Yan Xishan 8 October 1883 - 22 July 1960, was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the RoC. 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 had completely lost control of the Chinese mainland.