Liang Qichao (23 February 1873–19 January 1929; courtesy name Zhuoru, style name Rengong) was a prominent thinker, accomplished scholar, and leading bourgeois reformist in modern China. Born in Xinhui County, (Guangdong Province), he became reformist Kang Youwei’s disciple in 1890. When reformism gained huge traction after the Movement of Sending Petitions to the Emperor undertaken by Metropolitan Graduates in 1895, Liang worked as the editor-in-chief for several newspapers including The Chinese Progress, in which he published a series of influential articles disseminating reformist ideas. When the Hundred Days Reform failed, he went into exile in Japan, where he carried on his cause of public enlightenment. Later, he returned to China to join Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary cause. After the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, he became an active figure in parliamentary politics and founded two parties, the Democratic Party and the Progress Party. When Yuan Shikai attempted to crown himself emperor, Liang forcefully opposed the scheme and organized a campaign to protect the republic from the autocrat. In November 1917, he resigned from his post as finance minister in the Northern Government. He then devoted himself to academic research. An erudite scholar and prolific writer, he blazed a trail for China’s modern literature and historiography.
