Ying Hua (28 October 1866-10 January 1926), known as Ying Lien-chih, an eminent Catholic scholar who was the founder of the Ta Kung Pao and the lay founder of Fu-jen (Catholic) University.
Born into a Manchu family in Wanp'ing, Chihli (Hopei), Ying Lien-chih showed his natural taste for literary and intellectual pursuits at an early age. Although he had no formal schooling, he apparently had the benefit of private instruction in the Chinese classics. Ying was a serious lad who found his studies congenial, but he had a normal enthusiasm for play as well as for work. He became a skilled swordsman and archer, and he kept himself in trim by lifting weights.
Even as a youth, Ying enjoyed reflective speculation on philosophical questions. He read widely in the literature of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Islam. While pursuing these interests, Ying encountered the Roman Catholic faith for the first time through the Sisters of Charity, who were nursing his fiancee back to health in a Peking hospital. His favorable impression of the attitudes and skills of the Sisters led him to inquiries about the Roman Catholic Church and to wider contacts with Catholic priests. At the same time, he began an intensive study of Christian doctrine and of the Chinese works of the eminent Catholic missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610). In 1895, at the age of 29, he became a Catholic. Two years later, Ying and his fiancee were married despite strong objections from her father to Ying's religious affiliation. After the marriage, Ying's wife also became a Catholic. As a member of the Plain Red Banner, Ying Lien-chih served for two years as an imperial guardsman assigned to the household of Prince Su. He then spent about two years (1898-1900) as a minor government official in Annam. The effects of the tropical climate on his health forced him to return to China in 1900. On his return to north China, he decided to establish a newspaper "to help China become a modern and democratic nation." Thus in June 1902, with the assistance of Ts'ai Fu-ning and Wang Tsu-san, he founded the Ta Kung Pao in Tientsin. During the next decade he served both as director and editor in chief, and his literary and managerial abilities did much to make the newspaper a success. Founded as an instrument of reform in the critical years when the imperial throne was under pressure to introduce widespread changes in many areas, the Ta Kung Pao soon acquired the reputation of being a fearless critic of both domestic and international policies. Ying Lien-chih openly attacked the empress dowager, recommending that she retire from the throne. After the republican revolution of 1911, the Ta Kung Pao continued its criticism of measures which it considered inimical to democratic reform and the public interest. Ying Lien-chih was also one of the pioneers in the use of pai-hua [the vernacular] in order to reach wider audiences and to spread his appeals for modernization and reform. As early as 1902 he began writing in pai-hua, and during the next few years he published books in pai-hua in which he denounced foot-binding and other customs of the period. He also advocated more governmental initiative in encouraging industry in China. Yet his zeal for reform and his vision of a modernized nation were consistently tempered by his desire to conserve essential elements of Chinese culture, particularly its literature and calligraphy. In 1912 Ying Lien-chih turned from editing the Ta Kung Pao to problems of education which he had come to feel were critical in any program for the modernization of China. He joined with Ma Liang (q.v.) in addressing an eloquent plea to Pope Pius X in July 1912 urging the establishment of a Catholic university in Peking to advance the cause of Catholicism among the Chinese intelligentsia.
Although poor health forced Ying Lien-chih to retire in 1912 to a quiet retreat in the Western Hills near Peking, he continued his active interest in educational and social problems. His friend Ma Liang prevailed upon him to establish and manage for a brief period a vocational school for girls. In 1913, in another effort to promote learning and to revive Chinese culture, he and Ma established the Fu-jen School as a "means of developing a group of Chinese Catholics who would be as cultured and well-educated as any other class or circle in China and whose conversation would redound to the glory of the Holy Mother Church and to the good of their native country." He personally supported this school until 1918, when a lack of funds and related difficulties forced it to close.
Throughout this period, Ying Lien-chih and his associates were increasingly concerned over the slow progress which the Catholic Church was making in the realm of higher education in China. Prior to the republican period, there were several Protestant-sponsored universities but only one Catholic university—Aurora in Shanghai, founded in 1903. Ying and his friends were troubled by opposition within the Catholic Church to proposals that the Church itself stimulate and sponsor work in the field of secular education. To combat this lethargy and hostility, Ying and a small group of educated Catholic scholars and missionaries, including Ma Liang and Father Vincent Lebbe (Lei Ming-yuan, q.v.), initiated a religio-intellectual movement in north China which resulted in a number of prominent families being brought into the Cathohc Church in 1914-15. In June 1917 Ying published an "Exhortation to Study." This sharply worded document attacked the obscurantism of some of the Catholic missionaries and urged the native clergy and laity to seek greater proficiency in their own language and literature. He also submitted a Latin translation of his exhortation together with a sequel, "An Answer to a Friend Who Objects," to Pope Benedict XV, who acknowledged them with sympathetic encouragement.
The first steps toward improving Catholic higher education in China were taken in 1920, when Dr. George B. O'Toole, a seminary professor and a Benedictine Oblate of St. Vincent's Arch-abbey in Pennsylvania, visited China to discuss with Ying Lien-chih his proposal for a Catholic university. Dr. O'Toole left China in January 1921 and reported his findings in Rome on his way back to the United States. As a result, Pope Benedict XV directed the head of the Benedictine Order to consult American representatives of the order regarding the possibility of establishing such a university. The American Benedictines accepted this new responsibility in 1923, and the first monks of that order arrived in Peking in 1924, followed the next year by Abbot Stehle and Dr. O'Toole, whom the Holy See had appointed chancellor and rector, respectively, of the new university. In 1925 Fu-jen (Catholic) university was established on its new campus at Peking together with the MacManus Academy of Chinese Studies. Throughout the arduous preparations for opening the new university, Ying Lien-chih bore a major share of such practical responsibilities as supervising the renovation of the new premises, managing finances, and establishing admission procedures for the first classes. Because he was participating in the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, he refused to accept compensation for his many labors. In the summer of 1925, despite poor health, he accepted the deanship of the MacManus Academy of Chinese Studies. Though his strength failed rapidly during the remaining months of that year, he continued to work on a book about Benedictine monasticism and completed a syllabus of courses for the academy. Ying Lien-chih died of cancer on 10 January 1926 in Peking. Two months later, on 2 March 1926, Pope Pius XI honored him with the Knighthood of St. Gregory the Great for his exemplary life and for his services to Fu-jen University. Ying's life was characterized not only by his religious devotion but also by his broad interest in learning and education. At a time when the Catholic Church was making few converts among the Chinese intelligentsia, Ying worked to extend the influence of the Church and its philosophy among Chinese intellectuals and, through them, into the life of modern China. He also worked for the reorientation of the Catholic Church's educational policy and for the rise of the Chinese clergy. As a Chinese patriot, Ying was a firm believer in "reform through evolution rather than revolution" and thought that the Church, as an agent of modern education, was potentially an important aid in the rehabilitation of traditional China. Ying Lien-chih was also widely known as a humanitarian. As a calligrapher of some repute, he turned his considerable income from calligraphy to charitable purposes in north China, working particularly for the assistance of orphans and for the relief of famine victims.
