Feng Yü-hsiang 馮御香 (馮玉祥) Orig. Feng Chi-shan 馮基善 T. Huan-chang 煅章 Feng Yü-hsiang (1882-1 September 1948), military leader known as the Christian General, built up a formidable personal army, the Kuominchün, and dominated much of north China until his power was broken in 1930. Although his native place was Chaohsien, Anhwei, Feng Yü-hsiang was born at Hsing-chichen, Chihli (Hopei), where his father, Feng Yü-mou, was serving as a minor army officer. He was the second of five sons. Feng attended school for about 15 months. Then, when he was ten years old, his name was entered on the rolls of a battalion of the Huai Army so that he could earn money to help support the family. When the first Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1894, Feng Yü-mou's battalion was sent to Taku, and Feng Yü-hsiang went with his father. After the unit returned to Paoting in 1896, Feng became a full-fledged soldier in the Huai Army, and his formal military training began. Although he was almost illiterate, Feng had a high regard for learning and began a program of self-education which would continue throughout his life. He gradually acquired the ability to read vernacular literature, and he read most of the famous Chinese novels. He studied a few historical and philosophical works, but had difficulty understanding the literary language in which such works were written.

After Li Hung-chang (ECCP, I, 464-71) died in 1901, Yuan Shih-k'ai succeeded him as the governor general of Chihli and began to expand his military forces. In 1902 Feng joined Yuan's guards unit and began to associate with better-educated officers in Yuan's army. One of the officers in the guards unit (which later became the 6th Division) was Lu Chien-chang. Feng married Lu's niece, probably in 1907. From the time of his marriage until Lu's murder in 1918, Feng profited from Lu's protection and influence.

Feng rose steadily in rank, becoming a company commander. In 1907 his unit was transferred to Manchuria for garrison duty at Hsinmin under Hsü Shih-ch'ang (q.v.). Feng became associated with a number of anti- Manchu officers, and in 1909 he participated in the formation of a so-called military study society. Another member of the society was Chang Chih-chiang (q.v.), who continued to be associated with Feng for a number of years. Feng later said that the objective of the society was the overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty. After the Wuchang revolt of October 1911, Feng was involved with a group of Peiyang Army officers who planned an uprising at Luanchou, Chihli, during the scheduled autumn maneuvers there. This group also included Lu Chung-lin, Han Fu-chü (qq.v.), and Chang Chih-chiang. Feng was imprisoned and dismissed from military service for using the regimental printing machine to print revolutionary broadsides before the uprising took place. Although the other conspirators carried out the uprising in December 1911, they were betrayed, and some of them were captured and executed. Feng was released after Lu Chien-chang interceded on his behalf and guaranteed his good behavior.

In 1912, on the recommendation of Lu Chien-chang, Feng was restored to the rolls of the Peiyang Army. He served as a battalion commander under Lu, with the assignment of recruiting and training troops in central-south Chihli. His unit grew steadily, and in 1913 it became a regiment. In October 1914 Feng's force was designated the 16th Mixed Brigade. The brigade became an independent unit which received orders directly from the central government. However, in a large operation it would come under the command of the over-all commanding officer.

In 1914 Feng became a Christian and joined the Methodist Church. As his military fame increased, he became known as the Christian General.

