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Cheng Kuan-Ying: The Comprador as Reformer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Yen-P'ing Hao
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Extract

In Chinese history, few reformers have been merchants and, prior to Cheng Kuan-ying, none of them was a merchant working for foreigners. In the late Ch'ing, the rise of the merchant class was remarkable and the reformers came from varying social backgrounds. Yet Cheng Kuan-ying (1842–ca. 1923) was the only noted merchant-reformer in this period. Due to his association with the foreign merchants, he was probably the first reformer in modern China who mastered a Western language. This fact made his reform proposals unique in many ways, although his understanding of the West as a whole was limited. The significance of Cheng Kuan-ying as a reformer lies in the fact that he implicitly challenged the programs of the self-strengthening movement by pointing out the necessity of institutional change.

Type
The Chinese Reform Movement of the 1890's: A Symposium
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , November 1969 , pp. 15 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1969

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References

1 Cheng's personal name was Kuan-ying, his “style” (hao), T'ao-chai (Taochai). He was a man of obscure origin, and his birth year was unknown. From his own writings we gather that he was twenty-six years old when Dent and Company went bankrupt. This year, as indicated in the North China Herald, was 1867. According to the Chinese way of counting age, Cheng was born in 1842. See Kuan-ying, Cheng, Shen-shih wei-yen hou-p'ienGoogle Scholar (Warnings to a prosperous age, second part), 15 chüan (Shanghai: 1920, preface dated 1910), 8:42–43; North China Herald, August 5, 1867, p. 192Google Scholar. According to Hu Ch'iu-yüan, Cheng died in 1923. See Hu Ch'iu-yüan, “Cheng Kuan-ying sheng-p'ing chi ch'i ssu-hsiang” (The life of Cheng Kuan-ying and his thought), p. 1, in Sheng-shih wei-yen (Taipei: 1965).Google Scholar

2 Cheng Kuan-ying wrote sketchy autobiographies in some of his letters. See his Hou-p'ien, 8: 31–32Google Scholar, 8:42–43, 10:1–1b. For a preliminary examination of Cheng in English, see Sakakida, Evelyn T., “Cheng Kuan-ying: Comprador-reformer,”Google Scholar seminar paper for History 283a (“Ching Documents”), Harvard University (January 1963).

3 Cheng Kuan-ying stated that he first learned English at Shanghai from his uncle, Chen Hsiu-shan. According to the local newspapers (Hu-pao and Wan-kuo kung-pao), Cheng Hsiu-shan was a prominent comprador-merchant who invested actively in Shanghai in the 1870's and 1880's (including the Chinese Glass Works Company). See Kuan-ying, Cheng, Hou-p'ien, 8:31Google Scholar. yü, Wang Ching, “Shih-chiu shih-chi wai-kuo ch'in Hua shih-yeh chung ti Hua-shang fu-ku huo-tung” (The activities of Chinese merchants to buy capital shares in the aggressive foreign enterprises in China during the late nineteenth century), Li-shih yen-chiu, 4: 39–74 (1965), p. 66.Google Scholar

4 Cheng, , Hou-p'ien, 8:42.Google Scholar

5 Jun, Hsü, Hsü Yü-chai tzu-hsü nien-p'u (Chronological autobiography of Hsü Jun, 1927), p. 5bGoogle Scholar. Hsü Jun obtained his comprador post from his uncle Hsü Jung-ts'un (Yungkee). Hsü Jun and Cheng Kuan-ying were fellow townsmen, both coming from the same district, Hsiang-shan hsien, in Kwangtung near Macao.

6 North-China Herald, August 5, 1867, p. 192.Google Scholar

7 Cheng, , Hou-p'ien, 10:1; 10:118b.Google Scholar

8 Cheng, , Hou-p'ien, 8:42–43.Google Scholar

9 For Cheng's activities in these enterprises see Feuerwerker, Albert, China's Early Industrialization: Sheng Hsüan-huai (1844–1916) and Mandarin Enterprise (Cambridge, Mass.: 1958), pp. 211–14, 205CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and passim. See also Wang Ching-yü, comp., Chung-kuo chin-tai kung-yeh shih tze-liao chi-yao: ti erh chi (Selected materials for China's modern industrial history, second series), 2 vols. (Peking: 1960), II, 968–70.Google Scholar

