Respectfully submitted to the president and the premier 38 by citizens from all circles
of Hunan:
Chen Shaoxiu, Peng Huang, Mao Zedong, Zhang Huai, Luo Zonghan,39 Yang
Shuda,40 Luo Jiaoduo, Wu Xiaoshan, Zhu Jianfan,41 Zhou Junnan, Li Fengchi, Zeng
Yisheng, Luo Zan, and many others whose names are omitted here.
Petition by Teachers in Hunan for Dismissing and
Punishing Zhangjingyao (January 19,1920)
Luo Jiaoduo and other representatives of the teachers in the schools in the provincial
capital of Hunan presented a petition to Xu Shichang. The text reads:
We solemnly ask that you dismiss and punish the governor of the province for the
devastation he has brought to education in the province, so that education may be
improved and the human capital of our country may be nourished. Please give the
matter your immediate attention:
We believe that there is no more urgent task for our country today than the pursuit
of strength, and the foundation of the pursuit of strength is education. Since the inauguration of our president, he has issued one order after another to promote education.
Those who are local government officials should follow the spirit of these orders and
execute them fully, so as to live up to the expectation of educating talent and making
the country prosperous. But Zhang Jingyao, governor of Hunan, has blatantly ignored
these orders. Since Governor Zhang arrived in Hunan, his daily preoccupation has been
with running all types of businesses to compete with ordinary people for personal gain.
He has imposed all kinds of levies and taxes to rob people of their wealth. He has
imported opium in the greedy search for more revenue. He has let his soldiers pillage
and plunder, ravaging the lives of ordinary people. The sacred constitution of the state
and the clear orders of the government are viewed as matters of utter insignificance in
the eyes of Governor Zhang. All his crimes are well known, and we assume the government, too, knows a great deal about them. Jiaoduo and the others who are studying
and teaching know of Governor Zhang’s destruction of education in the greatest detail,
and feel all of these crimes most acutely. We request permission to set them out one
by one for our president. First, embezzlement of appropriations for education. Hunan
rival in Hunan, he has drastically cut it by half — to something over 400,000 yuan. At
first, the people of Hunan thought that because of the military emergency at that time
and extreme financial difficulties Governor Zhang was forced to cut appropriations for
education. Cutting expenses was, however, only a pretext. In reality, he just grabbed
the money to line his own pockets. After April 1918, the funds for each school were
first cut
by 20 to 30 percent. After September, they were again cut to 60 percent of the
original allocation. Moreover, after these repeated reductions, Governor Zhang did
not disburse the amount in silver dollars, but in paper notes issued by the Bank of
Hunan valued at 6,000 copper cash per silver dollar. At the same time, those who
wanted to exchange the paper notes issued by the Bank of Hunan for silver dollars at
the Yuxiang Bank owned by Governor Zhang had to pay an exchange rate of 10,000 to
15,000 coppers for one silver dollar. The rate later went to more than 30,000 copper
cash for one silver dollar. By January 1919, funds for education had become even
scarcer. By February, the real value of the paper notes issued by the Bank of Hunan
declined to less than 20 percent of their face value. Three days after the education
appropriations were disbursed, Governor Zhang suddenly ordered that paper notes be
abolished. Every school that had already received its allocation had the equivalent
of nothing. During March and April, only 40 percent of the education funds were
disbursed. The disbursement of the education funds for May and June was repeatedly
delayed, and eventually canceled altogether. By November, the teachers of all the
schools in the provincial capital collectively resigned because of the hardships in making
ends meet. Only then did Governor Zhang ask the banks to disburse the education
funds, but the actual amount was no more than 50 percent. There has been no news
whatsoever since July. Notifications for collecting each month’s funds are issued several
months later. After the notices are issued, the financial officer of each school has to
make dozens of trips before he actually gets the money. Most of the time, it is because
the appointments are not kept, or conflicting appointments are made. There were
often incidents of conflict between the two sides. Regardless of what percentage of the
allocation is actually disbursed, however, Governor Zhang has ordered that schools
must sign a receipt for the full allocation before they get any money. At this moment,
when the financial situation is extremely difficult, Governor Zhang, as an important
local official, should demonstrate integrity and selflessness in order to bring respect
to the government and win popular confidence. Since Governor Zhang has disbursed
education funds in reduced amounts, the receipts should be made out only for the
reduced amounts. While the amounts of money he has disbursed have been less than
the allocation, his reimbursement accounts are submitted for the full amount. No
ordinary man or woman with a modicum of self-respect would stoop to such acts.
But Governor Zhang, as the highest military and civil official of the province, has
actually gone so far as to engage in such acts of fraud, thereby making fools of the
educators of Hunan, deceiving the central government, and misleading our president.
What monstrous crimes! This is one reason why he should be dismissed and punished.

