Zhu Qinglan (), formerly transliterated as Chu Ching-lan (1874 – 13 January 1941) courtesy name Ziqiao () was a Chinese military officer of the Republic of China Zhu Qinglan2

Military career

Under the Republic of China, Zhu Qinglan was military governor of

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

from October 1913 to May 1916 and civil governor of

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

in 1916-1917 and of Guangxi in 1917. As governor of

Jilin Jilin (; alternately romanized as Kirin or Chilin) is one of the three provinces of Northeast China. Its capital and largest city is Changchun. Jilin borders North Korea ( Rasŏn, North Hamgyong, Ryanggang and Chagang) and Russia (Prim ...

in 1919-1921, he was concurrently president of the

Chinese Eastern Railway The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (, russian: Китайско-Восточная железная дорога, or , ''Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga'' or ''KVZhD''), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (als ...

. By the early 1920s, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Fengtian, Jehol, Chahar and

Suiyuan Suiyuan () is a ''de jure'' province of the Republic of China according to the ROC law, as the ROC government formally claims to be the legitimate government of China, with its capital located Guisui (now Hohhot). The abbreviation was ( pinyi ...

provinces were under the control of the so-called

Fengtian Clique The Fengtian clique () was one of several opposing military factions that constituted the early Republic of China during its Warlord Era. It was named after Fengtian Province (now Liaoning), and operated from a territorial base comprising the th ...

, led by

Zhang Zuolin Zhang Zuolin (; March 19, 1875 June 4, 1928), courtesy name Yuting (雨亭), nicknamed Zhang Laogang (張老疙瘩), was an influential Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord during the Warlord Era in China. The warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to ...

(Chang Tso-lin). The First Zhili-Fengtian War ended in May 1922 with the defeat of the Fengtian Clique and the expulsion of Zhang Zuolin from the Zhili-Fengtian coalition government in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. As the subordinate of Zhang Zuolin, Zhu Qinglan served as chief executive of the Eastern Provinces Special District, which comprised the route of the Chinese Eastern Railway, from 4 December 1922 to 1924. During his tenure, the district was redesignated the Eastern provinces Special Region on 1 March 1923 and given full administrative independence equal to that of a province. Near the end of his tenure, an agreement on joint Soviet-Chinese operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway was reached on 31 May 1924. In 1924 the Fengtian Clique defeated the

Zhili Clique The Zhili clique () was one of several mutually hostile cliques or factions that split from the Beiyang clique during the Republic of China's Warlord Era. This fragmentation followed the death of Yuan Shikai, who was the only person capable of ...

, gaining control of Jehol,

Zhili Zhili, alternately romanized as Chihli, was a northern administrative region of China since the 14th-century that lasted through the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty until 1911, when the region was dissolved, converted to a province, and renamed ...

and Shandong provinces. Internal conflicts continued; in defiance of the Soviet-Chinese agreement and of the central government, Zhang Zuolin briefly imprisoned Alexei Nikolaevich Ivanov, the manager of the Chinese Eastern Railway, from 21–24 January 1926. During the campaign carried out by Chiang Kai-shek in central and northern China, Zhang Zuolin was defeated in May 1928. While returning to his base in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

, Zhang was assassinated by Japanese officers who bombed his train at Huanggutun railway station near Shenyang on the Japanese-controlled

South Manchurian Railway The South Manchuria Railway ( ja, 南満州鉄道, translit=Minamimanshū Tetsudō; ), officially , Mantetsu ( ja, 満鉄, translit=Mantetsu) or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operatio ...

. He was succeeded as

warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

by his son,

Zhang Xueliang Chang Hsüeh-liang (, June 3, 1901 – October 15, 2001), also romanized as Zhang Xueliang, nicknamed the "Young Marshal" (少帥), known in his later life as Peter H. L. Chang, was the effective ruler of Northeast China and much of northern ...

(Chang Hsueh-liang), who agreed to Manchuria's nominal subordination to Chiang Kai-Shek's government. Zhu Qinglan5

Even so, turmoil continued in Manchuria and neighboring

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

. A

Barga Barga may refer to: People * Barga Mongols in the early 20th century Places * Barga (department), Burkina Faso * Barga, Tuscany Barga is a medieval town and ''comune'' of the province of Lucca in Tuscany, central Italy. It is home to around 10, ...

uprising led by the Inner Mongolian politician Merse in August 1928 was unsuccessful, but arrest by the Chinese of the manager of the Chinese Eastern Railway, Mikhail Mikhailovich Lashevich, precipitated Lashevich's suicide on 30 August 1928. Lashevich was succeeded as manager by Alexander Ivanovich Yemshanov, who was ousted when war broke out between China and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and Zhang Xueliang seized control of the railway on 10 July 1929. Zhang installed Fan Qiguang as acting manager. Upon the conclusion of peace between China and the Soviet Union, Zhang relinquished control of the Chinese Eastern Railway on 22 December 1929 to yet another Russian manager, Yuliy Vikentyevich Rudnyy. The Mukden Incident of 18 September 1931 was followed by the gradual Japanese occupation of Manchuria, which was organized into the

puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal sove ...

of Manchukuo on 18 February 1932.

Pu Yi Aisin-Gioro Puyi (; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 1 ...

, the last Qing emperor of China, was installed as emperor of Manchukuo by the Japanese on 1 March 1932. It was in this context that Zhu Qinglan organized the

Northeastern Army The Northeastern Army (), was the Chinese army of the Fengtien clique until the unification of China in 1928. From 1931 to 1933 it faced the Japanese forces in northeast China, Jehol and Hebei, in the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese War. ...

Volunteer Support Society in February 1932. The territory claimed by Manchukuo included the Chinese province of Jehol, and on 21 January 1933 the puppet government proclaimed its annexation. Japanese troops crossed the border on 23 February to added Jehol to Manchukuo. Zhu Qinglan commanded a brigade in the

Battle of Rehe The Battle of Rehe (, sometimes called the Battle of Jehol) was the second part of Operation Nekka, a campaign by which the Empire of Japan successfully captured the Inner Mongolian province of Rehe from the Chinese warlord Zhang Xueliang and an ...

(23 February-1 March 1933), but his troops performed so poorly that Zhang Xueliang ordered his arrest. However, Zhang himself was soon after relieved of command. By 12 March 1933, all of China north of the

Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic groups ...

was under Japanese control.Keegan, pp. 34-35

Zhu Qinglan spent his last years in

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...

, where he died on 13 January 1941.

Awards and decorations

Order of the Precious Brilliant Golden Grain The Order of the Precious Brilliant Golden Grain (Order of Chia-Ho ()), more simply the Order of the Golden Grain, was an award of the Republic of China. The award consists of nine classes. Recipients * Francis Aglen * Albert I of Belgium * ...

Order of Wen-Hu The Order of Wen-Hu (English – The Order of the Striped Tiger) was an award for military or naval service awarded by the Republic of China. It was issued in five classes. The badge showed a striped tiger in natural colours on a central meda ...

Order of the Rising Sun

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qinglan, Zhu 1874 births 1941 deaths Empire of China (1915–1916)