People · Shanghai daotai, arsenal director
Feng Junguang
冯焌光Féng Jùnguāng · 1830–1878
Qing official who ran the Jiangnan Arsenal, served as Shanghai daotai in 1875 and negotiated the purchase of the Woosung railway.
Feng Junguang (冯焌光, Féng Jùnguāng) was a Qing official who held the post of Shanghai daotai, the senior Chinese authority dealing with the foreign settlements, in 1875 and 1876. A Cantonese by origin, he began in the army of Zeng Guofan and was known for his interest in Western mathematics, which led to his posting at the Jiangnan Arsenal in 1864.
As daotai he set up a Foreign Affairs Bureau, endowed a school with 20,000 taels and started a Chinese-language newspaper funded from the daotai’s treasury. His best-known dealing with the foreign community was the Woosung railway: the British-built line had been completed and was running when he was told to negotiate with the British consul. The Chinese side bought it, and it was later dismantled. In 1877 he left Shanghai to escort his father’s coffin home from Ili, and he died in 1878 after returning, before he could resume office.