Cheng T'ien-hsi (10 July 1884-), known as F. T. Cheng, the first Chinese to receive the LL.D. degree in England, became vice minister of justice at Nanking (1931-34) and a judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague ( 1 936-46) . From 1 946 to 1 950 he was ambassador to the Court of St. James's. In 1 950 he was granted rights of residence in England. Although F. T. Cheng was a native of Hsiangshan (Chungshan), Kwangtung, he was born at Mamoi, near Foochow. A few days after his birth a French naval flotilla attacked Foochow. The family fled to Hong Kong, where Cheng's father, Cheng Ching-nan, became a buyer in a British firm. Since Cheng Ching-nan hoped to make his son a scholar, he sent F. T. Cheng back to his native district at the age of six to begin his traditional education. At the age of eight, Cheng rejoined his family in Hong Kong where, after a year in a private school, he studied with a tutor. After working under the tutor for a year, Cheng went back to the village school in Kwangtung because there was an epidemic in Hong Kong. In 1894 he returned to Hong Kong, entered a new Chinese school, and began to learn English. In 1896, during another epidemic, his father died. Cheng then abandoned his idea of becoming a classical scholar and decided to take up a career in business to support his mother. As a result of that decision he began serious study of English and mathematics under an uncle who had been a student at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, England. He made progress, and his uncle's influence awakened a desire in Cheng to go to England. After a year with his uncle, Cheng entered Queen's College, the government-run English school for Chinese boys in Hong Kong. He boarded in a provisions store with which his father had once had business connections. He slept on the counter in traditional apprentice style and helped in the shop in out-of-school hours. He remained at Queen's College for only one year, until 1898. Then another epidemic broke out in Hong Kong, and Cheng returned to his native village in Hsiang-shan on his mother's request. There he continued to study English on his own. After returning to Hong Kong, he became associated with Cheng Kuan-kung, a fellow-clansman whom he had known since childhood. Cheng Kuan-kung had recently returned from study in Japan and worked on the Chung-kuo jih-pao [China daily news] , the anti- Manchu revolutionary paper established in Hong Kong in 1899. Cheng Kuan-kung later resigned and established his own newspapers. Although F. T. Cheng took an active interest in these enterprises and was exposed to the political ideas of the period, he did not become involved in the revolutionary movement. He went into business, first as a shareholder in a provisions firm, which failed because of the manager's incompetent accounting, and then as a sales agent for a sewing-machine company. From that modest beginning he rose to become an agent for several European firms. He then established his own export business, located on Des Voeux Road in Hong Kong, where he dealt in bristles, rice, fireworks, and human hair. Cheng's credit rating was good, and the firm prospered. Cheng married, and he and his wife had a daughter.

In 1907 Cheng left his family at Mamoi and set off for England to realize his dream of studying law. In London he spent two years with a private tutor, a Cambridge graduate named A. E. Williams, preparing for the London University matriculation. He formed a close friendship with Williams, who taught him much about English life and who introduced him to Arthur Machen, an author and a regular contributor to the London Evening News. Machen gave him Boswell's Life of Johnson to read ; it became one of Cheng's favorite books. Cheng took his LL.B. degree with honors in 1912, and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in April 1913. He then returned to China for a brief visit with his family. He was offered the post of procurator general in the high court at Canton, but refused the appointment because of his determination to return to London to obtain his doctorate. He did return to England in 1914, this time taking his wife with him, and began work on his thesis, "Rules of Private International Law Determining Capacity to Contract." In August 1915 he published an article entitled "A Chinese View of the War" in the National Review. The article drew favorable comment from several other journals. In 1916 he received his LL.D. He was the first Chinese student to achieve that distinction, and the Chinese minister to England, Alfred Sze (Shih Chao-chi,q.v.) gave a special dinner in his honor. After receiving his doctorate, Cheng remained in London for another year to learn the practical side of the law. On the recommendation of Sir John Macdonnell, he entered the chambers of Bromley Eames and, when Eames died, the chambers of Theobald Mathews. During this period Cheng attended the Quain lectures on comparative law and public international law given by Sir John Macdonnell and shared the Quain prize for an essay entitled "What is the Liability of Belligerents for Injuries Caused to Neutrals by Reprisals?" In January 1917 Cheng left England with his wife and newborn second daughter to return to China. They planned to travel by way of Siberia because of the war; Alfred Sze had made Cheng a diplomatic courier to facilitate customs procedure. Boarding the Newcastle train at King's Cross to begin his journey, Cheng met Wang Ching-wei (q.v.), who was returning to China by the same route. When they finally arrived in Peking at the end of the long trip, Wang Ching-wei introduced Cheng to Hu Hanmin, the former T'ung-meng-hui leader and close associate of Sun Yat-sen, and to Wang Ch'ung-hui and Lo Wen-kan (qq.v.), respectively chairman and vice chairman of the law codification commission.

