Tang Jingsong (; 1841–1903) was a Chinese general and statesman. He commanded the Yunnan Army in the

Sino-French War The Sino-French War (, french: Guerre franco-chinoise, vi, Chiến tranh Pháp-Thanh), also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 to April 1885. There was no declaration of war. The Chinese arm ...

(August 1884–April 1885), and made an important contribution to

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

China's military effort in

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain ''Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, includi ...

(northern Vietnam) by persuading the Black Flag leader

Liu Yongfu Liu Yongfu () (1837–1917) was a Chinese warlord and commander of the celebrated Black Flag Army. Liu won fame as a Chinese patriot fighting against the French Empire in northern Vietnam (Tonkin) in the 1870s and early 1880s. During the Sino-F ...

to serve under Chinese command. His intelligent, though ultimately unsuccessful, direction of the

Siege of Tuyên Quang The siege of Tuyên Quang was an important confrontation between the French and the Chinese armies in Tonkin (northern Vietnam) during the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885). A French garrison of 630 men, including two companies of ...

(November 1884–March 1885) was widely praised. He later became governor of the Chinese province of Taiwan. Following China's cession of Taiwan to Japan at the end of the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

(1894–1895) he became president of the short-lived

Republic of Formosa The Republic of Formosa was a short-lived republic that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki and its being taken over by ...

The Sino-French War

Tang Jingsong played an important role in the

and during the period of undeclared hostilities that preceded it. In 1882 he was sent by the Qing government to Vietnam to assess the ability of the Vietnamese government to resist French expansion in Tonkin. During his stay he was able to persuade

to take the field against the French with the

Black Flag Army The Black Flag Army (; , chữ Nôm: 軍旗𬹙) was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border in 1865 from Guangxi, China into northern Vietnam, then during the Nguy ...

. Liu's intervention resulted in the French defeat in the

Battle of Paper Bridge A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

on 19 May 1883, in which the French ''commandant supérieur'' Henri Rivière was killed. In the wake of this disaster,

Jules Ferry Jules François Camille Ferry (; 5 April 183217 March 1893) was a French statesman and republican philosopher. He was one of the leaders of the Moderate Republicans and served as Prime Minister of France from 1880 to 1881 and 1883 to 1885. He ...

's government committed substantial military and naval forces to Tonkin. Tang was the only senior Chinese commander to take part in the

Sơn Tây Campaign ''Toxicodendron succedaneum'', the wax tree, Japanese Hazenoki tree (Sumac or wax tree), sơn in Vietnam or charão in Portuguese, is a flowering plant species in the genus ''Toxicodendron'' found in Asia, although it has been planted elsewhere, ...

(December 1883). Although

and his Vietnamese and Chinese allies failed to hold Sơn Tây against the French, Tang's loyalty to Liu on that occasion was never forgotten by the Black Flag leader. In September 1884 Tang led the Yunnan Army down the Red River from Lào Cai to threaten the French post of Tuyên Quang, and

took service with him as a subordinate general. Although he ultimately failed to capture the French post, Tang's intelligent and methodical conduct of the

was praised by many of his Chinese colleagues, including

Zhang Zhidong Zhang Zhidong () (4 September 18375 October 1909) was a Chinese politician who lived during the late Qing dynasty. Along with Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang, Zhang Zhidong was one of the four most famous officials of the late Qing ...

, the

Viceroy of Liangguang The Viceroy of Liangguang or Viceroy of the Two Guangs, was one of eight regional Viceroys during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The two ''Guang'' referred to Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. The areas under the Viceroy's jurisdiction included pr ...

, and Cen Yuying (), the

Viceroy of Yun-Gui The Viceroy of Yun-Gui, fully referred to in Chinese as the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou Provinces and the Surrounding Areas Overseeing Military Affairs and Food Production, Director of Civil Affairs, was one of eight regional viceroys ...

. Captain Jean-François-Alphonse Lecomte, one of the more discerning officers of the

Tonkin Expeditionary Corps The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps (french: corps expéditionnaire du Tonkin) was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam (Tonkin) from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin Campaign (1883–86) taki ...

, also paid tribute to the skill T'ang's army had shown in its siegecraft at Tuyên Quang:

The mandarins had directed the attack on Tuyen Quang in a very intelligent manner. Owing to the Moslem insurrection in Yunnan, an insurrection that had nearly engulfed the entire province and was only put down by Marshal Ma after several sieges, they were now experts in the art of siegecraft. Their troops were excellent, and although they were unable to capture the fortress, defended as it was by a handful of heroes and relieved in the very nick of time by Giovanninelli's brigade, this siege was nonetheless a glorious feat of arms for the Celestials and showed that when necessary they could rise to the occasion.

The Republic of Formosa

Tang succeeded Shao Youlian () as governor of Taiwan in 1894. Upon the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) he invited his old friend

to assume command of Qing forces in southern Taiwan. Following China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was ceded to Japan in April 1895 under the

Treaty of Shimonoseki The , also known as the Treaty of Maguan () in China and in the period before and during World War II in Japan, was a treaty signed at the , Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing China, ending the Firs ...

. A number of Chinese officials in Taiwan decided to resist the Japanese, and proclaimed Taiwan an independent

. Tang was inaugurated as the republic's president on May 25, 1895. The republic lasted no longer than the time it took the Japanese to invade and occupy Taiwan. The Japanese

invaded An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

northern Taiwan on May 29, 1895 and defeated Chinese forces at Keelung on 3 June. When the news of the defeat at Keelung reached Taipei on 4 June, the republican leaders promptly abandoned ship. During the night of 4 June Tang Jingsong fled to Tamsui, and from there sailed for the mainland on the evening of 6 June aboard the steamship ''Arthur''. His departure was delayed for a day because of disorder in Tamsui.(Original from the New York Public Library) After Tang's flight, the republican forces continued to resist the Japanese in Taiwan under the leadership of

. The republican forces were no match for the Japanese, however, and the republic eventually collapsed with the Japanese occupation of Tainan on 21 October 1895. Like Tang,

also abandoned his soldiers and fled to the mainland to escape capture.

Death

Tang died in 1903 at his home in Guilin, at the age of 63.

Notes

References

* Davidson, J. W., ''The Island of Formosa, Past and Present'' (London, 1903) * Lecomte, J., ''La vie militaire au Tonkin'' (Paris, 1893) * Lung Chang ��章 ''Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng'' ��南與中法戰爭, Vietnam and the Sino-French War(Taipei, 1993) * McAleavy, H., ''Black Flags in Vietnam: The Story of a Chinese Intervention'' (New York, 1968) * Thomazi, A., ''La conquête de l'Indochine'' (Paris, 1934) * Thomazi, A., ''Histoire militaire de l'Indochine français'' (Hanoi, 1931)

The Sino-French War

The Republic of Formosa

Death

Notes

References

See also