Xu Shichang And Beiyang Political Situation In 1916-1922

The years from 1916 to 1922 were the most active period for XU Shichang in the politics of the Republic of China.He was deeply involved in the political situation when he was out of power.He had important influences on major historical events,such as the battle in 1916 between the office of the President led by LI Yuanhong and the State Council led by DUAN Qirui,entering the world war I in 1917,the restoration of ZHANG xun,the two cabinet agitation in the battle between the office of the president led by FENG Guozhang and the state council led by DUAN Qirui in 1917 and 1918,and FENG Guozhang and Duan Qirui's resignation from the government at the same time.He served as the fifth President of the Republic of China from 1918 to 1922.During this time,he presided over the north and south peace talks,experienced cabinet agitation of Wan system turning from cooperation to division,congressional disputes,fight between the Wan system and the Zhi system,indirectly contributed to the war between them.After the collapse of the Wan system,the Zhi and Feng systems deeply intervened in the central government.XU Shichang struggled to survive under the pressure of the Zhi and Feng systems.He used the contradiction in the Zhi and Feng system,and dominated the cabinet succession of JIN Yunpeng and LIANG Shiyi,which broke the balance in the Zhi and Feng system and made the dispute in Zhi and Feng systems open.To sum up,XU Shichang had a profound influence on the Beiyang political situation from 1916 to 1922.This paper mainly discusses XU Shichang's political activities and influence during this period.The full text is divided into seven parts:The first chapter mainly expounds XU Shichang's activities in the battle between LI Yuanhong and Duan Qirui from 1916 to 1917,and investigates XU's specific performance,motivation and influence.In the autumn and winter of 1916,XU Shichang,as a "mediator",deeply participated in the dispute between the office of president led by LI Yuanhong and the state council led by DUAN Qirui,and was the most crucial figure to ease the dispute.Xu,who supported joining the world war I in 1917,was at the core person promoting of DUAN Qirui's advocacy of entering the war.When the dispute was incandesced,XU supported the military governors group to fight against LI Yuanhong.During the restoration period of ZHANG Xun,he tried to dissuade ZHANG Xun from restoring the state and supported the military governors group to oppose ZHANG Xun's monopoly of power.Xu's motivation in the above activities was based on his being a vizier of the Beiyang school and his strong Beiyang sense of defending the interests of his school.The second chapter mainly investigates XU Shichang's activities during the battle between FENG and DUAN.The battle between FENG and DUAN in the winter of 1917 was an internal struggle of Beiyang school.He was qualified to adjusted between them as a vizier.He intervened the battle between FENG and DUAN on the basis of maintaining the Beiyang,and went through such activities as maintaining the cabinet of DUAN and supporting WANG Shizhen to form a cabinet,which mediated the political trend.In 1918,the supporting forces of the war publicly push XU Shichang to aid DUAN,boosted the section of the cabinet to recover,his relationship with the Wan system was more closely.XU led the allocation of cabinet members of WANG,and the allocation continued to the cabinet of DUAN,strengthening XU's influence on the center.During this period,XU began to take the initiative to intervene in the political situation and seemingly became one of the central figures of the situation.The third chapter mainly investigates the influence of various factions' support on XU Shichang and the growth and activities of XU school before XU Shichang became the President.Xu shichang was a popular candidate for the presidency.The Beiyang school often tried to push XU forward when the political situation fluctuated.Their activities provided a feasible reference for XU to take office finally,and enhanced XU's leader figure.Both FENG Guozhang and DUAN Qirui were qualified to be presidents,but due to their conflicts with the war,XU became a possible choice to ease the conflicts between the two sides.Beiyang,Anfu and the Yanjiu system had a process from disagreement to unifying on the president issue,and finally selected XU Shichang.Xu combined the old and new transportation system to become the third force in the political arena,which increased the atmosphere of advocating of peace,and increased the counter of XU's wining of presidency.XU Shichang and his school were in opposition to the election of a President by the provisional senate and the reshuffle of the cabinet,which helped XU a lot.The fourth chapter mainly investigates XU Shichang's activities in 1919.XU Shichang hoped to become a President with real power by means of peace talks,and he began to make arrangements in advance before and after taking office,which can be roughly summarized as three aspects: 1,replacing DUAN Qirui with QIAN Nengxun,who was in his school,as the prime minister.2,keeping the Vice President position for people from the southwest,resisting the entrance of CAO Kun.3.Using peaceful voices to unify the views of the northern schools.The issues that XU felt the most difficult in the peace talks were Shanxi truce,which was related to the weakening of the forces of the Wan system,the decision on whether or not abolishing the fighting army and whether or not keeping the congress.In the beginning,XU Shichang agreed with DUAN's policies