TRAGEDY OF CHINESE
REVOLUTION
Excerpts of
Zou Rong's "Revolutionary Army"
[translation by apparently
Frank Dikötter and the
sort who had no clue about "Chinese
racism/nationalism" of 1900s at which time revolutionary forerunners had
undergone stages of cognizance as to "social Darwinism" but adopted for the
Republic of China the "Five Color National Flag" [1912-1928], which was symbolic of the union of five ethnic
groups of Han, Mongol, Manchu, Tibetan & Hui Muslim]
" Sweep
away millennia of despotism in all its forms, throw off millennia of
slavishness, annihilate the five million and more of the furry and horned Manchu
race, cleanse ourselves of 260 years of harsh and unremitting pain, so that the
soil of the Chinese subcontinent is made immaculate, and the descendants of the
Yellow Emperor will all become Washingtons. Then they will return from the dead
to life again, they will emerge from the Eighteen Levels of Hell and rise to the
Thirty Three mansions of Heaven, in all their magnificence and richness to
arrive at their zenith, the unique and incomparable of goals - revolution. How
sublime is revolution, how majestic! I follow thereupon the line of the Great
Wall, scale the Kunlun Mountains, travel the length of the Yangzi, follow to its
source the Yellow River. I plant the standard of independence, ring the bell of
freedom. My voice re-echos from heaven to earth, I crack my temples and split my
throat in crying out to my fellow-countrymen: revolution is inevitable for
China today. It is inevitable if the Manchu yoke is to be thrown off; it is
inevitable if China is to be independent; it is inevitable is to take its place
as a powerful nation on the globe; it is inevitable if China is to survive for
long in the new world of the 20th century; it is inevitable if China is to be a
great country in the world and play the leading role. Stand up for Revolution!
Fellow-countrymen, are there any of you whether old or in middle years, in your
prime of life or young, be it man or woman, who is talking of revolution or
working actively for revolution? Fellow countrymen, assist each other and live
for each other in revolution. I here cry at the top of my voice to spread the
principles of revolution throughout the land. Revolution is the universal
principle of evolution. Revolution is the essence of the struggle for survival
of destruction in a time of transition. Revolution submits to heaven and
responds to men's needs. Revolution rejects what is corrupt and keeps the good.
Revolution is the advance from barbarism to civilization. Revolution turns
slaves into masters ... "
Recently, I have noticed a trend among the academics
to call into doubt Dr. Sun Yat-sen in regards to his thoughts on the
Parliamentary versus presidential politics. Liu Xiao-bo claimed that Dr. Sun
Yat-sen was no better than warlord President Yuan Shi-kai because Dr. Sun
Yat-sen was against Song Jiao-ren's Parliamentarism: Liu Xiao-bo said that on
Dec 26th, 1911, Sun Yat-sen opposed Song Jiao-ren's Parliamentary structure,
adamantly advocated the presidential structure, and hence Sun was elected
'Interim President of the ROC'. Liu Xiao-bo further stated naively that after
the 20 March 1913 assassination of Song Jiaoren by Yuan Shikai, Sun decided to
launch the 'Second Revolution' instead of resorting to the Parliament for
impeachment of Yuan Shikai. Liu Xiaobo summarized that the success of the Xin
Hai Revolution in overthrowing the Manchu rule should be ascribed to the
so-called "autonomous movements"
among various provinces against a centralized decadent Manchu government. Liu
Xiaobo's claim, incidentally, was related to their dilemma in finding a solution
to today's totalitarian and/or neo-authoritarian communist rule in China. The
solution, in their opinions, would be that of federationism or commonwealth and
a revival of Parliamentarism.
