Chang Shih-chao ( 1 88 1-), journalist, educator, government official, and lawyer, established his claim to prominence in the fields of Chinese letters and political thought primarily as the editor of such journals as the Su-pao, the Tu-li chou-pao [independent weekly], and especially the Chia-yin [tiger] group of publications. A native of Changsha, Hunan, Chang Shihchao was born into a farming family. Although they were poor, his parents were able to send him to a local private school, where he acquired a solid foundation in classical Chinese learning. In 1901 he and his younger brother went to Wuchang in search of a military education, and in the following year Chang was admitted to the Military Academy at Nanking, where one of his fellow students was the future anti-Manchu revolutionary leader, Chao Sheng {see Huang Hsing). Soon, however, Chang left Nanking during a wave of student unrest and, with some 30 schoolmates, went to Shanghai. There he enrolled in the Ai-kuo hsueh-she [patriotic institute], a school where students were taught revolutionary ideas by such faculty members as Ts'ai Yuan-p'ei (the principal), Chang Ping-lin, and Wu Chih-hui (qq.v.). Here, Chang came into contact with Chang Chi, Tsou Jung (18851905 ; ECCP, II, 769), and other young radicals. In May 1903, Chang Shih-chao was engaged as editor in chief of the noted newspaper Su-pao. In this paper, in addition to expressing his own increasingly radical views, he published two inflamatory pieces by Chang Ping-lin — his preface to Tsou Jung's celebrated pamphlet, Ko-ming-chün [revolutionary army], and his famous refutation of K'ang Yu-wei's views supporting constitutional monarchy. In response to the increasingly revolutionary tone taken by the Su-pao under Chang's editorship, the Manchu authorities had the paper banned in July and had Chang Ping-lin and Tsou Jung imprisoned. Although he was the editor of the offending paper, Chang Shih-chao was not arrested.

In August 1903, Chang Shih-chao joined Chang Chi, Ch'en Tu-hsiu, and others in Shanghai in organizing the Kuo-min jih-jih pao [national daily news], a daily newspaper, which in its advocacy of political revolution was even more radical than the Su-pao. Chang Shih-chao's articles in this newspaper, signed with his pen name Ch'ing-t'ung, soon became famous among students in China and Japan not only as political documents but also as models of literary style.

In the winter of 1903 Chang was associated with Huang Hsing (q.v.) in the founding of the Hua-hsing-hui, a secret society designed to prepare for a large-scale anti-Manchu revolution in Hunan. Chang Shih-chao was also responsible for a Chinese translation of a book written by Miyazaki Torazo, a Japanese adventurer who was an active supporter of Sun Yat-sen's political cause. Entitled Sanju-sannen no yume [the thirtythree years' dream], that book had first appeared in Japan in 1902. Chang's abridged Chinese version, which contained a preface lauding Sun Yat-sen as the leading contemporary revolutionist of China, was published at Shanghai in 1903 and was widely read. Late in 1904, Chang Shih-chao was jailed with Chang Chi and Huang Hsing on suspicion of being involved in a plot to assassinate Wang Chih-ch'un, a former governor of Kwangsi. Some six weeks later they were released, but fearing further action by the government authorities, Chang and his companions left for Japan.

In Tokyo, Chang Shih-chao was greatly impressed by Japanese modernization and came to the conclusion that, for China to achieve similar modernization, the basic requirement would be the development of education, not political revolution. Thus, he gradually abandoned his radical views, and when the revolutionary T'ung-meng-hui was organized in August 1905, he refused to join in spite of repeated appeals from his former colleagues, Chang Chi and Chang Ping-lin. Enrolling at the Seisoku School to study English, he began to prepare himself for the study of European civilization and departed in 1908 for Scotland to continue his Western education. At the University of Edinburgh he majored in political economy and became an avid reader of works on constitutional government and the cabinet system by such authors as Walter Bagehot, James Bryce, and Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse. He also developed a fondness for logic and pored over the works of ancient Chinese ming-chia [logicians]. These studies enabled him to make certain corrections in the translations of Mill and Jevons which had been made by Yen Fu (q.v.).

