Li Yuanhong

President Li Yuanhong (1917)

Li Yuanhong ( Chinese 黎元洪 , Pinyin Lí Yuánhóng , W.-G. Li Yuen-hung ; born October 19, 1864 in Huangpi , Hubei ; † June 3, 1928 in Tianjin ) was a Chinese general and politician during the Qing Dynasty and the republican era. He was President of the Republic of China three times .

Early life

Li Yuanhong was born in Huangpi in the central Chinese province of Hubei . He was the son of a Qing veteran of the Taiping Rebellion . He graduated from the Tianjin Naval Academy in 1889 and served as an engineer in the First Sino-Japanese War . His cruiser was sunk, but despite being unable to swim, he survived because of his lifebelt. He later joined the Hubei Army and became a senior officer in Hankou . In 1910, he went against a revolutionary conspiracy that had infiltrated his 21st mixed brigade. However, he did not arrest anyone involved in subversive activities or take any action against the suspects.

National notoriety

When the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 broke out, the Wuchang mutineers needed a publicly known high officer as a figurehead. Li was well respected, had supported the railway protection movement, and spoke English, which would be helpful when dealing with foreign corporations. He was reportedly dragged from hiding under his wife's bed and forced at gunpoint to be the provisional military governor of Hubei despite killing several of the rebels. Although reluctant at first, he welcomed the revolution as it grew momentum and was named military governor of China on November 30th. Qing Prime Minister Yuan Shikai negotiated a ceasefire with him on December 4th. Though Li commanded the rebel army, Sun Yat-sen of the Revolutionary Alliance became the first provisional president in Nanjing on January 1, 1912. Li was named vice president and he formed the "People's Society" to fight for the presidency. Meanwhile, the north was still under Qing control. A negotiation led Sun to step down as president in favor of Yuan Shikai, while Li retained his vice-presidency. This ended the Qing Dynasty and united north and south China. The People's Society later merged with the pro-Yuan Republican Party. In 1913 he combined the Republicans with Liang Qichao's Democratic Party to form the Progressive Party. The progressives became the main rivals of the Sun-led opposition nationalists. He supported Yuan during the Second Revolution against Sun, which earned him the enmity of his former comrades. When Yuan carried out his presidential coup, Li was seen as a potential threat and imprisoned in Beijing, where he became a passive bystander under Yuan's grip. Yuan could never fully trust Li because he was not a protégé within the inner circle of the Beiyang Army and because of his previous association with the revolutionaries. Nonetheless, Yuan married his son to Li's daughter to strengthen their relationships. Li retained his office and honors as vice president but had no power. Some factions urged Li to claim the presidency when Yuan was crowned emperor in 1916. He refused out of fear for his life, but turned down the nobility title of Prince granted by Yuan in the Empire of China (1915-1616), a decision that would later help him. Li remained in self-imposed isolation at his residence during the monarchical transition period until Yuan's death.

Presidency and Later Life

Li served as president from June 7, 1916 to July 17, 1917. When Yuan died, he left a will containing Li's name with Premier Duan Qirui and Xu Shichang. The will was an imperial tradition started by the Kangxi emperor that was not constitutional in the republic. However, the Beiyang generals forced Li into office because he was acceptable to the rebellious southern provinces. Li tried to return to the 1912 constitutional order, but Duan held real power. The National Assembly of the Republic of China convened on August 1, 1916, after it had been dissolved two and a half years earlier. Duan wanted to drag China into World War I, but Li hesitated. They strongly disagreed with Duan's decision to cut ties with Germany. Li forced Duan to resign on May 23, 1917 when the prime minister's secret credit in Japan was exposed. Duan fled to Tianjin to raise his armed forces, and most of the generals left the government. In response, Li asked General Zhang Xun for help. In return, Zhang asked for the dissolution of the parliament, which was granted on June 13th. Zhang, who was secretly for Germany, surprisingly occupied Beijing from June 14 to July 12, 1917 and held the president prisoner. Zhang then moved on with a movement that would undermine most of his support when he attempted to restore Emperor Puyi and the Qing Dynasty on July 1. Li was released to the Japanese Legation, where he asked Duan for help in saving the republic. Duan overthrew Zhang within two weeks and restored the republic on July 12; Duan himself became prime minister again on July 14th. Vice President Feng Guozhang was named incumbent president in Nanjing. On July 17th, Li officially resigned from his post and retired to Tianjin.

He served again as President of China between June 11, 1922 and June 13, 1923 after Cao Kun forced President Xu Shichang. Li was chosen because he was respected by all factions and he hoped to reunite the country. He only accepted with private assurances that the warlord forces should be disbanded; however, these were never fulfilled. As in his first term, he recalled the original National Assembly, but he was even more powerless than before. He organized the Able Men Cabinet, made up of respected experts, but it was reversed when he arrested the Treasury Secretary for investigating rumors and circumstantial evidence. A court dismissed the charge. Cao soon had presidential ambitions and orchestrated strikes to drive Li out of office. Cao went so far as to try to bribe the congregation and verbally abuse Li. When Li left the capital, he tried to take the presidential seal with him, but was intercepted. He fled to Japan for medical treatment and returned to Tianjin in 1924, where he later died. His grave, built in 1935 and restored in 2011, is located on the campus of Central China Normal University in Wuhan.

Web links

Commons : Li Yuanhong - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Short biography (rulers.org)

Individual evidence

personal data
SURNAME	Li, Yuanhong
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	黎元洪; Lí Yuánhóng; Li Yuen-hung
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Chinese politician and general
DATE OF BIRTH	October 19, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH	Huangpi , Hubei , Chinese Empire
DATE OF DEATH	June 3, 1928
Place of death	Tianjin