Hsueh Chun-tu, in "Huang Xing &
The Chinese Revolution", concluded that Manchu Dynasty's demise could be
attributed to: 1) the imperialist nations' invasion against China; ii) unrest of
the Chinese peasantry; iii) the rise of Chinese bourgeoisie; and iv) the
transfer of power to Han-ethnic generals from the Manchu banners in the
aftermath of the Taiping rebellion. Beginning with Paul Linebarger's "Our
Chinese Chances Through Europe's War" & "Sun Yat-sen & The
Chinese Republic", Americans also analyzed China's revolution from external
perspective. American Mary C. Wright, in 1968, claimed that the secret societies
under Song Jiaoren, not Sun Yat-sen's "Allied Society", played the role of
overthrowing the Manchu rule. Jiang Yongjing, in "The Land-Sea Ebb History of
the KMT", did not cover up Song Jiaoren's dispute with Sun Yat-sen in
launching an independent "Tong Meng Hui" in the Yangtze River area, which
was to fulfill Song Jiaoren's middle tactic of achieving the revolution
success in the Yangtze River area against Sun Yat-sen's emphasis on southern
China. The three leading Xin Hai revolutionaries with 'wu' given name, in
addition to Xiong Bingkun who led the charge at the Chuwangtai Weapons Depot,
were all subordinate to Song Jiaoren. Song Jiao-ren's contributions
notwithstanding, Jiang Yongjing attributed the multiple-province members
recruited and disciplined by "Tong Meng Hui" to the success of the
domino-effect provincial independence during the 1911 Xin Hai Revolution.
Historian Shen Yunlong called the attention to Manchu Qing's abolition of the
imperial civil services exam as a fundamental cause in re-orienting innumerable
talented revolutionaries towards services under Manchu Qing's re-organized New
Army, and Shen Yunlong attributed Manchu Governor-general Zhang Zhidong's arts
and military academies to the upbringing of a generation of revolutionaries who
played the pivotal role in the 1911 soldier uprising at Wuchang, Hubei Province.
Criticisms of Sun Yat-sen have merits. Scholar Yuan Weishi blamed Sun
Yat-sen's Second Revolution as a cause of the KMT's decline in early history of
China's politics and a bad example for China's modern history, and further
praised Cai Er (Cai E) and Liang Qi-chao as the pillar forces responsible for
capsizing Yuan Shi-kai's imperial enthronement.
Dr Sun Yat-sen's
Feats & Faults
Xin Hao-nian's analysis of the Nationalist
Revolutions of the early 20th century, however, show us a true and exact Dr. Sun
Yat-sen, namely, a truly patriotic, altruistic, generous and wise person. Dr.
Sun Yat-sen proposed the 'Three People-ism' (i.e., Three People's Principles) as
the theories guiding China's democratic revolutions, and he further devised the
'Five Branches Of Government', which was to add the ancient Chinese censor or
inspector system and examination system to the tripartite power structure of the
West. It was Sun Yat-sen who first proposed the establishment of the Republic of
China, the R.O.C., in 1903 and advocated the concept of 'national revolution' as
a distinction from "pingmin geming" (i.e., 'ordinary people/banditry
revolution'). Dr. Sun Yat-sen's altruism was shown in his surrendering his post
of 'interim presidency' to Yuan Shi-kai for sake of avoiding further
bloodshedding, and it was not his first time to have surrendered the leadership.
Dr Sun Yat-sen, for sake of unity, had personally visited Yuan Shi-kai in Peking
and engaged over a dozen days of tête-à-tête discussions with Yuan Shikai. After
seeing that the Xin Hai Revolution was betrayed by the warlord government, he
laid out the three stages for China to evolve to democracy. Dr. Sun Yat-sen laid
out the three stages of 'Jun Zheng' (military government), 'Xun Zheng' (KMT
supervised government), and 'Xian Zheng' (constitutional government) after
reflecting on the incompleteness of the Xin Hai Revolution, i.e., the 1911
Revolution that overthrew the Manchu rule. Xin Hao-nian, in "Which Is The New
China?" (copyright 1999, Blue Sky Publishing House, http://www.ifcss.org/xin_haonian/book_chapters/toc.html ), expounded the
background, context and process of three stages of 'Jun Zheng', 'Xun Zheng', and
'Xian Zheng' as practiced by the Kuomintang (KMT) Government of Chiang Kai-shek.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, however, had his shortcomings. Like generations of
people in the 20th century, Sun Yat-sen had naive and utopian fondness for the
Russian October Revolution of 1911. He misunderstood Lenin's "goodwill"
lip-service in nullifying the unequal treaties imposed on China by Czar Russia,
and hence entered into an alliance with the Soviet Union and the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP). From 1920 to 1923, the USSR continuously sent
representatives to China for talks with northern/southern warlords as well as
with Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the communism activists. Joffe, a representative of
Lenin, came to Shanghai, and on Jan 26th, 1923, promised to Sun Yat-sen in a
joint declaration that they would help China to reunite under Three People-ism
without implanting communism in China. Mikhail Borodin's military supplies
(120,000 rifles) and a package of 2 million Mexican dollars in annual aid made
Sun Yat-sen declare a new policy of 'allying with the USSR and allowing the CCP
members to join the KMT individually'. (Xin Hao-nian mentioned that Dr. Sun
might have mis-judged CCP's destabilizing capabilities because the CCP possessed
only 432 members by the end of 1923. Scholar Xu Zerong's claim of 120,000
Russian rifles might not be up to par in both number and quality: In May 1926,
Chiang Kai-shek mentioned that he could allocate some of the 10,000 Russian
rifles to Guangxi Prov's 7th Corps[, but Li Zongren had to remind Chiang
Kai-shek several times before receiving about 1000 Russian rifles and 4 heavy
machineguns]. The Russian weapons happened to be WWI-era outdated guns that were
possibly caught from the Germans.)
Sun Yat-sen's decision to ally with
Russia and the CCP was induced by the antagonisms from the imperialistic powers.
Sun Yat-sen complained to reporters of "New York Times" in July, 1923
about this kind of imperialistic antagonisms towards the Chinese revolution. As
pointed out by Xin Hao-Nian, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's decision to withhold surplus
from the Canton Customs was opposed by the various imperialistic powers. In
December of 1923, Britain, the U.S., France, Japan, Italy and Portugal etc sent
their warships and gunboats to Canton to exert pressure on Sun Yat-sen for sake
of protesting against the threatened customs tax withholding. It is no strange
that the imperialist powers would oppose Sun Yat-sen since China's revolution
was induced by the invasions of the foreign powers in the first place. From the
outset of the Xin Hai Revolution of 1911, imperialist powers had opposed China's
democracy process, and this is best exemplified by the U.S. ambassador's
pressuring the Manchu government into recalling Yuan Shi-Kai for sake of
cracking down on the Xin Hai Revolution. That is what I will call here as the
Tragedy of Chinese Revolution, not the same as Harold Isaacs' book
Tragedy of The Chinese Revolution, i.e., the Chinese revolution failed as a result of the
ideological difference between Lenin, Stalin, Bukharin and Trotsky on the matter
whether China's revolution was at the stage of the Russian 1905 Revolution or
the Russian 1917 Revolution.
At
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/3123morgan_v_dr_sun.html, Mike Billington wrote for "Executive Intelligence
Review" an article entitled "How London, Wall Street Backed Japan's War
Against China and Sun Yat Sen", pointing out the behind-the-scene
manipulations as to "SYNARCHISM AND WORLD WAR". As stated by Mike Billington,
"... British synarchist banking interests, centered around Bank of England
head Montagu Norman, Hongkong and Shanghai Bank director Sir Charles Addis, and
J.P. Morgan chief executive Thomas Lamont, deployed militarily and politically
to destroy Sun Yat Sen and his influence. ... when their subversion and looting
failed to crush Sun's republican movement, the British threw their weight behind
the synarchist/fascist forces in Japan, financing the Japanese military
occupation of the Chinese mainland... By 1931, J.P. Morgan had floated $263
million in loans for Japanese borrowers, including direct loans to the
government in 1930", with quite some of the funds going direct to the
Southern Manchurian Railway under disguise to avert the world opinions.
Anglo-American hostility and subversion against China continued well into the
1940s, at which time General Wedemeyer, right after succession of Stilwell's
post in 1944, reported to Washington DC in a cable, stating that "...British
Ambassador personally suggested to me that a strong unified China would be
dangerous to the world and certainly would jeopardize the white man's position
immediately in Far East and ultimately throughout the world". More available
at Century-long American hypocrisy towards China, Anglo-American & Jewish romance with
Japanese, and What Foreign Powers Did To The Flowery Republic Prior
To, During And After The 1911 Revolution. (Anglo-American supremacists, today, should have no worry
about China anymore since the so-called "elites" of China, relatives and
families of Chinese government officials, and the "street and market people of
the cities", men and women included, had already capitulated to the West. What
remained "unconquered" would be the humblest people of this earth, i.e., peasant
Chinese, whom the communist government had already enslaved and bondaged on
behalf of the West. Chinese communist rulers, who were pre-occupied with
"pleasure-seeking and literature-decoration"
like Manchu rulers, would most likely lose badly during the next confrontation
which could be very well against the old feud [i.e., Japan, now a lethal force
under American umbrella, but having no memory of either the pardon from the
Republic of China or the humiliation of being declined a decent surrender by
Russians].)
