Investigation 2 – How Successful Was Yuan Shakai’s Leadership?
T.O.K. Discussion Point – ’History, among other – and more important things – is the record of the crimes and follies of
mankind’ Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes 1994. To what extent do you think History is this?
Background information
Yuan Shikai was born in 1859 in Henan province. He did not sit the state examinations, but purchased his title of minor official in
880. He served in a number of military posts; the most important was in Korea. He had been dispatched there in 1882 to prevent
Japanese encroachment. He was made the Chinese Commissioner in Seoul in 1885, and was further rewarded in 1885 by the
Empress Dowager Cixi with the task of modernising the New Army. He established a strong nucleus of military protégés under
his command and took care to cultivate the personal loyalty of his officers. He built the Beiyang Army into China’s finest fighting
force. His troops had gained recognition for assisting the western armies to put down the Boxer Rebellion. Later as governorgeneral of the Hunan-Hebei district. Yuan strengthened his regions with reform in self-government and education.
As imperial commissioner in charge of all the armed forces his troops fought the revolutionaries and recaptured Hankou and
Hanyang. They also threatened the revolutionary troops across the river at Wuchang. Yuan had been appointed premier by the
Qing government and had been entrusted with the task of saving the dynasty. In evaluating the revolutionary situation Yuan
decided that he had more to benefit from the offer made by the revolutionaries to obtain the emperor’s abdication. In return
for this he was to be given the presidency of the republic. This happened in February 1912. Foreign powers saw Yuan as a strong
man, and were prepared to support his government. Yuan became emperor on 1 January 1916, but due to increased pressure as
more provinces declared their independence from Beijing rule, he abolished his reign by decree on 22 March 1916. On 6 June
1916, Yuan Shikai died of kidney failure at the age of 56, a man deserted by his friends and condemned by public opinion as a
traitor to the republic.
Why?
After Yuan’s death Sun Yatsen established a government in Guangzhou. Yuan’s official successor in Beijing was Li Yuan-hung.
Yuan had provided a semblance of legitimate authority at national provincial levels through the strength of his military power,
which disintegrated after his death. This resulted in China being subjected to a period of domination by various provincial
warlords who had risen through the ranks of the Beiyang Army. These warlords organised their own small armies and exploited
and terrorised the population in the areas under their control. As the centralised authority – a strong political feature of China
oer the centuries collapsed – chaos and anarchy reigned.
Investigation 2 – How Successful was Yuan Skikai’s Leadership
A Paper 1
Source A
Han Suyin, The Crippled Tree p.258
Yuan Shakai had no illusions, nourished no dreams of peace and justice. He was of the size of his backers, unscrupulous,
dishonest, entirely concerned with his own aggrandisement. For them, he was the ideal ruthless strongman. Not only George
Morrison, but an American Missionary named Goodnow, diligently toiled to assure him a favourable image in the West.
For the sake of unity, Sun early offered to resign and give his own position of President to Yuan. A gesture in keeping with his
idealistic character, placing all men on the same lofty plane as himself. Yuan’s personal ambitions satisfied, Sun felt he might
work for the good of the people. Sun thought that a democratically convened cabinet, a National Assembly, universal franchise,
would be safeguards against attempts by Yuan to become dictator. For was it not sufficient in democratic England, in America?
Di not the rulers there heed the voice of their peoples in elected parliaments? Sun had little notion of the actual basis of power,
even in a democracy, and he certainly did not understand economics, or the role of finance in politics. He was soon to learn, at
his cost. He had not dreamed that Yuan would pack the National Assembly, would fake votes, would get a soldier with a gun to
stand behind every representative so as to assure himself a favourable yes…..
Source B
‘China Reconstructs’, cited in D. Richards and N. Hoddinot, ‘Twentieth Century China’, p.36
His personal rule, his unscrupulous advancement to power, with the incidental corruption and cold-blooded executions that
marked it, and his bitter personal feeling against all political opponents – these were not qualities that make for stable
parliamentary government.
Source C
Han Suyin, The Crippled Tree p.259
Yuan Shakai had thus broken China’s first attempt at democratic government, with the help of the democracies. From the
Banking Consortium money came pouring in to his pocket, solid silver, to consolidate his power.
Everything in China was now to be mortgaged, held as security; not only the customs revenues, the likin (provincial transit duty),
the salt taxes but also the mines, the railways, the ports and their installations…….. The Consortium Loan now resulted in a
fundamental change in the customs service, the foreign diplomats becoming openly trustees of all revenue, releasing to the
government, only the surplus after payment of the loan interests.
