New Army

The New Armies ( Traditional Chinese: 新軍, Simplified Chinese: 新军; Pinyin: Xīnjūn, Manchu: ''Ice cooha''), more fully called the Newly Created Army ( ''Xinjian Lujun''Also translated as "Newly Established Army" ()), was the modernised army corps formed under the Qing dynasty in December 1895, following its defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War. It was envisioned as militia fully trained and equipped according to Western standards. In 1903 an imperial edict expanded it to 36 divisions of 12,500 men each, or total of 450,000. It was known as the Beiyang Army, and was under the command of Yuan Shikai.Fung, 1980.

Formation and expansion

There was a forerunner to the effort of modernising the Chinese army, created before the end of the Sino-Japanese War: in February 1895, the Qing court assembled its Dingwu or the Pacification Army ( ''Dingwu jun''), consisting of 10 battalions or ''ying'' (), totaling 4,750 men. This was initially organized by aided by German advisor Constantin von Hanneken

The command of this Pacification Army was turned over to Yuan Shikai by mid-December 1895,On December 8, 1895, Empress Dowager Cixi passed down the edictYuan was at this time the or intendant of several provinces. and within a few months was renamed the Newly Created Army ( ''Xinjian Lujun'') and expanded to 7,000 men. (Yuan's Newly Created Army was later to become the Guards Army's Right Division (''Wuwei Youjun'')., quote:"In May 1899, Yuan Shikai, commander of China's strongest army, the Wuwei Youjun or the Right Division (new name for Yuan's Newly Created Army) of the Guards Army ote: The Guards Army or Wuwei Jun included Left, Right, Front, Rear, and Center Divisions)

The Newly Created Army (or simply the New Army) that was 7,000 men strong then became the most formidable of the three army groups stationed near Beijing and proved effective against the Boxers in Shandong province. Yuan refused to obey the Imperial Court's orders to halt his suppression of the Boxers when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China during the rebellion and refused to obey orders to fight the alliance.

The New Army was gradually expanded and upgraded in the following years. Yuan became increasingly disrespectful of the dynasty and only loyal to the party from which he benefited; his defection to Cixi against the Guangxu Emperor was a major blow to the Hundred Days' Reform. After 1900, Yuan's troops were the only militia that the Qing court could rely on amidst revolutionary uprisings throughout China.

Renaming and revolution

The Chien Men gate refers to the Zhengyangmen.

The successful example of the new army was followed in other provinces. The New Army of Yuan was renamed the Beiyang Army on June 25, 1902 after Yuan was officially promoted to the "Minister of Beiyang". By the end of the dynasty in 1911, most provinces had established sizable new armies; however, Yuan's army was still most powerful, comprising six groups and numbering more than 75,000 men. The Qing unified all of China's armies into one force, the "Chinese Army", which was commonly still called the New Army. Two-thirds of the Chinese Army was Yuan's Beiyang Army.

During the Xinhai Revolution, most of the non-Beiyang forces as well as some Beiyang units in the Chinese Army revolted against the Qing. Yuan led the Beiyang Army into opposing the revolution while also negotiating for the Qing's surrender and his ascendency to the presidency of the new republic.

Politics and modernisation

Yuan kept a tight grip on the command of the army after its establishment by installing officials only loyal to him; however, after his death in 1916, the army groups were quickly fragmented into four major forces of combative warlords, according to the locations of garrisons. These army groups and generals played different roles in the politics of the Republic of China until the establishment of the People's Republic of China following the Communist Party of China's victory in the Chinese Civil War.

One of the most important legacies of the New Army was the professionalisation of the military and perhaps introduction of militarism to China. Previously, almost any male could join and soldiers were mostly poor, landless and illiterate peasants. The New Armies moved beyond the personalised recruitment and patronage of Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, which had been successful in the mid-century uprisings, but seemed discredited in the face of modern armies in Japan and the West. The New Army began screening volunteers and created modern military academies to train officers. The modernisation and professionalisation of the New Army impressed many in the gentry class to join. The young Chiang Kai-shek, for instance, briefly attended Yuan's Baoding Military Academy, which thus influenced him in forming his Whampoa Academy, which trained a succeeding generation of soldiers. Yuan and his successors equated military dominance of the political sphere with national survival. The political army would become a dominant force in China for much of the twentieth century.

File:Qing new army 1905.jpg, Qing soldiers of a New Army unit in 1905.
File:New army generals and bureaucracies of Hubei.jpg, New Army constables in Wuchang in 1906
File:China army manoeuvers LCCN2014688611.jpg, Qing New Army manoeuvres
File:China army manoeuvers LCCN2014688612.jpg, Qing New Army manoeuvres
File:Qing New army officers and soldiers 1911.jpg, Qing New Army in 1911
File:Soldiers of the Qing Dynasty’s New Army.jpg, Qing New Army in Chengdu in 1911
File:New Army 3rd division officers training.jpg, Qing constables training
File:Chinese Army officers LCCN2014688609.jpg, New Army constables
File:Qing New army officers.jpg, New Army constables
File:New Army 2nd division manoeuvres 1910 03.jpg, New Army in 1910
File:Cavalry of the Chinese new army.jpg, Cavalry of the Qing New Army
File:Chinese Army LCCN2014688614.jpg, Chinese medics of the Qing New Army

Notable figures of ''Beiyang''

* Yuan Shikai (袁世凱)
* Duan Qirui (段祺瑞)
*Wang Yingkai (王英楷)
* Wu Peifu (吳佩孚)
* Feng Guozhang (馮國璋)
* Sun Chuanfang (孫傳芳)
*Xu Shichang (徐世昌)
* Wang Shizhen (王士珍)
* Cao Kun (曹錕)
*Zhang Xun (張勳)
* Feng Yuxiang (馮玉祥)
*Lu Yongxiang (盧永祥)
* Xu Shuzheng (徐樹錚)
* Zhang Zhizhong (張治中)
*Song Zheyuan (宋哲元)
*Tang Shengzhi (唐生智)
* Qin Dechun (秦德純)
* Qi Xieyuan (齊燮元)

See also

* Military of the Qing dynasty
* Military history of China before 1911
*Beiyang Army
* Ever Victorious Army

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

Sources

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** (originally published: Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1955)
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abstract
** Reprinted in:
* Yoshihiro, Hatano, "The New Armies." in Mary Wright, ed. (Yale UP, 1968) pp 365–382.

{{Qing dynasty topics

Military units and formations of the Qing dynasty
Military units and formations of the Boxer Rebellion
Military history of the Qing dynasty
1911 Revolution
Military units and formations established in 1895
1895 establishments in China