Cheng Hsiao-hsü (2 April 1860-28 March 1938), Manchu loyalist and assistant to P'u-yi (q.v.), was a prime mover in the creation of Manchoukuo. He served as premier at Hsinking (Changchun) from 1932 to 1935.

Although his ancestral home was Minhou, Fukien, Cheng Hsiao-hsü was born in Soochow. His father, Cheng Shou-lien (T. Chung-lien), was a chin-shih of 1852. Cheng received his early education in the Chinese classics and obtained the chü-jen degree in 1882. In 1885 Cheng entered the secretariat of the governor general of Chihli (Hopei), Li Hungchang (ECCP, I, 464-71), at Tientsin. Four years later he passed the examination given for secretaries of the Grand Secretariat; in 1890, presumably while awaiting appointment, he taught at the Bordered Red Banner School at Peking. In 1891, on entering the Chinese diplomatic service, he was assigned to Tokyo as secretary of legation. He later served as consul at Tokyo and as consul general at Kobe and Osaka. He returned to China after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in 1894.

Cheng Hsiao-hsü then entered the secretariat of another leading Chinese statesman of the period, Chang Chih-tung (ECCP, I, 27-32), at Nanking. When Chang went to Peking in 1895 to head the Board of Education, Cheng accompanied him. Chang Chih-tung was known for his readiness to assist worthy and promising scholars, and in 1898 he recommended that Cheng be granted an imperial audience. After the audience, Cheng was appointed a secretary in the Tsungli Yamen at Peking. That was the year of the Hundred Days Reform (see K'ang Yu-wei). When the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi intervened to check the reform movement, incarcerated the emperor, and took control of the government herself, Cheng Hsiao-hsü resigned his post at Peking and went to Wuchang to take a position in the secretariat of the governor general of Hunan-Hupeh. In 1899 he was appointed head of the southern section of the Peking-Hankow railroad and director of the railroad school at Hankow. He remained in central China until 1903. Ts'en Ch'un-hsuan (q.v.), governor general of Kwangtung-Kwangsi, then recommended Cheng's appointment as commissioner of border defense in Kwangsi, to be stationed at Lungchou. Cheng Hsiao-hsü served there until 1905. At that time the southwestern border of Kwangsi was a bandit-infested area, and because it was adjacent to French Indo-China it required a commissioner who was both alert and discreet. Cheng went to his new post in Kwangsi with 3,000 Hupeh soldiers and succeeded in bringing comparative peace and order to the area. His experience in Kwangsi brought him pride and self-confidence. From 1905 to 1908 Cheng was associated with a number of enterprises in Shanghai. He served as director of the Kiangnan Arsenal and as a member of the board of directors of both the Commercial Press and the Shanghai Savings Bank. In 1907 he was appointed to provincial posts in Anhwei and then in Kwangtung, but he did not wish to serve under the empress dowager and refused both positions. After her death in November 1908, Cheng went to Mukden at the invitation of Hsi-liang, the governor general of the Three Eastern Provinces, to assist in planning the construction of the projected Chinchow-Aigun railroad and of the harbor at Hulutao. In connection with that task, he became associated with Sheng Hsuan-huai (q.v.), who had returned to prominence at Peking in the ministry of posts and communications; T'ang Shao-yi (q.v.), the governor of Fengtien province; and Willard Straight, the American consul general at Mukden. Cheng negotiated the preliminary agreement under which the proposed rail line was to be financed by the United States and constructed by a British engineering firm, but the project collapsed in 1910 as a result of Russian and Japanese pressure on the Peking government. In 1911 Cheng was appointed civil governor of Hunan province. Shortly after assuming that post, he was ordered to Peking for consultation. Before he could return to Changsha, it had been lost to the republican revolutionaries. After the abdication in February 1912 of the Hsuan-t'ung emperor, P'u-yi (q.v.), Cheng Hsiao-hsü resigned from official service. Although he was deeply opposed to the revolutionaries and their programs, he contended that the 1911 catastrophe had been caused by the misgovernment of the empress dowager.

