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Yuan Shikai (Courtesy name|Courtesy Weiting
慰亭; Hao|Pseudonym: Rong'an
容庵　zh-tspw
|t=袁世凱
|s=袁世凯 |p=Yuán Shìkǎi
|w=Yüan Shih-k'ai) (September 16, 1859 –
June 6, 1916) was a List of famous Chinese
people|Chinese military official and politician
during the late Qing Dynasty and the early
Republic of China. He was infamous for taking
advantage of both the Qing imperial court and the
Republicans, for his authoritarian control based
on control of the military, his presidency between
1912 – 1915 and his self-proclamation as
Emperor of China|Emperor in 1916.

==Early Years==
Yuan Shikai was born in the village of Zhangying
(張營村), located in Xiangcheng
county (項城縣), depending from
Chenzhou prefecture (陳州府),
Henan province. Xiangcheng county has now become
the county-level city of Xiangcheng
(项城市), depending from the
prefecture-level city of Zhoukou
(周口市). Chenzhou is now called
Huaiyang (淮阳), but it is no more the
head of the prefecture, having been replaced by
Zhoukou. The village of Zhangying is located
immediately north of downtown Xiangcheng. 

Yuan Shikai was the fourth of four sons by Yuan
Shouzhen.  Shortly after his birth, Xiangcheng was
threatened by the Nian Rebellion
(捻軍起義) (1853-1868),
and the Yuan family moved to a hilly area easier
to defend, 16 kilometers southeast of downtown
Xiangcheng, and there the Yuans had built a
fortified village, the village of Yuanzhai
(袁寨村 - literally "the
fortified village of the Yuan family"). The
village of Yuanzhai is now located inside
Wangmingkou township
(王明口乡), on the
territory of the county-level city of Xiangcheng.
The large countryside estate of the Yuan family in
Yuanzhai was recently opened to tourism by the
People's Republic of China, and people inside
China generally assume that Yuan Shikai was born
in Yuanzhai. 

As a youth he had enjoyed riding, boxing, and
entertainment with friends. Yuan had wanted to
persue a career in civil services, but had failed
twice in Imperial Examinations. He decided that
his entry into politics would have to be done
through the Army. Using his father's connections
Yuan set foot in Tengzhou, Shandong and sought a
post in the Qing Brigade. Yuan married in 1876, to
a woman of the Yu family, who bore a son, Yuan
Keding|Keding, in 1878.

== Korea ==

Korea in the late 1870's was in midst of a
struggle between isolationists under the King's
father, and progressives, led by the Queen, who
had wanted to open trade with continued Chinese
overlordship in Korea. Japan had shown interest in
the protectorate, and was an emerging power. Under
the Kanghwa Treaty signed in 1876, Japan was
allowed to send diplomatic missions to Seoul, and
opened trading posts in Inchon and Wonsan. Admidst
an internal power struggle, which resulted in the
Queen's exile, Li Hongzhang, the Viceroy of Zhili,
sent the Qing Brigade, 3,000 strong, into Korea.
The chief troublemaker, a regent, was escorted to
Tianjin, where he would be kept prisoner.  Korea's
weakness was apparent, and the Cemulpo Treaty of
1882 gave the Japanese the right to station troops
in Seoul to protect their legation.  China's
protection alone could not shield Korea in a
modern and fast-developing world, and it was
obvious that Korea's army could not even deal with
an internal crisis. The King issued a proposal to
train 500 troops in the art of modern warfare, and
Yuan Shikai was appointed to lead this task and
was to remain in Korea. Li Hongzhang also
memorialized the Emperor for Yuan's promotion,
which was answered shortly with Yuan's new rank as
Sub-Prefect.

In 1885, Yuan was appointed Imperial Resident of
Seoul with orders from the Imperial Throne. The
position had seemed on the surface to be similar
to that of a Minister or ambassador. In practice,
however, Yuan, being the head official from the
suzerain, had become the supreme adviser on all
Korean government policies. Dissatisfied with its
position in Korea, Japan had wanted more influence
through co-suzerainity with China. A series of
forged documents aimed at angering the Chinese was
sent to Yuan Shikai, attempting to make it appear
as if the Korean government had changed its stance
towards Chinese protection, and turned more
towards Russia. Yuan was sceptical yet outraged,
and asked Li Hongzhang for advice.

In a treaty signed between Japan and China, the
two parties agreed to only send troops into Korea
after the other is notified. Although the Korean
government was stable, it was still a protectorate
of China, and forces emerged advocating for
modernization. Another more radicalist group, the
Tong Hak Rebellion|Tong Hak Society, promoting
Confucianist and Taoist principles, rose in
rebellion against the government, which Yuan
longed to protect. Li Hongzhang sent troops into
Korea to protect Seoul, 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 of sorts 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 began. Yuan,
now in an ineffective position, was recalled to
Tianjin in July 1894, at the beginning of the
First Sino-Japanese War (甲午战争).

