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Yuan Shikai

Yuan Shikai (simplified Chinese: 袁世凯; traditional Chinese: 袁世凱; pinyin: Yuán Shìkǎi; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912, later becoming the Emperor of China. He first tried to save the dynasty with a number of modernization projects including bureaucratic, fiscal, judicial, educational, and other reforms, despite playing a key part in the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform. He established the first modern army and a more efficient provincial government in North China during the last years of the Qing dynasty before forcing the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor, the last monarch of the Qing dynasty in 1912. Through negotiation, he became the first President of the Republic of China in 1912.[1] This army and bureaucratic control were the foundation of his autocratic rule. In 1915 he attempted to restore the hereditary monarchy in China, with himself as the Hongxian Emperor (Chinese: 洪憲皇帝). His death in 1916 shortly after his abdication led to the fragmentation of the Chinese political system and the end of the Beiyang government as China's central authority.

Yuan Shikai
袁世凯
Yuan in 1915
President of the Republic of China
In office
22 March 1916 – 6 June 1916
Premier
Vice PresidentLi Yuanhong
Preceded byHimself
as Emperor of China
Succeeded byLi Yuanhong
In office
10 March 1912 – 12 December 1915
Premier
Vice PresidentLi Yuanhong
Preceded bySun Yat-sen
Succeeded byHimself
as Emperor of China
2nd Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet
In office
2 November 1911 – 10 March 1912
MonarchXuantong Emperor
Preceded byYikuang, Prince Qing
Succeeded byQing dynasty ended
Zhang Xun (1917)
Grand Councillor
In office
4 September 1907 – 2 January 1909
Monarchs
Secretary of Foreign Affairs
In office
4 September 1907 – 2 January 1909
Monarchs
Preceded byLu Haihuan
Succeeded byLiang Dunyan
Viceroy of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang
In office
7 November 1901 – 4 September 1907
MonarchGuangxu Emperor
Preceded byLi Hongzhang
Succeeded byYang Shixiang
Provincial Governor of Shandong
In office
6 December 1899 – 7 November 1901
MonarchGuangxu Emperor
Preceded byYuxian
Succeeded byZhang Renjun
Personal details
Born(1859-09-16)16 September 1859
Xiangcheng, Henan, Qing Empire
Died6 June 1916(1916-06-06) (aged 56)
Beijing, Republic of China
Cause of deathUremia
Political party
Spouses
  • Yu Yisdong
  • Lady Shen, concubine
  • Lady Lee, concubine
  • Lady Kim, concubine
  • Lady O, concubine
  • Lady Yang, concubine
  • Lady Ye, concubine
  • Lady Zhang, concubine
  • Lady Guo, concubine
  • Lady Liu, concubine
Children
OccupationGeneral, politician
Awards
Signature
Military service
Allegiance
Branch/service Beiyang Army
Years of service1881–1916
RankGeneralissimo
Battles/wars
Emperor of China[note 1]
Reign12 December 1915 – 22 March 1916
PredecessorHimself
as President of the Republic of China
SuccessorHimself
as President of the Republic of China
Prime MinisterLou Tseng-Tsiang

Early life

On 16 September 1859, Yuan Shikai was born in the village of Zhangying (張營村) to the Yuan Clan which later moved 16 kilometers southeast of Xiangcheng to a hilly area that was easier to defend against bandits. There the Yuans had built a fortified village, Yuanzhaicun (Chinese: 袁寨村; lit. 'the fortified village of the Yuan family').[2]

Yuan's family was affluent enough to provide Yuan with a traditional Confucian education.[3] As a young man he enjoyed riding, dogging, boxing, and entertainment with friends. Though hoping to pursue a career in the civil service, he failed the Imperial examinations twice, leading him to decide on an entry into politics through the Huai Army, where many of his relatives served. His career began with the purchase of a minor official title in 1880, which was a common method of official promotion in the late Qing.[4] Using his father's connections, Yuan travelled to Tengzhou, Shandong, and sought a post in the Qing Brigade. Yuan's first marriage was in 1876 to a woman of the Yu family who bore him a first son, Keding, in 1878. Yuan Shikai married nine more concubines throughout the course of his life.[5]

Years in Joseon Korea

In the early 1870s, Korea under the Joseon dynasty was in the midst of a struggle between isolationists under King Gojong's father Heungseon Daewongun, and progressives, led by Empress Myeongseong, who wanted to open trade. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan had adopted an aggressive foreign policy, contesting Chinese domination of the peninsula. Under the Treaty of Ganghwa, which the Koreans signed with reluctance in 1876, Japan was allowed to send diplomatic missions to Hanseong, and opened trading posts in Incheon and Wonsan. Amidst an internal power struggle which resulted in the queen's exile, the Viceroy of Zhili, Li Hongzhang, sent the 3,000 strong Qing Brigade into Korea. The Korean king proposed training 500 troops in the art of modern warfare, and Yuan Shikai was appointed to lead this task in Korea. Li Hongzhang also recommended Yuan's promotion, with Yuan given the rank of sub-prefect.

Following the suppression of Gapsin Coup. In 1885, Yuan was appointed Imperial Resident of Seoul.[6] On the surface the position equalled that of ambassador but in practice, as head official from the suzerain, Yuan had become the supreme adviser on all Korean government policies. Perceiving China's increasing influence on the Korean government, Japan sought more influence through co-suzerainty with China. A series of documents were released to Yuan Shikai, claiming the Korean government had changed its stance towards Chinese protection and would rather turn to Russia for protection. Yuan was outraged yet skeptical and asked Li Hongzhang for advice.

In a treaty signed between Japan and Qing, the two parties agreed only to send troops into Korea after notifying the other. Although the Korean government was stable, it was still a protectorate of Qing. Koreans emerged advocating modernization. Another more radicalised group, the Donghak Society, promoting an early nationalist doctrine based partly upon Confucian principles, rose in rebellion against the government. Yuan and Li Hongzhang sent troops into Korea to protect Seoul and Qing's interests, and Japan did the same under the pretext of protecting Japanese trading posts. Tensions boiled over between Japan and China when Japan refused to withdraw its forces and placed a blockade at the 38th Parallel. Li Hongzhang wanted at all costs to avoid a war with Japan and attempted this by asking for international pressure for a Japanese withdrawal. Japan refused, and war broke out. Yuan, having been put in an ineffective position, was recalled to Tianjin in July 1894, before the official outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War (甲午戰爭).

Yuan Shikai had three Korean concubines, one of whom was Korean Princess Li's relative, concubine Kim. 15 of Yuan's children came from these three Korean women.[7][8][9]

Late Qing dynasty

 
Yuan Shikai as Governor of Shandong
 
Yuan Shikai and Te Lan in 1910.

Yuan's rise to fame began with his nominal participation in the First Sino-Japanese War as commander of the Chinese garrison forces in Korea. Unlike other officers, however, he avoided the humiliation of Chinese defeat by having been recalled to Peking several days before the outbreak of conflict.

As an ally of Li Hongzhang, Yuan was appointed the commander of the first New Army in 1895. Yuan's training program modernized the army, creating enormous pride, and earning him the loyalty of capable senior officers. By 1901, five of China's seven divisional commanders and most other senior military officers in China were his protégés.[10] The Qing court relied heavily on his army due to the proximity of its garrison to the capital and their effectiveness. Of the new armies that formed part of the Self-Strengthening Movement, Yuan's was the best trained and most effective. His success opened the way for his rise to the top in both military and political sectors.[11]

The Qing Court at the time was divided between progressives under the leadership of the Guangxu Emperor, and conservatives under the Empress Dowager Cixi, who had temporarily retreated to the Summer Palace as a place of "retirement". After the Guangxu Emperor's Hundred Days' Reform in 1898, however, Cixi decided that the reforms were too drastic, and plotted to restore her own regency through a coup d'état. Plans of the coup spread early, and the Emperor was very aware of the plot. He asked reform advocates Kang Youwei, Tan Sitong and others to develop a plan to save him. Yuan's involvement in the coup remains a matter of debate among historians. Tan Sitong reportedly spoke with Yuan several days before the coup, asking Yuan to assist the Emperor against Cixi. Yuan refused a direct answer, but insisted he was loyal to the Emperor. Meanwhile, Manchu General Ronglu was planning manoeuvres for his army to stage the coup.

According to sources, including the diary of Liang Qichao and contemporary Chinese news sources, Yuan Shikai arrived in Tianjin on 20 September 1898 by train. It was certain that by the evening, Yuan had talked to Ronglu, but what was revealed to him remains ambiguous. Most historians suggest that Yuan had told Ronglu of all details of the Reformers' plans, and asked him to take immediate action. The plot being exposed, Ronglu's troops entered the Forbidden City at dawn on 21 September, forcing the Emperor into seclusion in a lake palace.

Making a political alliance with the Empress Dowager, and becoming a lasting enemy of the Guangxu Emperor, Yuan left the capital in 1899 for his new appointment as Governor of Shandong. During his three-year tenure the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901) erupted; Yuan ensured the suppression of Boxers in the province, though his troops took no active part outside Shandong itself. Yuan took the side of the pro-foreign faction in the Imperial Court, along with Prince Qing, Li Hongzhang, and Ronglu. He refused to side with the Boxers and attack the Eight-Nation Alliance forces, joining with other Chinese governors who commanded substantial modernized armies like Zhang Zhidong not participating in the Boxer Rebellion. He and Zhang ignored Empress Dowager Cixi's declaration of war against the foreign powers and continued to suppress the Boxers. This clique was known as The Mutual Protection of Southeast China.[12] In addition to not fighting the Eight-Nation Alliance and suppressing the Boxers in Shandong, Yuan and his army (the Right Division) also helped the Eight-Nation Alliance suppress the Boxers after the Alliance captured Peking in August 1900. Yuan Shikai's forces massacred tens of thousands of people in their anti-Boxer campaign in Zhili.[13] Yuan operated out of Baoding during the campaign, which ended in 1902.[14]

He also founded a provincial junior college (Shandong College, the forerunner of Shandong University) in Jinan, which adopted western ideas of education.

