From the Opium War until the early twentieth century Britain’s policy in China aimed at maximum economic benefit with minimum political involvement. However, on many occasions either her economic activities were endangered, or Britain was unwilling to undertake greater political involvement in order to protect her interests. There were times when troubles were caused by China, but they often resulted from international rivalry to control and influence her.

Whatever the situation, Britain always took the same cautious consideration. Thus, after much indecision, Britain actively intervened on the side of the Manchus towards the end of the T’ai-p’ing Rebellion, 1850–1864,...

When Jordan returned to Peking in 1906 he found that society had changed ‘wonderfully’. Many of the social changes signified that ‘a new China’ was emerging. Chinese ladies were seen on the street riding or driving in carriages; and princes and other high dignitaries increasingly abandoned their traditional seclusion from dinner parties and other social occasions. More and more Chinese sought to eliminate opium-smoking and foot-binding of women, regarding these traditions as positive vices.¹

The political scene, however, was less encouraging. Between 1906 and the outbreak of the revolution in October 1911 Jordan observed, in a somewhat over-simplified way, three...

To Jordan the outbreak of the 1911 Revolution had at least one good outcome: the recall of Yüan Shih-k’ai by the panic-stricken Manchu government. Jordan's immediate reaction was that Yüan would be perfectly able to cope with the situation.¹ Jordan realized before long that he had underestimated the extent of the revolution, which spread first along the Yangtze and then across the whole country. He could no longer maintain his hitherto unsympathetic attitude towards the revolutionaries and he devised a policy of neutrality, by which his country sought to safeguard British life and property during the upheaval.²

The policy of...

A prominent feature of Yüan’s presidency was his personal control over the government. These few years mark Yüan’s growing autocracy, and culminate in his attempt in 1915–16 to revive a monarchy and assume the throne himself. This chapter deals with Yüan’s struggle for power, of which the critical point was the ‘Second Revolution’ in the summer of 1913.

Yüan Shih-k’ai’s consolidation of his power up to 1913 was achieved by three progressive steps: the reorganization loan made by the international consortium; T’ang Shao-i’s resignation from the premiership; and Sung Chiao-jen’s assassination. Both Jordan and Yüan were actively involved in...

The monarchical movement of Yüan Shih-k’ai, which started in August 1915, was the climax of his ambition. Undoubtedly it was the most far-reaching political event in China between the 1913 ‘Second Revolution’ and Yüan’s death in June 1916. The movement emerged slowly, and was not unexpected when it was formally inaugurated in the summer of 1915.

It is commonly asserted that Yüan had aspired to imperialism for some time before the movement. This view has several foundations: his increasing disregard of parliamentary rule since the 1913 Revolution; his worship, in late 1913 and early 1914, of Heaven and Confucius which...

Yüan Shih-k’ai’s sudden death shattered Jordan’s long-cherished dream for China; but for Japan, its dream was beginning to come true.¹ He could not forgive Japan for this, and from then on he ‘saw behind every bush a Japanese’.² He now lost the sense of balance which had for so long enabled him to divorce personal feelings from national considerations. Since 1915 Whitehall had been continuously embarrassed by Jordan’s overt bitterness towards Japan which was the cause of the virulent anti-British campaign in the Japanese press.³ Jordan and his support for Yüan irked Japan as much as Yüan and his monarchy....