Yuan Shikai Tried to become the Hongxian Emperor

Most of China Revolted against the new Emperor

In 1913, Yuan Shikai was riding high.  He had disbanded the KMT opposition.  The remaining members of Congress had taken three ballots but had elected Yuan President of China.  He was able to appoint his men to offices throughout the country.  The 1913 Revolution in China had been defeated with ease, within 2 months.  Yuan now had the power to bring about his preferred agenda: centralism, order, peace and prosperity.

After Yuan Shikai’s election as President by Congress in 1913, he chose to take office, not at Congress in Nanjing, but in the former Imperial Palace.  He wore a marshal’s uniform and not a civilian suit or Chinese ceremonial robe.  He sat on the former imperial throne to receive well wishers.  In a speech, he warned against the mob.  Then he stood on the Tiananmen Rostrum, the famous building where Mao Zedong later proclaimed the People’s Republic of China and where today, Mao’s image can be found looking down on all visitors.  That is where Yuan stood and watched 20,000 soldiers march by in formation.  By comparison, in 2019, on the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, Xi Jinping reviewed 15,000 soldiers there, plus 168 aircraft and other weapons.

Dissolving the KMT was not enough for Yuan.  In January 1914, he dissolved Congress too.  He said he needed to do so because it lacked enough members to have votes and was not effective. Of course, he was the one who had prohibited the elected members of China’s then most popular political party from sitting in Congress.  He promised to come up with a better legislative system.  But by the time of his death in 1916, he had not done so.  Yuan removed electoral politics from his “Republic of China”, while blaming Congress for China’s ills.

Yuan did appoint an advisory board, with representatives from each province, selected by himself.  Yuan made all decisions, but the board provided him with some political cover. For instance, it had recommended dissolving Congress. Then it formed a Constitutional Drafting Conference, that eventually recommended that China have an Emperor.  Then, that body insisted that Yuan Shikai was the only man who could be that Chinese Emperor.  But that was still to come.

For now, he re-organized government with himself at the top and no separation between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.  He replaced magistrates who handled lower seriousness court cases. 

Yuan did want to eliminate corruption in government and he did accomplish a more streamlined and effective bureaucracy, and one where corruption was punished.  In this regard, it is reminiscent of the anti-corruption drives of the Chinese Communist Party during the last 10 years.  Also, Yuan Shikai ordered administrators to hang political slogans in their offices and in 1915 warned officials about the “four avoidances”: laziness, nepotism, luxuries and gambling.  He also stressed the need to take care of the people, instead of tormenting them during inspections by expecting provisions from them.  This is perhaps like point 8 of Xi Jinping Thought, through which today China’s leader tells his administrators that “Improving people's livelihood and well-being is the primary goal of development”.

Ultimately, Yuan was the judge of what was good government.  The country and its people could not decide that for themselves.

In December 1914, the Law of Presidential Election was passed, setting a Presidential term at 10 years.  Presidents could run for re-election, indefinitely.  It was therefore possible for Yuan to rule for life.  Technically, an election committee voted on who would be President.  But he appointed all the members of that committee.  That is not terribly different than today’s leader in Beijing who since 2018 has no longer been subject to term limits.

More and more, Yuan Shikai’s power rested on the military who had defeated the 1913 Revolution for him.  Some Chinese provinces were beyond his control.  He allowed Yan Xishan to run Shanxi province, but Yuan did not control him.  Southern China also had some autonomy from his leadership.

Yuan’s serious challengers were foreign powers.  The 1911 Revolution had changed China’s dynamic with Outer Mongolia (today’s Mongolia) and with Tibet.  

The Mongol nobles had considerable autonomy and power during the Qing Dynasty.  Once that dynasty ended, they declared independence.   Yuan wanted the Republic of China to have the same boundaries as Qing China only a few years before.  Mongols attacked from Outer to Inner Mongolia and Yuan sent troops to repel them.  Negotiations then took place from September 1914 to June 1915 in Russia. Russia preferred Mongolian autonomy and eventually wanted Mongolia to become part of its orbit, rather than China’s.  The end result of the negotiations is that Outer Mongolia agreed (for now) that it was part of China, but gained considerably autonomy and China agreed to station only a few hundred guards for its commissioner.  Its actual independence came later in 1921.

