The first batch of young people studying in the United States came out of the small county

Many of the earliest Chinese students studying abroad were from Xiangshan County, Guangdong Province (now Zhongshan City), including Yung Wing, who is known as the "Father of Chinese Students Studying Abroad". Yung Wing initiated the "Chinese Students Studying in America Program" and facilitated the Qing government to send 120 students to study in the United States in four batches, of which 30% were from Xiangshan County. The program had a huge impact on the subsequent development of Chinese society. The author of this article is from Xiangshan County and went to the United States to study in the 1980s. He instinctively paid attention to his fellow countrymen who studied abroad in the early days. He would like to introduce several representative figures of "Western Learning Spreading to the East": Yung Wing, Huang Kuan, Tang Guoan, Zheng Manuo, and Zhang Wenzhan.

Written by Chen Guanrong (City University of Hong Kong)

My hometown is in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province. Historically, it was Xiangshan County. On April 16, 1925, it was renamed in memory of Dr. Sun Yat-sen (November 12, 1866 - March 12, 1925). My father was born and raised in Chayuan Village, Nanlang District, Xiangshan County, not far from Dr. Sun Yat-sen's former residence, Cuiheng Village, Nanlang. In the past, the entire Chayuan Village had a single surname, Chen, and was divided into two gardens, East and West. My father's family was in Chadong, close to my mother's family, Haoyong, Nanlang. According to the "Chen Family Tree" of the 21st year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1756) preserved in the ancestral hall, the ancestor of the Chen family in Chadong Village was named Xuanbao, also known as Shangzhi. During the Northern Song Dynasty, he migrated from southern Fujian to the east of Xiangshan Tea Garden and settled there.

Since I went to the United States to study in 1982, I have paid much attention to the historical stories of Chinese students studying abroad, especially those from Xiangshan County who went abroad to study in the early years. Here are a few of them, who are closely related to the beginning of China's modernization. Mr. Sun Yat-sen is one of them. He went to study in Honolulu, Hawaii at the age of 13 in 1879. From then on, until the victory of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, he stayed in Europe, America, Japan and Singapore for many times due to political struggles, engaged in revolutionary activities, and stayed overseas for more than ten years in total. Sun Yat-sen's achievements are well known to everyone, so there is no need to spend too much time introducing them here.

Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)

What I want to write about here are several representative figures of "Western learning coming to the East": Yung Wing (1828-1912), Huang Kuan (1829-1878), Tang Guoan (1858-1913), Zheng Manuo (1633-1673) and Zhang Wenzhan (1858-1894?).

Yung Wing is well known to the public. In many historical documents, Yung Wing is known as the "father of Chinese students studying abroad" because he went to study in the United States at the age of 19 in 1847, and graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1854, becoming the first Chinese to complete higher education in the United States. He also made a key contribution to the Chinese court's dispatch of a large number of students to study abroad. However, another Xiangshan fellow, Zheng Manuo, studied in Italy as early as 1653 and completed his theology studies in Portugal in 1666. However, Zheng Manuo was not the "first" Chinese student to study abroad. If we make a statistics of subjects such as literature, history, and religion, the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang (602-664) was even earlier. He set out from Chang'an in the third year of Zhenguan (629), passed through Dunhuang, Xinjiang and Central Asia, and traveled to Rajgir, Magadha in Central India, and entered Nalanda Monastery, the center of Indian Buddhism at that time, and studied under Jiexian for five years. After that, he traveled to India and several neighboring countries to learn Buddhism, and finally brought back 520 volumes and 657 volumes of Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhist sutras, precepts and treatises. It is easy to imagine that there must have been more than one Chinese student who went abroad to study before Xuanzang. From this point of view, it is meaningless to investigate who was the "first" Chinese student to go abroad. Today, if everyone is concerned about modern science and technology, Zhang Wenzhan, a fellow Xiangshan native who is specially introduced at the end of this article, is the first Chinese student of science to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.

Yung Wing

Yung Wing was born on November 17, 1828 in a poor peasant family in Nanping Town, Xiangshan County (now part of Zhuhai City).

Yung Wing experienced the historical process from his disappointment with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, to his participation in the Westernization Movement and its failure, to his support for the victory of the Xinhai Revolution.

Yung Wing (1828-1912)

In 1840, the 12-year-old Yung Wing was sent to Macau to attend the Robert Morrison (1782-1834) church school, which was established in Macau in 1839 by American missionary Samuel Robbins Brown (1810-1880) at the invitation of the Morrison Education Society. The school was one of the church's charitable causes, providing completely free education for poor students, including food, accommodation, clothing, books and medical care.

