Wu T'ing-fang (9 July 1842-23 June 1922), English-educated lawyer who gained international prominence as the Ch'ing government's diplomatic representative in the United States in 1897-1901 and in 1907-9. He also served as co-chairman of the fa-lü pien-tsuan-kuan [bureau for the compilation of the law]. Wu was chief delegate for the revolutionaries in the peace negotiations that led to Manchu abdication and the establishment of the republic in 1912. He later served as foreign minister at Canton. Although Wu T'ing-fang was born at Singapore, his native place was Hsinhui (Sunwui), Kwangtung, where his father, Wu Jung-chang, had been a merchant for many years. When Wu T'ing-fang was only three, his family returned to China and established residence at Fangts'un, an islet in the Pearl River near Canton.

After receiving his early education in the conventional Chinese curriculum, Wu was sent to Hong Kong to enroll at the British Central School (later Queen's College), a secondary school operated by the Hong Kong government. He was graduated in 1860. For the next decade he held various positions in the colony, including the post of interpreter in the Hong Kong courts. He was also associated with the Chung-ngoi san-po (Chung-wai hsin-pao), the first modern daily newspaper to be published in Chinese. Although it is unclear whether he was a founder of this paper, which appeared in 1858, Wu played a leading role as an editor of the Chung-ngoi san-po during its early years. In 1873 he joined Wang T'ao and Huang Sheng in founding another early Hong Kong newspaper, the Tsun-wanyat-po (Hsün-wanjih-pao), which became the most successful Chinese-owned paper of that period.

In 1874 Wu T'ing-fang went to London to read law. He was called to the English bar in 1876, becoming the first Chinese barrister. Soon afterward, his father died, and Wu returned to Canton in 1877 to observe the prescribed period of mourning. He then became the first Chinese to practice law in Hong Kong, where he was known by his Cantonese name, Ng Choy, and became active and influential in civic affairs. Sir John Pope Hennessy, the governor of Hong Kong, was making efforts to broaden representation in the colony's administrative apparatus through appointment of some non-European members. Wu T'ing-fang was thus appointed an acting magistrate, the first Chinese to hold this post. In 1880 the governor, despite opposition from some other officials of the Hong Kong government, appointed Wu to membership in the Legislative Council. The first Chinese in the colony's history to be elevated to this post, Wu owed his appointment partly to the fact that he was a British subject through his birth in Singapore and partly to favorable support from the "wealthy and better Chinese" in the colony. With his brother-in-law Ho Kai, he was also active in the establishment in Hong Kong of a college of medicine attached to the Alice Memorial Hospital; it was there that Sun Yat-sen studied medicine a few years later.

In 1882 Wu T'ing-fang left Hong Kong to join the secretariat of Li Hung-chang (ECCP, I, 464-71) at Tientsin. Wu soon took part in the negotiating and signing of a Sino-French treaty in April-June 1885. He also gained experience in a number of other fields of activity, including the establishment of such schools as Peiyang University, the Peiyang Military Academy, and the Tientsin School of Telegraphy. In 1887 Wu was made director of the China Railway Company, charged with the construction of a rail line between Tientsin and the nearby port of Tangku. When the line was completed the following year, he became its managing director. In 1889 Wu's mother died, and he returned to his home in Canton to observe the three-year mourning period, returning to Tientsin in 1891. He was active in diplomacy during the Sino-Japanese war. In 1895 he aided Li Hung-chang in the treaty negotiations at Shimonoseki, and later that year he officiated at the exchange of treaty ratifications. Wu T'ing-fang was appointed minister to the United States, Spain, and Peru in 1897. He established legation headquarters in Washington and worked to spread correct knowledge of China, then something of a mystery to the Western world. It was through his personal assistance that the Library of Congress began to give serious attention to the systematic collecting and cataloguing of Chinese materials. On 14 April 1898 he and Senator Calvin Brice, head of the American China Development Company, signed a loan agreement for the financing of the Canton-Hankow railway. In 1899 he negotiated a Sino-Mexican treaty, securing most-favored-nation status for China for the first time. During the Boxer Uprising, he took a moderate stance and worked to get the United States to take the initiative in bringing the hostilities to an end. In 1902 Wu T'ing-fang was recalled to China and was appointed a co-commissioner for the revision of treaties. He established residence at Shanghai and concluded new commercial treaties with Great Britain, the United States, and Japan. Before long, Wu was transferred to Peking as vice president of the Board of Commerce, in which capacity he assumed jurisdiction over the newly opened treaty ports and formulated the Company Law to bring order to commercial enterprises in these areas. Also during this period, Wu served as vice president of the Board of Foreign Affairs and as cochairman of the fa-lü pien-tsuan-kuan [bureau for the compilation of the law]. The other co-chairman was Shen Chia-pen (q.v.). Wu and Shen proceeded slowly, hiring Chinese and Japanese scholars and establishing a law school (for details, see Shen Chia-pen). In April 1905 Shen and Wu proposed a series of changes in the Ch'ing legal code. Most of these changes concerned the abolition of corporal punishment, and they were accepted. Early in 1906 Wu was appointed vice president of the Board of Punishments. When the Ch'ing court refused to consider sweeping reforms in criminal procedures, Wu resigned his government posts on the grounds of illness. He returned to government service in 1907 as Chinese minister to the United States. Although his faith in the Ch'ing court had been shaken by its refusal to move quickly toward constitutionalism and a modern legal structure, he continued to send memorials to the throne proposing such reforms as the removal of the queue. He was recalled in 1909. Upon his return to China by way of Europe in early 1910, he settled in Shanghai and turned his attention to community affairs. After the Wuchang revolt of October 1911, Wu T'ing-fang gave active support to the republican revolutionaries. On 3 November 1911 he convened the emergency meeting of public-spirited residents and officials that established the Shanghai revolutionary government, with Ch'en Ch'i-mei (q.v.) as military governor. Wu and Wen Tsung-yao served as secretaries for foreign affairs. Wu also became foreign minister and diplomatic representative in Shanghai of the central republican government at Wuhan. He repeatedly communicated with the diplomatic and foreign press corps in Shanghai, calling for Manchu abdication and describing the Chinese revolution as the "least sanguinary in the history of the world." Wu also was designated chief delegate to negotiate a settlement with the Peking authorities. His first meeting with T'ang Shao-yi (q.v.) was held at Shanghai in December 1911.