Tibet declared independence from China in 1912.  Yuan sent an army to intervene, but Great Britain halted it.  With Tibet close to Nepal and British controlled India, the British wanted more control or influence on this mountainous region on the north side of the Himalaya mountains.  Yuan wanted the territory, but was prepared to grant autonomy and to defer to the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leadership.  From October 1913 to July 1914, there was a conference in India. 

Great Britain proposed dividing Tibet in two.  An Outer Tibet with Lhasa as its capital, would have its own government but for a tributary of China.  Inner Tibet would be controlled by China.  Yuan rejected this and insisted that all of Tibet was part of China.  The end result seems to have been that China considered Tibet part of China and the Tibetans were really in charge, especially in the more remote parts.

The First World War created the most challenging foreign relations for Yuan.  He declared China to be neutral in the war and provided financial assistance to overseas Chinese, especially those in southeast Asia who were forced to return home.

Once war was declared in the summer of 1914, Japan which was in the war on the side of Great Britain, France and Russia, seized German holdings in Shandong province, including the port city of Qingdao.  China, of course, wanted those lands to be returned to Chinese control now that the Germans had left.  Japan had other ideas.  It was keen on expanding in East Asia, including in Chinese territory.

In 1915, Japan issued Twenty-One Demands on China.  The demands were intolerable and fell into 5 parts.  The first would require China to accept Japan taking over all of Germany’s interests in Shandong.  The second was for China to grant Japan privileges in Manchuria and in Inner Mongolia.  The third was that the Hanyeping Company and surrounding mines would come under Japanese control.  It was China’s only manufacturer of steel rails at the time.  Its products were important for railway construction in China and its operations were said to be the largest in East Asia.  Group four would give Japan a veto over any transfers to a third country of coastal areas or islands.  The fifth group demanded special privileges to Japan in multiple areas of China and in the economy, including the hiring of Japanese political, financial and military advisors and making the police forces and military joint ventures with Japan.  Japan would also have a veto on foreign investment in infrastructure in Fujian province.  In short, Japan was trying to bully China into accepting a form of Japanese takeover while the other imperial powers were fighting in Europe.

Yuan Shikai did not accept them meekly.  He denied Japan requests that the demands be kept confidential and published the news both in China and internationally.  By doing so, he tried to get international support for China and to arouse Chinese nationalism at home.  He also stalled for time by changing his foreign minister to one who was slow and polite.  His tea drinking ceremonies alone took up so much time that he infuriated the Japanese.

The foreign powers were too occupied by the First World War to resist Japan strongly, although they did not want Japan to control China.  But Yuan was able to negotiate important changes to the document.  For instance, in the wording of Group four, the language was changed from transfers to a third country to transfers to any country.  This removed any special status for Japan and changed the meaning to one that said that China would not lease or transfer lands to any other country...period.  That was a sentence he could live with.    He did not want another war with Japan, but through careful work on the language, he was able to soften its impacts on China considerably.

In May 1915, Japan issued an ultimatum to sign an agreement within 48 hours or else.  The revised document was signed rather than risk war.  The 5^th section, requiring Japanese advisors was dropped and other parts softened.  But it was still humiliating, both for China and for Yuan Shikai.

This probably more than anything else to that time, undermined domestic support for Yuan.  He had dictatorial powers and had replaced early democratic institutions with a militarized government.  But what Chinese expected from a strongman was strength.  When he showed weakness faced with Japanese demands and refused calls by nationalists to reject Japan, he undermined his appeal. Was he really any stronger than the Qing had been?  Was China?

Yuan Shikai continued his reforms to improve China’s economy.  He worked to increase the status of merchants, who had been at the lowest social level during the imperial dynasties.   Yuan was critical that everyone wanted to be a government official.  Yuan wanted to make official positions more difficult to enter and enterprise careers easier to start.  He eased administrative hurdles and encouraged foreign capital into China’s industrial sector.  China’s first aviation school was established in 1913.  His government brought in the National Currency Act to replace the hodgepodge of different coins and bills circulating.  New silver coins were minted so that there was only one currency.  Online today you can find Yuan’s Big Head on silver coins from this period. 

