May 04 2007
Warlord and the May 4th
On the dawn of 5/4/1919 in Beijing, students from 13 different universities drafted resolutions that included opposition to Jap took over German concessions in Shandong province and a protest to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that same afternoon at Tiananmen Sq. by students fm Beijing Uni – anti-imperialist, cultural and political movements, hence the birth of the important May 4th. The leaders were Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi who translated the flyers into English.
After abdication of Puyi, the boy emperor of Qing Dynasty in 1911, China was dominated by strong man Yuan Shikai (1859-1916) and his Beiyang clique. After his death in 1916, the country was overrun by warlords till Jiang Jieshi’s Northern Expedition in 1928. Many would consider the Warlord Era as 1912-1928 all together. Beiyang government was full of corruptions, disputes and internal strifes. In a dozen of years (1916-1928) the central government had 12 presidents, 38 State Councils. That period of history had few books because the assault force is small. My interests in it is due to one of my paternal great grandfathers was one of the powerful warlords. After Yuan Shikai ditched the presidency in favor of emperor-dom in 1916, although the time span was brief, but he didn’t forget to reward his top lieutenants and replay political debts. Among many things, he bestowed my great granny a First Class Baron - hmmm don’t know if it could be inherited, 
… jk. Anyway, during the May 4th Movement that began on March 28 the same year, Beiyang University was involved where my grandfather was a law student at the time.