WThe Empire of China was a short-lived attempt by statesman, general and president Yuan Shikai from late 1915 to early 1916 to reinstate monarchy in China, with himself as the Hongxian Emperor. The attempt was unsuccessful; it set back the Chinese republican cause by many years and fractured China into a period of conflict between various local warlords.
WThe Beiyang Army, named after the Beiyang region, was a powerful, Western-style Imperial Chinese Army established by the Qing Dynasty government in the late 19th century. It was the centerpiece of a general reconstruction of Qing China's military system. The Beiyang Army played a major role in Chinese politics for at least three decades and arguably right up to 1949. It made the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 possible, and, by dividing into warlord factions known as the Beiyang Clique, ushered in a period of regional division.
WCai Rukai was a Chinese politician and educator of the late Qing dynasty and early Republican period.
WGeneral Cao Kun was a Chinese warlord and politician, who served the President of the Republic of China from 1923 to 1924, as well as the military leader of the Zhili clique in the Beiyang Army; he also served as a trustee of the Catholic University of Peking.
WChen Bingkun, ,(1868 – September 1927) was born in 1868 in Liujiang, Guangxi, China. A general in the late Qing Period, he was commander of the 1st Division of the Guangxi Provincial Army. As a supporter of the Old Guangxi Clique he became the military governor of Guangxi from 1916-17, civil governor of Guangxi in 1916 and military governor of Guangdong in 1917. With Lu Rongting he opposed the southern government led by Sun Yat-sen. In 1920 Chen Jiongming, acting for Sun Yat-sen, pushed them out of Guangdong in the First Ao-Gui War. In 1921 he invaded Guangxi, igniting the Second Ao-Gui War. Lu sent two wings of his army, one led by Tan Haoming and the other under Shen Hongying, into Guangdong where they drove back the Cantonese and occupied Qinzhou and Lianzhou. However, the center at Wuzhou, commanded by Chen Binghun, collapsed and Chen Jiongming drove up the rivers while allies came in from the north, forcing Lu Rongting to step down in July 1921. By August Chen had occupied Nanning, defeating the Old Guangxi clique and Chen Binghun. Chen died in September 1927.
WChen Yi was the chief executive and garrison commander of Taiwan Province after the Empire of Japan surrendered to the Republic of China. He acted on behalf of the Allied Powers to accept the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in Taipei Zhongshan Hall on October 25, 1945. He is considered to have mismanaged the tension between the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese which resulted in the February 28 Incident in 1947, and was dismissed. In June 1948 he was appointed Chairman of Zhejiang Province, but was dismissed and arrested when his plan to surrender to the Chinese Communist Party was discovered. He was sentenced to death and executed in Taipei in 1950.
WDuan Zhigui was a Chinese general. Born in Hefei, Anhui, he attained the post of Heilongjiang governor in the late Qing dynasty and between 1912-13 was governor of Chahar and the military governor of Hubei between 1914–15, as well as military and civil governor of Fengtian in 1915-16.
WFeng Guozhang, was a Chinese general and politician in early republican China. He held the office of Vice-President and then President of the Republic of China. He is considered the founder of the Zhili Clique of Warlords that vied for control of northern China during the chaotic Warlord era.
WFeng Yuxiang, courtesy name Huanzhang (焕章), was a warlord and a leader of the Republic of China from Chaohu, Anhui. He served as Vice Premier of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1930. He was also known as the "Christian General" for his zeal to convert his troops and the "Traitorous General" for his penchant to break with the establishment. In 1911 he was an officer in the ranks of Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army but joined forces with revolutionaries against the Qing dynasty. He rose to high rank within Wu Peifu's Zhili warlord faction but launched the Beijing Coup in 1924 that knocked Zhili out of power and brought Sun Yat-sen to Beijing. He joined the Nationalist Party (KMT), supported the Northern Expedition and became blood brothers with Chiang Kai-shek, but resisted Chiang's consolidation of power in the Central Plains War and broke with him again in resisting Japanese incursions in 1933. He spent his later years supporting the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang.
WJiang Guiti was a Chinese general who served under Song Qing in the suppression of the Taiping and Nian rebels and later against the Empire of Japan.
WJin Yunpeng ; IPA: [t͡ɕìn ýnpʰə́ŋ]; 1877 – 30 January 1951) was a Chinese general and politician of the Warlord Era of the Republic of China. He served as both Minister of War and then Premier of China several times.
WLi Chun was a Chinese general of the Warlord Era of the Republic of China.
WLi Yuanhong was a Chinese politician during the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China. He was the President of the Republic of China between 1916 and 1917, and between 1922 and 1923.
WLiu Xianshi was a Chinese general of the Late Qing dynasty and early Republican period. Initially supporting Yuan Shikai and his declaration of the Empire of China, Liu joined Cai E and Tang Jiyao a month after the start of the National Protection War in rebelling against Yuan.