Until late 1915, Yuan Shikai always denied that he wanted to be a monarch.  He defended the republican system, even if he didn’t think China was ready for it. He sometimes criticized people who promoted a monarchy.  So why did Yuan reverse himself later and become Emperor when he had always denied such an ambition?

Shikai’s eldest son Yuan Keding had pushed for his father to become Emperor.  This is the same son who historians have blamed for the Beijing Mutiny by Beiyang troops that helped his father avoid having to leave Beijing for Nanjing as the revolutionaries had demanded.  Of course, Keding might have hoped to succeed his father as emperor if a new dynasty was launched.  But his maneuvers ended up ruining his father. 

Keding created fake copies of the newspaper his father liked to read.  In those versions, he put in pro monarchy articles and created the impression of public support and positive international opinion towards a new monarchy.

In truth, before a new monarchy was proposed, foreign powers were ambivalent on the question.  At this time, they cared more about stability and trade relations than they did on the exact form of Chinese government.  They had been neutral during the 1911 Revolution when the Qing Empire and the republican revolutionaries fought it out. 

Inside China, the so-called Six Gentlemen pushed for a constitutional monarchy to replace republicanism.  Five of the six were former revolutionaries.  So, there was some support in China towards moving to a constitutional monarchy.  Yuan Shikai allowed their group to organize and to publish their opinions but continued to publicly disagree with any call for a monarchy.

Then Yuan’s Minister of Communications joined the cause, perhaps pushed by Shikai’s son.  Now a wellspring of petitions started bombarding the government with calls for a constitutional monarchy.  This helped create the impression that a new monarchy would be popular. 

In October 1915, Yuan Shikai approved an order that the National Representative Assembly make the final decision on China’s form of government.  The election to that Assembly was carefully choreographed by Yuan’s team.  An approved list of candidates was created.  Opposition to the movement was disqualifying.  Secret telegrams were sent to provincial officials who administered the election.  All delegates received a large $500 travel expense allowance.  I’m unable to find out exactly how much that would have bought in China at the time.  But it seems like far more than their real travel expenses.  So, it was at least partially a payoff for supporting the monarchy.  After this choreographed election, all delegates unanimously endorsed a constitutional monarchy with Yuan as emperor of the Chinese empire.  They begged him to accept immediately.  He declined and asked them to find another.  They then came back to him with a second request, outlining his great accomplishments and saying that he was indispensable.  

They said he had built the first modern army, had suppressed the Boxer Rebellion, had brought in progressive reforms, had achieved post-revolutionary conciliation, defeated the Second Revolution and conducted international diplomacy.  They also said that since the people preferred a constitutional monarchy, Yuan’s previous pledges to respect the republic were dissolved.  Under this “pressure”, Yuan accepted in mid-December 1915.  The monarchy took the name Grand Constitutional Monarchy.

It seemed like Yuan Shikai had gotten his original desire after all.  He had wanted a constitutional monarchy back in 1911 when he began negotiations with the revolutionaries.  Now after a tactical acceptance of a republic to gain power, he had achieved the top and now bended the republic’s institutions to his will.

Yuan Shikai announced that reforms would continue under his term as emperor.  Education was important.  The opium trade was banned.  He abolished the eunuch system.  He wanted to continue to lead as he had before, but with a new title.  He also offered noble titles to a variety of prominent Chinese. 

But before the new imperial system could get established, it faced opposition.  Feng Guozhang, future warlord, was a follower of Yuan.  He had come up in the Beiyang military system.  When the 1911 Revolution began, he was ordered by the Qing to take Wuhan, but he delayed until Yuan Shikai was brought back from retirement.  He was the commander of the troops who took the north shore of the Yangtze and who torched a neighbourhood.  Then on Yuan’s orders, he stopped further attacks while negotiations took place.  In January 1915, almost a year before Yuan became emperor, Feng travelled to see Yuan to advise him to squash the rumour that he wanted to be emperor.  When Yuan did become emperor, Feng became hostile. 

Similarly, Duan Qirui, another future warlord, had been an artillery commander under Yuan Shikai.  His military career started before Yuan’s and Earl Li had sent him to Germany for training before Yuan’s military reforms.  Duan warned Yuan not to “become a historical villain” by becoming emperor.  Yuan did not appreciate that advice and Duan was the only high-ranking general that Yuan did not give a noble title to.  Yuan did assign Duan a cook, but he made sure not to eat the food because he was afraid of poison.

