Though the young Qing emperor Puyi is more widely remembered as the last emperor of China, the

short, stocky military leader Yuan Shikai also laid claimhowever brieflyto that distinction. A popular
general and reformist minister under the Qing dynasty, Yuan played a key role in bringing an end to
2,000 years of imperial rule in 1912. As first president of the Republic of China, however, he quickly
resorted to absolutist tactics. In 1915, Yuan took the bold step of announcing a new imperial dynasty,
with himself as emperor. Opposition lined up against him, and on March 22, 1916, he was forced to
abdicate, putting a permanent end to the monarchy and restoring republican rule in China. For the 100th
anniversary of Yuans abdication, we take a look back at this momentous period in Chinese history.

Born in 1859, Yuan Shikai was part of a relatively affluent clan in Xiangcheng, Henan province. He was
never a good student, but he excelled in physical activity; after twice failing the imperial examinations
necessary to become a civil servant, he chose a military career. His fathers connections helped secure
him a post in the Qing brigade of Anhui army, commanded by Li Hongzhang. In 1882, the brigade was
sent to Korea to prevent Japanese encroachment in the region. As Lis protg, Yuan proved himself
during more than a decades service in Korea, serving as Chinese commissioner in Seoul until just before
the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95).

Yuan Shikai, provisional president of the Chinese

Republic during the revolution. (Credit: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
After that conflict, Yuan became the officer most responsible for building the Chinese military back up
after its humiliating defeat by Japan. Along with other conservative military leaders, he helped the
Empress Dowager Cixi regain effective power from her nephew, the young Emperor Guangxu, after he
tried to institute a number of progressive reforms in 1898. With Cixis support, Yuan gained more and
more power and influence. While the Boxer Rebellion of 1900in which large groups of ordinary
Chinese organized violent protests against foreigners in China, Westernized Chinese and especially
Chinese Christiansagain weakened the military, Yuans division emerged intact. In 1901, Yuan was
named viceroy of Zhili, the region surrounding Beijing; he later became a grand councilor.

Cixi and Guangxu died within a day of each other in 1908, and Yuans opponents (including the regent of
the new emperor, Puyi, who was still an infant) took the opportunity to get rid of him. Stripping him of
his offices, they sent him home to Henan province. But when revolution broke out in October 1911, and
regional elites throughout China rose up against the imperial dynasty, Qing rulers called Yuan back to
the capital again. As prime minister and head of the Qing army, Yuan had commanded his forces into the
rebel-controlled city of Wuhan by December 1911, forcing the leaders of the revolution to negotiate.

Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Revolutionary Alliance, had been in the United States raising money for
the cause when the revolution broke out. He returned to China by Christmas, and was named
provisional president of the Republic of China, based in Nanjing. Entrusted with full power by the Qing
court, Yuan Shikai made a deal with the revolutionaries. In February 1912, he convinced Longyu, the
mother of the young emperor, that the only way to save the lives of the imperial family was to issue a
proclamation in support of the republican government. She did so on February 12, abdicating on behalf
of 6-year-old emperor Puyi and ending more than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China. A day later,
according to the agreement, Sun resigned, and Yuan Shikai became the first president of the Republic of
China.

Yuan Shikai (seated) (Credit: Universal History

Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

With an empty treasury, no constitution and provincial warlords vying for influence, the republics
beginnings were chaotic, to say the least. Elections in early 1913 resulted in huge gains for the
Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), which increasingly clashed with Yuan and his agenda. When the partys
chairman, Song Jiaoren, was murdered that March, the trail of evidence pointed to Yuans government,
though he was never officially blamed. Before he could be arrested, Sun Yat-sen fled to Japan in late
1913, calling for a second rebellionthis time against Yuan Shikai.

After crushing that revolt, Yuan consolidated power, crushing any hopes for parliamentary democracy.
His appeasement of Japanincluding acceptance of many of the infamous Twenty-One Demands
issued in 1915further damaged his popularity. Seeking to increase his authority, Yuan announced the
creation of a new imperial dynasty, the Hongxian, with himself as Great Emperor of China.

His actions immediately aroused widespread indignation, uniting Yuans opponents and his former
supporterseven the most conservative members of the militaryagainst him. Japan backed this
opposition, while the British government, once a source of financial support for Yuans regime, was
preoccupied with World War I. Left without the support of even his former generals, Yuan backed down,
and on March 22 he put an end to the Hongxian Empire after only 83 days. With cries mounting for his
resignation as president, the ailing Yuan died just three months later, at the age of 56. His death ushered
in a 12-year stretch known as the warlord era, during which local generals in Chinas provinces
continually challenged the weak central authority of the Republic of China.

