Public Monuments as a Guide to Political Leadership

-62Public Monuments or, a Guide io Political Leadership David ü. Buck Department of History University of Wisconsin Mi Iwaukee One of the more perplexing problems facing historians writing about the political history of the Ch'ing is the difficulty in accurately characterizing political groupings celavi the national level. Scholars using the tools of sociological analysis have depicted, with considerable 1 accuracy, the social stratification of the Ch'ing period. These abstractions are valuable, but difficult to translate in tools to assist the historians in describing or analyzing political history. This is true because the actual political issues frequently did not pit classes against each other. Rather, in the true temper of Confucian politics, struggles between factional groupings occurred. The character of the political groups can be invaluable to the historian attempting to depict the leadership and describe critical issues. At the national level the personalities, issues and frequently even the philosophical differences involved in many of the major political issues are reasonably well documented. This is not as often the case with matters that involve provinces or regions. Sometimes these political issues at the provincial level reflect the very same sentiments that dominate court politics. Yet, the sources that discuss the men and the events of regional issues are much more meager. The biographical information is plentiful, but the multiplicity of officials and their regular rotation makes it difficult to characterize political leadership -63over a long period of tine. This short study shows how local gazetteers can help to solve this problem. By looking at the discussions of local accomplishments in administration, taxes, education and philanthropy, the historian can see lines of continuity not apparent in the biographical treatments of individual officials. Here, I have used the record of new civic monuments constructed in Tsinan from I875 to 1909 to form the basis of a characterization of a major administrative city's political climate. The same technique can be used with other kinds of philanthropic endeavors, education and 2 local defense. From these materials the historian can more easily distinguish the dominant issues and attitudes which bound together the dynasty, the officials and their supporters than are available in any other kinds of historical materials. The list of temples and monuments (tz'u ssuffijT&) in the Hsu, hsiu Li-ch 'eng hsien chili feg Tf/jc ffijt %*·/{£· (1924) show that ten new civic 3 monuments were constructed between 1875 and I909 in Tsinan. Tsinan, the provincial capital of Shantung, was a city of about 250,000 in those 1+ years. The monuments were located at various places around the city and varied considerably in size and expense. All ten had a martial character and celebrated heroes who had helped defend the dynasty and the empire. Nine honored those connected with the suppression of the great Taiping and Nien rebellions, the chief internal political threats to the dynasty of the 19th century. The construction of these nine monuments shows clearly that the victorious anti -rebel campaigns became a strong political legacy that served as the chief rallying point of political power in Tsinan until I9OO. -64Thc first of Tsinan' s nine civic monuments was a pavilion erected to honor Seng-ko-lin-ch'in \l"-J üü 1 T · Both had first served in Shantung as military commanders subordinate to Tseng Kuo-fan and later Li Hung-chang. After the suppression both men had served as educational commissioners for Shantung. In their case, as in that of Ting Pao-chen, military abilities became the path to becoming a patron of education and arbitrer of learning. The final monuments connected with the great rebellions were located in corners of civic temples and commemorate the soldiers and common people who had been killed in the great rebellions. Both were constructed sometime after the rebellions but no additional information is available on the sise or financing of these monuments which have much -66more popular character than the other eight. 1U The final monument was constructed to honor Tai Tsung-ch'ien f\ 7f% % , an Anhwei man who had been killed at Wei-hai-wei in 1895 during a naval engagement that was part of China's humiliating defeat in the first Sino-Japanese War. It is not entirely...