Death of Li

Revolutionary soldiers drag their commander, Li Yuan-hung out from under his wife's bed. The year is 1911. Li protests. He is loyal to the Manchu Emperor. No! He will not lead the soldiers as a unit in the great revolution!! But then, on second thought, he does.

The year is 1916 and Li, now in his second term as vice president of the Chinese Republic, takes the last hurdle to power, when death comes to President Yuan Shinkai.

Now, however, the era of coups d'etat by Chinese military leaders is dawning and ' President Li is illegally deposed in 1917.

Li is restored to his constitutional office in 1922, but now the coups d'etat are merging into civil war, and Li, the last constitutional President of China, is deposed again in 1923.

He lives on quietly in Tientsin, forgotten, until last week, when death came.