It is therefore of interest to study the activities of
the most involved students from Hupeh. The first to receive
attention is Fu Tz'u-hsiang, otherwise known as Fu Liang-pi,
the son of a distinguished family. He was said to be a child
prodigy erudite in Chinese classics at the age of ten. He
grew up to be a man of high purpose and developed an interest
in the destiny of his country. In 1894 when the Sino-
Japanese War broke out, he was a student in the Liang-hu
College. Deploring C h i n a ’s humiliation and the loss of
territory, he realized that the study of military science was
1
Chang Ping-lin, "Ch'in Li-shan chuan", HHKM, I, 282. 2
Wu Ching-heng, "Tsung-li hsing-i", in Chung-hua min-kuo k'ai-kuo w u -shih-nien wen-hsien pien-tsuan wei-ylian hui, c o m p ., Chung-hua min-kuo k'ai-kuo wu-shih-nien w e n - h s i e n , first series, Ke-ming chih ch'ang-tao yü fa-chan (Taipei,
1963), IX, 2-3; the same author, "Wo i i-chiang Chung-shan h s i e n -s h e n g ", ibid., p.13.
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e s s e n t i a l for s t r e n g t h e n i n g n a t i o n a l defen c e , and so he
s w i t c h e d to the M i l i t a r y School for C o m m i s s i o n e d O f f i c e r s in W u c h a n g . In 1898, as an award for his a c a d e m i c d i s t i n c t i o n , he was o f f e r e d a s c ho l a r s h i p to p u r s u e a course of m i l i t a r y
and n a v a l s t r a t e g y in Japan. He p r o v e d h i m s e l f an active m e m b e r in the group d i s c u s s i o n s o r g a n i z e d by the rad i c a l
s t u d e n t s , always e x p r e s s i n g his g r ave c o n c e r n about the d a n g e r of C h i n a b e i n g p a r t i t i o n e d by f o r ei g n powers. A f t e r m e e t i n g Sun Y a t - s e n and other r e v o l u t i o n a r i e s , he j o i n e d the H s i n g - c h u n g - h u i and later r e t u r n e d to H u peh to give T ' ang every a s s i s t a n c e . In H a n k o w he c o m m u n i c a t e d with some of his f o r m e r c l a s s m a t e s of the m i l i t a r y officers' school who were b e l i e v e d to e n joy c e rtain i n f l u e n c e in the army and to have the a b i l i t y to incite a m u t i n y to o c c u r wi t h the i m p e n d i n g r e v o l t . ^ It is i m p o s s i b l e to give d e tails of these
c o m m u n i c a t i o n s as they are not on record, but the fact that very few s o l d i e r s p a r t i c i p a t e d in the r e v o l t p r o v e s that the at t e m p t to win over the army must have been u n s u c c e s s f u l . In any event, the C h i n e s e army in 1900 r e m a i n e d p o l i t i c a l l y
a p a t h e t i c .
Two other H u p e h students, Wu L u - c h e n and Chi I-hui, were e q u a l l y active at the same time. Wu was the s e c o n d son of an e m i n e n t C h ' i n g h s i u - t s 'ai from w h o m he r e c e i v e d a t r a d i t i o n a l C h i n e s e e d u c a t i o n until the age of s i x t e e n w h e n the father died. Wu then e n t e r e d the M i l i t a r y School for C o m m i s s i o n e d O f f i c e r s , and was s u b s e q u e n t l y sent to u n d e r t a k e a c a valry cour s e in a J a p a n e s e m i l i t a r y officers' school. His
b i o g r a p h e r c l a i m e d that Wu b e c a m e d e d i c a t e d to the r e v o l u t i o n a r y cause w h e n the state of things in J apan p r e s e n t e d a m a r k e d contrast to what it was in China. He
j o i n e d the H s i n g - c h u n g - h u i and took upon h i m s e l f a m i s s i o n to d i s s e m i n a t e a n t i - M a n c h u p r o p a g a n d a to his fel l o w students. In 1898 wh e n some of the H s i n g - c h u n g -hui m e m b e r s were b e i n g i n f l u e n c e d by K'ang Yu-wei, Wu not only he l d t e n a c i o u s l y to the r e v o l u t i o n a r y cause, but also took pains to d i s s u a d e
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those who c o n t e m p l a t e d deser t i n g Sun from so doing,'*' Chi I-hui, a n o t h e r s c h o l a r s h i p student sent in 1898, was a t t a c h e d to the C h i n e s e legation, but he s u p p o r t e d Sun's cause and was r e p o r t e d to have closer contact with Sun than any other
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