1. Li Yuanhong was a prominent Chinese military and political leader during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.
16 Facts About Li Yuanhong
1. 2.
Li Yuanhong was the Provisional Vice President of the Republic of China from 1912 to 1913 as well as the president of the Republic of China between 1916 and 1917, and between 1922 and 1923.
3.
Li Yuanhong's tenure was marked by efforts to stabilize the new republic amidst internal strife and external pressures.
4.
Li Yuanhong continued to be respected for his contributions to the establishment of the Republic of China and his commitment to constitutionalism and national unity.
5.
Li Yuanhong graduated from the Tianjin naval academy in 1889 and served as an engineer in the First Sino-Japanese war.
6.
Li Yuanhong's cruiser was sunk and he survived because of his life belt, since he could not swim.
7.
Li Yuanhong later joined the Hubei New Army and became senior military officer in Hankou.
8.
Li Yuanhong did not arrest anyone caught in subversive activities, but simply dismissed them.
9.
Li Yuanhong was reportedly dragged from hiding under his wife's bed and forced at gunpoint to be the provisional military governor of Hubei despite killing several of the rebels.
10.
Li Yuanhong supported Yuan against Sun during the Second Revolution which earned him the enmity of his former comrades.
11.
Li Yuanhong refused for fear of his life but he declined the aristocratic title of Prince granted by Yuan in the Empire of China, a decision which would help his standing later on.
12.
Li Yuanhong served again as president of China between 11 June 1922 and 13 June 1923 after Cao Kun forced out President Xu Shichang.
13.
Li Yuanhong accepted only with the private assurances that warlord forces be disbanded; they were never honored.
14.
Li Yuanhong organized the "Able Men Cabinet" consisting of prestigious experts but it became undone when he arrested the finance minister for graft after examining rumours and circumstantial evidence; a court threw out the charges.
15.
Li Yuanhong fled to Japan for medical treatment and returned to Tianjin in 1924 where he later died.
16.
Li Yuanhong's tomb, built in 1935 and restored in 2011, is situated on campus of Central China Normal University in Wuhan.