Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/T'an Yen-k'ai

General T'an Yen-k'ai

譚延闓学組庵

General Tan Yen-k'ai was born at Ch'a-lin Hsien, Hunan province, in 1876, his father being the late T'an Chung-lin, the Viceroy of Hu and Kuang Provinces. He became a Metropolitan Graduate in 1904 and was subsequently made a Hanlin Compiler, being admitted to the Hanlin Academy. Shortly afterwards he resigned from the Academy and returned home for retirement. While residing in Hunan, he was, however, active in local politics. In consequence he was elected chairman of the Provincial Assembly of Hunan in 1909, when the Ching House gave every indication of its determination to introduce constitutional government. In October 1911 the First Revolution broke out and General Tan was elected Chief of Military Affairs with headquarters at Changsha. In July 1912 he was appointed Tutu or Military Governor of Hunan. In October 1913 he was ordered by Yuan Shih-kai to turn over the office of Tutu to Tang Hsiangming. He was suspected of being disloyal to Yuan in connection with the Second Revolution which broke out in the summer of 1913. In June 1916, Yuan Shih-kai died. In August 1916 he was appointed Civil Governor of Hunan and concurrently Military Governor the denomination of which had by that time been changed from Tutu to Tuchun. He was relieved of the Tuchun post by Fu Liang-tso, a confidential man of Tuan Chi-jui, then Prime Minister, in August 1917. Subsequently the Kiangsi troops invaded Hunan, captured Changsha and drove away General Fu. In December 1917 General Tan again became Tuchun of Hunan, this time being appointed by the Southern-western government. In the mean time the Peking government ordered General Tsao Kun, General Wu Pei-fu and General Chang Chin-yao to retake Hunan. Their combined forces finally succeeded in recapturing Changsha and Yochow in April 1918, but the south-western troops unnder General Tan's leadership still occupied part of Hunan's territory. In March 1919, before the victory was completed, Peking appointed General Chang Chin-yao, an Anfu man, Military Governor of Hunan, instead of General Wu Pei-fu, who should have deserved this appointment because it was his troops who alone recaptured these two important cities. For a time, there were two military governors in Hunan, one appointed by Peking and the other by Canton. In March 1920, General Wu Pei-fu retired from Hunan to Paotingfu under the excuse of giving a rest to his troops but really as a protest against Peking's refusal to pay his men although the Anfu generals received their monthly allowance more regularly. Upon his retirement from Hunan, General Chang Chin-yao could not hold his ground. General Tan, taking advantage of the situtation, advanced with his men, captured and expelled Chang Ching-yao in June 1920. After Chang's flight, he became the civil as well as the military governor of Hunan, but he did not function as such under orders of Peking. On November 2, 1920 General T'an declared a self-government in Hunan. On the 23rd, the civil and military administrations were separated with General Chao Heng-ti taking up the command of the military troops and General Tan temporarily in chrage of the civil administration, awaiting the election by the people of the new governor. A week later the latter was relieved of the governorship by General Ling Chih-yu, who is General Chao's man. Since then General T'an joined the Southern government and made several attempts in vain to restore his stand in Hunan. In June 1922 when the Chihli-Fengtien War had just broken, out, the Peking government appointed him Acting Minister of the Interior but he did not accept the offer. In October 1923 he was awarded the Second Order of Merit.