Ts'ai T'ing-kan (1861-29 September 1935), naval officer and long-time associate of Yuan Shih-k'ai. He held protocol, customs, and other foreign-affairs posts at Peking until 1927. Although Ts'ai T'ing-kan considered himself a native of Tahsing, Chihli (Hopei), he was born at Hsiangshan (later Chungshan), Kwangtung. He received his early education in the Chinese classics at local village schools and then, in 1870-71, studied at the Chinese Educational Mission School established by Yung Wing (Jung Hung, ECCP, I, 402-5) at Shanghai. In 1873, after completing the school's course of study, he went to the United States as a member of the second group of 30 young Chinese sent abroad on the China Educational Mission program (for further information, see Chan T'ien-yu).

In the United States, Ts'ai enrolled at the Hartford Grammar School in Connecticut. He later studied at the New Britain High School and lived at the home of a Mrs. MacLean in Springfield, Massachusetts. He soon gained a reputation for mischief-making, and his school companions dubbed him the "Fighting Chinee." At the request of Mrs. MacLean, he was transferred before graduation to study practical mechanics in the machine shops at Lowell. At that time, for purely utilitarian reasons, he cut off his queue. He returned to China in 1881 when the Ch'ing government abolished the China Educational Mission on the grounds that the students were becoming excessively Americanized and were neglecting their Chinese studies. Upon his return, he enrolled at a torpedo school established by Li Hung-chang (ECCP, I, 464-71) at Taku. In addition to torpedo theory and practice, from 1882 onward he also studied electrical engineering, mining, and surveying under American and French instructors. After completing the basic course at Taku in 1884, he studied navigation under British officers while serving a period of apprenticeship with Li Hung-chang's fledgling Peiyang fleet.

In 1888, at the age of 27, Ts'ai was commissioned a junior lieutenant in the Chinese navy. The following year, he received the rank of acting senior lieutenant. In 1891 he was given command of a torpedo boat and was assigned to patrol duties. The next year, he was given the substantive rank of commander, awarded the Peacock Feather decoration, and put in charge of a newly acquired squadron of torpedo boats, stationed at Port Arthur. He and his squadron played an active role in the September 1894 engagement known as the Battle of the Yellow Sea. Although the Chinese fleet of Admiral Ting Ju-ch'ang was heavier than the Japanese fleet of Admiral Ito Yuko, it was handicapped by inferior command capacities and by the disabilities imposed upon it by the empress dowager's diversion of naval funds to other purposes. Accordingly, the Japanese won a decisive victory. The Chinese lost five ships, and several others were damaged. When the wounded fleet retired to Port Arthur for repairs, Ts'ai's squadron accompanied it. After making temporary repairs, the Chinese fleet sailed for the Weihaiwei base and took up a defensive position there. It was a strong position, with the anchorage shielded by two fortified islands. In late January 1895, however, the Japanese army of General Oyama captured the forts on the mainland opposite Ting Juch'ang's refuge. Ting's officers refused to attempt a breakout, and, when he finally decided to surrender, they refused to destroy their ships. With the fleet in general mutiny, ten torpedo boats led by Wang Teng-yun sped out of the western harbor entrance on 7 February in a break for safety. These boats, which included Ts'ai T'ing-kan's own craft, were fired upon by Chinese ships, by the forts on the mainland, and by pursuing Japanese vessels. Although Wang Teng-yun managed to reach Chefoo, Ts'ai's boat was sunk under him. Ts'ai was fished from the sea by the Japanese and held as a prisoner of war. On 13 February, Ting Ju-ch'ang surrendered the remainder of the fleet at Weihaiwei to Admiral Ito. Ting then took poison.

With the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in the aftermath of that inglorious affair and of China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese war, Li Hung-chang was in disgrace. The officers of Li's Peiyang fleet, including Ts'ai T'ing-kan, were degraded in rank. In 1901, when Li died and Yuan Shih-k'ai succeeded to his posts, the degraded naval officers began to be employed in connection with Yuan's plans for the military rehabilitation of north China. Through the introduction of T'ang Shao-yi (q.v.), Ts'ai T'ing-kan entered Yuan's service and gradually became a favorite of Yuan. In 1908 Yuan successfully petitioned the throne to restore the naval officers' ranks.

When Yuan Shih-k'ai was forced into retirement in 1909, Ts'ai T'ing-kan also withdrew from public life. Yuan returned to power at the time of the revolution in 1911, and Ts'ai promptly was appointed chief of the department of naval administration in the Navy Board, with the rank of rear admiral. After Yuan arrived in Peking, Ts'ai was made expectant metropolitan officer of the third rank in December. In January 1912 he was transferred to Yuan's staff as naval aide de camp. In that post, he helped Yuan to achieve the abdication of the Manchu authorities and Yuan's accession to power at Peking as provisional president of the new republic. Ts'ai's efforts won him promotion to vice admiral on 20 November 1912. Early in 1913 Ts'ai was awarded the Fourth Order of Merit and was appointed chief inspector of the salt gabelle. On 1 October, he became associate director general of the customs revenue council. He continued to perform various functions in the presidential office, especially with regard to the reception of foreign visitors, and in May 1914 his informal position in that office was dignified with the title of assistant master of ceremonies.

