Yuan Ke’an

Phillips Academy’s student profile of Yuan Ke’an gives his date of birth as January 15, 1906, and names his father as Yuan Shi Kai, the Chinese president from 1912 to 1916. The record’s field “From” gives Tientsin, Chili (Tianjin, Zhili), and its field “Mother” reads “Mrs. Shih Kai Yuan.”⁠[1]

Bai Junhe, the husband of one of his nieces, says in an oral account that Yuan Ke’an’s mother was Lady Yang, Yuan Shikai’s fifth consort, and that he was her youngest son.⁠[2]

The 2019 paper by Nicholas L. Chan records that in 1920 he went to the United States to study, together with his ninth brother Yuan KejiuYuan KejiuYuan Kejiu was the ninth son of Yuan Shikai; Phillips Academy’s record gives his year of birth as 1905 and Wang Birong’s book as 1903. Wang Birong writes that in 1914 his father betrothed him to Li Shaofang, the second daughter of Li Yuanhong, and that they married in 1934. He went to the United States to study in 1920 and attended Phillips Academy from 1921 to 1924; Bai Junhe, the husband of one of his nieces, says that after returning to China he served continuously as a director of Qixin Yanghui Gongsi (the Qixin cement company).Open the full entry, his tenth brother Yuan KejianYuan KejianYuan Kejian was the tenth son of Yuan Shikai. He went to the United States to study in 1920; his second son, Yuan Jiacheng, says that he studied at Harvard University and, after returning to China, worked only briefly as an English-language secretary and thereafter lived on the family property. His wife, Lu Yuxiu, was a daughter of Lu Jianzhang, a former military governor of Shaanxi.Open the full entry, his twelfth brother Yuan KeduYuan KeduYuan Kedu was the twelfth son of Yuan Shikai, born in 1907. In 1920 he went to the United States to study together with several of his elder brothers and a nephew; he attended Williston Junior and then Phillips Academy, which he left in 1925 without completing the course.Open the full entry and Yuan Jiarong, the son of his eldest brother Yuan KedingYuan KedingYuan Keding, courtesy name Yuntai, was the eldest son of Yuan Shikai; fluent in German and English, he commanded the Army Model Regiment and in 1915 was a core member of the Chouanhui, the society that campaigned for a constitutional monarchy; he came to be called the “crown prince of Hongxian.” After Yuan Shikai’s death he lived for a time in seclusion; under the Japanese occupation he disavowed in print a statement supporting the “New Order in East Asia” that had been published over his name without his consent, and he spent his last years in the household of his cousin Zhang Boju, dying at the end of the 1950s.Open the full entry. His fifth brother, Yuan KequanYuan KequanYuan Kequan (1898–1941) was the fifth son of Yuan Shikai and a poet in the classical style; after his father’s death he lived in seclusion in Tianjin, and he left six collections of verse.Open the full entry, wrote a poem of farewell to them at Wusong, which the paper reads as showing Yuan Kequan, who had once broken off his own studies in England, now ashamed of his advancing years and placing high hopes in his brothers and nephew that they would succeed in their studies and restore the family’s standing. Bai Junhe says in his account that Lady Yang’s four sons were all sent by her to school in England or the United States when very young.⁠[3][2]

Before entering Phillips Academy he lived in VermontVermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital is Montpelier and its largest city is Burlington. It joined the Union on March 4, 1791, as the 14th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 643,077.Open the full entry for a year; the guardian entered in the school’s record was Professor Everett Skillings of Middlebury.⁠[1]

He attended Phillips Academy from September 13, 1921, to June 13, 1924, as a member of the class of 1925. He lived in Will Hall in his first year, in Taylor 2 in his second and in Taylor 4 in his third.⁠[1]

For his first two years he was in the Classical Department and in his third year in the Scientific Department; his courses included algebra, English, French, ancient history, plane geometry and physics.⁠[1]

The school’s record notes that he left with his course incomplete and enters Hamilton College as his college.⁠[1]

Two of his brothers attended the school as well: William Ke Chiu Yuan of the class of 1925, that is, Yuan Kejiu, whose Chinese name the school’s record prints with a different character for jiu from the one used in Chan’s paper, and Thomas Ke Tu Yuan of the class of 1928, that is, Yuan Kedu. The school records Yuan Kejiu as born on February 10, 1905, and taught by a private tutor before entering; he attended over the same dates as Yuan Ke’an, lived in Churchill 3 in his first year and, like him, in Taylor 2 and Taylor 4 in the next two, his record reads “Left, course incomplete 1925,” and his address in 1932 is given as the Tientsin Cement Factory. It records Yuan Kedu as born on May 1, 1907, previously at Williston Junior, at the school from September 16, 1924, to June 12, 1925, living in Will Hall, and leaving with his course incomplete. Professor Everett Skillings was guardian to all three.⁠[1][4][5]

Phillips Academy’s record gives his address in 1932 as “Kailan Mining Head Office, Tongshan, China.” The address is followed by the note “(with Tommy Sun).”⁠[1]

Bai Junhe says in his account that he served as secretary-general of the Kailuan Kuangwuju (the Kailuan mining administration).⁠[2]

