Yuan Shih-Kai
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
President of the Republic of China; born in Honan province. He entered the army after failing in his examinations on the Chinese classics and went to Korea, where he rose rapidly in the Chinese service, becoming a protégé of Li Hung Chang, who in 1883 had him appointed Director General of Trade and International Relations. Commanding the Chinese troops, he secured for the Chinese Government the domination of Korea and its em- Following the Chino-Japanese peror. war of 1894-1895, which substituted Japanese for Chinese control in Korea, Yuan became Judicial Commissioner of Pechili province. He exposed d the plot of 1898 which was aimed at the Empress Dowager Tze Hsi, but which resulted in the deposition of Emperor Kwang-sii, and of her return to power. As Governor of the Shantung province he pacified in 1899 the Boxer rebellion and became Acting Viceroy of the Pechili province in 1901. In 1903 he undertook the work of reorganizing the army and in 1907 became president of the Wai Wu Pu, the Chinese foreign office. When the infant Hsuan-tung succeeded in 1908, Prince Chun, his father and regent retired Yuan, but in 1911, on the fall of the Manchu dynasty, he became Commander-in-Chief and Premier. Following the revolution of 1911-1912 he was proclaimed "Fully Empowered Organizer of the Republic of China," being elected President, Oct. 6, 1913, for a five-year term. He expelled the southern senators and deputies from parliament, and on Jan. 10, 1914, dismissed the parliament, created an Advisory Council, with members appointed by himself, and restored the worship of Heaven and Confucius. Japanese demands resulted in a general sentiment for a return of a centralized monarchial government, and Yuan prepared for inauguration as emperor, but a revolt in the south postponed the Before the plans could be ceremony. further carried out he died, June 6, 1916, and the Republic of China continued.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote this in 1921, only five years after Yuan's death, and treated it as a closed episode: the emperor-making failed, he died on 6 June 1916, "and the Republic of China continued." In fact his death removed the one man holding the new state together, and China broke into a dozen warlord fiefdoms until Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition nominally reunified the country in 1928. Historians also read the monarchy differently: where Collier's blamed Japanese pressure (the Twenty-One Demands of 1915) for creating "a general sentiment for a return of a centralized monarchial government," the enthronement of December 1915 is now seen as Yuan's own project, abandoned after eighty-three days. In both mainland and Taiwanese textbooks he became the standard villain of the republic, though scholars since the 1960s have argued for a more mixed verdict on him as an army modernizer and administrator.
Written for this edition, 2026.