Biography

From the Manchu Hešeri clan, although his family was not rich and he had no formal schooling, Ying became well versed in the Confucian Classics as a child. After his fiance was nursed to health by the Sisters of Charity at a Catholic hospital in Beijing, Ying became interested in the writings of Matteo Ricci and several of scholars he converted to Christianity in the late Ming Dynasty. These writers convinced Ying that Confucianism and Christianity, Chinese culture and Western culture, were essentially complementary with each other.

Ying was the founding editor of the Ta Kung Pao in Tianjin in 1902. Ying edited the paper for the next decade, and his extensive writings were influential both for their support of liberal politics and their use of the vernacular language. After the Revolution of 1911, he turned his attention to Catholic education, founding the Fu-jen School for girls. Ying and his friends the reformist priest Vincent Lebbe and the Catholic layman Ma Xiangbo had become increasingly frustrated and resentful over the control of the Chinese Catholic Church and all Catholics in China exercised by the French government and French priests, who constituted 70% of the clergy in China. They called for the Church in China to be controlled by Chinese priests appointed by the Vatican rather than French ones, who blocked the reform efforts of the Pope. Lebbe arranged for an essay of Ying's to be translated into French and sent to Rome. Ying frankly explained that the chauvinism and disdain for Chinese among the French clergy in China was extremely demoralizing for Chinese priests. Ying's critical voice was a major factor in the decision of Pope Benedict XV to direct the founding of a Catholic university, Fujen University, in Beijing. Ying took responsibility for much of the organization and start-up of the university, which opened in 1925. He died of cancer on 2 March 1926 in Beijing.

Personal life

Ying married Shuzhong ( ), a member of the Qing dynasty royal family. Ying Hua's son, Ying Qianli, was an active lay leader in the Catholic Church during the early Republican era. His grandson, Ying Ruocheng, was a prominent actor after 1949 and China's vice minister of culture from 1986-1990. His great grandson, Ying Da, is a prominent actor, director, talk show host, and television show creator in Beijing. His great great grandson, Rudi Ying, is a professional ice hockey player.

生平

• 1867年11月23日，英斂之出生于北京的旗人家庭。漢姓為玉，又名玉英華，幼年家貧，未接受正規教育，自幼習武從軍。

• 1888年，他成為一名虔誠的天主教徒，並自學法文。

• 1898年4月，撰寫文章《論興利必先除弊》，開始評論國事。戊戌變法失敗後，恐被株連，潛往外地。

• 1899年8月，在澳門《知新報》上發表《黨禍余言》，對變法失敗「深感鬱結，心不能已」。

• 1900年3月到雲南，擔任法國駐蒙自領事館書記。由于當地常發生教案，同年7月隨領事返回天津。

• 1901年4月，天津紫竹林天主堂總管柴天寵提議集資開辦報館，邀英斂之進行籌備。

• 1902年7月17日，《大公報》在天津發刊，英斂之兼任總理和編輯工作，提倡變法維新，抨擊時弊，不避權貴，以「開風氣，牖民智，挹彼歐西學術，啟我同胞聰明」為辦報宗旨，他本人每日為《大公報》寫一篇社論。

• 1906年7月1日，與《北洋日報》等聯名發表《告天津各報大主筆書》，發起組織中國近代第一個新聞團體「天津報館俱樂部」，作為同業「研究報務、交換知識」的場所。

• 1912年，他和好友馬相伯一起上書教廷，請求創辦一所天主教大學。

• 1916年，英斂之將《大公報》轉手售予王郅隆，遷居北京香山靜宜園，創辦香山慈幼院和輔仁社（1925年）。

• 1926年1月10日病逝。去世後的次年，輔仁大學在北京正式立案。子英千里是1950年代台灣大學外文系主任

著作

生前曾將所撰報刊文論匯編為《也是集》、《敝帚千金》等。

世系圖