The famous writer Zhong Shuhe (1931-) wrote in "Yong Hong and the Spread of Western Learning to the East": "Even in a place like Macau, people with more wealth were reluctant to send their children to study in 'Western Schools', because studying in such schools would not allow them to pass the examinations for the imperial examinations and become officials. However, foreigners have money, and running Western affairs can make money, which is attractive to some families." In fact, for Yung Hong, the vision of "running Western affairs" was something he dared not aspire to. When he was a child, he just wanted to read some books and hoped to have a way to make a living in the future.

Morrison was the first Protestant missionary from Britain to come to China. He was born in a poor peasant family. When he was young, he studied medicine. He yearned for ancient China and taught himself Chinese. He spent 25 years in China and made pioneering contributions in many areas. He edited and published the first English-Chinese and Chinese-English dictionary in Chinese history, the Chinese-English Dictionary, was the first to translate the Bible into Chinese, and opened the first Chinese and Western medicine cooperative clinic in Macau.

Brown was the first Christian missionary from the United States to come to China. He was born in Connecticut, USA, and graduated from Yale University in 1832. In 1834, Robert Morrison died of illness in Macau. Brown accepted the invitation of the Morrison Educational Society and decided to preach in Macau and was responsible for opening the Morrison School. On October 17, 1838, he and his newlywed wife boarded the Morrison passenger ship from New York. After four months of sailing, they arrived in Guangzhou on February 19 of the following year, and arrived in Macau four days later.

In 1839, the first batch of students at Morrison Academy consisted of only five people: Huang Sheng, Huang Kuan, Li Gang, Zhou Wen, and Tang Jie (Tang Guoan). Huang Sheng and Huang Kuan only had the same surname, but were often mistaken by later generations as brothers. The following year, Yung Wing enrolled. Yung Wing recalled: "I was the youngest of the six students who formed the founding class of the school." These students all came from poor families, aged between 11 and 15.

Morrison Academy promoted bilingual teaching in English and Chinese, offering courses such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, biology, geography, chemistry, music, and composition, in addition to Bible explanations. In terms of Chinese, the school offered Confucian classics courses, including "Three Character Classic", "Thousand Character Classic", "Hundred Family Names", as well as the Four Books and Five Classics. In a written report to the Morrison Education Association in April 1840, Brown said: "Morrison Academy... The goal is to give students comprehensive training in the three aspects of moral education, intellectual education and physical education. In accordance with this goal, I arrange for Chinese students to read Chinese for half a day and English for half a day. The activities start at six in the morning and end at nine in the evening. During this period, there are eight hours of reading, and the remaining three or four hours are for students to go to the outdoor venue for sports and entertainment."

Yung Wing later wrote a recollection in his English autobiography My Life in China and America (Chinese translation titled "The Spread of Western Learning to the East", Commercial Press, 1915): "Mr. Brown left China in the winter of 1846. Four months before he left, one day he suddenly announced a piece of news that shocked the whole school, saying that he and his wife were in poor health and needed to return to the United States. Finally, he said that he had deep feelings for the school and that he was willing to take several older students to the United States to study until they completed their studies. Anyone who was willing to go with him could stand up. ... At this time, I stood up first, followed by Huang Kuan, and finally Huang Sheng."

In 1847, Mr. and Mrs. Brown funded and took three students, Yung Wing, Huang Kuan and Huang Sheng, to study in the United States. On January 4, the five of them set off from Guangzhou Huangpu Port on the Huntress passenger ship and arrived in New York after 98 days of sea travel. Afterwards, they came to Brown's hometown in East Windsor, Connecticut. Brown arranged for the three students to study in the famous Monson Academy in Massachusetts and let their mother take care of them. Later, Huang Sheng dropped out of school due to acclimatization and returned to Hong Kong a year later. Yung Wing and Huang Kuan completed the two-year course.

After graduating from preparatory school in 1850, Yung Wing decided to stay in the United States and was admitted to Yale University. He was the only Chinese among the more than 500 students at Yale that year. Huang Kuan met Andrew Shortrede (Chinese name Xiao Derui), a senior British publisher visiting Hong Kong. He was the founder of The China Mail. Xiao Derui graduated from the University of Edinburgh in the UK and was one of the founders of the Hong Kong branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. He said that if Huang Kuan was willing to study at the University of Edinburgh and promised to return to Hong Kong to serve the church after graduation, he could provide financial support. Huang Kuan agreed, went to the UK on his own and was admitted to the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh. But that's another story.

Yung Wing graduated from Yale University in the summer of 1854 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, becoming the first Chinese in history to obtain a formal higher education degree from an American university. He returned to China immediately and worked in the American Legation in Guangzhou, the High Court of Hong Kong, and the Shanghai Customs. Later, he ran a silk and tea business at Shanghai's Jardine Matheson & Co.

After returning to China, Yung Wing participated in various ways in the Westernization Movement, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Hundred Days' Reform, and the Xinhai Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen.

