Three Generations of Scholars Tried to Change China

Chen Baozhen， Chen Sanli and Chen Yinque were grandfather， father and son. The three were scholars who tried to change China in their individual ways and their efforts and dedications are memorable.

Chen Baozhen was 29 in 1860 when the British and French soldiers savagely looted and torched the old Summer Palace (圓明園) in Beijing. He witnessed the flaming inferno from afar and cried bitterly. Born in 1831 in Jiangxi Province， Chen Baozhen became a provincial graduate in 1852. He joined the Hunan Army under the command of Zeng Guofan (1811-1872)， one of the most influential ministers of the late period of the Qing. Zeng appreciated Chen’s capability and recommended him. Chen Baozhen became a high-ranking official in various important posts. In 1895， he was appointed governor of Hunan Province. He went all out with reform projects in the central province， setting up industries and schools and supporting reformist newspapers in the province. His measures brought profound changes and great vigor to the economy and society of Hunan， making Hunan the most politically and economically high-profiled province in the country and planting the seeds for the province to be one of the most high-profiled provinces in revolution in the early 20th century.

Chen Baozhen played a big part in Emperor Guangxu’s all-out reform. In May 1898， he submitted his appeal to the emperor， calling for new political policies， national defense buildup， and raising funds. He recommended Yang Rui and Liu Guangdi (who were executed after the failure of the reform) to take part in Emperor Guangxu’s reform and asked the emperor to have Zhang Zhidong， viceroy of Hubei and Hunan， to preside over the reform. Emperor Guangxu highly appreciated Chen and said Chen was a key force in the reform.

The palace coup in September， 1898 upended the rule of Emperor Guangxu and butchered the reform which was just 100 days old. Chen Baozhen was dismissed and all the reform projects and policies he had adopted in Hunan were scrapped. Chen retired to Nanchang， the capital city of his home province of Jiangxi. On June 26， 1900， he was secretly ordered by Empress Dowager Cixi to commit suicide at home.

Chen Sanli was born in 1852， the year his 21-year-old father became a provincial graduate. In 1889， the 37-year-old Chen Sanli became a cosmopolitan graduate. Influenced by his father， Chen Sanli was also a reform-minded scholar. While his father acted as Hunan governor， Chen Sanli assisted his father in the reform. The father and the son were dismissed at the same time and for the same reason. They retired to Nanchang. Beside his political ambition， Chen Sanli was an outstanding poet in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and known as the last classic poet of the ancient China. Chen Sanli lived in Hangzhou from 1923 to 1925. He met with Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) when the Indian Nobel laureate poet was visiting Hangzhou. Xu Zhimo interpreted for the two at the meeting. In 1936， Chen Sanli and Hu Shi were invited to attend the International Pen Conference in London. Hu represented the new literature and Chen stood for the tradition. The 84-year-old Chen Sanli was too old to travel that far.

Beiping (today’s Beijing) was seized by Japanese invaders after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937， which marked Japan’s all-out invasion into China. Chen Sanli went on a hunger strike in protest against the invasion. He passed away after five days of the strike.

Chen Yinque (1890-1969) was 11 when his grandfather was ordered to kill himself. He grew up as a great scholar in China. In 1910 he qualified through a national examination and received government scholarships to study abroad. The scholarship enabled him to study in Berlin University， Zurich University and Sciences Po de Paris. In 1918， he went on a study journey again. He studied two ancient Indian languages in Harvard and in 1921 he studied the oriental linguistics in Berlin University again. Altogether， Chen mastered eight foreign languages.

Chen Yinque was a great scholar of both Chinese classics and western knowledge. He ranked with Liang Qichao and Wang Guowei as the “Three Giants” of Tsinghua University at that time. One of his most famous statements is， “My lectures include nothing the ancient scholars talked about， nothing the modern scholars have talked about， nothing that foreigners have talked about， nothing that I have talked about in the past. My lectures are completely new.” His lectures attracted crowds of students and even professors.

After the July 7 Incident in 1937， Chen Yinque moved with the Tsinghua University to the southern China， where three universities coalesced to form Southwest Associated University and Chen Yinque taught there. Japan sent someone over to visit Chen and invited him to teach in Shanghai under Japanese occupation. Chen turned the offer down.

Before the peaceful liberation of Beiping in 1949， Chen Yinque and Hu Shi flew to Nanjing in an airplane sent by Chiang Kai-shek. Soon Hu Shi flew to America and Chen Yinque decided to stay in Guangzhou.

Zhou Enlai spoke of Chen Yinque at a State Council meeting that “Chen Yinque has proved himself a patriot by staying on the mainland and we should unite with him.”□