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Abstract
China’s humiliating defeat in the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 shocked a number of high-ranking Qing officials into seeking ways to establish a truly modernized army in the Western fashion. Yuan Shikai was named commander in charge of troop training at Xiaozhan, Tianjin. This became known as Xiaozhan Troop Training or Xiaozhan Lianbing 小站练兵. Yuan’s success here created a powerful army, earned him the loyalty of capable generals, and paved the way for his eventual rise to not only military but also political power. The event also marked a significant turning point in modern China’s military history. In recent decades, Chinese historiography on the late nineteenth century has highlighted the positive side of reform movements. Meanwhile, some scholars within China have reevaluated Yuan Shikai and have portrayed him as a forward-looking official, often citing the previously largely neglected Xiaozhan Lianbing as an example. Since the event has generated much scholarly, popular and local interest, the Tianjin municipal government has rebuilt the Xiaozhan site for public exhibition and tourism. This article explores Yuan Shikai’s troop training at Xiaozhan, which has received scant historical interpretation, and its impact upon Yuan’s military and political careers and activities.
Notes
1 Li Hung Chang, Memoirs of Li Hung Chang (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913), 115.
2 Li Hongzhang, a scholar-official from Anhui Province, was instrumental in creating the regional Huai (Anhui) Army to fight against the Taiping rebels in the early 1860s during the Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864). The Huai Army, together with the Xiang Army under the leadership of Zeng Guofen, played a crucial role in suppressing the Taipings. The Huai Army also distinguished itself in crushing the Nian Rebellion (1851–1868). The Manchu Banner Forces and the Han Green Standard Army, the standing fighting forces of the Qing, had lost much of their military vigor and fighting ability by this time. Li Hongzhang was also known for the significant role he played during the self-strengthening movement, which included introducing Western military technology, weaponry, and the establishment of arsenals and shipyards, etc.
3 The term Beiyang (northern ocean) came into use during the late nineteenth century. It refers to the Zhili (later renamed Hebei) coastal region centered in Tianjin.
4 For negative views on Li Hongzhang and other major reformers’ roles in the self-strengthening movement, see Ruan Fangji et al., Yangwu Yundong Shi Lunwen Xuan (Selected Articles on the History of the Foreign Affairs Movement) (Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 1985); Mo Anshi, Yangwu Yundong (The Foreign Affairs Movement) (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1961).
5 For example, CCTV aired the popular multiple—episode TV drama “Yongzheng Wangchao” (the Yongzheng Reign) in 1999, which portrays Emperor Yongzheng as a hard-working reformer. The 2001 TV series “Kangxi Wangchao” (The Kangxi Reign) and the 2002 TV series “Qianlong Wangchao” (The Qianlong Reign) also present the early Qing emperors as strong and capable leaders.
6 Evelyn Rawski, “The Qing in Historiographical Dialogue,” Late Imperial China, vol. 37, no. 1 (June 2016): 1–2. Scholars outside of China have long seen political figures such as Li Hongzhang as major reformers of late Qing China. For a book devoted to Li Hongzhang and the late Qing’s modernization, see Samuel C. Chu and Kwang-Ching Liu, eds., Li Hung-chang and China’s Early Modernization (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1994). See also David Pong, Shen Pao-chen and China’s Modernization in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 1994). For revisionist views of scholars within China on late Qing reformers such as Yuan Shikai, see Zhang Huateng, Yuan Shikai yu Beiyang Junfa (Yuan Shikai and Beiyang Warlords) (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 2006), 18; Zhang Huateng, Beiyangshi Yanjiu Xinlun (New Research Perspectives on the History of Beiyang) (Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe, 2015), xix; 46–56. For a book focusing almost exclusively on the positives of Yuan Shikai despite its more inclusive title, see Zhou Zuitian, Qianqiu Gongguo Yuan Shikai (Yuan Shikai’s Right and Wrong) (Jincheng Chubanshe, 2012).
7 Ying Zhu, Television in Post-Reform China: Serial Dramas, Confucian Leadership and the Global Television Market (London: Routledge, 2008), 42–43. According to Zhu, a survey conducted by CCTV shows that the serial drama was most popular among well-educated, well-to-do males between the ages of 30 and 39.
