Yuan Shikai

Statesman or warlord? Yuan Shikai (1859–1916) has been both hailed as China’s George Washington for his role in the country’s transition from empire to republic and condemned as a counter-revolutionary. In any list of significant modern Chinese figures, he stands in the first rank. Yet Yuan Shikai: A Reappraisal sheds new light on the controversial history of this talented administrator, fearsome general, and enthusiastic modernizer. Due to his death during the civil war his actions provoked, much Chinese historiography portrays Yuan as a traitor, a usurper, and a villain. After toppling the last emperor of China, Yuan endeavoured to build dictatorial power and establish his own dynasty while serving as the first president of the new republic, eventually going so far as to declare himself emperor. Drawing on previously untapped primary sources and recent scholarship, Patrick Fuliang Shan offers a lucid, comprehensive, and critical new interpretation of Yuan’s part in shaping modern China.

This book attempts to explain this aspect of Yüan Shih-k'ai's political power by analysing the relationship between him and Sir John Newell Jordan, British minister at Peking from 1906 to 1920.

The story of reformer Yuan Shih-k'ai, who was later seen as the "betrayer of the republic" and the "father of warlordism."

China in Revolution is a survey of historical photographs from leading collections around the world. The images stretch from the Second Opium War to the Boxer Rebellion and wars with Russia and Japan, the outbreak of revolution, through the rise and fall of Yuan Shikai and the ensuing warlord era.

The purpose of this book is to examine the strategies and practices of the Han Chinese Nationalists vis-à-vis post-Qing China’s ethnic minorities, as well as to explore the role they played in the formation of contemporary China’s Central Asian frontier territoriality and border security. The Chinese Revolution of 1911, initiated by Sun Yat-sen, liberated the Han Chinese from the rule of the Manchus and ended the Qing dynastic order that had existed for centuries. With the collapse of the Qing dynasty, the Mongols and the Tibetans, who had been dominated by the Manchus, took advantage of the revolution and declared their independence. Under the leadership of Yuan Shikai, the new Chinese Republican government in Peking in turn proclaimed the similar "five-nationality Republic" proposed by the Revolutionaries as a model with which to sustain the deteriorating Qing territorial order. The shifting politics of the multi-ethnic state during the regime transition and the role those politics played in defining the identity of the modern Chinese state were issues that would haunt the new Chinese Republic from its inception to its downfall. Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese history, Asian history and modern history.

Relations between the Choson and Qing states are often cited as the prime example of the operation of the âeoetraditionalâe Chinese âeoetribute system.âe In contrast, this work contends that the motivations, tactics, and successes (and failures) of the late Qing Empire in Choson Korea mirrored those of other nineteenth-century imperialists. Between 1850 and 1910, the Qing attempted to defend its informal empire in Korea by intervening directly, not only to preserve its geopolitical position but also to promote its commercial interests. And it utilized the technology of empireâe"treaties, international law, the telegraph, steamships, and gunboats. Although the transformation of Qing-Choson diplomacy was based on modern imperialism, this work argues that it is more accurate to describe the dramatic shift in relations in terms of flexible adaptation by one of the worldâe(tm)s major empires in response to new challenges. Moreover, the new modes of Qing imperialism were a hybrid of East Asian and Western mechanisms and institutions. Through these means, the Qing Empire played a fundamental role in Koreaâe(tm)s integration into regional and global political and economic systems.

A Biography of Sun Yat-Sen, a record of the renowned historical personage in China, co-authored by Zhang Lei and Zhang Ping and published in 2011 by the People’s Publishing House, was listed as one of the key publications for the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Sun Yat-sen. It has been highly regarded in the major media of the country. The book is composed of two parts, the first of which consists of five chapters that narrate his experience of overseas studies and his leadership in the establishment of the Revive China Society and the Chinese Revolutionary League, the struggle against the Qing Dynasty and Yuan Shikai, the building and protection of the Republican system. The second part of the book provides a detailed description and interpretation of the development of the democratic and revolutionary system of ideology represented by the Three Principles of the People and the Three Great Policies, and of the significance of his theories for the Chinese revolution. Different from other biographies, A Biography of Sun Yat-sen does not dwell on telling the long story about his family or daily life, but is focused on his spirit, i.e. his patriotism and enthusiasm for reform and revolution, and based on it, recounts the development and elevation of this spirit, which is revealed by the whole process of his first advocating the reform of the Qing Government to proposing the (New) Three Principles of the People. The book is an important reference for further study and understanding of Sun Yat-sen and his ideas and revolutionary cause.