Qian Nengxun was born in Jiashan, Zhejiang Province in 1869 in the late Qing Dynasty. His father Qian Baolian was a Jinshi during the Daoguang period and once served as a second-rank official in the Qing court. Because of his good upbringing, Qian Nengxun had been familiar with t

Qian Nengxun was born in Jiashan, Zhejiang in 1869 in the late Qing Dynasty. His father, Qian Baolian, was a Jinshi during the Daoguang period and once served as a second-rank official in the Qing court. Because of his good upbringing, Qian Nengxun had been familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics since he was a child. He was admitted to Jinshi in his 20s and entered the Hanlin Academy like his father.

He successively served as the chief examiner of the rural examinations in Hubei and Guangdong, the academic administrator of Guangxi, the director of the Ministry of Punishment, and the Yuanwailang. In 1911, he took up the post of governor of Shaanxi as the chief envoy. In the autumn of the seventh year of the Republic of China, Xu Shichang was elected as the President of the Republic of China. Because Qian Nengxun and Xu Shichang had old friendships, Qian Nengxun was appointed as Acting Prime Minister , and later officially became the Beiyang Government's Cabinet Prime Minister.

small file:
Name: Qian Nengxun
Font size: Xi Cheng, Qian Chen.
Birthplace: Jiashan, Zhejiang.
Born: 1870
Died: June 5, 1924

Qian Nengxun

1. Climbing a big tree to enjoy the shade

Qian Nengxun was born in 1870. He was a Jinshi in 1898 and stayed in the Imperial Academy the next year. He was taught as an editor and served as director of the Criminal Department, Yuanwailang, Langzhong, supervisory censor, examiner of Guangdong and Hubei rural examinations, Guangxi academic administration and other positions. In 1903, due to the recommendation of Yude, the censor of Zuodu, he took the special economic examination and was later promoted to censor.
From the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, Qian Nengxun’s rise and fall were always inseparable from Xu Shichang. The Qing government established the Patrol Department on October 8, 1905, thereby unifying the national police agencies, creating China's earliest central police agency, and laying the foundation for modern China's police system. Recommended by Yuan Shikai , Xu Shichang served as Shangshu of the Patrol Department of the Qing government. Because he was informed by Xu Shichang, when Xu was appointed Minister of the Patrol Department and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Qian Nengxun successively held important positions such as left counselor of the Patrol Department, left prime minister of , right prime minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, etc., and became Xu's confidant.
In 1907, the three eastern provinces were reorganized, and Xu Shichang became the first governor of the three eastern provinces. He immediately ordered Zhou Demonstration and Qian Nengxun to participate in the ceremony as Fengtian counselor. At this time, Xu Shichang respected Zhou Shumo and got close to Qian Nengxun, and quickly promoted Qian Nengxun to the post of Shuntian Prefecture Yin. In the same year, Xu Shichang was removed from the post of Governor of Zhili Province and Minister of Beiyang, and was transferred to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Military Aircraft. When Xu Shichang was serving as Minister of Military and Aircraft, he strongly recommended Qian to be the Chief Envoy of Shaanxi Province. At this time, Governor Yang Wending had not yet arrived, so Qian was appointed Chief Envoy to care for the governor. From then on, Qian became one of the officials who governed the feudal frontiers.
After the founding of the Republic of China, Qian Nengxun repeatedly held important government positions by virtue of his old relationship with Xu Shichang and others. On October 16, 1913, Qian became deputy minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Xiong Xiling cabinet of the Beijing government. In March 1914, representatives from the three provinces of Mongolia, Tibet, and Qinghai were elected as members of the Convention. In May of the same year, Yuan Shikai established the Political Affairs Hall in the Presidential Palace, and changed the Prime Minister to the Secretary of State, with Xu Shichang as the first Secretary of State. At that time, Qian Nengxun was appointed as the Right Prime Minister of the Political Affairs Hall and concurrently as the Vice President of the Etiquette Hall (the president was Xu Shichang). Together with Zuo Cheng Yang Shiqi, he became Xu's right-hand assistant, assisting Xu Shichang in handling daily government affairs. Qian was recommended by Xu Shichang and was highly regarded by Yuan Shikai. In the second month of 1915, he was awarded the title of Zhongqing by Yuan. On October 24, he acted as the dean of the Pingzheng Yuan, and concurrently served as the chairman of the Civil Service Higher Disciplinary Committee. On April 22, 1916, he was officially appointed as the president of Pingzhengyuan. In August 1917, Feng Guozhang, then vice president, acted as the president of the Beijing government after Li Yuanhong. In November of the same year, Duan Qirui resigned as prime minister due to the failure of the war with South Korea. Initially, Wang Daxie acted as the president. , and then changed to Wang Shizhen to act, and on December 1, Qian Nengxun became the chief minister of internal affairs of the king's cabinet. On February 20, 1918, Wang Shizhen resigned under the attack of the Anhui clique. Qian once temporarily served as the Prime Minister for only one month and three days. On March 23, Duan Qirui reorganized the cabinet and Qian was re-elected as the Minister of Internal Affairs.
On September 4, 1918, Xu Shichang was elected as the president by the Anhui Anhui Clique-controlled Anfu Congress after Feng Guozhang and was officially sworn in on October 10. Duan immediately resigned from the post of prime minister of the cabinet and became a full-time war supervisor and trained participating troops. , the Border Guards, Yi Jian and Feng Guozhang's promise to retire together. Therefore, Xu temporarily acted as Prime Minister with the Chief of Internal Affairs Qian Nengxun.
During Qian Dai's cabinet, because Xu Shichang respected peace and sought reunification, he convened a military governor's meeting on November 15th on the issue of peace and war. The president and all cabinet members attended. There were five issues discussed, the first of which was armistice and withdrawal. Later, at this time, the European War ended. After the advice of the diplomatic corps, the atmosphere of peace almost permeated the country, so Duan Qirui and the provincial governors had to comply with his advice. On the 16th, all troops in the front were ordered to stop fighting and retreat. On the 20th, the Guangdong Protectorate Military Government also declared a truce. In December, Xu Shichang asked the House and Senate to discuss and approve Qian's appointment. On the 12th, Qian Nengxun formally formed the cabinet and became the Prime Minister. On the 23rd, Xu established a aftermath discussion meeting at the Presidential Palace, with Qian serving as the chairman. On January 11, 1919, the cabinet was reorganized, and Qian concurrently served as the Minister of Internal Affairs.
Looking at Qian Nengxun’s official career, every promotion and promotion has the shadow of Xu Shichang behind it.