With the establishment of the Chinese republic in January 1912, Wu T'ing-fang became minister of justice. He remained in Shanghai, however, to participate in the negotiations which led to the abdication of the Manchu emperor (see P'u-yi) and to Sun Yat-sen's resignation in favor of Yuan Shihk'ai. After Yuan assumed the presidency, Wu retired to his home in Shanghai. He established a group, the T'ien-jen ming-tao hui, to study and discuss Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, and other religions. Although Wu was a political moderate, he received membership in a wide variety of political parties by virtue of his status as an elder statesman. At the time of the so-called second revolution against Yuan Shih-k'ai in 1913, Wu considered Yuan's policy "dangerous," but he blamed both sides for refusing to compromise. He opposed Yuan's plan to become monarch and declined to serve as a mediator after Yuan renounced his monarchical ambitions. After Yuan's death, Wu, then in his seventies, accepted the foreign ministership in the cabinet of Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.) in November 1916.

Early in 1917 Tuan Ch'i-jui encountered parliamentary opposition to his proposal that China enter the First World War on the side of the Allies. When Tuan threatened to dissolve the Parliament, his cabinet resigned. Li Yuanhung (q.v.), the president, issued an order (countersigned by Wu T'ing-fang) on 23 May dismissing Tuan and naming Wu acting premier. Five days later, Li Ching-hsi became premier. These actions resulted in the so-called revolt of the tuchuns (see Tuan Ch'i-jui), and on 13 June Li was forced to dissolve the Parliament by Chang Hsün (q.v.), who hoped to restore the Hsuan-t'ung emperor to the throne. On 9 July, Feng Kuo-chang (q.v.), who had become acting president, dismissed Wu T'ingfang from the foreign ministership. Wu then went to Canton to join the so-called constitution protection movement of Sun Yat-sen. Sun appointed Wu minister of foreign affairs in the new military government at Canton, but Wu did not assume office formally.

With the reorganization of the Canton government early in 1918, Wu T'ing-fang became a member of its seven-man directorate. The other members were Lu Jung-t'ing, Ts'en* Ch'un-hsuan, T'ang Chi-yao (qq.v.), Sun Yat-sen, T'ang Shao-yi, and Lin Pao-tse. Sun withdrew from the government in May (though he did not resign until August) and went to Shanghai. Wu, who also was serving as foreign minister, eventually found cooperation with the Kwangsi warlords impossible, and he left Canton with Lin Sen (q.v.) in March 1919 for Shanghai. In October 1920 Ch'en Chiung-ming (q.v.) drove the Kwangsi clique from Canton and prepared the way for Sun's return to power. Sun returned to Canton in November, accompanied by Wu T'ing-fang and T'ang Shao-yi. Wu resumed office as foreign minister, and in May 1921 he also became minister of finance when Sun Yat-sen took office as president extraordinary.

Ch'en Chiung-ming, who initially had opposed the plan to reorganize the Canton government, also opposed Sun Yat-sen's plans for a northern expedition. As a result of their continuing differences of opinion, Sun removed Ch'en from office as governor of Kwangtung in April 1922 and appointed Wu T'ing-fang to succeed him. On 16 June, Ch'en's supporters staged a coup at Canton. Sun escaped to a gunboat in the Pearl River. On 1 7 June Wu went to see Sun. Exhausted and frustrated in his long struggle for Chinese unity, Wu T'ing-fang died a week later, on 23 June. He was survived by his wife and by his son, C. C. Wu (Wu Ch'ao-shu, q.v.).

Wu Ting-fang's writings included Rustic Opinions on Planning Government for the Republic, in which he set forth his general philosophy of cultural conservatism and political liberalism. He was a firm believer in physical fitness and wrote a book on physical culture called New Methods for Extending Life. Descriptions of his character and examples of his wit were collected and published in 1924 as Anecdotes about Wu T'ing-fang.