Provisional Government of the Republic of China (1912)

Republic of China
(Provisional Government)
Republic of China; (Provisional Government)
Tâi-lô	Tiong-huâ bîn-kok

Provisional Government of the Republic of China
Provisional Government of the Republic of China
1912—1913
	Flag Emblem
	Anthem: " Presidential republic (Jan—Mar 1912); Parliamentary republic (Mar 1912—Oct 1913)
President
• 1912	Sun Yat-sen
• 1912–1913	Yuan Shikai
Premier
• 1912 (first)	Tang Shaoyi
• 1913 (last)	Xiong Xiling
Legislature	Provisional Senate（1912—1913）; National Assembly（1913）
Historical era	1911 Revolution
• Wuchang Uprising	10 October 1911
• Presidential inauguration of Sun Yat-sen	1 January 1912
• Government moved to Beijing	10 March 1912
• First National Assembly session	8 April 1913
• Abolished	10 October 1913
Currency	Coin
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Qing dynasty
	Hubei Military Government
	Szechwan Military Government
	Guizhou Military Government
	Hunan Military Government
	Gan Military Government
	Guangdong Military Government
Beiyang government

The Provisional Government of the Republic of China (

Wuchang

, China, which framed the organizational outline of the Provisional Government.

Planning

In November 1911 the revolutionary group in the Wuchang District of Wuhan, China, led by

Hanyang had fallen back to the Qing, so for safety the revolutionaries convened their first conference at the British concession in Hankou on November 30.^[2] Tan Renfeng (譚人鳳) was the chairman of the session.^[2] Twenty-three representatives from the 11 provinces participated. The representatives decided to frame the organizational outline of the Provisional Government, and they elected Lei Fen (雷奮), Ma Junwu, and Wang Zhengting (王正廷) to prepare the draft.^[2]^[3]

Because on December 2 the revolutionary forces were able to

capture Nanjing in the uprising, the revolutionaries decided to make it the site of the new provisional government.^[4] The conference passed the outline the very next day, which consisted three chapters and twenty-one clauses. It also confirmed that the new government would be a republic. It was announced that the provincial representatives would meet in Nanjing in seven days to elect a provisional government.^[2]

President selection

Instead of attending Nanjing's assembly, Song Jiaoren and Chen Qimei gathered the provincial representatives in Shanghai and held an assembly on December 4.^[2] On December 25, Sun Yat-sen, accompanied by general Homer Lea, his closest foreign adviser, returned to Shanghai.^[5] On December 29, the presidential election was held in Nanjing. According to the first article of the "Provisional Government Organization Outline", the Provisional President was to be elected by representatives from the provinces of China; the candidate who received more than 2/3 of the votes would be elected. Each province was entitled to one vote only. 45 representatives from seventeen provinces participated in this election, and Sun Yat-sen received 16 valid votes out of 17.

Establishment of government

A conference of the cabinets in Nanjing Provisional Government

On 1 January 1912, Sun Yat-sen announced the establishment of the Republic of China in Nanjing, and he was inaugurated as the Provisional President of the Republic. General Li Yuanhong was made Provisional Vice President. Under the Provisional Government, there were ten ministries:

Huang Xing was appointed both as the Minister of the Army and as Chief of Staff
Huang Zhongying as the Minister of the Navy
Wang Chonghui as the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Wu Tingfang
as the Minister of the Judiciary
Chen Jingtao as the Minister of Finance
Cheng Dequan as the Minister of Internal Affairs
Cai Yuanpei as the Minister of Education
Zhang Jian
as the Minister of Commerce
Tang Soqian as the Minister of Communications.

There were additional appointments, such as Hu Hanmin as the Secretary of the President, Song Jiaoren as the Director-general of Law-making, and Huang Fusheng as the Director-general of Printing. The speaker of the Provisional Senate was Lin Sen.

Northern transition

Dong'anmen Gate incident

The revolutionaries were trying to lure Yuan Shikai to the south. By making Yuan the president of the southern Nanjing-based provisional government, he would have to give up his military power base in the north.

Imperial City.^[6] Thousands of people were killed.^[7] This mutiny was actually ordered by Yuan and Cao Kun.^[6] Yuan intimidated the revolutionaries and made it clear that the new government would have to go to him in Beijing, he was not going to the south.^[7]

This was an excuse to move the capital of the new republic from Nanjing back to Beijing.

End of provisional government

Qing government, negotiated with the revolutionaries in exchange of the post of the president. Avoiding a civil war, the revolutionaries agreed to Yuan's plan of the unified China under Yuan's government. On 8 March 1912 the Provisional Senate passed the Provisional Constitution to limit Yuan's power in the future. On March 10, the Senate elected Yuan as the second Provisional President of the Republic.^[8] The power of the Nanjing Government and the Provisional Senate hence transitioned to the Beiyang government

in Beijing, which signified the dissolution of the Provisional Government. The transition to the north in the next few years would be challenging with factions, warlords, constitutional movements and many other issues.

References

External links

Media related to Provisional Government of the Republic of China (1912) at Wikimedia Commons

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Provisional_Government_of_the_Republic_of_China_(1912)&oldid=1215095036"

[pompl-1] 
ISBN 962-209-287-X
, 9789622092877. pg 207- 209.

[ksliew-2] 
ISBN 978-0-520-01760-3
. pg 131-136.

[zg1-3] ISBN 978-986-86815-0-7
. pg xviii

[4] ISBN 0-89875-531-X
, 9780898755312. pg 132.

[5] ISBN 0-8047-4011-9
. pg 210.

[wangj-6] 
ISBN 978-981-4295-72-7
. pg 73.

[haw-7] 
ISBN 978-0-415-39906-7
. pg 100.

[8] ISBN 978-0-521-44228-2
. p. 154.

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

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