''Wu Tingfang (1842-1922): Reform and Modernization in Modern Chinese History''. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 183-190. {{ISBN|978-9622092877}}</ref>

Wu founded the Rational Diet Society in Shanghai, also known as the Society for Cautious Diet and Hygiene (Shenshi Weisheng Hui) with [[Li Shizeng]] in September, 1910.<ref name="Pomerantz-Zhang 1992"/><ref name="Lee 2015">Seung-Joon, Lee. (2015). ''The Patriot's Scientific Diet: Nutrition Science and Dietary Reform Campaigns in China, 1910s-1950s''. ''[[Modern Asian Studies]]'' 49 (6): 1-32.</ref><ref name="Leung 2019">Leung, Angela Ki Che; Caldwell, Melissa L. (2019). ''Moral Foods: The Construction of Nutrition and Health in Modern Asia''. University of Hawai'i Press. p. 227. {{ISBN|978-0824876708}}</ref> It was the first vegetarian organization in Shanghai and had about 300 members. The society met at Wu's residence for lectures on the dangers of [[Alcohol (drug)|alcohol]], [[Ethics of eating meat|meat-eating]] and [[tobacco]].<ref name="Pomerantz-Zhang 1992"/> Wu also established a vegetarian restaurant known as Micaili in Shanghai at Hotel des Colonies in the French Concession (now on East [[Yan'an Road]]). It was the first vegetarian restaurant in China to experiment with western vegetarian cuisine.<ref name="Leung 2019"/> His public lectures on dieting were influential. Wu and his Society argued for the public to eat more [[wheat]]. The Society introduced a Western-styled bakery to the Shanghainese that offered home-delivered wheat flour bread.<ref name="Lee 2015"/>

Wu was an [[Tobacco control|anti-smoking]] activist. An offshoot of the Rational Diet Society was the Anti-Cigarette Smoking Society that formed in June, 1911.<ref name="Pomerantz-Zhang 1992"/> The Society warned the public about the health dangers of [[Tobacco smoking|cigarette smoking]]. Wu wrote about the subject in his book ''Yanshou xinfa'' (''New Methods to Prolong Life''), in 1914.<ref name="Pomerantz-Zhang 1992"/> Wu was an enthusiastic bicycle rider.<ref>[https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045774/1922-06-24/ed-1/seq-5/ "Wu Ting-Fang Is Dead In Canton"]. ''The New York Herald'' (24 June 1922).</ref>

==Death==

Wu died on 23 June 1922 from [[pneumonia]] at the age of 79.<ref>''Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1922''. Volume 1. [[United States Government Printing Office]], 1938. p. 274. "Wu Ting-fang died at one this morning [of] pneumonia after brief illness."</ref>

Wu's tomb was moved to [[Yuexiu Hill]] in Guangzhou in 1988, where it forms an ensemble with the tomb of his son [[Wu Chaoshu]] and the memorial tablet bearing an inscription by [[Sun Yat-sen]] dedicated to Wu Tingfang.

==In popular culture== Wu is caricatured in "The Chinese Minister Wu", one of the [[Mr. Dooley]] columns of [[Finley Peter Dunne]], where he is depicted bamboozling "Sicrety iv State Hay".

==Selected publications==

*[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011414250&view=1up&seq=440 ''How I Expect to Live Long''] (1909) *[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100581886 ''America and the Americans: From a Chinese Point of View''] (1914) *[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000315991 ''America: Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat''] (1914) *[https://archive.org/details/modernessays02joycgoog/page/n92 ''American Manners''] (1915)

==References== ===Notes=== {{reflist}}

===Further reading=== * Pomerantz-Zhang, Linda. (1992). ''Wu Tingfang (1842–1922): Reform and Modernisation in Modern Chinese History''. {{ISBN|962-209-287-X}}. * Pollard, S. (1921) ''In Unknown China: A Record of the Observations, Adventures and Experiences of a Pioneer Missionary During a Prolonged Sojourn Amongst the Wild and Unknown Nosu Tribe of Western China''. London, Seeley, Service and Company Limited, 53–54.

==External links== {{commons category|Wu Tingfang}} * {{wikisource author-inline|Wu Tingfang}} * {{Gutenberg author | id=319}} * {{Internet Archive author |search=(Wu AND (Ting-fang OR Tingfang))}} * {{Gutenberg|no=609|name=America, through the spectacles of an Oriental diplomat{{noitalic|, by Wu Tingfang}}}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|hk}} {{s-bef|before=[[Hugh Bold Gibb]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Unofficial Member]]|years=1880–1882}} {{s-aft|after=[[Frederick Stewart (colonial administrator)|Frederick Stewart]]|as=unofficial}} {{s-new|office}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Senior Chinese Unofficial Member#Legislative Council|Senior Chinese Unofficial Member]]| years = 1880–1882}} {{s-vac|next=[[Wong Shing]]}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before = [[Duan Qirui]] | title = [[Premier of the Republic of China|Premier of China]]| years = 23–25 May 1917 | after = [[Li Jingxi]]}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Tingfang}} [[Category:1842 births]] [[Category:1922 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century Chinese calligraphers]] [[Category:19th-century Chinese lawyers]] [[Category:Alumni of St. Paul's College, Hong Kong|Ng, Choy]] [[Category:Ambassadors of China to Peru]] [[Category:Ambassadors of China to Spain]] [[Category:Ambassadors of China to the United States]] [[Category:Anti-smoking activists]] [[Category:Chinese non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Chinese people of Malaysian descent]] [[Category:Chinese vegetarianism activists]] [[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in China]] [[Category:Diet food advocates]] [[Category:Foreign ministers of the Republic of China (1912–1949)]] [[Category:Hong Kong people of Malaysian descent|Ng, Choy]] [[Category:Malaysian emigrants to Hong Kong]] [[Category:Members of Lincoln's Inn]] [[Category:Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong|Ng, Choy]] [[Category:19th-century Chinese diplomats]] [[Category:People from Malacca]] [[Category:Premiers of the Republic of China]] [[Category:Progressive Party (China) politicians]] [[Category:Republican Party (China) politicians]] [[Category:People from the Straits Settlements]] [[Category:Wu family|Ting-fang]]