Feng Guozhang

Feng Guozhang (simplified Chinese: 冯国璋; traditional Chinese: 馮國璋; pinyin: Féng Guózhāng; Wade–Giles: Feng Kuo-chang; 7 January 1859 – 12 December 1919) was a Chinese general and politician in the late Qing dynasty and early republican China who served as the acting president of the Republic of China from 1917 to 1918. He had also served as the vice president from 1916 to 1917, the governor of Jiangsu from 1913 to 1917, and the governor of Zhili from 1912 to 1913. He emerged as one of the senior commanders of the Beiyang Army and was the founder of the Zhili clique, one of the main factions during the Warlord Era in China.

Feng was a first degree holder of the imperial examination and graduated from the Tianjin Military School. He served in northeastern China before and during the First Sino-Japanese War, and afterward was China's military attaché to Japan in 1895. His reports on the Japanese military reforms were brought to the attention of Yuan Shikai, who made Feng an officer in what later became the Beiyang Army. Feng rose through the ranks during the last decade of the Qing dynasty, serving as a division commander, the director of the military school for Manchu princes and nobles, and as the superintendent of the General Staff Council.

He led Beiyang Army troops against the Wuchang Uprising during the 1911 Revolution, and under his command they retook the cities of Hankou and Hanyang from the rebels. By that time Yuan Shikai, the prime minister, started negotiating with the revolutionaries and later arranged the Qing emperor's abdication. In the early Republic of China, Feng Guozhang became the governor of Zhili from 1912 to 1913 and then governor of Jiangsu from 1913 to 1917. By the time of Yuan's death, he and Duan Qirui were considered the most powerful generals in the Beiyang Army.

Feng Guozhang was born to a peasant family in Hejian, Zhili on 7 January 1859. His family had fallen on hard times and was forced to sell its properties to educate its sons; however being the fourth son, Feng was unable to complete his education due to costs. Despite this, he had been able to receive some education in the Confucian Chinese classics in preparation for the imperial examination. He reportedly had to survive part of his early life by playing the violin in theatres, before in 1886 becoming an orderly to one of his great-uncles, a battalion commander in Li Hongzhang's Huai Army. His relative recommended him as a good student to Li's Tianjin Military Academy, and he did well there during his first year. The academy was part of Li Hongzhang's effort to create a modernized army in China, teaching subjects such as military drill, engineering, surveying, and mathematics, as opposed to traditional Chinese literary examinations or physical tests.

In 1888 Feng took a break from his studies there to take and pass the shengyuan or basic degree exam, but later he failed the juren or provincial exam, at which point he decided to return to the military academy. He graduated from the Tianjin academy in 1890. Feng Guozhang was briefly an instructor at the military academy in Tianjin until 1891, when he was assigned to Nie Shicheng's unit in Port Arthur, northeast China. During that time he traveled extensively across Manchuria and became familiar with the region's geography, which became useful when he was serving under the command of Nie Shicheng in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95. After the war, Feng was recommended by Nie Shicheng to serve as military attaché to Japan when Yukeng was sent there by the Qing dynasty as the Chinese minister in Tokyo.

While he was in Japan in 1895, Feng became acquainted with notable Japanese army officers, such as Fukushima Yasumasa, who was later the director of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. He spent several months observing the Japanese military modernization program, especially their training methods, and recorded this information in a notebook that he later gave to Nie Shicheng, who sent it to Yuan Shikai. Yuan, who was at that time organizing his Newly Created Army (the future Beiyang Army), was impressed with Feng's work and appointed him to be the head of training on his staff. From 1896 Feng Guozhang was part of the officer corps of this brigade-size force, which became the nucleus of the Beiyang Army and also included other prominent future leaders.

When the Boxer Rebellion broke out in 1899 and Yuan Shikai was appointed as governor of Shandong to maintain order in that province, Feng was also there and was tasked with taking part in the suppression of Boxer rebels near the province's border with Zhili. After the Eight Nation Alliance suppressed the rebellion and Yuan Shikai was appointed Viceroy of Zhili in 1901, he started establishing military schools at Baoding, which became known as the Baoding Military Academy. Feng Guozhang had a major role in founding the academy as the director of training and instruction at the Zhili provincial military department.

During the last decade of the Qing dynasty his career took off, and he became one of Yuan Shikai's closest allies. Feng Guozhang served on the Military Training Bureau of the Army Reorganization Commission that was created in December 1903. After the Beiyang Army was expanded in 1904–05, Feng became the commander of the Beiyang 3rd Division in 1905, the commander of the 6th Division in 1906, and the superintendent of the General Staff Council in July 1907. The latter position made him the director of the main administrative agency of the new Ministry of the Army, and his role also included advising the New Army divisions being formed across China on matters of training and organization.