2. Historical responsibility cannot be escaped

Shortly after Qian Nengxun ascended to the throne of Prime Minister, the "May 4th" patriotic movement broke out. Many articles have covered Qian Nengxun's performance in the "May 4th Movement", and some articles have , he was written as a person guilty of history, and some people wrote articles to defend him. But no matter what, he had something to do with the suppression of the May 4th Movement. Although he was not directly involved, he was still the prime minister of the cabinet at the time and could not escape historical responsibility. When the European War ended in
, U.S. President Wilson initiated a peace conference, which was held on January 1, 1919 by the United States, Britain, France, Japan and other imperialist countries in Paris, the capital of France. China was one of the participating and victorious countries in the First World War and was also invited to attend. At the meeting, the Chinese representative raised the issue of Japan's return of Shandong, and the Japanese representative immediately expressed opposition; subsequently, representatives from Britain, France, and the United States held a meeting for this purpose and proposed a solution to the Shandong issue, that is, to return the Jiaozhou Bay previously enjoyed by Germany to The rights were transferred to Japan, and Japan automatically returned the sovereignty of Shandong to China, and allowed Japan to retain the economic privileges enjoyed by Germany and to hire special railway police officers.
Regarding this solution, the Chinese representative expressed opposition and protested, and the three countries also made no statement. Under pressure at home and abroad, the then President Xu Shichang and the Prime Minister Qian Nengxun agreed with the opinions of my representatives at the peace conference and decided not to sign the peace treaty. However, Xu Shuzheng, fearing that the world would be unstable, and Duan Qirui insisted on signing, putting Xu Shichang and Qian Nengxun in a dilemma.
Although Qian Nengxun was the Prime Minister of the Beijing government, he had the decision-making power of President Xu Shichang, and was repeatedly interfered in politics under the guidance of Duan Qirui. He was also constantly oppressed by Xu Shuzheng, and it coincided with the Paris Peace Conference in China. In a serious moment of diplomatic failure, money is struggling. Later, as soon as the news of China's diplomatic failure reached the country, the whole country was angry, and finally the vigorous anti-imperialist and patriotic May Fourth Movement broke out. After this movement, the members of Qian's cabinet were left incomplete and eventually collapsed. On June 13, Qian Nengxun was explicitly removed from the post of Prime Minister and was temporarily replaced by Minister of Finance Gong Xinzhan.
Qian Nengxun officially served as Prime Minister from November 1918. However, his official luck was not good and he caught up with the "May 4th Movement" the next year. On June 13, the May Fourth Movement reached its climax, and Qian Nengxun resigned. Some people say that his actions encouraged the student movement at the time, making the students think that they could unseat the Prime Minister as soon as they took to the streets to demonstrate. In fact, things are far from that simple. The rise of the "May 4th Movement" was not accidental; it had deep social roots. After the Revolution of 1911, foreign invaders, especially Japanese imperialism, stepped up their aggression against China. In an attempt to turn China into its exclusive colony; in order to maintain reactionary rule, the feudal warlords tried their best to collude with imperialism and betrayed national sovereignty in large quantities. Internal and external troubles are getting worse day by day, and the national crisis is imminent.This great revolutionary movement took place on the basis of the deepening of the basic contradictions in Chinese society.
The "May Fourth Movement" was essentially a vigorous anti-imperialist and patriotic movement. Due to the common struggle of the people across the country, the direct goals of the May Fourth Movement - punishing the traitors Cao Rulin , Zhang Zongxiang, Lu Zongyu and refusing to sign the peace treaty with Germany - were realized.
As time goes by, people will gradually have a more objective evaluation of Qian Nengxun’s personal actions during this period. At that time, Qian Nengxun was appointed as the prime minister of the cabinet. It was Xu Shichang's plan to exclude Wu Peifu, and he was completely controlled by Xu Shichang. Not long after he came to power, the May 4th Movement broke out, and Qian fell from power again in confusion. It can be seen that Qian Nengxun's ability and space to influence his personal political destiny is very limited, and he cannot reverse the general trend of historical development.

