Tang Hua-lung (27 November 1874-12 September 1918), leader of the movement to establish constitutional monarchy in China. He supported the revolution in 1911. In 1913-14 and 1916-17 he was speaker of the National Assembly. A leader of the Chin-pu-tang [progressive party] and, later, of the research clique, he also held cabinet posts at Peking. Ch'isui, Hupeh, was the birthplace of T'ang Hua-lung. He came from a family which had lost its wealth during the Taiping Rebellion. His grandfather, T'ang Te-tsao (T. Lan-sheng), was a scholar whose studies finally cost him his eyesight; and his father, T'ang P'ing-hsin (T. I-cheng), was a scholar who had been obliged to go into business to support his family. T'ang Hua-lung received most of his training in the Chinese classics from tutors, and at the age of 19 sui he ranked first in the hsien examinations. Shortly afterwards, his family was brought to financial ruin again by an unjust lawsuit. T'ang helped pay the debt by teaching and by winning prize money in the monthly examinations at the government school. At the age of 24 sui, T'ang Hua-lung entered the Ching-ku shu-yuan at Huangchou. After passing the examination for the chü-jen degree in 1902, he became an instructor in Chinese language and literature at Shansi University. Upon passing the examinations for the chinshih degree, he received an appointment as a chu-shih [junior clerk] in the Board of Punishments. Because he believed that national salvation was dependent upon the acquisition of new knowledge which could be used in effecting political reform, he supported his brother T'ang Hsiang-ming in his decision to go to France for naval training and told his youngest brother, T'ang Yu-lung, to enroll at the Hupeh Provincial Industrial School. T'ang Hua-lung himself asked to be sent to Japan for further study and received a Hupeh provincial government scholarship to study law at the Hosei Daigaku. In Japan, he met and became a good friend of Liang Ch'i-ch'ao (q.v.).

About this time, the Ch'ing court, in an attempt to quell popular discontent generated by the Boxer Uprising, was taking its first tentative steps toward constitutional reform. Preparations were made in 1907 for the convening of the Tzu-cheng Yuan [national assembly], an advisory council composed of both appointive and elective members. The administrative structure of the central government was reorganized the following year. Soon after his return from Japan, T'ang Hua-lung was appointed a chu-shih in the newly created ministry of civil affairs. In 1909, the year that provincial assemblies (tzu-i chu) were to be established, Ch'en K'uei-lung, the governor of Hupeh, sent a memorial to the throne requesting T'ang's transfer to Hupeh so that T'ang could take part in the setting up of the provincial assembly. T'ang was elected to the Hupeh provincial assembly in 1909, and he became its speaker in 1910. In the winter of 1909 delegates from 16 provincial assemblies which opposed the Ch'ing court's delaying tactics met in Shanghai and founded the Kuo-hui ch'ing-yuan t'ungchih hui [association for petitioning the convocation of the national parliament]. A 32-member delegation, which included T'ang Hua-lung, petitioned the court through the Censorate in February and May 1910, but both petitions were rejected. A third petition was presented in October through the newly established Tzu-cheng Yuan, which supported the delegates' objectives. Indeed, many of the petitioners, including T'ang Hua-lung, were members of the Tzu-cheng Yuan.

The Ch'ing court, unable to withstand the rising tide of public opinion, promised in November 1910 to convoke a parliament in 1913. In the intervening years it would complete the reorganization of the administrative system and establish a responsible cabinet. These concessions satisfied some of the petitioners, but T'ang Hua-lung and others remained steadfast in their demand for the immediate convocation of a parliament. The court responded to their renewed demand by sending the recalcitrant delegates home and exiling one of them to Sinkiang. The Tzu-cheng Yuan soon split into factions over this question. Its liberal wing was the Hsien-yu-hui [association of friends of the constitution], which was established on 1 July 1911 as a national organization with branches in ten provinces. T'ang was elected head of its Hupeh branch.

On 11 October 1911, the day after the Wuchang revolt, the republican revolutionaries met with the leaders of the Hupeh provincial assembly and named Li Yuan-hung (q.v.) to head a republican government at Wuchang. T'ang Hua-lung and others persuaded the reluctant Li to accept the appointment. Whatever T'ang's reservations about republicanism may have been, his outward acceptance of the revolution was an important contribution to its immediate success in Hupeh. To bring order out of the general confusion that prevailed in the first days of the revolution, Chu Cheng, Sung Chiao-jen (qq.v.), and T'ang drafted a set of regulations to provide a framework for the military government. After the regulations were promulgated on 16 October, T'ang left Hupeh for Shanghai, where he renewed his acquaintance with advocates of constitutional monarchy. They were joined by Chang Ping-lin (q.v.) in forming the T'ung-i-tang [unification party] in April 1912, thus continuing the rivalry between the republican revolutionaries and the reformers which had begun in the final decade of the Ch'ing dynasty.