After the Wuchang revolt of October 1911, Chang returned to China. While in Great Britain, he had written several articles on the development of constitutional government and political parties in the West. Appearing in the Ti-kuo jih-pao [imperial daily news] in Peking, these articles had attracted the attention of several Chinese advocates of constitutional government. After his return to Shanghai, Chang discussed at length with Sung Chiao-jen (q.v.) the problems of government organization. Although he continued to resist pressures from his old associates to join the T'ung-meng-hui, he accepted the invitation of Yu Yu-jen (q.v.) to join the editorial staff of the Min-li-pao [people's strength]. In the spring and summer of 1912 Chang outlined his views on party politics in the Min-li-pao. An admirer of the British two-party system, he deplored the bewildering array of political parties then being organized in China. He proposed that all existing parties be dissolved and that at a national political consultative conference two large parties be created to represent opposing political views. These proposals were attacked from several quarters, and particularly by members of the T'ung-meng-hui (which had been reorganized as the Kuomintang). Under fire from the Kuomintang, he left the Min-li-pao and in September 1912 founded his own paper, the Tu-li chou-pao [independent weekly] . Thus, he continued to express his theories on government and his opinions on current affairs. In the latter part of 1912, as tension mounted between the Kuomintang and president Yuan Shih-k'ai, the latter, to exploit Chang's differences with the revolutionary party, invited him to Peking and offered him several high positions, including the chancellorship of Peking University. Chang was suspicious of Yuan's intentions, however, and following the assassination of Sung Chiao-jen in March 1913, he left Peking for Shanghai. There he met one of Yuan's former rivals, Ts'en Ch'un-hsuan (q.v.), and began to work with him in organizing opposition to Yuan. "During the so-called second revolution in the summer of 1913, Chang Shih-chao served as secretary general to his old friend Huang Hsing. After the collapse of that effort, Chang joined the general exodus of Yuan's political enemies to Japan, where he remained for the next three years.

In May 1914 Chang Shih-chao founded the most famous of all his publications, the Chia-yin tsa-chih (The Tiger Magazine). The magazine criticized Yuan Shih-k'ai for violating the principles of republican government. It soon became an important forum of opinion both in China and abroad, and one of its most notable features, the correspondence column, carried letters from such figures as Ch'en Tu-hsiu, Li Ta-chao, and Wu Chih-hui. But the most important contributor was Chang Shih-chao himself, who in his articles expounded his ideas on constitutional government, the cabinet system, and the doctrine of political compromise. The moderate tone and logical clarity of these essays soon gained for the Chia-yin tsa-chih great popularity and influence among Chinese intellectuals. Early in 1916, as armed resistance to Yuan Shih-k'ai's monarchical movement increased, Chang Shih-chao followed Ts'en Ch'un-hsuan back to China. In May, when Ts'en became acting head of the anti-Yuan military council at Chaoch'ing, Kwangtung, Chang became secretary general of the organization. After Li Yuan-hung had been installed as the new president, Chang went to Peking to sit in the reconvened National Assembly (he had been elected from Hunan as Senator in 1913). He also served as senior instructor in logic at the newly opened research institute of Peking University. In January 1917 he revived his magazine as a daily newspaper, Chia-yin Jih-k'an (The Tiger Daily). After the seizure of power by Tuan Ch'i-jui and the dissolution of the National Assembly in June, Chang left Peking for Shanghai. In May 1918, the military government in Canton, established in the preceding year by Sun Yat-sen, was reorganized under the control of Chang's former associate Ts'en Ch'unhsuan. Through Ts'en, Chang was appointed one of the Canton delegates when peace talks between the northern and southern governments were held in Shanghai in 1919.

