Feng Yuxiang (; ; 6 November 1882 – 1 September 1948), courtesy name Huanzhang (焕章), was a Chinese warlord and later general in the National Revolutionary Army. He served as Vice Premier of China from 1928 to 1930.
At the start of the 1911 Revolution, Feng was an officer in the ranks of Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army. He initially joined forces with the revolutionaries, but came to support Yuan's regime. In 1914, he converted to Christianity, earning him the nickname the "Christian General". He became a warlord in Northwest China, based in Shaanxi, and rose to a high rank within the Zhili clique, a powerful warlord faction. In 1924, during the Second Zhili-Fengtian war, Feng launched the Beijing Coup, which knocked the Zhili out of power, and re-organised his troops as the Guominjun. He brought Sun Yat-sen to Beijing for negotiations on re-unification, but this was not realized. In 1926, Feng was defeated by the Zhili and Fengtian cliques in the Anti-Fengtian War, and he retreated to the northwest. In 1926, Feng joined the Kuomintang's successful Northern Expedition. He later resisted Chiang's consolidation of power in the Central Plains War and was forced to retire, but in 1933 organized a new army which successfully drove the Japanese Army out of Chahar. In the 1930s, Feng held positions in the Nationalist government, including brief army commands at the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. He spent his later years supporting the anti-Chiang Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang before his death in 1948.
Early life and career
Feng was born in Xingjizhen, Zhili province. His father was Feng Yumou, an officer in the Huai Army. Feng spent his youth immersed in military life. He joined the Huai Army when he was 11 as a deputy soldier (Fu Bing, 副兵), the lowest rank in the army, he received a uniform and food, but no salary, unlike regular soldiers. By the age of 16 he had proved himself and became a regular. Unlike other soldiers who gambled away their pay, Feng saved his salary and used a portion of it to help out other soldiers in need, especially those deputy soldiers (Fu Bing, 副兵), like he had once been, and so he was popular among his comrades-in-arms. Feng was hard-working and motivated, and in 1902 he was reassigned to Yuan Shikai's newly established Beiyang Army.
During the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 Feng joined the Luanzhou Uprising against the Qing Court and supported the revolutionaries in the South. The uprising was suppressed by the Beiyang Army and Feng was imprisoned by Yuan Shikai. In 1914 he regained military rank and spent the next four years defending Yuan's regime. In July 1914, as a brigade commander, he participated in the suppression of the Bailang Peasant Uprising in Henan and Shaanxi. During the National Protection War of 1915–16 he was sent to Sichuan to fight the Anti-Yuan National Protection Army, but secretly communicated with revolution leader Cai E. In April 1917 he was stripped of his military rank but still led his old troops in the campaign against Zhang Xun and was restored to his rank. In February 1918 he was ordered to suppress the Constitutional Protection Movement, but proclaimed his support for peace talks in Hubei and was stripped of titles but permitted to stay in command of his forces. The capture of Changde in June earned him back his titles. By August 1921 he was promoted to command a division and was based in Shaanxi.
thumb|200px|Feng Yuxiang and his family
Conversion to Christianity
Feng, like many young officers, was involved in revolutionary activity and was nearly executed for treason. He later joined Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army and with the help and advice of Chinese diplomat Wang Zhengting, converted to Christianity in 1914, being baptized into the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Feng's career as a warlord began soon after the collapse of the Yuan Shikai government in 1916. Feng, however, distinguished himself from other regional militarists by governing his domains with a mixture of paternalistic Christian socialism and military discipline. He forbade prostitution, gambling and the sale of opium and morphia. From 1919 he was known as the "Christian General".
In 1923 British Protestant Christian missionary Marshall B. Broomhall said of him:
:The contrast between Cromwell's Ironsides and Charles's Cavaliers is not more striking than that which exists in China to-day between the godly and well-disciplined troops of General Feng and the normal type of man who in that land goes by the name of soldier ... While it is too much to say that there are no good soldiers in China outside of General Feng's army, it is none the less true that the people generally are as fearful of the presence of troops as of brigand bands.