10 Kuan-ying, Cheng, I-yen (Easy words) (Shanghai: 1880), 1:17, 1:230Google Scholar. See also his Lo-fu ch'ih-ho shan-jen shih-ts'ao (Poems of Cheng Kuan-ying), 2 ts'e (Shanghai: 1897), pp. 13, 30–31.Google Scholar

11 See Cheng Kuan-ying's preface (dated 1892) to various editions of Sheng-shih wei-yen. Actually, the publication dates of his works are uncertain. Ichiko Chūzō has suggested that Chiu-shih chieh-yao was probably not published until 1873, l-yen not until 1880, and Sheng-shih wei-yen not until 1895. See his article, “Cheng Kuan-ying no l-yen ni tsuite” (“The l-yen written by Cheng Kuan-ying”) in Wada hakushi koki kinin tōyōshi ronsō (“Oriental studies presented to Sei [Kiyoshi] Wada”) (Tokyo: 1960), pp. 107–16. However, Hu Ch'iu-yüan has stated recently that a copy of Sheng-shih wei-yen that was published prior to 1894 is in his possession. See Ch'iu-yüan, Hu, “Cheng Kuanying,” p. 1Google Scholar. l-yen was revised in 1875 and reprinted in 1875, 1880, and 1892. This paper uses the 1880 edition, which is the earliest edition now available.

12 In 1898, Cheng published a book of poetry, entitled Lo-fu ch'ih-ho shan-jen shih-ts'ao (Poems of Cheng Kuan-ying), which included poems with anti-foreign sentiments. In 1905, he published a sequel to the Wei-yen named Sheng-shih wei-jen hsü-p'ien, which was a continuation of his reform proposals. In 1920, another sequel, Sheng-shih weiyen hou-p'ien, was published. In contrast to the Warnings and its first sequel—both were on general reform proposals—this book mainly described the various enterprises in which Cheng had participated. He also collated the T'ang knight-errant stories which first appeared in 1880 as Chien-hsia chuan (Knight-errant stories) and reprinted posthumously in 1937 as T'ang-jen chien-hsia chuan (Knight-errant stories in the T'ang dynasty).

13 Kuan-ying, Cheng, Shen-shih wei-yenGoogle Scholar (Warnings to a prosperous age), 6 chüan (1896, preface dated 1892), chapters 2, 3, and 8. Teng, Ssu-yü and Fairbank, John K., China's Response to the West: a Documentary Survey, 1839–1923 (Cambridge, Mass.: 1954), p. 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 , Cheng, l-yen 1:.2Google Scholar. For the view of Sino-foreign joint administration, see John K. Fairbank's theory of “synarchy.” Fairbank, John K., Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842–1854, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: 1956, 1953), I, 464–65Google Scholar. See also his article, “Synarchy under the Treaties,” Chinese Thought and Institutions, Fairbank, John K., ed., (Chicago: 1957), pp. 204–31.Google Scholar

15 Cheng warned that it would be misleading to compare the Westerners with China's traditional barbarian neighbors such as the Hsiung-nu or the Khitan. Cheng, l-yen, 1:2, 2:14b.Google Scholar

16 “Since the heaven and earth cannot be un changed forever and China and the West cannot be unconnected forever, so the Westerners' coming to China is natural.” Cheng Kuan-ying, Tsengting sheng-shih wei-yen (Warnings to the seemingly prosperous age, enlarged edition), 8 ts'e (preface dated 1892), 7:20.Google Scholar

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21 Among the early reformers who advocated learning from the West indiscriminately was Hung Jen-kan (1822–1864) who published in 1859 his book Tzu-cheng hsin-p'ien (A new work for aid in administration). He seems to have evaluated Western clocks and watches as highly as steamships. North-China Herald, August II, 1860, p. 127Google Scholar; Supplements of Aug. 18 and 25, 1860.

22 Cheng, , l-yen, 1:38–39.Google Scholar

23 Cheng, , Hou-p'ien, chüan 1Google Scholar. One chapter of Cheng's original Sheng-shih wei-yen was devoted exclusively to the discussion of the parliamentary system, and another chapter was later added when the book was revised. See Cheng, , Tseng-ting, preface and 4:1–6b.Google Scholar