In June 1902 he was promoted to Viceroy of Zhili, the lucrative commissioner for North China Trade, and Minister of Beiyang (北洋通商大臣), comprising the modern regions of Liaoning, Hebei, and Shandong.[15] Having gained the regard of foreigners after helping crush the Boxer Rebellion, he successfully obtained numerous loans to expand his Beiyang Army into the most powerful army in China. He created a 2,000-strong police force to keep order in Tianjin, the first of its kind in Chinese history, as a result of the Boxer Protocol forbidding any troops to be staged close to Tianjin. Yuan was also involved in the transfer of railway control from Sheng Xuanhuai, leading railways and their construction to become a large source of his revenue. Yuan played an active role in late-Qing political reforms, including the creation of the Ministry of Education (學部) and Ministry of Police (巡警部). He further advocated ethnic equality between Manchus and Han Chinese.

 
Yuan Shikai in Qing dynasty uniform, 1912

In 1905, acting on Yuan's advice, Dowager-Empress Cixi issued a decree ending the traditional Confucian examination system that was formalized in 1906. She ordered the Ministry of Education to implement a system of primary and secondary schools and universities with state-mandated curriculum, modeled after the educational system of Meiji-period Japan. On 27 August 1908, the Qing court promulgated "Principles for a Constitution", which Yuan helped to draft. This document called for a constitutional government with a strong monarchy (modeled after Meiji Japan and Bismarck's Germany), with a constitution to be issued by 1916 and an elected parliament by 1917.[16]

In the hunting-park, three miles to the south of Peking, is quartered the Sixth Division, which supplies the Guards for the Imperial Palace, consisting of a battalion of infantry and a squadron of cavalry. With this Division Yuan Shi Kai retains twenty-six modified Krupp guns, which are the best of his artillery arm, and excel any guns possessed by the foreign legations in Peking.

The Manchu Division moves with the Court and is the pride of the modern army.

By his strategic disposition Yuan Shi Kai completely controls all the approaches to the capital, and holds a force which he may utilize either to protect the Court from threatened attack or to crush the Emperor should he himself desire to assume Imperial power. Contrary to treaty stipulations made at the settlement of the Boxer trouble, the Chinese have been permitted to build a great tower over the Chien Men, or central southern gate, which commands the foreign legations and governs the Forbidden City. In the threatening condition of Chinese affairs it might be assumed that this structure had been undermined by the foreign community, but this has not been done, and if trouble again arise in Peking the fate of the legations will depend upon the success of the first assault which will be necessary to take it. The foreign legations are as much in the power of Yuan Shi Kai's troops in 1907 as they were at the mercy of the Chinese rabble in 1900.

The ultimate purpose of the equipped and disciplined troops is locked in the breast of the Viceroy of Chihli. Yuan Shi Kai's yamen in Tientsin is connected by telegraph and telephone with the Imperial palaces and with the various barracks of his troops. In a field a couple of hundred yards away is the long pole of a wireless telegraph station, from which he can send the message that any day may set all China ablaze.

To-morrow in the East, Douglas Story, pp. 224–226.[17]

Yuan Shikai's Han-dominated New Army was primarily responsible for the defense of Beijing, as most of the modernized Eight Banner divisions were destroyed in the Boxer Rebellion and the new modernized Banner forces were token in nature.

The Empress Dowager and the Guangxu Emperor died within a day of each other in November 1908.[6] Sources indicate that the will of the emperor ordered Yuan's execution. Nonetheless, he avoided death. In January 1909, he was relieved of all his posts by the regent, Prince Chun. The public reason for Yuan's resignation was that he was returning to his home in the village of Huanshang (洹上村), the prefecture-level city of Anyang, due to a foot disease.

During his three years of effective exile, Yuan kept contact with his close allies, including Duan Qirui, who reported to him regularly about army proceedings. Yuan had arranged for the marriage of his niece (whom he had adopted) to Duan as a means to consolidate power. The loyalty of the Beiyang Army was still undoubtedly behind him. Having this strategic military support, Yuan held the balance of power between various revolutionaries (like Sun Yat-sen) and the Qing court. Both wanted Yuan on their side.

Wuchang Uprising and Republic

 
Yuan Shikai in uniform

The Wuchang Uprising took place on 10 October 1911 in Hubei province. The southern provinces subsequently declared their independence from the Qing court, but neither the northern provinces nor the Beiyang Army had a clear stance for or against the rebellion. Both the Qing court and Yuan were fully aware that the Beiyang Army was the only Qing force powerful enough to quell the revolutionaries. The court requested Yuan's return on 27 October, but he repeatedly declined offers from the Qing court for his return, first as the Viceroy of Huguang, and then as Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet. Time was on Yuan's side, and Yuan waited, using his "foot ailment" as a pretext to his continual refusal.

After further pleas by the Qing Court, Yuan agreed and eventually left his village for Beijing on 30 October, becoming prime minister on 1 November 1911. Immediately after that he asked the regent to withdraw from politics, which forced Zaifeng to resign as regent. This made way for Yuan to form a new, predominantly Han Chinese, cabinet of confidants, with only one Manchu as Minister of Suzerainty. To further reward Yuan's loyalty to the court, the Empress Dowager Longyu offered Yuan the noble title Marquis of the First Rank (一等侯), an honour only previously given to 19th century General Zeng Guofan for his raising of the Xiang Army to suppress the Taiping Rebellion. Meanwhile, in the Battle of Yangxia, Yuan's forces recaptured Hankou and Hanyang from the revolutionaries. Yuan knew that complete suppression of the revolution would end his usefulness to the Qing regime. Instead of attacking Wuchang, he began to negotiate with the revolutionaries.

Abdication of child emperor

 
Yuan Shikai sworn in as Provisional President of the Republic of China, in Beijing, 10 March 1912.
 
Yuan Shikai was pictured with ambassadors from foreign countries on 10 October 1913.

The revolutionaries had elected Sun Yat-sen as the first Provisional President of the Republic of China, but they were in a weak position militarily, so they negotiated with the Qing, using Yuan as an intermediary. Yuan arranged for the abdication of the child emperor Puyi in return for being granted the position of President of the Republic of China.[6] Puyi recalled in his autobiography the meeting between Longyu and Yuan:

The Dowager Empress was sitting on a kang [platform] in a side room of the Mind Nature Palace, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief as a fat old man [Yuan] knelt before her on a red cushion, tears streaming down his face. I was sitting to the right of the widow and wondering why both adults were crying. There was no one in the room other than the three of us and everything was very quiet; the fat man snorted as he spoke and I couldn't understand what he was saying... This was the time when Yuan directly raised the question of abdication.[18]

Sun agreed to Yuan's presidency after some internal bickering, but asked that the capital be situated in Nanjing. Yuan, however, wanted the geographic advantage of having the nation's capital close to his base of military power. Many theorized that Cao Kun, one of his trusted subordinate Beiyang military commanders, fabricated a coup d'état in Beijing and Tianjin, apparently under Yuan's orders, to provide an excuse for Yuan not to leave his sphere of influence in Zhili (present-day Hebei province). However, the claim that the coup was organized by Yuan has been challenged by others.[19] The revolutionaries compromised again, and the capital of the new republic was established in Beijing. Yuan Shikai was elected Provisional President of the Republic of China by the Nanjing Provisional Senate on 14 February 1912, and sworn in on 10 March of that year.[20][21]

Democratic elections

In February 1913, democratic elections were held for the National Assembly in which the Kuomintang (KMT – "Chinese Nationalist Party") scored a significant victory. Song Jiaoren of the KMT zealously supported a cabinet system and was widely regarded as a candidate for prime minister.

One of Song's main political goals was to ensure that the powers and independence of China's Parliament be properly protected from the influence of the office of the president. Song's goals in curtailing the office of the president conflicted with the interests of Yuan, who, by mid-1912, clearly dominated the provisional cabinet and was showing signs of a desire to hold overwhelming executive power. During Song's travels through China in 1912, he had openly and vehemently expressed the desire to limit the powers of the president in terms that often appeared openly critical of Yuan's ambitions. When the results of the 1913 elections indicated a clear victory for the KMT, it appeared that Song would be in a position to exercise a dominant role in selecting the premier and cabinet, and the party could have proceeded to push for the election of a future president in a parliamentary setting. On 20 March 1913, Song Jiaoren was shot by a lone gunman in Shanghai, and died two days later. The trail of evidence led to the secretary of the cabinet and the provisional premier of Yuan's government. Although Yuan was considered by contemporary Chinese media sources as the man most likely behind the assassination, the main conspirators investigated by authorities were either themselves assassinated or disappeared mysteriously. For lack of evidence, Yuan was not implicated.[22]

Becoming emperor

 
The Yuan Shikai "dollar" (yuan in Chinese), issued for the first time in 1914, became a dominant coin type of the Republic of China.
 
A banknote from the early Republic of China depicting the face of President Yuan Shikai.

Tensions between the KMT and Yuan continued to intensify. After arriving in Peking, the elected Parliament attempted to gain control over Yuan, to develop a permanent constitution, and to hold a legitimate, open presidential election. Because he had authorized $100 million of "reorganization loans" from a variety of foreign banks, the KMT in particular were highly critical of Yuan's handling of the national budget. Yuan's crackdown on the KMT began in 1913, with the suppression and bribery of KMT members in the two legislative chambers. Anti-Yuan revolutionaries also claimed Yuan orchestrated the collapse of the KMT internally and dismissed governors interpreted as being pro-KMT.[23]

Second revolution

Seeing the situation for his party worsen, Sun Yat-sen fled to Japan in August 1913, and called for a Second Revolution, this time against Yuan Shikai.[24] Subsequently, Yuan gradually took over the government, using the military as the base of his power. He dissolved the national and provincial assemblies, and the House of Representatives and Senate were replaced by the newly formed "Council of State", with Duan Qirui, his trusted Beiyang lieutenant, as prime minister. He relied on the American-educated Tsai Tingkan for English translation and connections with western powers. Finally, Yuan had himself elected president to a five-year term, publicly labelled the KMT a seditious organization, ordered the KMT's dissolution, and evicted all its members from Parliament. The KMT's "Second Revolution" ended in failure as Yuan's troops achieved complete victory over revolutionary uprisings. Provincial governors with KMT loyalties who remained willingly submitted to Yuan. Because those commanders not loyal to Yuan were effectively removed from power, the Second Revolution cemented Yuan's power.[25][26]

In January 1914, China's Parliament was formally dissolved. To give his government a semblance of legitimacy, Yuan convened a body of 66 men from his cabinet who, on 1 May 1914, produced a "constitutional compact" that effectively replaced China's provisional constitution. The new legal status quo gave Yuan, as president, practically unlimited powers over China's military, finances, foreign policy, and the rights of China's citizens. Yuan justified these reforms by stating that representative democracy had been proven inefficient by political infighting.[27]

After his victory, Yuan reorganized the provincial governments. Each province was supported by a military governor (都督) as well as a civil authority, giving each governor control of their own army. This helped lay the foundations for the warlordism that crippled China over the next two decades.