3. Difficulty Forming the Cabinet and Constraints

Qian Nengxun actually only formally formed the cabinet for half a year during his tenure as Prime Minister, that is, from December 12, 1918 to June 13, 1919. During this period, due to the division of the north and the south, various factions within the Beiyang warlords were in conflict, and political struggles occurred one after another, which made him have endless troubles as a cabinet minister. The first problem that
bears the brunt of is how the new cabinet will deal with the employment issue. Although Duan Qirui had left the cabinet at that time, on the one hand, he had the strength to join the war effort, and on the other hand, he was coercing the majority of Anfu faction members. Most of them had their own way on important issues involving government employment. As for the inner cabinet, he had no idea at all. Not in his mind", making Qian Nengxun unable to cope with it everywhere.
Two months after Qian Nengxun became acting prime minister, the president proposed to the House of Representatives and the Senate that Qian Nengxun should officially serve as prime minister. The two houses held votes as usual, and Qian Nengxun received a majority of votes. Xu Shichang immediately ordered the appointment of Qian Nengxun as Prime Minister.
Qian Nengxun officially took office, and naturally he had to reorganize the cabinet and continue to serve as the Minister of Internal Affairs. The post of Director-General of Foreign Affairs is also held by the original Lu Zhengxiang . Because Lu Zhengxiang is still attending a meeting in France, the deputy minister Chen Lu is temporarily acting. Chief of Justice Zhu Shen, Chief of Education Fu Zengxiang, and Chief of the Navy Liu Guanxiong have not changed. The Chief of Communications, Cao Rulin, removed the part-time job of the Chief of Finance and appointed Gong Xinzhan as the Chief of Finance. The Chief of the Army, Duan Zhigui, was removed from his position and replaced by Jin Yunpeng.
It should be said that this kind of personnel arrangement is basically a change of the soup without changing the medicine. Several key cabinet positions are always changed among the small circles of those few people.
In the complicated human relations, what makes Qian Nengxun even more difficult is how to deal with Duan's confidant Xu Shuzheng, who is known as "Xiao Xu". At that time, Xu Shuzheng was appointed as the frontier envoy to the northwest. This was originally a plan by President Xu Shichang to divert the tiger away from the mountain, because Xiao Xu was trying to secure his position and come back to control the Beijing government. Not to mention Qian Nengxun was very troubled by this. President Xu Shichang, known as the "old fox", also There was no choice, so Xiao Xu was transferred to Mongolia, far away from the capital, to develop.
On June 11, 1922, Li Yuanhong went to Beijing again, and a reinstatement ceremony was held at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai that afternoon. When Li Yuanhong came to power, he immediately ordered Qingliu Yan Huiqing to form a cabinet, revoke the order to dissolve Congress, cancel the arrest warrant for Sun Yat-sen, and demand a ceasefire across the country.
However, the separation of members of the old Congress through the Duan Qi Rui'an Fook Congress and the Sun Yat-sen Extraordinary Congress has been fragmented, and it is really difficult to restore it. As for the abolition of governors and reduction of troops, Wu Peifu first refused to resign. The governors of various provinces took advantage of the situation and simply stated their opposition to the abolition of governors and reduction of troops. As a result, only Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Northeastern provinces, a total of five provinces, succeeded in "abolition of governors." In fact, they just changed the name of the "supervisors" without changing the medicine.
