Who knows who was the first female lawyer in China?

Zheng Yuxiu is the earliest female doctor in China. Her major is law, and she is the earliest female lawyer in China. And such a heroine comes from Baoan, which is now the Lequn community in xixiang street, Baoan District, Shenzhen.

The legal system is the foundation and guarantee of civil society, and it is also a remarkable symbol of modernization. There are many figures in Lingnan in modern times, among which there are many pioneers in the legal field of China. Hong Rong, the father of foreign students, returned to China on 1854 after obtaining a bachelor's degree from Yale University in the United States, and worked as a trainee lawyer in Hong Kong. From 65438 to 0874, Wu studied in England at his own expense, entered London College to study law, where he obtained a doctorate and qualified as a barrister, becoming the first doctor of law in modern China.

Zheng Yuxiu lived in his later years. Compared with her two predecessors, she is only a latecomer, but among women, she is a pioneer. 1924, Zheng Yuxiu received a doctorate in law from the University of Paris, becoming the first woman in China to receive this honor. After returning to China, she broke through many obstacles and opened "Kevin·Z United Law Firm" in Shanghai, becoming the first female lawyer in China. Since then, she has served as the director of the Shanghai judicial office, the director of the supervision office, the dean of the Shanghai Institute of Law and Politics, and the second minister of the Ministry of Education. 1928, Zheng Yuxiu was elected as one of the five members of the "Civil Law Drafting Committee", and she wrote women's autonomy in marriage into the legal provisions for the first time.

Zheng Yuxiu is the pride of Baoan and Shenzhen. From 65438 to 0996, Yun Qi Library became a cultural relic protection unit in Shenzhen, which largely confirmed Zheng Yuxiu's achievements. Zheng Yuxiu's deeds should not be drowned in the dust of history.

Rebellion made her a "Bigfoot Woman"

Zheng Yuxiu was born in Wuxia Village, Xixiang Town, Xin 'an County on 189 1. The Yun Qi Library, which still exists today, is the place where she lived and studied in her childhood. Her father, Zheng, used to work in the Qing court and lived in Beijing for many years. Her mother came from a good family, but she was left out by her father for a long time and her marriage was unfortunate. Influenced by his mother's experience and personality, Zheng Yuxiu gradually formed rebellious and upright qualities. When she was a child, she liked to listen to her mother's stories, and she liked the story of Mulan joining the army for her father best.

When Zheng Yuxiu was 7 years old, she moved to Guangzhou with her grandmother and her family. They live in a spacious and luxurious house in Xiguan, Guangzhou. At that time, girls, especially those from big families, had to bind their feet. Grandma also asked Zheng Yuxiu to wrap her feet according to the rules, but on the first day, she couldn't stand it. That night, she untied the foot wrap, and the next day, her feet were wrapped by servants. On the third morning, Zheng Yuxiu walked slowly into the school holding the wall. When Mr. Xue was giving a lecture, she suddenly screamed and lay on the ground, kicking and screaming. When grandma appeared, Zheng Yuxiu bravely said to her, "I will never bind my feet, and I will not bind my feet if I can't get married!"

Zheng Yuxiu thus became a "Bigfoot Woman". Many years later, recalling the scene of resisting "foot binding" when she was young, she would laugh happily: "That little girl is so brave and witty! Otherwise, how can those' three-inch golden lotus' freely shuttle on the Ping Jin railway line? How to cross Fusang Creek to France? "

Zheng Yuxiu later wrote an autobiography in English called My Revolutionary Career (My Revolution? TionaryYears). Opposing foot-binding was the beginning of her revolution.

1903, 12-year-old Zheng Yuxiu went to Beijing with her mother from Guangzhou via Hongkong, and entered Shi Chong Girls' School to receive formal education in China's language, history, geography and arithmetic. In her father's study, she read Zou Rong's Revolutionary Army, and her blood was boiling.

/kloc-When she was 0/3 years old, Zheng Yuxiu married the son of a senior official in Guangdong, and was in charge of her father and grandmother. This marriage seemed appropriate at that time, but because of the misfortune of his parents' marriage, young Zheng Yuxiu showed instinctive antipathy to this marriage. She wrote a letter to the son of the Zeng family, expressing her wishes frankly and hoping to dissolve the engagement. At her insistence, the divorce finally succeeded. After that, the Zheng Yuxiu family moved to Tianjin and entered a girls' school which was run by the American Church.

I joined the death squad when I was young.