Ts'ai suffered a temporary political setback, because of his close association with Yuan Shih-k'ai, when Yuan died in June 1916. However, in October 1917 Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.) awarded Ts'ai the Paokuang Chiaho decoration, second class, and in 1918 Tuan appointed him chairman of the tariff revision commission. Later in 1918 Ts'ai was reappointed to his old position in the presidential office at Peking, with the title of assistant grand master of ceremonies. He became associate director of the enemy subjects repatriation bureau in January 1919, and the work involved in this post caused him to relinquish his protocol duties the following month.

In 1921 Ts'ai attended the Washington Conference as an adviser to the Chinese delegation. In accordance with agreements reached at that conference, a tariff revision conference was convened in Shanghai at the end of March, with Ts'ai as its chairman. Agreement finally was reached in September for the establishment of a revised tariff schedule which would go into effect the following January. At the end of 1922 Ts'ai officiated as master of ceremonies at the wedding of P'u-yi (q.v.), the last Manchu emperor. His chief responsibility on that occasion was the introduction of foreign guests to the imperial couple. Throughout this period, Ts'ai had maintained close ties with the foreign community at Peking, and his official functions continued to have something to do with foreign affairs. Ts'ai T'ing-kan also was known for his participation in civic affairs. In April 1919 he became vice president of the Chinese Red Cross Society. The following year he assumed the duties of chief of the transportation section of the China International Famine Relief Commission. He became the treasurer of that organization in January 1923. Ts'ai was president of the Peking Rotary Club in 1924-25, and for years he served as president of the American- Returned Students Club.

In 1923, with the initial work of tariff revision done, Ts'ai became a member of the commission for the reorganization of China's domestic and foreign debts. On 30 June he was appointed chairman of the commission charged with preparing for a special customs tariff conference, and in the autumn of 1924 he became director general of the customs revenue council. He held that office for more than two years despite changes of administration at Peking (see Feng Yü-hsiang). In 1925 he was one of three high commissioners appointed to investigate the May Thirtieth Incident at Shanghai. And when the Special Customs Tariff Conference finally convened at Peking on 26 October 1925, he served as one of the delegates. Because of the war between Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.), on one side, and Chang Tso-lin and Wu P'ei-fu (qq.v.), on the other, the conference found it impossible to proceed with the work at hand. By the spring of 1926 only two of the five chief Chinese delegates, Ts'ai and W. W. Yen (Yen Hui-ch'ing, q.v.), were still in Peking. On 3 July, the frustrated foreign delegations issued a statement expressing their desire to proceed with consideration of the problems before the conference whenever the Chinese delegates were in a position to do so.

Tu Hsi-kuei had succeeded W. W. Yen as premier at Peking in June 1926. At the first meeting of his cabinet on 6 July, he appointed Ts'ai T'ing-kan foreign minister. A mandate issued on 14 July appointed a new delegation to the tariff conference, with Ts'ai at its head. Ts'ai soon encountered new difficulties, for the Peking government's authority to represent China at the conference was challenged by Feng Yü-hsiang and by the National Government at Canton, which had just launched its Northern Expedition. The conference adjourned "for the summer" in the absence of a responsible Chinese government, and it did not resume that fall. As foreign minister, Ts'ai continued to pursue the general matter of treaty revision, but the weakened condition of the Peking government made negotiation impossible.

With Wu P'ei-fu heavily engaged on the southern front, Chang Tso-lin's forces and influence became dominant at Peking. At the beginning of October 1926, Tu Hsi-kuei abandoned the premiership and Ts'ai T'ing-kan resigned as foreign minister. V. K. Wellington Koo (Ku Wei-chun, q.v.), who then became acting premier and foreign minister, assumed the duties of chairman of the Chinese delegation to the dormant tariff conference. Ts'ai thus was left only with the position of director general of the customs revenue council. In May 1927, as the Peking regime's financial situation became critical, Ts'ai resigned from his last official post and retired to Dairen and private life. He remained there until the time of the Japanese attack on Mukden in September 1931. He then moved back to Peiping, where he devoted his attention to the Chinese classics, poetry, and calligraphy. He translated the Tao-te-ching and ancient Chinese poems into English, and in 1932 a collection of his translations of T'ang poems was published by the University of Chicago Press as Chinese Poems in English Rhyme. Ts'ai T'ing-kan died at Peiping on 29 September 1935. Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei T. Ho-ch'ing H. Chieh-min ^ 7C Jg n n