At this time, what is more serious for Li Yuanhong is the financial crisis. Military pay cannot be paid, and the monthly salary of the State Council yamen cannot be paid. Li Yuanhong asked Tang Shaoyi to form a cabinet to solve financial problems, but Wu Peifu objected and could not proceed. Reminiscent of the fact that Tang Shaoyi was blocked from taking office as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the early years, Li Yuanhong realized that he was still a puppet of the warlords, but this time he was changed to a direct one. The troubles of
don’t stop there. The impatient Cao Kun finally didn’t even want Li Yuanhong to continue to be a puppet.He jumped out and wanted to be president immediately. The reason was that Li Yuanhong should only serve for 160 days as president, but now he has served as president for more than 330 days, so he should abdicate early. Although the reasons for
are untenable, the methods are becoming more and more despicable. In the end, Cao Kun simply cut off the telephone and running water of the presidential palace... At that time, the Living Buddha Jebtsundamba of Outer Mongolia demanded autonomy in Kulun (today's Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia), and the Beijing government had nothing to do about it: Xu Shuzheng's two trips to Kulun actually led to the cancellation of Outer Mongolia's autonomy, which can be said to have established a special honor for the country. Therefore, Xu Shuzheng became more arrogant and arrogant, and even ignored the Prime Minister Qian Nengxun.
Next, it’s about money. The Prime Minister's surname is Qian, but he is indeed worried about money. At the beginning of the formation of the cabinet, Chief of Army Jin Yunpeng and Chief of Finance Gong Xinzhan had a quarrel over the issue of asking for money to pay military salaries for the New Year. The quarrel was so violent that Qian Nengxun was helpless. Later, Duan Qirui intervened and the matter was settled.
From this point of view, the situation seems to have turned around overnight. In fact, this is not the case. The warlords in various provinces act on their own initiative, regardless of the interests of the country, and focus on themselves. Once they become military governors, they become rich. The central government only has expenditures but no income. How can a Prime Minister named Qian support it?
So President Xu Shichang came up with a way to live by borrowing money. In the name of rectifying the industry, the two chief ministers of finance and transportation came forward to borrow money here and there, and also borrowed money from the people in the name of various public bonds . foot. On the eve of Qian Nengxun's cabinet formation, the accumulated debts owed to Bank of China and Bank of Communications, excluding foreign debts over the years, had reached more than 80 million, gradually causing the two banks to have poor liquidity. The banks were about to fail, and the Ministry of Finance under the cabinet had no choice but to borrow money from the people and issue short-term bonds. The result was that the common people suffered and the dignitaries were enriched. Prime Minister Qian Nengxun is helpless. The national treasury is empty and people's wealth is depleted. As a prime minister, he can only provide emergency relief, but cannot help the poor. The new cabinet of
has been formed, and it has to start working, right? After dealing with the internal personnel and financial problems, Qian Nengxun turned his attention to dealing with external affairs. He sent four members of the Foreign Affairs Committee Gu Weijun, Wang Zhengting, Shi Zhaoji, and Wei Chen to Europe, together with the Director-General of Foreign Affairs Lu Zhengxiang Participated in the Paris Peace Conference; he also ordered Zhu Qiqian to go south to Jiangning. As the plenipotentiary representative of the North-South Conference, he joined Jiangsu Governor Li Chun and others to start peace negotiations. The Guangdong military government also elected political affairs president Tang Shaoyi as the general representative of the south. He went to Shanghai to hold peace talks and refused to go to Jiangning. The two sides spent a lot of time on the location of the peace talks. Finally, through the mediation of Jiangsu Governor Li Chun, he invited Zhu Qiqian to go to Shanghai and agreed to the South's request, which opened the door to peace talks.

