Qu Hongji
Qu Hongji (瞿鸿禨; 1850 －1918), style name Zijiu (子玖), and art name Zhi'an (止庵), was a politician of the Chinese Qing Dynasty who served several ministerial positions.
Biography
Qu Hongji was born in 1850 in a small town called Shanhua, Changsha city area, Hunan Province. He passed the highest Imperial Examinations in 1871, as a Hanlin Bachelor of Chinese National Academy. During 1875 he took the first place of Daijiang Bachelor Examinations. He became Neige Bachelor as his promotion in 1897, and organized Town Examinations of Fujian Province, Guangxi Province. He also supervised local government as Provincial Education Commissioner of Henan Province, Zhejiang Province and Sichuan Province. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Qu carried out Four Troops Assaults plan to the emperor. Then he followed emperor’s royal family hunting in west, and was raised his position as the Minister of Work Department. Later when he came back to Beiping Capital, he became Minister of Military, Minister of Government Affairs. He changed Imperial Examinations into discourse on politics, added Economy Examinations. He simplified Headquarters of All Countries Business Department into Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and become 1st Minister of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later he followed empress dowager cixi’s imperial edict, offered plans of peace, got emperor’s appreciation with gold jacket, to tutored the crown prince.
During ‘New Political Affair’, some government systems stolen money by ‘Building School, Commercial Intercourse and encourage Jobs’ commentto. Qu asked emperor to forbid fraud organization, and ejected them into folks. During 1906 he associated Grand Secretary, to plan Provisional Constitutionalism, and nominated Ministers. During 1907 Cen Chunxuan(岑春煊) got into Ministry of Telecommunications, Cen took advantage of the Case of Yang Cuixi, secretly impeached Prince Yikuang(庆亲王奕劻). Also because Qu used 'Minister Slayer' Cen Chunxuan(岑春煊) to against his political enemy Yuan Shikai (袁世凱), which made Prince Yikuang(庆亲王奕劻) unhappy and became jealous of Qu, empress dowager cixi also not comfortable about Qu's bluntly speaking and aging. Daijiang Bachelor Yun Yuding (惲毓鼎) impeached Qu under the reason ‘Qu grasps authority and form a despotic government’, emperor dismissed him from office to his hometown Changsha. Later his political enemy Monarchical President Yuan Shikai (袁世凱) forced Henry Emperor retire, stolen the throne and made himself a new emperor. After the Revolution of 1911, Qu escaped to Shanghai from war, and died in there in 1918.
Famous
Qu Hongji(瞿鸿禨) was famous not only because of his erudition, but also because his face looks like Tongzhi Emperor, 10th emperor of Qing Dynasty whom died before in 1875.
Publications of Authority
'Collections of Zhi An's Poems'《止庵诗文集》
'Annotations for Book of Han'《汉书笺识》
'Collections of Chaolanlou Liberary Poems'《超览楼诗稿》
'Handwriting by Duke Wenzhen of Qu'《瞿文慎公诗选遗墨》
‘Diary of Serving Henan Province and Fujian Province’《使豫、使闽日记》
‘Love and Kindness History’《恩遇纪略》
'Old Anecdote History'《旧闻纪略》etc.
Offsprings
Son Qu Xuanzhi (瞿宣治), Diplomat of Chinese Embassy in Switzerland and Netherland, died in Marseilles, French 1923.
Grandson Qu Tongzu (瞿同祖), Chinese Modern Historian, was famous about his investigations in Law History and Social History.
Son Qu Ruizhi(瞿兌之), Chinese Historian, Litterateur, Painter.
Nephew Qu Qiling (朱啟鈐), Chinese Politician, Businessman, Historical Architect.
References
- Zhao Erxun (赵尔巽) etc., Draft History of Qing，Inspected by Chinese Publication Department