During Yuan's presidency, a silver "dollar" (yuan in Chinese) carrying his portrait was introduced. This coin type was the first "dollar" coin of the central authorities of the Republic of China to be minted in significant quantities. It became a staple silver coin type during the first half of the 20th century and was struck for the last time as late as the 1950s. They were also extensively forged.[28]

Japan's 21 demands

In 1914, Japan captured the German colony at Qingdao. In January 1915, Japan sent a secret ultimatum, known as the Twenty-one Demands, to Beijing. Japan demanded an extension of extraterritoriality, the sale of businesses in debt to Japan and the cession of Qingdao to Japan, and virtual control of finance and the local police. When these demands were made public, hostility within China was expressed in nationwide anti-Japanese demonstrations and an effective national boycott of Japanese goods. With support from Britain and the United States Yuan secured Japan's dropping part five of the demands, which would have given Japan a general control of Chinese affairs. However he did accept the less onerous terms and that led to a decline in the popularity of Yuan's government.[29]

Revival of hereditary monarchy

Emperor of China
皇帝
Imperial
 
Imperial Emblem
 
Hongxian Emperor
Details
StyleHis Imperial Majesty
First monarchHongxian
Last monarchHongxian
Formation12 December 1915
Abolition22 March 1916
ResidenceForbidden City, Beijing

To build up his own authority, Yuan began to re-institute elements of state Confucianism. As the main proponent of reviving Qing state religious observances, Yuan effectively participated as emperor in rituals held at the Qing Temple of Heaven. In late 1915, rumors were floated of a popular consensus that the hereditary monarchy should be revived. With his power secure, many of Yuan's supporters, notably monarchist Yang Du, advocated for a revival of the hereditary monarchy, asking Yuan to take on the title of Emperor. Yang reasoned that the Chinese masses had long been used to monarchic rule, the Republic had only been effective as a transitional phase to end Manchu rule, and China's political situation demanded the stability that only a dynastic monarchy could ensure. The American political scientist Frank Johnson Goodnow suggested a similar idea. Negotiators representing Japan had also offered to support Yuan's ambitions as one of the rewards for Yuan's support of the Twenty-One Demands.[30]

On 20 November 1915, Yuan held a specially convened "Representative Assembly" which voted unanimously to offer Yuan the throne. On 12 December 1915, Yuan "accepted" the invitation and proclaimed himself Emperor of the Chinese Empire (simplified Chinese: 中华帝国大皇帝; traditional Chinese: 中華帝國大皇帝; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Dìguó Dà Huángdì) under the era name of Hongxian (simplified Chinese: 洪宪; traditional Chinese: 洪憲; pinyin: Hóngxiàn; i.e. Constitutional Abundance). The new Empire of China was to formally begin on 1 January 1916, when Yuan, the Hongxian Emperor, intended to conduct the accession rites. Soon after becoming emperor, the Hongxian Emperor placed an order with the former imperial potters for a 40,000-piece porcelain set costing 1.4 million yuan, a large jade seal, and two imperial robes costing 400,000 yuan each.[4][20]

Public and international reactions to dynastic monarchy's revival

The Hongxian Emperor expected widespread domestic and international support for his reign. British diplomats and bankers worked hard to help them succeed. They had set up a banking consortium that loaned his government £25 million in April 1913.[31] However, he and his supporters had badly miscalculated. Many of the emperor's closest supporters abandoned him, and the solidarity of the emperor's Beiyang clique of military protégés dissolved. There were open protests throughout China denouncing the Hongxian Emperor. Foreign governments, including Japan, suddenly proved indifferent or openly hostile to him, not giving him the recognition anticipated.[32] Sun Yat-sen, who had fled to Tokyo and set up a base there, organized efforts to overthrow the Hongxian Emperor. The emperor's sons publicly fought over the title of "Crown Prince", and formerly loyal subordinates such as Duan Qirui and Xu Shichang left him to create their own factions.

Abandonment of monarchy and death

Funeral procession of Yuan Shikai in Beijing
 
 
 

Faced with widespread opposition, the Hongxian Emperor repeatedly delayed the accession rites in order to appease his foes, but his prestige was irreparably damaged and province after province continued to voice disapproval. On 25 December 1915, Yunnan's military governor, Cai E, rebelled, launching the National Protection War. The governor of Guizhou followed in January 1916, and Guangxi declared independence in March. Funding for the Hongxian Emperor's accession ceremony was cut on 1 March.

Yuan formally abandoned the empire on 22 March after being emperor for only 83 days; primarily due to these mounting revolts as well as declining health from uremia. This was not enough for his enemies, who called for his resignation as president, causing more provinces to rebel. Yuan died of uremia at 10 a.m. on 6 June 1916, at the age of fifty-six.[20][32]

Yuan's remains were moved to his home province and placed in a large mausoleum in Anyang. In 1928, the tomb was looted by Feng Yuxiang and his soldiers during the Northern Expedition.

Yuan had a wife and nine concubines, who bore him 17 sons and 15 daughters, but only three were prominent: Prince Yuan Keding, Prince Yuan Kewen, and Prince Yuan Keliang.

Evaluation and legacy

 
The residence of Yuan in Tianjin

Historians in China have considered Yuan's rule mostly negatively. He introduced far-ranging modernizations in law and social areas, and trained and organized one of China's first modern armies; but the loyalty Yuan had fostered in the armed forces dissolved after his death, undermining the authority of the central government. Yuan financed his regime through large foreign loans, and is criticized for weakening Chinese morale and international prestige, and for allowing the Japanese to gain broad concessions over China.[33][34]

Jonathan Spence, however, notes in his influential survey that Yuan was "ambitious, both for his country and for himself", and that "even as he subverted the constitution, paradoxically he sought to build on late-Qing attempts at reforms and to develop institutions that would bring strong and stable government to China." To gain foreign confidence and end the hated system of extraterritoriality, Yuan strengthened the court system and invited foreign advisers to reform the penal system.[35]

After Yuan's death, there was an effort by Li Yuanhong to revive the Republic by recalling the legislators who had been ejected in 1913, but this effort was confused and ineffective in asserting central control. Li lacked any support from the military. There was a short-lived effort in 1917 to revive the Qing dynasty led by the loyalist general Zhang Xun, but his forces were defeated by rival warlords later that year.[36]

After the collapse of Zhang's movement, all pretense of strength from the central government collapsed, and China descended into a period of warlordism. Over the next several decades, the offices of both the president and parliament became the tools of militarists, and the politicians in Peking became dependent on regional governors for their support and political survival. For this reason, Yuan is sometimes called "the Father of the Warlords". However, it is not accurate to attribute China's subsequent age of warlordism as a personal preference, since in his career as a military reformer he had attempted to forge a modern army based on the Japanese model. Throughout his lifetime, he demonstrated an understanding of staffing, military education, and regular transfers of officer personnel, combining these skills to create China's first modern military organisation. After his return to power in 1911, however, he seemed willing to sacrifice his legacy of military reform for imperial ambitions, and instead ruled by a combination of violence and bribery that destroyed the idealism of the early Republican movement.[37]

In the CCTV Production Towards the Republic, Yuan is portrayed through most of his early years as an able administrator, although a very skilled manipulator of political situations. His self-proclamation as Emperor is largely depicted as being influenced by external forces, especially that of his son, prince Yuan Keding.

A bixi (stone tortoise) with a stele in honor of Yuan Shikai, which was installed in Anyang's Huanyuan Park soon after his death, was (partly) restored in 1993.[38]

Names

Chinese men before 1949 customarily used and were referred to by various names. Yuan's courtesy name was "Weiting" (Wade-Giles spelling: Wei-ting; Chinese: 慰亭; pinyin: Wèitíng; Wade–Giles: Wei4-t'ing2), and he used the pseudonym "Rong'an" (Wade-Giles spelling: Jung-an; Chinese: 容庵; pinyin: Róng'ān; Wade–Giles: Jung2-an1). He was sometimes referred to by the name of his birthplace, "Xiangcheng" (simplified Chinese: 项城; traditional Chinese: 項城; pinyin: Xiàngchéng; Wade–Giles: Hsiang4-ch'eng2), or by a title for tutors of the crown prince, "Kung-pao" (simplified Chinese: 宫保; traditional Chinese: 宮保; pinyin: Gōngbǎo; Wade–Giles: Kung1-pao3).