Soon after Yung Wing returned to China, he lost hope in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, saying that he "did not dare to believe it would succeed", and refused the fourth-class official title awarded by Hong Xiuquan.

The Westernization Movement, also known as the Self-Strengthening Movement, was considered China's first modernization movement. It lasted for 30 years, and Yung Wing was active in it. He believed that China's backwardness was due to the backwardness of the entire economic system, especially the lack of its own basic industry. He pointed out: "With such a large territory, China must have many different machine factories to be able to meet the needs. If you want to establish various machine factories, you must first have a good main factory as the mother factory, and then you can have many subsidiary factories. Even if there are many subsidiary factories, they can be merged into one and work together. With the cheap raw materials and cheap labor in China, the machines made in China will be much cheaper than those purchased from Europe and the United States. This is my personal opinion."

In 1865, Yung Wing assisted Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan in buying a large number of machines from the United States and established the Jiangnan General Manufacturing Bureau in Shanghai. It was the first complete modern machine factory in modern Chinese history, which started as a military factory and later became a shipyard.

After returning from overseas, Yung Wing has always advocated that more Chinese students should go abroad to study, learn skills and see the world. In 1870, Yung Wing made a suggestion to the Qing government: "The government should send young people to study abroad to serve as a reserve of talents for the country. The method of sending can select 120 students for the first time. These 120 people are divided into four batches and sent annually, with 30 people sent each year. The period of study abroad is set at 15 years. The age of students must be between 12 and 14 years old." Yung Wing persuaded Zeng Guofan, and the proposal was approved. The following year, the court established the "Young Children Study Abroad Bureau" and sent the earliest batch of Chinese children to study in the United States in 1872. According to records, these students were very young, with an average age of about 13 years old, and the youngest was only 11 years old. At that time, when young children went abroad, each child and his family had to sign a life and death statement, and neither government was responsible for their safety and health.

Some of the children who arrived in the United States in early 1872 took a group photo in San Francisco

In June 1873, Huang Sheng, who had retired due to illness, personally led the second group of about 30 students to the United States, including Tang Guoan, a fellow Xiangshan native who will be introduced later. Huang Sheng served as an interpreter at the Qing Dynasty Embassy in the United States, assisting in handling diplomatic and overseas student affairs, and returned to Hong Kong after completing his term in 1876.

Qian Gang and Hu Jincao (eds.), Contemporary China Press, 2010

In 1875, Yung Wing became the vice-commissioner of the "Chinese Students' Overseas Education Bureau", responsible for the education of the students in the United States until the Qing government withdrew the students in 1881. The main reason for withdrawing the students was that the students' horizons changed after going abroad, and they no longer agreed with other "Qing Dynasty people" in terms of knowledge and concepts; on the other hand, it was due to the creation of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States in 1882. Chen Lanbin (1816-1895), the full member of the Education Bureau and the Chinese Minister to the United States at that time, suggested withdrawing these Chinese students in the United States, and was approved by the Qing government. These government-sponsored children were supposed to stay in the United States for 15 years and return only after they had completed their studies, but most of them had to give up halfway and returned to China one after another. However, after returning, many of them became pioneers and leaders of China's modernization. Well-known ones include: Zhan Tianyou became the father of Chinese railways, Tang Shaoyi became the first prime minister of the Republic of China, Tang Guoan became the first president of the predecessor of Tsinghua University, Liang Dunyan became the foreign minister of the Qing Dynasty, etc. All of these people are from Guangdong, and Tang Shaoyi and Tang Guoan are from Xiangshan County. Yung Wing's book "The Spread of Western Learning to the East" records in detail the legendary experience of him and this group of government-sponsored students. The book was included in the "Towards the World Series" in 1985, and was published again in 2012 under the name of "Yung Wing's Memoirs".

Chinese students studying in the United States organized a baseball team. Zhan Tianyou is the second from the right in the back row.

In 1876, Yale University awarded Yung Wing an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in recognition of his important contributions to cultural exchanges between the United States and China.

In September 1901, some revolutionaries in Hong Kong began planning an uprising to seize Guangzhou, and decided to nominate Yung Wing as the president of the government after the success. But Yung Wing believed that Sun Yat-sen should be nominated as the president. After that, several uprisings by the revolutionaries all ended in failure, and Yung Wing had to take refuge in the United States. While in the United States, he continued to actively participate in Chinese revolutionary activities. He contacted American military expert Homer Lea and Treasury Secretary Charles B. Bothe, and raised a large amount of funds for domestic revolutionaries to train armed forces and support the Xinhai Revolution.

On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen took office as the President of the Provisional Government in Nanjing. Yung Wing immediately sent a telegram to congratulate him. The next day, Sun Yat-sen wrote a letter to Yung Wing himself, inviting him to return to China to take up an important government position. However, Yung Wing was already seriously ill at the time and died in Connecticut on April 21 at the age of 84.

