During the brutal warlord era of China (1912–1929), it was rare to label any warlord as virtuous. However, Feng Yuxiang the so called “good warlord of China” may have stood out as an exception. Feng’s reputation was due to his ideology and management model, which was a mixture of traditional Chinese ethics and Christianity, setting him apart from other Chinese generals during an era of extreme savagery and political strife.
Conversion to Christianity
Feng Yuxiang hailed from Anhui province and was of a robust stature, standing at a height of six feet tall. When he was young he despised Christianity which he saw as a foreign religion. It was said that he once robbed a Christian pastor of his podium as he was speaking in front of his parish. When the missionary asked why, Feng replied, “If someone asks you for a table, you should also give him your podium too. Isn’t this the teaching of Jesus?”
At 18 years old, Feng joined the Imperial Qing Army and participated in the Boxer Rebellion, which broke out at around the same time of his enlistment. Feng’s unit was deployed to Baoding city and ordered to monitor the Boxer activities, but not to intervene as the Boxers massacred foreigners and Christians.
In one incident, Feng looked on as a white Christian woman, a 37 year old, Mary S. Morrill, along with several foreigners and Chinese students, were surrounded and beaten by an angry mob of Boxers. In the face of danger, Miss Morrill asked the mob, “Why do you want to kill us? Aren’t we friends? I have visited your home, taken care of your patients, and preached the gospel to you.” Miss Morrill begged the Boxers to only kill her and release the others, but the boxers beheaded them all anyways. Feng Yuxiang was deeply moved by the white Christian woman for her loyalty to her flock and this event planted a seed in his mind.
After the Boxer Rebellion ended, Feng suffered from an ulcer and two Chinese traditional medicine doctors failed to cure him. Feng went to the Beijing Mission Hospital for medical treatment and was successfully healed. The Christian doctor who treated him declined payment and said “You don’t have to pay. I just want you to remember that God loves you and sent me to treat you.”
Gradually, these experiences made Feng become fond of the Christians and he began to attend church, becoming baptized in 1913. Feng also began to climb the ranks in his army career and became a high ranking officer, commanding a large amount of troops. With the breakdown of the Chinese central government and warlordism emerging as the dominant political order in the country, Feng found himself in control of his own domain with his own private army at his disposal.
Leading the Chinese Army in the Christian Spirit?
In 1918, while garrisoned in Changde, Feng began to promote Christianity in his army. Pastors were recruited to preach to his troops, with one pastor assigned per brigade. All pastors were ethnic Chinese, introduced by Dr. Liu Tingfang of the Methodist Association, the same church that baptized Feng, as the two had a personal relationship. This was probably the first time a Chinese army had a regular chaplain service since the Taiping rebellion.
All officers and soldiers read scriptures, prayed, sung hymns, and were issued a Bible. The regulation for Feng’s army in the morning was to first play the national anthem of China “China stands majestic in the universe”, and then gospel music.
Every Sunday, the Methodist pastors organized mandatory service. Sometimes Feng himself would give sermons. All sermons mostly focused on combining Christian teachings with the teachings of Chinese sages like Mozi and Confucius to instill a patriotic form of Christianity with Chinese characteristics.
Feng also was a prolific writer and wrote his own books on Chinese military science and patriotism, with titles like “Military Discipline Spirit” and “Moral Spirit.” The contents of these works were divided into sections, similar to maxims and proverbs, and it was stipulated that every officer and soldier must be able to recite them word for word. Due to these efforts, Feng’s army was somewhat relatively more disciplined than the average warlord troops in contemporary China, and the civilian population were generally not mistreated as much in his domain. This earned Feng the title the “model warlord.”
In 1924, Feng’s first wife died. Feng remarried with a woman named Li Dequan, who was the student director of the Young Women’s Christian Association, and would later become a Communist Party of China member and the first Minister of Health of the People’s Republic of China.
Determined to introduce “virtue” in the areas under his jurisdiction, Feng ran social campaigns to eliminate vices such as drug abuse, opium use, gambling, and prostitution. It was said that at one time, there were almost no smokers in his army, and the rate of contracting vernal disease in his province was the lowest in the country.