Sun Yat-sen called for a Third Revolution.  He said Yuan had become a national thief, stealing the motherland from the whole Chinese people.  Sun’s followers seized parts of Shandong and Guangdong provinces.

Others joined in.  Liang Qichao, the former student of Kang Youwei, had advocated for a constitutional monarchy during the end of the Qing Empire.  He had moved on with the republic and now was a strong opponent of Yuan’s monarchy.  Liang was quick to publish a pamphlet opposing the Yuan monarchy.  He wrote privately to Yuan Shikai while he was still President, urging him not to try to become a monarch.  Liang’s disciple Cai E was important in a rebellion by military commanders in southwest China.

Liang travelled from north China to Hong Kong, then to Vietnam and finally over the border back into Yunnan province to support the rebellion there.  It called itself the Protect the Nation Army.  Liang became part of an independent government in southwest China and Yuan blamed him for the defeat of the monarchy project.

The foreign powers also want from ambivalent to hostile once they saw the negative reaction to Yuan as Emperor.  They wanted stability, peace and trade and insurrections and civil war were not what they wanted.  Officially, the European powers were neutral.  But the lack of support for Yuan was telling.  They had given him a vital loan before the 1913 Revolution and negotiated with him rather than with congress in Nanjing then.  Now, they offered him no support. 

Japan became hostile to the project and sensed a chance to attack Yuan.  Yuan was not loved in Japan, since he had been its consistent opponent, going back to his days as Imperial Commissioner in Korea.  Japan now accused him of disturbing order in East Asia.  That entitled them to send Japanese troops to China.  Japan sent weapons and supplies to those opposing Yuan.  That included Sun Yat-sen and Cai E in southwest China.  Interesting, it now also included Beiyang generals Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, who I mentioned.  Now for the first time, Beiyang commanders were arming independently and in opposition to each other.  It started here with opposition to Yuan’s monarchy.  But it would continue during the upcoming Warlord Period.  Japan supported this conflict by arming generals against the central government in Beijing. 

The rebellion against Yuan had a de-centralizing effect.  The end of the Qing and start of the Chinese republic had de-centralizing trends as the old institutions ended and Han Chinese officials took power and were able to govern in their home provinces where they had a local power base.  Yuan had been centralizing power as much as he could in Beijing.  But in the republic, much more so than during the Qing Dynasty, there was an increase in trends towards provincialism and regionalism.  Now opposition to Yuan strengthened that trend.  Provinces and regions declared independence.  To buy support, Yuan cancelled his previous policy of separating civil and military administration.  Now he allowed military governors to supervise civilian administration in the hopes they would support him.

The Protect the Nation Army was organized by December 1915 once it was clear that the monarchy project was gathering stream.  Cai sent a telegraph to Yuan in December 1915 to punish the monarchists and setting a one-day deadline. When that demand was not met and Yuan became emperor, Yunnan declared independence on December 25, 1915.  Cai then led an army group that invaded Sichuan province, while another commander of the second army group invaded Guangxi and Hunan provinces.  On January 1^st, 1916, they issued a proclamation alleging 20 crimes by Yuan Shikai, calling him a national thief and demanding the return of the republic.

Their forces were never large, but it was a real threat and immediately showed that there was no national consensus to end the republic for a new constitutional monarchy.

Yuan countered by stripping the rebels of titles and branding them as traitors.  Yuan ordered a military expedition against Yunnan by three routes, which if successful would have defeated the insurrection and invasions of neighbouring provinces.  Cai’s troops took Xuzhou, in Sichuan, in January but lost it in March.  But then the war became a “war of tongues” with each side using newspapers, telegraph messages and pamphlets to attack the other side. 

Yuan had more troops, but they were from the north and less acclimatized to this southwest region.  They also suffered from poor morale, probably because the soldiers did not believe in their boss’ cause.

Feng Yuxiang (not the same Feng as the one who opposed Yuan) was the future Christian warlord.  He secured Xuzhou for Yuan in March 1916 and was rewarded and praised.  But then Guangxi declared independence, creating a new setback for Yuan.  Yuan’s top generals sent a secret telegram to provincial leaders urging them to convince Yuan to relinquish the title of emperor.  That stunned him, who came to believe he was doomed.