In 1998, to commemorate the 170th anniversary of Yung Wing's birth, the Connecticut state government officially announced that September 22, the day when the first batch of Chinese students enrolled in the United States that year, would be designated as "Yung Wing and Chinese Students in the United States Memorial Day."

From August 17 to 20, 2015, CCTV Documentary Channel broadcast the TV documentary "Yung Wing". The film is divided into 4 episodes: "Yale Prodigy", "China Dream", "Young Children Studying in the United States", and "Innocent Heart".

In 2021, China Literature and History Publishing House published the book "Yung Wing and the Chinese Children in the United States" and held a grand launch ceremony at the Yung Wing Museum in Yung Wing's hometown on April 21.

Edited by Zheng Anxing and Xu Huiping, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2018

Erhuangkuan

Wong Fun was born in Dong'an Township, Xiangshan County (now Zhuhai City) in 1829. His parents died when he was young, and he was raised by his grandmother. He dropped out of school for a time due to his poor family background.

Huang Kuan (1829-1878)

In 1840, 11-year-old Huang Kuan was sent to Macau to study at Morrison School. As mentioned above, in 1847, the Browns sponsored and brought three students, Yung Wing, Huang Kuan and Huang Sheng, from Macau to study in the United States. Huang Sheng fell ill due to acclimatization and dropped out of school a year later and returned to Hong Kong. In 1849, Huang Kuan graduated from Monson Academy Preparatory School and went to study at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom the following year. He studied literature when he enrolled, changed to medicine the following year, and finally graduated with a bachelor's degree in medicine in 1855. The title of his graduation thesis was "On functional disorders of the stomach".

At the graduation ceremony, James Young Simpson (1811-1870), a famous physician and president of the University of Edinburgh at the time, said in his congratulatory message: "Among you, Huang Kuan is the most praiseworthy student who is modest and eager to learn. The many awards and honors he has won in academic competitions give us hope that this first Chinese student to study in Europe will surely become the best representative of Chinese and Western medicine for his compatriots. I firmly believe that everyone here, including professors and graduates, has extraordinary wishes for his future career and happiness."

On July 3, 1855, Huang Kuan passed the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and obtained the medical MD degree certificate.

Huang Kuan then continued to study for a master's and doctoral degree in pathology and anatomy, and obtained a license to practice Western medicine in 1857, becoming the first Chinese student to graduate from a British university and obtain a license to practice Western medicine. He then returned to China and settled in Hong Kong.

After arriving in Hong Kong, Huang Kuan wrote a letter to the Edinburgh Association for Sending Medical Aid to Foreign Countries, which had long sponsored his studies. The letter read: "After a long voyage of 166 days, I finally returned to my motherland. On January 3, about 300 miles from the Taiwan Strait, we encountered a very fierce storm. The strong wind blew away the ship's fore-midmast, main-midmast and rear-midmast. I am very grateful to the mercy of God for saving me from death and returning to my homeland safely 12 days after the ship was in distress." In Hong Kong, he served in the London Missionary Society Hospital and served as a missionary in accordance with the funding agreement signed with the British Church that year. But soon, he resigned because he was dissatisfied with the exclusion of British missionaries in the Mission Society. The following year, he went to Guangzhou to work at the Huiai Medical Clinic.

In 1863, the Guangdong Customs of China established a medical department and hired 17 medical officers, among whom Huang Kuan was the only Chinese. Afterwards, Huang Kuan taught anatomy, physiology and surgery at the South China Medical School and served as the acting director of the Boji Hospital. In 1875, he became the director of the Southwest Medical Bureau.

On October 12, 1878, Huang Kuan died of cervical carbuncle in Guangzhou at the age of 49.

Huang Kuan was the first person to perform embryo dissection surgery in China and one of the few teachers who taught Western medicine in China. He participated in the medical education work of training the first generation of Western medicine talents for China. Together with his colleagues, he introduced a whole new medical system including Western medicine treatment and hospital system, medical education, medical research and medical care publicity. He is known as a pioneer in the spread of Western medicine to the East.

San Tang Guoan

Tong Kwo On (English name Tong Kwo On), also known by his courtesy name Jiechen and nickname Tang Jie, was born on October 27, 1858 in Jishan Village, Tangjiawan Town, Xiangshan County (now part of Zhuhai City).

Tang Guoan attended a private school when he was young. In 1873, he went to the United States as one of the second batch of Chinese students studying in the United States. He first studied preparatory courses at Phillips Exeter Academy in Connecticut, and later was admitted to the Law School of Yale University. In 1881, he dropped out and returned to China because the Qing government terminated studying abroad.

