Yu Shimei (于式枚) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Yu Shimei as a diplomat, official, scholar, and statesman. This record brings together 11 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Yu Shimei	于式枚	Yu Shimei
Courtesy	Huiruo	晦若	Huiruo
Given	Shimei	式枚	Shimei
Posthumous	Wenhe	文和	Wenhe
Surname	Yu	于	Yu

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:443:s0113

Roles

Diplomat
Official
Scholar
Statesman
Writer

Life and dates

Death

Age: Value: 63 · Reckoning: sui
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0192

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 光緒三十一年 · Western Year: AD 1905
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0122
Source Date: Text: 光緒三十三年 · Western Year: AD 1907
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0123
Source Date: Text: 光緒三十三年冬 · Western Year: AD 1907
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0188
Source Date: Text: 光緒三十四年 · Western Year: AD 1908
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0149
Source Date: Text: 光緒二十二年 · Western Year: AD 1896
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0118
Source Date: Text: 光緒六年 · Western Year: AD 1880
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0115
Source Date: Text: 宣統元年六月 · Western Year: AD 1909
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0188

Career and standing

Label: censor / 御史 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0119
Label: commissioner investigating constitutional government in Germany / 出使德國考察憲政大臣 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0125
Label: director of Guangxi railways / 總理廣西鐵路 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0122
Label: Guangdong educational commissioner / 廣東學政 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0122
Label: secretary in the Ministry of Rites / 禮部主事 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0119
Label: secretary in the Ministry of War / 兵部主事 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0115
Label: vice minister of education / 學部侍郎 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0190
Label: assistant coordinator at Office of Government Affairs / 政務處幫提調 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0121
Label: deputy president of the National History Institute / 國史館副總裁 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0190
Label: director of the Hall of Ritual Learning / 總理禮學館事 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0190
Label: revising laws minister / 修訂法律大臣 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0190
Label: superintendent of the Imperial University / 大學堂總辦 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0121
Label: supervisor of the School of Translation / 譯學館監督 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0121
Label: supervising secretary / 給事中 · Action: promoted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0119
Label: vice minister of posts and communications / 郵傳部侍郎 · Action: promoted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0123
Label: vice minister of personnel / 吏部侍郎 · Action: transferred
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0171
Label: vice minister of rites / 禮部侍郎 · Action: transferred
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0149
Label: fifth-rank capital office / 五品京堂 · Action: granted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0120

Places and affiliations

Label: Qing / 清 · Relation: served
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:443:s0115
Place: He County / 賀縣
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0113
Place: Qingdao / 青島 · Relation: resided-in
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0191

Learning and skills

Credential: Presented Scholar / 進士 · Action: earned
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0115
Skill: encyclopedic memory / 博聞强記 · Level: formidable
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0114
Skill: literary composition / 屬文 · Level: skilled
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0114

Works and attributed material

Work: Prussian constitution and election laws translations / 普魯士憲法全文、選舉法 · Relation: translator
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0187
Kind: memorial · Role: author · About: Chinese vs Western constitutional methods; caution against rushed assembly
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0151, qingshigao:443:s0152, qingshigao:443:s0153, qingshigao:443:s0154, qingshigao:443:s0155, qingshigao:443:s0156, qingshigao:443:s0157, qingshigao:443:s0158, qingshigao:443:s0159, qingshigao:443:s0160, qingshigao:443:s0161, qingshigao:443:s0162, qingshigao:443:s0163, qingshigao:443:s0164, qingshigao:443:s0165, qingshigao:443:s0166, qingshigao:443:s0167, qingshigao:443:s0168, qingshigao:443:s0169
Kind: memorial · Role: author · About: constitutionalism grounded in China's own institutions
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0126, qingshigao:443:s0127, qingshigao:443:s0128, qingshigao:443:s0129, qingshigao:443:s0130, qingshigao:443:s0131, qingshigao:443:s0132, qingshigao:443:s0133, qingshigao:443:s0134, qingshigao:443:s0135, qingshigao:443:s0136, qingshigao:443:s0137, qingshigao:443:s0138, qingshigao:443:s0139, qingshigao:443:s0140, qingshigao:443:s0141, qingshigao:443:s0142, qingshigao:443:s0143, qingshigao:443:s0144, qingshigao:443:s0145, qingshigao:443:s0146, qingshigao:443:s0147
Kind: memorial · Role: author · About: German emperor on constitution; Spencer; Ito and Bismarck as standards
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0173, qingshigao:443:s0174, qingshigao:443:s0175, qingshigao:443:s0176, qingshigao:443:s0177, qingshigao:443:s0178, qingshigao:443:s0179, qingshigao:443:s0180, qingshigao:443:s0181, qingshigao:443:s0182
Kind: memorial · Role: author · About: provincial assemblies vs Prussian local assemblies
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0184, qingshigao:443:s0185, qingshigao:443:s0186