In the four years after the creation of the 16th Mixed Brigade, Feng and his men had few periods of inaction. In December 1915 Ts'ai O and T'ang Chi-yao (qq.v.), who opposed Yuan Shih-k'ai's plan to become monarch, began a rebellion in southwest China. Feng's brigade, which had been sent to Szechwan on a bandit-suppression mission, was assigned to resist the invasion of that province by Ts'ai O's forces and to assist Ch'en Huan, the military governor, in maintaining order. Feng came to sympathize with the rebels, although he clashed with them on several occasions, and on 22 May 1916 he forced Ch'en Huan to declare Szechwan independent. After Yuan Shih-k'ai died in June 1916, Feng was ordered to station his troops in the vicinity of Langfang, between Peking and Tientsin. He remained at Langfang until the spring of 1917, reorganizing and training his troops. Then, after objecting to a proposal by Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.) that would have divided the 16th Mixed Brigade, Feng was dismissed from his command and given a sinecure post. The officers of his brigade protested his removal, and Peking finally allowed the brigade to remain intact. At Peking, the conflict between Li Yuan-hung (q.v.), the president, and Tuan Ch'i-jui, the premier, resulted in the restoration attempt of Chang Hsün (q.v.). Tuan Ch'i-jui called on the 16th Mixed Brigade to be the vanguard of the anti-restoration army. It became clear that only Feng Yü-hsiang could order the brigade into action, and his rank was restored. The 16th Mixed Brigade was one of the first units to enter Peking and defeat Chang Hsün's troops. After winning control at Peking in early 1918, Tuan Ch'i-jui attempted to unify China by military means. Feng Yü-hsiang and his brigade were ordered into action in Hupeh. In February, Feng reached Wuhsueh, Hupeh, but he then refused to accept further orders from Peking and issued a public statement advocating a truce between north and south China and the settlement of outstanding issues at a peace conference. Feng was stripped of his command by order of Feng Kuo-chang (q.v.), then the president, and his case was referred to Ts'ao K'un (q.v.) for investigation. Ts'ao intervened on Feng's behalf, and Feng was permitted to remain in his post under Ts'ao's command.

In June 1918 Feng Yü-hsiang was restored to rank by Tuan Ch'i-jui and was made defense commissioner of Ch'angte. He remained there for nearly two years, devoting his energies to the training and indoctrination of his troops. Although the principles and methods of training employed at this time later were modified in detail, they remained characteristic of Feng's training programs throughout his career. He stressed physical fitness, which was achieved through hard military training and competitive athletics ; the forced march became the army's forte. He permitted no corruption or favoritism in his army. Officers were chosen on the basis of merit, and they shared the life of the men and led them in battle. Feng maintained close personal contact with his officers and men. Above all, he subjected his troops to intensive moral indoctrination. Until late 1926, when Feng joined the Kuomintang, this indoctrination involved a combination of Christian and traditional Chinese values which stressed the individual's moral obligations to society, to himself, and to God. After 1926, some of the Christian elements of Feng's indoctrination program were replaced by Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles. However, the change was not great: both before and after 1926 Feng's men were taught that they were the servants of the common people and that moral value was attached to their behaving as such. Feng himself remained the final arbiter of what acts were good for the people, and of what behavior was moral. In this fashion, he maintained close and complete control over his army.

As defense commissioner, Feng also was responsible for the civil administration of Ch'angte and the surrounding vicinity. His reforms reflected his philosophy of civil government. These included: the establishment of peace and order by vigorous suppression of bandits and other disorderly elements; the promotion of public education; the prohibition of such vices as gambling, prostitution, and the use of opium ; the establishment of institutions of social welfare, such as rehabilitation centers for beggars, sanitoria for narcotics addicts, and orphanages; the prohibition of such traditional practices as foot-binding; and the use of his troops for such tasks as repairing city walls, building roads, and planting trees. The years from 1918 to 1920 were marked by constant strife between the Anhwei faction of Tuan Ch'i-jui and Hsü Shu-cheng (q.v.) and the Chihli group, in which Ts'ao K'un and Wu P'ei-fu (q.v.) were prominent. Feng's association with the Chihli group had begun in the spring of 1918. Tuan Ch'i-jui and his supporters were overthrown at Peking after the Chihli-Anhwei war of 1920, and a number of changes were made in provincial administrations. In July, Feng Yü-hsiang and his men left Ch'angte and went to southern Honan, where they remained until the spring of 1921. His brigade then was ordered, on the recommendation of Wu P'ei-fu, to assist the newly appointed tuchün [military governor] of Shensi, Yen Hsiang-wen (T. Huan-chang), in ousting Ch'en Shu-fan, who had refused to leave his post as governor. As a reward for his success in that undertaking, Feng was ordered on 5 August to reorganize his brigade as the 1 1 th Division. Shortly thereafter Yen Hsiang-wen committed suicide, and on 25 August 1921 Feng was appointed military governor of Shensi.

