Zhang Baixi (張百熙)

Overview

The translated histories identify Zhang Baixi as an envoy, official, scholar, and statesman. This record brings together 18 passages from 4 chapters across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Zhang Baixi	張百熙	Zhāng Bǎixī
Given	Baixi	百熙	Bǎixī
Given	Baixi	百熙	Baixi
Title	Minister	尚書
Posthumous	Wen Da	文達	Wenda
Courtesy	Yeqiu	埜秋	Yeqiu
Surname	Zhang	張	Zhāng
Surname	Zhang	張	Zhang
Personal name	Zhang Baixi	張百熙	Zhang Baixi
Personal	Zhang Baixi	張百熙	Zhang Baixi

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · qingshigao:441:s0235
Sex: male
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:443:s0036

Roles

Envoy
Official
Scholar
Statesman

Life and dates

Death

Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0072

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 二十四年 · Western Year: AD 1898
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:473:s0073
Source Date: Text: 光緒二十七年 · Western Year: AD 1901
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0050
Source Date: Text: 光緒二十六年 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0048
Source Date: Text: 光緒二十六年九月戊子 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit · qingshigao:195:s0300, qingshigao:195:s0305
Source Date: Text: 光緒二十四年 · Western Year: AD 1898
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0047
Source Date: Text: 光緒二十年 · Western Year: AD 1894
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0040
Source Date: Text: 同治十三年 · Western Year: AD 1874
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0037
Source Date: Text: 尚書張百熙 · Western Year: AD 1901
Explicit · qingshigao:441:s0235

Career and standing

Label: Left Censor-in-Chief / 左都御史 · Action: appointed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 光緒二十六年九月戊子 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit · qingshigao:195:s0305
Label: chief envoy of the first rank / 頭等專使大臣 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0048
Label: Compiler / 編修 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0037
Label: Guangdong educational commissioner / 廣東學政 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0045
Label: Minister of Works / 工部尚書 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0050
Label: Southern Imperial Library attendant / 直南書房 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0039
Label: Superintendent of Studies / 管學大臣 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0050, qingshigao:443:s0056
Label: Vice Minister of Rites / 禮部侍郎 · Action: appointed
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0048
Label: Minister of Posts and Communications / 郵傳部尚書 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0071
Label: Minister of Revenue / 戶部尚書 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0071
Label: Minister of Rites / 禮部尚書 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0071
Label: Shandong educational commissioner / 山東學政 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0038
Label: Grand Secretariat Academician / 內閣學士 · Action: promoted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0046
Label: Left Censor-in-Chief / 左都御史 · Action: promoted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0048
Label: Reader-in-Waiting / 侍讀 · Action: promoted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0039
Label: Minister of Punishments / 刑部尚書 · Action: transferred
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0050
Label: yellow jacket and Forbidden City riding privilege / 黃馬褂、紫禁城騎馬 · Action: granted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0070
Label: Junior Tutor of the Crown Prince / 太子少保 · Action: posthumously-granted
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0072
Label: stripped of office but retained in post for recommending Kang Youwei / 坐濫舉康有爲，革職留任 · Action: punished · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 光緒二十四年 · Western Year: AD 1898
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0047

Places and affiliations

Label: Qing / 清 · Relation: served
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:195:s0305, qingshigao:443:s0037
Place: Changsha / 長沙
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0036

Learning and skills

Credential: Presented Scholar / 進士 · Action: earned
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0037

Works and attributed material

Kind: memorial · Role: author · About: grand reform plan
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0049
Kind: memorial · Role: author
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0041, qingshigao:443:s0042

Events and relationships

Kind: personnel · Role: official · Action: appointed-to-fill-vacancy · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 光緒二十六年九月戊子 · Western Year: AD 1900
Explicit · qingshigao:195:s0305
Kind: impeachment · Role: accuser · Action: impeached Li Hongzhang · Other Person Id: Li Hongzhang (李鴻章) · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 光緒二十年 · Western Year: AD 1894
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0041
Kind: impeachment · Role: accuser · Action: impeached Prince Shiduo · Other Person Id: Prince Li Shishuo (禮親王世鐸)
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0042
Kind: impeachment · Role: co-accuser · Action: jointly impeached Grand Council on ten charges · Other Person Id: Lu Baozhong (陸寶忠)
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0044
Kind: examination · Role: examiner · Action: presided over Sichuan examination
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0038
Kind: appointment · Role: appointee · Action: received university superintendency at traveling court
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0056
Kind: education · Role: advocate · Action: sent students abroad despite Rongqing's opposition · Other Person Id: Rongqing (榮慶)
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0065
Kind: memorial · Role: author · Action: stopped lavish birthday ceremonies
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0043
Relation: teacher-of · Person Id: Shen Zhaozhi (沈兆祉)
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0061