5 key points

1. Yuan Shikai was a Qing soldier and military commander. He served as commander of the New Army
and the first president of the Chinese republic, from February 1912 until his death in 1916.
2. Shikai was a career soldier who oversaw the modernisation of the Beiyang army and enjoyed the
loyalty of his officers and soldiers. Seemingly a political conservative, Shikai became a favourite of
Dowager Empress Cixi.
3. By the outbreak of the 1911 Revolution, Shikai had become Chinas most powerful military
commander. This made him a pivotal figure in the revolution and he was courted by both Qing
conservatives and the republican revolutionaries.
4. Shikai sided with the Qing initially but in February 1912 he changed sides in return for the presidency
of the new republic, forcing the abdication of the infant emperor Puyi.
5. Shikais presidency was a failure. He attempted to increase his own power, overrode then dissolved
the National Assembly and probably orchestrated the assassination of Song Jiaoren. In 1915-16 Shikai
attempted to restore the Qing monarchy and install himself as emperor. Not only did this fail, it caused
considerable opposition within China, contributing to the unrest and division of the Warlord era (1916-
1928).
References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Jump up ^ Bonavia 34

^ Jump up to: a b c Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, W.W. Norton and
Company. p. 274. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.

Jump up ^ . (in Chinese). (163.com). 6 June 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2011.

^ Jump up to: a b c Busky, Donald F. (2002) Communism in History and Theory, Praeger/Greenwood.
ISBN 0-275-97733-1.

Jump up ^ Zhitian Luo (30 January 2015). Inheritance within Rupture: Culture and Scholarship in Early
Twentieth Century China. BRILL. pp. 19. ISBN 978-90-04-28766-2.

Jump up ^ Edgerton, Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military, page 94

Jump up ^ Chn, Jerome Yuan Shih-kai, page 76-77

Jump up ^ Bonavia 35

Jump up ^ Tanner, Harold Miles. China: A History. Hackett Publishing (2009) ISBN 0872209156 Pages
408410.

Jump up ^ Story, Douglas (1907). To-morrow in the East. G. Bell & Sons. pp. 224226. Retrieved 1 April
2013.

Jump up ^ Joseph W.; Wei, C.X. George (2013). China: How the Empire Fell. New York: Routledge, Taylor
& Francis Group. pp 239241. ISBN 978-0-415-83101-7

^ Jump up to: a b c Zhengyuan Fu. (1994) Autocratic Tradition and Chinese Politics, Cambridge University
Press. pp. 153154. ISBN 0-521-44228-1.

Jump up ^ Spence, Jonathan D. (2001) The Search for Modern China, W. W. Norton & Company. pp.
277278. ISBN 0-393-30780-8.

^ Jump up to: a b Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, W.W. Norton and Company.
pp. 275277. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.

^ Jump up to: a b Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, W.W. Norton and Company.
p. 277. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.

Jump up ^ Bonavia 36

Jump up ^ Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, W.W. Norton and Company. p.
279. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.

Jump up ^ *Meyerhofer, Adi (2013). . Yuan Shi-kai Dollar: 'Fat Man Dollar' Forgeries and Remints
(PDF). Munich.
Jump up ^ Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, W.W. Norton and Company. p.
281. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.

Jump up ^ Barnouin, Barbara and Yu Changgen. Zhou Enlai: A Political Life. Hong Kong: Chinese
University of Hong Kong, 2006. p. 14 retrieved 12 March 2011.

^ Jump up to: a b Spence, Jonathan D. (1999) The Search for Modern China, W.W. Norton and Company.
p. 282. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.

Jump up ^ Bonavia 40

Jump up ^ Spence, Jonathan D. (1999). The Search for Modern China, W. W. Norton and Company. pp.
269270. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.

Jump up ^ Spence, Jonathan D. (1999). The Search for Modern China, W. W. Norton and Company. pp.
282283. ISBN 0-393-97351-4.

Jump up ^ (The tortoise with a broken mouth in Huanyuan Park) (in Chinese)

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 &
Unwin; Reprinted: Stanford University Press, 1971.

Spence, Jonathan D. (1999). "The New Republic". The Search for Modern China. New York: W.W. Norton
& Company. p. 282.