Huang Yanpei (; 1 October 1878 – 21 December 1965) was a Chinese educator, writer, and politician. He was a founding pioneer of the China Democratic League and the China National Democratic Construction Association, which are among the eight legally recognised minor political parties in China under the Chinese Communist Party's united front. Names Huang was also known by his courtesy name Renzhi () and art name Chunan (). Early life Huang was born in Neishidi, Chuansha, Jiangsu (now part of Pudong, Shanghai) during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing dynasty. His mother died when he was 13 and his father died when he was 17, so he lived with his maternal grandfather, who gave him a traditional Chinese education. In his young age, he studied at Dongye School () and read the Four Books and Five Classics. Before he reached adulthood, he worked as an informal teacher in his hometown to support his family. In 1899, Huang topped the imperial examination in Songjiang Prefecture, which covered much of present-day Shanghai, and obtained the position of a xiucai. He later received financial support from his uncle to read Western studies. In 1901, Huang enrolled in Nanyang Public School (now Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and met Cai Yuanpei, who was then teaching the Chinese language there. One year later, Huang obtained the position of a juren in the imperial examination in Jiangnan. Some time later, he left school in protest against the expulsion of his fellow students, who had been expelled for allegedly showing disrespect towards a teacher by leaving an empty ink bottle on the teacher's desk – an act interpreted as suggesting that the teacher was unlearned because ink metaphorically referred to knowledge. Huang then returned to Chuansha, where he set up a Chuansha Primary School () for children. During this time, he read Yan Fu's Tian Yan Lun — a translation of Thomas Henry Huxley's Evolution and Ethics — and other books on Western ideas. In 1903, while giving a talk in Nanhui District, Huang was accused of being an anti-government revolutionary, and was arrested and imprisoned. He was released on bail with the help of William Burke, an American missionary, and narrowly escaped death as he left the prison just one hour before an order for his execution from the Jiangsu provincial government reached the local government in Nanhai District. Huang fled to Japan