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: won contemporary acclaim for educational affairs · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · qingshigao:443:s0219

Source notes

Historicity: historical
Explicit · qingshigao:473:s0056

References in the histories

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

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 195Volume 195 Tables 35: Ministers of Boards and Courts Chronological Table 9 Lower · 1 passage

Open chapter

徐會灃四月戊戌遷。吳廷芬左都御史。九月丙午病免。鹿傳霖左都御史。九月丁丑遷。瞿鴻禨左都御史。九月戊子遷。張百熙補。 On the wuxu day of the fourth month, 徐會灃 was transferred. 吳廷芬: Left Censor-in-Chief. On the bingwu day of the ninth month, was relieved due to illness. 鹿傳霖: Left Censor-in-Chief. On the dingchou day of the ninth month, was transferred. 瞿鴻禨: Left Censor-in-Chief. On the wuzi day of the ninth month, was transferred. 張百熙 was appointed to fill the vacancy.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 441Volume 441 Biographies 228: Pan Zuyin, Li Wentian, Sun Yijing, Xia Tongshan, Zhang Jiaxiang, Zhang Yinglin, Zhang Renfu, Zhang Hengjia · 1 passage

Open chapter

尚書張百熙、榮慶既為學務大臣，別置大學總監督，亨嘉遂被命任校事，仍不離內廷職。 After Ministers Zhang Baixi and Rongqing became Ministers of Education, a separate post of University Superintendent was created; Hengjia was then ordered to manage university affairs while retaining his inner-court duties.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 443Volume 443 Biographies 230: Sun Jianai, Zhang Baixi, Tang Jingchong, Yu Shimei, Shen Jiaben · 15 passages

Open chapter

張百熙，字埜秋，長沙人。 Zhang Baixi, whose courtesy name was Yeqiu, was a native of Changsha.

百熙疏劾李鴻章陽作戰備，陰實主和，左寶貴、聶士成皆勇敢善戰之將，以餉械不繼，遂致敗績，咎在鴻章； Baixi memorialized against Li Hongzhang, charging that he made a show of preparing for war while secretly favoring peace. Zuo Baogui and Nie Shicheng were both brave and capable generals, but because pay and arms were not supplied in time they were defeated—the blame lay with Hongzhang.

時值太后萬壽，承辦典禮者猶競尚華飾，百熙奏罷之。 It was the empress dowager's birthday, yet those in charge of the ceremonies still competed in lavish display. Baixi memorialized to put a stop to it.

未幾，孫毓汶引疾歸，恭親王奕訢復入軍機，而百熙亦出督廣東學政。 Before long Sun Yuwen retired on grounds of illness, Prince Gong Yixin returned to the Grand Council, and Baixi was sent out to supervise education in Guangdong.

拳匪亂定，下詔求言，百熙抗疏陳大計，請改官制，理財政，變科舉，建學堂，設報館。 After the Boxer uprising was suppressed, the throne issued an edict seeking counsel. Baixi submitted a forthright memorial outlining a grand plan: reform the official system, put finances in order, transform the examinations, establish schools, and found newspapers.

兩宮西幸，百熙詣行在，以人望被斯任，於是海內欣然望興學矣。 When the two palaces fled west, Baixi went to the traveling court. Because of his public standing he received the appointment, and throughout the empire people looked eagerly to the revival of learning.

百熙奏加冀州知州吳汝綸五品卿銜，總教大學。 Baixi memorialized that Wu Rulun, prefect of Jizhou, be given fifth-rank minister status and made general instructor of the university.

汝綸辭不應，百熙具衣冠拜之，汝綸請赴日本察視學務。 Jilun declined. Baixi, fully robed, bowed to him in person. Jilun then asked to go to Japan to observe educational affairs.