Lu Zhonggui (30 September 1868 – 7 November 1895),

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theo ...

Xianxiang, better known as Lu Haodong, was a Chinese revolutionary who lived in the late

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 ...

. He is best known for designing the

Blue Sky with a White Sun The Blue Sky with a White Sun () serves as the design for the party flag and emblem of the Kuomintang, the canton of the flag of the Republic of China, the national emblem of the Republic of China, and as the naval jack of the ROC Navy. In th ...

flag that became the party flag and emblem of the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...

(KMT; Chinese Nationalist Party), and the canton of the

flag of the Republic of China A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

Life

Lu was born in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

but his

ancestral home An ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family, particularly the home owned and preserved by the same family for several generations. The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as a ...

was in Xiangshan County (now is

Zhongshan Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

. He was a friend of

Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...

and was involved in activities targeted at overthrowing the Qing dynasty and establishing a republic in China. In 1895, Lu co-founded the Revive China Society in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

with Sun Yat-sen. In October 1895, they planned to stage an uprising in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

, but the Qing government got wind of their plan. On 26 October, Lu was preparing to escape from Guangzhou, but decided to return to their base of operations in a church in present-day Beijinglu,

Yuexiu District Yuexiu District is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China, located west of the Tianhe District and east of the Liwan District. It is the commercial, political and cultural c ...

to burn a roster containing the names of the revolutionaries and other important documents. He could not escape in time and was arrested along with other revolutionaries by the Qing government. Lu was taken to the

yamen A ''yamen'' (''ya-men''; ; Manchu: ''yamun'') was the administrative office or residence of a local bureaucrat or mandarin in imperial China. A ''yamen'' can also be any governmental office or body headed by a mandarin, at any level of gover ...

in Nanhai County (present-day

Nanhai District Nanhai District (), is a district of Foshan, Guangdong, China. Its government is the first to have developed e-government informatization at the county level in China. History Establishment of Nanhai is traditionally attributed two brothers c ...

Foshan Foshan (, ), alternately romanized as Fatshan, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. The entire prefecture covers and had a population of 9,498,863 as of the 2020 census. The city is part of the western side of the ...

) for interrogation by the county magistrate Li Zhengyong (), who was acting under instructions from Tan Zhonglin (), 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 pre ...

. When he refused to kneel down before Li during questioning, the magistrate said, "You are a talented young man. Why did you want to get yourself in trouble that would cost you your life? I feel sorry for you that you don't value your life." Lu replied sternly, "China is a vast country and it has the highest population in the world, but it is poor and weak because the Qing government is authoritarian and incompetent in foreign policy. My comrades and I originally planned an uprising with the aim of overthrowing the Qing government and replacing it with a new republican government. I intended to kill one or two persons like you who serve the Qing government. Now that our plan has failed, I can't kill you but you can kill me. What's there to feel sorry about?" The American embassy in Guangzhou attempted to save Lu's life by claiming that he was a translator working at the telegraph office and was not a revolutionary. However, they could not do anything when Li Zhengyong showed them a confession written by Lu himself. Lu, Zhu Guiquan (), Qiu Si () and other captured revolutionaries were executed on 7 November by the order of Tan Zhonglin. Sun Yat-sen called Lu "the first person in Chinese history who sacrificed his life for a democratic revolution". Lu is credited for designing the

flag that became the party flag and emblem of the

(KMT; Chinese Nationalist Party), and the canton of the

Portrayals in media

Lu is portrayed as a supporting character by Hong Kong actor David Chiang in the 1992 film '' Once Upon a Time in China II''. In the film, Lu is shot to death by Qing soldiers while trying to escape from Guangzhou with help from

Wong Fei-hung Wong Fei-hung (born Wong Sek-cheung with the courtesy name Tat-wun; 9 July 1847 – 17 April 1925) was a Chinese martial artist, physician, and folk hero. His recent fame was due to becoming the subject of numerous martial arts films and televis ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lu, Hao-Tung 1868 births 1895 deaths Chinese revolutionaries 19th-century Calvinist and Reformed Christians People from Zhongshan Chinese Christians Flag designers

Life

Portrayals in media

See also

References