Awards and honours

Family

 
Yuan and his children.
Paternal grandfather
  • Yuan Shusan (袁澍三)
Father
  • Yuan Baozhong (袁保中) (1823–1874), courtesy name Shouchen (受臣)
Uncle
  • Yuan Baoqing (袁保慶) (1825–1873), courtesy name Duchen (篤臣), pseudonym Yanzhi (延之), Yuan Baozhong's younger brother
Wife
  • Yu Yishang (于義上), daughter of Yu Ao (於鰲), a wealthy man from Shenqiu County, Henan; married Yuan Shikai in 1876; mother of Yuan Keding.[39]
Concubines
  • Lady Shen (沈氏), previously a courtesan from Suzhou
  • Lady Lee (李氏), of Korean origin; mother of Yuan Bozhen, Yuan Kequan, Yuan Keqi, Yuan Kejian, and Yuan Kedu
  • Lady Kim (金氏), of Korean origin; mother of Yuan Kewen, Yuan Keliang, Yuan Shuzhen, Yuan Huanzhen, and Yuan Sizhen
  • Lady O (吳氏), of Korean origin; mother of Yuan Keduan, Yuan Zhongzhen, Yuan Cizhen, and Yuan Fuzhen
  • Lady Yang (楊氏), mother of Yuan Kehuan, Yuan Kezhen, Yuan Kejiu, Yuan Ke'an, Yuan Jizhen, and Yuan Lingzhen
  • Lady Ye (葉氏), previously a prostitute in Nanjing; mother of Yuan Kejie, Yuan Keyou, Yuan Fuzhen, Yuan Qizhen, and Yuan Ruizhen
  • Lady Zhang (張氏), originally from Henan
  • Lady Guo (郭氏), originally a prostitute from Suzhou; mother of Yuan Kexiang, Yuan Kehe, and Yuan Huzhen
  • Lady Liu (劉氏), originally a maid to Yuan Shikai's fifth concubine Lady Yang; mother of Yuan Kefan and Yuan Yizhen
17 sons
  1. Yuan Keding (袁克定) (1878–1958), courtesy name Yuntai (雲台)
  2. Yuan Kewen (袁克文) (1889–1931), courtesy name Baocen (豹岑)
  3. Yuan Keliang (袁克良), married a daughter of Zhang Baixi
  4. Yuan Keduan (袁克端), married He Shenji (何慎基, daughter of He Zhongjing (何仲璟))
  5. Yuan Kequan (袁克權) (1898–1941), courtesy name Gui'an (規庵), pseudonym Baina (百衲), married a daughter of Toteke Duanfang (托忒克·端方)
  6. Yuan Kehuan (袁克桓), married Chen Zheng (陳徵, daughter of Chen Qitai (陳啟泰))
  7. Yuan Keqi (袁克齊), married a daughter of Sun Baoqi
  8. Yuan Kezhen (袁克軫), married Zhou Ruizhu (周瑞珠, daughter of Zhou Fu (周馥))
  9. Yuan Kejiu (袁克玖), married Li Shaofang (黎紹芳, 1906–1945, second daughter of Li Yuanhong) in 1934
  10. Yuan Kejian (袁克堅), married a daughter of Lu Jianzhang (陸建章)
  11. Yuan Ke'an (袁克安), married Li Baohui (李寶慧) (daughter of Li Shiming (李士銘))
  12. Yuan Kedu (袁克度), married a daughter of the wealthy Luo Yunzhang (羅雲章)
  13. Yuan Kexiang (袁克相), married firstly Zhang Shoufang (張壽芳, granddaughter of Na Tong (那桐)), married secondly Chen Sixing (陳思行, daughter of Chen Bingkun)
  14. Yuan Kejie (袁克捷), married Lady Wang (王氏)
  15. Yuan Kehe (袁克和), married a daughter of Zhang Diaochen (張調宸)
  16. Yuan Kefan (袁克藩), died young
  17. Yuan Keyou (袁克友), married a daughter of Yu Yunpeng (於雲鵬)
15 daughters
Famous grandsons and great-grandsons
  • Yuan's grandson, Luke Chia-Liu Yuan (1912–2003) was a Chinese-American physicist and husband of famed physicist Chien-Shiung Wu.
  • Yuan's great-grandson, Li-Young Lee (1957–), is an Indonesian-born Chinese-American writer and poet.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Between 12 December 1915 and 22 March 1916, Yuan Shikai reigned as the Emperor of China without enthronement. The Empire fell and was never recognized by most of the Chinese people or any foreign countries.

References

Citations

  1. ^ Shan, Patrick Fuliang (2018). Yuan Shikai: A Reappraisal, The University of British Columbia Press.
  2. ^ "Yuan Shikai | Qing Dynasty | International Politics". Retrieved 23 May 2018 – via Scribd.
  3. ^ Bonavia 34
  4. ^ a b Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, W.W. Norton and Company. p. 274. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.
  5. ^ 袁世凯:一妻九妾. 163.com (in Chinese). 6 June 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  6. ^ a b c Busky, Donald F. (2002) Communism in History and Theory, Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-97733-1.
  7. ^ Mao, Min (2017). The Revival of China, Volume 1. p. 52.
  8. ^ Zhong Liu (2004). Thorny Road to Dignity: Surviving Mao: A Chinese Psychiatrist Embraces a Miracle in America. iUniverse. p. 97. ISBN 0595319777.
  9. ^ Steven T. Au (1999). Beijing Odyssey: Based on the Life and Times of Liang Shiyi, a Mandarin in China's Transition from Monarchy to Republic (illustrated ed.). Mayhaven Publishing. p. 92. ISBN 1878044680.
  10. ^ Spence, 1999 p. 274
  11. ^ Hong Zhang, "Yuan Shikai and the Significance of his Troop Training at Xiaozhan, Tianjin, 1895–1899." Chinese Historical Review 26.1 (2019): 37–54.
  12. ^ Luo, Zhitian (2015). Inheritance within Rupture: Culture and Scholarship in Early Twentieth Century China. Brill. pp. 19–. ISBN 978-90-04-28766-2.
  13. ^ Edgerton, Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military, p. 94
  14. ^ Chʼên, Jerome Yuan Shih-kʻai, pp. 76–77.
  15. ^ Bonavia 35
  16. ^ Tanner, Harold Miles. China: A History. Hackett Publishing (2009) ISBN 0872209156 pp. 408–410.
  17. ^ Story, Douglas (1907). To-morrow in the East. G. Bell & Sons. pp. 224–226. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  18. ^ Behr, 1987 p. 69
  19. ^ Joseph W.; Wei, C.X. George (2013). China: How the Empire Fell. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 239–241. ISBN 978-0-415-83101-7
  20. ^ a b c Zhengyuan Fu. (1994) Autocratic Tradition and Chinese Politics, Cambridge University Press. pp. 153–154. ISBN 0-521-44228-1.
  21. ^ Spence, 1999 pp. 277–278.
  22. ^ Spence, 1999 pp. 275–277.
  23. ^ Spence, 1999 p. 277.
  24. ^ Albert A. Altman, and Harold Z. Schiffrin, "Sun Yat-sen and the Japanese: 1914–16." Modern Asian Studies 6.4 (1972): 385–400.
  25. ^ Bonavia 36
  26. ^ Norman D. Palmer, "Makers of Modern China: II. The Strong Man: Yuan Shih-kai" Current History (Sep 1948): 15#85 pp. 149–55.
  27. ^ Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, W.W. Norton and Company. p. 279. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.
  28. ^ Meyerhofer, Adi (2013). 袁大头. Yuan Shi-kai Dollar: 'Fat Man Dollar' Forgeries and Remints (PDF). Munich.
  29. ^ Zhitian Luo, "National humiliation and national assertion-The Chinese response to the twenty-one demands" Modern Asian Studies (1993) 27#2 pp. 297–319 online
  30. ^ Barnouin, Barbara and Yu Changgen. Zhou Enlai: A Political Life. Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. p. 14 retrieved 12 March 2011.
  31. ^ Hirata Koji, "Britain's Men on the Spot in China: John Jordan, Yuan Shikai, and the Reorganization Loan, 1912–1914." Modern Asian Studies 47.3 (2013): 895–934.
  32. ^ a b Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, p. 282.
  33. ^ Bonavia 40
  34. ^ Shan, (2018) pp. 3–9
  35. ^ Spence, Jonathan D. (1999). The Search for Modern China, W. W. Norton and Company. pp. 269–270. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.
  36. ^ Spence, pp. 287–288.
  37. ^ Spence, pp. 282–283.
  38. ^ 洹园里的破嘴龟 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine (The tortoise with a broken mouth in Huanyuan Park) (in Chinese)
  39. ^ Patrick Fuliang Shan, "Unveiling China's Relinquished Marital Mode: A Study of Yuan Shikai's Polygamous Household", Frontiers of History in China, (Vol. 14, No. 2, July 2019), pp. 185–211

Sources

  • Barnouin, Barbara and Yu Changgen. Zhou Enlai: A Political Life. Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. p. 14 retrieved 12 March 2011
  • Bonavia, David. China's Warlords. New York: Oxford University Press. 1995. ISBN 0-19-586179-5
  • Ch'en, Jerome (1961). Yuan Shih-K'ai, 1859–1916: Brutus Assumes the Purple. London: George Allen & Unwin; Reprinted: Stanford University Press, 1971. online free to borrow
  • Shan, Patrick Fuliang (2018). Yuan Shikai: A Reappraisal (U of British Columbia Press. ISBN 978-0774837781)
  • Spence, Jonathan D. (1999). The Search for Modern China. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 282.
  • Zhang, Hong. "Yuan Shikai and the Significance of his Troop Training at Xiaozhan, Tianjin, 1895–1899." Chinese Historical Review 26.1 (2019): 37–54

Further reading

  • Clubb, O. Edmund. 20th century China (1965) online pp. 40–60.
  • Koji, Hirata. "Britain's Men on the Spot in China: John Jordan, Yuan Shikai, and the Reorganization Loan, 1912–1914." Modern Asian Studies 47.3 (2013): 895–934.
  • Lowe, Peter. "Great Britain, Japan and the Fall of Yuan Shih-K'ai, 1915-1916" Historical Journal 13#4 (1970), pp. 706–20 online
  • MacKinnon, Stephen R. (1992). Power and Politics in Late Imperial China: Yuan Shikai in Beijing and Tianjin, 1901–08. University of California Press. ISBN 0520040252.
  • Palmer. Norman D. "Makers of Modern China: II. The Strong Man: Yuan Shih-kai" Current History (Sep 1948): 15#85 pp. 149–55. in Proquest.
  • Putnam Weale, B. L. The Fight For The Republic In China (1917) online
  • Rankin, Mary Backus. "State and society in early republican politics, 1912–18." China Quarterly 150 (1997): 260–81. online
  • Yim, Kwanha. "Yüan Shih-k'ai and the Japanese." Journal of Asian Studies 24.1 (1964): 63–73 online.
  • Young, Ernest P. (1977). The Presidency of Yuan Shih-K'ai: Liberalism and Dictatorship in Early Republican China. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472089951.
  • Zhang, Hong. "Yuan Shikai and the Significance of his Troop Training at Xiaozhan, Tianjin, 1895–1899." Chinese Historical Review 26.1 (2019): 37–54.

