Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 2.pdf/101

 and by his concept of a world community, published in various places under the title, 大同書 Ta-t'ung shu, 10 chüan. K'ang's fame became nation-wide when on May 2, 1895 he submitted a so-called Ten Thousand Word Memorial, signed by more than 1,200 chü-jên from eighteen provinces, protesting against the ratification of the Sino-Japanese treaty of peace signed at Shimonoseki on the preceding April 17, and calling upon the government to institute specific reforms. Both the revolutionists and the reformers concurred in believing that the time had come to adopt Western military techniques and to introduce the natural sciences into the schools.

By 1894 the alert T'an Ssŭ-t'ung was bending all his energies in pursuit of the new knowledge. By this time, too, he had read most of the existing translations of scientific works, and showed special aptitude in mathematics. He founded in his native place a society for the promotion of Western learning, and this event may be taken as the beginning of the reform movement which quickly swept over Hunan. Having heard that K'ang Yu-wei had organized (1895) in Peking and Shanghai a Ch'iang Hsüeh Hui 強學會 or Society for the Study of National Rejuvenation, he went to Peking to interview that leader. By the time he reached the capital K'ang had left for Kwangtung, but he met K'ang's celebrated pupil, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao 梁啟超, a chü-jên of 1889, who was really a publicist of outstanding literary ability, advocate of political reform, and a student with many varied interests. Through frequent contacts with Liang, who was then chief secretary of the Ch'iang Hsüeh Hui, T'an became acquainted not only with that organization's political program, but also with K'ang Yu-wei's classical and philosophical researches, some of which he was himself ready to promulgate. From this time on his thought was more or less influenced by Kang's writings.

In 1896 T'an Ssŭ-t'ung went, at his father's sequest, to Nanking as an expectant prefect. But instead of keeping in touch with official aeeies, he devoted himself to a study of the fsets of Buddhism, under the guidance of Yang Wên-hui 楊文會 who had served (1878–81, 1886–89) in the Chinese legations in London and Paris under the two officers  and, T'an was then in charge of the Buddhist Press (金陵刻經處) in Nanking. T'an's portrait, showing his hands in the Buddhist posture of adoration, appears in Timothy Richard's Conversion by the Million (1907), vol. I, p. 58. It may be noted in passing that Yang assisted Richard in preparing the English version of the Buddhist tract, Ta-shêng ch'i-hsin lun (Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna Doctrine, Shanghai, 1907). In 1897 T'an was recalled to Hunan to aid the provincial governor, Ch'ên Pao-chên 陳寶箴, in carrying out reforms. Ch'ên was the sponsor of a rejuvenated provincial government which hoped to make Hunan the starting-point of a modernized administration in South China. Simultaneously the provincial director of education, a friend of T'an, named Hsü Jên-chu 徐仁鑄, also promoted the new learning. In July 1897, who had absorbed many new ideas during his long diplomatic service in America, England, and Japan, was appointed acting provincial judge of Hunan. He, too, became an important factor in the reform movement. An Academy of Current Events, known as the Shih-wu Hsüeh-t'ang (see under ), was established at Changsha, and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao was invited to be chief lecturer. A newspaper called 湘學新報 Hsiang-hsüeh hsin-pao (first issued April 22, 1897, the first newspaper in Hunan) was edited by T'an Ssŭ-t'ung. T'an was concurrently chairman of the Nan Hsüeh Hui 南學會, or Reform Association of South China, over which he presided, and under the auspices of which he made many effective public speeches. The aim of this association was to bring together all the important leaders of South China for a discussion of how to make China strong, and how to make the new ideas effective—beginning in Hunan. As a result of these efforts many backward communities of Hunan were enlightened-steamships were introduced, the police system was modernized, industries were developed, and railways were projected.

During this time the reform movement also made great headway in Peking. The repeated memorials which K'ang Yu-wei submitted in 1895, 1897, and 1898, and his books on reforms in Russia and in Japan, which were presented to the Court in the spring of 1898, raised the issue of reform among some liberal officials, and above all in the mind of the Emperor. At the same time the Reverend Timothy Richard 李提摩太 (1845–1919), a far-sighted missionary of long experience who had intimate contacts with higher officials, helped the reform movement a great deal by the publication of his Tracts for the Times (時事新論 Shih-shih hsin-lun) and 703