On March 21, 1916, Yuan met with his highest-ranking officials.  Yuan proposed relinquishing the emperorship and only one official suggested soldiering on.  Yuan announced the next day that he was stepping down as emperor.  He said he had accepted it for “national salvation” and would return to the presidency.  He proclaimed the end of the constitutional dynasty.  It had lasted for 83 days, but he was never crowned.

But his retreat to the presidency only further enraged his opponents. They weren’t going to accept things as they had been when Yuan was dictator.  They wanted him completely removed from power.

Three southwestern provinces responded with conditions for solving the national problem.  One of them was that Yuan end his roles and leave China for exile.  Yuan and his descendants were to be stripped of citizenship and Shikai and other monarchists property was to be confiscated.  Certain proponents of the monarchy should be put to death. Yuan did not accept, so the provinces accused Yuan of treason and called on congress to punish him by law.

By May 1916, most of southern China had declared independence from this “illegal ruler”.  Li Yuanhong was their preferred candidate for the presidency.  He had been the military commander who had sided with the revolutionaries in 1911 during the Wuchang Uprising and formed the first revolutionary government.  He was allied with Liang Qichao who had strongly opposed Yuan’s monarchy. 

Yuan’s aura had been broken and people now openly made fun of him.  One commentator encouraged him to go overseas and to take the opportunity to investigate foreign politics and their constitutions.  Perhaps upon his return, he might be re-elected President, the writer added sarcastically.

Yuan responded with military orders to annihilate the rebels.  But privately he blamed himself for this disaster and began thinking of his replacement.  He was furious at all those who had turned on him.  Interestingly, Yuan was most furious at Feng Guozhang who had warned Yuan well in advance to not become a monarch.  This Feng had been consistent in opposing the monarchy.  Even so, Yuan Shikai still hated him profoundly because Feng had opposed him openly and publicly.  Yuan hated him for undermining his support and strength.

Liang Qichao helped to organize an alternative government in May 1916 in Guangdong with Li Yuanhong as President.  While there was no room for Yuan in the future government, on other points they were open to negotiation and reconciliation. 

The nerve racking and stressful situation was then helped when Yuan Shikai died on June 6, 1916.  His health had never been great and all male members of his family had died prematurely. He was out of shape and ate too much.  The stress and isolation at the top seems to have worsened his health.  His daughter reported that even as his health deteriorated in May, 1916, Yuan refused to stop being a workaholic.  Yuan saw the end coming and called three officials to his bedside.  He took responsibility for the wrong decision to become emperor and blamed others for badly advising him.  He said that Li Yuanhong should be the next president and ordered them to submit to him.  That was a wise final decision as it brought both the government and the rebels together in a choice of president and opened the door for reconciliation.  Yuan Shikai then died, aged 56.

Li assumed the presidency and ordered a state funeral for Yuan.  It praised his role in the 1911 Revolution and for his industrious spirit, without mentioning his desire to be emperor.  Both public and private funds then paid for an elaborate mourning ceremony at the Presidential Palace.  The Beijing-Hankou railway line stopped public service for a day to allow the casket to be transported.  A 20-acre cemetery was built for him and the mausoleum took two years to build in the Ming royal style.  It is elaborate and artistic and has survived to this day.  Mao Zedong visited it in 1952 and declined to have it demolished. Instead, he decided it should survive as a “useful, negative sample to educate future generations”. I’ve posted some pictures of it on our website.

The provinces rescinded their independence and returned to the Republic of China under Li Yuanhong as President.  Opposition to Beijing stopped, although hostility to the late Yuan Shikai and his imperial project continued.  He died a villain and remained a villain for most scholars since then.  Why then had he gone down this path by becoming Emperor?

With the passage of time, some have seen his legacy as complicated.  His early positions and reforms have been viewed more positively than his consolidation of power as dictator and attempt to become an emperor.

One thing was unclear.  The provinces and regions might have rescinded their declarations of independence.  But the country had cracked.  Could it be made whole? 

Please join us again to find out what happened in China after Yuan Shikai’s death.