Dr. Sun Yat-sen had
deficiencies, too. His "Three People's Principles" had been ambiguous. Later,
Borodin modified the principles into factual policies: Per Harold Isaacs,
Borodin modified Sun Yat-sen's ambiguous Three People's Principles, like
"restriction of capital" and "equalization of rights in the land", and made them
into something like a "25 percent reduction in land rents" and a promise of
"labor code". Sun Yat-sen, in order to secure imperialists' support for the 1911
Xin Hai Revolution, had been ambivalent to foreign powers as to the unequal
treaties imposed on Manchu China. Per JYJ, Sun Yat-sen had always upheld the
agenda of 'quelling internal enemies before expelling external invaders'; as
shown in his policy difference with Huang Xing etc, in 1915, Sun Yat-sen called
on revolutionaries to oppose Yuan Shi-kai's treachery rather than unite behind
Yuan Shi-kai for a concerted struggle against Japan's 21 Demands. (Sun Yat-sen,
in his 1925 trip to Peking for meeting with Duan Qirui, did insist that Peking
government should not acknowledge the unequal treaties with the West and Japan.
Duan Qirui continued the unequal treaties in exchange for the imperialists'
acknowledgement of the Peking government.) Sun Yat-sen, in order to win support
from USSR, had contacted Lenin two times in 1918 and expressed much softer
stance on Mongolia independence and China Eastern Railroad in 1922
correspondence with Joffe. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, after Jan 26th 1923 Sun-Joffe Joint
Statement, had fallen into a de facto Soviet agent, sowing the seeds of
struggles and conflicts between KMT and CCP as well as the disasters of the
Chinese people in 20th century.
More, Dr. Sun Yat-sen was commented to
have possible disregard for human life and to have resorted to political
assassinations as well. Scholar Yuan Weishi pointed out that Sun Yat-sen, using
his followers (i.e., Zhu Zhixin, Huang Dawei, Zhang Ji, Ju Zheng and Tian Tong),
were behind the assassinations and attempted assassinations of Dian-jun General
Fang Shengtao in Jan 1918, Navy Minister Cheng Guangbi on Feb 26 1918, Yue-jun
General Chen Jiongming in April 1922, and Deng Keng (? doubtful in light of Ding
Zhongjiang description). one more possibly implicating event would be Chiang
Kai-shek's assassination of Tao Chengzhang inside of Guangci Hospital at the
order of Chen Qimei on Jan 14th 1912 since Tao Chengzhang, three days before,
had received a letter from Sun Yat-sen demanding an explanation for Tao's 1909
accusations of 14 crimes that Sun Yat-sen had committed on the matter of funds
raising and appropriation.
Xin Hao-nian's research and dissertation on
modern Chinese history is incredible in that very few people inside of China
could have gained extraordinary insights and judgments into the historical
events that had occurred in the 20th century. According to his Foreword, he
began to gain this kind of insight beginning from 1985 when the CCP declared
'national heroes' for 85 Nationalist generals who died in the Resistance Wars
Against Japan. In then China, everybody was living in the 'Dark Ages', with no
knowledge of truth aside from the CCP propaganda. Short-wave radios were in no
existence during the whole time period of the Cultural Revolution (CR).
