Xi Liang (official)

Xi Liang (; 18531917), occasionally rendered as Xiliang, was a Chinese official of Mongol heritage who served as the Viceroy of several provinces during the late Qing Dynasty. Xi was a Qing loyalist who supported moderate reforms and strongly opposed Western imperialism in China. He enthusiastically supported the Self-Strengthening Movement and the New Policies, but he opposed the spread of European culture and was sympathetic to the Boxer Rebellion. His efforts at reform saw mixed results. While generally praised by his superiors,
Xi was also hampered by opposing factions in the Imperial Court and intervention by Western powers. His provincial administrations occasionally provoked popular unrest and accusations of corruption. During the final years of the Qing, Xi became an advocate of constitutional government. He ultimately failed to change Imperial policy in time to prevent the 1911 Revolution and retired from public life after the dynasty fell.

Personal life and education

Although Xi Liang's father was a official in the Bordered Blue Banner, he was raised in relative obscurity. By learning Chinese and well as his native Mongolian, he was able to achieve success through education in the Confucian classics. He was awarded the ''Jinshi'' in 1874 at the extremely young age of 21. Despite becoming the most prominent Mongol Bannerman in the Imperial administration during his career, he was heavily sinicized. His writings consistently reference Chinese cultural and historical themes and he was an enthusiastic patron of Chinese poetry.

Career

Xi Liang served in various various in Shanxi from 1876 to 1894, during which time he gained a positive reputation for his handling of the Northern Chinese Famine and his energetic implementation of Governor Zhang Zhidong's Self-Strengthening reforms. He was transferred to Shandong in 1894 where he served in the military secretariat during the First Sino-Japanese War and later in various administrative posts, generally receiving strong praise from his superiors. China's defeat in the war, tension between peasants and Christian missionaries, and the German seizure of Jiaozhou Bay led Xi to develop nationalist and anti-foreign sentiments. He was also influenced in that direction by Shandong's Governor Li Bingheng, who would later commit suicide after being defeated by Western forces in the Boxer Rebellion. Nonetheless, Xi followed his Treaty obligations to protect missionaries and helped to capture and execute the remaining leaders of the anti-Christian Big Swords Society.

Xi aligned himself with Empress Dowager Cixi against Kang Youwei's reformers, who he saw as too extreme. By the time of the Boxer Rebellion Cixi had appointed Xi financial commissioner in Hunan. Xi was sympathetic to the Boxer's anti-foreign and anti-Christian positions. After Cixi requested support from the provinces, Viceroy Zhang Zhidong granted Xi permission to lead about 5,000 soldiers north to defend Beijing from the Eight-Nation Alliance. After helping serve as a rear-guard during Cixi's flight from Beijing, he was promoted to Governor of Shanxi. Xi's policy of militant resistance to Alfred von Waldersee's punitive expeditions originally won him Cixi's support, but he was eventually dismissed when he refused to back down after court policy changed. Through his British connections, Zhang Zhidong managed to pressure Cixi not to appoint Xi as Governor of Hubei.

In December 1901, Xi Liang's political fortunes improved and he was sent to take up a position in Henan. Upon arrival he discovered that his post was a sinecure, and recommended that it be abolished as a waste of funds. His request was granted, and in appreciation Cixi soon promoted him to be Henan's Governor. In this role Xi made some progress towards rationalizing the bureaucracy and modernizing government services, but caused popular unrest by raising taxes to meet Henan's onerous contribution to China's indemnity payments.

In 1903, Xi Liang was made Viceroy of Sichuan and tasked with implementing the "New Policies." In addition to some reforms in military and education, Xi's most ambitious project was constructing the Sichuan-Hankou Railway from Chengdu to Hankou (now Wuhan). A popular movement had begun among Sichuanese students that wanted to connect their province to the rest of China's rail network before the route could be monopolized by foreign interests. They sent a petition to Xi in 1904 proposing that he create a domestically-controlled railroad company and promising to purchase shares. Xi accepted their proposal, and in 1905 the Sichuan-Hankou Railway. It was to be funded by selling shares to the public and a special 3% tax on harvests paid by landlords, who were also given share certificates. Foreigners could not buy shares, making it one of the first Chinese railroads to be entirely self-funded. In one way or another, much of the Sichuan gentry and merchant class became shareholders of the railway venture. By 1911, the company had raised 11,983,305 taels

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