Feng Yü-Hsiang

Feng Yü-hsiang (fŭng yü-shyäng), 1882–1948, Chinese general. He held various military positions under the Ch'ing dynasty. Feng's conversion to Methodism in 1914 gained him the sobriquet the Christian General. From 1920 to 1926 he struggled with Wu P'ei-fu and Chang Tso-lin for the control of N China and Manchuria. He then threw his support to the Nationalists, and he became minister of war and vice chairman of the Executive Yüan at Nanjing in 1928. By 1930 he had broken with Chiang Kai-shek and had launched an unsuccessful military campaign against him. From 1931 he held office in the Nationalist government, but he never again wielded power. In 1947, while in the United States on an official mission, he denounced the government of Chiang Kai-shek. Feng died in a fire aboard a Russian ship, apparently while en route to Odessa.

Bibliography

See J. Sheridan, Chinese Warlord: The Career of Feng Yü-hsiang (1966).

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Feng Yü-Hsiang 

Born 1882 in Chihli (now Hopeh) Province; died August 1948. Chinese political and military figure.

The son of a stonemason, Feng began his military career as a soldier. After the Hsinhai Revolution of 1911–13, he held various command positions in the forces of the North Chinese militarists. In October 1924 he turned against Wu P’ei-fu, a leader of the Chihli clique, and, after seizing Peking, carried out a coup d’etat. Feng invited Soviet military specialists to China as advisers; he reorganized his forces, naming them the Nationalist Army (Kuominchün), and established links with the revolutionary government of Sun Yat-sen in the south.

In 1926, Feng joined the Kuomintang. During the Northern Campaign of 1926–27, Feng supported the National Revolutionary Army and carried out military operations against the militarists in Honan. In summer 1927, following the example of Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Ching-wei, he turned against the revolution. He later criticized the policies of Chiang Kai-shek on several occasions. During the war with Japan (1937–45), Feng was a consistent patriot and an advocate of cooperation with the Chinese Communists. After the war, in the USA, he made a final break with Chiang Kai-shek. Feng died in an accident.