Chapter I: Front Matter

CHINA'S REVOLUTION

[Frontispiece: GENERAL LI YUAN HUNG, THE LEADER OF THE REVOLUTION Frontispiece.]

CHINA'S REVOLUTION

1911-1912

A HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL
RECORD OF THE CIVIL WAR

BY

EDWIN J. DINGLE

WITH 2 MAPS AND 36 ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK
McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY
1912

(_All rights reserved._)

TO
THOSE WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES AND
TO THE NEW CHINA PARTY
IN THE HOPE THAT THEIR STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM
MAY HERALD THE DAWNING OF A DAY OF
RIGHT AND TRUTH FOR CHINA
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

This volume is a popular history of the Revolution in China that broke out at Wuchang, Hankow, and Hanyang in October of 1911. The narrative contains a good deal of new information touching upon revolutionism in China, and the events leading up to the present climax. The magnitude of this Revolution cannot possibly be understood yet; but this volume is written in the hope that it will enable the student otherwise untutored to understand much that one absorbs in Chinese life.

When the Revolution broke out, I was residing in Hankow. Throughout the war I remained in Hankow, leaving this centre for Shanghai during the days when the Peace Conference was held in that city. I am a personal friend of the leader of the Revolution, General Li Yuan Hung, and, by virtue of having all the time been in possession of much exclusive information from behind the political curtain, am probably equipped to write of the main doings of the Revolution in that area where its effects were most marked. On the very eve of the Revolution, a book written by myself was published simultaneously in England and America, which contains some strangely prophetic utterances, and will give the reader who has not made Chinese politics a study a general idea of the condition of the country when the Revolution made the scales drop from the eyes of her teeming millions.[1]

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I wish gratefully to acknowledge the kind offices of Mr. Thos. F. Millard, editor of the China Press, for allowing me free use of the columns of that journal. Much of my information has been culled from the C.P., although many of the articles were written by myself for that newspaper, whilst the war was in progress; but I am largely indebted to that paper also for many of my general later facts.

Especially also do I wish to thank the Rev. Bernard Upward, of Hankow, for the assistance he has rendered me whilst this volume was being prepared. The chapter entitled "Some Revolution Factors" is from Mr. Upward's pen, as is also that headed "Yuan Shih K'ai"; many of the illustrations shown in the volume also are reproductions from Mr. Upward's splendid collection. My warm thanks are also due to Mr. Stanley V. Boxer, B.Sc., for the drawings from which the two maps embodied in this volume were prepared, and for the explanatory note accompanying the sketch map of the battlefields.

It should, perhaps, in fairness to myself, be mentioned that, owing to absence from England, I have not had an opportunity of reading the proof-sheets before this volume was printed.

EDWIN J. DINGLE.

HANKOW, HUPEH, CHINA.
_April_ 1, 1912.

[1] "Across China on Foot: Life in the Interior and the Reform Movement." Henry Holt & Co., New York. $3.50. J. W. Arrowsmith, Ltd., Bristol, 16s.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE REVOLUTION

II. THE AFTERMATH

III. GENERAL EXPECTATIONS

IV. GENERAL LI YUAN HUNG'S AMBITIONS FOR THE NEW CHINA

V. A PREMATURE OPENING

VI. THE EARLY HOSTILITIES

VII. THE BATTLE OF KILOMETRE TEN

VIII. THE BURNING OF HANKOW

IX. THE STRONGHOLD OF WUCHANG

X. LI YUAN HUNG SEEKS PEACE

XI. THE FALL OF HANYANG

XII. THE REPUBLIC SEEKS RECOGNITION

XIII. THE PEACE CONFERENCE--A MONARCHY OR A REPUBLIC?

XIV. THE COMING OF SUN YAT-SEN

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XV. YUAN SHIH K'AI'S RETIREMENT

XVI. RECALLED TO SAVE THE MONARCHY

XVII. THE SZECHUEN REVOLT

XVIII. SOME REVOLUTION FACTORS

XIX. THE ABDICATION EDICT

XX. THE OUTLOOK FOR REFORM

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

GENERAL LI YUAN HUNG .... Frontispiece

WHERE CHINA'S REVOLUTION STARTED

THE PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY HALL, WUCHANG

A CAPTURED BOMB-MAKER

A QUEUELESS BRIGADE

TYPICAL REVOLUTIONARIES

THE RAW MATERIAL OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY

THE CENTRAL MART OF THE WORLD

THE FLIGHT OF THE GUN-JUNKS

THE EFFECT OF A NAVAL BOMBARDMENT

PREPARED FOR EVENTUALITIES

FOES MEETING AS FRIENDS

TACHIMEN, WITH IMPERIALISTS IN OCCUPATION

THE BURNING OF HANKOW

THE SING SENG ROAD

THE TOLL OF THE DEAD

ESCAPED FROM WUCHANG

TOMMY ATKINS ON GUARD

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HOW THE IMPERIALISTS CROSSED THE HAN

HUNAN SOLDIER

HUPEH SOLDIER

THE IMPREGNABLE HANYANG HILL

THE THREE-EYED BRIDGE

THE HANDY MAN ASHORE

DISMANTLED IMPERIAL GUN ON PURPLE MOUNTAIN, NANKING

THE UBIQUITOUS BOY

DR. WU TING-FANG

YIN CHANG

TANG SHAO-YI

FENG KUO-CHANG

HWANG HSING

DR. SUN YAT SEN

YUAN SHI-K'AI

A PRE-REVOLUTION GROUP

THE CHILD-EMPEROR OF CHINA

WHAT REMAINS OF HANKOW'S MAIN RIVER GATEWAY

MAPS

HANKOW NATIVE CITY, SHOWING BURNT AREA

WUHAN CENTRE: SKETCH MAP OF THE BATTLEFIELDS

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CHINA'S REVOLUTION

1911-1912