The second batch of Chinese students studying in the United States took a group photo outside the main gate of the China Merchants Steamship Administration before leaving for the country

(Tang Guoan is the second from the right in the first row. Photo courtesy of Tsinghua University History Museum)

After returning to China, Tang Guoan worked in Kaiping Coal Mine, Jingfeng Railway and other places, and later taught at Saint John College in Shanghai. In 1905, he and Yan Huiqing opened the English edition of Shanghai's "Nanfang Daily". Yan Huiqing (1877-1950) was a famous figure. He went to the United States to study in high school in 1895, and was admitted to the University of Virginia two years later. After receiving a bachelor's degree in 1900, he returned to China and served as the director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Qing government and the general manager of Tsinghua School in Beijing. He served as the head of the Beiyang government. In 1906, Tang Guoan served as a director and vice president of the "Global Chinese Students Association", founded the "Global Chinese Students Newspaper", and published a "Letter to Chinese Students Studying Abroad", calling on scholars at home and abroad to unite to save the nation. He also served as a director of the "Natural Foot Association" in Shanghai and organized social activities against women's foot binding.

In 1908, the U.S. Congress passed a bill authorizing President Roosevelt to return a sum of the Boxer Indemnity to China to be used for running schools and sponsoring Chinese students to study in the United States. According to the agreement between the two sides, China used this money to send 100 students to the United States every year starting in 1909. The Qing government established the "Study in the United States Office" and appointed Tang Guoan to be in charge. In the same year, Tang Guoan also attended the first International Anti-Opium Conference held in Shanghai as a commissioner of the Qing government delegation.

Tang Guoan (1858-1913)

While working at the Office of Studying in the United States, Tang Guoan actively organized a "school" to prepare students for study abroad. With the approval of Emperor Xuantong, the school implemented a four-four system for high school and middle school, becoming a regular preparatory school for studying in the United States. In 1910, he was appointed as the director of the Examination and Works Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On April 29, 1911, the school was renamed "Tsinghua School" and Tang Guoan was appointed as the deputy supervisor of Tsinghua School. Later, the Revolution of 1911 broke out, and Yuan Shikai used the money from the Boxer Indemnity for military use, resulting in Tsinghua School having no daily teaching funds and was forced to suspend classes. Tang Guoan and others actively fought and successfully resumed classes on May 1, 1912. Tang Guoan was immediately appointed as the school supervisor. On October 17 of the same year, Tsinghua School was renamed Tsinghua School, and Tang Guoan became the first principal.

During the years when Tang Guoan was the school supervisor and principal, he was responsible for selecting a group of outstanding students to study abroad. In 1909, 1910 and 1911, the Qing government sent three groups of Boxer Indemnity students to study abroad, with 47, 70 and 63 people respectively. Tang Guoan personally escorted the first batch of students from Tsinghua School to the United States. He arranged them to study in appropriate schools based on their knowledge base. He returned to China only after "all the teaching and management methods were very compatible and all the students were at ease to study." Among these three groups of students, there were well-known Mei Yiqi, Jin Bangzheng, Hu Gangfu, Zhang Zigao, Xu Peihuang, Hu Shi, Zhao Yuanren, Hu Mingfu, Zou Bingwen, Zhou Ren, Bingzhi, Guo Tanxian, Jiang Lifu, Wu Xian, Sun Xuewu, Jin Yuelin, Hou Debang, Ye Qisun, Yang Shixian, Tang Yongtong, Wu Mi and other outstanding people in various fields.

During his tenure as president, Tang Guoan presided over the revision of the "Recent Chapters of Tsinghua School", reformed the old school system and curriculum, set the teaching content of advanced subjects at the corresponding level of American universities, implemented the division of liberal arts and science classes, and opened compulsory and elective courses, so that Chinese students can enter the senior grades of American universities after graduating from Tsinghua School. Tang Guoan also personally inspected and recruited 8 men and 9 women who were qualified to teach at Tsinghua, offering courses in mathematics, physics, biology, history, English, German, etc. At the same time, he also hired an American physical education teacher for the school.

Tang Guoan, who worked hard for Tsinghua University, finally fell ill in August 1913. On August 21, he submitted a "self-resignation" report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the imperial court, proposing to "resign due to illness and recommend a virtuous person to replace me." He said that "half of my energy was spent on teaching affairs and half on financial affairs in the past year. Since the beginning of spring, I have suddenly suffered from heart disease, which has been mild and severe. I hoped that it would be cured, but it gradually became more serious and I will not be able to get up. The position of the principal is important and cannot be vacant for a day. I respectfully implore the Ministry to dismiss me and appoint another virtuous person to take the position." On the afternoon of August 22, Tang Guoan passed away due to a sudden heart attack at the age of 53.

