{"id":2674,"date":"2010-10-11T15:38:35","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T15:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=2674"},"modified":"2017-12-22T09:16:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T13:16:48","slug":"prchistoryparttwo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/prchistoryparttwo\/","title":{"rendered":"Foundations of the PRC &#8211; Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the failure of the Second Revolution in 1913, Sun Yat-sen and other notable KMT rebels fled to Japan.\u00a0 Yuan Shikai was able to intimidate the parliament into electing him as President of the Republic of China that fall, and shortly thereafter, he began amending the rules of the land in preparation for his ascendency to the position of <strong>Emperor<\/strong> (\u7687\u5e1d &#8211; Hu\u00e1ng d\u00ec).\u00a0 First, he increased his presidential powers.\u00a0 Later, he upped the term of the President to ten years (with no limit, of course).\u00a0 He also reorganized provincial governments, so that each was led by <strong>Military Governors<\/strong> (\u90fd\u7763 &#8211; d\u016b d\u016b).<\/p>\n<p>Over in Japan, however, Sun Yat-sen was working to get the wheels of revolution back in motion.\u00a0 As such, he established the <strong>Chinese Revolutionary Party<\/strong> (\u4e2d\u534e\u9769\u547d\u515a &#8211; Zh\u014dng hu\u00e1 g\u00e9 m\u00ecng d\u01ceng).\u00a0 Unfortunately for Sun, the new rules for his party &#8211; especially the oath of loyalty to him that other members were required to take &#8211; turned a lot of the older members away.\u00a0 Although Sun did not have the support he had hoped for, he wasn&#8217;t the only one looking to take down Yuan.\u00a0 The Progressive Party, many of the provincial governors, and even many of Yuan&#8217;s very own Beiyang generals were none too pleased with his actions.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"History: Introduction to China 1911-1989\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sEp3uhmeLMA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Here is an interesting short video that talks about some of the history covered in the first two &#8220;Foundations of the PRC&#8221; posts.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of <strong>Japan<\/strong> (\u65e5\u672c &#8211; R\u00ec b\u011bn), the Prime Minister of the Land of the Rising Sun (<a title=\"\u014ckuma Shigenobu\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%C5%8Ckuma_Shigenobu\">\u014ckuma Shigenobu<\/a>) saw the unrest going on in China as an opportunity to expand Japan&#8217;s position there.\u00a0 In January 1915, Japan presented China with a list of <strong>Twenty One Demands<\/strong> (\u4e8c\u5341\u4e00\u4e2a\u6761\u9879 &#8211; \u00c8r sh\u00ed y\u012bg\u00e8 ti\u00e1o xi\u00e0ng), most of which were meant to install Japanese economic controls in railway and mining operations around China, and also pressed to have Yuan Shikai appoint Japanese advisors in key positions in the Chinese government.\u00a0 This last part had many people outraged, causing Japan to remove some of the demands.\u00a0 A revised list of Thirteen Demands was presented to Yuan with a prompt deadline.\u00a0 As Yuan was competing with other warlords for control over China, he could not risk war with Japan, so he accepted appeasement and the treaty was signed on May 25, 1915.\u00a0 Although this move brought upon plenty of criticism, Yuan powered on in his quest.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of his lack of popularity, Yuan went ahead and had himself elected Emperor in December 1915.\u00a0 On December 12, Yuan declared the start of the <strong>Empire of China<\/strong> (\u4e2d\u534e\u5e1d\u56fd &#8211; Zh\u014dng hu\u00e1 d\u00ec gu\u00f3), thus making him the <strong>Great Emperor of China<\/strong> (\u4e2d\u534e\u5e1d\u56fd\u5927\u7687\u5e1d &#8211; Zh\u014dng hu\u00e1 d\u00ec gu\u00f3 d\u00e0 hu\u00e1ng d\u00ec).