External links

  • The Fight for the Republic in China by Bertram Lenox Simpson at Project Gutenberg This etext first published in 1917 contains a detailed account of Yuan Shikai, his rise and fall.
  • Map of Yuan's mausoleum.
  • Newspaper clippings about Yuan Shikai in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
Yuan Shikai
(House of Yuan)
Born: 16 September 1859 Died: 6 June 1916
Political offices
Preceded by Provincial Governor of Shandong
1900–1901
Succeeded by
Preceded by Viceroy of Zhili
Minister of Běiyáng

1901–1907
Succeeded by
Yang Shixiang
Preceded by
Lu Haihuan
Secretary of Foreign Affairs
1907–1908
Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet
2 November 1911 – 10 March 1912
Succeeded by
Tang Shaoyi
(Premier)
Preceded by President of the Republic of China
10 March 1912 – 12 December 1915
Monarchy restored
Vacant
Title last held by
Himself
President of the Republic of China
22 March 1916 – 6 June 1916
Succeeded by
Regnal titles
Vacant
Title last held by
Xuantong
Emperor of China
1 January – 22 March 1916
Empire declared on 12 December 1915
Vacant
Title next held by
Kangde

yuan, shikai, this, chinese, name, family, name, yuan, simplified, chinese, 袁世凯, traditional, chinese, 袁世凱, pinyin, yuán, shìkǎi, september, 1859, june, 1916, chinese, military, government, official, rose, power, during, late, qing, dynasty, eventually, ended,. In this Chinese name the family name is Yuan Yuan Shikai simplified Chinese 袁世凯 traditional Chinese 袁世凱 pinyin Yuan Shikǎi 16 September 1859 6 June 1916 was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912 later becoming the Emperor of China He first tried to save the dynasty with a number of modernization projects including bureaucratic fiscal judicial educational and other reforms despite playing a key part in the failure of the Hundred Days Reform He established the first modern army and a more efficient provincial government in North China during the last years of the Qing dynasty before forcing the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor the last monarch of the Qing dynasty in 1912 Through negotiation he became the first President of the Republic of China in 1912 1 This army and bureaucratic control were the foundation of his autocratic rule In 1915 he attempted to restore the hereditary monarchy in China with himself as the Hongxian Emperor Chinese 洪憲皇帝 His death in 1916 shortly after his abdication led to the fragmentation of the Chinese political system and the end of the Beiyang government as China s central authority Yuan Shikai袁世凯Yuan in 1915President of the Republic of ChinaIn office 22 March 1916 6 June 1916PremierXu ShichangDuan QiruiVice PresidentLi YuanhongPreceded byHimselfas Emperor of ChinaSucceeded byLi YuanhongIn office 10 March 1912 12 December 1915PremierTang ShaoyiLou Tseng TsiangZhao BingjunDuan Qirui acting Xiong XilingSun Baoqi acting Xu ShichangVice PresidentLi YuanhongPreceded bySun Yat senSucceeded byHimselfas Emperor of China2nd Prime Minister of the Imperial CabinetIn office 2 November 1911 10 March 1912MonarchXuantong EmperorPreceded byYikuang Prince QingSucceeded byQing dynasty endedZhang Xun 1917 Grand CouncillorIn office 4 September 1907 2 January 1909MonarchsGuangxu EmperorXuantong EmperorSecretary of Foreign AffairsIn office 4 September 1907 2 January 1909MonarchsGuangxu EmperorXuantong EmperorPreceded byLu HaihuanSucceeded byLiang DunyanViceroy of Zhili and Minister of BeiyangIn office 7 November 1901 4 September 1907MonarchGuangxu EmperorPreceded byLi HongzhangSucceeded byYang ShixiangProvincial Governor of ShandongIn office 6 December 1899 7 November 1901MonarchGuangxu EmperorPreceded byYuxianSucceeded byZhang RenjunPersonal detailsBorn 1859 09 16 16 September 1859Xiangcheng Henan Qing EmpireDied6 June 1916 1916 06 06 aged 56 Beijing Republic of ChinaCause of deathUremiaPolitical partyBeiyang cliqueRepublican PartySpousesYu YisdongLady Shen concubineLady Lee concubineLady Kim concubineLady O concubineLady Yang concubineLady Ye concubineLady Zhang concubineLady Guo concubineLady Liu concubineChildrenYuan KedingYuan Kewen15 other sons15 daughtersOccupationGeneral politicianAwardsOrder of the Paulownia FlowersOrder of the Red EagleSignatureMilitary serviceAllegiance Qing Dynasty 1881 1912 Republic of China 1912 1915 1916 Empire of China 1915 1916 Branch serviceBeiyang ArmyYears of service1881 1916RankGeneralissimoBattles warsImo IncidentGapsin CoupFirst Sino Japanese WarBoxer RebellionXinhai RevolutionSecond RevolutionBai Lang RebellionNational Protection WarEmperor of China note 1 Reign12 December 1915 22 March 1916PredecessorHimselfas President of the Republic of ChinaSuccessorHimselfas President of the Republic of ChinaPrime MinisterLou Tseng TsiangYuan ShikaiTraditional Chinese袁世凱Simplified Chinese袁世凯TranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu PinyinYuan ShikǎiGwoyeu RomatzyhYuan ShyhkaeWade GilesYuan2 Shih4 k ai3IPA ɥɛ n ʂɻ kʰa ɪ Yue CantoneseYale RomanizationYuhn Sai hoiJyutpingJyun4 Sai3 hoi2IPA jyːn sɐ i hɔ ːi Southern MinTai loUan Si khaiCourtesy nameTraditional Chinese慰亭Simplified Chinese慰亭TranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu PinyinWeitingGwoyeu RomatzyhWeytyngWade GilesWei4 t ing2Yue CantoneseYale RomanizationWai tihngJyutpingWai3 ting4 Contents 1 Early life 2 Years in Joseon Korea 3 Late Qing dynasty 4 Wuchang Uprising and Republic 4 1 Abdication of child emperor 4 2 Democratic elections 5 Becoming emperor 5 1 Second revolution 5 2 Japan s 21 demands 5 3 Revival of hereditary monarchy 5 4 Public and international reactions to dynastic monarchy s revival 5 5 Abandonment of monarchy and death 6 Evaluation and legacy 7 Names 8 Awards and honours 9 Family 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 12 1 Citations 12 2 Sources 13 Further reading 14 External linksEarly life EditOn 16 September 1859 Yuan Shikai was born in the village of Zhangying 張營村 to the Yuan Clan which later moved 16 kilometers southeast of Xiangcheng to a hilly area that was easier to defend against bandits There the Yuans had built a fortified village Yuanzhaicun Chinese 袁寨村 lit the fortified village of the Yuan family 2 Yuan s family was affluent enough to provide Yuan with a traditional Confucian education 3 As a young man he enjoyed riding dogging boxing and entertainment with friends Though hoping to pursue a career in the civil service he failed the Imperial examinations twice leading him to decide on an entry into politics through the Huai Army where many of his relatives served His career began with the purchase of a minor official title in 1880 which was a common method of official promotion in the late Qing 4 Using his father s connections Yuan travelled to Tengzhou Shandong and sought a post in the Qing Brigade Yuan s first marriage was in 1876 to a woman of the Yu family who bore him a first son Keding in 1878 Yuan Shikai married nine more concubines throughout the course of his life 5 Years in Joseon Korea EditIn the early 1870s Korea under the Joseon dynasty was in the midst of a struggle between isolationists under King Gojong s father Heungseon Daewongun and progressives led by Empress Myeongseong who wanted to open trade After the Meiji Restoration Japan had adopted an aggressive foreign policy contesting Chinese domination of the peninsula Under the Treaty of Ganghwa which the Koreans signed with reluctance in 1876 Japan was allowed to send diplomatic missions to Hanseong and opened trading posts in Incheon and Wonsan Amidst an internal power struggle which resulted in the queen s exile the Viceroy of Zhili Li Hongzhang sent the 3 000 strong Qing Brigade into Korea The Korean king proposed training 500 troops in the art of modern warfare and Yuan Shikai was appointed to lead this task in Korea Li Hongzhang also recommended Yuan s promotion with Yuan given the rank of sub prefect Following the suppression of Gapsin Coup In 1885 Yuan was appointed Imperial Resident of Seoul 6 On the surface the position equalled that of ambassador but in practice as head official from the suzerain Yuan had become the supreme adviser on all Korean government policies Perceiving China s increasing influence on the Korean government Japan sought more influence through co suzerainty with China A series of documents were released to Yuan Shikai claiming the Korean government had changed its stance towards Chinese protection and would rather turn to Russia for protection Yuan was outraged yet skeptical and asked Li Hongzhang for advice In a treaty signed between Japan and Qing the two parties agreed only to send troops into Korea after notifying the other Although the Korean government was stable it was still a protectorate of Qing Koreans emerged advocating modernization Another more radicalised group the Donghak Society promoting an early nationalist doctrine based partly upon Confucian principles rose in rebellion against the government Yuan and Li Hongzhang sent troops into Korea to protect Seoul and Qing s interests and Japan did the same under the pretext of protecting Japanese trading posts Tensions boiled over between Japan and China when Japan refused to withdraw its forces and placed a blockade at the 38th Parallel Li Hongzhang wanted at all costs to avoid a war with Japan and attempted this by asking for international pressure for a Japanese withdrawal Japan refused and war broke out Yuan having been put in an ineffective position was recalled to Tianjin in July 1894 before the official outbreak of the First Sino Japanese War 甲午戰爭 Yuan Shikai had three Korean concubines one of whom was Korean Princess Li s relative concubine Kim 15 of Yuan s children came from these three Korean women 7 8 9 Late Qing dynasty EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Yuan Shikai news newspapers books scholar JSTOR December 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Yuan Shikai as Governor of Shandong Yuan Shikai and Te Lan in 1910 Yuan s rise to fame began with his nominal participation in the First Sino Japanese War as commander of the Chinese garrison forces in Korea Unlike other officers however he avoided the humiliation of Chinese defeat by having been recalled to Peking several days before the outbreak of conflict As an ally of Li Hongzhang Yuan was appointed the commander of the first New Army in 1895 Yuan s training program modernized the army creating enormous pride and earning him the loyalty of capable senior officers By 1901 five of China s seven divisional commanders and most other senior military officers in China were his proteges 10 The Qing court relied heavily on his army due to the proximity of its garrison to the capital and their effectiveness Of the new armies that formed part of the Self Strengthening Movement Yuan s was the best trained and most effective His success opened the way for his rise to the top in both military and political sectors 11 The Qing Court at the time was divided between progressives under the leadership of the Guangxu Emperor and conservatives under the Empress Dowager Cixi who had temporarily retreated to the Summer Palace as a place of retirement After the Guangxu Emperor s Hundred Days Reform in 1898 however Cixi decided that the reforms were too drastic and plotted to restore her own regency through a coup d etat Plans of the coup spread early and the Emperor was very aware of the plot He asked reform