Chen Heqin (1892-1982), a Tsinghua alumnus and renowned child psychologist and educator, recalled Tang Guoan in My Half Life (first published in 1941, reprinted by Shanghai Joint Publishing Company in 2014): “He was a Christian, very sincere to others, very enthusiastic in his work, and he treated his students like his own children and his colleagues like his friends. Unfortunately, he fell ill and died not long after becoming [the principal]. We all felt very sad, as if we had lost a loving and loving mother.”

On April 12, 1914, Tsinghua University held a ceremony to unveil the bronze plaque in memory of Tang Guoan in front of the main gate of the Office of the Study Abroad Program (now the I-shaped Hall of Tsinghua University). The plaque was placed on the east front wall of the porch and was engraved with "In Memory of President Tang Guoan".

In August 1914, Tsinghua University edited and published the first issue of the English version of Tsinghua Yearbook. The dedication on the front page solemnly stated: "This magazine is dedicated to Mr. Tang Jiechen, the late president of Tsinghua University." It also published a photo and biography of Tang Guoan. The last sentence of the dedication was: "As a person, Mr. Tang was frank and brave. He would fulfill the promises he had made no matter what practical difficulties he encountered."

In September 2010, the Tang Guoan Memorial School was completed and enrolled students in his hometown. In March 2011, the Tang Guoan Memorial Hall was also completed and opened in his hometown.

Tang Shaoming, Tsinghua University Press, 2016

4 Zheng Mano

Zheng Manoel (Portuguese name Manoel de Sequeira) was born on May 25, 1633 in Xiangshan Town, Guangdong (now Zhongshan City).

Trinh Mano was named after his devout Catholic father. His father was a close friend of the famous Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes (1593-1660). In the 1640s, Rhodes preached in Macau for ten years. Before coming to Guangdong, Rhodes had preached in Vietnam for many years. He recorded the local dialect in Latin, which later became the prototype of Vietnamese writing. He was therefore known as the "Apostle of Annam", or the Vietnamese envoy. In 1651, he published the world's first "Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin" dictionary.

Zheng Manuo had a legendary experience in his youth. In 1645, Rhodes planned to take a Chinese student and two Vietnamese students to Rome, Italy for religious training. However, due to financial constraints, the Macau Jesuits only allowed him to take one student with him, so he took the 12-year-old Zheng Manuo with him. On December 20, the two set out from Macau by boat and traveled through Malacca. But when they arrived in Batavia (now the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta), they were imprisoned by the Dutch for three months and then repatriated to Malacca. They changed their route and arrived at the Portuguese coastal city of Goa in India via the Indian Ocean, and then arrived in Armenia by land through Persia. The two lived in a monastery for half a year, and at that time, little Manuo spoke Armenian as well as the locals. Later, when they went to Italy through Turkey, little Manuo was detained because he was considered a Mongolian. Later, it was said that he was released soon because he spoke authentic Armenian. The two wandered all the way and it took them a full five years to reach Rome.

Zheng Manuo began to study Latin and ancient Greek in Rome. On October 17, 1651, he entered the junior college of the Roman Jesuits. Two years later, he officially entered the Collegio Romano. In this college, he studied rhetoric for one year and philosophy for three years (including one year of logic, one year of physics and natural sciences, and one year of metaphysics). In 1658, Zheng Manuo graduated and then stayed at the school to teach until 1660. There, he taught Latin, ancient Greek grammar and literature courses.

In 1661, Manno stayed in Bologna, Italy for a year to study theology. After that, he went to Lisbon, Portugal, to continue studying theology at the Collegium Conimbricense, and graduated in 1664. Finally, he went to Coimbra, Portugal, to be ordained as a priest in the Jesuit convent.

On April 13, 1666, after being received by the King of Portugal, Zheng Manuo and 14 missionaries set sail to China via India. There were only two Chinese among this group of missionaries: Zheng Manuo and a Macau native named Nicolasda Fonseca. Nicolasda Fonseca went to Europe a few years later than Zheng Manuo, and this time they returned to Macau together to become priests. The fleet they were on had four ships and arrived in Goa, India on October 13 of the same year. On the way, due to disease and turbulence, more than 70 of the 400 passengers in the fleet died, including two missionaries and two doctors.

In Goa, the local Jesuits did not allow them to leave for China immediately, and required them to serve in India for a period of time first. Zheng Manuo began to learn the Goan dialect and served the local church. At that time, Yang Guangxian (1597-1669), the supervisor of the Qing Dynasty's Imperial Astronomical Bureau (in charge of astronomy and calendar), launched a massive anti-Christian movement in Beijing. Yang Guangxian's faction opposed the theory of the earth's roundness and insisted on using the inaccurate old calendars "Huihui Calendar" and "Datong Calendar". The Western school represented by Jesuit missionaries Adam Schall von Bell (1591-1666) of Germany and Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688) of Belgium advocated the calendar advocated by Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585), which is the Gregorian calendar still used today. Yang Guangxian used his power to imprison the two missionaries one after another. At that time, the Qing government adopted a policy of seclusion to prevent Zheng Chenggong from launching a counterattack, and also banned foreign missionaries from entering China. Zheng Manuo and his party had no choice but to stay in Goa.

