Background
Mr. Li Sheng-to was born at Kiukiang, Jiangsi province.
Mr. Li Sheng-to was born at Kiukiang, Jiangsi province.
In 1860 in 1890 Mr. Li successfully passed the Metropolitan examination becaming a Metropolitan graduate. Subsequently he joined the Hanlin Academy. In 1895 he was appointed Chinese Minister to Japan where he stayed for two years.
Upon his return to China Mr. Li was made Governor of the Metropolitan District. In 1905 he was one of the five ministers sent abroad to study the constitutional forms of government. In that year he traveled extensively in Japan, Europe and America. In 1906 he was Chinese Minister to Belgium and returned in 1909. After the first revolution in 1911 he was appointed advisor to President Yuan Shih-kai. On June 29, 1917 he was appointed Acting Minister of Agriculture and Commerce and concurrently Director General of the National Conservancy Bureau. On July 17, 1917 he resigned on account of General Chang Hsun’s monarchical movement, but he was appointed President of the Board of Agriculture of the short lived monarchy.
In 1918, when the new Parliament was organized, Mr. Li was elected Speaker of the Senate. It was this Parliament which elected Hsu Shih-Ch’ang president. Mr. Li was conferred the First Class Tashun Chiaho in May 1919 and the First Class Tashun Paokuang Chiaho in October 1919. The new Parliament was dissolved in 1920 after the downfall of the Sufu Club resulting from the Zhili Anfu war. Ever since that time Mr. Li lived in retirement at Tianjin.