Feng remained in Shensi until April 1922, when he marched into Honan to support VVu P'ei-fu in the first Chihli-Fengtien war. One of Feng's brigades, led by Li Ming-chung, fought in Chihli province and was instrumental in the victory that initiated the rout of Chang Tso-lin. Feng himself led troops to suppress a rebellion by the military governor of Honan. On 10 May, he became military governor of that province. He expanded his forces, filling out his division and creating three new mixed brigades. However, on 31 October he was ordered to Peking as inspecting commissioner of the army. Although the appointment supposedly was a promotion, it diminished Feng's power by depriving him of a regional base and of access to tax revenues. Feng's transfer was largely the result of friction between him and Wu P'ei-fu. Relations between the two men worsened in the spring and summer of 1923, when Feng cooperated with anti-Wu (and pro-Ts'ao K'un) factions to oust Li Yuan-hung from the presidency. On 5 October, Ts'ao K'un was elected president. Feng's financial situation improved because he was able to gain control of the octroi, a tax on merchandise coming into Peking.

Later that year, Feng Yü-hsiang's personal life underwent an important change. On 17 December 1923 his wife died. On 19 February 1924, Feng married Li Te-ch'uan (q.v.), who, unlike his first wife, was educated, active in Christian church-work, and able to assist Feng in social and educational projects. After the second Chihli-Fengtien war began in the autumn of 1924, Wu P'ei-fu assigned Feng Yü-hsiang to the Jehol front, in spite of rumors that Feng would declare his neutrality. To insure Feng's reliability, Wu assigned two officers, Hu Ching-i (d.l925; T. Li-seng) and Wang Ch'eng-pin (b. 1873; T. Hsiao-po) to keep watch on Feng's movements. However, Hu, Wang, and Sun Yueh (1878-1928; T. Yü-hsing), the garrison commander at Peking, had joined with Feng in a conspiracy against Wu. Feng and his cohorts occupied Peking on 23 October 1924. Ts'ao K'un was forced to dismiss Wu P'ei-fu from his posts and to call for a cessation of hostilities. Wu, though cut off from reinforcements in central China and badly defeated by Chang Tso-lin's forces at Shanhaikuan, hastened to Tientsin with a small contingent of troops. He was defeated, and the war came to an end.

Immediately after the coup, Feng Yü-hsiang, Hu Ching-i, and Sun Yüeh had reorganized their armies as the First, Second, and Third armies of the Kuominchün, or People's Army. Feng was named commander in chief.

On 2 November 1924 Feng forced Ts'ao K'un to resign the presidency and set up an interim regency government under Huang Fu (q.v.). On 5 November, he forced P'u-yi (q.v.), the last Manchu emperor, to leave the Forbidden City at Peking. Feng, Chang Tso-lin, and Lu Yung-hsiang met at Tientsin on 10 November for a series of conferences with Tuan Ch'i-jui to organize a new government. Tuan became provisional chief executive. However, not one of Feng's supporters was included in his cabinet.

At the beginning of 1925 Feng established headquarters in Kalgan. His supporters Chang Chih-chiang and Li Ming-chung were now the military governors of Chahar and Suiyuan, respectively. Feng came to control Kansu in August. Throughout this period, Feng and Chang Tso-lin contended for political control of the government at Peking. In the Northwest, Chang's control of the north China coast meant that there was no access to the sea from the regions under Feng's control. Feng had to look to the Soviet Union for military supplies. Since Soviet advisers then were guiding the Kuomintang, Feng could hardly resist Russian- Kuomintang overtures. Also, one of Feng's political advisers was Hsü Ch'ien (q.v.), who had supported Sun Yat-sen's cause for years. In April 1925 Feng, in return for Russian instructors and military aid, agreed to permit Kuomintang political work in his army. However, Feng severely limited Kuomintang and Russian political activity in the Kuominchün and expanded his program of Christian indoctrination.

Chang Tso-lin was determined to extend his influence to Peking and north China, as well as to the Yangtze provinces. Late in 1925, therefore, the long anticipated war between Feng Yü-hsiang, on one side, and Chang Tso-lin and Wu P'ei-fu, on the other, broke out. Feng had come to a covert arrangement with Kuo Sung-ling, a leading Fengtien general, and he counted heavily on Kuo's defection to undermine Chang Tso-lin's position. Kuo, however, was defeated and executed in December 1925; and, at the same time, Feng's Kuominchün troops suffered heavy casualties when taking Tientsin from the Fengtien forces. Caught between his two antagonists, Feng sought to arrange a compromise settlement. He announced that he was resigning all his posts and declared that he would take a trip abroad.

