Chapter 13: Reassessing Li Yuanhong: A Qing Dynasty Commander Turned Opportunist, Used as President

I. A Qing Dynasty Commander Pulled Out to Become President

Li Yuanhong (1864–1928), at the time of the Xinhai Revolution, commanded several thousand Qing troops stationed in Wuchang—roughly equivalent to a regimental commander. After the Wuchang Uprising, revolutionary activists dragged him out and installed him as Military Governor of Hubei.

Under coercion and inducement, Li Yuanhong betrayed the Qing dynasty and was later elected Vice President. After Yuan Shikai’s death, Li was elevated to the presidency. The following year, Zhang Xun’s restoration drove him from office. In 1922, Cao Kun once again pulled Li out to serve as president, making him Cao Kun’s puppet. The next year, Cao Kun bribed his way into the presidency himself, and Li Yuanhong was again forced out and retired to Tianjin, where he spent his remaining years.

II. First Serving Li Hongzhang, Then Zhang Zhidong

Li Yuanhong was born in 1864 into a poor rural family in Hanyang Prefecture, Hubei. As a youth, he studied the Four Books and Five Classics at a private school. At age nineteen, he was admitted to the Tianjin Beiyang Naval Academy, where he studied naval science for five years and graduated, specializing in marine engineering. At twenty-four, he was appreciated by Li Hongzhang and assigned to serve on the Beiyang Fleet’s Laiyuan ship.

During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, after his ship ran aground, Li jumped into the sea and escaped. He later attached himself to Zhang Zhidong in Nanjing. Zhang recognized Li as loyal, reliable, and capable, and appointed him to supervise and train new troops, sending him repeatedly to Japan to study military affairs.

III. Commanding the Yangtze River Fleet

In 1896, when Zhang Zhidong returned to serve as Governor-General of Huguang, Li Yuanhong accompanied him and supervised the production of rapid-fire artillery at the Hubei Arsenal. Skilled in horsemanship, Li was appointed commander of cavalry units, later promoted to training officer of various battalions, and organized and trained the Hubei New Army.

Li Yuanhong concurrently commanded six naval vessels and four torpedo boats of the Hubei Navy, thus controlling the Yangtze River fleet.

IV. Forced into Becoming Hubei Military Governor as a Revolutionary Puppet

During the Wuchang Uprising of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, Li Yuanhong hid in a friend’s house. Revolutionary activists dragged him out and forced him to serve as Military Governor of Hubei, forming a military government.

A popular folk account claims that after the uprising on October 17, 1911, Li hid under his concubine’s bed. This was discovered by a platoon leader named Xiao Xiezeng, who ordered squad leader Yu Changeng to drag Li out from under the bed at gunpoint, forcing him to go to the Provincial Assembly, where he was detained upstairs. Li was reportedly terrified, like a wooden statue of a bodhisattva. I heard this story from my middle-school history teacher, who told it half-jokingly as if it were true.

Another account says that after the uprising, Li changed into civilian clothes and, led by aide Wang Anrun, hid at the home of staff officer Liu Wenji in Huangtubi. When revolutionaries arrived, Li hid behind a mosquito net, then crawled under the bed. Revolutionary Ma Rong pointed a gun at him and ordered him out, forcing Li to crawl out from under the bed. He was ultimately pushed into the position of Military Governor of the Hubei military government.

Both stories may not be entirely true. It is likely that Li did hide behind a mosquito net. What is certain is that he was pushed forward by the revolutionaries as a puppet and a symbolic banner.

V. After Yuan’s Death, Li Legally Ascends to the Presidency

In February 1912, Li was elected Acting Vice President in Nanjing. In October 1913, he was formally elected Vice President of the Republic of China. In 1915, when Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor, Li was granted the title of Prince of Wuyi. In 1916, after Yuan died of illness, Li legally succeeded to the presidency.

VI. Lacking Power Against Duan Qirui, Forced from Office by Zhang Xun

In 1917, Li Yuanhong clashed with Premier Duan Qirui in the so-called “Presidency–Cabinet Conflict.” Duan strongly advocated China’s declaration of war against Germany in World War I, while Li firmly opposed it.

In May, Li issued a presidential order dismissing Duan from the premiership. Duan obeyed and left Beijing for Tianjin, but eleven provincial military governors supporting Duan declared independence in opposition to Li. Li was forced to urgently summon Zhang Xun to Beijing to mediate. In June, Zhang Xun led 5,000 troops from Xuzhou into Beijing and forced Li to dissolve parliament and step down.

On July 1, 1917, Zhang Xun led his troops to restore the twelve-year-old former emperor Puyi to the throne. Li fled to the Dutch Legation and then went to Tianjin, telegraphing Vice President Feng Guozhang to act as president and reappoint Duan Qirui as premier. Zhang Xun’s restoration was quickly suppressed by Duan Qirui’s punitive forces.

VII. Cao Kun Again Installs Li as a Puppet President

Li retired to Tianjin, intending to withdraw from politics and focus on industrial and commercial ventures. In 1922, after Cao Kun took control in Beijing and ousted President Xu Shichang, Cao invited Li Yuanhong to resume the presidency as his puppet. In 1923, Li was again forced out when Cao Kun bribed his way into the presidency. Li then went to Japan, later returning to Tianjin to live out his final years.

Li invested in coal, steel, textiles, tobacco, alcohol, banking, and securities across thirteen provinces—including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hubei—and Hong Kong, operating more than seventy enterprises, some of which he personally chaired. In 1928, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Tianjin at the age of sixty-four.

Sun Yat-sen praised Li as “the foremost great figure of the First Uprising of the Republic.” The world says, “The times create heroes”—and the times also created presidents. Had the Qing dynasty not collapsed, Li would have remained merely a mediocre military officer. He had no intention of revolution, yet was pushed onto the revolutionary stage, made governor, then vice president, then president—installed like a bodhisattva, in reality half a puppet.

VIII. Lacking Zhang Xun’s Loyal Backbone, Turning to Business and Ending Well

Li Yuanhong lacked Zhang Xun’s rigid loyalty to the Qing dynasty. Forced into opportunistic revolution, he was used by others. When he served as president in 1917, he possessed no real power and held only an empty title, yet failed to grasp the situation and rashly ordered the dismissal of the powerful premier Duan Qirui, provoking opposition from provincial military governors.

The issue of entering World War I was not especially momentous—it was merely a dispute over which side to join—revealing Li’s lack of political skill. He was never suited to be president. After leaving office and turning to business and industrial development, abandoning political turmoil, he finally acted pragmatically and was able to end his life peacefully.