Twentieth-Century China

Abstract:

This article examines the collaborative project between Wu Peifu and a group of prominent 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.