He was reputed to have liked baptizing his troops with water from a fire hose. However, no such incident is mentioned in Sheriden's detailed biography, or in Broomhall's account. Both Broomhall and Sheriden say that baptism was taken very seriously and that not all of Feng's troops were baptized. By September 1927, they had killed 496 people including students. Feng's patriotism was a basic motivation. Because of atrocities he saw Japanese soldiers commit during the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, Feng promised that he would fight the Japanese to death if he ever became a soldier. Every year from 1915 onward, on the anniversary of Japan's 21 Demands, he and his officers wore belts on which was written "In Memory of the National Humiliation of May 7th".
By early 1929, Feng grew dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government in Nanjing. He joined Yan Xishan and Li Zongren to challenge Chiang's supremacy, but was defeated by Chiang in the Central Plains War. Chiang then incited anti-Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang sentiments among the Chinese Muslims and Mongols, encouraging them to topple their rule.
Out of power
Stripped of his military power, Feng spent the early 1930s criticizing Chiang Kai-shek's failure to resist Japanese aggression. On 26 May 1933, Feng Yuxiang became commander-in-chief of the Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army Alliance, with Ji Hongchang and Fang Zhenwu as frontline commanders. Ji Hongchang's army, numbering over 100,000 men according to Feng, pushed against Duolun, and by July 1933, drove the Japanese and Manchukuoan troops out of Chahar Province. By late July Feng and Ji Hongchang established, at Zhangjiakou, the "Committee for Recovering the Four Provinces of the Northeast". Chiang Kai-shek, fearing that Communists had taken control of the Anti-Japanese Allied Army, launched a concerted siege of the army with 60,000 men. Surrounded by Chiang Kai-shek and the Japanese, Feng Yuxiang resigned his post and retired to Tai'an in Shandong.
Later years
thumb|upright|Feng Yuxiang on the cover of [[The Young Companion, December 1937.]]
Between 1935 and 1945, Feng Yuxiang supported the KMT and held various positions in the Nationalist army and government. In October 1935, Chiang invited him to Nanjing to serve as the vice-president of the Military Affairs Commission. He held the nominal position until 1938 and remained a member of the council until 1945. During the Xi'an Incident, when Chiang Kai-Shek was held prisoner by rebellious warlords, Feng immediately called for Chiang's release. After the Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, he briefly served as Commander-in-Chief of the 3rd War Area. In this capacity Feng led Chinese forces early in the defense of Shanghai, but he was quickly relieved in favor of Zhang Zhizhong and later Chiang himself.
After World War II, he traveled to the United States, where he was an outspoken critic of the Chiang regime and of the Truman administration which supported it. For several months, he stayed in Berkeley, California, as a visiting scholar.
Although he was never a Communist himself, he was close to them in his final years.
left|upright|thumb|Tomb of Feng Yuxiang at the foot of [[Mount Tai in Shandong.]]
He died in 1948, in a shipboard fire on the Black Sea while en route to the Soviet Union, along with one of his daughters. Some believe he was murdered by his political adversaries, while others reject this theory. in Shandong. His tomb is located immediately to the east of Tianwai Village square (). His widow Li Dequan served as Minister of Health of the People's Republic of China.
Legacy
Many of Feng Yuxiang's former subordinates joined or merged into Kuomintang National Revolutionary Army and fought with distinction in the Second Sino-Japanese War. They include Song Zheyuan, Tong Linge, Zhao Dengyu, Sun Lianzhong, Liu Ruming, Feng Zhi'an, Yang Hucheng, Ji Hongchang and Zhang Zizhong. Notable exceptions were Sun Liangcheng and Qin Dechun, who collaborated with the Japanese. Other generals, after serving a lengthy term in the warlord era, retired to live a life of pleasure.
Sir Richard Evans, author of Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China, described Feng as "an honest man" in his book. Peter R. Moody wrote in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science "Many of Feng's allies might dispute this, since he betrayed every one of them."