Source D
‘The Gate of Heavenly Peace’, J. Spence p.133
As Yuan grew ever more desperate for money, their (Japanese) demands grew harsher. Finally, on May 7 th 1915, in the so-called
Twenty-One Demands, Japan pushed for further special economic privileges in Manchuria, Shandong Province, and Yangtze
Valley, for the right to lease agricultural lands in Manchuria and reside there with extra-territorial legal status, and for
permission to station Japanese police on Chinese soil. Despite Chinese outrage, and a well organised attempt to water down the
demands Yuan had to yield to Japanese pressure; paradoxically the episode made him more than ever determined to increase
the power of the Chinese State by re-establishing the monarchy with himself as ruler.
Source E
From the Declaration of the First National Congress of the Guomindang 1924
The warlords have now become so arrogant and so unprincipled that like knives and swords hacking cattle and fish they hack the
people to pieces. No political democracy worth mentioning has as yet existed; the warlords conspire with foreign imperialists,
and the so-called republican governments, controlled by the warlords, abuse the authority of government to serve the pleasure
of foreign powers. In return, the foreign powers, by lending the warlords funds to finance unremitting civil war in China, obtain
special privileges and secure the spheres of influence…..
Source F
Milston, A Short History of China, p.291
A general had merely to bring his army to the walls of a city and demand money, men, food, supplies carts and animals by a
particular time. If the demands were not met artillery destroyed the walls or city gates and armies looted the town. Civilian
authorities tried to keep on good terms with the military, meeting their demands by passing the requisitions down to those who
had no means of resistance. Again it was the peasants who had to pay. Ultimately the destitute peasants had to join the warlord
armies themselves to survive by looting someone else.
Thus an ascending spiral of militarism developed alongside a descending spiral of productivity. The result was wide-scale
destitution in all those areas where warlord armies were most active…….. the warlords were not all evil men solely interested in
wealth and power and prepared to use any kind of brutal force to get it. Some genuinely wanted reform but were obliged to tax
heavily and spend money on armaments rather than social needs to protect their territory from predatory neighbours.
TASK 1
Paper 1 Style Questions.
1a Why, according to Source A, did Sun resign his position of President to Yuan? (3)
1b There is no 1b question relating to these sources.
2 Compare and Contrast the views expressed in Sources C & D on Yuan’s dealings with foreign powers and their consequences
for China. (6)
3. With reference to their origin and purpose assess the value and limitations of Sources E and F to an historian studying the
impact of Warlordism on the Chinese people. (6)
4. ‘’Yuan betrayed the Revolutionaries of 1911 whose main aims were to eliminate the Manchus and replace
Authoritarian rule with a Republic’’ Using all the sources and your own knowledge explain whether or not you agree
with this statement. (8)
TASK 2
Examine maps showing the Warlord divide of China. You could compare this to modern warlords in Iran!
TASK 3
Trump Cards!
History should be fun! There’s certainly plenty of interesting people to learn about. ‘Top Trumps’ is a game which should help
you learn about the people of this study in a fun way. ‘Top Trumps’ was popular in the UK in the 70s and 80s especially when
the cards contained images of famous footballers. On each card a footballer’s stats would be listed. The people playing Top
Trumps each hold half of a set of cards. The object of the game is to collect the entire pack of cards. Without seeing the card
on the top of your opponent’s pile you look at your own cards and the stats of the individual on your top card. The statistics
will be divided into categories. The same categories are on each card. Some individuals will be stronger in some categories
than others. Whatever their strength (and there’s usually one) you need to use it. So you say the strength of your individual in
whichever category you’ve chosen to reveal and if you’ve a higher ‘strength number’ than your opponent you get to take
their card! Put their card and the one you just played with to the back of your cards and start again.
Those are the rules but you need to make the cards first!
Step 1. You are going to make Chinese History Trumps. As a class brain-storm personal qualities that could be used as
categories to separate the different figures you are learning about in this chapter of history. For example, popularity,
ruthlessness ect.
Step 2. List the individuals you’ve learnt about so far in a table against 5 or 6 of the categories that emerged from your brainstorm.
Step 3. Choose a range for your ‘strength numbers’. You might for example score popularity on a scale from 0 to 500.
Step 4. Find the highest scoring and lowest scoring individuals in each category. As a class work on the scores to give them
and then choose relative scores for the other individuals.
Step 5. Design your cards on a computer. Your teacher might have examples to show you. You need an image and a list of
statistics on each card.
Step 6. Print and Play!