8 Gotelind Müller, Representing History in Chinese Media: The TV Drama Zou Xiang Gonghe (Towards the Republic) (Transaction Publishers, 2007), 1.
9 For more detailed discussions, see Müller, Representing History in Chinese Media, 1–3; Zhu, Television in Post-Reform China, 43–56.
10 In his recently published book, Yuan Shikai: A Reappraisal, Patrick Fuliang Shan also acknowledges the fact that little has been written on Yuan’s days at Xianzhan. Patrick Fuliang Shan, Yuan Shikai: A Reappraisal (Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 2018), 57.
11 Müller, Representing History in Chinese Media, 2.
12 The narrator of Beiyang Fengyun claims that on the world maps produced by Western countries around the turn of the twentieth century, Xiaozhan was the only Chinese town marked, implying the prominence Xiaozhan had gained due to the troop training there. In 2011, Tianjin Television produced the multi-episode TV drama, Xiaozhan Fengyun (The Stormy Days at Xiaozhan). The show features the town of Xiaozhan as the background for its main plots and includes episodes such as the power struggle between two influential local families to gain control over the tribute rice to the Qing court, the Sino-Japanese War, Yuan Shikai’s Xiaozhan Lianbing, the Hundred Days’ Reform, the Boxer’s Rebellion, and the 1911 Revolution.
13 See Hong Zhang, “From a Symbol of Imperialistic Penetration to a Site of Cultural Heritage: ‘Italian-Style Town’ in Tianjin,” for further discussion on Tianjin municipal government’s efforts to highlight the city’s importance in modern Chinese history, including the reconstruction of the former Italian concession into a new tourist and commercial attraction in Tianjin. Marina Svensson and Christina Maags, eds., Chinese Cultural Heritage in the Making: Experiences, Negotiations and Contestations (Amsterdam University Press, 2018), 67–91.
14 Yumingtang Xianke, Beiyang Jueqi: Cong Zeng Guofan dao Yuan Shikai (The Rise of Beiyang: From Zeng Guofan to Yuan Shikai) (Xinshijie Chubanshe, 2014), 140.
15 Prangtip Kongridhisuksakorn, “Community Development in Historical Perspectives: Tianjin from the Qing to the People’s Republic of China” (PhD diss., Indiana University, 2008), 84.
16 According to Xiaozhan Fengyun, Xiaozhan became a major rice supplier for the Qing imperial family.
17 Kwang-ching Liu and Richard Smith, “The Military Challenge: The Northwest and the Coast,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol.11, Late Ch’ing, 1800-1911, Part 2, ed. John K. Fairbank and Kwang-ching Liu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 244–45.
18 Richard S. Horowitz, “Beyond the Marble Boat: The Transformation of the Chinese Military, 1850-1911,” in A Military History of China, ed. David A. Graff and Robin Higham (Westview Press, 2002), 160–63; Shen Yuan, “Xiaozhan Lianbing,” Xiuxian Dupin Tianxia, vol. 3 (2011): 64.
19 Quoted in The Chinese Times, January 29, 1887.
20 Shen, “Xiaozhan Lianbing,” 64.
21 British minister in Beijing Nicholas O’Conor, American consultant to the Qing court John W. Foster and Chinese officials, including Zhang Zhidong, Wang Wenshao, and Sheng Xuanhuai, all submitted proposals.
22 Lai Xinxia et al., Beiyang Junfashi 1 (A History of Beiyang Warlords 1) (Shanghai: Dongfang Chuban Zhongxin, 2011), 92–93; Edmund S. K. Fung, The Military Dimension of the Chinese Revolution: The New Army and Its Role in the Revolution of 1911 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1980), 13; Wang Jianhua, “Military Reforms, 1895-1908,” in China, 1895-1912: State-Sponsored Reforms and China’s Late-Qing Revolution: Selected Essays from Zhongguo Jindai Shi, ed. and trans. Douglas R. Reynolds, Chinese Studies in History 28 (Spring-Summer 1995), 69.
