Honorific-Prefix: | Admiral |
Sa Zhenbing | |
Native Name Lang: | zh-Hant |
Honorific-Suffix: | KCMG |
Office: | Acting Premier of the Republic of China |
President: | Xu Shichang |
Predecessor: | Jin Yunpeng |
Successor: | Jin Yunpeng |
Term: | 14 May 1920 – 9 August 1920 |
Office1: | Minister of Navy of the Great Qing |
Monarch1: | Xuantong Emperor |
Primeminister1: | Yuan Shikai |
Term Start1: | 1911 |
Term End1: | 1912 |
Predecessor1: | Zaixun |
Successor1: | Position abolished |
Term Start2: | 1 July 1917 |
Monarch2: | Xuantong Emperor |
Primeminister2: | Zhang Xun |
Term End2: | 12 July 1917 |
Predecessor2: | Position established |
Successor2: | Position abolished |
Office3: | Minister of Navy of the Republic of China |
Term Start3: | June 1917 |
Term End3: | July 1917 |
Predecessor3: | Cheng Biguang |
Successor3: | Liu Guanxiong |
Term Start4: | December 1919 |
Term End4: | May 1921 |
Predecessor4: | Liu Guanxiong |
Successor4: | Li Dingxin |
Birth Date: | 30 March 1859 |
Birth Place: | Fuzhou, Qing Empire |
Death Place: | Fuzhou, People's Republic of China |
Party: | Anhui clique |
Serviceyears: | 1869–1911 |
Rank: | Admiral |
Commands: | Beiyang Fleet Nanyang Fleet Guangdong Fleet Imperial Chinese Navy (unified by Sa Zhenbing) |
Battles: | First Sino-Japanese War Xinhai Revolution |
Awards: | Order of Wen-Hu Order of St Michael and St George |
Sa Zhenbing (30 March 1859 – 10 April 1952) was a prominent Chinese admiral of the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic. He lived through four governments (Qing, Beiyang, Nationalist, Communist) in China, and had been appointed to various senior naval and political offices.
Sa Zhenbing was born in Fuzhou, Fujian province, to a Semu family of Qarluk origin who had lived in the area since the late Yuan dynasty. Between 1869 and 1872 he attended the Fuzhou Naval Academy; Deng Shichang was among his classmates. Between 1877 and 1880 Sa Zhenbing was among the first group of Fuzhou Naval Academy alumni sent abroad to study at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in Britain.
After serving as a Chief Mate in the Nanyang Fleet, Sa Zhenbing became the youngest captain in the Beiyang Fleet. In 1895 he participated in the Battle of Weihaiwei during the First Sino-Japanese War, leading a group of sailors from the training ship Kangji in a ten-day defence of an island coastal fortress off Weihaiwei.
At that time the Japanese Admiral Itō Sukeyuki appealed to the Beiyang Fleet Admiral Ding Ruchang to surrender, promising him political asylum in Japan; Admiral Ding chose to commit suicide by handgun in his office at the Liugong Island headquarters. His deputy, Admiral Liu, after ordering that his warship be scuttled by explosives, also committed suicide by taking poison. Command of the Chinese Forces fell to Scottish-born Vice-Admiral John McClure, who completed the surrender negotiations with Admiral Ito. As the only captain still alive at the end of the battle, Sa Zhenbing was given the task of formally surrendering to Admiral Ito.
In 1905 Sa Zhenbing was appointed Admiral-in-Chief of the Beiyang, Nanyang and Guangdong Fleets (three out of four Qing's fleets), tasked with rebuilding the Imperial Chinese Navy after the defeat during the First Sino-Japanese War. Under his leadership the general efficiency of the Chinese naval personnel improved considerably.[1]
During the Wuchang Uprising of 1911, Sa Zhenbing was ordered to sail to Wuhan to suppress the revolutionaries; upon realizing his sailors' revolutionary tendencies, he left his post on 1 November for Shanghai. Nonetheless, he was appointed Minister of the Navy by Yuan Shikai, who at the time was the last Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet.
Sa Zhenbing briefly served as acting Prime Minister under the Beiyang government in 1920,[2] then as Governor of Fujian Province from 1922 to 1926.
In 1949, near the end of the Chinese Civil War, Sa Zhenbing declined an offer by Chiang Kai-shek to evacuate him to Taiwan, instead pledging his allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party.
Sa Zhenbing died in his hometown of Fuzhou in 1952, aged 94.