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Historical person
1875–1928
Zhang Zuolin was a Chinese warlord who dominated Manchuria and became one of the most powerful military figures of the early Republic of China. Rising from local armed networks, he built the Fengtian clique, controlled the rich northeastern provinces and repeatedly intervened in the struggle for Beijing and national government during the fragmented warlord era.
From his base in Manchuria, Zhang competed for control of Beijing and repeatedly intervened in the politics of the Beiyang government. Japanese officers assassinated him by bombing his train near Mukden in the Huanggutun Incident of 1928, hoping to strengthen Japanese influence in the region.
In Adam Williams’ The Emperor’s Bones, The novel moves through treaty-port Tianjin and Shanghai, the May Thirtieth Movement, the First United Front, the Northern Expedition and the Shanghai Massacre of 1927, ending with the assassination of Zhang Zuolin.
Series
The China Trilogy follows connected foreign and Chinese families across the collapse of the Qing dynasty, the revolutionary conflicts of the Republican era and the political campaigns of the People’s Republic. The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure begins amid the Boxer Rebellion in 1899–1900; The Emperor’s Bones moves into…
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