Zheng Yuxiu's friends in Beijing and Tianjin, especially her eldest brother who studied in Peking University, brought back a lot of information about the revolutionary party for her. After reading it, she gradually developed revolutionary ideas. When she learned that the revolutionaries were in Japan, she persuaded her father to agree to study in Japan. Under the introduction of Liao, he joined the League. The year was 1906, and Zheng Yuxiu was only 15 years old. Soon, the alliance arranged for Zheng Yuxiu to return to China as an "intelligence officer". Because his father is an official of the Qing court in Beijing, all mails can be sent directly to the Zheng family without inspection.

1908, Guangxu and Cixi passed away successively. Sun Yat-sen, who was in charge of the armed uprising in Hanoi, was keenly aware that "people's hearts are greatly moved and the situation can be changed". Under the leadership of Li Shizeng, Zheng Yuxiu's "Beijing-Tianjin Alliance" also started revolutionary action. The "Beijing-Tianjin League" organized a "death squad" with the purpose of assassinating the important officials of the Qing court. Zheng Yuxiu joined the "Death Squad" with the consent of Li Shizeng, with the task of secretly transporting explosives from Tianjin to Beijing.

19110 In June, the three towns in Wuhan recovered their motherland and the revolutionaries revolted successfully. 1 91265438+1October1,the provisional government of Nanjing, Republic of China was proclaimed and Sun Yat-sen became the provisional president. But at that time, the North and South confronted each other, and the Beijing-Tianjin Alliance decided to get rid of Yuan Shikai. Zheng Yuxiu was in charge of the assassination plan. The assassination failed again, and Zheng Yuxiu was injured in the operation. She fled the scene in alarm.

Studying in Paris is very comfortable.

19 12 February 12, when the Qing emperor abdicated, thousands of years of imperial rule in China ended. Facing the reality, Zheng Yuxiu's initial joy turned to confusion and loss: the result of the revolution was only to drive away an emperor and change a president, and the civilians still lived a poor life, and the society did not change much. She began to read and think about the meaning of life. Li Shizeng encouraged Zheng Yuxiu to study abroad and gain more knowledge so that he could use it in the great cause of founding the country in the future.

19 13 At the end of the year, Zheng Yuxiu returned to his ancestral home in Wuxia Village, Baoan, and went to France by boat with Wu Zhihui and others via Singapore. She 19 14 came to Paris in early April to study French in a girls' middle school in Paris. Zheng Yuxiu is talented, studies hard and makes rapid progress in French.

International students from Zheng Yuxiu live a very comfortable life in Paris. In April 2004, Zheng Yuxiu lived at No.6 crisan Street in the center of Paris. Besides the housekeepers and chefs Han and Li brought from China, there are also relatives and friends. It is like a "home for international students". Zheng Mansion is not only a favorite place for international students, but also a gathering place for her former revolutionary comrades, Li Shiceng, Hu and academic elites, and Chen Yinque.

In the same year, she was admitted to Sorbonne University in Paris (the predecessor of Paris University) to study law and politics. When choosing a major, Zheng Yuxiu has some ideas. She believes that her major must be for returning to China in the future. She is clearly aware that China will build a democratic government in the process of changing from a monarchy to a political system, which needs legal protection in particular, so that people can fully enjoy democracy and freedom. Zheng Yuxiu read relevant professional books and became the top student in this grade. 19 17, Zheng Yuxiu obtained the LLM degree from Sorbonne University with excellent results.

1924, Zheng Yuxiu obtained the Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Paris. In a Gothic classroom at the University of Paris, the examiner wore a red robe and sat at a huge table. Zheng Yuxiu stood in front of them and read the abstract of the paper. I was nervous and excited at that moment. When the examiners unanimously passed Zheng Yuxiu's doctoral thesis, she bent down deeply and expressed sincere thanks to the teachers. Then, she rushed out of the classroom and shouted "Yes, yes!" To her partner.

From 65438 to 0929, his doctoral thesis "On the Comparative Constitution of China" was published by Shanghai World Bookstore and translated into Chinese with the help of Ling.

The first female lawyer in the Republic of China

1926 Zheng Yuxiu returned home by boat from San Francisco. Domestic newspapers published large photos of her doctor and the news that she had returned to China. Beijing Women's Normal University intends to hire her to teach there, but her French classmate Wei Daoming, who is also a doctor of law, suggested that she jointly set up a law firm in Shanghai.

