Listening to Yang Jiang Talk about the Past - Chapter 1

The first chapter of Listening to Yang Jiang Talk About the Past is all about the background of China surrounding Yang Jiang's birth, including her parents, her sisters, and, especially, her father's work. The most interesting feature here is the new portrait of her father, Yang Yinhang aka "Old Mister Gardener" 老圃先生. First we meet Old Mister Gardener, the progressive family man, who treats his wife like an equal, is sweet to his children, and fills the house with intimate speech mixed with local Wuxi expressions and allusions picked up from Chinese and Western literature.

Only later, as Wu Xuezhao closes the chapter, do we meet Yang Yinhang, a tragic idealist whose ethics ultimately led him to give up participation in the government. At least, it was either that or his stubbornness in the face of another man of government, Xu Shiying 許世英. What can we make of their conflict? How much can we believe what we read in this book, which defends Yang Jiang's father against Xu Shiying?

Facts of the Case, According Yang and Wu

In 1917, while acting as a high judge in Beijing 京師高等檢察庭, he had started investigating accusations of bribery 受賄 against then-Transportation Minister Xu Shiying. But Xu had already served in a number of leadership positions and had a lot of clout; many of his supporters lobbied for the case to be dropped. When Judge Yang refused, he was fired by the Minister of Justice 司法長. The Minister, Zhang Yaozeng 張耀曾 (1885-1938), told Yang there was not enough evidence, but this was essentially a lie; the evidence was produced, but it did not prevent Judge Yang from getting reprimanded and fired, together with his colleague 張汝霖. Yang Yinhang was able to find other work eventually, but from this point forward, he was disillusioned with the Republican government in Beijing, and never sought to serve in office again 對官官相獲的北洋政府已看透了，無意繼續做官.

According to Wu Xuezhao, articles from Shen bao on May 24 and 25 illustrate that Yang Yinhang had widespread support for his investigation. Xu Shiying was never sanctioned, and went on to serve in the KMT government in Taiwan. Wu regrets she has not seen Xu's own memoirs, which might shed some light on this case.



Xu Shiying, from a typical web profile that celebrates the man for a brilliant career.



Statue of the Xu Shiying on Jinmen Island, Taiwan. (From this webpage)



Zhang Yaozeng, died 1938 in Shanghai (from an online profile). He was one of Sun Yat-sen's "Council of Seven" 七君子.

Follow-up article, unfortunately not available online:

Xu Xiaoqun. "The Fate of Judicial Independence in Republican China, 1912-37," China Quarterly (1997), 149:1-28.