advocates Kang Youwei Tan Sitong and others to develop a plan to save him Yuan s involvement in the coup remains a matter of debate among historians Tan Sitong reportedly spoke with Yuan several days before the coup asking Yuan to assist the Emperor against Cixi Yuan refused a direct answer but insisted he was loyal to the Emperor Meanwhile Manchu General Ronglu was planning manoeuvres for his army to stage the coup According to sources including the diary of Liang Qichao and contemporary Chinese news sources Yuan Shikai arrived in Tianjin on 20 September 1898 by train It was certain that by the evening Yuan had talked to Ronglu but what was revealed to him remains ambiguous Most historians suggest that Yuan had told Ronglu of all details of the Reformers plans and asked him to take immediate action The plot being exposed Ronglu s troops entered the Forbidden City at dawn on 21 September forcing the Emperor into seclusion in a lake palace Making a political alliance with the Empress Dowager and becoming a lasting enemy of the Guangxu Emperor Yuan left the capital in 1899 for his new appointment as Governor of Shandong During his three year tenure the Boxer Rebellion 1899 1901 erupted Yuan ensured the suppression of Boxers in the province though his troops took no active part outside Shandong itself Yuan took the side of the pro foreign faction in the Imperial Court along with Prince Qing Li Hongzhang and Ronglu He refused to side with the Boxers and attack the Eight Nation Alliance forces joining with other Chinese governors who commanded substantial modernized armies like Zhang Zhidong not participating in the Boxer Rebellion He and Zhang ignored Empress Dowager Cixi s declaration of war against the foreign powers and continued to suppress the Boxers This clique was known as The Mutual Protection of Southeast China 12 In addition to not fighting the Eight Nation Alliance and suppressing the Boxers in Shandong Yuan and his army the Right Division also helped the Eight Nation Alliance suppress the Boxers after the Alliance captured Peking in August 1900 Yuan Shikai s forces massacred tens of thousands of people in their anti Boxer campaign in Zhili 13 Yuan operated out of Baoding during the campaign which ended in 1902 14 He also founded a provincial junior college Shandong College the forerunner of Shandong University in Jinan which adopted western ideas of education In June 1902 he was promoted to Viceroy of Zhili the lucrative commissioner for North China Trade and Minister of Beiyang 北洋通商大臣 comprising the modern regions of Liaoning Hebei and Shandong 15 Having gained the regard of foreigners after helping crush the Boxer Rebellion he successfully obtained numerous loans to expand his Beiyang Army into the most powerful army in China He created a 2 000 strong police force to keep order in Tianjin the first of its kind in Chinese history as a result of the Boxer Protocol forbidding any troops to be staged close to Tianjin Yuan was also involved in the transfer of railway control from Sheng Xuanhuai leading railways and their construction to become a large source of his revenue Yuan played an active role in late Qing political reforms including the creation of the Ministry of Education 學部 and Ministry of Police 巡警部 He further advocated ethnic equality between Manchus and Han Chinese Yuan Shikai in Qing dynasty uniform 1912 In 1905 acting on Yuan s advice Dowager Empress Cixi issued a decree ending the traditional Confucian examination system that was formalized in 1906 She ordered the Ministry of Education to implement a system of primary and secondary schools and universities with state mandated curriculum modeled after the educational system of Meiji period Japan On 27 August 1908 the Qing court promulgated Principles for a Constitution which Yuan helped to draft This document called for a constitutional government with a strong monarchy modeled after Meiji Japan and Bismarck s Germany with a constitution to be issued by 1916 and an elected parliament by 1917 16 In the hunting park three miles to the south of Peking is quartered the Sixth Division which supplies the Guards for the Imperial Palace consisting of a battalion of infantry and a squadron of cavalry With this Division Yuan Shi Kai retains twenty six modified Krupp guns which are the best of his artillery arm and excel any guns possessed by the foreign legations in Peking The Manchu Division moves with the Court and is the pride of the modern army By his strategic disposition Yuan Shi Kai completely controls all the approaches to the capital and holds a force which he may utilize either to protect the Court from threatened attack or to crush the Emperor should he himself desire to assume Imperial power Contrary to treaty stipulations made at the settlement of the Boxer trouble the Chinese have been permitted to build a great tower over the Chien Men or central southern gate which commands the foreign legations and governs the Forbidden City In the threatening condition of Chinese affairs it might be assumed that this structure had been undermined by the foreign community but this has not been done and if trouble again arise in Peking the fate of the legations will depend upon the success of the first assault which will be necessary to take it The foreign legations are as much in the power of Yuan Shi Kai s troops in 1907 as they were at the mercy of the Chinese rabble in 1900 The ultimate purpose of the equipped and disciplined troops is locked in the breast of the Viceroy of Chihli Yuan Shi Kai s yamen in Tientsin is connected by telegraph and telephone with the Imperial palaces and with the various barracks of his troops In a field a couple of hundred yards away is the long pole of a wireless telegraph station from which he can send the message that any day may set all China ablaze To morrow in the East Douglas Story pp 224 226 17 Yuan Shikai s Han dominated New Army was primarily responsible for the defense of Beijing as most of the modernized Eight Banner divisions were destroyed in the Boxer Rebellion and the new modernized Banner forces were token in nature The Empress Dowager and the Guangxu Emperor died within a day of each other in November 1908 6 Sources indicate that the will of the emperor ordered Yuan s execution Nonetheless he avoided death In January 1909 he was relieved of all his posts by the regent Prince Chun The public reason for Yuan s resignation was that he was returning to his home in the village of Huanshang 洹上村 the prefecture level city of Anyang due to a foot disease During his three years of effective exile Yuan kept contact with his close allies including Duan Qirui who reported to him regularly about army proceedings Yuan had arranged for the marriage of his niece whom he had adopted to Duan as a means to consolidate power The loyalty of the Beiyang Army was still undoubtedly behind him Having this strategic military support Yuan held the balance of power between various revolutionaries like Sun Yat sen and the Qing court Both wanted Yuan on their side Wuchang Uprising and Republic Edit Yuan Shikai in uniform The Wuchang Uprising took place on 10 October 1911 in Hubei province The southern provinces subsequently declared their independence from the Qing court but neither the northern provinces nor the Beiyang Army had a clear stance for or against the rebellion Both the Qing court and Yuan were fully aware that the Beiyang Army was the only Qing force powerful enough to quell the revolutionaries The court requested Yuan s return on 27 October but he repeatedly declined offers from the Qing court for his return first as the Viceroy of Huguang and then as Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet Time was on Yuan s side and Yuan waited using his foot ailment as a pretext to his continual refusal After further pleas by the Qing Court Yuan agreed and eventually left his village for Beijing on 30 October becoming prime minister on 1 November 1911 Immediately after that he asked the regent to withdraw from politics which forced Zaifeng to resign as regent This made way for Yuan to form a new predominantly Han Chinese cabinet of confidants with only one Manchu as Minister of Suzerainty To further reward Yuan s loyalty to the court the Empress Dowager Longyu offered Yuan the noble title Marquis of the First Rank 一等侯 an honour only previously given to 19th century General Zeng Guofan for his raising of the Xiang Army to suppress the Taiping Rebellion Meanwhile in the Battle of Yangxia Yuan s forces recaptured Hankou and Hanyang from the revolutionaries Yuan knew that complete suppression of the revolution would end his usefulness to the Qing regime Instead of attacking Wuchang he began to negotiate with the revolutionaries Abdication of child emperor Edit Yuan Shikai sworn in as Provisional President of the Republic of China in Beijing 10 March 1912 Yuan Shikai was pictured with ambassadors from foreign countries on 10 October 1913 The revolutionaries had elected Sun Yat sen as the first Provisional President of the Republic of China but they were in a weak position militarily so they negotiated with the Qing using Yuan as an intermediary Yuan arranged for the abdication of the child emperor Puyi in return for being granted the position of President of the Republic of China 6 Puyi recalled in his autobiography the meeting between Longyu and Yuan The Dowager Empress was sitting on a kang platform in a side room of the Mind Nature Palace wiping her eyes with a handkerchief as a fat old man Yuan knelt before her on a red cushion tears streaming down his face I was sitting to the right of the widow and wondering why both adults were crying There was no one in the room other than the three of us and everything was very quiet the fat man snorted as he spoke and I couldn t understand what he was saying This was the time when Yuan directly raised the question of abdication 18 Sun agreed to Yuan s presidency after some internal bickering but asked that the capital be situated in Nanjing Yuan however wanted the geographic advantage of having the nation s capital close to his base of military power Many theorized that Cao Kun one of his trusted subordinate Beiyang military commanders fabricated a coup d etat in Beijing and Tianjin apparently under Yuan s orders to provide an excuse for Yuan not to leave his sphere of influence in Zhili present day Hebei province However the claim that the coup was organized by Yuan has been challenged by others 19 The revolutionaries compromised again and the capital of the new republic was established in Beijing Yuan Shikai was elected Provisional President of the Republic of China by the Nanjing Provisional Senate on 14 February 1912 and sworn in on 10 March of that year 20 21 Democratic elections Edit In February 1913 democratic elections were held for the National Assembly in which the Kuomintang KMT Chinese Nationalist Party scored a significant victory Song Jiaoren of the KMT zealously supported a cabinet system and was widely regarded as a candidate for prime minister One of Song s main political goals was to ensure that the powers and independence of China s Parliament be properly protected from the influence of the office of the president Song s goals in curtailing the office of the president conflicted with the interests of Yuan who by mid 1912 clearly dominated the provisional