Persecution of Buddhism and the Destruction of the Shaolin Temple
In 1927, a war broke out between rival warlords in northern China. Feng Yuxiang found himself at war with another powerful warlord named Wu Peifu. After fierce fighting, Feng Yuxiang’s troops seized Henan province and in the midst of this campaign, Feng began a massive campaign to persecute Buddhists, resulting in over 400 temples destroyed and many monks killed. The destruction included the famous Shaolin Temple.
The cause of this persecution was multifaceted and complex, and is still debated by historians today — However it can be said that the cause was probably due to a mix of personal prejudice due to religious differences, political intrigues, and the military situation at the time.
During the campaign against Wu Peifu, Feng asked for financial assistance from the abbot of the powerful Xiangguo Temple, hoping that the temple could provide money and food to support his troops. The Xiangguo Temple refused and allegedly had connections to Japanese interests. Japan was a backer of Feng’s rival, Wu Peifu.
In 1928, Feng ordered his subordinate Shi Youshan to attack and destroy the Shaolin Temple. The Shaolin temple, along with much of the religious texts, prayer areas, worship halls, and relics were destroyed. As to why this order was made, at the time, the Shaolin Temple was a participant in the politics of the Warlord Era.
The then Head Monk of the Shaolin Temple was named Miao Xing who was also an ally of Wu Peifu. Wu Peifu appointed Miao Xing the rank of regimental commander and the monks of the Shaolin Temple were organized along paramilitary lines with modern uniforms and firearms. The Shaolin Monks served in Wu’s army and at one point the Shaolin Temple was also a temporary military headquarters. With this being the case, the Shaolin Temple, represented a military threat to Feng’s army. However, many Chinese Buddhists dispute this narrative.
Regardless, this incident was very unfortunate and reflects the apocalyptic conditions prevalent in Chinese society during the Warlord Era.
End of Feng’s Career
In 1926, Feng Yuxiang and his wife visited Moscow, where Feng’s wife took the initiative to join the Communist Party of China. Although Feng Yuxiang was not a Communist, he did not oppose Li Dequan because he believed that Sun Yat-sen’s Three People’s Principles was to obtain the end goal of Communism.
By 1929, Feng grew unhappy with the Kuomintang, and battled with Chiang Kai Shek, ultimately suffering a major defeat in the Central Plains War. Subsequently, he was deprived of his army and all significant political powers. Nevertheless, Feng continued to oppose Chiang Kai Shek and took the side of the Communists during the Chinese Civil War (1927–1949).
Feng was too popular and influential to purge, so in order to dispose of Feng, Chiang Kai Shek appointed Feng to a minor position as the manager of the “Water Conservation Research Team” and sent him to the United States to study water irrigation techniques in 1945.
Feng travelled to the United States, and after visiting several states, could not remain silent in politics. While in America, Feng used his political status to communicate with American congressmen, advising the Americans against sending aid to Chiang Kai Shek’s government. In 1947, the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing on aid to Chiang Kai Shek, and Feng Yuxiang was invited to speak. Feng validated American suspicions that Chiang Kai Shek’s government was hopelessly corrupt and that American money was being siphoned away through corruption. Following the hearing, the U.S. Congress cut down the originally planned US$60 million aid to only US$10 million.
Chiang Kai Shek was outraged by this development and issued an arrest warrant for Feng’s arrest..
On September 7, 1947, Feng Yuxiang gave a speech at a mass rally in the United States, asking that the American people and government help the Chinese people strive for peace and freedom, but not help the Chinese Kuomintang’s civil war and dictatorship under Chiang Kai Shek.
On the following year, as the Communists were making major gains in the civil war, Feng agreed to join the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK), a left wing faction of the Kuomintang party which advocated working with the Chinese Communists, and embarked on a tour of Europe before making the trip to return to China.
In 1948, while travelling through the Black Sea to visit the Soviet Union, Feng’s ship caught fire, both Feng Yuxiang and his daughter Feng Xiaoda died due to smoke inhalation.
Feng’s remains were returned to China and buried at Mount Tai. Zhou Enlai participated in a ceremony to pay respect to Feng in which he said, “General Feng Yuxiang is a veteran from the old times. A soldier transformed into a democratic fighter; although, like all historical figures, inevitably had flaws of one kind or another due to the limitations of the times, General Feng Yuxiang’s contribution to China’s cause is immortal.”