23 Ma Dongyu, Cong Wanqing Zhongchen dao Lixian Huangdi: Zhenshide Yuan Shikai (From an Important Official of the Late Qing to a Constitutional Emperor: A True Portrayal of Yuan Shikai) (Tuanjie Chubanshe, 2009), 45.
24 Lai et al., Beiyang Junfashi, 93. Hu Yufen first used a place called Machang (Horse Yard) in Tianjin as his garrison, but soon moved to Xiaozhan as the latter could better accommodate several thousand soldiers.
25 Meanwhile, the Qing government also approved of the proposal by Zhang Zhidong, Acting Governor-General of Liang Jiang (Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangsi Provinces), to recruit and train new troops. By the end of 1895, Zhang started organizing a new-style Self-Strengthening Army in Nanjing. See Wang Jianhua, “Military Reforms, 1895-1908,” 69.
26 A battalion is called ying in Chinese. A ying typically consisted of around 500 men.
27 Lai et al., Beiyang Junfashi, 94–97, 105.
28 Zhongguo Jindaishi Congshu Bianxiezu, Jiawu Zhongri Zhanzheng (The Sino-Japanese War) (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1973), 217–22.
29 Ma, Cong Wanqing Zhongchen dao Lixian Huangdi, 4–5.
30 Ralph L. Powell, The Rise of Chinese Military Power, 1895–1912 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1955), 73; Jerome Ch’en, Yuan Shih-k’ai (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1972), 2; Ma, Cong Wanqing Zhongchen dao Lixian Huangdi, 6–7.
31 Chen Xizhang, Xishuo Beiyang (A Detailed Interpretation of Beiyang) (Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 2016), 114–15; Ma, Cong Wanqing Zhongchen dao Lixian Huangdi, 13; Shan, Yuan Shikai, 59.
32 Powell, The Rise of Chinese Military Power, 74; Ma, Cong Wanqing Zhongchen dao Lixian Huangdi, 43
33 Although Zhang Zhidong also carried out military reforms through organizing and training the Self-Strengthening Army around the same time, his efforts have not generated the same level of public interest in China. Xiaozhan Lianbing has engendered more academic and public attention, probably due to the renewed interest in Yuan Shikai’s political career, in which the troop training at Xiaozhan played a critical part.
34 Allen Fung, “Testing the Self-Strengthening: The Chinese Army in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95,” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 30 (October 1996): 1009.
35 According to historian Hans van de Ven, a major problem confronting the late Qing military system since the start of the Self-Strengthening movement was a fiscal one since a severe shortage of dedicated state funding led to the overall weakness of China’s military forces. See Hans Van De Ven, “Military Mobilization in China, 1840-1949,” in War in the Modern World since 1815, ed. Jeremy Black (London: Routledge, 2003), 21. See also Tonio Andrade’s The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016), 273–296, for an analysis of the self-strengthening movement and the argument that a lack of dedicated state funding was a major contributing factor for the failure of the movement. According to Chinese historian Lai Xinxia, Xiaozhan Lianbing was well funded by the Qing government. Lai et al., Beiyang Junfashi, 113.
36 Ding Zhongjiang, Beiyang Junfa Shihua (A General History of Beiyan Warlords) (Shangwu Yinshuguan, 2012), 550.
37 Lai et al., Beiyang Junfashi, 112–13; Guojia Renwen Lishi Zazhishe. Beiyang Xiaoxiong Chenfu (The Rise and Fall of Beiyang Notables) (Beijing: Renmin Ribao Chubanshe, 2016), 14.
38 Jin Manlou, Beiyang Wangshi: Naxie Junfa Naxieren (The Stories of Beiyang: The Warlords Back Then) (Beijing: Xiandai Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 2011), 9.
39 Xinjian Lujun Binglue Cunlu (Memorandum on the Newly Created Army), in Zhongguo Jindaishi Ziliao Congkan: Beiyang Junfa 1, ed. Lai Xinxia (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1988), 47.
40 Shan, Yuan Shikai, 65.
41 Chen Qin, Beiyang Qiangren: Gejujunfa de Rensheng Chenfu (The Strongmen of Beiyang: The Rise and Fall of Beiyang Warlords) (Beijing: Zhongguo Gongren Chubanshe, 2015), 15; Chen, Beiyang Qiangren, 16.
