Admiral Ding Ruchang was a Chinese military officer in the late Qing dynasty.
15 Facts About Ding Ruchang
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Ding Ruchang joined the Taiping Rebellion in 1854, but he later surrendered with Cheng Xueqi in the Battle of Anqing in 1861, and defected to the imperial cause.
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Ding Ruchang joined Li Hongzhang's Huai Army as a cavalryman to help suppress the Taiping Rebellion, serving with Liu Mingchuan.
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Ding Ruchang went back to his hometown to avoid being killed.
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In 1875, Li Hongzhang recruited Ding Ruchang to be a commander of the Beiyang Fleet, the most modern of China's regional navies.
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Ding Ruchang visited Germany and France to familiarize himself with their shipbuilding techniques.
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Ding Ruchang was a supporter of the Self-Strengthening Movement in China, and urged Li Hongzhang to create shipyards in China able to build modern armored cruisers, rather than relying on foreign imports.
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In 1882, Ding Ruchang was an observer during the negotiations resulting in the normalization of trade between Korea and the United States.
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Ding Ruchang later helped suppress the Imo rebellion, with his marines arresting Heungseon Daewongun, the father of King Gojong, after arriving at Incheon with a fleet of seven ships.
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In 1886, Ding Ruchang participated in a show of force, with the Beiyang Fleet touring Hong Kong, the Japanese port of Nagasaki, the Korean ports of Busan and Wonsan, and the Russian naval base of Vladivostok.
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The riot resulted in a diplomatic incident, but Ding Ruchang was able to make a second trip to Japan with the Beiyang Fleet in 1891.
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Ding Ruchang was promoted to admiral and commander of the Beiyang Fleet from 1888 to 1894, and was promoted to the position of vice naval minister in 1894.
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However, this is what happened at the Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September 1894, during which Ding Ruchang lost five of the ten ships in his fleet.
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Ding Ruchang became a casualty of the battle from the opening shot of his own vessel, Dingyuan, which had a construction defect, along with a number of officers present on the bridge.
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Ding Ruchang refused offers of political asylum by Japanese admiral Ito Sukeyuki and committed suicide by an overdose of opium in his office at his Liugong Island headquarters.