By that time the chaotic political conditions within the country and the repeated failures of the National Assembly to assert its authority over the military had caused Chang Shih-chao and many other leading intellectuals to doubt the suitability of representative government to China. In February 1921, Chang left again for Europe with the intention of examining at first hand the political changes that had taken place in England. In London, he had talks with such celebrities as H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw. Their comments upon the political situation in China served to reinforce his doubts about the efficacy of the representative parliamentary system. He came to believe that it was suitable only to the industrialized nations of the West and that since China was fundamentally an agricultural nation, its basic need was the development of political and social institutions suitable to an agricultural economy. Chang returned to China in 1922 and in November accepted the invitation of the ministry of education to serve as chancellor of Peking Agricultural Institute, then being reorganized as the National College of Agriculture. However, following the ouster of President Li Yuanhung by the Chihli militarists in June 1923, Chang left Peking for Shanghai. In October, the election of Ts'ao K'un to the presidency through the bribing of members of the national assembly completed Chang's disenchantment with the parliamentary system of government. In a number of articles published in the Sin-wenpao [the news] and the Tung-fang tsa-chih [eastern miscellany] , he urged the rejection ofthe representative system and other political institutions borrowed from the West and the adoption of a political system more in keeping with China's agricultural foundations. To give greater publicity to his views on the development of agriculture in China, Chang planned to resume publication of "The Tiger" as a weekly magazine.

In October 1924, Ts'ao K'un was ousted from the presidency, and Tuan Ch'i-jui was installed as provisional chief executive. Because of Chang's recent proposals to abolish the National Assembly and the constitution, Tuan believed that he could exploit Chang's reputation by including him in his government. In November Chang accepted the post of minister ofjustice in Tuan's government and shortly afterward began the prosecution of those assembly members who had been involved in the bribed election of Ts'ao K'un.

In April 1925, increasing friction between the government and the college community in Peking led to Chang's appointment as acting minister of education. Dissatisfied with academic standards and discipline, he announced that henceforth the ministry of education would conduct all matriculation and graduation examinations, and that the eight universities in Peking would be merged under one administration. These measures provoked bitter opposition from the students, who until then had not been required to take examinations. Resentment of Chang Shih-chao came to a head on 7 May 1926, observed by students as "national humiliation day" (on 7 May 1915, Japan had presented the famous Twenty-one Demands upon China). Enraged by press reports that the ministry of education had banned all demonstrations on that day, bands of students marched on Chang's residence, caused considerable damage, and, two days later, appealed for his dismissal. On 12 May, Chang resigned as minister ofeducation and left for Shanghai.

In June, however, Chang returned to Peking, at Tuan's request, to resume his duties as minister of justice. Confronted with continuing student unrest, Tuan again appointed Chang to head the ministry of education (28 July 1925). At that time, the trouble centered about the Women's Higher Normal School in Peking, where a student strike, supported by such prominent faculty members as Chou Tso-jen, Li Shih-tseng, and Shen Yin-mo, was directed against the chancellor of that university. To end the strike, Chang decided to issue a series of drastic measures, culminating in the reorganization of the university under the ministry of education—a decision that resulted in further violence from the students and faculty. Despite the remonstrances of friends and mounting public opposition, Chang sought to enforce his measures by using the metropolitan police. Such was his unpopularity in Peking that in December 1925 his private residence was attacked and completely demolished during a student riot. Although he had submitted his resignation in November, he remained in Peking in the post of secretary general to Tuan Ch'i-jui until April 1926. After Tuan's withdrawal from the government, Chang left Peking to take up residence in the Japanese concession in Tientsin. Another source of Chang's unpopularity with young intellectuals and students was his opposition to the new literary and cultural movements, as expressed in his Chia-yin chou-k , an {The Tiger Weekly), which he had begun to publish in Peking in July 1925. In this magazine he aired his misgivings about what he called the Europeanization of China and reiterated his view that China was basically an agricultural nation which should seek to develop its existing institutions rather than try to imitate the industrialized nations of the West. While criticizing those who, he claimed, were willing to abandon China's cultural traditions in their blind desire to imitate the West, he urged a harmonizing of the old and the new—a judicious adaptation of China's distinctive traditions to the needs of the present day. These basically conservative views aroused strong objections, and even ridicule, from many progressive intellectuals of the day, to whom Chang, because of his great literary prestige and influence, seemed a dangerous reactionary.