The armies, however, showed no inclination to end hostilities. On 8 March 1926 Feng's Kuominchün mined and blockaded the harbor at Taku, near Tientsin, against Chang Tso-lin's naval force. The blockade was challenged at once by the Japanese, who accused the government at Peking of violating the provisions of the Boxer Protocol. The Japanese also enlisted the support of the foreign diplomatic corps at Peking, which on 16 March issued an ultimatum to the Peking government calling for an immediate withdrawal of the blockade. The next day, representatives of various organizations and student groups in Peking, under joint Kuomintang-Communist leadership, petitioned Tuan Ch'i-jui to reject the foreign ultimatum. The protest delegation was met by government guards, who opened fire and injured several petitioners. On 18 March, a mass protest meeting was held in the square at T'ien-an-men, the south gate of the Forbidden City. The demonstrators then headed for Tuan's office where they were confronted by government guards, who reportedly killed more than 40 of the demonstrators. The next day, Tuan Ch'i-jui ordered the arrest of four prominent Kuomintang members — Hsü Ch'ien, Li Shih-tseng, Ku Meng-yü, and Yi P'ei-chi — and of the Communist leader Li Ta-chao. They were charged with instigating the 18 March incident and with disseminating Communist propaganda. Hsü Ch'ien and his associates, protected by Lu Chung-lin, then the Kuominchün commander of the Peking garrison, were temporarily safe from arrest. Within a month, however, Chang Tso-lin and Wu P'ei-fu pressed their attack, and Lu Chung-lin was forced to evacuate Peking on 15 April. Hsü Ch'ien fled to Kalgan and then joined Feng Yü-hsiang at Urga (Ulan Bator).

After his troops had been defeated at Tientsin, Feng had gone to Suiyuan. Near the end of March 1926, he had left Suiyuan to go to Urga, where he awaited the arrival af Hsü Ch'ien. After discussions at Urga with Hsü Ch'ien and Borodin, Feng finally agreed to join the
uomintang. Accompanied by Hsü, he then traveled overland to Moscow. He arrived there on 9 May 1926 and remained in the Soviet Union for about three months. During that time he visited various institutions, talked with a number of Soviet leaders, obtained agreements for the delivery of military supplies to his forces, and received some indoctrination in the precepts of Marxism-Leninism.

Hsü Ch'ien left Moscow in July 1926 after hearing that the Northern Expedition had been launched. Feng himself departed on 17 August for Outer Mongolia and China. One month later he reached Wuyuan, Suiyuan, where he resumed command of the Kuominchün. On 16 September 1926 he issued a long statement on his political position. He formally accepted membership in the Kuomintang, stated that he would accept the decisions of the First and Second National congresses of the Kuomintang, and stressed his support of the party's anti-imperialist stand. By the time Feng made his formal public declaration of allegiance to the Kuomintang, the forces of the National Revolutionary Army had made good progress on their drive northward from Canton. Feng then led his troops into Shensi; he consolidated control of the province before the end of 1926. He then moved into Honan. Although his troops were fatigued, Feng's leadership spurred the drive to seize Chengchow, the provincial capital. He consolidated control of northern Honan in the spring of 1927.

Feng then held an important position between the contending regimes at Wuhan and Nanking, and both factions sought his support. He conferred with representatives of the Wuhan group at Chengchow from 10 to 13 June 1927. The Wuhan delegation included Wang Ching-wei, T'ang Sheng-chih, T'an Yen-k'ai, Hsü Ch'ien, Sun Fo, and Yü Yu-jen. They agreed to give Feng control of Honan and acceded to his other demands, but he did not commit himself. Then, from 19 to 21 June, Feng conferred with Chiang Kai-shek at Hsuchow. He decided to cast his lot with Nanking. After returning from Hsuchow, Feng began to purge the Communist political workers in areas under his control. His decision to join Chiang and his subsequent actions shattered the political plans of the Wuhan regime and ended the effectiveness of the Russian advisers in China.