Bai Junhe adds that when his sixth brother, Yuan KehuanYuan KehuanYuan Kehuan was the sixth son of Yuan Shikai; he went to Europe in 1913 and attended Cheltenham College in England. His son-in-law Bai Junhe says in an oral account that he entered industry in North China in 1926, served as assistant manager and then general manager of Qixin Yanghui Gongsi (the Qixin cement company), and died in 1956.Open the full entry, took up industry after returning from England, he and two other brothers gave their support. Bai Junhe adds that his eighth brother, Yuan KezhenYuan KezhenYuan Kezhen was the eighth son of Yuan Shikai. His wife, Zhou Ruizhu, was a daughter of Zhou Fu, who served as governor and governor-general of several provinces in the last years of the Qing dynasty. Bai Junhe, the husband of one of his nieces, says in an oral account that his mother was Lady Yang, Yuan Shikai’s fifth consort, that he helped his sixth brother, Yuan Kehuan, in industry, and that he died relatively early.Open the full entry, died relatively early, having played some part in helping the sixth brother establish the family’s position among the large enterprises of the north, and that his ninth brother, Yuan Kejiu, after returning from study in the United States as a young man, long served as a director of Qixin Yanghui Gongsi (the Qixin cement company).⁠[2]

Bai Junhe says in his account that he was influenced by Western ideas and that his wife, Zhang Meisheng, had grown up in the United States.⁠[2]

Bai Junhe’s account, which reckons Yuan Shikai’s sons at fifteen, calls him the eleventh; Chan’s paper gives Yuan Shikai 17 sons and 15 daughters and calls him the eleventh brother of Yuan Kequan. The paper also states that Yuan Shikai’s second son, Yuan KewenYuan KewenYuan Kewen (1890–1931), art name Hanyun, was the second son of Yuan Shikai, known as a poet, calligrapher and collector of Song and Yuan printed books, old coins and stamps, and as an amateur performer of Peking opera and Kunqu. He remonstrated in verse when his father prepared to take the throne; the physicist Luke Chia-Liu Yuan was his son.Open the full entry, excelled in poetry, calligraphy, painting, antiques and book collecting, and that the fourth son, Yuan KeduanYuan KeduanYuan Keduan (died 1951) was the fourth son of Yuan Shikai; a skilled calligrapher, he was a counselor in the Dayuanshuai Fu (generalissimo’s headquarters) of Zhang Zuolin and a nominal director of the Kailuan Kuangwuju (Kailuan mining administration).Open the full entry, the sixth, Yuan Kehuan, and the thirteenth, Yuan Kexiang, among others, were skilled calligraphers.⁠[2][3][3]

Phillips Academy’s record enters his career as “Civil Air Transportation, Formosa; aircraft industry, secretary to Claire Lee Chennault.”⁠[1]

Bai Junhe says in his account that after moving to Taiwan he rose to be head of the civil aviation administration there and also held a position with Pan American, the United States airline.⁠[2]

Bai Junhe says in his account that some history books give Lady Yang’s home as Yangliuqing in Tianjin but that, as far as he knows, she came from Yixingfu in Tianjin; Yuan Jiacheng, a grandson of Yuan Shikai, said in a 2016 interview with the history channel of ifeng.com that she came from Yixingfu in Tianjin and was of fairly humble origin. The excerpt of the same account printed in Wenzhai Bao on May 6, 2023, from Zhang Guansheng’s book Lishi de fengxichu, says that her family were ordinary local people who grew and sold flowers.⁠[2][6][7]

Bai Junhe says that Lady Yang had a good head and something of a modern outlook but confined herself to the household and kept out of politics; that she owed Yuan Shikai’s trust largely to her thrifty and impartial management; and that Yuan Shikai gave her charge of coordinating and managing the households of the sixth to ninth consorts. Yuan Jiacheng says that she was good with money, that Yuan Shikai later put the household’s finances in her hands, and that her descendants were all good with money too.⁠[2][6]

The Wenzhai Bao excerpt says that of Yuan Shikai’s sons only her four all studied abroad, came into contact with Western thought and culture, and on their return achieved something in reviving Chinese industry; Bai Junhe regards her as having risen above the ordinary views of women of her time, with a way of her own both in helping Yuan Shikai run his household and in raising sons who made their mark.⁠[7][2]

Nicholas L. Chan’s paper states that while Yuan Shikai was alive the whole family lived in Zhongnanhai.⁠[3]

Bai Junhe says he heard that before her death Lady Yang asked her sons to stay out of politics, because Yuan Shikai had gone as far as politics could take him, president of the Republic and then emperor, and it is cold at such heights and very hard.⁠[2][7]

Bai Junhe says that he saw many sets of photograph albums at the house of Yuan Ke’an’s sixth brother, Yuan Kehuan, with a great many pictures of Lady Yang, and that in August 1966 they were burned by Red Guards, very few surviving; Yuan Jiayun, a daughter of the eighth brother, Yuan Kezhen, who has lived in Canada for decades, still has photographs of Lady Yang.⁠[2]