Chiang Wei-shui
Taiwanese politician (1891-1931)
Chiang Wei-shui (Chinese: 蔣渭水; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chiúⁿ Ūi-súi; 6 August 1890 – 5 August 1931) was a Taiwanese physician and activist. He was a founding member of the Taiwanese Cultural Association and the Taiwanese People's Party. He is seen as one of the most important figures in Taiwan's resistance movement against Japanese rule.
He once wrote a short essay on Taiwan called Certificate of Bedside Diagnosis or Certificate of Clinical Diagnosis (臨床講義) about how the patient (Taiwan) suffered from severe culture malnutrition. Written in the form of a medical examination, it is his most famous work.
Biography
Early life and education
Chiang was born in Yilan during the Qing Dynasty rule. At the age of 10 he began to study with a Confucian scholar (張鏡光). In 1915 he graduated from the Taiwan Medical College (now the National Taiwan University College of Medicine). Around 1919 he married Chen Tian. He established the Taian Hospital (大安醫院) in Daitōtei, a district in today's Taipei and he also called on other intellectuals to come to the hospital and hold joint lectures.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Chiang Wei-shui” is taiwanese politician (1891-1931). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Chiang, Wei-shui and Taiwanese, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “taiwanese politician (1891-1931)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q698031. VIAF identifies the subject as 40635847. The Library of Congress control number is n78072397. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1931, 1915 and 1919.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Chiang Wei-shui”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Chiang Wei-shui primary sources, Chiang Wei-shui archive and Chiang research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Chiang Wei-shui”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Chiang Wei-shui” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.