Background
Feng Yu-hsiang was born on November 6, 1882 in Tsao-hsien, Anhui, China.
Baoding Military Academy, China
Feng Yü-hsiang studied at the Baoding (Paoting) Military Academy.
Baoding Military Academy, China
Feng Yü-hsiang studied at the Baoding (Paoting) Military Academy.
Feng Yu-hsiang was born on November 6, 1882 in Tsao-hsien, Anhui, China.
Feng Yü-hsiang attended the Beiyang (Peiyang) Military School at Tianjin (Tientsin) at age of 16, but left in 1898 before graduation. He joined the Army and became a company commander. And then Feng Yu-hsiang was recommended by his superiors to study at the Baoding (Paoting) Military Academy from which he graduated.
Mr. Feng was commander of the 3rd regiment of the Imperial Army and later provost guard regiment of the Metropolis since 1910. Then he was a commander of the 16th mixed brigade in 1913. Feng Yu-hsiang was acquainted with Wu Pei-fu in Hunan when the latter was commanding the 6th brigade of the 3rd Division in 1917. He played important role together with Wu pei-fu in the Zhili (Chihli)-Anfu War in 1920, which resulted in the overthrow of the Anfu Party.
At Wu's suggestion, his troops were reorganised into the 11th Division of the National Army and he was appointed concurrently director of Military Affairs of Shaanxi (Shensi). Later Mr. Feng was an acting Military Governor of Shaanxi (Shensi), still commanding the 11th Division, 1921. He took prominent part in the Zhili (Chihli)-Fengtian (Fengtien) War, commanding the rear defence forces and mainly responsible for the defeat of Fengtian (Fengtien) faction.
In 1922 Feng Yu-hsiang served as a Military Governor of Henan (Honan), and the same year he was appointed Inspector-General of the National Army with headquarters at Beijing (Peking). In 1923 Mr. Feng was made a Full-General, in 1923 - Director-General for the Defence of the Northwestern Provinces and later Marshal.
Gen. Feng betrayed Wu Pei-fu in the 2nd Zhili-Fengtian (Chihli-Fengtien) War in 1924 and made the then President Tsao Kun prisoner at Beijing (Peking) expelled the "Baby Emperor" Pu Yi from the Palace in 1924.
Mr. Feng together with Chang Tso-lin made Tuan Chi-jui Provisional Chief Executive functioning as President of China from 1924. He was appointed Defence Commissioner of the Northwestern Territory in 1924. Gen. Feng was defeated by the Fengtian (Fengtien) troops at Nankow in 1926 and was forced to take refuge in Russia, where he stayed for one year, returning to China in 1927. He joined hands with the Nationalist Revolutionary Forces in 1927 and assisted in the defeat of the Northern Armies. Feng Yu-hsiang was appointed member of the State Council of the National Government and vice-President of the Executive Yuan and concurrently Minister of War from 1928 to 1929.
In 1929 Feng Yu-hsiang was elected member of the Central Executive Committee of Guomindang (Kuomintang) and member of the Central Political Council. He was relieved of all his political and military appointments by the National Government for revolting against Nanjing (Nanking) in 1929. Gen. Geng took leading part in the formation of the Northern Military Coalition in Beijing (Peking) in opposition to Nanjing (Nanking) Government in 1930.
After the collapse of the Coalition, he retired to Shanxi (Shansi) and stayed there for about a year. Upon the outbreak of the Mukden Affair in September, 1931, he urged peace between Nanjing (Nanking) and Canton and came down to Shanghai for a short time. Gen. Feng was re-instated as member of the Central Executive Committee and of the State Council in December, 1931. He retired to mount Taishan, Shantung, in 1932 and left there for Zhangjiakou (Kalgan) in Charhar in autumn of 1932.
Feng Yu-hsiang advocated armed resistance against the Japanese aggression and was proclaimed "Commander-in-Chief of the People's Allied Anti-Japanese Army" in Chahar with headquarters at Zhangjiakou (Kalgan). After the collapse of the movement there, he again retired to Taishan in Shantung. Gen. Feng attended the 5th Guomindang (Kuomintang) National Congress at Nanjing (Nanking) in November 1935 and was elected member of the Central Executive Committee. Then he resided in Nanjing (Nanking).
Between 1935 and 1945, Feng Yu-hsiang supported the KMT and held various positions in the Nationalist army and government. In October 1935, Chiang invited him to Nanjing to serve as the vice-president of the National Military Council. He held the nominal position until 1938 and remained a member of the Council until 1945. During the Xian Incident, when Chiang Kai-Shek was held prisoner by rebellious warlords, he immediately called for Chiang's release. After the Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937 he was Commander in Chief of the 6th War Area.
After World War II, he traveled to the United States where he was an outspoken critic of the Chiang regime and of Truman administration’s support for it. While there Gen. Feng came to General Stilwell's house in California, as he admired Stilwell. Barbara Tuchman tells the story "a few days after her husband's death, Mrs. Stilwell was upstairs at her home in Carmel when a visitor was announced with some confusion as 'the Christian.' Mystified, she went down to find in the hall the huge figure and cannonball head of Feng Yu-hsiang, who said, 'I have come to mourn with you for Shih Ti-wei, my friend.'"
Although he was never a Communist, Gen. Feng was close to them in his final years.
According to descendants whose father was raised as a young boy by Feng Yu-hsiang in his household, and was inspired by the elder Feng's example of service to country and countrymen to join and serve in the military, Feng Yu-hsiang also visited and lived for several months in Berkeley, California during his stay as visiting scholar.
He died in a shipboard fire on the Black Sea while en route to the Soviet Union in 1948, along with one of his daughters. Some believe he was murdered; others deny it.
The same descendants also learned from their father that many believed Feng was murdered by political adversaries; and that those who knew details of the shipboard fire and its circumstances had reported that Feng and his daughter perished in the middle of night behind their cabin door(s) that had been locked from the outside.
The Chinese Communists classified Gen. Feng as a 'good warlord,' and his remains were buried with honors in 1953, at the sacred Mount Tai in Shandong.
General Feng was a Christian and so were most of his soldiers. He was known by foreigners as the "Christian General". Feng, like many young officers, was involved in revolutionary activity and was nearly executed for treason. He later joined Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army and with the help and advice of Chinese diplomat Wang Zhengting, converted to Christianity in 1914, being baptised into the Methodist Episcopal Church.
A man of imposing stature, Feng Yü-hsiang liked to dress in the clothing of the common soldier to show his identity with the masses.
In 1924 Feng Yu-hsiang married Li Teh-chuan.
