The Second Revolution in China, 1913. My Adventures of the Fighting Around Shanghai, the Arsenal, Woosung Forts.

RUDINGER, St. Piero.

Published by Shanghai: Shanghai Mercury, Ltd, 1914

About this Item

First edition, first printing, of this extensively illustrated account of the 1913 uprising by Sun Yat-sen's republican alliance against the central government. This so-called "Second Revolution", while eventually quashed, deepened the cause of republicanism that would eventually birth Sun's famous Kuomintang party. After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the 1913 election delivered Sun Yat-sen's political grouping a strong parliamentary mandate, energising his plans for the creation of a parliamentary democracy. This victory threatened the political ambitions of the President of the Republic, Yuan Shikai, who aspired to revive a pseudo-imperial political system with himself at the head of a powerful executive. Following Sun's victory, Yuan's supporters, likely with his explicit approval, arranged the assassination of Song Jiaoren, Sun's political ally who had masterminded the parliamentary victory. When Sun's parliamentary majority blocked Yuan's plans to raise foreign loans for his own aggrandisement, Yuan responded by outlawing the party, sparking an uprising by Sun's followers and troops under the command of seven provincial governors. The present work begins with details of the fighting around Shanghai, as well as an account of the work of the Chinese Red Cross with the wounded from both sides. Further chapters, illustrated with detailed maps, cover assaults by the rebels on the Jiangnan Arsenal and the Wusong Forts, and their eventual defeat at the hands of government forces. The Austrian journalist Stephen Piero Rudinger was war reporter for the Ostasiatische Lloyd, the oldest German-language newspaper in China established in Shanghai in 1889. Rudinger reported on the "Second Revolution" at the side of Admiral Tseng Yu-cheng, who was tasked by Yuan with subduing the rebellion. Octavo. half-tone portrait frontispiece of author, 38 half-tone plates, 4 folding maps and plans. Original blue cloth, spine and front board lettered in gilt, grey-coated endpapers. Spine sunned, extremities rubbed, contents lightly foxed and toned, small closed tear to map stubs facing pages 100 and 144, 2 maps bound out of order. A very good copy. Seller Inventory # 151997

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Second Revolution in China, 1913. My ...

Publisher: Shanghai: Shanghai Mercury, Ltd, 1914

Edition: 1st Edition