On May 14, 1668, Manno left Goa with six other missionaries and arrived in Macau on August 19. Manno then wrote a letter in Italian to the president of the Macau Jesuit General Association, saying: "I am now preparing to sneak into China." However, he did not go. At that time, it was very dangerous for missionaries to sneak into China. Some were caught and imprisoned, including Italian missionary Prospero Intorcetta (1626-1696), who was imprisoned in Guangzhou. Regarding this missionary Prospero Intorcetta, when President Xi Jinping met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Beijing on February 22, 2017, he mentioned: "The friendship between China and Italy has a long history. In the long history, our two civilizations have attracted each other. During the reign of Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, Prospero Intorcetta left Sicily for China, and then he brought back to Europe the Doctrine of the Mean, one of the Confucian classics of the Four Books."

In 1669, Emperor Kangxi took power and later asked Nan Huairen to be his science teacher to teach geometry and astronomy. Nan Huairen translated "Elements of Geometry" into Manchu and often accompanied the emperor to observe the sky and measure the earth. Emperor Kangxi gradually accepted natural science, removed Yang Guangxian from his official position and abolished the old calendar he promoted. In the end, Yang Guangxian was questioned and exiled to his hometown, where he died on the way. Kangxi acquiesced to Western religions, was tolerant of missionaries, and allowed some missionaries in Guangzhou at the time to come to Beijing. So the missionaries took a boat from Guangzhou to the north, including Zheng Manuo. However, he contracted pneumonia on the way, and struggled for more than a year after arriving in Beijing. He finally died on May 26, 1673 at the age of 40.

In September of the same year, Gabriel de Magalhāes (1609-1677), president of the Society of Jesus in Beijing, wrote an obituary to the general president, saying: "I mourn deeply for the death of Father Zheng Manuo. He is indeed the glory and honor of China. When he arrived in Beijing, his condition was already very serious and could not be cured, and his lungs were completely rotten. Please train Chinese priests as soon as possible. I am also working hard for this so that Father Zheng can have successors." Francis A. Rouleau, secretary of the Society of Jesus, wrote an obituary for "Father Zheng Manuo (1633-1673), the first Chinese priest of the Society of Jesus", in which he wrote: "When Nan Huairen installed a sextant to measure the stars, Gabriel de Magalhāes made a model to radiate various colors of the prism, and Christian Enligne "While the emperor and his ministers were fascinated by the exquisite instruments and devices made by the Chinese Jesuit Herdtricht (1624-1684), the thin Chinese Jesuit was carrying out very ordinary religious ceremonies in the nearby towns and villages every day, doing his best to teach the doctrine and perform baptism and other sacraments for people. Many of his followers, like him, came from poor families. He spent the most difficult days of his life with these people" (Journal of the Society of Jesus, Vol. 28, Rome, 1959).

Leopold Leeb (1967-), a well-known scholar from Austria, lived in Beijing for 22 years, during which time he taught Latin and ancient Greek courses at Renmin University of China. He wrote several Latin courses, and especially published religious history books such as Zhang Heng, Science and Religion and Chinese and Western Culture in the Eyes of Western Scholars (10 volumes). In his book My Spiritual Capital, he introduced Zheng Manuo in detail and exclaimed: "Such a great man, his story moved me deeply."

It has been verified that there were many other early Chinese students who lived in the same period but later than Zheng Manno. Among them, the more famous ones include Alfonso Michel Chen (1657-1691), Arcade Huang (1679-1716), Fan Shouyi (1682-1753), etc., all of whom are mentioned in Lei Libai's book.

[Austria] Lei Libo, New Star Press, 2017

In June 2018, staff from the Beijing Municipal Party School, located in Chegongzhuang, Xicheng District, Beijing, discovered the tombstone of Zheng Manuo in the Catholic Cemetery of Tenggong Fence outside Chegongzhuang while sorting out religious relics. The inscription reads as follows:

Tomb of Jesuit Zheng Gong

Mr. Zheng’s real name was Manuo, and his alias was Weixin. He was from Xiangshan, Guangdong, China. He joined the sect and practiced Buddhism since he was young. He died in the capital on April 11, 1644, at the age of 38.

(The Latin part of the stele is translated as follows)

Father Zheng Manuo, from Macau, China, went to Rome when he was young and joined the Society of Jesus. He was the first Chinese priest in the Society of Jesus. After completing his studies in philosophy and theology, he returned to China and spread the gospel to his compatriots. He died in Beijing on May 26, 1673 at the age of 38.