42 “Jiemi Yuan Shikai Fajia Zhilu: Xiaozhan Lianbing Zhijun Jiqi Yange” (Yuan Shikai’s Road to Glory: Strict Military Discipline at Xiaozhan Lianbing), Tianjin Ribao (Tianjin Daily), January 17, 2011.
43 Ch’en, Yuan Shih-k’ai, 33–34; Powell, The Rise of Chinese Military Power, 76.
44 Powell, The Rise of Chinese Military Power, 77. For a more detailed discussion on the importance Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong placed on drill as a way of promoting military discipline and establishing an effective army, see Nicolas Schillinger, The Body and Military Masculinity in Late Qing and Early Republican China: The Art of Governing Soldiers (Lanham: Lexington Book, 2016), 49–85.
45 Ch’en, Yuan Shih-k’ai, 35.
46 See Xinjian Lujun Binglue Cunlu (Memorandum on the Newly Created Army), in Zhongguo Jindaishi Ziliao Congkan, 33–34.
47 Ch’en, Yuan Shih-kai, 35.
48 Yumingtang Xianke, Beiyang Jueqi, 141; Pan Rong and Wei Youxing, Beiyang Zhengfu Shihua (A Brief History of the Beiyang Government) (Beijing: Shehuikexue Wenxian Chubanshe, 2011), 6.
49 “Dashuai Lianbing Ge” (Generalissimo’s Troop Training Song), https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hans (Accessed December 20, 2016).
50 Xinjian Lujun Binglue Cunlu, in Zhongguo Jindaishi Ziliao Congkan, 88.
51 Ching-Chih Liu, A Critical History of New Music in China (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2010), 25–26.
52 Ibid., 26. See also, Schillinger, The Body and Military Masculinity in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 99–100.
53 Schillinger, The Body and Military Masculinity in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 139.
54 Ibid., 140.
55 Qiao Hongwen, Qingchao Miewang Ji Beiyang Zhengfu Shuaiwang (The Fall of the Qing Dynasty and the Decline and the Fall of the Beiyang Government) (Beijing: Beijing Yanshang Chubanshe, 2013), 130.
56 The recruits were paid fairly well with a monthly salary of four and a half taels of silver, capable of purchasing eighty-four kilograms of rice.
57 Ma, Cong Wanqing Zhongchen dao Lixian Huangdi, 51.
58 Jin Manlou, Beiyang Wangshi: Naxie Junfa Naxieren (The Stories of Beiyang: The Warlords Back Then) (Beijing: Xiandai Jiaoxu Chubanshe, 2011), 9.
59 See Xinjian Lujun Binglue Cunlu (Memorandum on the Newly Created Army), in Zhongguo Jindaishi Ziliao Congkan, 47.
60 Lai et al., Beiyang Junfashi, 125–26.
61 Charles Beresford, The Break-Up of China: With an Account of Its Present Commerce, Currency, Waterways, Armies, Railways, Politics and Future Prospects (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1899; reprint, Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1972), 270–71.
62 Beresford, The Break-Up of China, viii.
63 Beresford, The Break-up of China, 273.
64 Fung, The Military Dimension of the Chinese Revolution, 14; Guojia Renwen Lishi Zazhishe. Beiyang Xiaoxiong Chenfu, 14; Qiao Hongwen, Qingchao Miewang, 131.
65 Zhang Huateng, Beiyangshi Yanjiu Xinlun, 190–97; Ernest P. Young, The Presidency of Yuan Shih-kai: Liberalism and Dictatorship in Early Republican China (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1977), 54.
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Hong Zhang
Hong Zhang is Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Florida. She has published articles and book chapters on subjects ranging from US–China relations, women in rural China, interpretations of popular culture in China, cultural heritage, to modern history of Tianjin. She is the author of America Perceived: The Making of Chinese Images of the United States, 1945–1953 (Praeger, 2002). She is currently completing a book manuscript on the cultural history of Tianjin during the Republican period.