Background
Weng Tonghe was a native of Changshu, Jiangsu, and his father was a grand secretary of the Qing Court.
Weng Tonghe was a native of Changshu, Jiangsu, and his father was a grand secretary of the Qing Court.
In 1856, he obtained the highest honor in the metropolitan examinations. He subsequently took up a number of posts, which were in charge of provincial education and examination.
He was tutor of two emperors, Emperor Tongzhi and Emperor Guangxu. Weng Tonghe presided on various boards, which included the Censorate, the Board of Punishments, and the Board of Works. He began to serve in the Grand Council in 1882. He became president of the Board of Revenue in 1886, and remained in that position for over ten years.
While Weng was tutor of Emperor Guangxu for 20 years, he obtained the trust of the Empress Dowager Cixi. In 1889, the Empress Dowager had retired from her position as regent, but Weng observed that she still held the reins of power. A Confucianist and a calculating politician, Weng emphasized the need for conservative reform in the late 1880s and the 1890s, and advocated the idea of Chinese learning for foundation and Western learning for supplement. As a first-rank court official, Weng advocated moderate reform especially after the Chinese defeat in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). He ended his tutorship of the emperor two years before the launching of the Hundred Day Reform (1898), but he still maintained close ties with Guangxu.
In the late 1890s, Qing officials agreed to the need for reform despite their conservative outlook. In the court, there was the Northern Party led by a grand secretary and the Southern Party under the leadership of Weng Tonghe. In the power struggle, Weng sought to secure the collaboration of officials and scholars. His idea was the necessity of moderate reform.
Weng Tonghe endorsed the call for reform of Kang Youwei. Weng supported Kang's Qiangxuehui (Society for the Study of Self-Strengthening) for some time. While Kang was much more radical than Weng, the former imperial tutor was very concerned about his struggle with the Northern Party. Weng had mentioned Kang Youwei to the emperor and subsequently, officials at Zongli Yamen were willing to meet with Kang and listen to his reform ideals. In that incident, Weng was shocked to hear Kang's radical thoughts, and he could not accept the daring ideas of Kang and his interpretation of Confucianism. Weng's support for Kang quickly eroded as he saw him as a potentially strong competitor.
In June 1898, Emperor Guangxu received Kang and embarked on the Hundred Day Reform. At the very beginning, Weng was upset by the drastic reform program, the ascendance of Kang, and the emperor's reliance on Kang's group of reformers. Weng was dismayed when conservative scholar-officials attacked him for his earlier recommendation of Kang to the court.
Subsequently, Weng urged the emperor to disassociate himself from Kang, but Emperor Guangxu was too eager for reform to listen to Weng, and the close relationship between the former tutor and the emperor collapsed. Kang's group also filed charges against Weng. While he had angered the emperor, Weng also made himself an enemy of the Empress Dowager, who blamed him for introducing Kang to the court. In June 1898, Weng lost all his official posts.
The Hundred Day Reform ended in September 1898. The Empress Dowager regarded the reform movement as an attempt of the emperor and Kang's group to seize power from her. She and her supporters planned to stage a coup to remove the emperor. In order to save him and the reform, Kang's group sent Tan Sitong to Yuan Shikai, and urged the latter to deflect and to help kill Cixi. The plot of the reformers never materialized and the Empress Dowager put the emperor under arrest. The reform leaders, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, fled to Japan. Others were executed, and they were known as the “six martyrs” of the Hundred Day Reform. The Empress Dowager blamed Weng Tonghe for introducing Kang Youwei to the emperor and leading to the disaster. In December, he lost all his ranks and was placed under house arrest.