==Late Qing Dynasty==

Yuan Shikai rose to fame by participating in the
first Sino-Japanese War as the commander of the
Chinese stationary forces in Korea. He fortunately
avoided the humiliation of Chinese armies in the
war when he was recalled to Beijing several days
before the Chinese forces were attacked.

As an ally of Li Hongzhang, Yuan was appointed the
commander of the first New army in 1895. The Qing
court relied heavily on his army due to the
proximity of its garrision to the capital and its
effectiveness. Of the new armies that were part of
the Self-Strengthening Movement, Yuan's was the
most well trained and effective. 

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
Guangxu's Hundred Days' Reform 1898, however, Cixi
decided that the reforms were to drastic, and
wanted 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 continues to be a large
topic of historical debate. Tan Sitong reportedly
had a talk with Yuan several days before the coup,
asking Yuan to assist the Emperor and rid Cixi.
Yuan refused a direct answer, but insisted he was
loyal to the Emperor. Meanwhile Manchu General
Ronglu was planning manoevers for his army to
stage the coup.

According to many sources, including the diary of
Liang Qichao and a Wen Bao (文报) article, Yuan
Shikai arrived in Tianjin on September 20, 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
Refermers' plans, and asked him to take immediate
action. The plot being exposed, Ronglu's troops
entered the Forbidden City at dawn on September
21, 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 he ensured the
supression of Boxer Rebellion|Boxers in the
province. He also left the foundation for a
provincial junior college in Jinan, adopting some
western ideas of education.

He was granted the position of Viceroy of Zhili
(直隶总督) and Minister of Beiyang
(北洋大臣) (the modern regions of
Liaoning, Hebei, and Shandong provinces) on June
25, 1902. Gaining the regard of foreigners when he
helped to crush the Boxer Rebellion, he
successfully obtained numerous loans to expand his
Beiyang Army into the New army|most powerful army
in China. He created a 1,000-strong police force
to keep order in Tianjin, the first of its kind in
Chinese history, after the Boxer Protocol had
forbidden troops to be staged within a close
proximity of Tianjin. Yuan was also involved in
the transfer of Railway control from Shen
Xuanhuai. Railways became a big part of his
revenue. Yuan played an active role in late-Qing
political reforms, including the creation of the
Ministry of Education and Ministry of Police. He
further advocated for racial equality between
Manchus and Han Chinese.

== Retreat and the Republic ==

The Empress Dowager and the Guangxu Emperor died
within a day of each other in November 1908. Some
sources indicate that the will of the Emperor had
specifically directed that Yuan be executed.
Avoiding execution, in January 1909, Yuan Shikai
was relieved of all his posts by the regent, the
2nd Prince Chun (醇親王). The
official reason advanced was that he was returning
to his home in the village of Huanshang
(洹上村), located in the suburbs
of Zhangde Zhou (political division)|prefecture
(彰德府), now called the
prefecture-level city of Anyang
(安阳市), Henan province, in
order to treat a foot disease. 

During his three years of retreat, Yuan kept
contact with his close allies, including Duan
Qirui, who reported to him regularly about army
proceedings. The loyalty of the Beiyang Army was
still undoubtedly behind him. Having this
strategic military situation, Yuan actually held
the balance of power between the revolutionaries
and the Qing Court. Both wanted Yuan on their
side. Initially deciding against the possibility
of becoming President of a newly proclaimed
Republic, Yuan also 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 to accept, becoming
Prime Minister on November 1, 1911. Immediately
subsequent he asked that Zaifeng, the Regent,
abstain from politics. Zaifeng, being forced to
resign from his regency, made way for Yuan to
compose a newly created, predominantly Han Chinese
Cabinet of his confidants, consisting of only one
Manchu, who held the position of Minister of
Suzerainty.

The Wuchang Uprising succeeded on October 10, 1911
in Hubei province, before Yuan's official
appointment to the post of Prime Minister. The
southern provinces had 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 fully knew that the
Beiyang Army was the only modern force powerful
enough to quell the revolutionaries. The court
renewed offers on October 27, and Yuan eventually
left his village on October 30. To further 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 General Zeng Guofan. While continuing his
demands, ensuring temporary political stability in
Beijing, his forces captured Hankou and Hanyang in
November 1911 in preparation for attacking
Wuchang, thus forcing the republican
revolutionaries to negotiate.



The revolutionaries had elected Sun Yat-Sen as the
first Provisional President of the Republic of
China, but they were in a militarily weak
position, and so they reluctantly compromised with
Yuan. Yuan fulfilled his promise to the
revolutionaries and arranged for the abdication of
the child emperor Puyi in return for being named
the President of the Republic of China|President
of the Republic, replacing Sun. Sun agreed, but
asked that the capital be situated in Nanjing.
Yuan, however, wanted his advantage
geographically. Cao Kun, one of his entrusted
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).
The revolutionaries compromised again, and the
capital of the new republic was established in
Beijing. Yuan Shikai was elected Provisional
President on February 15, 1912, by the Nanjing
Provisional Senate, and sworn in on March 10.

