This site specializes in information on Chinese civilian & military orders, decorations, & medals from the Qing Dynasty, the Republic and the People's Republic periods.

Early Republican Awards (1911-1929)

The Five-Color Flag of the Early Republic of China

        As the Chinese Empire became increasingly weakened and repeatedly humiliated in various conflicts and dealings with foreign powers, anti-Manchu sentiments grew and became prevalent. In 1910-1911, as widespread anti-Manchu rebellions broke out all over the country, and control of key provinces and cities were lost one after another,  the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the young Hsuan-tung, finally abdicated.  

        in !912, for a very brief period, Dr. Sun Yat-sin, the leader of the Nationalist party, and the person generally accepted to be the "father" of the Republic of China, was declared provisional president.  But very soon, in the interest of preserving a republican form of government without a civil war, Dr. Sun resigned and supported Yuan Shih-kai's bid for that position.  

Yuan Shih-kai

       Yuan Shih-kai, former premier of the Qing court and leader of the Pei-yang army, the modern army of the Empire, became provisional president in 1912.  On October 10, 1913, Yuan was sworn in as the first President of the Republic.

        The early years of the young Chinese Republic were, understandably, not very stable.  They were marked with constant change of presidents, ineffective parliament,  internal strife, power struggles between the many warlords with their own personal armies and territories, and even a brief return to a monarchy.  

        While the provisional president, Dr. Sun did promulgate a set of regulations for a number of new Chinese Orders.  But because of the transfer of power to Yuan shortly after, it appears that  the new awards were not actually given out.  

        On July 29, 1912, Yuan promulgated the Regulations for the Orders which created the Grand Order and the first civilian order of the Republic. In August, the regulations for the Order of Rank and Merit was announced, and in December, the first two military orders were created.   In subsequent years, a number of other awards were created by the young Republic.  While the control of Peking and the presidency changed hands a number of times during the years of the early Republic, these official central government awards were generally kept intact.     

        Another phenomenon of interest is that during the early Republican era, many warlords also issued their own awards.  Some created a whole award structure which rivaled that of the central government.  Of course, practically none of them bothered with award regulations, so research and study of these awards are often very difficult. 

 

 

Early Republican Orders

The key civilian and military orders of the early Republic of China which was in force between 1912-1929. Include the Golden Grain, the Precious Golden Grain, the Striped Tiger

Early Republic Medals

Civilian and military medals issued by the central government of the early Republic.

Warlord Awards

As a great many warlords issued their own awards, we can only survey the key ones here.  Overtime, we hope to add more warlord awards to this section.  These reference materials are organized by the names of the warlord. Grouped here would be personal awards given out by the warlords or other military or political leaders of the period, including personal awards of leading warlords who became president of the Republic at one time.

Other Miscellaneous early Republican Awards

Miscellaneous and assorted early Republican awards, include departmental, local, military unit, and civilian awards from this period.

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Last modified: March 23, 2005