Tan Sitong

Tan Sitong
谭嗣同
Military Secretary of Grand Council
軍機章京
In office
May – September 1898
Personal details
Born(1865-03-10)10 March 1865
Beijing
Died28 September 1898(1898-09-28) (aged 33)
Caishikou Execution Grounds, Beijing
Cause of deathExecution by beheading
OccupationGovernment official, reformer, writer
Tan Sitong
Traditional Chinese譚嗣同
Simplified Chinese谭嗣同
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTán Sìtóng
Wade–GilesT'an2 Ssu4-t'ung2
IPA[tʰǎn sɨ̂tʰʊ̌ŋ]

Tan Sitong (simplified Chinese: 谭嗣同; traditional Chinese: 譚嗣同; pinyin: Tán Sìtóng; Wade–Giles: T'an2 Ssu4-T'ung2, March 10, 1865[1] – September 28, 1898[2]), courtesy name Fusheng (復生), pseudonym Zhuangfei (壯飛), was a well-known Chinese politician, thinker, and reformist in the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911). He was executed at the age of 33 when the Hundred Days' Reform failed in 1898.[3] Tan Sitong was one of the six gentlemen of the Hundred Days' Reform, and occupies an important place in modern Chinese history. To many contemporaries, his execution symbolized the political failure of the Qing dynasty's reformation, helping to persuade the intellectual class to pursue violent revolution and overthrow the Qing dynasty.

  1. ^ Ian Philip McGreal (1995). Great Thinkers of the Eastern World: The Major Thinkers and the Philosophical and Religious Classics of China, India, Japan, Korea, and the World of Islam. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-270085-8.
  2. ^ James Z. Gao (16 June 2009). Historical Dictionary of Modern China (1800-1949). Scarecrow Press. pp. 353–. ISBN 978-0-8108-6308-8.
  3. ^ Hummel, Arthur W. Sr., ed. (1943). "T'an Ssŭ-t'ung" . Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office.