After the establishment of the National Government in Nanking in 1928, orders were issued for the arrest of several important figures who had served in the Peking government, including Chang Shih-chao. Late in 1928, after the National Revolutionary Army had captured Peking, Chang left with his family for his third trip to Europe and spent over a year traveling through Germany, France, and England. Returning to China in the spring of 1930, he accepted an invitation from Chang Hsueh-liang, the warlord of Manchuria, to become professor of literature at Northeastern University in Mukden, and in March 1931, he became dean of the university's college of arts and letters. Through the intercession of Chang Hsueh-liang, orders for his arrest were rescinded by the National Government, and after the Mukden Incident of September 1931, he returned to Shanghai as the guest of Tu Yueh-sheng (q.v.), a powerful figure in that city. With Tu's support, he took up the practice oflaw. In October 1 932, he volunteered to serve as defense counsel for his old friend Ch'en Tu-hsiu (q.v.), the former head of the Chinese Communist party who was being tried for treason. In April 1933, Chang submitted a lengthy brief in Ch'en's defense which (though rejected by Ch'en himself) was considered a literary and legal masterpiece. Having established himself as a prominent figure in the legal world, Chang became president of Shanghai Law College in the spring of 1934.

During the early years of the war with Japan, "Chang remained in the foreign concession of Shanghai. In the autumn of 1941, however, with the help of emissaries sent by Tu Yuehsheng, he made his way to Hong Kong and thence to Chungking. He lived at Tu's residence for the rest of the war and attempted to persuade Tu to form a new political party.

Late in 1945, Chang returned to Shanghai and resumed his law practice. Among his more notable cases was his unsuccessful defense of the Japanese collaborator Liang Hung-chih (q.v.) against the charge of treason. Early in 1949, when the civil war was turning in favor of the Communists, Chang, acting as a delegate of the National Government, flew to Peiping on two occasions to discuss the possibility of peace. Chang himself was graciously received by Mao Tse-tung, to whom Chang had given some financial assistance several years previously, and whose father-in-law, Yang Ch'ang-chi, he had known while a student in England. After attempts to negotiate failed in April 1949, Chang elected to remain in Peiping. In the early 1950's he made several visits to Hong Kong, reportedly to win the support of prominent Chinese in that colony for the Chinese Communist war effort in Korea. As an elderly scholar at Peking, Chang Shihchao turned his attention to reassessment of the events and personalities of the anti-Manchu movement of the pre-1911 period. He was viewed as the leader of the group supporting the importance of Huang Hsing, rather than Sun Yat-sen, to the early history of the Chinese revolution and to the political controversies among the republican revolutionaries after the fall of the dynsasty in 1911. Chang's position was set forth in an article on Huang Hsing which he wrote for the symposium, Hsin-hai ko-ming hui-i-lu [reminiscences of the 1911 revolution], published at Peking between 1961 and 1963. There he stated that during his early days he had made friends with intellectuals and political figures all over China. Huang Hsing, because of his magnanimous nature, was the one easiest to work with. The three men who were most difficult to get along with were Chang Ping-lin, Ch'en Tu-hsiu, and Li Ken-yuan (q.v.).

The bulk of Chang Shih-chao's writings consisted of articles and essays written for various periodicals with which he was connected. Many of these were later collected and reprinted in collections such as the Chia-yin tsa-chih ts'un-kao, which included his writings for the Chia-yin tsachi, the Chia-yin jih-k'an, and the Tu-li chou-pao [independent weekly] ; and the Ch'ang-sha Changshih ts'ung-kao [miscellaneous essays of Chang of Changsha], containing his political writings in the Sin-wen-pao during 1923-24. Chang's continuing interest in logic can be seen in such volumes as his Lo-chi chih-yao [elements of logic] and his Ming-chia hsiao-shuo [short stories by noted authors]. He was also the editor of a dictionary of the Chinese language, Chung-teng kuo-wen tien [intermediate language readings], and the author of Fu-lo-i-te hsu-chuan [introductory biography of Sigmund Freud]. As a writer, Chang was considered to have been at his best in his essays in the Chia-yin tsa-chih. In these essays, markedly influenced by Western principles of grammar and logic, Chang brought to the Chinese classical language a degree of precision and clarity unsurpassed by any predecessor or contemporary.

Chang Shih-chao married Wu Jo-nan, a granddaughter of Wu Ch'ang-ch'ing, who was at one time Yuan Shih-k'ai's military superior in Korea. A student in Japan and a member of the T'ung-meng-hui, she was introduced to her future husband by Chang Ping-lin about 1906.