towards shaanxi because of his support for DUAN Qirui,but later,the south took the Shaanxi issue as a precondition for peace talks.Xu was eager to reach a settlement,and his attitude began to change,hoping to push for a truce in Shaanxi.The fighting army was established by DUAN Qirui to unify the south by force.The south wanted to abolish the fighting army.XU went through several stages in dealing with this problem,such as defending DUAN in the beginning,negotiating compromise with DUAN after encountering pressure,and failing due to he resistance of DUAN school.The south took dissolving Anfu as a condition to recognize XU,XU intended to dissolve Anfu because of the desire to compromise with the south and detest of the Anfu congress constraints.But the plan was soon detected by the department of Anfu,Then the peace talks were thwarted,resulting in the failure of the peace talks.The fifth chapter mainly investigates the conflict between XU and Wan system in the first half of his presidency.QIAN Nengxun cabinet adhering to XU's will,Anfu took diplomacy and campus upheaval to attack QIAN directly and XU indirectly.XU Shichang resigned to fight back with two intentions: one is to maintain the QIAN Nengxun cabinet which took his will;and the second is,on the basis of item 1,to continue to control peace negotiations at home and promote the signing of the Paris Peace Conference abroad.Anfu school continued to attack XU,annexing the XU school in the parliament into itself,and the general representative of the north changed into WANG Jitang,a member of Anfu,marking the decline of the government.In the end,XU gained the initiative on the signature issue,but he did not achieve the goal of peace talks,nor did he keep the QIAN cabinet.The loss was greater than the gain.XU push ZHOU Shumo assembling the cabinet to fight Anfu in the long term.The Anfu wanted to control of the cabinet,so it put forward many harsh conditions for the exchange,both sides did not reach a compromise,and the deepened the detest to each other.JIN Yunpeng's cabinet was a compromise between XU's needs and easing Anfu's pressure.JIN was opposed to Anfu because JIN belonged to the DUAN school.Jin was grateful for XU's support,and JIN had a close relationship with Zhi and Feng systems,which can be used.To maintain the balance of power of the various schools is XU Shichang's strategy to maintain his own power.XU shielded the Zhi system and supressed the Wan system in issues of Henan governor changing,and withdrawal of the Zhi system in Hunan,leading to the deterioration of XU-DUAN relationship,and exacerbated the conflict between the Zhi and Wan systems and further indirectly led to the war between them.As the war approached,XU experienced a transition from peace promotion to indifference.The sixth chapter mainly investigates the activities of XU Shichang under the oppression of Zhi and Feng systems.After the war,the issues of cabinet,the national assembly,the punishment of the culprits and other issues became examples of Zhi and Feng systems' deep involvement in the central government,highlighting XU's weakness.JIN Yunpeng relied on the cabinet,in balancing the Zhi and Feng systems he often infringe the interests of the government,causing detest of XU Shichang,who hoped to integrate the President Office and the State Council.XU-JIN contradiction therefore emerged.Because the Hunan and Hubei war,the change of governer on Rehe,the alcohol and tobacco department and other problems,the contradiction between the President office and the State Council gradually escalated.XU drove JIN out with the help of the Feng system,and made use of the LIANG Shi-yi who was recommended by the Feng system to form a cabinet,leading to the imbalance between the Zhi and Feng systems and the contracition between the President office and the State Council turned into contradiction between Zhi and Feng systems.Then XU gave up the maintenance of the LIANG cabinet because of the pressure from the Zhi system,which incurred resentment from the Feng system,resulting the Feng,Wan,Yue and Jiao systems joined and fight against the Zhi system and passingly against XU.XU began to tend to suppress Feng system by Zhi system.Xu hoped to avoid war by solving the cabinet of the prime minister,assuming responsibility by himself,and persuading both sides to make concessions.However,he failed to achieve any progress,which further revealed his frailty.After the war,XU consolidated his power by resisting the old parliament and pushing WANG Shizhen to form a cabinet.However,the Zhi system accelerated the movement to restore the old parliament,and XU lost his legal support and was forced by Wu Peifu to resign suddenly.The conclusion is that XU Shichang's political activities from 1916 to 1922 are divided into two periods obviously,each of which had different political background,identity,participation degree and influence.In first period of 1916 to 1918,he was one of the key players in the political scene,but not the central figure.The Beiyang school was facing a split crisis,and they needed Xu Shichang's fame,experience and power to help them save the crisis.The campaign boosted its political strength.From 1918 to 1922,i.e.the second period,XU,as the President,was at the center of the political whirlpool and the central person in the political situation.His popularity and power dissipated rapidly during this period,which unwittingly led to even more chaos.The decline of power in modern times,the conflict between XU's identities of vizir and the chief,and XU's style of conduct were the important reasons for his decline.