CHAPTER XV

YUAN SHIH K'AI'S RETIREMENT

Perhaps the one personage in China most impressed by the utter inability of four hundred million Chinese to stand up against the forty million Japanese was the Chinese Resident in Seoul. Formerly in charge of the Chinese troops in Korea, he had been promoted to be China's representative at the Court of what was so soon to pass away. That impact of the new and the old, that utter collapse of the feeble resistance offered by the proud Imperial troops to the disciplined modern army of Japan, convinced the Resident that China was tottering to her fall unless she, like Japan, could absorb the knowledge and civilisation of the West. This lesson was--to use a Chinese phrase--"engraved upon his heart." That Resident was Yuan Shih K'ai.

From that time onwards he set his hand to the plough of reform. And so straight a furrow did he plough, with never a swerve from his purpose, that he was everywhere spoken of as Yuan the Reformer. Discredited by the Japanese, neglected by the Chinese Government, vegetating for a time in that out-of-the-way port of Wenchow, it was not until 1898 that Yuan began to come to his own. As the result of a personal interview with the Emperor Kwang Hsu, he received his first military command under the Reform movement, being made expectant Vice-President of a Board with control of an army corps. In his new, environment Yuan had the opportunity of his life; he {224} proved his real greatness by rising to the occasion. Beginning with the control of a few modern-trained soldiers, he so entered into the development of the idea in his brain that China's Model Army was the result, and their proved superiority over the Wuchang Modern Army at the engagements near Hankow was the proof that henceforth the properly trained, armed, and disciplined Chinese soldier is a force to be reckoned with. At this stage of his career Yuan united honesty of purpose with singleness of aim. He took the attitude of the old "sea dogs" of the British Navy--he was straight and true with his men, and worked with them. Honest himself, he saw to it that his officers were men of integrity. Foreigners applauded him, and when in 1900 he became Governor of Shantung, all the civilised world recognised that the man who would succeed Li Hung-chang had arrived. At this juncture Yuan Shih K'ai reached the parting of the ways, and showed to the world that even a great-minded and strong, purposeful Chinese statesman, with an intense desire for Reform in the country, is a Chinese still. Yuan had aided and abetted the young Emperor in his pursuit of Reform, but the time came when the military reformer had to choose whom he would serve--the Reform party and the Emperor Kwang-Hsu or the Conservative party and their leader the Empress-Dowager.

To carry out the Reform purpose it was necessary that the Emperor should have control of the new Northern Army, then under the command of Jung Lu, Governor-General of Chihli, and in order to obtain this control Jung Lu had to be put out of the way. At a secret interview with the Emperor on the 5th of the 8th moon, 1898, Yuan, after hearing all details of the Emperor's plan, which included the beheading of Jung Lu and the capture of the Empress-Dowager by means of the army, promised implicit obedience. (He had already assured the Emperor of his loyalty if placed {225} in command of the troops. "Your servant," he said, "will endeavour to recompense the Imperial favour even though his merit be as a drop of water in the ocean or a grain of sand in the desert; he will faithfully perform the service of a dog or a horse while there remains breath in his body.")[1]

And with his vows hot upon his lips--went straight away and betrayed his sovereign. He was a Chinese, and seemed to choose the side that would best serve his own ends. The result is a matter of history. But it must ever be remembered that Yuan Shih K'ai struck the fatal blow which paralysed the Reform movement and prepared for the great humiliation of China in 1900.

Amongst the Chinese Yuan has come to be regarded as a man of doubtful advantage to his side. They remember that his arbitrary conduct of affairs when Resident of Korea had much to do with the bringing in of that disastrous conflict with Japan, they speak of his action in betraying the cause of Reform, and point to the fact that all his great schemes have, sooner or later, brought disaster with them and plunged his country into disgrace. Yuan might or might not have been guilty of these things. It is difficult for an onlooker to understand the game of Court intrigue as played by the Chinese diplomats. He sees not the things that count, or if he sees them reckons them as but sidelights, and sees them out of their true proportions. Nevertheless when calamity overtook the Empire Yuan's was the strong hand that held it, that kept the country from going altogether. From the time of the return to power of the Empress-Dowager and her corrupt eunuch-controlled Court, Yuan's star was in the ascendant. Specially named in the Imperial Edict which announced to all China the settlement of the Boxer troubles, promoted to the Viceregal blue-ribbon--that of Viceroy of Chihli and Guardian of the {226} Imperial Capital--granted the Order of the Yellow Jacket and sundry other distinctions--Yuan Shih K'ai became the first man of the Empire.

For the part he had played in stemming the Boxer tide and in saving the lives of many foreigners, Yuan commanded the respect and admiration of the Legations in Peking, and through them, of the civilised world.

Then came the fall. A writer in the _National Review_ puts the matter briefly but succinctly: "In 1908 H.E. Yuan celebrated his fiftieth birthday. He held a reception and was the recipient of many gifts, including some from the Empress-Dowager and the Emperor. The great officials of Peking vied with each other in the costliness and rare choice of the presents they made, but there was a notable abstention from these courtesies. Prince Chun had asked for a few days' leave of absence, and being therefore officially non-existent, he was saved the necessity of making a present. The incidents which led to the dismissal of H.E. Yuan deserve close note. Very shortly after the birthday celebration a special meeting of the Grand Council was held at which the question to be discussed was the appointment of a successor to H.I.M. Kwang Hsu. The Empress-Dowager presided, and, after announcing that the time had come to nominate an heir to the Throne, she stated that she had already made a choice in her own mind, but desired the advice of her councillors. Prince Ching and Yuan Shih K'ai then suggested the name of Prince Pu Lun, or, failing him, Prince Kung. The Empress-Dowager, however, announced that she had long ago in her own mind intended to make the eldest son of Prince Chun, whom she had married to the daughter of Jung Lu, the heir to the Throne, in recognition of Jung Lu's lifelong devotion to her person. She heard the Council's views on this proposal, and as there was general agreement, she made this her final choice. Though this agreement was general, it was not unanimous; H.E. Yuan held to his {227} view of the superior claims of Prince Pu Lun, and, if precedent is anything to go by, he was right in these views. However, his views were overruled, with the result that H.I.M. Hsuan Tung now rules China.

"Shortly afterwards came the death of H.I.M. Kwang Hsu, whose valedictory Edict stated that for the misery of the past ten years Yuan Shih K'ai is responsible, and one other.... 'When the time comes I desire that Yuan be summarily beheaded.' This pious wish was not fulfilled, but scarcely had the present Regent assumed power than he propitiated the shade of his brother by a summary dismissal of his ablest statesman."

Yuan retired to his birthplace, in Honan, and all efforts of foreign would-be friends to have him recalled were in vain. Yuan's time of evening twilight seemed to have come.

[1] "China under the Empress-Dowager," p. 203.

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