4. North-South peace talks Nervous

Regarding the North-South peace talks, it was a major event that Qian Nengxun dealt with after he became prime minister. It was also a major test of his ability to govern and deal with complex conflicts. Qian Nengxun was troubled by this.
After Xu Shichang was elected president, in order to flaunt his political ideals of pursuing peace and seeking unity, he proposed the goal of peace talks between the north and the south. When Xu Shichang took office in 1918, he proposed: "It is not about the short-term success of quelling the rebellion, but the fundamental plan of running the country. It is not only limited to the country's own plan, but must have a vision of the future world." Xu Shichang believed that if China wants to "stand in the world "To become a country", we must first achieve the unification of the north and the south, and the method of unifying the north and the south "is strictly advisable to respect peace" and convene a peace conference for negotiations.
In addition, as the First World War came to an end, the Western powers represented by Britain and the United States re-examined their China policies and opposed Japan's support of the Anhui clique to create a civil war in China in order to dominate China. At the inauguration ceremony of Xu Shichang as president, ministers from various countries immediately delivered speeches "hoping for the early reunification of the north and the south." U.S. President Wilson also gave advice in his congratulatory message to Xu, hoping that Xu Shichang would "unify the north and the south as soon as possible and occupy his due position in the international guilds of various countries."
As for the political ambitions of President Xu Da, it is an out-and-out political mission to implement it on Prime Minister Qian Nengxun.Xu Shichang instructed Qian Nengxun to call the southwestern warlords, admonishing the southwestern side that "the European War is about to end, and the East Asian issue is implicated. It is unimaginable that the internal affairs will continue to be disputed for a long time, and the overall situation is unimaginable." public discussion".
As the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Qian Nengxun followed Xu's order and immediately called the southwest warlord. Qian Nengxun had a close personal relationship with southern military and political figures such as Lu Rongting and Cen Chunxuan . The two parties sent people to contact each other privately and sent telegrams back and forth. After many consultations, the focus of the conflict finally focused on three main issues to be resolved: First, the peace talks The number of people, locations and names, the second is the issue of the survival of the participating armies presided over by Duan Qirui, and the third is the issue of the Shaanxi armistice. There are obvious differences of opinion between the North and the South on these three issues.
After Qian Nengxun’s many efforts and several matchmaking efforts, as well as the fact that the ministers of the five countries were preparing to put forward stern advice on negotiation, the North and the South finally reached a basic consensus, and finally held the North-South peace conference at the Old German Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai on February 20, 1919. Address held.
The north has sent Zhu Qiqian and Wang Yitang as general representatives, and the south has sent Tang Shaoyi and Wen Zongyao as general representatives. Shortly after the meeting, the two sides were at odds over the ceasefire in Shaanxi, the cancellation of troops participating in the war, and the suspension of war loans. Representatives from the south called to stop the peace talks, and representatives from the north also submitted their resignations to the Beijing government. Although the meeting resumed later, the discussions for several days came to no result. Finally, the southern representatives proposed a package of eight conditions, which the northern representatives found difficult to accept, and the peace talks collapsed.
The peace talks between the North and the South in Shanghai started on February 20, 1919, and officially broke down on May 13. During this period, the North and the South held a total of 8 formal meetings. The discussions were suspended until the end of the meeting, and no results were produced. Substantial results. Xu Shichang failed to realize the political ambitions he proposed when he came to power, and Qian Nengxun also felt embarrassed and helpless. If the peace talks between the north and the south were successful, it could have become a political achievement of Qian's cabinet, but the result was exactly the opposite.
resigned as Prime Minister, and the Beijing government appointed Qian Nengxun to supervise the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Taihu Water Conservancy Project. However, Qian Nengxun was not very familiar with water conservancy projects and did not want to gain fame, so he resigned voluntarily in August of the following year. Soon, he was hired as a consultant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On August 21, 1921, Qian Nengxun, Xiong Xiling, Wang Daxie, Gu Zhongxiu and others initiated the organization of the "Washington Conference China Support Association". At the founding meeting, Qian served as chairman, and at the same time, together with Wang Daxie, Sun Baoqi and others, he was Appointed as a director of the association. Subsequently, the Council issued a statement opposing the Washington Conference consultation agenda, opposing the secret consultations of a few countries, and advocating that Shandong should be returned to China unconditionally.
On June 5, 1924, Qian Nengxun died in Beijing due to illness at the age of 55.

