Yuan Kedu
Yuan Kedu was the twelfth son of Yuan ShikaiYuan ShikaiYuan Shikai (1859–1916) was a Chinese army leader and reformist minister of the late Qing dynasty and the first president of the Republic of China, from 1912 to 1916. The modern army he trained at Xiaozhan, Tianjin, grew into the Beiyang Army; in 1915–1916 he proclaimed a monarchy with himself as emperor, cancelled it in March 1916 and died on June 6 of that year.Open the full entry, born in 1907. In 1920 he went to the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry 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.
Contents5 sections
Key facts
May 1, 1907Birth
Phillips Academy’s student record of Yuan Kedu gives his date of birth as May 1, 1907, and enters his father as Yuan Shi Kai, the Chinese president from 1912 to 1916; the field “Mother” is printed as “Mrs. Shih Kal Yuan,” and the field “From” gives Tianjin.[1]
A 2019 paper by Nicholas L. Chan calls him the twelfth brother of the fifth son, 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, and states that Yuan Shikai had 17 sons and 15 daughters and never spared expense on their education, that the sons all received a traditional education in childhood, and that while their father was alive the whole family lived in Zhongnanhai.[2]
1920To the United States to Study
Chan’s paper 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 eleventh brother Yuan Ke’anYuan Ke’anYuan Ke’an was the eleventh son of Yuan Shikai; he went to the United States to study in 1920 and attended Phillips Academy from 1921 to 1924, whose student record gives his year of birth as 1906 and lists a later career in civil aviation in Taiwan and service as secretary to Claire Lee Chennault.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.[2]
His fifth brother, Yuan Kequan, 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.[2]
September 16, 1924–June 12, 1925At Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy’s record states that he had previously attended Williston Junior, that he was at Phillips Academy from September 16, 1924, to June 12, 1925, as a member of the class of 1928, living in Will Hall, and that his courses were Algebra 1, English 1 and 2, and French 1; the record’s field “Graduated” reads “Left, course incomplete.”[1]
The guardian entered in the record is Professor Everett Skillings of Middlebury, 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. The record’s narrative text names as his brothers William and Henry of the class of 1925, that is, Yuan Kejiu and Yuan Ke’an; Yuan Kejiu’s record in turn names his brother Thomas of the class of 1928.[1][3][4]