WLiu Guanxiong was a Chinese Admiral from the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic of China who was Navy Minister of China, from 1912–1916 and 1917-1919. When he was young he entered the Navy College of Fuzhou and was sent abroad to Britain. He was named Minister of the Navy and Commander-in-Chief upon the founding of the Republic of China. He was also Minister of Education (1913) and Transportation Minister (1912). During Yuan Shikai's rule as Emperor in 1915 he was named a Duke. Liu turned to Duan Qirui soon after Yuan's death, but the Chinese fleet became fractured and split due to Duan's refusal to validate the abolished Constitution.
WLong Jiguang (龍濟光) (1867–1925) was an ethnic Hani Chinese general of the late Qing and early Republican period of China.
WLong Jinguang was an ethnic Hani Chinese general of the late Qing and early Republican period of China. He was the older brother of Chinese general Long Jiguang. Both brothers supported Yuan Shikai's restoration of the monarchy.
WLou Tseng-Tsiang or Lu Zhengxiang was a Chinese diplomat and a Roman Catholic monk. He was twice Premier of the Republic of China and led his country's delegation at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. He sometimes used the French name René Lou in earlier life, and his monastic name was Pierre-Célestin, O.S.B..
WLu Rongting, also spelled as Lu Yung-ting and Lu Jung-t'ing, was a late Qing/early Republican military and political leader from Wuming, Guangxi. Lu belonged to the Zhuang ethnic group.
WMa Anliang was a Hui born in Hezhou, Gansu, China. He became a general in the Qing dynasty army, and of the Republic of China. His father was Ma Zhan'ao, and his younger brothers were Ma Guoliang and Ma Suiliang 馬遂良. Ma was educated in Chinese and Islamic education. His Muslim name was Abdul Majid 阿卜都里默直底.
WMeng Enyuan (1856–1933) was a Chinese general of the late Qing and early Republican period in China. A native of Tianjin, in what was then the province of Zhili, Meng was commander of the Chinese army garrison in Jilin province before being forced out by Wu Junsheng and Zhang Zuolin. He later allied with Wu Peifu and the Zhili clique against Zhang's Fengtian clique in the First Zhili-Fengtian War.
WThe National Protection War, also known as the Anti-Monarchy War, was a civil war that took place in China between 1915 and 1916. Only three years earlier, the last orthodox Chinese dynasty, the Qing dynasty, had been overthrown and the Republic of China was established in its place. The cause of the war was the proclamation by Yuan Shikai, the President of the Republic, of himself as the Hongxian Emperor, Emperor of the Empire of China.
WNi Sichong, Duke of the First Rank (simplified Chinese: 倪嗣沖; traditional Chinese: 倪嗣衝; pinyin: Ní Sìchōng; Wade–Giles: Ni2 Si4-ch'ung1; IPA: [ní sìʈ͡ʂʰʊ̄ŋ]; 1868–1924) was a Chinese general. He was one of the handful of Beiyang generals who along with Yang Du and others supported Yuan Shikai's Empire of China during the National Protection War. He was later part of the Anhui clique until resigning in 1920 due to the disastrous defeat in the Zhili–Anhui War.
WQi Yaolin was a Chinese politician of the late Qing Dynasty and early period of the Republic of China. He was born in Jilin. He was the last Qing governor of Henan from December 1911 to February 1912. In March 1912, the new Republican government appointed him military governor of Henan. He supported Yuan Shikai's restoration of the monarchy in December 1915.
WZhu Qinglan, formerly transliterated as Chu Ching-lan courtesy name Ziqiao was a Chinese military officer of the Republic of China
WQu Yingguang, courtesy name Wenliu, was a Chinese politician active during the Republican period. Qu was born in Taizhou, Zhejiang province. A member of the Guangfuhui, Qu took the bringing the Xinhai Revolution to his native province, and took part in provincial politics shortly after. He supported Yuan Shikai's restoration of the monarchy and the Empire of China (1915–1916). After Yuan's death in 1916, he joined the Anhui clique and served in the Beiyang government. After the defeat the Anhui clique in the Zhili–Anhui War of 1920, Qu returned to his native Zhejiang. With the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Qu left the mainland for Taiwan, devoting the rest of his life to Buddhism. He died in Taiwan at the age of 90.
WTang Xiangming was a Chinese naval officer. Tang studied Naval warfare in France and the United Kingdom. In 1905, he joined the Chinese United League (Tongmenghui). In 1911, during the Wuchang Uprising, Tang, under the command of Admiral Sa Zhenbing, sailed to Hankou as part of the Qing Navy's assistance to the Qing Army operations in the area. In December 1915, he supported Yuan Shikai's creation of the Empire of China (1915–1916). After Yuan's death, he supported the Zhili clique until their defeat by the Fengtian clique in the Second Zhili–Fengtian War in 1924. In 1930, he supported Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan in opposing Chiang Kai-shek. In 1933, he became a member of the China Democratic Socialist Party. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he went to Chongqing. After the end of the Chinese Civil War, he stayed on the mainland and died in Beijing at the age of 90. He was the younger brother of Tang Hualong.