For the second stage of the Northern Expedition, beginning in 1928, Feng's armies (he then had about 30 divisions) comprised the Second Army Group, with Feng as commander in chief. His troops played an important part in the final drive northward, and his subordinate generals, notably Sun Liang-ch'eng, Lu Chung-lin, and Han Fu-chü, were prominent field commanders.

After the fall of Peking on 8 June 1928, the question of troop disbandment arose. In July, the commanders of the four army groups — Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yü-hsiang, Yen Hsi-shan, and Li Tsung-jen met to discuss this question. Feng and Yen disagreed about the principles that should guide this process, and the problem was left to be solved after the reorganization of the National Government.

In October 1928, when the new National Government was established at Nanking, Feng Yü-hsiang was named minister of war and vice chairman of the Executive Yuan. He retained regional power through his control of Honan, Shensi, Kansu, and part of Shantung. The troops disbandment conference was held in January 1929, and formal agreement was reached on disbandment and military reorganization; however, the decisions of the conference were not implemented. Relations between Feng Yü-hsiang and Chiang Kai-shek became strained. Feng held that Chiang's plan for troop disbandment was designed to concentrate military power in the hands of Chiang's close associates. In April, Chiang took control of Shantung, thus depriving Feng of direct access to the sea. Feng accused Chiang of packing the Third National Congress of the Kuomintang and of favoring the troops under his direct command in the distribution of military funds. On 20 May 1929 Feng in effect declared his independence of the National Government. He was dismissed from all government and party offices, and a punitive expedition was ordered.

Feng had concentrated his forces in Honan and Shensi, and in challenging Chiang Kaishek's power he planned to rely heavily on the strength of Han Fu-chü (q-v.) in Honan. However, in late May 1929, as the opposing forces were being deployed, Han, Shih Yü-san, Ma Hung-k'uei (q.v.), and thousands of troops defected to the National Government side. The defections deprived Feng of some of his most experienced soldiers and of economic and strategic control of Honan.

On 10 October 1929 leading Kuominchün officers addressed a public telegram to Feng Yü-hsiang and Yen Hsi-shan denouncing the policies of the National Government and asking them to rectify the situation. Chiang Kai-shek ordered an expedition against the Kuominchün, and the fighting began in western Honan in mid-October. Yen Hsi-shan did not take part in the conflict, and the campaign ended when the Kuominchün withdrew from Honan in late November.

In February 1930 Yen Hsi-shan finally indicated that he had joined with Feng Yu-hsiang in opposing Chiang Kai-shek. They formed what came to be known as the northern coalition or the Yen-Feng movement. They received some support from Li Tsung-jen, Pai Ch'ung-hsi, and Chang Fa-k'uei (qq.v.), who conferred about coordinating their military plans with those of the northern coalition and decided to abandon Kwangsi in favor of a drive toward Wuhan. On 10 May Feng Yü-hsiang issued orders for a general offensive, and fighting began the next day. The Kwangsi forces advanced quickly, but were defeated near Hengyang in mid-June {see Huang Shao-hung) and eliminated from the campaign. However, Yen Hsi-shan and Feng Yü-hsiang won the support of Wang Ching-wei and the so-called Reorganizationist faction of the Kuomintang and of other groups opposed to Chiang Kai-shek. They met in the so-called enlarged conference in July and August to organize an opposition government at Peiping. In the meantime, heavy fighting had begun in Shantung and Honan. At the beginning of September 1930 the northerners lost Shantung. At this point, the northern coalition could be saved only by the intervention of Chang Hsueh-liang (q.v.) and his Manchurian forces. Both sides had courted Chang throughout the campaign, but he had remained neutral. However, he doomed the northerners when, on 18 September, he intervened as a neutral and sent troops to north China. By early October, the war had ended. Feng was forced to relinquish control of his forces, which subsequently were reorganized as National Government troops.

The collapse of the northern coalition and the dispersion of his troops marked the end of Feng Yü-hsiang as a military and political force in China. From 1931 until his death in 1948, Feng held posts in the National Government and the Kuomintang, but he never again wielded power.

