Reframing Yuan Shikai

In June 1915, the president of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai (1859-1916), attempted to reform China’s state system into a constitutional monarchy, and assume the title of Emperor of the Empire of China. Although Yuan Shikai’s “monarchical attempt” has been often cited in historical scholarship on the early Republican period (1912-1916), it has been oversimplified, and characterized as reactionary and conservative. Often, it is presented as part of a teleological account of the origins of the Warlord Period (1916-1928) in early Republican China.