Misplaced Pages

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Sun Chuanfang" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Sun Chuanfang
Born	(1885-04-17)April 17, 1885 Licheng, Shandong, Qing dynasty
Died	November 13, 1935(1935-11-13) (aged 50) Tianjin, Republic of China
Nationality	Han Chinese
Occupation	Warlord
Awards	Order of Rank and Merit Order of Wen-Hu

Sun Chuanfang (simplified Chinese: 孙传芳; traditional Chinese: 孫傳芳; pinyin: Sūn Chuánfāng; Wade–Giles: Sun Ch'uan-fang) (April 17, 1885 – November 13, 1935) was a Chinese warlord in the Zhili clique and protégé of the "Jade Marshal" Wu Peifu.

Early life and education

Sun Chuanfang was born in Licheng, Shandong Province. Wang Yingkai, a rising officer in the Beiyang Army and protégé of Yuan Shikai, the commander of the Beiyang Army, married Sun's sister, and Sun took advantage of his brother-in-law's position and joined a training camp in 1902. Wang later recommended Sun to Tianjin Military Academy because of the latter's outstanding capabilities; in 1904 he also sent Sun abroad to Japan for more education at the Tokyo Shimbu Gakko, a military preparatory school. Sun eventually graduated from the sixth class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and returned to China in 1908. Upon his return from Japan, Wang and his political ally, Tie Liang, happened to be the ones presiding over the examination aimed at testing fresh graduates’ ability. Sun passed the tests and became an officer of the Beiyang Army and later was recruited by Wang Zhanyuan to join the Zhili clique following the Xinhai Revolution, rising quickly through the ranks.

Career

Sun became the military governor of Fujian on 20 March 1923. He was based in Hubei Province, and fought in the Zhili–Anhui War of 1920.

In 1924, at the beginning of the First Jiangsu-Zhejiang War, Sun commanded the 4th Army in Fujian Province. One of his first acts was to support his ally Qi Xieyuan, moving up from the south in a move that was responsible for the defeat of rival warlord Lu Yongxiang and the capture of Shanghai. He also subsequently became the director-general of the Shanghai-Woosung port. He was subsequently rewarded with the military governorship of Zhejiang (20 September 1924-19 December 1926). However, his Zhili allies in the north were defeated during the Second Zhili–Fengtian War, ending with the Zhili clique losing all of its northern provinces to Zhang Zuolin and Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun. In 1925 the Guominjun launched a joint Anhui-Fengtian expedition under Zhang Zongchang, briefly retaking Jiangsu and Shanghai in January. Lacking support from Sun Chuanfang, Qi Xieyuan was forced to resign and fled to Japan, but not before transferring what remained of his demoralized and severely diminished army to Sun Chuanfang's command.

Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang were now staring at each other over a battle line delineated only by Shanghai proper. For the remainder of the year the two opposing generals bided their time. Then, in the fall of 1925, the chance came: Sun launched a counterattack that drove Zhang Zongchang and his forces out of the Chinese districts of Shanghai. For the next two years Sun expanded his rule to include all of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi. He established his headquarters in Nanjing as military governor of Jiangsu on 25 November 1925. At the height of his power he held an army which numbered over 200,000 men.

The Northern Expedition ended his rule. His forces were decisively defeated twice and then were routed in the Battle of Lungtan, resulting in the collapse of his rule. Shanghai was captured by Communist labor unions allied with the National Revolutionary Army in March 1927 and Sun was forced to flee Nanjing. He briefly sought the support of Zhang Xueliang but, distrusting Zhang's motives, then fled to Dalian in the Japanese Kwantung Leased Territory. He participated in the Fengtian clique's Peking government until 1930, when he went into retirement after the Manchurian Incident of 1931.

Death

Sun relocated to the British concession of Tianjin, where he took the tonsure and announced his retirement from worldly affairs in favor of becoming a Buddhist monk. However, on 13 November 1935 Sun was assassinated in Tianjin by Shi Jianqiao, the daughter of Shi Congbin, who ten years earlier had been commander of units in Shandong. In October 1925, during the second war between the Zhili and Fengtian cliques, Shi Congbin had been captured by Sun Chuanfang, who had had him summarily decapitated and his head mounted on a pike. She was later pardoned by the Kuomintang government.

See also

• List of Warlords
• Warlord Era
• Zhili Clique
• History of the Republic of China

Notes

1. "Liu Haisu: Artistic Rebel". www.china.org.cn. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
2. Eugenia Lean, Public Passions, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 2007. pg. 29-30
3. ^ "CHINESE MARSHAL IS SLAIN BY WOMAN; Sun Chuan-fang, Ex-Ruler of 5 Provinces, Shot at Buddhist Services in Tientsin". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2022-04-20.
4. Arthur Waldron From War to Nationalism, Cambridge University Press, 1995

Sources

• Rulers: Chinese Administrative divisions, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang

v t e Warlord Era and warlordism during the Nanjing decade
1915–1924 1925–1934 Factions 1911–1914 Bai Lang Rebellion 1913 Second Revolution 1915 Twenty-One Demands 1915–1916 Empire of China (Yuan Shikai) National Protection War 1916 Death of Yuan Shikai 1917 Manchu Restoration 1917–1922 Constitutional Protection Movement 1917–1929 Golok rebellions 1918–1920 Siberian intervention 1919 Paris Peace Conference Shandong Problem May Fourth Movement 1919–1921 Occupation of Outer Mongolia 1920 Zhili–Anhui War 1920–1921 Guangdong–Guangxi War 1920–1926 Spirit Soldier rebellions 1921 1st National CPC Congress 1921–1922 Washington Naval Conference 1922 First Zhili–Fengtian War 1923–1927 First United Front 1923 Lincheng Outrage 1924 Second Zhili–Fengtian War Canton Merchants' Corps Uprising Beijing Coup 1925 Yunnan–Guangxi War May Thirtieth Movement 1925–1926 Anti-Fengtian War Canton–Hong Kong strike 1926 Zhongshan Warship Incident 1926–1928 Northern Expedition Nanjing–Wuhan Split Nationalist-Communist Civil War 1927 Nanking incident of 1927 1927 Shanghai Commune of 1927 1927 Shanghai massacre 1927 July 15 Incident 1927–1930 Muslim conflict in Gansu 1928 Jinan incident Huanggutun incident Looting of the Eastern Mausoleum Northeast Flag Replacement 1928–1929 Third Red Spears' uprising in Shandong 1929 Chiang-Gui War Warlord Rebellion in northeastern Shandong (incl. Beijing Revolt) Sino-Soviet conflict 1930 Central Plains War 1930–1932 Sino-Tibetan War / Qinghai–Tibet War 1931–1935 Kumul Rebellion / Soviet invasion of Xinjiang 1932 Han–Liu War 1932 Two-Liu war 1934 War in Ningxia Beiyang Anhui Zhili Fengtian (National Pacification Army) Zhili Army Shanxi Guominjun Ma Xinjiang Yunnan Sichuan Old Guangxi New Guangxi Guangdong Guizhou Kuomintang (KMT) Communist Party (CCP)
Republic of China (1912–1949)

• 20th-century Buddhist monks
• Assassinated Chinese military personnel
• Chinese Buddhist monks
• Politicians from Jinan
• Baoding Military Academy cadets
• Republic of China warlords from Shandong
• 1885 births
• 1935 deaths
• Governors of Jiangsu
• Burials in Beijing
• People of the Northern Expedition
• Military history of Nanjing
• Chinese politicians assassinated in the 20th century
• 20th-century Chinese politicians
• Politicians assassinated in the 1930s