WTang Jiyao was a Chinese general and warlord of Yunnan during the Warlord Era of early Republican China. He was military governor of Yunnan from 1913-27.
WTian Wenlie was a Chinese politician of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period, military governor of Henan province and supporter of Yuan Shikai's restoration of the monarchy. He was born in Hanyang, Hubei and died in Beijing.
WWang Zhanyuan was a Chinese general of the Warlord Era of China's Republican period, whose power base was in Hubei province.
WWang Yitang was a politician and military leader in the Qing Dynasty and Republic of China. He belonged to the Anhui clique and formed the Anfu Club (安福俱樂部). Later he became an important politician in the Provisional Government of the Republic of China and the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China. His former name was Zhiyang (志洋) and his courtesy names were Shenwu (慎吾) and Shengong (什公). Later, his name was changed to Geng (賡) while his courtesy name was changed to Yitang (一堂). He was also known by his art name Yitang (揖唐). He was born in Hefei, Anhui.
WXu Shiying was a Chinese Kuomintang politician who served as Premier of the Republic of China from December 26, 1925 to March 4, 1926. He is known as a staunch believer in the rule of law and Western-style legal tenets. Xu contributed to the modernization of the judicial system in China and for initiating prison reform during the presidency of Yuan Shikai.
WYang Zengxin was the ruler of Xinjiang after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 until his assassination in 1928.
WYan Xishan was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China. He effectively controlled the province of Shanxi from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution to the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. As the leader of a relatively small, poor, remote province, he survived the machinations of Yuan Shikai, the Warlord Era, the Nationalist Era, the Japanese invasion of China and the subsequent civil war, being forced from office only when the Nationalist armies with which he was aligned had completely lost control of the Chinese mainland, isolating Shanxi from any source of economic or military supply. He has been viewed by Western biographers as a transitional figure who advocated using Western technology to protect Chinese traditions, while at the same time reforming older political, social and economic conditions in a way that paved the way for the radical changes that would occur after his rule.
WYuán Kèdìng, courtesy name Yuntai (云台), was the eldest son of Yuan Shikai. His mother was Yuan's first wife, Yu (于氏), and Yuan Kewen was his younger brother.
WYuan Shikai 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 the Empire of China (1915–1916). 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 in 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. This army and bureaucratic control were the foundation of his autocratic rule. He was frustrated in a short-lived attempt to restore hereditary monarchy in China, with himself as the Hongxian Emperor. His death 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.
WZhang Mingqi was a Qing Dynasty politician who served as the last Viceroy of Liangguang from April 14 to November 8, 1911. He was born in Shandong province. He supported Yuan Shikai's creation of the Empire of China. Afterwards, he fled to the French concession in Shanghai.
WZhang Xiluan (1843–1922) was a Chinese general of the late Qing Dynasty.
WZhang Guangjian was a Chinese politician of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period. A native of Hefei, Anhui, he was the last Qing governor of Shandong, serving after the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in the province until the establishment of the Republic of China. Under the Beiyang government, he served as military governor of Shandong and later in the province of Gansu. Zhang was supported by the Jahriyya Sufi Hui Muslim leader Ma Yuanzhang, while being opposed by Hui Muslim General Ma Fuxiang, with Ma Fuxiang basing his opposition to Zhang's governorship in Gansu on the fact that he was not a native of the province. Zhang enacted a monopoly over the wool trade in Gansu and started collecting taxes on it.
WZhang Huaizhi was a brigade-general during the Boxer Rebellion; a warlord in the early Chinese Republic; Viceroy of Shandong. He was eliminated in the Second Zhili–Fengtian War.
WZhang Xun, courtesy name Shaoxuan (少軒), art name Songshoulaoren (松壽老人), nickname Bianshuai was a Qing and Republic of China's loyalist general who attempted to restore the abdicated emperor Puyi in the Manchu Restoration of 1917. He also supported Yuan Shikai during his time as president.
WZhao Ti (1871–1933) was a Chinese general of the late Qing and early Republican period of China. In 1920, he was military governor of Henan.
WZhu Jiabao was a Chinese monarchist politician who supported the creation of the Empire of China and the 1917 Manchu Restoration of Zhang Xun. He was born in Ningzhou Town, Huaning County, Yunnan. In 1907, he was appointed Governor of Jilin Province and the next year, he became Governor of Anhui Province, a post he held until the Xinhai Revolution.