Ting Wei-fen (6 November 1874-12 May 1954)

Ting Wei-fen (6 November 1874-12 May 1954), founding member of the T'ung-meng-hui who directed revolutionary activities in Shantung. He later served as director of the Kuomintang's Peking office, director of the Kuomintang youth department, dean of the Central Political Institute, secretary general of the Central Executive Committee, and vice president of the Control Yuan. After 1937 he devoted his attention to the study of phonetics with reference to the Chinese classics.

The ancestors of Ting Wei-fen had been scholars and officials in Jihchao, Shantung, since the early Ming dynasty. His father, Ting I-tz'u, was a profound classical scholar and the author of the Mao-shih cheng-yün [classification of rhymes in Mao's edition of the Book of Odes]. The young Ting Wei-fen, however, proved to be more interested in contemporary political affairs than in the Chinese classics. After graduation from the Paoting Normal School, he went to Japan, where he enrolled at Meiji University. In Tokyo, he joined the T'ung-meng-hui and joined with other party members from Shantung in publishing the Ch'en-chung chou-k'an [morning bell weekly]. After returning to Shantung in 1908, he established a provincial T'ung-meng-hui headquarters and founded schools—the Shantung Academy in Tsinan, the Tung-mou Academy in Chefoo, and the Chen-tan Academy in Tsingtao—for the purpose of propagating revolutionary ideas.

At the time of the Wuchang revolt in October 1911, Ting Wei-fen went to Shanghai for consultations with Huang Hsing (q.v.). He later accompanied Hu Ying to Chefoo. They drove out the Manchu officials and installed Hu as tutuh [military governor] of Shantung. With the establishment of the Chinese republic in 1912, Ting became director of party organization in Shantung, a member of the provincial assembly, and the chancellor of the Shantung Provincial Law School. Late in 1912 he was elected to the National Assembly. At Peking he joined with such other Kuomintang members as Sung Chiao-jen (q.v.) in attempting to strengthen the democratic system.

At the time of the so-called second revolution (see Li Lieh-chun) in 1913, Ting Wei-fen returned to his native district. In 1915, when Yuan Shih-k'ai's plot to create a monarchy became apparent, Ting went to Shanghai and joined with other former members of the Parliament in condemning Yuan's actions and intentions. After the conference, he returned to Shantung, where he and Chü Cheng (q.v.) began preparations for a revolt against Yuan Shih-k'ai. Their forces captured Weihsien in May 1916 and moved on to other points along the Kiaochow-Tsinan railway. The hostilities ended with the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai in June 1916 and the restoration of Parliament under Li Yuan-hung (q.v.) . Ting went to Peking to take his seat in the reconvened National Assembly. In 1917, however, the National Assembly's refusal to yield to Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.) on the question of China's entry into the First World War led to its dissolution and the seizure of power at Peking by Tuan and his adherents. Ting and other members of the Parliament then gathered at Canton for a so-called extraordinary congress called by Sun Yat-sen. This congress established a military government at Canton, with Sun as its commander in chief.

In the 1917-26 period Ting was active at various times in party and parliamentary affairs at both Canton and Peking. One of his major responsibilities was the propagation of Kuomintang principles in north China. Late in 1923, on orders from Sun Yat-sen, Ting established at Peking a north China executive office of the Kuomintang. At the First National Congress of the reorganized Kuomintang in January 1924, he was elected to the Central Executive Committee and was confirmed as director of the party's Peking office. He returned to Peking and remained there until the Northern Expedition was launched in mid- 1926. At that time, he went to Canton to serve the Kuomintang as director ofthe youth department, member of the Central Executive Committee's standing committee, and member of the Central Political Council. He soon returned to Peking, however, because he believed that the very existence of the Kuomintang in north China was being threatened by its Communist membership. Li Ta-chao (q.v.) and his colleagues had a strong hold on the Kuomintang at Peking. To counterbalance the effects of Communist propaganda, he established an association, the Chungshan-chu-i t'ung-meng-hui, which later became known as the Ta-t'ung-meng.

Ting Wei-fen supported Chiang Kai-shek in the 1927 split of the Kuomintang into factions at Wuhan and Nanking. Because he believed that to combat Communist influence it was necessary to have capable cadres with orthodox political understanding, in mid- 192 7 he proposed to the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang the establishment in Nanking of the Central Party Affairs School. It was inaugurated on 8 August 1927, with Chiang Kai-shek as president, Ch'en Kuo-fu (q.v.) as director of general affairs, and Ting as director of training. Because Ting then was devoting most of his time to the work of the Central Executive Committee, most of his school duties fell to Ku Cheng-kang, the deputy director of training. With the reorganization of the Central Political Institute in the summer of 1 929, Ting was named its dean. He held the title until 1941, but the work of the deanship during that period fell to Lo Chia-lun, Ch'en Li-fu, and Ch'en Kuo-fu. From 1931 to 1934 he served as secretary general of the Kuomintang's Central Executive Committee, and from 1932 to 1937 he was vice president of the Control Yuan. It gradually became evident after 1928, however, that he was withdrawing from active participation in politics.

With Ting's withdrawal from public life came a wholehearted devotion to the study of phonetics with reference to the Chinese classics and their meanings. He completed six books in this field : Mao-shih shih-yun [the narrative on the rhymes in Mao's edition of the Book of Odes] , Mao-shih chieh-ku [the interpretation of ancient words in Mao's edition of the Book oj Odes], Erh-ya ku-yin-piao [the charts of ancient phonetics in Erh-ya], Fang-yen-yeh [the interpretation of Yang Hsiung's Fang-yen], and Li-yü-cheng-ku [rustic expressions as evidenced in ancient classics].

When the Chinese Communists won control of the mainland in 1949, Ting Wei-fen moved to Taiwan, where he was a member of the Control Yuan and of the Kuomintang's Central Appraisal Committee. He died at Taipei on 12 May 1954. Ting was survived by his wife (who died on 17 December 1959, at the age of 85 sui), and by three daughters and a son.