Occasionally, I could tune in to 'the Voice of Free China' Cantonese version via
medium-wave. I remembered that one day during the CR, a truck carrying several
tightly-bound 'convicts' rotated to the working unit for 'parade prosecution' by
the masses,: among those on the truck was a young man classified as so-called
'reactionary caught red-handed' for listening to enemy stations. In late 1970s,
after the fall of the Gang of Four (ultra-leftists), CCP's 3rd Plenary of the
11th Session proposed liberalization of thoughts in late 1978. 'Wounds
Literature' popped out, describing various persecutions and tortures that the
communist leaders and their families had endured during the CR. The movie
'Bitter Love' described two lovers and their stories during CR. Some movies
("Legends Of Tianyunshan Mountains", e.g.) carried 'Wounds Literature' further,
beyond the CR, to the Anti-Rightists Movement of late 1950s. While still in
junior high school, in 1980, I read about a book called 'Ten Year History of
Cultural Revolution'. I also had access to Chinese version of Edgar Snow's 'Red
Star Over China' as well as some torn-apart old book about communist warfare in
Manchuria; I read about the traitor-general Lin Biao and his wars against KMT in
Manchuria, especially the siege of Changchun city wherein
over 300,000 civilians were starved to death as a result of communists' blockade
of the city and refusal to allow civilians exit the city. ('Xue3 [snow] Bai
[white], Xue4 [blood] Hong [red] by Zhang Zhengrong is a good reference book on
this subject.) Liberal criticisms of CCP would soon end as an episode called the
'Beijing Spring'. Soon,
political control was tightened after Deng successfully overthrew Mao-designated
heir (Hua Guofeng). on Jan 29th, 1981, Deng Xiao-ping, to justify his crackdown
on the 'Xidan Democracy Wall', would launch the theory of 'Four Insistencies',
namely, Insisting on Communist Dictatorship [i.e., People's Democratic
Dictatorship]. A warning, related to the criticism of the Movie 'Bitter Love',
was issued to the entertainment industries and propaganda ministry. Around 1983,
in the college library, I could still find books like 'The Third Road'
(circulation 8000 copies nationwide) written by some East European communist
leader. In late 1983, a short term movement called 'Anti-Bourgeois
Liberalization & Anti-Westernization' was launched, but it lasted 27 days
due to lack of support. My American professor would be allowed to set up a
section in the departmental library and her overseas friends kept sending over
various books. Salisbury's 'New Long March' would change my perception of the
communist dictatorship, and histories about the Korean War further convinced me
that whatever CCP propaganda talked about would be sheer lies. In December 1986,
First Students' Movement erupted in major cities like Beijing, demanding
democracy as well as punishment of corrupted officials. Another 'Anti-Bourgeois
Liberalization Movement' followed in early 1987, and CCP Secretary General Hu
Yao-bang was forced to resign by Deng and the Politburo. Hu's death in 1989
would trigger the Second Students' Movement which ended in the June 4th Massacre of 1989.
This section could be deemed a continuation of the
dynastic substitutions from Prehistory to
Qing.
Xin Hai Revolution: External vs Internal Inducements
Quite a few people had recently uncovered the facts surrounding the
Boxers' Movement of 1900 and the subsequent invasion by 'Eight Allied Nations'.
A noteworthy person would be Bei Ming of 'Radio Free Asia'. The main spirits of
this kind of research would be to point out that United States had acted fairly
before, during and after the crackdowns on the Boxers. Further, Bei Ming etc
claimed that the United States had acted as the most altruistic of all in
voluntarily refunding the overcharged 'war compensations' from damages caused by
the Boxers, in the form of scholarships for supporting Chinese overseas studies
in America. Bei Ming, in description of boxers' arson of the adjacent
Imperial Library and the British Legation, unscrupulously commented that the
British prized Chinese classics books more than the Chinese the same way as
today's foreigners giving more love to tens of thousands of baby girls whom the
Chinese government sell to the west for an adoption fee of US$5,000 to $20,000.
(Increasing interest in Chinese baby girls had encouraged a new form of human
smuggling business in China, with a Chinese news report of an interception of a
truck carrying 28 baby girls
wrapped up in cloth. Note that in US, revenue services would offer as much as
$10k as annual adoption tax exemption. The impact on the growth of Asian baby
girls was never assessed, and some advocates acknowledged that China had only
begun its overseas adoption project in 1994, thus yielding no statistics for
research yet. However, in 1990, I personally met a Dunlap family in the mid-West
and encountered a Korean girl who, apparently used as a "baby wife", was said to
be engaged with their boy. More abhorrent example would be related to Woody
Allen etc who treated adopted Korean girl as a concubine. The obsession with
baby girls could be exemplified by the long list of missing girls advertised on
Internal Revenue Services Publication 17.)
