Second Revolution (Republic of China)
1913 revolt of southern provinces
The Second Revolution (Chinese: 二次革命; pinyin: Èrcì Gémìng) was a failed 1913 revolt by the governors of several southern Chinese provinces and supporters of Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang (KMT) against the Beiyang government of the Republic of China, led by Yuan Shikai. It was quickly defeated by Yuan's armies and led to the continued consolidation of Yuan's powers as President of the Republic of China.
In the 1912 election, the KMT won a majority of seats to the National Assembly, and its leader Song Jiaoren was to be the premier. Song was assassinated on 22 March 1913, likely on Yuan's orders, after which Sun urged an immediate military expedition. The military campaign was postponed as Yuan began to dismiss republican governors from their offices. On 12 July, Li Liejun declared the independence of Jiangxi, and five other provinces and Shanghai followed suit. Huang Xing arrived in Nanjing and organized an anti-Yuan force, but his poorly organized troops were quickly crushed by soldiers of the Beiyang Army. Nanjing was captured on 1 September 1913, and all six provinces soon surrendered. Sun and Huang fled to Japan, and the Second Revolution concluded in failure.
The failed revolution is named Guichou because it occurred in 1913, the stem-branch year of guǐ-chǒu (癸丑) in the sexagenary cycle of the traditional Chinese calendar, just as the Xinhai Revolution occurred in 1911, the year of xīn-hài (辛亥).
“Second Revolution (Republic of China)” enters the record as 1913 revolt of southern provinces. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Second, Revolution and Republic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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