In effect, Cheng Hsiao-hsü never recognized the Republic of China. From 1912 to 1923 he made his home in Shanghai, living quietly in retirement in a house which he named the Haits'ang-lou. He devoted himself to reading Chinese history, writing poetry, and improving his calligraphy. He held occasional literary gatherings, but took no part in politics. Yuan Shih-k'ai and Li Yuan-hung (qq.v.) invited him to accept positions in the government at Peking, but he refused. Monarchist though he was, he took no part in the restoration attempt of Chang Hsün (q.v.) in 1917.

Only when the man whom he still regarded as the ruler of China, P'u-yi, summoned him to Peking in late 1923 did Cheng Hsiao-hsü, then over 60, emerge from seclusion to begin a second career. P'u-yi, who retained the title of emperor, desired Cheng's assistance in ridding his imperial household of corruption. Cheng accepted the assignment, and early in 1924 he took up his new post as minister of the imperial household at Peking, with the mission of bringing order to P'u-yi's establishment. The year, designated chia-tzu by the Chinese lunar calendar, was regarded as being auspicious for that undertaking. One matter requiring attention at that time was the removal of P'u-yi's court from the Forbidden City in Peking to the Summer Palace, as had been provided in the Articles of Favorable Treatment drawn up at the time of his abdication. Preparations for that move were begun, but Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.) occupied Peking in October 1924, forced P'u-yi to leave the Forbidden City, and effectively destroyed the 1912 Articles of Favorable Treatment. Cheng Hsiao-hsü and Sir Reginald Johnston, P'u-yi's tutor-counselor, arranged for P'u-yi's escape into the Legation Quarter in Peking, where he was given refuge in the Japanese legation. In February 1925 P'u-yi, traveling incognito, went by rail from Peking to Tientsin, where he took up residence in the Japanese concession. These moves had been made with the acquiescence of Cheng Hsiao-hsu's friend and admirer Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.), who was then in power at Peking.

From 1925 to 1932, Cheng Hsiao-hsü continued to serve P'u-yi, now officially deprived of his imperial title, as counselor and adviser at Tientsin. The three advisers in P'u-yi's entourage who were then most influential were Cheng Hsiao-hsü, Lo Chen-yu (q.v.), and Ch'en Paoch'en (1848-1935). They often disagreed, and Cheng Hsiao-hsü and Lo Chen-yu, in particular, had long vied for preeminence. During the summer of 1928 Cheng began to feel that P'uyi's cause might be assisted more directly by the Japanese than by the Chinese Nationalists, who had arrived in north China and had seized Peking. In August 1928 Cheng and his eldest son, Cheng Ch'ui (1887-1933; T. Jang-yü), visited Japan, where they met with representatives of the Japanese general staff and the Black Dragon Society. Reportedly, his Japanese hosts compared Cheng Hsiao-hsü with Shen Pao-hsu, who, in the period of the warring states in ancient China, had successfully restored the state of Ch'u. Cheng demurred at the comparison, but broached the matter of the restoration of the Chinese emperor. Cheng reportedly returned to Tientsin satisfied with his mission, and the informal conversations led to more detailed planning during the months that followed. In February 1931 Cheng Hsiao-hsü returned to Shanghai long enough to sell his beloved residence, Hai-ts'ang-lou.