19 15, the Ministry of Justice promulgated the revised Provisional Statute of Lawyers, in which Article 2 stipulated that lawyers should be "men over the age of 20 in the Republic of China". At that time, women could engage in all kinds of freelancing or charity in society, but they were still prohibited from being lawyers. Zheng Yuxiu carefully studied the judicial system in Shanghai, and found that although women can't be lawyers in international mixed courts and China courts, as a China person with a French lawyer's license, she can appear in the courts in the French Concession. Zheng Yuxiu and Wei Daoming established "Kevin·Z Joint Law Firm" in French Concession with the consent of French consul. Zheng Yuxiu thus became the first female lawyer in the Republic of China. (Until July 1927, Article 2 of the new Charter for Lawyers promulgated by the government of the Republic of China stipulated that lawyers should be "people of the Republic of China over the age of 20". )

During the period of 1926, Kevin·Z United Law Firm officially opened in Shanghai French Concession. Zheng Yuxiu is in charge of women's litigation, while Wei Daoming represents other litigation. They insist on the justice of the law, do not regard the law firm as a purely for-profit organization, and maintain the dignity and justice of the law with their own hearts. Gradually, the two lawyers, Kevin·Z, became hot figures in Shanghai's upper class. When the Northern Expeditionary Army approached Shanghai, more than 20 members of the Kuomintang were arrested by the authorities. Zheng Yuxiu managed to extradite them to the French Concession, and then found the French consul in China to release them. 1926, Yang Xingfo, a university professor, was arrested in Shanghai, and Zheng Yuxiu used her connections to persuade the French Concession authorities to release her.

Mei Lanfang, a master of Peking Opera, and Meng Xiaodong, a famous actress, fell in love and turned against each other. Zheng Yuxiu once intervened as Meng Xiaodong's defense lawyer, and Master Mei settled this dispute from love to "hate" with 40,000 yuan.

Kevin·Z United Law Firm has won the recognition and respect of Chinese and foreign people after winning many lawsuits. Judge China highly praised Dr. Zheng Weier, and his reputation is growing day by day. With the appeal of two doctors, male and female, it was crowded for a time. Litigation business is handled and handled by specialized lawyers in the name of Kevin·Z, which is more than enough.

Strive for legal education and legislation

1927 In March, the Northern Expeditionary Army arrived in Shanghai, and Zheng Yuxiu and Wei Daoming took the lead in joining forces. Since then, Shanghai has been under the jurisdiction of the National Government, and Zheng Yuxiu was elected as the president of the Shanghai District Court. She once hesitated, because once she accepted the appointment, it would mean giving up her lawyer career. Finally, under the persuasion of her old friend Wang Chonghui, she finally agreed to accept the appointment. At the same time, Wang Chonghui strongly recommended Wei Daoming as the Minister of Administration and Justice of Nanjing National Government.

In August 1927, Zheng Yuxiu and Wei Daoming got married in Hangzhou. At the end of the year, Zheng Yuxiu was appointed as the president of Shanghai Hosei University. The school was originally built by Dr. Sun Yat-sen to train legal and political talents for revolutionary construction. After Zheng Yuxiu took over as principal, he began to make plans to improve school affairs and expand the scale. In addition to maintaining the excellent style of study of free research, he also paid attention to judicial business and integrated theory with practice. 1928, the school was renamed private Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. At that time, the number of students had increased to more than 800, and there were many talents at that time.

1928165438+10. In October, the Legislative Yuan of the National Government was established, and Zheng Yuxiu was appointed as the first legislator. She was one of only two women in the original 5 1 Member. She is also a member of the Legal Affairs Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee.

She was also promoted to be one of the five members of the Civil Law Drafting Committee, and drafted the Civil Law together with Fu Bingchang, He Jiao. Zheng Yuxiu browsed a large number of relevant European and American laws, absorbed the essence of world laws, and combined with China's national conditions, drafted this Chinese Civil Code. Based on the concept of "all men are created equal" in the human rights declaration of the French Revolution, she urged the civil law to make major changes to the old social organizations, stipulating that unmarried and married women enjoy equal inheritance rights with men; Recognize that husband and wife have the right to inherit each other's property. It also stipulates that unmarried adult women in the family have the right to sign or cancel marriage contracts; A married woman has the right to keep her own surname, not her husband's. This means that men and women have equal status in the family. This draft civil law is of epoch-making significance and is the result of Zheng Yuxiu's efforts to protect women's rights.

