Yeh Kung-cho (1881-), government official who specialized in railway administration. He was a protege of Liang Shih-i (q.v.) and a prominent member of the so-called communications clique. In 1921 he founded Chiao-t'ung University, which became one of China's leading engineering schools.
A native of Panyü, Kwangtung, Yeh Kungcho was born into a well-to-do family with a long and brilliant scholarly tradition. He received a thorough education in the Chinese classics and showed great promise as a scholar. When Yeh was 1 1 sui, he and his father, Yeh Chung-luan, went to live in Kiangsi. During his five-year residence in that province, the young Yeh made the acquaintance of such young scholars as Ou-yang Ching-wu (q.v.), Wen Yung-yü, and Ts'ai Kung-chan. In 1897 he took a trip to Peking and then went to Canton, where he joined with Wu Han-ming in founding the Ts'ui-lu School. A few months later, he went to Shanghai and established the Kuang-yu Book Company with Shen Hsiao-i. In the autumn of 1898 he went to Peking, where he enrolled in the law department at Imperial University (the forerunner of Peking University). His studies were interrupted in 1900 by the Boxer Uprising, and in 1901 he went to Wuchang, where he taught history and geography at a modern languages school for four years.
In 1906 Yeh Kung-cho entered official life as an aide to Liang Shih-i (q.v.), who then was serving under T'ang Shao-yi (q.v.) as chief clerk of the railway administration. In 1907, after T'ang became vice president of the Board of Communications, that board created a directorate general of railways, with Liang as its head and Yeh as Liang's assistant. Yeh held office until 1911, when the new president of the Board of Communications, Sheng Hsuan-huai (q.v.), dismissed Liang. Yeh then resigned. After Yuan Shih-k'ai succeeded Sun Yat-sen in 1912 as provisional president of the Chinese republic and moved the seat of government from Nanking to Peking, Yeh Kung-cho became director of the railways division of the ministry of communications. At that time his patron, Liang Shih-i, was chief secretary in the presidential office and general manager of the Bank of Communications. In the autumn of 1912 Sun Yat-sen visited Peking and accepted an appointment as national director of railway development. The National Railway Federation was organized at Peking, with Sun as honorary president. It was then that Yeh met Sun, and he made a strong impression on the revolutionary leader. Early in 1913, when Sun organized the National Railway Company in Shanghai, he invited Yeh there to give a lecture on railways.
Late in 1913 Yeh Kung-cho was appointed vice minister of communications in charge of railway affairs. Beginning in August 1914, he also represented the ministry of communications on the board of directors of the domestic loan office, headed by Liang Shih-i. During the First World War, Liang organized the Hui-min Corporation for the recruitment of Chinese laborers to serve with the Allies in Europe. Yeh and Liang Su-ch'eng managed the company, which sent more than 200,000 Chinese workers to France during the war years in accordance with an agreement it made with the French government. In July 1916, after Yuan Shih-k'ai died, Liang Shih-i was among the eight officials whose arrest was ordered because of their alleged participation in Yuan's monarchical plot. Liang fled to Hong Kong, and Yeh, because of his close relationship with Liang, resigned from office. For a time, Yeh served as secretary to the new vice president, Feng Kuo-chang (q.v.). He also continued to aid Liang in recruiting workers for the war effort in France.
In July 1917, when Chang Hsün (q.v.) attempted to restore the Ch'ing dynasty, Liang Shih-i instructed Yeh Kung-cho, then in charge of the Bank of Communications in Tientsin, to arrange for a loan to Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.) to finance Tuan's military campaign against Chang. With the successful completion of this campaign and the assumption of the premiership by Tuan Ch'i-jui, Yeh was appointed vice minister of communications at Peking. In 1918 Yeh resigned after quarreling with the minister of communications, Ts'ao Ju-lin (q.v.). He then undertook a government mission to Europe to study postwar industrial and railway rehabilitation. On his return from Europe in 1920, Yeh Kung-cho participated in the talks at Mukden which led to the formation of a coalition, composed of the Fengtien clique of Chang Tso-lin (q.v.) and the Chihli clique of Ts'ao K'un (q.v.), for a joint attack on the Anhwei clique of Tuan Ch'i-jui. After Tuan had been ousted, Yeh became minister of communications in the cabinet formed by Chin Yün-p'eng (q.v.) . Early in 1 92 1 Yeh merged four technical institutions which were under the control of the ministry to form Chiao-t'ung University, and he became its first president. Chiao-t'ung University, sometimes called Communications University, became one of China's best known engineering schools.
