Tsiang Tingfu

Tsiang Tingfu 蔣廷黻
Born	(1895-12-07)December 7, 1895 Shaoyang, Qing China
Died	October 9, 1965(1965-10-09) (aged 69) New York City, United States
Nationality	Republic of China
Fields	Historian
Known for	Qing, Modern Chinese history

Tsiang Tingfu (Chinese: 蔣廷黻; pinyin: Jiǎng Tíngfú; 17 February 1895 – 9 October 1965) was a historian and diplomat of the Republic of China. Tsiang was born in Shaoyang in Hunan Province. Tsiang's education from his teenage years had been Western and largely Christian, and he converted to Christianity at the age of 11. Having been urged to study in the U.S. by his teacher from a missionary school, in 1911, he was sent to study in the United States, where he attended the Park Academy, Oberlin College and Columbia University. His dissertation, "Labor and Empire: A Study of the Reaction of British Labor, Mainly as Represented in Parliament, to British Imperialism Since 1880," led him into issues in the relation of foreign relations and domestic politics which would structure his scholarship after he returned to China. After obtaining a Ph.D., he returned to China in 1923, where he first took up a position at Nankai University and then at Tsinghua University.^[1]

At Tsinghua, he became the head of the History Department, where he edited and published a number of works on Chinese history and published the English-language journal Chinese Social and Political Science Review. Using newly opened Qing dynasty archives and diplomatic publications, Tsiang argued that China should adopt Western approaches if it wanted to score diplomatic victories. Tsiang blamed China's unequal treatment by Western powers after the First Opium War (1839–42) on the Chinese unequal treatment of Western powers before the war. During his tenure at Tsinghua, he mentored a number of historians in the study of Qing history, including John K. Fairbank.^[2]

Following mounting tensions in China's relations with Japan, Tsiang left academia in 1935 and joined the Chinese Nationalist government, which he served in many different capacities throughout the Sino-Japanese War. In 1945, Tsiang became the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, and he subsequently also served as the ambassador of China to the United States. Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China on the Chinese mainland, Tsiang defended the exclusive right of the Taipei-based Republic of China to represent China in the United Nations and in the Security Council. He died in New York City in 1965.

1954 television interview

Notes

References

• Jiang Tingfu, Zhongguo jindaishi dagang (Outline of Modern Chinese History) (Chongqing: Qingnian shudian, 1939; rpr. Beijing: Dongfang chubanshe, 1996).
• T.F. Tsiang, (Crystal Lorch, ed.), Reminiscences of Ting-fu Fuller Tsiang: Oral History (New York: Columbia Center for Oral History, 1965.
• Ting-fu Jiang, Jiang Ting Fu Xuan Ji 蔣廷黻選集 (Taibei: Wenxing, 1965 4 vols. Reprinted)
• Charles Ronald Lilley, "Tsiang T'ing-Fu between Two Worlds, 1895-1935," (Doctoral Thesis University of Maryland, College Park, 1979).

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tsiang Tingfu.

• Description of the Tsiang Diaries
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Tsiang F. Tingfu" is available at the Internet Archive
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Tsiang F. Tingfu" is available at the Internet Archive

Permanent Representatives and Ambassadors of China to the United Nations
Republic of China (1946–71)	Quo Tai-chi Tsiang Tingfu Liu Chieh
People's Republic of China (1971–present)	Huang Hua Chen Chu Ling Qing Li Luye Li Daoyu Li Zhaoxing Qin Huasun Wang Yingfan Wang Guangya Zhang Yesui Li Baodong Liu Jieyi

China's Ambassadors to the U.S.
Qing ministers to the U.S. 1875–1912	Chen Lanbin 1875–81 Zheng Zaoru 1881–85 Zhang Yinheng 1885–89 Cui Guoyin 1889–93 Yang Yu 1893–96 Wu Tingfang 1896–1902 Liang Cheng 1902–07 Wu Tingfang 1907–09 Zhang Yintang 1909–11 Alfred Sao-ke Sze 1911–12
ROC's envoys to the U.S. 1912–35	Zhang Yintang 1912–13 Xia Xiefu 1913–15 V. K. Wellington Koo 1915–20 Alfred Sao-ke Sze 1920–29 Wu Chaoshu 1929–31 Yan Huiqing 1931–33 Alfred Sao-ke Sze 1933–35
ROC's ambassadors to the U.S. 1935–79	Alfred Sao-ke Sze 1935–36 Wang Zhengting 1936–38 Hu Shih 1938–42 Wei Tao-ming 1942–46 Wellington Koo 1946–56 Hollington Tong 1956–58 George Yeh 1958–61 Tsiang Tingfu 1961–65 Zhou Shukai 1965–71 James Shen 1971–79
ROC's representatives to the U.S. 1979–present	Konsin Shah 1979–81 Cai Weiping 1981–82 Frederick Chien 1982–88 Ting Mao-shih 1988–94 Benjamin Lu 1994–96 Jason Hu 1996–97 Stephen S.F. Chen 1997–2000 Chen Chien-jen 2000–04 David Lee 2004–07 Joseph Wu 2007–08 Jason Yuan 2008–12 King Pu-tsung 2012–14 Shen Lyu-shun 2014–2016 Stanley Kao 2016–
Chiefs of the PRC Liaison Office in the U.S. 1973–79	Huang Zhen 1973–77 Chai Zemin 1978–79
PRC's ambassadors to the U.S. 1979–present	Chai Zemin 1979–82 Zhang Wenjin 1983–85 Han Xu 1985–89 Zhu Qizhen 1989–93 Li Daoyu 1993–98 Li Zhaoxing 1998–2001 Yang Jiechi 2001–05 Zhou Wenzhong 2005–10 Zhang Yesui 2010–13 Cui Tiankai 2013–present