In the summer of 1931 P'u-yi and his advisers at Tientsin were informed indirectly that the Japanese regarded the rule of Chang Hsuehliang (q.v.) in Manchuria as unsatisfactory. The Mukden Incident of September 1931 that marked the beginning of the Japanese military occupation of Manchuria thus had special significance for P'u-yi. Private discussions between P'u-yi's staff, Japanese representatives, and Chinese supporters of P'u-yi continued. In November 1931, Doihara Kenji, head of the secret service organization of the Japanese Kwangtung Army, visited P'u-yi to assure him that the Japanese military action in Manchuria had been directed solely against Chang Hsueh-liang and to discuss the possibility of establishing an independent, monarchical Manchurian state to be headed by P'u-yi. Cheng Hsiao-hsü favored the Japanese proposal; Ch'en Pao-ch'en and others opposed it. In the end, P'u-yi followed Cheng Hsiao-hsu's advice. On 10 November 1931, P'u-yi, accompanied by Cheng Hsiao-hsü and Cheng Ch'ui, secretly left Tientsin, boarded a Japanese ship, and went to southern Manchuria, where the party took up residence at Port Arthur. Cheng Hsiao-hsü undertook the trip with high hopes and composed a special poem in honor of the occasion.

Cheng Hsiao-hsu's support of the restoration plan originally had been motivated by the idea of utilizing Japan's strength to establish a foothold in Manchuria. The long-range objective was to reestablish the imperial dynasty at Peking. Doihara reportedly conceded in the Tientsin negotiations that both the former dynastic name and the reign title might be used. Nevertheless, the Japanese had their own national interests clearly in mind when persuading P'u-yi and his supporters to make the trip to Manchuria. It soon became clear that the agreements made by Doihara were not to be carried out fully. Disagreement among Cheng Hsiao-hsü, his fellow Chinese, and the Japanese with regard to the status of P'u-yi occupied the winter months of 1931. Terms were finally reached in February 1932, and the new state of Manchoukuo came into existence on 1 March 1932. On 9 March 1932, after having been invited the conventional three times to head the new state, P'u-yi graciously accepted. He was not made emperor, however, but was granted the title of chief executive, which Tuan Ch'i-jui had used at Peking a decade earlier. As anticipated, Cheng Hsiao-hsu, then over 70, became premier of the new government at the capital city of Hsinking (Changchun). For a short period Cheng was also minister of war; he later served as minister of education and culture. When the Japan-Manchoukuo Cultural Association was formed in 1933, he became its first president.

The major legal act of Cheng Hsiao-hsu's official career in Manchoukuo took place on 15 September 1932. On that date Cheng and Muto Nobuyoshi, who was governor general of the Kwantung Leased Territory, commander of the Kwantung Army, and Japanese ambassador to Manchoukuo, signed a protocol of recognition and a treaty of mutual assistance. By the protocol, Japan recognized Manchoukuo as an independent state "organized in accordance with the free will of its inhabitants," and Manchoukuo extended recognition, and also agreed to respect, existing Japanese public and private rights and interests within its jurisdiction. It was further agreed that Japan and Manchoukuo would cooperate for purposes of national security. It was not until 1 March 1934 that P'u-yi was enthroned as emperor of Manchoukuo. The Manchuria Daily News of Dairen noted that that development had been largely the work of Cheng Hsiao-hsu. Cheng, the paper stated, had finally achieved "the creation of a monarchy when it seemed that monarchs had been forever ousted from China." Those who had followed the story of P'u-yi's progress to the throne of Manchoukuo, the paper added, recognized that Cheng Hsiao-hsu had been the man behind the scenes, "a Wolsey with a brighter destiny, a Richelieu whose statesmanship has blended with swordsmanship and poetry." In his official capacity as premier of Manchoukuo, Cheng made a visit to Japan from 24 March to 24 April 1934. A little over a year later, at the end of 1 years of service to the man whom he viewed as the rightful sovereign of China, Cheng resigned his post on 21 May 1935.

Cheng Hsiao-hsu always maintained his personal integrity, and none could question the sincerity of his purpose. He had consistently worked for the independence of Manchoukuo and toward reestablishing the authority of his emperor. Reportedly, he contended often with the Japanese in council and even rejected proposals by the Kwantung Army. However, the government of Manchoukuo was constituted to give Japan the deciding voice in the affairs of the region. As early as mid- 1932, Cheng Ch'ui, whose views apparently followed those of his father, was forced by Japanese pressure to resign from his post as chief secretary in the premier's office. When Cheng Ch'ui died in the South Manchurian Railway Hospital at Mukden in 1933, Chinese observers were quick to suggest that perhaps his death had not been due to natural causes. Cheng Hsiao-hsu himself is said to have been the target of Japanese threats in late 1932.