cabinet and was showing signs of a desire to hold overwhelming executive power During Song s travels through China in 1912 he had openly and vehemently expressed the desire to limit the powers of the president in terms that often appeared openly critical of Yuan s ambitions When the results of the 1913 elections indicated a clear victory for the KMT it appeared that Song would be in a position to exercise a dominant role in selecting the premier and cabinet and the party could have proceeded to push for the election of a future president in a parliamentary setting On 20 March 1913 Song Jiaoren was shot by a lone gunman in Shanghai and died two days later The trail of evidence led to the secretary of the cabinet and the provisional premier of Yuan s government Although Yuan was considered by contemporary Chinese media sources as the man most likely behind the assassination the main conspirators investigated by authorities were either themselves assassinated or disappeared mysteriously For lack of evidence Yuan was not implicated 22 Becoming emperor EditSee also Empire of China 1915 1916 The Yuan Shikai dollar yuan in Chinese issued for the first time in 1914 became a dominant coin type of the Republic of China A banknote from the early Republic of China depicting the face of President Yuan Shikai Tensions between the KMT and Yuan continued to intensify After arriving in Peking the elected Parliament attempted to gain control over Yuan to develop a permanent constitution and to hold a legitimate open presidential election Because he had authorized 100 million of reorganization loans from a variety of foreign banks the KMT in particular were highly critical of Yuan s handling of the national budget Yuan s crackdown on the KMT began in 1913 with the suppression and bribery of KMT members in the two legislative chambers Anti Yuan revolutionaries also claimed Yuan orchestrated the collapse of the KMT internally and dismissed governors interpreted as being pro KMT 23 Second revolution Edit Seeing the situation for his party worsen Sun Yat sen fled to Japan in August 1913 and called for a Second Revolution this time against Yuan Shikai 24 Subsequently Yuan gradually took over the government using the military as the base of his power He dissolved the national and provincial assemblies and the House of Representatives and Senate were replaced by the newly formed Council of State with Duan Qirui his trusted Beiyang lieutenant as prime minister He relied on the American educated Tsai Tingkan for English translation and connections with western powers Finally Yuan had himself elected president to a five year term publicly labelled the KMT a seditious organization ordered the KMT s dissolution and evicted all its members from Parliament The KMT s Second Revolution ended in failure as Yuan s troops achieved complete victory over revolutionary uprisings Provincial governors with KMT loyalties who remained willingly submitted to Yuan Because those commanders not loyal to Yuan were effectively removed from power the Second Revolution cemented Yuan s power 25 26 In January 1914 China s Parliament was formally dissolved To give his government a semblance of legitimacy Yuan convened a body of 66 men from his cabinet who on 1 May 1914 produced a constitutional compact that effectively replaced China s provisional constitution The new legal status quo gave Yuan as president practically unlimited powers over China s military finances foreign policy and the rights of China s citizens Yuan justified these reforms by stating that representative democracy had been proven inefficient by political infighting 27 After his victory Yuan reorganized the provincial governments Each province was supported by a military governor 都督 as well as a civil authority giving each governor control of their own army This helped lay the foundations for the warlordism that crippled China over the next two decades During Yuan s presidency a silver dollar yuan in Chinese carrying his portrait was introduced This coin type was the first dollar coin of the central authorities of the Republic of China to be minted in significant quantities It became a staple silver coin type during the first half of the 20th century and was struck for the last time as late as the 1950s They were also extensively forged 28 Japan s 21 demands Edit Main article Twenty One Demands In 1914 Japan captured the German colony at Qingdao In January 1915 Japan sent a secret ultimatum known as the Twenty one Demands to Beijing Japan demanded an extension of extraterritoriality the sale of businesses in debt to Japan and the cession of Qingdao to Japan and virtual control of finance and the local police When these demands were made public hostility within China was expressed in nationwide anti Japanese demonstrations and an effective national boycott of Japanese goods With support from Britain and the United States Yuan secured Japan s dropping part five of the demands which would have given Japan a general control of Chinese affairs However he did accept the less onerous terms and that led to a decline in the popularity of Yuan s government 29 Revival of hereditary monarchy Edit Emperor of China皇帝Imperial Imperial Emblem Hongxian EmperorDetailsStyleHis Imperial MajestyFirst monarchHongxianLast monarchHongxianFormation12 December 1915Abolition22 March 1916ResidenceForbidden City BeijingTo build up his own authority Yuan began to re institute elements of state Confucianism As the main proponent of reviving Qing state religious observances Yuan effectively participated as emperor in rituals held at the Qing Temple of Heaven In late 1915 rumors were floated of a popular consensus that the hereditary monarchy should be revived With his power secure many of Yuan s supporters notably monarchist Yang Du advocated for a revival of the hereditary monarchy asking Yuan to take on the title of Emperor Yang reasoned that the Chinese masses had long been used to monarchic rule the Republic had only been effective as a transitional phase to end Manchu rule and China s political situation demanded the stability that only a dynastic monarchy could ensure The American political scientist Frank Johnson Goodnow suggested a similar idea Negotiators representing Japan had also offered to support Yuan s ambitions as one of the rewards for Yuan s support of the Twenty One Demands 30 On 20 November 1915 Yuan held a specially convened Representative Assembly which voted unanimously to offer Yuan the throne On 12 December 1915 Yuan accepted the invitation and proclaimed himself Emperor of the Chinese Empire simplified Chinese 中华帝国大皇帝 traditional Chinese 中華帝國大皇帝 pinyin Zhōnghua Diguo Da Huangdi under the era name of Hongxian simplified Chinese 洪宪 traditional Chinese 洪憲 pinyin Hongxian i e Constitutional Abundance The new Empire of China was to formally begin on 1 January 1916 when Yuan the Hongxian Emperor intended to conduct the accession rites Soon after becoming emperor the Hongxian Emperor placed an order with the former imperial potters for a 40 000 piece porcelain set costing 1 4 million yuan a large jade seal and two imperial robes costing 400 000 yuan each 4 20 Public and international reactions to dynastic monarchy s revival Edit The Hongxian Emperor expected widespread domestic and international support for his reign British diplomats and bankers worked hard to help them succeed They had set up a banking consortium that loaned his government 25 million in April 1913 31 However he and his supporters had badly miscalculated Many of the emperor s closest supporters abandoned him and the solidarity of the emperor s Beiyang clique of military proteges dissolved There were open protests throughout China denouncing the Hongxian Emperor Foreign governments including Japan suddenly proved indifferent or openly hostile to him not giving him the recognition anticipated 32 Sun Yat sen who had fled to Tokyo and set up a base there organized efforts to overthrow the Hongxian Emperor The emperor s sons publicly fought over the title of Crown Prince and formerly loyal subordinates such as Duan Qirui and Xu Shichang left him to create their own factions Abandonment of monarchy and death Edit Funeral procession of Yuan Shikai in Beijing Faced with widespread opposition the Hongxian Emperor repeatedly delayed the accession rites in order to appease his foes but his prestige was irreparably damaged and province after province continued to voice disapproval On 25 December 1915 Yunnan s military governor Cai E rebelled launching the National Protection War The governor of Guizhou followed in January 1916 and Guangxi declared independence in March Funding for the Hongxian Emperor s accession ceremony was cut on 1 March Yuan formally abandoned the empire on 22 March after being emperor for only 83 days primarily due to these mounting revolts as well as declining health from uremia This was not enough for his enemies who called for his resignation as president causing more provinces to rebel Yuan died of uremia at 10 a m on 6 June 1916 at the age of fifty six 20 32 Yuan s remains were moved to his home province and placed in a large mausoleum in Anyang In 1928 the tomb was looted by Feng Yuxiang and his soldiers during the Northern Expedition Yuan had a wife and nine concubines who bore him 17 sons and 15 daughters but only three were prominent Prince Yuan Keding Prince Yuan Kewen and Prince Yuan Keliang Evaluation and legacy Edit The residence of Yuan in Tianjin Historians in China have considered Yuan s rule mostly negatively He introduced far ranging modernizations in law and social areas and trained and organized one of China s first modern armies but the loyalty Yuan had fostered in the armed forces dissolved after his death undermining the authority of the central government Yuan financed his regime through large foreign loans and is criticized for weakening Chinese morale and international prestige and for allowing the Japanese to gain broad concessions over China 33 34 Jonathan Spence however notes in his influential survey that Yuan was ambitious both for his country and for himself and that even as he subverted the constitution paradoxically he sought to build on late Qing attempts at reforms and to develop institutions that would bring strong and stable government to China To gain foreign confidence and end the hated system of extraterritoriality Yuan strengthened the court system and invited foreign advisers to reform the penal system 35 After Yuan s death there was an effort by Li Yuanhong to revive the Republic by recalling the legislators who had been ejected in 1913 but this effort was confused and ineffective in asserting central control Li lacked any support from the military There was a short lived effort in 1917 to revive the Qing dynasty led by the loyalist general Zhang Xun but his forces were defeated by rival warlords later that year 36 After the collapse of Zhang s movement all pretense of strength from the central government collapsed and China descended into a period of warlordism Over the next several decades the offices of both the president and parliament became the tools of militarists and the politicians in Peking became dependent on regional governors for their support and political survival For this reason Yuan is sometimes called the Father of the Warlords However it is not accurate to