ABSTRACT
Editor’s Note: Among its many virtues, this article uses the correct names for various armies in an age of reorganization and name changes. It uses the often-encountered term xinjun correctly and generically, to mean “new forces,” “new army,” “new armed forces,” or, after 1904, simply “Army”—as distinct from the earlier Xinjian Lujun or Newly Created Army of 1895 under Yuan Shikai, sometimes abbreviated as Xin Jun (New Army). After the major army reorganization of 1904–1905, the armies of Zhili Province under Yuan Shikai, of Hubei Province under Zhang Zhidong, and of Sichuan Province under Xiliang (see the article by He Yimin, below) were often simply referred to as Beiyang Xinjun, Hubei Xinjun, and Sichuan Xinjun, respectively—best translated Beiyang Army, Hubei Army, and Sichuan Army. In the present translation, English renditions are guided by Ralph L. Powell, The Rise of Chinese Military Power 1895–1912 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955), still the leading analysis in any language of late Qing military reforms.