Zheng Manuo's tombstone at the Tenggongzhalan Catholic Cemetery in Beijing

Five Zhang Wenzhan

Mon Cham Cheong was born on December 7, 1858 in the eighth year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign in the Qing Dynasty in Guhe Village, Sanxiang Town, Xiangshan County (now Zhongshan City), in a family of silk and tea merchants. His father was good at doing business with foreigners and had a broad vision. He hoped that his son, Mon Cham Cheong, could go to the United States to study, especially to learn mechanical technology, so that he could make up for the shortcomings in China after returning. In 1874, his father paid for his 16-year-old son to study in the United States via Hong Kong. Mon Cham Cheong first entered Monson Academy in Massachusetts, which was the preparatory school that Yung Wing, Huang Kuan and Huang Sheng attended when they first arrived in the United States in 1847.

Zhang Wenzhan (Monson Academy Archives)

With Oong Ar-Showe, the first Chinese to immigrate from Guangdong to Boston in 1850 and a tea merchant, as guarantor, Zhang Wenzhan was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1877 and became the first Chinese student in the school.

Postcard from MIT by Zhang Wenzhan in 1879

According to school records of that year, Zhang Wenzhan first entered the two-year School of Mechanic Arts, where he began to take English and geography classes, and then majored in algebra, mechanical drawing, and foundry technology. Records show that he left school for a period of time in May 1878, and returned to MIT as a special student from 1879 to 1882 to study mechanical engineering. He was scheduled to graduate in 1883 (Class of 1883), but dropped out and returned to China in 1881 or 1882. On October 11, 1882, the MIT Student Newspaper reported that Zhang Wenzhan had already taken a job in Hong Kong. Later records showed that he became a senior engineer of mines in 1885.

Zhang Wenzhan once sent a letter from 266 Sai Wan Ho Main Street, Hong Kong to his nephew Zhang Qingquan in Shanghai, talking about his residence in Hong Kong and the living conditions of his family. As for whether Zhang Wenzhan spent the rest of his life in Hong Kong, when and where he died, it is unknown (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website puts a question mark when marking his year of death: 1894?).

However, it is worth mentioning that Zhang Wenzhan once wrote a postscript for Zheng Guanying's "A Sequel to Words of Warning in Times of Prosperity".

Zheng Guanying (1842-1921) was also from Xiangshan County, Guangdong. He was the earliest thinker with a complete reformist concept in modern China. He was also an industrialist, writer, philanthropist and ardent patriot. Zheng Guanying's famous works include "Words of Warning in Times of Prosperity" and "Words of Easy Talk". His book "Words of Warning in Times of Prosperity" was the first to require the Qing court to "establish a constitution" and "open a parliament" to implement constitutional politics. He was the first to use the term "constitution" in China and is considered to be the initiator of the Chinese constitutional concept. The book also advocates learning business and developing schools, and puts forward some positive plans for reforms in politics, economy, military, diplomacy, culture and other aspects. It is considered to be a great reform book with enriching and strengthening the country as the core. Emperor Guangxu was very impressed by the book and immediately ordered the printing of 2,000 copies to be distributed to ministers for reading. After the book came out, it received a huge response in society, and people at the time called it "the spiritual casket of the country". This book greatly influenced the political thoughts and activities of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong and others, and was highly praised by Cai Yuanpei.

In the postscript Zhang Wenzhan wrote for "A Sequel to Words of Warning in Times of Prosperity", he expressed his dissatisfaction with the political and social conditions of the late Qing Dynasty. By comparing China and Japan, he pointed out that China must learn from foreign countries and carry out reforms in politics, economy, education and other aspects in order to save the nation from peril.

According to historical records of Chinese students studying in the United States, about 400 Chinese students studied at MIT between 1877 and 1931. Chinese students who graduated from the school in the early years made many important inventions, including the world's first Chinese typewriter and navigation training aircraft, as well as groundbreaking scientific research such as microwave spectroscopy and nonlinear automatic control theory (see the previously introduced "the last extraordinary generalist" Gu Yuxiu, 1902-2002).

In 2017, MIT held a grand exhibition titled “China Comes to Tech: 1877-1931” on campus to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the admission of the first Chinese student.

Today, MIT has a permanent webpage, "MIT's First Chinese Students: 1877-1931", which contains many informative topics, including: The First Graduates, Bringing China to "Tech", Bringing "Tech" to China, and Chinese Exclusion: 1882-1943. Especially worth a look is the column "1877: China's First Overseas Student", with the theme: "Mon Cham Cheong: Dreaming Dreams".

Website: https://earlychinesemit.mit.edu/1877-first-chinese-student

Website: http://chinacomestomit.org/