attribute China s subsequent age of warlordism as a personal preference since in his career as a military reformer he had attempted to forge a modern army based on the Japanese model Throughout his lifetime he demonstrated an understanding of staffing military education and regular transfers of officer personnel combining these skills to create China s first modern military organisation After his return to power in 1911 however he seemed willing to sacrifice his legacy of military reform for imperial ambitions and instead ruled by a combination of violence and bribery that destroyed the idealism of the early Republican movement 37 In the CCTV Production Towards the Republic Yuan is portrayed through most of his early years as an able administrator although a very skilled manipulator of political situations His self proclamation as Emperor is largely depicted as being influenced by external forces especially that of his son prince Yuan Keding A bixi stone tortoise with a stele in honor of Yuan Shikai which was installed in Anyang s Huanyuan Park soon after his death was partly restored in 1993 38 Names EditChinese men before 1949 customarily used and were referred to by various names Yuan s courtesy name was Weiting Wade Giles spelling Wei ting Chinese 慰亭 pinyin Weiting Wade Giles Wei4 t ing2 and he used the pseudonym Rong an Wade Giles spelling Jung an Chinese 容庵 pinyin Rong an Wade Giles Jung2 an1 He was sometimes referred to by the name of his birthplace Xiangcheng simplified Chinese 项城 traditional Chinese 項城 pinyin Xiangcheng Wade Giles Hsiang4 ch eng2 or by a title for tutors of the crown prince Kung pao simplified Chinese 宫保 traditional Chinese 宮保 pinyin Gōngbǎo Wade Giles Kung1 pao3 Awards and honours EditOrder of the Paulownia Flowers Japan Order of the Red Eagle Germany Family Edit Yuan and his children Paternal grandfatherYuan Shusan 袁澍三 FatherYuan Baozhong 袁保中 1823 1874 courtesy name Shouchen 受臣 UncleYuan Baoqing 袁保慶 1825 1873 courtesy name Duchen 篤臣 pseudonym Yanzhi 延之 Yuan Baozhong s younger brotherWifeYu Yishang 于義上 daughter of Yu Ao 於鰲 a wealthy man from Shenqiu County Henan married Yuan Shikai in 1876 mother of Yuan Keding 39 ConcubinesLady Shen 沈氏 previously a courtesan from Suzhou Lady Lee 李氏 of Korean origin mother of Yuan Bozhen Yuan Kequan Yuan Keqi Yuan Kejian and Yuan Kedu Lady Kim 金氏 of Korean origin mother of Yuan Kewen Yuan Keliang Yuan Shuzhen Yuan Huanzhen and Yuan Sizhen Lady O 吳氏 of Korean origin mother of Yuan Keduan Yuan Zhongzhen Yuan Cizhen and Yuan Fuzhen Lady Yang 楊氏 mother of Yuan Kehuan Yuan Kezhen Yuan Kejiu Yuan Ke an Yuan Jizhen and Yuan Lingzhen Lady Ye 葉氏 previously a prostitute in Nanjing mother of Yuan Kejie Yuan Keyou Yuan Fuzhen Yuan Qizhen and Yuan Ruizhen Lady Zhang 張氏 originally from Henan Lady Guo 郭氏 originally a prostitute from Suzhou mother of Yuan Kexiang Yuan Kehe and Yuan Huzhen Lady Liu 劉氏 originally a maid to Yuan Shikai s fifth concubine Lady Yang mother of Yuan Kefan and Yuan Yizhen17 sonsYuan Keding 袁克定 1878 1958 courtesy name Yuntai 雲台 Yuan Kewen 袁克文 1889 1931 courtesy name Baocen 豹岑 Yuan Keliang 袁克良 married a daughter of Zhang Baixi Yuan Keduan 袁克端 married He Shenji 何慎基 daughter of He Zhongjing 何仲璟 Yuan Kequan 袁克權 1898 1941 courtesy name Gui an 規庵 pseudonym Baina 百衲 married a daughter of Toteke Duanfang 托忒克 端方 Yuan Kehuan 袁克桓 married Chen Zheng 陳徵 daughter of Chen Qitai 陳啟泰 Yuan Keqi 袁克齊 married a daughter of Sun Baoqi Yuan Kezhen 袁克軫 married Zhou Ruizhu 周瑞珠 daughter of Zhou Fu 周馥 Yuan Kejiu 袁克玖 married Li Shaofang 黎紹芳 1906 1945 second daughter of Li Yuanhong in 1934 Yuan Kejian 袁克堅 married a daughter of Lu Jianzhang 陸建章 Yuan Ke an 袁克安 married Li Baohui 李寶慧 daughter of Li Shiming 李士銘 Yuan Kedu 袁克度 married a daughter of the wealthy Luo Yunzhang 羅雲章 Yuan Kexiang 袁克相 married firstly Zhang Shoufang 張壽芳 granddaughter of Na Tong 那桐 married secondly Chen Sixing 陳思行 daughter of Chen Bingkun Yuan Kejie 袁克捷 married Lady Wang 王氏 Yuan Kehe 袁克和 married a daughter of Zhang Diaochen 張調宸 Yuan Kefan 袁克藩 died young Yuan Keyou 袁克友 married a daughter of Yu Yunpeng 於雲鵬 15 daughtersSee also List of people with the most children Famous grandsons and great grandsonsYuan s grandson Luke Chia Liu Yuan 1912 2003 was a Chinese American physicist and husband of famed physicist Chien Shiung Wu Yuan s great grandson Li Young Lee 1957 is an Indonesian born Chinese American writer and poet See also Edit China portal History portal Biography portalBeiyang Army History of the Republic of China Republic of China Armed Forces Sino German cooperation 1926 1941 Notes Edit Between 12 December 1915 and 22 March 1916 Yuan Shikai reigned as the Emperor of China without enthronement The Empire fell and was never recognized by most of the Chinese people or any foreign countries References EditCitations Edit Shan Patrick Fuliang 2018 Yuan Shikai A Reappraisal The University of British Columbia Press Yuan Shikai Qing Dynasty International Politics Retrieved 23 May 2018 via Scribd Bonavia 34 a b Spence Jonathan D 1999 The Search for Modern China W W Norton and Company p 274 ISBN 0 393 97351 4 袁世凯 一妻九妾 163 com in Chinese 6 June 2008 Retrieved 2 May 2011 a b c Busky Donald F 2002 Communism in History and Theory Praeger Greenwood ISBN 0 275 97733 1 Mao Min 2017 The Revival of China Volume 1 p 52 Zhong Liu 2004 Thorny Road to Dignity Surviving Mao A Chinese Psychiatrist Embraces a Miracle in America iUniverse p 97 ISBN 0595319777 Steven T Au 1999 Beijing Odyssey Based on the Life and Times of Liang Shiyi a Mandarin in China s Transition from Monarchy to Republic illustrated ed Mayhaven Publishing p 92 ISBN 1878044680 Spence 1999 p 274 Hong Zhang Yuan Shikai and the Significance of his Troop Training at Xiaozhan Tianjin 1895 1899 Chinese Historical Review 26 1 2019 37 54 Luo Zhitian 2015 Inheritance within Rupture Culture and Scholarship in Early Twentieth Century China Brill pp 19 ISBN 978 90 04 28766 2 Edgerton Warriors of the Rising Sun A History of the Japanese Military p 94 Chʼen Jerome Yuan Shih kʻai pp 76 77 Bonavia 35 Tanner Harold Miles China A History Hackett Publishing 2009 ISBN 0872209156 pp 408 410 Story Douglas 1907 To morrow in the East G Bell amp Sons pp 224 226 Retrieved 1 April 2013 Behr 1987 p 69 Joseph W Wei C X George 2013 China How the Empire Fell New York Routledge Taylor amp Francis Group pp 239 241 ISBN 978 0 415 83101 7 a b c Zhengyuan Fu 1994 Autocratic Tradition and Chinese Politics Cambridge University Press pp 153 154 ISBN 0 521 44228 1 Spence 1999 pp 277 278 Spence 1999 pp 275 277 Spence 1999 p 277 Albert A Altman and Harold Z Schiffrin Sun Yat sen and the Japanese 1914 16 Modern Asian Studies 6 4 1972 385 400 Bonavia 36 Norman D Palmer Makers of Modern China II The Strong Man Yuan Shih kai Current History Sep 1948 15 85 pp 149 55 Spence Jonathan D 1999 The Search for Modern China W W Norton and Company p 279 ISBN 0 393 97351 4 Meyerhofer Adi 2013 袁大头 Yuan Shi kai Dollar Fat Man Dollar Forgeries and Remints PDF Munich Zhitian Luo National humiliation and national assertion The Chinese response to the twenty one demands Modern Asian Studies 1993 27 2 pp 297 319 online Barnouin Barbara and Yu Changgen Zhou Enlai A Political Life Hong Kong Chinese University of Hong Kong 2006 p 14 retrieved 12 March 2011 Hirata Koji Britain s Men on the Spot in China John Jordan Yuan Shikai and the Reorganization Loan 1912 1914 Modern Asian Studies 47 3 2013 895 934 a b Spence Jonathan D 1999 The Search for Modern China p 282 Bonavia 40 Shan 2018 pp 3 9 Spence Jonathan D 1999 The Search for Modern China W W Norton and Company pp 269 270 ISBN 0 393 97351 4 Spence pp 287 288 Spence pp 282 283 洹园里的破嘴龟 Archived 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine The tortoise with a broken mouth in Huanyuan Park in Chinese Patrick Fuliang Shan Unveiling China s Relinquished Marital Mode A Study of Yuan Shikai s Polygamous Household Frontiers of History in China Vol 14 No 2 July 2019 pp 185 211 Sources Edit Barnouin Barbara and Yu Changgen Zhou Enlai A Political Life Hong Kong Chinese University of Hong Kong 2006 p 14 retrieved 12 March 2011 Bonavia David China s Warlords New York Oxford University Press 1995 ISBN 0 19 586179 5 Ch en Jerome 1961 Yuan Shih K ai 1859 1916 Brutus Assumes the Purple London George Allen amp Unwin Reprinted Stanford University Press 1971 online free to borrow Shan Patrick Fuliang 2018 Yuan Shikai A Reappraisal U of British Columbia Press ISBN 978 0774837781 Spence Jonathan D 1999 The Search for Modern China New York W W Norton amp Company p 282 Zhang Hong Yuan Shikai and the Significance of his Troop Training at Xiaozhan Tianjin 1895 1899 Chinese Historical Review 26 1 2019 37 54Further reading EditClubb O Edmund 20th century China 1965 online pp 40 60 Koji Hirata Britain s Men on the Spot in China John Jordan Yuan Shikai and the Reorganization Loan 1912 1914 Modern Asian Studies 47 3 2013 895 934 Lowe Peter Great Britain Japan and the Fall of Yuan Shih K ai 1915 1916 Historical Journal 13 4 1970 pp 706 20 online MacKinnon Stephen R 1992 Power and Politics in Late Imperial China Yuan Shikai in Beijing and Tianjin 1901 08 University of California Press ISBN 0520040252 Palmer Norman D Makers of Modern China II The Strong Man Yuan Shih kai Current History Sep 1948 15 85 pp 149 55 in Proquest Putnam Weale B L The Fight For The Republic In China 1917 online Rankin Mary Backus State and society in early republican politics 1912 18 China Quarterly 150 1997 260 81 online Yim Kwanha Yuan Shih k ai and the Japanese Journal of Asian Studies 24 1 1964 63 73 online Young Ernest P 1977 The Presidency of Yuan Shih K ai Liberalism and Dictatorship in Early Republican China Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press ISBN 0472089951 Zhang Hong Yuan Shikai and the Significance of his Troop Training at Xiaozhan Tianjin 1895 1899 Chinese Historical Review 26 1 2019 37 54 External links EditYuan Shikai at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Data from Wikidata Early support for Yuan among overseas Chinese The Fight for the Republic in China by Bertram Lenox Simpson at Project Gutenberg This etext first published in 1917 contains a detailed account of Yuan Shikai his rise and fall Map of Yuan s mausoleum Newspaper clippings about Yuan Shikai in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW Yuan Shikai House of Yuan Born 16 September 1859 Died 6 June 1916Political officesPreceded byYuxian Provincial Governor of Shandong1900 1901 Succeeded byZhang RenjunPreceded byLi Hongzhang Viceroy of ZhiliMinister of Beiyang1901 1907 Succeeded byYang ShixiangPreceded byLu Haihuan Secretary of Foreign Affairs1907 1908 Succeeded byLiang DunyanPreceded byYikuang Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet2 November 1911 10 March 1912 Succeeded byTang Shaoyi Premier Preceded bySun Yat sen Sun Yat sen President of the Republic of China10 March 1912 12 December 1915 Monarchy restoredMonarchy restoredVacantTitle last held byHimself President of the Republic of China22 March 1916 6 June 1916 Succeeded byLi YuanhongRegnal titlesVacantTitle last held byXuantong Emperor of China1 January 22 March 1916Empire declared on 12 December 1915 VacantTitle next held byKangde Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Yuan Shikai amp oldid 1135542030, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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