CHANG TSO-LIN (1873-1928), Chinese military leader, born in the Province of Fengtien. Of humble origin and without education, he was successively a swineherd, a menial in the Catholic Mission at Newchang and a labourer on the Peking Mukden Railway. Later he abandoned regular employment and rose to prominence in 1904 as a leader of Hunghutse, or Man churian brigands, when he and his band became irregular allies of Japan during the Russo-Japanese War. Af ter the Treaty of Portsmouth, under Japanese advice, he submitted to the Chinese Government, and he and his following were incorporated in the Chinese army. He received quick promotion, and attained com mand of a Division. In 1913 he was appointed Tutuh, later Tuchun, both terms denoting Military Governor, of Fengtien.
Chang Tso-lin faithfully served the young republic of China, and opposed both Yuan Shi-k'ai's monarchical aspirations in 1916 and Chang Hsiin's attempted restoration of the Imperial dynasty in 1917. In 1918 he was appointed Inspector-General of the Three Eastern Provinces, i.e., of Manchuria, and, while civil government slowly weakened, his military control became ab solute. He adopted the course, unusual in China, of punctually paying, feeding and disciplining his troops, and by this means he became a dominant factor in the unstable politics of the country. In civil life his activities were boundless : mining, farm ing, stock-breeding, banking, railway construction, in these and many other forms of industrial enterprise, his hand was felt.
During the concluding twelve years of his life, while main taining autocratic control of Manchuria, he made four descents upon Peking, actuated on each occasion by the desire to set up a stable form of government for the country. In 1920, when, during the halting and incapable Presidency of Hsu Shi-chang, the Gov ernment fell under the control of the reactionary militarists known as the Anfu Party, he drove their leaders into retirement, and, in co-operation with Tsao Kun, the Tuchun of Chihli, made an attempt to form an administration. Their efforts were fruit less, and in 1921 he again came to Peking and installed a Cabinet under Liang Shih-yi. Upon this occasion he was defeated by General Wu Pei-fu and driven back to Manchuria, whereupon he declared the independence of the Three Eastern Provinces. His third incursion took place in 1924, when large forces under Wu Pei-fu assembled near the Great Wall to repel the Manchurian invasion. Owing to the treacherous defection of Feng Yu-hsiang, who withdrew to Peking and "declared for peace," Wu Pei-fu's forces collapsed, and Chang's army pressed forward, eventually occupying Shantung, Anhui and Kiangsu. In the latter part of this year he was occupied in suppressing the revolt of one of his lieutenants, by name Kuo Sung-ling, whom he defeated outside Mukden and executed. His final coming to Peking was in Decem ber, 1926, when he once more announced his intention to reorgan ize the Government. In June, 1927, he formed a Cabinet consisting entirely of his own adherents, with Pan Fu as Premier, he himself, under the title of Generalissimo, becoming President. He watched from Peking the victorious Southern Nationalist army reach the Yangtse, and their further advance in 1928 to Peking. His troops, after some show of defending the capital, received orders to stop further opposition, and Chang himself left for Mukden by train on June 3. Before he reached his destination the train was bombed and he succumbed to injuries received.
Soft-voiced and of delicate constitution, suave yet resolute, Chang Tso-lin would have been an admirable viceroy under the Empress Dowager's regime. It was the only system of government he understood, and his failure to bring about union and a stable government is evidence of how far removed he was au fond from realizing the strides which the country had made in acquiring race-consciousness and a political sense. His administrative achievements in Manchuria, and his friendliness towards f or eigners, are among his claims to be styled a Chinese patriot.
(W. E. L.)