5. Benefiting the People in a Rich Hometown

Qian Nengxun was only 49 years old when he resigned from the position of Prime Minister. From today's political perspective, he is still a young man. After Qian Nengxun resigned, he devoted himself to the cause of industrial salvation, running the Puyi Sugar Company, organizing the China Merchants Bank, calling for the establishment of a national infectious disease prevention and control office, and supervising the Taihu water conservancy project. He was very busy.
Just as his official luck was not good, his fate was also unlucky. He died of illness in Beijing on June 5, 1924, at the age of 54. In July of that year, the coffin was moved to his hometown of Jiashan County, Zhejiang Province and buried in the Qian family's tomb in Huitong Village, Huimin Town, 3 kilometers outside Jiashan County. Former President of the Republic of China Xu Shichang wrote the epitaph.
The local people heard from their predecessors that on the day Qian Nengxun was buried, the coffin was transported by ship from Jiashan. The 3-kilometer-long Huating Pond and the river port were full of official ships, with loud drums and music, and the scene was great.
Sometimes, history is inevitably biased in its evaluation of a person, but Jiaxing people remember Qian Nengxun's contribution to his hometown. According to historical records, he once helped reduce the income of farmers in several counties under the jurisdiction of Jiaxing Prefecture. Before Qian Nengxun took office in 1919, the land tax in the counties of Jiaxing Prefecture was left over from history. The amount was huge, and farmers had a heavy burden, and even fled from famine. For this reason, 19 officials in Beijing at the time jointly submitted a tax reduction letter to the Beiyang government, and Qian Nengxun was the main member. Later, the Beiyang government approved this proposal and reduced the tax per mu by one-third. Qian Nengxun did a good thing for the people in his hometown.
Among the bureaucrats of the Republic of China government, Mr. Qian Nengxun was relatively conscientious and conscientious. He stepped down because China was humiliated at the Paris Peace Conference. In fact, he should bear the main responsibility. After resigning, he actively promoted the recovery of Qingdao's sovereignty and served as chairman of the China Support Association for the Washington Conference. In 1922, the Washington Conference decided to return Qingdao to China, and Qian Nengxun made a contribution.
In view of this, after the "Cultural Revolution", the relevant departments of Jiashan County decided to renovate Qian Nengxun's tomb. The county government also allocated special funds for this purpose to piece together the broken tombstones completely and re-erected them in the cemetery. A wall was also built around the cemetery.