Zhu Qinglan (), formerly transliterated as Chu Ching-lan (1874 – 13 January 1941) courtesy name Ziqiao () was a Chinese military officer of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Military career

In mid-1911, Zhu was appointed to serve as Deputy Military Governor for the

Great Han Sichuan Military Government The Great Han Sichuan Military Government ( zh, t=大漢四川軍政府, p=''Dàhàn Sìchuān jūnzhèngfǔ'', w=''Ta-han Ssŭ-ch'uan chün-chêng-fu''), alternatively the Great Han Szechwan Military Government, was a provincial military governm ...

. He fled in December that same year, after soldiers mutinied for better pay. Under the Republic of China, Zhu Qinglan was military governor of

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang is a province in northeast China. It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point (in Mohe City along the Amur) and easternmost point (at the confluence of the Amur and Us ...

from October 1913 to May 1916 and civil governor of

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

in 1916-1917 and of

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

in 1917. As governor of

Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...

in 1919-1921, he was concurrently president of the

Chinese Eastern Railway The Chinese Eastern Railway or CER (, , or , ''Kitaysko-Vostochnaya Zheleznaya Doroga'' or ''KVZhD''), is the historical name for a railway system in Northeast China (also known as Manchuria). The Russian Empire constructed the line from 1897 ...

. By the early 1920s,

, Jilin, Fengtian, Rehe, Chahar and

Suiyuan Suiyuan () was a historical province of China. Suiyuan's capital was Guisui (now Hohhot). The abbreviation was (pinyin: ). The area Suiyuan covered is approximated today by the prefecture-level cities of Hohhot, Baotou, Wuhai, Ordos, Bayan ...

provinces were under the control of the so-called

Fengtian Clique The Fengtian clique () was the faction that supported warlord Zhang Zuolin during Republic of China (1912–1949), China's Warlord Era. It took its name from Fengtian Province, which served as its original base of support. However, the clique quic ...

, led by

Zhang Zuolin Zhang Zuolin; courtesy name Yuting ( zh, c=雨亭, p=Yǔtíng, labels=no) and nicknamed Zhang Laogang ( zh, c=張老疙瘩, p=Zhāng Lǎo Gēda, labels=no) (March 19, 1875June 4, 1928) was a Chinese warlord who ruled Manchuria from 1916 to 1928 ...

. The

First Zhili-Fengtian War First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

ended in May 1922 with the defeat of the Fengtian Clique and the expulsion of Zhang Zuolin from the Zhili-Fengtian coalition government in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. As the subordinate of Zhang Zuolin, Zhu Qinglan served as chief executive of the Eastern Provinces Special District, which comprised the route of the Chinese Eastern Railway, from 4 December 1922 to 1924. During his tenure, the district was redesignated the Eastern provinces Special Region on 1 March 1923 and given full administrative independence equal to that of a province. Near the end of his tenure, an agreement on joint Soviet-Chinese operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway was reached on 31 May 1924. In 1924 the Fengtian Clique defeated the

Zhili Clique The Zhili clique () was a military faction that split from the Republic of China's Beiyang Army during the country's Warlord Era. It was named for Zhili Province (modern-day Hebei), which was the clique's base of power. At its height, it also ...

, gaining control of Rehe,

Zhili Zhili, alternately romanized as Chihli, was a northern administrative region of China since the 14th century that lasted through the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty until 1911, when the region was dissolved, converted to a province, and renamed ...

and

Shandong Shandong is a coastal Provinces of China, province in East China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural ...

provinces. Internal conflicts continued; in defiance of the Soviet-Chinese agreement and of the central government, Zhang Zuolin briefly imprisoned Alexei Nikolaevich Ivanov, the manager of the Chinese Eastern Railway, from 21–24 January 1926. During the campaign carried out by Chiang Kai-shek in central and northern China, Zhang Zuolin was defeated in May 1928. While returning to his base in

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

, Zhang was assassinated by Japanese officers who bombed his train at Huanggutun railway station near

Shenyang Shenyang,; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly known as Fengtian formerly known by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a sub-provincial city in China and the list of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Liaonin ...

on the Japanese-controlled

South Manchurian Railway The South Manchuria Railway (; ), officially , Mantetsu () or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian– Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from ...