Another is that he has seized school buildings and furniture. The buildings of many
schools in Changsha, such as First Normal School, First Middle School, Category A
Agricultural College, Category A Technical College, Category B Technical College,
Changjun Middle School, Guangyi Middle School, Miaogaofeng Middle School, Fuchu
Middle School, Lianxi Middle
School, Changsha Normal School and its affiliated primary school, First Higher
Primary School of Changsha, Chuyi Primary School, as well as those of the Council
on Education have all been occupied by Zhang’s troops. They have used the boards
from doors and windows as firewood for cooking. Classrooms and auditoriums have
been turned into kitchens and stables. The books and instruments that had been acquired in the twenty years since the end of the Qing dynasty have been completely
destroyed. The machines and boilers that are the very life of the technical colleges
have been carried off to be used in munitions factories. The total amount of these
losses is at least one million yuan. At this moment, when the task of educating the
talented is extremely urgent, more instructional equipment should be acquired. While
we are worrying about where to get it, how can the existing equipment be allowed to
be wilfully wrecked? The president issued an explicit order last fall banning troops
from occupying schools. But Governor Zhang has ignored this order. Even if the cause
of education for the people of Hunan is not worth worrying about, what about the explicit order from our president? This is the second reason why he should be dismissed
and punished. Then there is defaming the character of educators. In April last year,
a proposal to dismiss Governor Zhang was made at the Shanghai Peace Conference.42
Afraid that his position was insecure, Zhang made the then chief of the Reclamation Bureau, Xu Qingtai, and the former magistrate of Changsha, Ji Bingyuan, call
a meeting of all school principals and, in exchange for disbursement of allocated education funds, ordered them to sign their names to a telegram petitioning that Zhang
remain in office. The school principals all considered that it was properly the duty
of the government to disburse these funds, but Governor Zhang resorted to political
deception and played base tricks. Because they did not want to be defiled by this, the
principal of the Special Technical College, Bin Bucheng, the principal of the Special
Business School, Tang Song, the principal of First Women’s Normal School, Ma Jinxi,
the principal of Category A Technical School, Cai Xiang, and the principal of First
Normal School, Wang Fengchang, all slipped away to Shanghai and Hankou, to escape
his rude threats. Thus, Governor Zhang’s grudge against the educators deepened. In
other private schools, men like Chen Runlin, the president of Chuyi School, who was
also the head of the Council on Education, were threatened by troops because they
opposed the election of a provincial assembly. Xu Teli, the superintendent of the orphanage, was falsely accused of being in league with bandits because he denounced
the harassment by Governor Zhang’s special police [qingxiangdui]. A warrant for his
arrest was issued, forcing him to flee in fear into exile elsewhere. In November, the
teachers of all the schools in the provincial capital collectively resigned because they
had not been paid for six months and could not pay their living expenses. Instead of
offering assistance, Governor Zhang issued a public order scolding them for a lack of
discernment, and accusing them of having ulterior motives. These teachers are hired
by the school principal and have a contract to teach. When the employer is unable to
fulfill the terms of the contract, the employee is certainly entitled to resign. How can
Governor Zhang, as the top local government official, not know this? His deliberate
insults and abuses heaped upon talented educators are not only humiliating for the
educators of Hunan, but insulting to educators throughout the country. On December 2 last year, the students in all the schools in the provincial capital of Changsha,
aroused by the Fujian warning,43 and in accordance with the resolution of the Hunan
Association for Chinese-made Goods, went to the Council on Education to burn bad44
previously appropriated over 800,000 yuan for education. Since Governor Zhang’s ar38 This last publication was created in July 1919 in Shanghai by members of Hunan literary circles
and the Hunan United Reconstruction Association. Its main aims were to expose the crimes of Zhang
Jingyao, oppose warlord rule, and spread democratic thought.
39 At this time the president was Xu Shichang, and the premier was Jin Yunpeng.
40 See the note to the text of January 18, 1920.
41 Yang Shuda was a leading New Culture advocate in Changsha and was one of two (the other
being Luo Zhaotong) elected to represent the teachers in petitions to the premier during the January
28,1920, demonstrations against Governor Zhang in Beijing.


42 See the note to the text of July 21, 1919, “The Founding and Progress of the ‘Strengthen Learning
Society.’ ’’


43 The Shanghai Peace Conference was a meeting between representatives of the Beijing government
and of the Guangzhou military government, which took place from February to May 1919 in Shanghai.
No agreements were achieved, though the Conference retained a shadowy existence until 1920. The
resolution demanding that Zhang be replaced was put forward by the Guangzhou delegates on April 9.
44 The reference is to a report of the wounding of Chinese students
merchandise. Governor Zhang, however, dispatched his brother, Zhang Jingtang, the
chief of staff, to command soldiers to surround the students. He cursed the students,
calling them bandits, and forcibly arrested five of their representatives, taking their
pictures and threatening to shoot them. He repeatedly ordered his troops to charge the
students. At that time, the business manager of Changjun Middle School, Liu Dingan,
stepped forward to intervene on behalf of the students. Zhang Jingtang slapped him
in the face and ordered his troops to force Liu to his knees. The students, who had arrived proclaiming their genuine patriotism, returned after being subjected to extreme
insults. Their pent-up anger led to the tragic collective exodus from the schools on
December 8. Relying on the use of force, Governor Zhang wilfully insulted and abused
both teachers and students. This is the third reason for dismissing and punishing him.
Another reason is the illegal reappointment of the Council on Education. The Hunan
Council on Education is an academic institution for us educators to study the schools.
The procedure for reappointment has always been managed autonomously by the staff
and members of the Council. This is the method used in all provinces, and Hunan is
no exception. But in retaliation for the previous opposition by the provincial Council
on Education to the provincial assembly elections, Governor Zhang appointed Jiang
Daoying and Wang Bingkun to make preparations for reappointment. Governor Zhang
ignored a telegram of protest from the educators from all xian and districts and from
the National Council on Education. His intention was to turn a local public organization into his obedient lackey, totally rejecting higher orders and in violation of the
will of the people. This is the fourth reason for dismissing and punishing him. What

--- Notes
aroused widespread protests.