Making the "Good Government" with the "Good People": Collaboration Between General Wu Peifu and Endeavor Intellectuals, 1920–1922: Collaboration Between General Wu Peifu and Endeavor Intellectuals, 1920–1922

Vivienne Xiangwei Guo*

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

This article examines the collaborative project between Wu Peifu and a group of promi-nent intellectuals led by Hu Shi at Peking University to create a “Good Government” (Haozhengfu) between 1920 and 1922. Challenging the conventional historiography that has either exaggerated the antithesis between warlords and intellectuals or studied them as two separate groups with little social, political, and ideological overlap, this article argues that the Good Government movement is a tangible testimony to their active and constructive ideological engagement and to their intensive networking, through which their social and cultural capital was quickly converted into political power and impact. Even when their collaboration broke down due to their different views on federalism, Wu Peifu’s political thoughts still formed an integral part of the prevailing ideological commitment toward the Good Government.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)112-132
Number of pages21
JournalTwentieth-Century China
Volume47
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2022

Keywords

  • Endeavor
  • federalism
  • Hu Shi
  • May Fourth
  • warlords
  • Wu Peifu

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