Cai E or
Tsai Ao was a
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
revolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
ary leader and
warlordA warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
. He was born
Cai Genyin (蔡艮寅
Cài Gěnyín) in
ShaoyangShaoyang is a prefecture-level city in Hunan province, People's Republic of China. Shaoyang is in the south west of Hunan, not far from Hengyang city.Shaoyang has a history of 2500 years and remains an important commercial and transportation city in Hunan...
,
Hunan' is a province of China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
and his
courtesy nameA Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name , is a given name to be used later in life. After 20 years of age, the zì is assigned in place of one's given name as a symbol of adulthood and respect...
was
Songpo (松坡
Sōngpō).
In 1898, Cai studied at
Yuelu AcademyThe Yuelu Academy is located on the east side of Yuelu Mountain in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, China, on the west bank of the Xiang River....
. He later went to
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to study in 1899. Cai returned to China in 1900. He took part in the uprising of the Self-Support Army with Tang Caichang. When they failed, Cai went back to Japan.
Cai E or
Tsai Ao was a
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
revolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
ary leader and
warlordA warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
. He was born
Cai Genyin (蔡艮寅
Cài Gěnyín) in
ShaoyangShaoyang is a prefecture-level city in Hunan province, People's Republic of China. Shaoyang is in the south west of Hunan, not far from Hengyang city.Shaoyang has a history of 2500 years and remains an important commercial and transportation city in Hunan...
,
Hunan' is a province of China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
and his
courtesy nameA Chinese style name, sometimes also known as a courtesy name , is a given name to be used later in life. After 20 years of age, the zì is assigned in place of one's given name as a symbol of adulthood and respect...
was
Songpo (松坡
Sōngpō).
In 1898, Cai studied at
Yuelu AcademyThe Yuelu Academy is located on the east side of Yuelu Mountain in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, China, on the west bank of the Xiang River....
. He later went to
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to study in 1899. Cai returned to China in 1900. He took part in the uprising of the Self-Support Army with Tang Caichang. When they failed, Cai went back to Japan. Cai later joined
TongmenghuiThe Tongmenghui , also known as the Chinese United League or the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, was a secret society and underground resistance movement organized by Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren in Tokyo, Japan, on 20 August 1905...
or Chinese
United LeagueUnited League may refer to one of the following sports leagues:*United League Baseball, an independent baseball league, founded in 2006, which operates in Texas...
and took part in the
Xinhai RevolutionThe Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution , also known as the 1911 Revolution or the Chinese Revolution, began with the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911 and ended with the abdication of Emperor Puyi on February 12, 1912...
of 1911. After the revolution, he served as
Commander-in-ChiefA commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the...
of the
Military GovernmentMilitary government can refer to conditions under either*Military occupation, or*Military dictatorship-Military Government:Military government is the form of administration by which an occupying power exercises governmental authority over occupied territory.The Hague Conventions of 1907 specify...
of
YunnanYunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately 394,000 square kilometers . The capital of the province is Kunming...
.
When
Yuan ShikaiYuan Shikai was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the...
proclaimed himself as the Emperor of a new
Empire of ChinaThe Empire of China was a short-lived attempt by statesman and general Yuan Shikai from late 1915 to early 1916 to reinstate monarchy in China...
in 1915, Cai and
Tang JiyaoTang Jiyao was a Chinese general and warlord of Yunnan during the Warlord Era of Republican China.Tang was born in Huize county in 1883 in nowadays Qujing, Yunnan province...
launched the Republic-Protection Campaign in Yunnan to crusade against Yuan. With only 20,000 soldiers they defeated Yuan’s army of 80,000 in
Sichuan' is a province in Southwestern China with its capital in Chengdu. The current name of the province, 四川 , is an abbreviation of 四川路 , or "Four circuits of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from 川峡四路 , or "Four circuits of rivers and gorges", named after the division of the...
. With several provinces behind them, the revolutionaries successfully forced Yuan to abandon
monarchismMonarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government out of principle, independent from the person, the Monarch.In this system, the Monarch may be the...
. According to popular folk tale, it was a young prostitute woman who inspired Cai E to turn against Yuan's Beijing government rule.
After Yuan died, Cai held the position of
Governor-GeneralA governor-general, also known as governor general, is a vice-regal representative of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription...
and
GovernorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of Sichuan. He later went to Japan for medical treatment. He died shortly after he arrived in Japan.
Cai E is regarded by many as the man and general, who possibly changed the course of China's history. Although many warlords loyal to
Yuan ShikaiYuan Shikai was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the...
did not support his ambition to revive monarchy, Cai E was the leading figure to force Yuan to step down.
Also in Yunnan he would inspire a young
Zhu DeZhū Dé was a Chinese Communist military leader and statesman. He is regarded as the founder of the Chinese Red Army and the tactician who engineered the revolution from which emerged the People's Republic of China.-Early life:Zhu De was born in in Yilong County,...
whom later become one of the best military general in modern China and founding member of Chinese Red Army (the forerunner of
People's Liberation ArmyThe People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on 1 August 1927—celebrated annually as "PLA Day"—as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...
).
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