Tan Yankai was born on 25 January 1880 in Hangzhou during the waning decades of the Qing dynasty.

A member of Liang Qichao's Constitutionalist Party, he campaigned for a parliament and restrained monarchy.

He returned to power after Yuan's death and led his province into resisting the Beiyang Army in 1917's Constitutional Protection War, which saved Sun's Guangdong base.

He was a member of Wang Jingwei's Wuhan faction and was the first internationally recognized head of state of the Nanjing-based Kuomintang government.

After the Organic Law came to effect on the Double Ten Day, he was succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek.