Background
XiShan Yan was born on October 8, 1883 in Shanxi, China to a family that had been bankers and merchants for generations (Shanxi was known for its many successful banks until the late 19th century).
1947
Yan Xishan
Yan Xishan--"China's Next President"
Yan retired from public life in 1950.
Yan Xishan's soldiers in Liaozhou (now Zuoquan County) in 1925 during the war with Henan warlord Fan Zhongxiu.
Yan Xishan's tomb in Shilin District, Taipei.
阎锡山 阎
XiShan Yan was born on October 8, 1883 in Shanxi, China to a family that had been bankers and merchants for generations (Shanxi was known for its many successful banks until the late 19th century).
As a young man XiShan Yan worked for several years at his father's bank while pursuing a traditional Confucian education at a local village school. After his father was ruined by a late 19th-century depression that ravaged the Chinese economy, he enrolled in a free military school that was run and financed by the Manchu government in Taiyuan. While studying at this school he was first introduced to mathematics, physics and various other subjects imported directly from the West. In 1904 he was sent to Japan to study at the Tokyo Shimbu Gakko, a military preparatory academy, after which he entered the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, from which he graduated in 1909.
After XiShan Yan returned to China, the Qing regime assigned him to the Shanxi New Army. There, he secretly plotted the regime’s destruction. In 1911, XiShan Yan drive out Manchu troops then established himself as military governor of Shanxi. He ruled from the city of Taiyuan.
In 1912, XiShan Yan began building the Taiyuan Arsenal, which he initially called the "Shanxi Machinery Bureau." The factory initially produced a modest number of small arms. An invasion by warlord Yuan Shikai interrupted Yan’s plans for the province. XiShan Yan was eventually able to convince Yuan to reinstate him, and by Yuan’s death in 1917 he had managed to firmly consolidate his own power. XiShan Yan wanted Shanxi to be able to properly defend itself. That meant seriously investing in the arsenal.
By 1920 XiShan Yan was importing machinery and hiring foreign staff to upgrade the Shanxi Machinery Bureau. The bulk of the equipment came from Germany. His staff was a mix of Chinese technicians trained in the United States and other technicians he’d managed to poach from the much older Hanyang Arsenal. Soon the Shanxi Machinery Bureau was one of the few arms factories in China capable of producing artillery pieces, mostly copies of German models. Most Chinese arms factories were known for cheap but crude products, but Taiyuan cultivated a reputation for making high-quality arms.
Alongside the arms-production, XiShan Yan laid out an ambitious plan for civil industrialization. He had big plans for Shanxi, including public education - for boys and girls - plus land reform and a local steel industry. Some observers began to call him "The Model Governor."
When Chiang Kaishek and the Nationalist Army launched the Northern Expedition in 1927, XiShan Yan provided troops for the campaign in order to fight against Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin. Yan’s forces ultimately played a key role in seizing Beijing, handing the Nationalists a victory over Zhang and establishing Chiang as the head of China’s new central government. Not long after, the Japanese assassination of Zhang led to his son Zhang Xueliang taking over his army and pledging support for Chiang, as well.
However, during the Central Plains War, XiShan Yan sided with "The Christian General" Feng Yuxiang and the Guangxi Clique against Chiang as they fought to establish an alternative national government. XiShan Yan appeared on the cover of Time with the caption "China’s next president." But the revolt failed. In 1930, XiShan Yan went into exile in Dalian, a part of China then under the control of the Japanese Kwantung army. Through it all, the Taiyuan arsenal remained active. In 1930 it had as many as 15,000 employees.
During his time in Dalian, XiShan Yan enjoyed regular contact with Japanese officials. But he was secretly in correspondence with Zhang, as well. The two believed Japan was planning an invasion. XiShan Yan returned from exile to Shanxi with Zhang’s help and with Chiang’s reluctant permission. In September 1931, Japanese troops invaded Manchuria and destroyed Zhang’s army. Students in Shanxi protested Chiang’s policy of avoiding confrontation with the Japanese. On Dec. 18, 1931, Kuomintang police fired on a crowd of protesters. Shortly after, officials loyal to XiShan Yan began expelling Kuomintang officials from Shanxi. He regained control of the province.