Events and relationships

Kind: diplomatic · Role: staff · Action: accompanied Li Hongzhang to Russian coronation and Western tour · Other Person Id: Li Hongzhang (李鴻章) · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 光緒二十二年 · Western Year: AD 1896
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0118
Kind: diplomatic · Role: assistant · Action: assisted Boxer Protocol
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0120
Kind: travel · Role: envoy · Action: departed winter GX33, returned XT1/6 · Start Date: Source Date: Text: 光緒三十三年冬 · Western Year: AD 1907 · End Date: Source Date: Text: 宣統元年六月 · Western Year: AD 1909
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0188
Relation: client-of · Person Id: Li Hongzhang (李鴻章)
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0116

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: discussed constitutional government seeking timely adjustment · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0221
Assessment: inwardly severe, outwardly mild; blunt in debate; reputation among high officials · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0194, qingshigao:443:s0195
Kind: physical-description · Statement: born with cryptorchidism; extraordinary vitality; sat at night like a withered monk
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0193

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 443Volume 443 Biographies 230: Sun Jianai, Zhang Baixi, Tang Jingchong, Yu Shimei, Shen Jiaben · 11 passages

Open chapter

于式枚，字晦若，賀縣人。 Yu Shimei, whose courtesy name was Huiruo, was a native of He County.

二十二年，鴻章賀俄皇加冕，因歷聘德、法、英、美諸國，式枚充隨員。 In the twenty-second year Li Hongzhang attended the coronation of the Russian emperor and then paid successive visits to Germany, France, Britain, the United States, and other countries, with Shimei serving on his staff.

於是式枚奉命出使德國，充考察憲政大臣。 Shimei was then ordered to go to Germany as commissioner to investigate constitutional government.

式枚上言：「臣徧考東西歷史，參校同異，大抵中法皆定自上而下奉行，西法則定自下而上遵守。 Shimei memorialized, saying: "Your servant has broadly examined the histories of East and West and compared their differences; in general, Chinese methods are established from above and carried out downward, whereas Western methods are established from below and obeyed upward.

上海政聞社法部主事陳景仁等電請定三年內開國會，罷式枚謝天下，嚴旨申飭，褫景仁職。 Chen Jingren, a bureau secretary in the Ministry of Justice, and others of the Political Opinion Society in Shanghai telegraphed demanding that a national assembly be convened within three years and that Shimei be dismissed to appease public opinion; a stern edict rebuked them and stripped Chen Jingren of his post.

式枚復奏言：「德皇接受國書，答言憲政紛繁，慮未必合中國用，選舉法尤未易行。 Shimei memorialized again, saying: "When the German emperor received the credentials of investiture, he replied that constitutional affairs are complex and numerous and might not suit China's needs; election law in particular would be difficult to implement.

式枚以三十三年冬行，宣統元年六月返國，以疾乞假。 Shimei set out in the winter of the thirty-third year and returned home in the sixth month of the first Xuantong year, then begged leave on grounds of illness.

張之洞遺疏薦式枚堪大用。 In his deathbed memorial Zhang Zhidong recommended Yu Shimei as capable of great service.

未幾，卒，年六十三，諡文和。 Before long he died at the age of sixty-three and was given the posthumous title Wenhe.

式枚生而隱宮，精力絕人，夜倚枕坐如枯僧。 Shimei was born with cryptorchidism, yet his vitality was extraordinary; at night he would sit propped on a pillow like a withered monk.

式枚之論憲政，務因時損益。 Shimei discussed constitutional government and sought timely adjustment rather than rigid change.