Date of death: March 28, 1905.
Main works: "Poetry in the House of Humanity", "Japanese National Chronicles", "Japanese Miscellaneous Poems".
Main achievements: poet, diplomat, participated in the Reform Movement of 1898.
Huang Zunxian's life
From taking the imperial examination in 1863 to 1876, Huang Zunxian continued to make academic progress under the influence of his family and the guidance of his school teachers.
In 1873, when Huang Zunxian was 26 years old, he was admitted to Ba Gongsheng.
In the spring of 1874, Huang Zunxian set out for Beijing to participate in the Shuntianfu Township Examination. At that time, his father Huang Hongzao was working in Beijing, so father and son depended on each other. Because Huang Hongzhi's salary is low, their life is very simple. In Beijing, Huang Zunxian made some friends and met some officials, which had a certain impact on his later political life.
In 1876, he traveled to Yantai, Shandong Province with his father and met Zhang, Li Hongzhang and other Westernization officials. Huang Zunxian chatted in front of them, which aroused their interest and attention in this young man. Li Hongzhang actually praised Huang Zunxian as a "bully" in front of others. With Li Hongzhang's power and status at the time, he valued the fledgling Huang Zunxian so much that Huang Zunxian felt "familiar with him." This was the beginning of Huang Zunxian's contact with the Westernizationists.
In 1876, he took the Sunchon examination and was admitted to the 141st Juren. He was elected as the prefect and had five titles.
Diplomatic career In 1877, Huang Zunxian's fellow countryman and assistant lecturer at the Hanlin Academy, He, went to Japan at the invitation of Ren Ye, China's first minister to Japan. After Huang Zunxian passed the imperial examination, his family wanted him to take the imperial examination again and opposed his going to Japan. Regardless of the opposition of his family, relatives and friends, he resolutely gave up the imperial examination career and chose to engage in diplomatic work overseas. On He's recommendation, Huang Zunxian was appointed as the counselor in Japan and accompanied him to Japan. On the eve of his mission, Huang Zunxian wrote a poem expressing his hope to display his talents and realize his ambitions in diplomatic work with Japan.
On the evening of November 26, 1877, Huang Zunxian and He set off from Shanghai by boat, with a group of more than 30 people. Finally, they landed in Kobe and began their diplomatic activities in Japan. Huang Zunxian worked in Japan for four years, roaming around, participating in various gatherings, making friends with various people, and forged deep friendships with many Japanese friends. He actively advocated Sino-Japanese good-neighborly friendship and was once called China's "most beautiful person" by Japanese historians. A diplomat with grace and culture”. I once gave a poem to a Japanese friend, wishing the Chinese and Japanese peoples everlasting friendship and prosperity. However, he resisted the Japanese government's annexation of Ryukyu and invasion of Korea and fought hard for it. His poems are very popular among the Japanese, who praise him as "the master of cutting clouds and sewing the moon." He wrote "Japanese Miscellaneous Poems", more than 200 poems describing Japanese history, politics, scenery and customs, which opened up a new realm of Chinese classical poetry.
In 1879, Japan annexed Ryukyu. The Minister to Japan, He, sent an important document, totaling more than 100,000 words, to the Prime Minister's Yamen and the Beiyang Minister. This article analyzes Japan's national conditions, states the countermeasures China should take, and points out: "If Ryukyu is destroyed, the Bohai Sea will bear the brunt within a few years." These predictions were proved by subsequent facts. Most of these documents were drafted by Huang Zunxian. However, the Qing government did not adopt Huang Zunxian's views on foreign policy, and Ryukyu eventually became a victim of Japan's aggressive policy. Huang Zunxian had no choice but to pin his grief and anger in the poem "Liuqiu Song".
In 1880, with the consent of his Japanese friend Huang Zunxian, Mr. Yuan Huisheng buried part of the manuscript of "Japanese Miscellaneous Poems" in his home by the Mo River in Tokyo. Huang Zunxian inscribed the words "Tomb of the First Draft of Japanese Miscellaneous Poems" and engraved a stone and erected a monument as a symbol of the eternal friendship between the Chinese and Japanese peoples. While Huang Zunxian was in Japan, he began to come into contact with the bourgeois democratic and liberal theory introduced to Japan from the West. After reading the works of Rousseau and Montesquieu, the pioneers of the French Enlightenment, he "changed his mind and believed that peace must be democracy" and realized that "to be a teacher, the barbarians" and "China must change from the West", his thoughts changed. Obvious changes. And share this thought and concept with He. It was the formation of this thought that made him an active advocate of China's reform movement. During Huang Zunxian's stay in Japan, he clearly saw that the increasingly powerful Japan was targeting China and North Korea for aggression.
In 1880, Huang Zunxian elaborated on his geopolitical views in Northeast Asia by presenting the book "North Korean Strategy" to North Korean envoy Kim Hongki. He said in a joint proposal submitted to the court with He, the Chinese Minister to Japan: "Therefore, in view of China's current situation, it is possible to establish a minister in North Korea. Taking Mongolia and Tibet as examples, domestic politics and foreign treaties are both Hosted by China, most outsiders dare not covet it.
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