China

Beiyang government and warlords Monarchy and royalism 1854–1923 ○ Natural death

Qing loyalist general who never cut his queue, the “Queue General” who restored Puyi in 1917

From Fengxin in Jiangxi, he escorted the Empress Dowager Cixi during the Boxer crisis of 1900 and became a Beiyang Army general under Yuan Shikai. In 1911 he fought the revolutionaries for the Qing at Nanjing, and as a general of the Republic he refused to cut his queue as a sign of loyalty to the Qing. In the Second Revolution of 1913 he took Nanjing from the Kuomintang forces and let his troops loot the city, yet Yuan made him a field marshal. Summoned in 1917 to mediate between President Li Yuanhong and Premier Duan Qirui, he entered Beijing, forced the dissolution of parliament and on 1 July proclaimed Puyi’s restoration together with Kang Youwei and others. The restoration collapsed after twelve days before Duan’s republican troops, and he took refuge in the Dutch legation and left politics.

Independent activity Monarchy and royalism 1858–1927 ○ Natural death

Reform thinker behind the Hundred Days’ Reform who clung to constitutional monarchy after the Republic was founded

From a scholarly family of Nanhai in Guangdong, he argued for institutional reform in works that read Confucius as a reformer of institutions. In 1898 he won the trust of the young Guangxu Emperor and led the Hundred Days’ Reform, but fled abroad when Cixi’s coup reversed it. In exile he and Liang Qichao founded the Emperor Protection Society to restore the Guangxu Emperor and establish constitutional monarchy, opposing Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionaries among the overseas Chinese. He opposed the republic after 1911 and in July 1917 joined Zhang Xun’s restoration, fleeing to the American legation when it failed. His Datong Shu, picturing a utopia without private property or the family, was read by later generations including Mao Zedong. He died in Qingdao in 1927.

Beiyang government and warlords Monarchy and royalism 1859–1916 ○ Illness

The Beiyang strongman who took over the 1911 revolution and tried to make himself emperor

Recalled after the 1911 Wuchang Uprising, he pressed both the Qing court and the revolutionaries, winning the emperor's abdication and the provisional presidency in 1912. He proclaimed a monarchy in December 1915, cancelled it in March 1916 under the National Protection War, and died that June.

A soldier-official who built the Beiyang New Army in the late Qing. When the 1911 revolution broke out he pressed both the court and the revolutionaries, securing the Qing emperor’s abdication and his own installation as provisional president of the Republic in 1912. He then hollowed out parliament, dissolved the Kuomintang and, in late 1915, proclaimed himself emperor; provincial revolts forced him to cancel the monarchy in 1916, and he died months later. His death fractured the Beiyang army and opened the warlord era.

Beiyang government and warlords Monarchy and royalism 1854–1923 ○ Natural death

Qing loyalist general who never cut his queue, the “Queue General” who restored Puyi in 1917

From Fengxin in Jiangxi, he escorted the Empress Dowager Cixi during the Boxer crisis of 1900 and became a Beiyang Army general under Yuan Shikai. In 1911 he fought the revolutionaries for the Qing at Nanjing, and as a general of the Republic he refused to cut his queue as a sign of loyalty to the Qing. In the Second Revolution of 1913 he took Nanjing from the Kuomintang forces and let his troops loot the city, yet Yuan made him a field marshal. Summoned in 1917 to mediate between President Li Yuanhong and Premier Duan Qirui, he entered Beijing, forced the dissolution of parliament and on 1 July proclaimed Puyi’s restoration together with Kang Youwei and others. The restoration collapsed after twelve days before Duan’s republican troops, and he took refuge in the Dutch legation and left politics.

Independent activity Monarchy and royalism 1858–1927 ○ Natural death

Reform thinker behind the Hundred Days’ Reform who clung to constitutional monarchy after the Republic was founded

From a scholarly family of Nanhai in Guangdong, he argued for institutional reform in works that read Confucius as a reformer of institutions. In 1898 he won the trust of the young Guangxu Emperor and led the Hundred Days’ Reform, but fled abroad when Cixi’s coup reversed it. In exile he and Liang Qichao founded the Emperor Protection Society to restore the Guangxu Emperor and establish constitutional monarchy, opposing Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionaries among the overseas Chinese. He opposed the republic after 1911 and in July 1917 joined Zhang Xun’s restoration, fleeing to the American legation when it failed. His Datong Shu, picturing a utopia without private property or the family, was read by later generations including Mao Zedong. He died in Qingdao in 1927.

Beiyang government and warlords Monarchy and royalism 1859–1916 ○ Illness

The Beiyang strongman who took over the 1911 revolution and tried to make himself emperor

Recalled after the 1911 Wuchang Uprising, he pressed both the Qing court and the revolutionaries, winning the emperor's abdication and the provisional presidency in 1912. He proclaimed a monarchy in December 1915, cancelled it in March 1916 under the National Protection War, and died that June.

A soldier-official who built the Beiyang New Army in the late Qing. When the 1911 revolution broke out he pressed both the court and the revolutionaries, securing the Qing emperor’s abdication and his own installation as provisional president of the Republic in 1912. He then hollowed out parliament, dissolved the Kuomintang and, in late 1915, proclaimed himself emperor; provincial revolts forced him to cancel the monarchy in 1916, and he died months later. His death fractured the Beiyang army and opened the warlord era.