l<eiiww of Revie'j:s, : 1 11/ 13 



879 



YUAN SHIH-KAI, MASTER OF CHINA; 



By CARL CROW 



Is Yuan Shih-kai, President of the Re- 

 public of China, a man who would be 



king ? 



In that brief query is summed up the 

 question which is sending the armies of 

 the South of China against the armies 

 of the North, threatening to wreck the 

 Flowery Republic, so recently estab- 

 lished as a result of the most remarkable 

 revolution the world has ever known. 

 Rumours of a possible civil war have 

 been current in China ever since the 

 establishment of the Republic, and the 

 basis for all of them is the fear of Yuan 

 Shih-kai — the fear that he will make his 

 present dictatorship permanent, and will 

 found a new dynasty stronger than the 

 old. Almost all who know the man, 

 Chinese and foreigners alike, believe that 

 he who has so easily gained the mastery 

 of a country which has known so many 

 dynasties could with almost equal ease 

 destroy the republican government of 

 which he is head, put on the old mon- 

 archial trappings of the Manchus, and 

 make himself the first of a new dynasty 

 of Chinese emperors. 



"He is the Napoleon of China!" cry 

 the Chinese republicans of the South, 

 amazed that under a republican form of 

 government one man is able to secure 

 and hold such a large measure of power. 



" Why should I want to be a Napo- 

 leon when I might become another 

 Washington?" replies Yuan. 



Is he a Napoleon or a Washington ? 

 No one knows, and on the answer to the 

 question depends much of China's future 

 history. 



Yuan Shih-kai is now 55. though he 

 does not look so old. He is a short, 

 heavy man, active, but inclined to be 

 corpulent, like most old Chinese. His 

 eyes are small and keen, and, with ad- 

 vancing age, bulge from the head in a 

 way that would be ludicrous in a man of 

 less dignity. His complexion was once 



*This article was -written for the American 

 Review of Reviews before tlie southern out- 

 break had been crushed by Yuan, and before 

 his formal election as first President of 

 C'hina. 



clear and swarthy, but is now somewhat 

 sallow and discoloured. His enemies 

 say this is because of his dissolute life 

 His moustache, once black, is now grey 

 and straggling, and droops over his firm 

 mouth in the approved Chinese fashion 

 Since he has cut his queue and adopted 

 foreign clothing it is noticeable that he 

 always stands with his feet wide apart, 

 like the horseman he is, or like Napoleon 

 In a room full of Chinese, Yuan would 

 not attract attention. He has not the 

 commanding stature which gave promi- 

 nence to his old patron, Li Hung-chang 

 He has not the peculiar facial formation 

 with breadth of cheek which character- 

 ises Sun Yat Sen, nor the strong jaw and 

 military bearing of Li Yuan-hung. 



If he lacks in distinguished physical' 

 appearance. Yuan makes up for it by the 

 pomp with which he surrounds himself 

 For many years, when he occupied offi- 

 cial position under the Manchus, he 

 never went abroad without the company 

 of four guards of unusual height, who 

 were dressed in gorgeous costume. His 

 chair-bearers were always men of strik- 

 ing appearance, and there was nothing 

 in the catalogue of Chinese livery which 

 was overlooked to add distinction to his 

 coming and going. As his rank in- 

 creased he increased the eclat with which 

 he surrounded himself. Now, as the 

 President of the Flowery Republic, 

 streets are cleared before he ventures out, 

 and he goes accompanied by man\- 

 galloping horsemen, 



WITHOUT A CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 



A Chinese critic, who once denounced 

 Yuan Shih-kai, said, " In his youth his 

 favourite pastimes were horse-riding and 

 fencing, and he was not a man of educa- 

 tion." That is a serious charge in China, 

 for Yuan Shih-kai has violated the pre- 

 cedents and ideals of centuries by climb- 

 ing the rungs of official promotion with- 

 out the knowledge of Chinese classics 

 with which every Chinese official is sup- 

 posed to be equipi.)ed. He cares little 

 for books. 



When, at the age of thirty, he was 

 serving his country as " Resident " at the 