\u00a0 For what would surely be an illustrious reign, he chose the name <strong>Hongxian<\/strong> (\u6d2a\u5baa &#8211; H\u00f3ng xi\u00e0n, lit. <em>Constitutional Abundance<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>The new official anthem for the country was <strong>&#8220;China Stands Heroically at the Center of the Universe&#8221;<\/strong> (\u4e2d\u534e\u96c4\u7acb\u5b87\u5b99\u95f4 &#8211; Zh\u014dng hu\u00e1 xi\u00f3ng l\u00ec y\u01d4 zh\u00f2u ji\u0101n), and it went a little something like this&#8230;<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th>Chinese lyrics<\/th>\n<th>English translation<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u4e2d\u83ef\u96c4\u7acb\u5b87\u5b99\u9593\uff0c<br \/>\n\u5ed3\u516b\u57cf\uff0c<br \/>\n\u83ef\u5191\u4f86\u5f9e\u5d11\u5d19\u5dd4\uff0c<br \/>\n\u6c5f\u6cb3\u6d69\u76ea\u5c71\u7dbf\u9023\uff0c<br \/>\n\u5171\u548c\u4e94\u65cf\u958b\u582f\u5929\uff0c<br \/>\n\u5104\u842c\u5e74\u3002<\/td>\n<td>China heroically stands in the <a title=\"Universe\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Universe\">Universe<\/a>,<br \/>\nExtends to the Eight Corners,<br \/>\nThe glorious descendants from <a title=\"Kunlun\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kunlun\">Kunlun<\/a> Peak.<br \/>\nThe rivers turn greatly, the mountains continuous.<br \/>\nFive <a title=\"Chinese nationalities\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chinese_nationalities\">nationalities<\/a> open up the era of <em><a title=\"Yao (ruler)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Yao_%28ruler%29\">Yao<\/a><\/em>,<br \/>\nFor millions of myriads of years.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Shortly after Yuan&#8217;s innauguration, the former governor of <strong>Yunnan<\/strong> (\u4e91\u5357 &#8211; Y\u00fan n\u00e1n), <strong>Cai E<\/strong> (\u8521\u9537) &#8211; along with some others who shared his dislike for the self-appointed Emperor &#8211; formed the <strong>National Protection Army<\/strong> (\u62a4\u56fd\u519b &#8211; H\u00f9 gu\u00f3 j\u016bn), declaring Yunann indepedent of Yuan&#8217;s rule on Christmas Day 1915.\u00a0 Thus began the <strong>National Protection War<\/strong> (\u62a4\u56fd\u6218\u4e89 &#8211; H\u00f9 gu\u00f3 zh\u00e0n zh\u0113ng), which resulted in many other provinces declaring their independence.<\/p>\n<p>In Beiyang, Yuan&#8217;s generals were not exactly putting up a tough fight against the rebellion, and who could blame them &#8211; they hadn&#8217;t yet received one single paycheck from the new imperial government.\u00a0 With Yuan&#8217;s massive unpopularity and obvious weakness as a ruler, foreign support began to dwindle.\u00a0 Not ready to give up just yet, Yuan continued to delay the accession rite in an attempt to appease his foes.\u00a0 Sadly, for Yuan, the pressure eventually proved to be too much.\u00a0 On March 16, 1916, Yuan abandoned the monarchy, stepping down as the first (and last) Emperor of his &#8220;dynasty.&#8221;\u00a0 His illustrious reign lasted all of 83 days.\u00a0 Humiliated and defeated, Yuan died on June 5.<\/p>\n<p>After Yuan&#8217;s death, Vice President <strong>Li Yuanghong<\/strong> (\u9ece\u5143\u6d2a) took over and quickly restored the National Assembly and the provincial Constitution.\u00a0 The damage to the central government had been done, though, and the end of Yuan&#8217;s brief rule and the unrest it caused would send China down a dark road of warlordism for many years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"228\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2010\/10\/390px-Cai_E_2-228x350.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2010\/10\/390px-Cai_E_2-228x350.jpg 228w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2010\/10\/390px-Cai_E_2.jpg 390w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 228px) 100vw, 228px\" \/><p>With the failure of the Second Revolution in 1913, Sun Yat-sen and other notable KMT rebels fled to Japan.\u00a0 Yuan Shikai was able to intimidate the parliament into electing him as President of the Republic of China that fall, and shortly thereafter, he began amending the rules of the land in preparation for his ascendency&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/prchistoryparttwo\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":2676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2674","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2674"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14025,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions\/14025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}