Dissension about the financing of the Peking government soon wracked the cabinet. Chin Yün-p'eng wanted to turn to Chinese banking circles for funds. Yeh and finance minister Chou Tzu-ch'i (q.v.), both prominent members of the so-called communications clique, believed that the government should restore public confidence by placing the old domestic loans on a proper basis before floating new loans. Chin reorganized the cabinet in May 1921 and replaced both Yeh and Chou.
In December 1921, at the behest of Chang Tso-lin, Hsü Shih-ch'ang (q.v.), who then held the presidency at Peking, called on Liang Shih-i to form a new cabinet. Yeh Kung-cho returned to office as minister of communications. Wu P'ei-fu (q.v.) opposed Liang's appointment as premier and drove him from office on 19 January 1922. Chang Tso-lin, affionted by Wu's action, responded by launching the Chihli-Fengtien war in April, but he was defeated in May. Hsü Shih-ch'ang then ordered the arrest of Liang Shih-i and Yeh Kung-cho, who fled to Japan.
While in exile, Yeh Kung-cho wrote an essay on "National Salvation Through Communications," which he completed in November 1922. This essay won him the favor of Sun Yat-sen, who appointed him minister of finance in the government at Canton in May 1923. Yeh also served as Canton's intermediary in unsuccessful negotiations with Chang Tso-lin and Lu Yung-hsiang, who then controlled the Shanghai area, concerning the formation of a triple alliance against the Chihü clique of Ts'ao K'un. In October 1923 Ts'ao assumed the presidency at Peking, and early in 1924 Yeh left the Canton government and returned to north China to take part in the movement to oust Ts'ao. After Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.) staged a coup at Peking in October 1924 and ousted Ts'ao, Yeh became minister of communications in the government formed by Tuan Ch'i-jui. On 2 November, Sun Yat-sen announced that he had accepted an invitation to go to Peking and participate in negotiations for the formation of a new government. Because of illness, Sun interrupted his trip at Tientsin. By that time, the northern and southern governments each had announced policies and programs which were unacceptable to the other. In early December 1924 Yeh Kung-cho and Hsü Shih-ying (q.v.) arrived in Tientsin for discussions without Sun, but no agreement was reached. Yeh returned to Peking to work on plans for the development of new rail systems and for the unification of control over various types of communication. His plans received little support, and he was dropped from the cabinet in the governmental reorganization of December 1925.
Yeh Kung-cho then retired from politics and devoted his time to cultural activities. He had achieved considerable reputation as an essayist, poet, calligrapher, and archaeologist. He put these talents to work as director of Peking University's classical studies research institute. He held that post until mid- 1928, when the Northern Expedition forces reached Peking. Yeh then went to live in Shanghai. From December 1931 to February 1932 he served as minister of railways in the cabinet of Sun Fo (q.v.), and later in 1932 he became a member of the National Economic Council.
After the Sino-Japanese war began in July 1937, Yeh Kung-cho moved to Hong Kong. He was detained there when the Japanese occupied Hong Kong in December 1941, and was held in custody until April 1942, when he was flown to Shanghai. He remained there for the rest of the war, devoting his time to calligraphy and research. Yeh Kung-cho lived quietly in mainland China after the People's Republic of China was established in October 1949. In 1951 he was named to the Government Administration Council's culture-education committee, and in 1953 he was listed as a director of the China Buddhist Association and the All-China Federation of Literary and Arts Circles. He was elected to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 1954 and 1959. Throughout the 1950's, he also served on various committees which were concerned with the reform of the Chinese written language. In 1961 he was a member of the preparatory committee for the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the 1911 revolution.
