Everyone should have heard of Yuan Shikai, who is definitely a prominent figure in China's modern history, originally the leader of the Beiyang warlords, during the Xinhai Revolution, he personally forced the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Ai Xinjueluo Puyi, to abdicate, and was later elected as the first president of the Republic of China.
Yuan Shikai stills
However, Yuan Shikai, who had already become president, later announced his restoration and called himself emperor. What is the reason for this? Let's analyze it for you.
First, he was born in the late Qing Dynasty and enjoyed the high-ranking official Houlu
One of the reasons why Yuan Shikai was restored to the throne was because he was born in the Qing Dynasty, and he contributed to the late Qing government, and enjoyed the high-ranking official Houlu, so he had a certain affection for the old system.
Yuan Shikai was born on September 16, 1859 (August 20, 1859) in Yuan Zhangying, north of Xiangcheng County, Chenzhou Prefecture, Henan Province. The Yuan family was a large family in Xiangcheng, Henan, and Yuan Shikai's uncle Yuan Jiasan had served as the governor of Caoyun and also participated in the suppression of the Taiping Army and the Twist Army, and was the pillar of this family; his biological father was Yuan Baozhong, a landlord and gentry of Xiangcheng County, who had obtained a tongzhi official position by donation.
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai loved the art of war since he was a child, and he did not study well. He believed that he "the three armies cannot seize the marshal, and if I can master 100,000 elite soldiers, I can run amok in the world." As a result, he often spent a lot of money to buy various versions of the military book battle strategy, and was ridiculed as "Yuan Shu dummy".
Yuan Shikai's examination was twice lost to Sun Shan, and he did not want to stay in the countryside as a local rich man, so he began to consider going out. He once wrote a poem "Feelings" to encourage himself: "The dragon and tiger in front of you can't fight, and the murderous spirit goes straight up to the dry clouds." I want to open a huge mouth to the sky and swallow Hu Tianjiao in one gulp. It can be seen that when he was young, he was light on literature and heavy on martial arts.
Later, Yuan Shikai followed his adoptive father's friend, the Huai army general Wu Changqingdong to Korea (then a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty), because of his outstanding performance, he had the name of "Zhibing", plus he strongly advocated military training, and after returning to China, he was sent by the imperial court to train troops at a small station, thus becoming the ancestor of the Beiyang warlords.
Yuan Shikai's dramatic image
Then, in the "Coup d'état", Yuan Shikai gained the trust of the Later Party for betraying the merits of the reformists, and his status soared. In the winter of 1899, Yuan Shikai was promoted from a servant of the Ministry of Works to the post of inspector of Shandong, and at the age of 40, he first served as a feudal governor. In November 1901, Li Hongzhang died, and Yuan Shikai was appointed to take his place as the governor of Directly Subordinate and the Minister of Beiyang, and from then on he became a powerful figure in china and abroad.
Yuan Shikai, who had a position, also repaid the favor, contributed his strength to the "New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty" and the "Constitutional Movement", and used this to improve his "prestige". While contributing to the government of the late Qing Dynasty, Yuan Shikai also enjoyed the pleasures of the high-ranking official Houlu, and this experience left a deep imprint on his mind.
Second, force the emperor to abdicate and become president, and later restore himself as emperor
Three years after the reunification (1911), the revolutionaries held the Wuchang Uprising, marking the beginning of the Xinhai Revolution, Yuan Shikai used his special status (actually had military power) to negotiate with the revolutionaries on behalf of the late Qing government, and after the revolutionaries promised to overthrow the Qing court, he resolutely abandoned his original master and forced the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Ai Xinjueluo Puyi, to abdicate and become the provisional president of the Republic of China (later officially elected as the first president of the Republic of China).
Photo of President Yuan Shikai
In the third year of the Republic of China, under the leadership of Yuan Shikai, the Covenant Law Conference passed the "Treaty Law of the Republic of China", giving the president centralized power. Subsequently, the "Grand Presidential Election Law" was enacted, which changed the term of office of the president to a ten-year term, which can be re-elected without restriction, and the successor of the president is nominated and recommended by the president. In fact, Yuan Shikai can become the president for life.
However, at this point, Yuan Shikai was still not satisfied, and he even wanted to restore the imperial system and become emperor himself. In December 1915, after feigning many concessions, Yuan Shikai finally accepted the honorific title of emperor and established the Chinese Empire, with 1916 as the first year of HongXian, implementing a constitutional monarchy and changing the presidential palace into Xinhua Palace, thus realizing his dream of restoring himself as emperor.
Third, the restoration of the title of emperor is to maintain the ruling position
The most fundamental reason for Yuan Shikai's restoration and title of emperor was that when he became the supreme commander of the country, his thinking underwent an essential change, from the original "revolutionary faction" to the "royalist faction"; in order to maintain his so-called ruling position, he actually thought that the emperor was the best protective umbrella, plus his information at that time was not extensive (it is said that he had not even been to the south), and his understanding of advanced western things and systems was not deep enough, so he only chose to restore the imperial system and let the wheel of history fall back to the feudal dynasty.
Yuan Shikai and his aunt Tai Shen in the TV series
Although the "New Imperial Code" drafted by Yuan Shikai as empress dowager listed that "princes and county kings can be officers on the sea and land, but they may not organize political parties and serve as important political officials; the eunuch system will never be abolished; the system of selecting palace women will be abolished; the system of tribute from all parties will be abolished; and all relatives of the royal family shall not be allowed to run businesses and compete with the common people for profits." And so on seemed to be more "progressive" than the late Qing Dynasty. But it is impossible to escape the sinister intentions of its restoration.
On December 25, 1915, Cai Yi and Tang Jiyao, who ostensibly supported the imperial system, declared an uprising in Yunnan and launched a patriotic war against Yuan Shikai. Guizhou and Guangxi responded one after another, and in the "wave of inverting Yuan" set off in various places in March, Yuan Shikai was forced to announce the abolition of the imperial system and end his 83-day short-lived dream of emperor.
Later, Yuan Shikai became angry and died of uremia on June 6, 1916, at the age of 57. Yuan Shikai, the figure of "Fengyun I", thus ended his life.
Old photo of Yuan Shikai
In short, Yuan Shikai, a prominent figure in China's modern history, was originally the leader of the Beiyang warlords, and during the Xinhai Revolution, he personally forced the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Ai Xinjueluo Puyi, to abdicate, and later became the first president of the Republic of China. However, Yuan Shikai, who had already become president, declared his restoration in December 1915 and proclaimed himself emperor.
This is because Yuan Shikai was first born and rooted in the Qing Dynasty, and also enjoyed the late Qing Dynasty's high-ranking official Houlu, who had old feelings for it; and when he stole the fruits of the Xinhai Revolution and luckily became the president of the Republic of China, in order to maintain his so-called dominance and fool the people, he vainly tried to paralyze and weaken the people's revolutionary fighting spirit through "reading the scriptures through respecting the holes". This not only shows that he is short-sighted, but also fully proves that he is not a national leader who conforms to the trend of history at all, and will be crushed to pieces by the wheel of history and spurned by the people of his country.
Yuan Shikaizhao
This article is original by "Such As Day Zhongtian 54", welcome to pay attention, learn together, and make progress together!