Cheng went to Hong Kong and was admitted to the bar there in May 1917. The following month he was retained as counsel for the defense in a murder case and was complimented by the court for his handling of the case. His prospects for a successful law career in Hong Kong seemed good. But, acquaintances in Peking, specifically Wang Ch'ung-hui and Lo Wen-kan, urged him to return to Peking, where there was urgent need for Western-trained legal experts. He went north to the Chinese capital to join the judicial branch of the government.

Cheng received a minor post in the ministry of justice as supervisor in charge of translation of Chinese law into English. He translated most of the material himself and put into English virtually all the new laws of the republic, including the provisional criminal code, the draft code of criminal procedure, the draft civil code, the draft code of civil procedure, the prize law, the prize court judgments, and the Supreme Court decisions. Soon, Cheng was transferred from the ministry of justice to the law codification commission. In 1919 he was made a judge of the Supreme Court, but at the end of 1 920 he returned to his position with the law codification commission. He was attached to the Chinese delegation at the Washington Conference of 1921-22. Afterwards, an international commission on extraterritoriality was established to examine the Chinese judicial system with a view to abolition of extraterritorial jurisdiction, and Cheng became a deputy delegate and an adviser to that commission. In 1922 he was appointed chief compiler of the law codification commission; two years later, following political changes in Peking, he resigned. He also held other posts in Peking: examiner for judicial candidates, tutor of the judicial academy, and professor of law at Peking University. In 1927, after the arrival of the Nationalist forces in the Yangtze valley, Cheng moved his family to Shanghai and established a private law practice, which soon prospered. He declined the post of president of the high court in the government. Instead, he accepted a special partnership in a well-known firm of foreign lawyers. He also became a professor at the law school of Soochow University. His intentions to remain apart from official life were soon overcome. In 1932, on the recommendation and persuasion of Wang Ching-wei, he became vice minister of justice at Nanking, under Lo Wenkan. Cheng held that post until 1934 and served as acting minister for a brief period in Lo's absence. During this period Cheng's mother died, an occasion which he described as being the saddest day of his life.

When Lo Wen-kan resigned as minister of justice in October 1934, Cheng also left office, but agreed to continue to serve as adviser to the ministries of justice and foreign affairs. He planned to return to private law practice in Shanghai. In 1935, however, Wang Shih-chieh (q.v.), who was then minister of education, invited Cheng to go to London to head a special cultural mission in charge of the art treasures being sent to the International Exhibition of Chinese art at Burlington House. That exhibition turned out to be one of the most successful ever held in London. During the period of its display Cheng delivered a series of three lectures on Chinese culture; these were published in 1936 under the title Civilization and the Art of China, with a prefatory note by Cheng's old friend Arthur Machen. He was also invited by Queen Mary to inspect her palace collection of Chinese art objects. Although he had no great knowledge of Chinese art, a fact which he readily admitted, F. T. Cheng contributed substantially to the success of the exhibition because he was a witty public speaker and knew England and the English well. He discharged the mission with great personal satisfaction, since it permitted him to renew old contacts in a country to which he was strongly attached and in a capacity free of political complications. The Chinese art exhibition ended in the spring of 1936, and the art treasures were shipped to China aboard the P. and O. liner Rampura. When the vessel ran aground at Gibraltar in April, Cheng had many anxious moments in London, where he was winding up the exhibition's affairs. Fortunately, the vessel was refloated safely, and Cheng was able to return triumphant from his London mission. Shortly after his return from London, Cheng was appointed a judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague, succeeding Wang Ch'ung-hui. With the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, Cheng moved with the court to Switzerland and remained there until the end of the war. He continued in his post until January 1946, and was then made a member of the board of liquidation of the League of Nations at Geneva.

On his return to China, Cheng was appointed ambassador to Great Britain. He took up his duties at London in August 1946 and, in that familiar milieu, spared no effort to promote cultural and economic relations between China and England. He continued in that post until the British government recognized the Central People's Government at Peking in January 1950. At that time Cheng was granted rights of residence in England.

After 1950 Cheng resided in New York, where he was an adviser to the Wah Chang Corporation, and in London. He also was adviser to the Judicial Yuan of the National Government at Taipei and a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague.

F. T. Cheng's great diligence contributed much to his successful career. He has been respected by both Chinese and Westerners for his personal conduct and for his independence from political affiliations. As ambassador to Great Britain, he won the affection of royalty and commoner alike as a Chinese gentleman. Cheng had a strong sense of filial devotion and respect for Confucian principles. He also was well acquainted with such Western works as those of Shakespeare and Samuel Johnson, from which he loved to quote. Cheng was a lawyer of distinction ; a diplomat who discharged his duties with skill and tact; and an urbane public figure. A sociable man in private life, he liked good food and wine and considered dining to be an art essential to good living. Simplicity, not lavishness, marked his tastes.

Cheng wrote several books in English : China Moulded by Confucius, which was published in London in 1946; East and West: Episodes in a Sixty Years' Journey, which was published in London in 1951; and Musings of a Chinese Gourmet, which was published in London in 1955.