Li Zongren | |
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李宗仁 | |
Acting President of the Republic of China | |
In office 21 January 1949 – 29 February 1950 |
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Preceded by | Chiang Kai-shek |
Succeeded by | Chiang Kai-shek |
Vice President of the Republic of China | |
In office 20 May 1948 – 10 March 1954 |
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President | Chiang Kai-shek |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Chen Cheng |
Personal details | |
Born |
Guilin, Qing Dynasty |
13 August 1890
Died | 30 January 1969 Beijing, People's Republic of China |
(aged 78)
Nationality |
Qing Dynasty (1890–1912) Republic of China (1912–1965) People's Republic of China (1965–1969) |
Political party | Kuomintang |
Spouse(s) | Li Xiuwen Guo Dejie (m.1924–1966) Hu Yousong (m.1966–1969) |
Military service | |
Service/branch | Republic of China Army |
Years of service | 1916–1954 |
Rank | General |
Battles/wars |
Chinese Civil War Second Sino-Japanese War |
Li Zongren | |||||||||||||
Chinese | |||||||||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Lǐ Zōngrén |
Wade–Giles | Li3 Tsung1-jen2 |
Southern Min | |
Hokkien POJ | Lí Chong-jîn |
Li Zongren or Li Tsung-jen (Chinese: 李宗仁; 13 August 1890 – 30 January 1969), courtesy name Delin (Te-lin; 德鄰), was a prominent Guangxi warlord and Kuomintang (KMT) military commander during the Northern Expedition, Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War. He served as vice-president and acting president of the Republic of China under the 1947 Chinese Constitution.
Li Zongren was born in Xixiang Village (西鄉村), near Guilin in Guangxi Province, the second eldest in a Zhuang family of five boys and three girls. Li's father, Li Peiying (李培英), was a village schoolmaster. After a patchy education Li enrolled in a provincial military school. Li joined the Tongmenghui, the revolutionary party of Sun Yat-sen, in 1910 but had little understanding at that time of Sun's wider goals of reform and national reunification. Li's native province of Guangxi was also the home province of the Taiping Gen. Li Xiucheng, to whom Li's family claimed to be related.
Schooled under Cai E, Li graduated from the Guilin Military Cadre Training School and in 1916 became a platoon commander in the army of Guanxi warlord Lu Rongting. Li's direct superior was Lin Hu. Lu, the governor of Guangxi, was a former bandit who had ambitions to expand into neighboring provinces, especially Guangdong. For the next few years the warlords of Guangxi and Guangdong were involved in mutually destructive battles, and both occupied portions of each other's territory at various times. Lu and his closest associates were collectively known as the Old Guangxi Clique. During a battle with a rival warlord in Hunan in 1918, Li's bravery earned him a promotion to battalion commander.