Profile of a Chinese Nationalist: the Life and Death of Dīng Zéliáng (1915–1957)

Abstract When the Chinese historian Dīng Zéliáng denounced Timothy Richard (1845–1919) of the English Baptist Mission to be an agent of British imperialism, he voiced an opinion seldom found in Western literature on late Qīng China. Dīng discovered “evidence” in newly released Foreign Office files at the Public Record Office in London, England, pertaining to Richard’s attempt during the first Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) to coax two powerful Qīng officials, Zhāng Zhīdòng in Nánjīng and Lǐ Hóngzhāng in Tiānjīn, into seeking Britain’s tutelage in post-war reconstruction. Unlike Richard, Dīng Zéliáng is not a familiar name in the annals of modern China. This article seeks to fill the biographical gap with a brief outline of his life, both as a backdrop to his condemnation of Richard and as an illustration of the kinds of intellectual and political turmoil that beleaguered educated Chinese in the post-Qīng decades. While surviving the manifold crisis of Republican politics, warlordism, and Japan’s invasions, Dīng proclaimed himself a “liberal,” embraced Marxism, and became a nationalist. Of this ideological mix, nationalism is arguably the most powerful component that explains not only Dīng’s vision for China’s future but also – across the wide divide of vastly different circumstances more than a half century later – China’s basic posture on the world stage.

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