After Yuan Shih-k'ai assumed the presidency of the republic and caused the provisional government to be moved to Peking, T'ang Hua-lung was elected vice speaker of the provisional National Assembly on 1 May 1912. By this time, it had become apparent that the T'ung-meng-hui would be the opposition party to the government headed by Yuan Shih-k'ai. Accordingly, Yuan encouraged the formation of a political party capable of challenging the dominance of the T'ung-meng-hui. His wish coincided with the self-interest of the smaller parties, and on 5 May 1912 the T'ung-i-tang combined with four other groups to form the Kung-ho-tang [republican party]. T'ang was named a director of the new party. Although Chang Ping-lin and his followers later withdrew from it and revived the T'ung-i-tang, the Kung-ho-tang was able to claim more than 40 of the assembly's 124 seats.

On 10 August 1912 the provisional National Assembly completed the task of writing the organic and electoral laws for the future parliament. In preparing for the elections, the T'ung-meng-hui combined with other parties to form the Kuomintang. It hoped, among other things, to organize a responsible cabinet system. In October, the Kung-ho-tang was reduced in size by the defection of T'ang Hualung and others to the Min-chu-tang [democratic party] organized by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao. The overwhelming victory of the Kuomintang in the parliamentary elections led to the assassination of Sung Chiao-jen on 20 March 1913. When the Parliament convened in April, T'ang Hua-lung was elected speaker of the National Assembly. In May, the Kung-ho-tang, the T'ung-i-tang, and the Min-chu-tang united to form the Chin-pu-tang [progressive party], nominally headed by Li Yuan-hung but directed by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and T'ang Hua-lung. The death of Sung Chiao-jen precipitated the outbreak of the so-called second revolution (see Li Lieh-chün), which resulted in the enhancement of Yuan Shih-k'ai's political and military power at the expense of the Kuomintang. Yuan pressed his advantage, forcing the suspension of the Parliament by expelling the Kuomintang members. This high-handed treatment of the legislative branch of the government alienated even the Chin-pu-tang, and T'ang publicly denounced Yuan's illegal act. Although T'ang accepted an appointment as minister of education in 1914, he resigned and left Peking for Shanghai when he learned of Yuan's plan to become monarch. T'ang then worked with Liang Ch'i-ch'ao in plotting Yuan's downfall. He also tried to persuade his brother T'ang Hsiang-ming, then governor of Hunan, to desert the would-be monarch. T'ang Hsiang-ming finally declared Hunan independent on 27 May 1916. With the death of Yuan Shih-k'ai on 6 June, T'ang Hua-lung went to Ch'isui for the burial of his mother. She had died on 16 March, but he had not dared to leave Shanghai while Yuan lived.

After Li Yuan-hung assumed the presidency and the Parliament was restored, T'ang Hualung resumed his post as speaker of the National Assembly. For a brief time, the Chin-pu-tang split into two factions : the Hsien-fa t'ao-lun-hui [association for the discussion of the constitution], headed by T'ang; and the Hsien-fa yen-chiu-hui [association for constitutional research], headed by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao. On 13 September 1916 the factions reunited to form the Hsien-cheng yen-chiu-hui [association for the study of constitutional government]. Thereafter the T'ang-Liang faction in the Parliament was known as the Yen-chiu hsi, or research clique. It supported the policies, if not the tactics, of Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.), and its members resigned in protest when Li Yuan-hung dismissed Tuan from the premiership on 23 May 1917. During the restoration attempt of Chang Hsün (q.v.), T'ang and Liang joined the successful expedition against Chang that Tuan Ch'i-jui led from Tientsin. They then advised the Feng Kuo-chang-Tuan Ch'i-jui administration to convene a new parliament under new electoral laws. The Kuomintang voiced its opposition to the plan. T'ang was appointed minister of the interior to carry out the scheme, and the Kuomintang responded by launching the so-called constitution protection movement and establishing an opposition government at Canton. With the downfall of the Tuan Ch'i-jui cabinet and the resignation of T'ang Hua-lung on 30 November 1917, the political influence of the research clique waned. Liang Ch'i-ch'ao withdrew from political activities to devote the remainder of his life to scholarship. T'ang Hua-lung left China on 24 March 1918 for a tour of Japan, the United States, and Canada. On 12 September 1918, after a banquet given by members of the T'ang clan in Victoria, British Columbia, he was assassinated by a Cantonese barber named Wang Ch'ang, who then killed himself. T'ang was survived by a son, P'ei-sung, and a daughter, P'ei-lin.