yuan shikai (chinese: 袁世凱; pinyin: yuán shìkǎi; 16 september 1859 – 6 june 1916) was a chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late qing dynasty and eventually ended the qing dynasty rule of china in 1912 when it became the republic of china, in 1912 later becoming the emperor of china during world war 1 but died in 1916 in beijing . he joined the beiyang army in 1881 he was also involved in the first sino-japanese war (1894-1895) as well the boxer rebellion (1899-1901) led by empress dowager cixi and the xinhai revolution (1911-1912) led by sun yat-sen as well as world war 1 (1914-1918) which he tried to make himself the hongxian emperor trying to restore the qing dynasty known as the empire of china in 1915 but it failed in 1916 and it became the republic of china again in 1916 he was then replaced by general duan qirui (1865-1936) .