Manchoukuo had two reign periods: Tat'ung, from 1932 to 1933 when P'u-yi was chief executive; and K'ang-te, which began in March 1934 when P'u-yi was installed as emperor. Ta-t'ung is, of course, to be identified with the ideal Confucian world of one great unified state. K'ang-te, meaning "the virtue of maintaining regional peace," apparently was intended to symbolize a retrogression, since the three stages outlined in the traditional Ch'uncKin tso-chuan [Tso's commentary on the spring and autumn annals] were the age of decay and disorder, the age of limited peace, and then the age of great unified peace. The sequence of the reign names suggests that the first high hopes had been abandoned for the compromised reality that was the puppet state of Manchoukuo. The nomenclature derived naturally from Cheng Hsiao-hsu's political philosophy, and he is the person most likely to have selected the nam After his retirement from office, Cheng Hsiao-hsu visited Peking in 1937. He reportedly prepared a home for himself in Peking and planned to move there to live quietly, but the Japanese suggested that it would be inadvisable for the first prime minister of Manchoukuo to live outside the boundaries of that state. Cheng returned to Hsinking, where he died on 28 March 1938 at the age of 79 sui. Chang Chinghui, the man who had succeeded him as premier of Manchoukuo, stated that the empire had lost its greatest figure. Official Japanese statements in Tokyo declared that the services which Cheng Hsiao-hsü had rendered in realizing "the principle of the oneness in spirit and virtue" between Japan and Manchoukuo would occupy a prominent place in history. Cheng was given a state funeral, and P'u-yi, then the K'ang-te emperor, awarded him posthumously the Grand Order of Merit with Grand Cordon of Orchid. That decoration had been awarded only once before, to General Honjo Shigeru, chief of the Kwantung Army.

The central concept of Cheng Hsiao-hsu's political philosophy was still the conventional Confucian wang-tao, or kingly way. That concept had been revived in China in the late nineteenth century to counter aggressive Western influences, and it was revived by the Japanese to counter aggressive Chinese nationalism and Communism. Cheng, like Lo Chen-yu and other Chinese loyalists, essentially was concerned with the restoration of the Manchu dynasty as ruler of a revived Chinese empire. It was their fate to find themselves in a Japanese-controlled puppet government as the Far East moved toward the Second World War.

Cheng Hsiao-hsü followed a strict personal regimen throughout his life, preserved his physical vigor into his later years, and looked much younger than he was. He normally rose long before dawn, spent an hour in t'ai-chich'uan exercises, wrote poetry or read history while sipping Chinese tea, and ate a frugal breakfast of rice gruel. At about six in the morning, he undertook the day's work. Because of his habits, one of his studios was named the Yeh-ch'i-an [night riser's studio]. Sir Reginald Johnston in 1932 described Cheng Hsiao-hsü as "a man of fine character and unimpeachable integrity," as "undoubtedly one of the most learned and accomplished men of his generation in China, and . . . also perhaps the most distinguished of living Chinese poets." Cheng's collection of his early poems, the Halts''ang-lou shih [poems written at Hai-ts'ang-lou], was first published in 1902; later editions appeared in 1914 and 1938. Cheng's poetry, written in the classical style, resembled that composed by Ch'en San-li (q.v.). Cheng wrote prefaces for two collections of Ch'en San-li's poetry, published in 1909 and 1922. Cheng Hsiao-hsu's talents included calligraphy as well as poetry, and his calligraphy was considered outstandingly good. However, Cheng's classical accomplishments and personal integrity have been obscured by political criticism because of his intimate connection with Manchoukuo.