Admiral Du Xigui (; November 12, 1875 – December 28, 1933) was a Chinese naval officer during the late

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

and the Warlord Era.

Biography

Born in Fuzhou, he graduated from the

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

naval college in 1902. In July 1911, Du was appointed as the commander of a vessel. His crew followed orders from Yuan Shikai to sail up the Yangtze River, Yangtze and help put down the Wuchang Uprising later that year. However, when he saw that the Qing empire was collapsing, Du and his sailors mutinied, joining the Republican government. The uprising was what forced the Qing naval minister Sa Zhenbing to resign his post. After Yuan became the head of the government in Beijing, Du continued to serve him. In 1922, he was made chief of the navy and helped the Zhili clique defeat Zhang Zuolin. In the spring of 1923, Shanghai's fleet rebelled and Du took responsibility by resigning but was recalled in November. In 1924, he commanded the Yangtze fleet of Jiangsu and defeated the Anhui clique's Zhejiang fleet led by Lin Jianzhang. Several ships defected to his side giving him control of Shanghai's waters. In 1926, he served concurrently as President of the Republic of China, acting president, List of premiers of China, premier, and minister of the navy. The Nanjing-based Kuomintang, Nationalist government later employed him and sent him on an inspection tour of foreign navies.

Biography

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See also