The Study Of Li Jingxi:The Last Governor Of Yunnan And Guizhou Province

As an central member of the Huai political forces in the late Qing Dynasty,Li Jingxi was appointed Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou in the first year of Xuantong(1909)on the basis of serving as governor of Yunnan Province in the 27 th year of Guangxu(1901).He was sent off by the revolutionary forces caused by Kunming "Chong Jiu Uprising" in the third year of Xuantong(1911).Thus,the fact that Li Jingxi supervised Yunnan was actually the peak of his political career.However,under the background of the ruling crisis and frontier crisis of the Qing Dynasty,Li Jingxi’s efforts to govern Yunnan only obtained the end of the Qing Dynasty’s management in the southwest frontier as well as his own identity which was the last governor of Yunnan and Guizhou.Therefore,the study of Li Jingxi who was the governor of Yunnan Province mainly can not only make up the lack of the special research toward him in the academia,but also promoted the study of politics and political forces in the late Qing Dynasty.Besides,it also explored the social conditions and social changes in the southwestern frontier of the late Qing Dynasty through investigating the life of him.There have been several researches and studies investigating the history of Yunnan from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China,for example,six volumes of General History of Yunnan edited by He Yaohua,Modern History of Yunnan,History of the 1911 Revolution in Yunnan,Tiannan Radio and Light: The1911 Revolution in Yunnan written by Pan Xianlin and etc.However,comparatively speaking,the researches on the southwest frontier and the local history of Yunnan in late Qing Dynasty were still relatively weak.The existing research mainly focused on three aspects,namely,the anti-Qing uprising of Yunnan during the Xiantong period,the restoration of the rule order of the Qing Dynasty and the 1911 Revolution in Yunnan.In the study of restoring the ruling order in the late Qing Dynasty,the academic research paid more attention to the study of the way how they restored the ruling order from the political,military,economic and cultural aspects in the Qing Dynasty after the Xiantong Uprising.The study of the New Deal was nearly ignored,which was carried out by Li Jingxi mainly.Consequently,the lack of historical research on the southwestern frontier of the late Qing Dynasty was formed since the New Deal implement was ignored._In view of this,on the basis of drawing lessons and absorbing the existing research on the history of the southwestern frontier of the late Qing Dynasty as well as Li’s family history,this paper collected relevant materials from archives,facts,historical records,anthologies and genealogy,and then tried to carry out a specific study on Li Jingxi.The investigation of his political career could provide a new perspective and knowledge for both the local rule of Yunnan in the late Qing Dynasty and the transformation of the southwestern frontier society.This paper involved 6main parts,a preface and chapter two and an appendix which was the Li Jingxi chronology.Starting with Li Jingxi’s family background and life history,this paper expounded his learning and imperial examination experience,and explored the role of family tradition in the cultivation of his personality and ability.Then it combed Li Jingxi’s early experience as an official,and examined his ability training in the early period of his official career.This paper also focused on Li Jingxi’s actions and influences in governing Yunnan as he was the Governor of Yungui,and discussed his political career and fate after the destruction of the Qing Dynasty.In the end,this paper gave an evaluation on Li Jingxi’s management and control in Yunnan Province.On the basis of predecessors,this paper achieves some of its own achievements:First,a special systematic understanding of the last governor of Yunnan and Guizhou was formed.This paper set forth his family background,life experience,first official experience,the situation in Yunnan when he was the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou and his political fate.What’s more,his life experience was briefly reflected in the form of chronology at the end of the paper.Second,it distinguished the history of the late Qing Dynasty government’s suppression of the anti-Qing uprising in Yunnan Province from that of the Qing Dynasty government’s implementation of the new policy to save the crisis after the political stability.Through Li Jingxi’s several actions in Yunnan such as promoting the new policy,preparing for constitutionalism,starting industry,developing modern enterprises,reforming military system and management,controlling military power,handling frontier crises,preparing frontier affairs,suppressing rebellious incidents of various forces,etc.,this paper explored the historical connotation,gains and losses of Yunnan local government’s management on Southwest Frontier under the environment of internal and external troubles.Moreover,it supplemented and expanded the understanding of Yunnan’s economic and social conditions and the evolution in the late Qing Dynasty.Third,it combed and inspected Li Jingxi’s activities and performance before and after the Revolution of 1911 in Yunnan Province,and objectively pointed out his political duality.On the one hand,loyalty to the emperor was stressed.That’s to say that democratic revolution and revolutionary forces were forbidden.On the other hand,Yunnan’s revolutionary ideology and the "omission" of revolutionary party members in the late Qing Dynasty were tolerated and even protected,which was conducive to the development of the revolutionary situation in Yunnan.For this reason,Li Jingxi was sent out of Yunnan after the Revolution of 1911 by "gifts" from the prisoners of the revolutionary party and served in the government of Yuan Shikai and Li Yuanhong during the period of the Republic of China.