In December 1931 Feng was reinstated as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang and was made a member of the State Council. He was appointed minister of interior in February 1932, but he did not take up the duties of that office. He formally resigned two months later. In October, he went to Kalgan; he remained there until the spring of 1933 when the Japanese, having occupied Jehol province, began to advance into Chahar. Then, on 26 May 1933, Feng appointed himself commander in chief of the so-called People's Allied Anti-Japanese Army. He vigorously denounced the National Goverment for failing to resist Japanese aggression and hastily began to assemble troops. However, both Nanking and Tokyo opposed his action, and he was forced to retire in early August. He went to Shantung and lived in seclusion on the sacred mountain T'ai-shan for about two years.

Feng accepted an appointment as vice chairman of the Military Affairs Commission on 6 January 1936 and took up residence at Nanking. He gave many speeches urging national resistance to Japan. After the Sino- Japanese war broke out and the National Government moved to Chungking, he held such posts as minister of water conservancy and member of the Supreme National Defense Council. However, he was not permitted to play an active role in directing wartime activities.

In September 1946 the National Government announced that Feng would head a mission to the United States to study irrigation and conservation facilities. Accompanied by his wife, Feng sailed from Shanghai in late September. The United States government had arranged a comprehensive tour of water control and other engineering projects. Feng followed about the first third of the planned itinerary, but then discontinued the tour. From mid- 1947 on, he devoted himself mainly to public lectures, delivered through an interpreter, in which he attacked Chiang Kai-shek as the man responsible for the existing chaos in China. He soon was ordered to return to China, on the grounds that his study of water conservation in the United States had been completed, but he demurred, explaining in a public speech that his life would be forfeit if he returned to Chinese Nationalist jurisdiction.

At the beginning of January 1948, Feng was elected to the central committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, founded by Li Chi-shen (q.v.) and others at Hong Kong with the announced intention of opposing the central political apparatus of the party dominated by Chiang Kai-shek. On 7 January, the Central Supervisory Committee of the Kuomintang at Nanking formally expelled him from the party for disloyalty. In April, Feng registered with the United States Department of Justice as an agent of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang. In July, he and his wife sailed from New York aboard a Russian ship, the Pobeda, bound for Odessa. On 1 September, just before the ship reached Odessa, a fire broke out on board. Feng was caught in the fire and died, apparently of asphyxiation or a heart attack. The circumstances of Feng's death naturally gave rise to much comment and speculation, but no evidence was discovered to indicate that it was anything other than an accident. On 15 October 1953, in a special commemorative ceremony held in China, his ashes were buried at T'ai-shan in Shantung province. Feng's widow, Li Te-ch'uan, landed at Odessa in 1948 and then traveled through the Soviet Union to Manchuria.

Feng Yü-hsiang was known to have had ten children. Five of these, two sons and three daughters, were by his first wife. He and Li Te-ch'uan had two sons and three daughters. Feng Yü-hsiang's important publications include Wo-ti sheng-huo [my life], an autobiographical account of his life up to 1928, and Wo so jen-shih ti Chiang Chieh-shih [the Chiang Kai-shek I knew], his highly critical recollection of Chiang Kai-shek; these were published in Shanghai in 1947 and 1949 respectively. Among his earlier works are his diary covering the period from 25 November 1920 to the end of 1927, Feng Yü-hsiang jih-chi, published in 1932; and several volumes of speeches and reports delivered in 1936 and 1937, Feng tsai Nan-ching chiang-yen chi, Feng tsai Nan-ching pao-kao chi, Feng tsai Nan-ching ti-i nien, and Feng tsai Xan-ching ti-erh nien. A collection of his 1938-39 speeches entitled Feng fu-wei-yüanchang k'ang-chan yen-lun chi [vice chairman Feng's collected speeches on the war of resistance] appeared in 1940. Feng also wrote poetry. When in seclusion at T'ai-shan in 1933, he wrote the poems that accompany Chao Wang-yün's sketches in Chao Wang-yün nung-ts'un hsieh-sheng chi [Chao Wang-yün's drawings of village life], published in 1934. A collection of verse, Feng Yü-hsiang shih ko hsüan chi [selected poems by Feng Yü-hsiang] was published in Shanghai in 1957. A comprehensive biography, Chinese Warlord: The Career of Feng Yü-hsiang, by James E. Sheridan, appeared in 1966.