. He was succeeded as

warlord Warlords are individuals who exercise military, Economy, economic, and Politics, political control over a region, often one State collapse, without a strong central or national government, typically through informal control over Militia, local ...

by his son,

Zhang Xueliang Zhang Xueliang ( zh, t=張學良; June 3, 1901 – October 15, 2001), also commonly known by his nickname "the Young Marshal", was a Chinese general who in 1928 succeeded his father Zhang Zuolin as the commander of the Northeastern Army. He is bes ...

, who agreed to Manchuria's nominal subordination to Chiang Kai-Shek's government. Zhu Qinglan5

Even so, turmoil continued in Manchuria and neighboring

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

. A Barga uprising led by the Inner Mongolian politician Merse in August 1928 was unsuccessful, but arrest by the Chinese of the manager of the Chinese Eastern Railway,

Mikhail Lashevich Mikhail Mikhailovich Lashevich (; 1884 – 30 August 1928), also known under the name ''Gaskovich'', was a Soviet military and party leader. Lashevich was born as Moisey Gaskovich into a Jewish merchant family in Odessa. He joined the Russia ...

, precipitated Lashevich's suicide on 30 August 1928. Lashevich was succeeded as manager by Alexander Ivanovich Yemshanov, who was ousted when war broke out between China and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and Zhang Xueliang seized control of the railway on 10 July 1929. Zhang installed Fan Qiguang as acting manager. Upon the conclusion of peace between China and the Soviet Union, Zhang relinquished control of the Chinese Eastern Railway on 22 December 1929 to yet another Russian manager, Yuliy Vikentyevich Rudnyy. The Mukden Incident of 18 September 1931 was followed by the gradual Japanese occupation of Manchuria, which was organized into the

puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its ord ...

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

on 18 February 1932. Pu Yi, the last

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

emperor of China, was installed as emperor of Manchukuo by the Japanese on 1 March 1932. It was in this context that Zhu Qinglan organized the

Northeastern Army The Northeastern Army, also known as the Fengtian Army (see #Terminology, terminology), was a Chinese army that existed from 1911 to 1937. General Zhang Zuolin developed it as an independent fighting force during the Warlord Era. He used the a ...

Volunteer Support Society in February 1932. The territory claimed by Manchukuo included the province of Rehe, and on 21 January 1933 the puppet government proclaimed its annexation. Japanese troops crossed the border on 23 February to add Rehe to Manchukuo. Zhu Qinglan commanded a brigade in the

Battle of Rehe The Battle of Rehe (, sometimes called the Battle of Jehol) was the second part of Operation Nekka, a campaign by which the Empire of Japan successfully captured the Inner Mongolian province of Rehe from the Chinese warlord Zhang Xueliang and a ...

(23 February-1 March 1933), but his troops performed so poorly that Zhang Xueliang ordered his arrest. However, Zhang himself was soon after relieved of command. By 12 March 1933, all of China north of the

Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection agains ...

was under Japanese control.Keegan, pp. 34-35

Zhu Qinglan spent his last years in

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

, where he died on 13 January 1941.

Awards and decorations

Order of the Precious Brilliant Golden Grain The Order of the Precious Brilliant Golden Grain (Order of Chia-Ho ()), more simply the Order of the Golden Grain, was an award of the Republic of China. The award consists of nine classes. Recipients * Francis Aglen * Albert I of Belgium * ...

Order of Wen-Hu The Order of Wen-Hu (English – The Order of the Striped Tiger) was an award for military or naval service awarded by the Republic of China. It was issued in five classes. The badge showed a striped tiger in natural colours on a central me ...

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese honors system, Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge feat ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qinglan, Zhu 1874 births 1941 deaths Empire of China (1915–1916) Chinese Eastern Railway people