Contacts between Zhang Jian and Yuan Shikai and Changes in the Political Situation at the Early Period of the Republic of China

Zhang Jian, an industrialist, educator and social activist in modern China, is an influential figure in the history of modern China. There has been a great deal of research into his economic ideas and industrial activities, his ideas about culture and education, and his performance on constitutionalism during the late Qing Dynasty, yet his contacts with Yuan Shikai remain neglected. Their contacts enable us to understand how Yuan Shikai seized power and ascended onto the throne when different groups of forces were constantly united and divided. The Chinese bourgeois revolutionary group was weak in political power. By commanding the military resources of the New Army and uniting with the local esquire, especially the local strength group headed by Zhan Jian, Yan Shikai brought the rule of the Qiang Dynasty to an end. Logically, this event is inevitable rather than only occasional.