page_title: Yan Xishan
section_title: Civil war
hierarchical_section_title: Yan Xishan / Civil war
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Warlord Yan Xishan in Kuomintang uniform, 1947
context_page_description: Yan Xishan IPA; 8 October 1883 – 22 July 1960, 閻錫山) was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China. He effectively controlled the province of Shanxi from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution to the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. As the leader of a relatively small, poor, remote province, he survived the machinations of Yuan Shikai, the Warlord Era, the Nationalist Era, the Japanese invasion of China and the subsequent civil war, being forced from office only when the Nationalist armies with which he was aligned had completely lost control of the Chinese mainland, isolating Shanxi from any source of economic or military supply. He has been viewed by Western biographers as a transitional figure who advocated using Western technology to protect Chinese traditions, while at the same time reforming older political, social and economic conditions in a way that paved the way for the radical changes that would occur after his rule.
context_section_description: After the Second World War, Yan's forces (including thousands of former Japanese troops) held out against the Communists during the Chinese Civil War for four years. They held out until April 1949, after the Nationalist government had lost control of northern China, allowing the PLA to encircle and besiege his forces.  The area surrounding the provincial capital of Taiyuan was the longest to resist Communist control.
caption: Yan Xishan in 1947
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