XiShan Yan also reclaimed his arsenal and boosted production. He immediately began funneling weapons from Taiyuan to anti-Japanese partisans in Manchuria. Embattled Chiang made peace with Yan once again. During a visit to Shanxi in 1934, he praised Yan’s leadership, tacitly acknowledging the province’s autonomy. He also declared Yan a key leader in "pacification" operations against communist insurgents.
XiShan Yan continued to tweak his ideology and modify his approach to governance. But in 1936 Mongolian Prince De led a force of Japanese-trained Mongolian troops in an attack on Yan’s territory. Yan’s forces won the battle, but the confrontation left XiShan Yan convinced that rival Chinese factions needed to prepare for an inevitable Japanese invasion. He made a secret truce with Chinese communist forces, allowing Zhou Enlai to establish a secret base in Shanxi.
Zhang and Zhou kidnapped Chiang in what became known as the Xi’an incident and forced him to agree to a truce with the communists. XiShan Yan wasn’t directly involved in planning the kidnapping, but due to his relationship with all factions he was able to help negotiate Chiang’s release and establish a national truce between the government and the communists.
In 1937 Japan finally launched its main invasion of China, pushing into the north from Manchuria and striking Shanghai from the sea. Once again, Yan’s forces fought Prince De’s Mongolian troops, quickly routing them.
Japanese regular troops proved a much greater challenge. XiShan Yan began executing commanders that demonstrated cowardice. He also sent a personal invitation to Zhu De of the 8th Route Army to come to Shanxi and join the fight. Yan and De’s forces banded together at the battle for the Pingxingguan Mountain Pass, delivering the Japanese force an embarrassing defeat. But the Japanese army continued its onslaught, eventually driving the Chinese to Taiyuan.
Yan’s forces fought hard to protect the city, but eventually retreated. When Japanese troops seized the city, they also seized Yan’s beloved arsenal. The factory continued producing machine guns, but rechambered them for Japanese rounds. They equipped pro-Japanese Chinese puppet troops fighting Chinese partisans.
Soon XiShan Yan was waging a guerilla war of his own against both the Japanese and the communists. Commanding his troops from the mountains, he established new arms factories. They were much small, crude operations that relied on scrap metal and other recycled material. They produced hundreds of weapons rather than thousands.
In 1940, Gen.l Ryūkichi Tanaka became the chief of staff of the Japanese First Army. XiShan Yan and Tanaka had been on friendly terms during Yan’s exile in Dalian. Tanaka thought he could exploit Yan’s rift with the communists. But XiShan Yan wanted the Japanese to withdraw from Shanxi. Only then would he consent to fight with the Japanese against the communists. In 1943, XiShan Yan and Tanaka agreed to a loose, informal truce.
After Japan’s surrender in 1945, XiShan Yan returned once again to Taiyuan and re-re-established his rule over Shanxi province. One of his first priorities was to take back possession of the arsenal. But the Japanese had already looted and stripped much of the machinery. He wasn’t ready to give up. XiShan Yan began aggressively recruiting former Japanese sympathizers - and even Japanese troops and technicians. They proved instrumental in rebuilding the province’s industrial base. He managed to convince Japanese officer Hosaku Imamura to lead his "Japanese special forces." American advisers and the Kuomintang frowned upon Yan’s use of Japanese mercenaries. XiShan Yan once went as far as to label a detachment of Japanese troops as "railway repair laborers" in official documents before sending them fully armed into battle against communist troops.
By 1948 the arsenal was back to producing thousands of small arms and artillery pieces per month. But XiShan Yan couldn’t hold on to Shanxi. Communist forces flooded into the province, easily recruiting local fighters. They encircled Taiyuan. When the communists finally captured Taiyun, Imamura committed suicide. XiShan Yan fled to the south. He ultimately fled to Taiwan with the rest of the nationalists.
XiShan Yan retired from public life, turning his attention to writing and the further development of Yan Xishan Thought. The last iterations of his philosophy were considered "anti-communist and anti-capitalist Confucian utopianism."
XiShan Yan died in 1960.
XiShan Yan was a shrewd negotiator and strategist. He avoided entering conflicts until he’d identified what he believed was the winning side and would then join at the moment he considered most advantageous.