Zhang Jia-ngau: The Foreigner Who Visited the Juku

2018/08/09

Japan, which became a modern nation through the Meiji Restoration, was a model for China to learn from. Since the First Sino-Japanese War, many Chinese international students have come to Japan. Zhang Jia-ngau (Zhang Gongquan) was one of them.

Zhang Jia-ngau's real name was Jia-ngau, and Gongquan was his pseudonym. He was born on November 13, 1889, into a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in Jiading County, Jiangsu Province, China (now Jiading District, Shanghai). He was the fourth of eight brothers and four sisters. He studied the Four Books and Five Classics at a private school from an early age, but began studying French in 1901. His name is written in Roman characters as kia-ngau because his French teacher transcribed it based on the Jiading dialect.

In 1902, following his older brother Zhang Junmai, he entered the Guang Fangyan Guan attached to the Jiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai. After attending for about two years, he went through Baoshan County School and entered the Beijing Higher Industrial School in 1905. There, with the support of his teacher Tang Wenzhi, who was from the same hometown, he decided to study in Japan.

In 1906, Zhang Jia-ngau came to Japan to study. His older brother Junmai had already entered Waseda University the previous year. In September of the same year, Zhang entered the Keio University Preparatory Course as an auditor, and in April 1908, he entered the regular undergraduate course in the Department of Politics. However, because he could not pay his tuition, he was removed from the register in April of the following year. In total, he was enrolled at Keio University for about two and a half years.

So, what did Zhang Jia-ngau study at Keio University, and what were his grades? According to the 1907 "Preparatory Course 2nd Year Group G Grade Sheet" kept at the Fukuzawa Memorial Center for Modern Japanese Studies, the ten subjects Zhang took were Conversation, English Translation, Translation Interpretation, French, History, Law, Economics, Composition, Bookkeeping, and Psychology. Among them, his highest grade was 94 in History, followed by 81 in French, and 78 each in English Translation, Economics, and Bookkeeping. Zhang Jia-ngau ranked 6th out of 56 students in his class.

Furthermore, according to the 1908 "Undergraduate Examination Grade Sheet" (March 1909), the ten subjects offered in the first year of the Department of Politics were Criminal Law, Economic History, British Constitutional History, Political Science, German/French (likely elective subjects, according to the author), Composition, Civil Law, Monetary Theory, Constitutional Law, and Pure Economics. However, Zhang Jia-ngau's grades recorded on this sheet were only for two subjects, Economic History and British Constitutional History, both of which were 95. It is thought that he gave up on taking the final exams due to financial hardship and the pressure of tuition payments. As a result, Zhang Jia-ngau was forced to return to China.

Although it was an unintended end to his study abroad experience, Zhang Jia-ngau made "independence and self-respect," advocated by Yukichi Fukuzawa, his lifelong motto. The instructors for the Monetary Theory and Pure Economics courses Zhang took were the famous professors Kiichi Horie and Tokuzo Fukuda. Kiichi Horie, in particular, had a great influence on Zhang Jia-ngau. This point will be discussed later.

After returning home in 1909, Zhang Jia-ngau edited the "Guomin Gongbao" and then joined the Ministry of Posts and Communications of the Qing government, where he was involved in editing the "Jiaotong Guanbao." After the Xinhai Revolution broke out in 1911, Zhang moved to Shanghai and formed a political organization called the National Association with friends. In 1912, he became the secretary to Zhu Rui, the Military Governor of Zhejiang, and returned to Beijing the following year to become the Secretary-General of the Senate. While it seemed Zhang had thrown himself into politics, a turning point came in December 1913. He was appointed Deputy Manager of the Shanghai Branch of the Bank of China. The modern financial knowledge he learned at Keio University was finally put to use there.

In 1916, the Beijing government issued an order to the Shanghai Branch of the Bank of China to suspend the conversion of banknotes, but Zhang Jia-ngau refused this to protect the bank's credit. In 1917, he founded the "Bankers' Weekly" and worked to spread modern financial knowledge. "Bankers' Weekly" was published until 1950 and was one of the most authoritative magazines in China.

In July 1917, the Duan Qirui cabinet was formed, and Liang Qichao was appointed Minister of Finance. As is well known, Liang Qichao went into exile in Japan after the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform. After coming to Japan, Liang felt strongly that it was necessary to transform the Chinese people into modern citizens, and in January 1902, he published a magazine titled "Xinmin Congbao." Liang Qichao greatly respected Yukichi Fukuzawa, publishing Fukuzawa's photos and writings in "Xinmin Congbao" and frequently mentioning Fukuzawa and Keio University in his own editorials. At that time, Zhang Junmai often contributed to "Xinmin Congbao," so both brothers were close to Liang. Against this background, when Liang Qichao became Minister of Finance, he appointed Zhang Jia-ngau as Vice Governor of the Bank of China.

Upon becoming Vice Governor of the Bank of China, Zhang Jia-ngau advised Liang Qichao on reforms for the bank and proposed inviting Kiichi Horie, his teacher from Keio University, to Beijing.

On October 8, 1917, the Financial and Monetary Society was formed in Beijing under the leadership of Liang Qichao, and Zhang Junmai was elected as the Secretary-General. Horie arrived in Beijing on October 10 and stayed until December 24. During that time, he gave 22 lectures at the Financial and Monetary Society, teaching modern financial knowledge such as the actual situation of bank currencies in various countries and the basic principles of currency. At that time, the Bank of China, the Bank of Communications, and foreign banks each issued their own banknotes. In addition, silver coins were also circulating in various parts of China. In response, Horie argued that currency issuance should be unified. While China was on a gold exchange standard at the time, Horie advocated for the adoption of the gold standard.

