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Wu Xianzi (Orig. Zhuang 莊；H. Mengdie 夢蝶) was born into a merchant family in the village of Shunde （順德），Guangdong. He lost his father at the age of five; and one year later he began his traditional education at the village school at 1887. He first came into contact with the ideas of Kang Youwei （康有為，1858-1927）sometime after 1892, and became gradually converted to Kang’s reformist doctrines.

From 1897 to 1903, Wu studied under Jian Zhaoliang （簡朝亮，1851-1933）. Both Jian and Kang had studied under Zhu Ciqi （朱次琦，1807-1882），one of the leading Cantonese scholars of the time. During the summer of 1897, however, Wu took two months off from Jian’s school to attend Kang’s lectures at his school in Guangzhou, and thereafter became one of Kang’s loyal followers.

In 1903 Kang asked Wu to assist Xu Qin （徐勤，d. 1945），another of his disciples, in running the Shang bao （商報）in Hong Kong. Wu held the post of editor from 1905 to 1911, and conducted a continuing editorial battle with the Zhongguo ri bao （中國日報，the Tong meng hui（同盟會）organization in Hong Kong. In 1911, Wu went to Japan to join Kang, and took the dictation for Kang’s Gong he zheng ti lun （共和政体論），which argued in favor of constitutional monarchy and against republicanism. He visited Canada and stayed in Vancouver, B.C. for about one month in late 1912, and returned to Guangzhou to assume the post of Director of the Civil Affairs Division of the provincial government （廣東省內務司長）in 1913. Early in 1914, he was transferred to a similar post in Hubei; but he did not take up the appointment.

Wu resided in Beijing from 1914 to 1919, and later went to Hong Kong to take charge of the newspaper, Gong he ri bao （共和日報）. After its suspension in 1922, he returned to Beijing to assume a sinecure position with the state council. On Kang’s instructions in early 1925, he went to Yunnan to persuade Tang Jiyao （唐继堯，1881-1927）to take a stand against the Guangzhou government. Tang did, but to no avail.

After Kang’s death in 1927, Wu became one of the leaders of the Constitutionalist Party （憲政党），assuming charge of its organizations abroad, mainly in North America. In 1928 he went to the United States to take charge of the party’s newspaper, Chinese World （世界日報），in San Francisco, and also to carry on a campaign against the policies of Guo min dang in China. After recovering from an automobile accident in 1935, he made an extensive tour of the Chinese communities in the United States.

Wu returned to Beijing in 1936, and met with Carsun Zhang （Zhang Jiasen 張嘉森，1886-1969）to discuss the possibility of a merger of Zhang’s National Socialist Party （國家社會党）and the Constitutionalist Party. A tentative agreement was reached, but its implementation was delayed with the out-break of the Sino-Japanese War in July, 1937. Wu retreated to the British concession in Tianjin and remained there until 1940, when he decided to move to Hong Kong.

On his way south, Wu stopped at Nanjing to dissuade Wang Jingwei （汪精衛，1883-1944） from cooperating with the Japanese, but without any success. After his arrival in Hong Kong, Wu established contacts with leaders of the minor parties, and joined the opposition elements to form the League of Chinese Democratic Political Group （中國民主政團同盟）in 1941. He remained in Hong Kong from that time onward.

In 1945 the Constitutionalist Party was reorganized as the Chinese Democratic Constitutional Party （中國民主憲政党）and Wu was elected its chairman. It merged with the National Socialist Party in 1946 to form the Democratic Socialist Party （民主社會党）. Carsun Zhang became its chairman and Wu its vice-chairman. The “marriage” lasted less than a year, however. The factions split as a result of internal dissension in 1947 in spite of Wu’s efforts to resolve the dispute. Thereafter, Wu became inactive in politics. At the end of 1951, he visited Taiwan briefly. He then retired from political life, and died in 1959 at the age of seventy-eight.