ABSTRACT
Over-extension reached a climax in the viceroyalties of the Chao brothers, 1907 to 1911. Hsi-liang was transferred from Szechwan to Yunnan-Kweichow on 3 March 1907, and on 6 March Chao Erh-feng was appointed interim governor-general until the arrival of Hsi-liang’s successor Ts’en Ch’un-hsuan. The period of Chao Erh-hsun’s viceroyalty saw the pace of change, set in motion by Hsi-liang and accelerated by Chao Erh-feng, reach a high point. The reassertion of Chinese power in Sikang and Tibet was the most spectacular achievement of Chao Erh-hsun’s viceroyalty. Derge was the largest and best organized of the Sikang principalities, the furthest from Chinese power and the most independent. With the proclamation of independence on 27 November 1911, viceregal government in Szechwan came to a formal end. Chao Erh-feng, however, made a clumsy attempt to restore it, so that the real end was more dramatic.
