Tang Jingsong

Tang Jingsong, around 1885

Tang Jingsong ( Chinese  唐景嵩  /  唐景崧 , Pinyin Tang Jǐngsōng , W.-G. Tang Ching-sung ) (* 1841, † 1903 in Guilin ) was a Chinese general and statesman. He commanded the Chinese Yunnan Army in the Sino-French War , where he distinguished himself by pulling the black flags in Tonkin on the Chinese side for Liu Yongfu and his army . Although he ultimately failed, many of his compatriots paid him respect for the five-month siege of Tuyen Quang . After the war he served as governor of the Chinese province of Taiwan and served as president of the short-lived Republic of Formosa, which was proclaimed after the cession of Taiwan to Japan as a result of the First Sino-Japanese War .

Sino-French War

Tang already played an important role in the hostile clashes with the French before the outbreak of war. In 1882 he was sent to Vietnam by the Qing administration to serve as an advisor to the Vietnamese government against the French advance in Tonkin . In 1883 he managed to win Liu Yongfu and his black flag army and send them against the French. They defeated them in the battle of the paper bridge , where the French commander-in-chief Henri Rivière was also killed. However, this defeat ensured that France sent further strong reinforcements to Tonkin.

In December 1883, Tang tried to support Liu and his Sino-Vietnamese troops against the French in the Son Tay campaign , but failed. In September 1884, Tang led his Yunnan army down the Red River from Lao Yai to the French outpost of Tuyen Quang . As thanks for his support in the Son Tay campaign, he was accompanied by Liu Yongfu and his troops, who placed themselves under Tang's command.

Although the siege of Tuyen Quang ultimately failed, Tang earned much praise from his Chinese contemporaries for this operation because of his intelligent troop leadership and the long-standing siege. Many officers in the French Tonkin Expeditionary Corps also paid him respect.

Taiwan and the Republic of Formosa

In 1894, Tang succeeded Shao You-lien as governor of Taiwan. Shortly after taking office, he invited Liu Yongfu to the island and placed him in command of the southern military district. As a result of the Chinese defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War and the Shimonoseki Treaty , Taiwan was ceded to Japan in April 1895. While many members of the Qing administration returned to the mainland, a small group around Tang decided to oppose the Japanese occupation and proclaimed the independent Republic of Formosa . On May 25, 1895, Tang was sworn in as the first President of the Republic. However, the few local troops could do nothing against the Japanese invasion that followed immediately . The Japanese landed in the north of the island on May 29th and captured Keelung on June 3rd . When the defeat became known in the capital Taipei , the government largely disbanded and tried to flee to the mainland. On June 9th, Tang boarded a steamboat that took him back to China.

After most of the government had fled, Liu Yongfu tried to coordinate the resistance of the local troops again, but did not succeed. With the Japanese conquest of Tainan on October 21, the republic finally collapsed and Liu also fled to the mainland.

literature

• James W. Davidson: The Island of Formosa, Past and Present. Southern Materials Center, 1988, ISBN 978-0-19-584951-6 .
• Jean-François-Alphonse Lecomte: La vie militaire au Tonkin. Berger-Levrault, Paris 1893.
• Lung Chang [龍 章]: Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng [越南 與 中法 戰爭, Vietnam and the Sino-French War]. Taipei 1993.
• Henry McAleavy: Black Flags in Vietnam: The Story of a Chinese Intervention. Macmillan, New York 1968.
• Auguste Thomazi: La conquete de l'Indochine. Payot, Paris 1934.

Web links

Commons : Tang Jingsong  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thomazi, Conquête , 152-7; Histoire militaire , 55-8
2. ^ Lung Chang, 331
3. ↑ Lecomte, Vie militaire , 246-7

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Tang is the family name here, Jingsong is the first name.