Biography of Zheng Yuxiu

Zheng Yuxiu (189 1 year-1959) was born in Wuxia Village, Xixiang Town, Xin 'an County, Guangdong Province (now Lequn Community, xixiang street, Baoan District, Shenzhen). 1906 joined the League in Japan through Liao's introduction, and returned to China the following year to join the "Death Squad" of the Beijing-Tianjin Alliance. 1924 obtained a doctorate in law from the University of Paris, the first woman in China to receive a doctorate. From 65438 to 0926, she established a law firm in cooperation with Wei Daoming, becoming the first female lawyer in China. Later, he served as the director of Shanghai local judicial department, legislator of the National Government and vice minister of education, and participated in the revision of the first civil law in China. 1959 12 16 died in Los Angeles, USA, at the age of 68.

Zheng Yuxiu and Yun Qi Library

165438+1On October 23rd, accompanied by Ms. Tang Dongmei, the author of Cross-century-A Biography of Zheng Yuxiu, the reporter came to the Yun Qi Library where Zheng Yuxiu studied as a child. Yun Qi Library is located in the campus of Xixiang No.2 Primary School. The quaint and spacious buildings are in sharp contrast with the nearby high-rise buildings, revealing a strong cultural heritage. There is also a statue of Zheng Yuxiu on campus, which was introduced by Tang Dongmei according to the photos of Zheng Yuxiu when she got her doctorate in law in France.

Speaking of Yun Qi Library, we must mention Zheng Yuxiu's grandfather Yao Zheng. The Zheng family is the most popular family in Baoan District. According to textual research, they first moved south from the Central Plains in the Northern Song Dynasty. At the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of Republic of China, Yao Zheng was the most famous person in Baoan. Yao Zheng has a nickname "Jim Yao". He is the founder of "Zheng State" and a proud "legend". Yao Zheng was very poor in his early years, and when he was sixteen or seventeen, he worked for others. Later, I learned carpentry skills from a teacher, and with hard work and cleverness, I learned carpentry with superb skills. Because of his good craftsmanship, anyone who builds a house and marries a daughter-in-law will ask Yao Zheng to make the necessary furniture in the neighborhood at the southern end of Baoan (then called Xin 'an) county. Over time, Yao Zheng got the reputation of "Xiemuyao".

After gradually accumulating a little savings, Yao Zheng invested in the grain and timber business, and made a quick fortune by virtue of his cleverness and luck, and soon became a rich man.

1In the early 1940s, Hong Kong was ruled by Britain. After Yao Zheng sees Hongkong becoming a commercial port, the real estate construction industry will develop greatly. So, he went to Hong Kong, invested all his savings for many years in real estate, built many high-rise buildings, and became a big businessman with long sleeves and dancing skills. Compared with today's figures, Yao Zheng belongs to Li Ka-shing and Henry Fok.

Yao Zheng has seven wives, seven sons and seven daughters. The third son, Zheng, was an official of the Qing government. He stayed in Beijing for many years, and then gave up his official position to do business. He has more than 200 private houses in Tianjin and Beijing. It's Zheng's youngest daughter.

Yun Qi Library was built by Yao Zheng in the 11th year of Guangxu (1885). The library, commonly known as "Jiemu Yaoci", is located in the east of Wuxia Village, next to the Zheng Ancestral Hall, and adjacent to Xixiang Market Street, Beidi Ancient Temple and Chengci Temple in the west. Covering an area of more than 3,600 square meters, the library is the largest private library building in Baoan history. There are gates, fences, front halls, nave, back halls, East Boat Hall, West Book Building, Ming Building, Garden, Goldfish Hall, Kitchen, Well, etc. Under the leadership of the staff, the reporter walked into the tall and spacious library and studied its wood carving, stone carving and brick carving. He found that the craftsmanship was exquisite and the dust traces of the years did not completely bury its elegance. Cultural relics experts say that it is a precious cultural relic from the perspective of architectural art alone. Tang Dongmei told reporters that the wooden components of the library are all made of thick mahogany with excellent texture and exquisite materials, which are rare in Lingnan area. Its thick wooden columns are particularly eye-catching, and they are still as strong as ever after a hundred years. It is said that even nails are difficult to drive in.

Yun Qi Library is a paradise for Yu Xiu to study and play with her brothers and sisters and a large group of cousins. The construction of such a large-scale library shows Yao Zheng's foresight and attention to education and culture.

Yun Qi Library is one of many projects invested by Yao Zheng, which provides a learning paradise for children of families and neighbors. His granddaughter, Zheng Yuxiu, became the first female doctor and lawyer in China in the future, and was also an all-powerful female hero in politics. She is the glorious ancestor of the Zheng family, and the early enlightenment education was completed in the library.