Yuan Shikai

Both in „orthodox“ Chinese historiography as well as Western historiography, Yuan Shikai is considered a negative figure. In China he is charged mainly with having committed “treason” against the 1898 ”hundred days reforms” which are positively viewed: after initial sympathies for the reformers he later changed allegiances and supported empress dowager Cixi’s coup d’état in which she had the Guangxu emperor arrested and the reformers persecuted. (Six executed reformers are known to Chinese history as “martyrs”). Yuan, who had first served in Korea (since the 1880s up until the start of the Sino-Japanese war in response to the 1894 Tonghak-Uprising), had since China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese war been setting up his Beiyang Army, which provided his personal power base. Although scholarship today acknowledges that Yuan was indeed active as a reformer of some sort, it is still regarded as his move to further personal power.

Yuan remained inconspicuous for a few years following his partial purge from power in 1906/07, the death of empress dowager Cixi in 1908 and his final dismissal from court in 1909 (owing to an alleged foot illness). But in the wake of the revolution of 1911, it quickly became clear that only Yuan and his faithful Beiyang Army might defy the revolutionaries. Both the Imperial Court and the revolutionaries, who were well aware of his power, tried to persuade him of their respective causes. After some initial strategizing, Yuan opted for the revolutionary side. This move was bolstered by Sun Yatsen’s offer to withdraw from the presidency (he had been the first provisional president) and to turn it over to Yuan. However, since Yuan was not in support of the Republic as such, Chinese historiography often accuses him of having raped the “fruits of the revolution” by accepting this deal. This is claimed to have become clear in the fact that Yuan was willing to trespass all new laws, to have his political opponents assassinated (such as the Guomindang-leader Song Jiaoren) and ultimately in his attempt to elevate himself to emperorship, thereby turning back the “wheel of history” – an attempt which failed due to his sudden death in 1916. In the aftermath of his death it were precisely his loyal comrades-in-arms of the Beiyang Army who led China into chaos and destruction.

In the series, Yuan is portrayed completely different: he comes from a background of little means, is faithful to one single prostitute, whom he later elevates to the status of his favourite concubine, and is concerned not only with his own personal well-being, but the well-being of the entire nation. He is good at interacting with others, is clever, able and shrewd, can estimate others well and betrays moral principles only in cases of extreme necessity. He is a traditionalist, but very pragmatic and an inveterate supporter of realpolitics. In comparison to the “phantasising” Sun Yatsen, Yuan appears as a doer who is firmly grounded in reality. Yuan, who is played by a popular actor, is portrayed as particularly manly and, according to some viewers, his relationship to his favourite concubine is presented in a highly romantic way. As a result, Yuan’s image as the villain is revised. Even those crimes he is accused of classically are put into new perspective: the 1898 reforms are not judged quite as positively as before. Yuan sees through the idealism underlying the reform. He also realises that true power lies with Cixi and orientates himself accordingly. Even though his figure is depicted more ambivalently for the period of the revolution and its aftermath, he is still presented as someone who basically tried to do the right thing. Even his attempts to succeed to the throne are made to seem understandable in psychological terms. For the underlying false political estimations Yuan’s son is made responsible, which results in the story gaining a certain tragic air. Large parts of the audience considered this “sympathetic” depiction of Yuan as an unequivocal villain a provocation.

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