Wu P'ei-fu 吳佩孚 T. Tzu-yü 子玉 Wu P'ei-fu (22 April 1874-4 December 1939), warlord and leader of the Chihli military faction who became the dominant military leader in north China in 1922. Although his control of the Peking government was broken by Feng Yü-hsiang in 1924, he continued to dominate the Honan-Hupeh-Hunan area until 1926, […]

Wu Ch'ao-shu (23 May 1887-2 January 1934), known as C. C. Wu, Western-educated official at Peking who went to Canton in 1917 with his father, Wu T'ing-fang, to join the Canton regime of Sun Yat-sen. He later served as minister of foreign affairs at Canton and Nanking. In 1928-30 he was minister to the United […]

Wang I-t'ang (6 October 1878-September 1946), political associate of Yuan Shih-k'ai and Tuan Ch'i-jui who later served on the Hopei-Chahar political council. Wang was among the first of the Peiyang politicians to cooperate with the Japanese in 1937. He served as minister of relief and later as chairman of the Japanese-sponsored government in north China. […]

T'ang Shao-yi (1860-30 September 1938), long-time associate of Yuan Shih-k'ai who became the Chinese republic's first premier in 1912. He broke with Yuan in June 1912 and later allied himself with Sun Yat-sen. After Sun's death, T'ang lent support to various movements within the Kuomintang which opposed the growing authority of Chiang Kaishek. T'ang was […]

Sun Ch'uan-fang (1884-13 November 1935), Peiyang warlord who won control of Kiangsu, Chekiang, Kiangsi, Anhwei, and Fukien in the mid-1920's. It was only with the collapse of his power in 1927 that the success of the Northern Expedition became a certainty. Sun was assassinated in 1935. A native of Linch'eng hsien, Shantung, Sun Ch'uan-fang grew […]

Sun Pao-ch'i (26 April 1867-3 February 1931), diplomat who represented the Ch'ing government in France and Germany and who served the Peking government as minister of foreign affairs and premier. The eldest son of Sun Yi-ching, an assistant imperial tutor, Sun Pao-ch'i was born in Hangchow. He received a traditional education in the Chinese classics. […]

Shih Chao-chi (10 April 1877-3 January 1958), known as Sao-ke Alfred Sze, diplomat who became Chinese minister to the Court of St. James's in 1914 and who spent most of the rest of his life outside China. In addition to serving as China's chief envoy to Great Britain and the United States, he was plenipotentiary […]

P'u-yi (1906-17 October 1967), the last Manchu emperor. Born in Peking, P'u-yi was the son of Tsaifeng, the second Prince Ch'un and the nephew of the Kuang-hsü emperor. As the emperor neared death in 1908, some members of the Manchu hierarchy pressed the claims of P'u-lun and P'u-wei, older great-grandsons of the Taokuang Emperor in […]

Liang Shih-i (5 May 1869-9 April 1933), government official and financier whose activities in the development* of banking, railroads, and loan programs during the Peiyang period made him the recognized head of the so-called communications clique. His removal from the Peking government premiership in January 1922 was the immediate cause of the Chihli- Fengtien war. […]

Chiang K'ang-hu Orig. Chiang Shao-ch'üan Alt. Kiang Kang-hu Chiang K'ang-hu (18 July 1883-?), scholar, teacher, and propagandist of various reform causes. He founded the first Chinese socialist party in 1912, but later became more conservative. His ineffectual political career was broken by a scandal concerning restoration of the Manchu empire, and Chiang later took part […]