Following Horie's recommendations, the "Revised Regulations of the Bank of China" was promulgated as a presidential decree on November 22, 1917. Purchase of the Bank of China's 10 million yuan in shares was permitted for both government and private sectors, and the establishment of a general meeting of shareholders was also approved. On February 17, 1918, the Bank of China's general meeting of shareholders was held in Beijing, where the bank's directors were elected by shareholder vote, and the Beijing government was to appoint the Governor and Vice Governor from among the directors. While the selection of top personnel was not completely independent of the government, it was a step forward compared to the past. In that sense, it can be said that Kiichi Horie played a major role in the institutionalization of the Bank of China's personnel system.

In October 1928, the Bank of China was reorganized by the Nanjing Nationalist Government, its headquarters moved from Beijing to Shanghai, and Zhang Jia-ngau was appointed Governor. Behind this was Zhang's financial support for Chiang Kai-shek during the Northern Expedition. However, in March 1935, to strengthen control over the Bank of China, Chiang Kai-shek and H.H. Kung appointed Zhang Jia-ngau as Vice Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of China. In December of the same year, Chiang Kai-shek tried to appoint Zhang as Ambassador to Japan, but Zhang declined on the grounds that he was not a diplomacy specialist. As a result, Zhang became the Minister of Railways of the Nationalist Government, and in 1938, he became the Minister of Communications, promoting the construction of new railways such as the Canton-Hankow and Zhejiang-Jiangxi lines. In December 1942, Zhang resigned as Minister of Communications, went on an inspection tour of the United States in September 1943, and stayed in the U.S. until the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1943, his book "China’s struggle for railroad development" was published by a New York publisher.

After the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Zhang Jia-ngau was appointed Chairman of the Economic Commission of the Northeast Headquarters of the Nationalist Government, taking charge of the takeover of the Northeast and negotiations with the Soviet Union. Zhang appointed Choji Hasegawa and Tsunejiro Mori, directors of the Central Bank of Manchou, as advisors to begin the liquidation of the bank. He also appointed Tatsunosuke Takasaki, President of the Manchuria Heavy Industries Development Co., Ltd., and Motoki Yamazaki, President of the South Manchuria Railway, as advisors, seeking their cooperation in the repatriation and retention of Japanese nationals and the planning of the reconstruction of the Northeast. Through Zhang Jia-ngau's kindness, Takasaki and Yamazaki were removed from the war crimes list. Against this background, in August 1970, Zhang Jia-ngau was awarded the First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government. One of the reasons for the decoration was that Zhang frequently visited Japan after the war to exchange opinions with business leaders, benefiting Japan's economy and finance.

In March 1947, Zhang Jia-ngau became the Governor of the Central Bank. However, he resigned in May 1948, taking responsibility for failing to stop inflation. During this period, the Kuomintang forces were increasingly disadvantaged in the civil war with the Communist forces. In April 1949, Zhang finally left his homeland for Australia, where he engaged in education and research at the Australian National University.

In 1953, Zhang Jia-ngau moved to Loyola University in Los Angeles, USA, to lecture on the Chinese and Japanese economies. In 1958, "The inflationary spiral: the experience in China, 1939-1950" was published by the MIT Press and was highly acclaimed. In 1961, he was invited as a researcher at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he served until 1974.

After the war, Zhang Jia-ngau visited Japan frequently. On those occasions, he often visited his alma mater, Keio University, meeting with the President and faculty members of the time and actively engaging in academic exchange. To list a few examples: in November 1966, he met with President Kunio Nagasawa, Professor Takuma Terao (Director of the International Center), and Professor Noboru Yamamoto (Vice-President). In July 1970, he dined with President Saku Sato, Vice-President Ichiro Okuma, Dean of the Faculty of Economics Masami Chubachi, Professor Noboru Yamamoto of the Faculty of Economics, and Professor Ayako Hirano of the same faculty. In August, he was interviewed by Professor Ayako Hirano and spoke about the modernization of China's banking system and Keio University. In October, at the invitation of Professor Masami Chubachi, Dean of the Faculty of Economics, he gave a lecture in English on the theme "Keynesian Economics, the New Economics, and Beyond the New Economics." In 1971, his paper "The Strategy of Economic Development in Communist China: Retrospective and Perspective" was published in Keio Economic Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1. In June of the same year, he gave a lecture at the Keio Economic Society titled "Future Trends of the American Economy."

On September 30, 1972, Zhang Jia-ngau once again set foot on the Mita campus. This was to attend the ceremony for the conferral of an honorary doctorate in law. At the ceremony, President Saku Sato read the recommendation. It was the first honorary doctorate Keio University had awarded to a Chinese person, and a long-held dream had finally come true. Even after that, Zhang Jia-ngau continued to devote himself to academic exchange between Keio University and the Hoover Institution.

On October 13, 1979, Zhang Jia-ngau passed away at Stanford University Hospital. He was 91 years old.

The author studied at Stanford University from 2008 to 2010 through a university-endorsed study abroad program. In the "Zhang Jia-ngau Papers" viewed at the Hoover Institution Archives, many business cards of people related to Keio University were kept. I could deeply feel Zhang Jia-ngau's affection for the Juku.