24 Both T'ang Chen's Wei-yen (Words of warning) and Ch'en Ch'iu's Tung-yu t'iao-i (Proposals made during a trip to the east) were published in 1890. For political reformism in late Ch'ing, see Eastman, Lloyd E., “Political Reformism in China before the Sino-Japanese War,” Journal of Asian Studies, XXVII, No. 4 (August 1968), 695–710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Cheng Kuan-ying stated, “Heaven gave birth to the people and established a ruler for them. The ruler is like a boat, the people are like the water. The water can support the boat, it can also overturn the boat.” Cheng, , Tseng-ting, 4:1bGoogle Scholar. See also Eastman, Lloyd E., “Political Reformism,” pp. 703–04Google Scholar. A later revised edition of Sheng-shih wei-yen has a new chapter entitled “On Ruler” (yüan chün). Here Cheng explicitly quoted Mencius to support his view and even had a vague concept of popular sovereignty which was to be advocated by Ho Kai with greater sophistication. Kuanying, Cheng, Sheng-shih wei-yen tseng-ting hsin-pien (Warnings to a prosperous age, newly revised edition; 1900), 1:26–33b, esp. 1:26b–27.Google Scholar

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29 Cheng, , l-yen, 1:36Google Scholar. In 1871, Cheng already realized the necessity for China to establish diplomatic legations abroad. Cheng, , l-yen, 2:14b.Google Scholar

30 Cheng, , l-yen, 1:41, 27–27b; 2:9, 14bGoogle Scholar. For the Ch'ing-liu Tang, see Hao, Yen-p'ing, “A Study of the Ch'ing-liu Tang: The Disinterested Scholar-Official Group (1875–1884),” Papers on China, 16 (December 1962), pp. 40–65.Google Scholar

31 Cheng, , Tseng-ting, 2:27bGoogle Scholar.

32 Cheng, , Tseng-ting, 2:37b.Google Scholar

33 Cheng, , l-yen, 2:1bGoogle Scholar. Tseng-ting, 2:20.Google Scholar

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35 Cheng, , Tseng-tingGoogle Scholar, passim, esp. preface. Cheng's ideas, even his sentence patterns, are reminiscent of Sun Yat-sen's petition to Li Hung-chang which Sun drafted at Shanghai in 1894. Sun mentioned four categories and the first two were the same as Cheng's. The third was “using everything to the utmost” (wu chin ch'i yung) and the fourth was “expanding the flow of commerce” (huo ch'ang ch'i liu). See Yat-sen, Sun, Chung-shan ch'üan shu (Complete works of Sun Yat-sen) (Shanghai: 1927), IV, 1–13Google Scholar. Cheng and Sun were fellow townsmen and had close association, but their mutual influence in ideas remains to be explored.

36 For the increase of China's exports, Cheng Kuan-ying advised the renovation of the tea and silk industries to meet foreign competition. As to die decrease of imports, he advocated developing China's own manufactures, l-yen, 1:10b–12Google Scholar. For his criticism of the system of “government supervision and merchant operation,” see Teng, Ssu-yü and Fairbank, John K., China's Response, pp. 113–15.Google Scholar

37 Cheng, , Hou-p'ien, 1:1Google Scholar; 2:37b; 4:56b–57; 7:19; 8:32; 8:53.

38 In the section on commerce in one of his early works, Cheng Kuan-ying declared that its purpose was the search of profit (li) which had been looked down upon by scholar-officials. Cheng, , l-yen, 1:11–12.Google Scholar

39 Cheng Kuan-ying used kuo-chia chu-i for nationalism and chia-tsu chu-i for familism. See Cheng, , Tseng-ting, 4:15, 42.Google Scholar

40 For a fuller account of Cheng's role in the boycott movement, see Ts'un-wu, Chang, Kuang-hsü san-shih-i nien Chung-Mei kung-yüeh feng-ch'ao (The crisis of the Sino-American dispute over a labor agreement in 1905) (Taipei: 1965), 269 pp.Google Scholar

41 Cheng, , Hou-p'ien, 4:2b.Google Scholar

42 Cheng, , l-yen, 1:10Google Scholar. Tseng-ting, 3:7.Google Scholar

43 Cheng, , Hou-p'ien, 1:60Google Scholar, 2:63–64b.

44 Cheng, , Hou-p'ien, 1:31Google Scholar; 2:63–64b.

45 Cf. Linton, Ralph, The Study of Man: An Introduction (New York: 1936), p. 346Google Scholar. Reprinted in Parsons, Talcott et al. , eds., Theories of Society, 2 vols. (New York: 1961), II, 1380.Google Scholar

46 San, Hsiao, Mao Tse-tung t'ung-chih ti ch'ing-shao-nien shih-tai (The childhood and boyhood of comrade Mao Tse-tung) (Peking: 1949), p. 13.Google Scholar