page_title: Yinchang
section_title: In the Qing Dynasty
hierarchical_section_title: Yinchang / Biography / In the Qing Dynasty
caption_attribution_description: 中文: 廕昌（1859年－1928年）
context_page_description: Yin Chang or In-ch'ang was a military official, ambassador to Germany, and educational reformer in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. He was appointed the nation's first Minister of War in the late Qing Dynasty. Later, he also became the military Chief of Staff in the Beiyang Government. He was ethnic Manchu, and his family belonged to the Plain White Banner Clan of the Manchu Military Organization; he held the title of Prince of that clan; at court he was addressed as Wu-lou.
context_section_description: Originally Yin Chang was a student of the Guozijian, and by 1872 he was studying German at the Tongwen Guan, Beijing. In 1877 he was sent to Germany as an attaché to the Chinese Legation in Berlin. During his stay in Germany he studied military science at the same time as Wilhelm II and formed an association with the Krupp family. (He later married a German woman, with whom he had a daughter.) In 1884 he returned to China and was appointed to the Tientsin Naval Academy; by December of that year he served as translator for the German military envoy to the Emperor.
  In June 1885 Yin Chang was appointed an instructor in military science at the Tientsin Military Academy (天津武備學堂), introducing the study of German military techniques taught by German officers. The following year he was promoted to be superintendent of the academy. The President of the Republic of China Feng Guozhang was a student under his direction. In 1898, when Prince Heinrich of Prussia and his naval squadron came to China, Yin Chang negotiated German claims on the region of Kiaochow and the port of Tsingtao and had Prince Heinrich presented at court. In winter 1899, he headed the negotiations with Germany for railway and mining rights in Shandong (山東路礦章程) and the concession in Tsingtao. These negotiations became part of the Boxer Protocol, which was signed September 7, 1901, in Beijing. These terms were later integrated into the Tientsin Protocol, which in 1918 became part of the peace treaty with Germany that ended World War I. Also in 1901 Yin Chang was named Lieutenant-General commanding the Plain White Banner Garrison (正白旗漢軍副都統).
  It is said that during the Boxer Rebellion, when the troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance stormed Beijing to relieve the besieged Legations, Yin Chang, with his German-equipped soldiers, escorted the Emperor and the Empress Dowager Cixi to safe passage through the back gates of the Forbidden City into the safety of Shaanxi Province, where the foreigners could not reach her. In August 1901 he was appointed the Chinese Ambassador to Germany (Berlin). In September 1901, by Imperial Edict, Yin Chang was charged with accompanying Zaifeng, Prince Chun to Germany with the special mission to convey China's regret to Kaiser Wilhelm II for the murder of Baron Clemens von Ketteler during the Boxer Rebellion. The mission proved an unexpected success, and Prince Chun was eagerly greeted by crowds The Kaiser accorded Prince Chun a splendid reception, which included inviting him to review the military maneuvers of 50,000 troops in Danzig  The international press covered his every step. During Ambassador Yin Chang's time in Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II  took a personal interest in the problems of modernizing a country’s military forces. The Kaiser taught Yin Chang much about the organization, training, discipline, and equipment of a modern army. Also during this time, Yin Chang was sent as ambassador to the Netherlands for a term. Back in Germany he arranged a state visit to China for Prince Adalbert of Prussia. 
  In 1905 he was recalled to China and was appointed the director of the Nobles' College (貴冑學堂總辦) in Beijing. That same year he changed the traditional uniforms of the Chinese Army to uniforms modeled on those of the German Army. At the same time, he ordered arms and ammunition from Krupp. Yin Chang was one of the reformers who abolished the Imperial Examination in the effort to modernize Chinese education. This had far-reaching  effects. Supplanting the Confucian classics opened the curriculum to the disciplines of the sciences and the humanities. Instead of aiming only for civil service appointments, students could now pursue their own interests and choose a profession, including the military. In September 1906 Yin Chang became Commander-in-Chief in Jiangbei (江北提督), and two months later, became Army Chief of Staff(陸軍部右侍郎). By September 1908 he was reappointed as Chinese Ambassador to Germany, but because of the fall military maneuvers in Anhwei and the death of the Emperor and of the Dowager Empress Cixi, he did not proceed to his post u
caption: Yinchang
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