Zhao Erxun (1844–1927) was the brother of Zhao Erfeng

Zhao Erfeng

Zhao Erfeng was a Qing official and Chinese bannerman, who belonged to the Plain Blue Banner. He is known for being the last amban in Tibet, appointed in March, 1908. Lien Yu , a Manchu, was appointed as the other amban...

. He was the governor of Hubei

Hubei

' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...

 (1907–1908) and Sichuan

Sichuan

' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...

 (1908–1911) and viceroy (1911) and governor (1912) of Fengtian

Fengtian

Fengtian is:* The name of an old prefecture under which Shenyang city was administered. Abolished in 1910.* The former name of Liaoning province from 1907 to 1929. Under the Manchukuo regime, the name was revived, but was again abolished in 1945....

.

Zhao Erfeng and Zhao Erxun extended Chinese rule into Eastern Tibet (Kham

Kham

Kham , is a historical region covering a land area largely divided between present-day Tibetan Autonomous Region and Sichuan province, with smaller portions located within Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces of China. During the Republic of China's rule over mainland China , most of the region was...

), and sent an army to Lhasa

Lhasa

Lhasa is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau, after Xining. At an altitude of , Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world...

 in 1908. This initially worked with the restored Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...

 but later drove him out, after strong disagreements about a conflict between Lamas in Eastern Tibet and the government of Sichuan. It has been suggested that this, along with tax rises caused the rebellion of September 1911 in Sichuan. A different view is taken by Han Suyin

Han Suyin

Han Suyin , is the pen name of Elizabeth Comber, born Rosalie Elisabeth Kuanghu Chow . She is a Chinese-born Eurasian author of several books on modern China, novels set in East Asia, and autobiographical works, as well as a physician...

, who says that the main issue was control of a planned railway that would have linked Sichuan to the rest of China.