In February 1913, democratic elections were held
for the National Assembly in which the Chinese
Nationalist Party or the Kuomintang (KMT) scored a
sigificant victory. Sung Chiao-jen, deputy in the
KMT to Sun Yat-sen, zealously supported a cabinet
system and was widely regarded as a candidate for
Prime Minister. Yuan viewed Sung as a threat to
his authority and, after Sung's assassination on
March 20 1913, there was speculation in the media
that Yuan was responsible.

==Becoming Emperor==

Tensions between the Kuomintang and Yuan continued
to intensify. Yuan's crackdown of the Kuomintang
began in 1913, beginning with the supression and
bribery of the KMT members in the two legislative
chambers, followed by an orchestrated collapse of
the KMT from local organizations. Seeing the
situation worsen, Sun Yat-sen fled to Japan, and
called for a Second Revolution, against Yuan.
Subsequently Yuan gradually took over the
government with support base from his military
power. He dissolved both the national and
provincial assemblies, replacing the House of
Representatives and Senate with the newly formed
"Council of State", with Duan Qirui, his trusted
Beiyang lieutenant, as Prime Minister. The
Kuomintang's "Second Revolution" against Yuan
ended in disastrous failure, as Yuan's military
might on all sides zeroed in on the remnants of
KMT forces. Provincial governors with KMT
loyalties were bribed or submitted willfully to
Yuan.  After his victory, Yuan reorganized the
provincial governments, its head now being a
Military Governor (都督), replacing the civil
governorship, where each governor had control of
his own army. It laid the first foundations for
warlordism that crippled China for the next three
decades.

In 1915, Japan sent a secret ultimatum known as
the 21 demands to Beijing.  When word leaked out
that Yuan had agreed to some of the provisions,
mass protests sprang up as well as a boycott of
Japanese goods.  Western pressure forced Japan to
back down on its demands.



With his power secure, many of Yuan's supporters,
notably monarchist Yang Du, advocated for a
revival of the monarchy, asking Yuan to take on
the title of Emperor.  Yang reasoned that the
Chinese masses had long been used to autocratic
rule, and a Republic had only been effective in a
transitional phase to end Manchu rule.  China's
situation longed for stability that only a
monarchy would ensure.  American FJ Goodnow, as
well as the Imperial Government of Japan 
suggested similar ideas. Yuan then committed a
major political blunder.  He reinstated the
monarchy, proclaiming himself the Emperor of the
Chinese Empire
(中華帝國大皇&
#24093;) under the Chinese era name|era name of
Hongxian (洪憲; i.e. Constitutional
Abundance) for a brief period from December 12,
1915 to March 22, 1916. This was opposed not only
by the revolutionaries, but far more importantly
by Yuan's subordinate military commanders, who
believed that Yuan's assumption of the monarchy
would allow him to rule without depending on the
support of the military. Faced with universal
opposition, Yuan backed down.  He died of kidney
failure a few months later.

== Evaluation and legacy ==

With Yuan's death, China was left without any
generally recognized central authority and the
army quickly fragmented into forces of combatting
warlords. For this reason he is usually called the
Father of the Warlords. It is not really correct
to attribute the other characteristics of
warlordism to his preference, since in his career
as a military reformer he had attempted to create
a modern army on the Japanese model. He
demonstrated then that he understood how staff
work, military education, and regular transfers of
officer personnel fitted together to make a modern
military organisation. After his return to power
in 1911, however, he seemed willing to sacrifice
everything in his imperial ambitions, and ruled by
a combination of violence and bribery that
destroyed the idealism of the early Republican
movement. Since those who opposed Yuan could do so
only from a territorial military base, Yuan's
career as President and Emperor contributed
greatly to China's subsequent political division.
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 of Emperor was seen as largely
under the influence of external forces, such as
his son.






The Hongxian Era

Personal Names
Period of Reigns
Chinese era name|era
name (年號) and their according range
of years

All first names
in bold.

Yuan Shikai 袁世凱 Yuán
Shìkǎi
1916
Hongxian (洪憲 Hóngxiàn)
1916



start box
succession box two to one| before1 = Xuantong
Emperor |before2 = Sun Yat-sen | title1 = Head of
State of China|title2= President of the Republic
of China | years1 = 1912–1915 | years2 =
1912–1915 | after = Li Yuanhong
succession box | before = Yikuang, the Prince Qing
| title = Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet|
years = 1911–1912 | after = Tang Shaoyi 

(Provisional Prime Minister of the
Republic)
succession box | before = Li Hongzhang | title =
Viceroy of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang| years =
1901–1908 | after = Yang Shixiang
end box

== References ==
*Chen, Jerome. "Yuan Shih-K'ai; 1859-1916". George
Allen & Unwin Ltd: Liverpool, 1961.

See also: History of China, History of the
Republic of China