Per DZJ, Zhou Ziqi, a
graduate of Beijing's "Tong Wen Guan" [i.e., "same language house"
interpreter school] and later a Manchu Qing emissary to US, had been responsible
for negotiating with US in regards to refunding the 12,000,000 US dollars. It
was never a spontaneous act of the US in the refund. (Japan, out of boxer
indemnity, established an annual sole-quota scholarship for Chinese on the
precondition that recipient swore allegiance to Hirohito. In late 1920s, Hu
Qiuyuan yielded the Japanese Imperial Scholarship in preference for a Hubei
Provincial scholarship for attending Waseda University. Later in 1932, Mussolini
offered to pay Italian advisers with money from overcharged boxer-related war
damages in exchange of China's purchasing Italian airplanes in the amount of
several million of US dollars. Also see century-long American hypocrisy towards China & American manipulations of Chinese
politics [e.g., Stilwell's instigating
General Bai Chongxi, Stuart's instigating Li Zongren, and McArthur's instigating
General Sun Liren].)
The so-called 'Open Door Policy' were exalted by
Bei Ming as a fundamental US policy safeguarding Manchu China's territorial
integrity during various imperialist powers' games of 'water-melon
partitioning'. 'Open Door Policy' never stopped Russia from encroaching on
China's territories in Manchuria and Xinjiang [New Dominion Prov]. ('Open Door
Policy', first put forward by John Hay, Secretary of State in the McKinley
Administration in 1899, was supposedly accepted by Germany, Russia, Britain,
France, Italy, and Japan on solar calendar Sept 6th of 1899, which was to assure
commercial equality for all powers in China.)
We want to ask a question
here: Was United States a truly altruistic country which saw Chinese people's
interests more important than their own interests? The answer is 'No'. As
pointed out by at Chinese Americans in Corvallis
(Oregon), "the Opium Wars waged against
China by England, with the encouragement of American President John Quincy
Adams, resulted in massive suffering in the (Chinese) countryside (and the
cities) as the English and American drug cartels pushed their wares into every
small village in Asia (China) as a means of paying for massive imports of
Chinese tea and silk." Note that John Quincy Adams had said, "The seizer of a
few thousand chests of opium smuggled into China by the Chinese government was
no more the cause of the Opium War than the throwing overboard of the tea in the
Boston harbor was the cause of North American Revolution." (Details about the
Opium War was covered
in qing.htm section.) Moreover, ensuing the 1856 Second Opium War or
the Arrow War, British and French troops compelled the Manchu government into
signing the 'Treaties of Tianjin or Tientsin' (June, 1858), to which France,
Russia, and the United States were also parties. Opium War led to an indemnity of 21 million Mexican dollars as damages for
the British and the cession of HK Island. Second Opium War caused Manchu China
to indemnify Britain with 12,000,000 taels of silver and France with 6,000,000
taels of silver. Furthermore, John Foster, former US
secretary of State, had been the culprit in pushing through the Treaty of
Shimonoseki of April 17th of 1895 by volunteering to take the treaty to Peking
for Manchu emperor's ratification, accompanying Li Jingfang to Taiwan for
transferring Taiwan, and acting as the ultimate "facilitator" with a claim that
Western diplomatic protocol would allow transfer to be legalized with a signed
affidavit rather than to be validated by a de facto personal ceremony on Taiwan
Island. Also note that US government, after acquiring Hawaii in summer of 1898
and Philippines in Dec 1898, applied "Chinese Exclusion Act" to Chinese on the
two islands, and further, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law to have
"Chinese Exclusion Act" applied throughout US-controlled islands and territories
over the world.
Xin Hao-Nian reminded us that at the outset of Xin Hai
Revolution of 1911, touched off by the soldier rebellion in Wuchang, Hubei
Province, the American minister-envoy, together with the diplomatic corps, had
been responsible for pressuring the Manchu government into recalling warlord
Yuan Shi-Kai just for sake of restoring Manchu order and cracking down on Xin
Hai Revolution. Almost all imperialistic powers sailed their warships and
gunboats along the Yangtze River in demonstration of their opposition to the
revolutionary 'Provisional Government' in Wuchang City.
Manchu Qing
Dynasty, after the humiliation of the Second Opium War, began to devote itself
to the cause of reform. It launched the 'Foreign Enterprises Movement' (i.e., "Yangwu Yundong" or "Self-Strengthening
Movement" from 1874 to 1895) with the assignment of South-Sea Minister and
North-Sea Minister in 1858 and the buildup of Manchu navies, earlier than
Japan's Meiji Restoration of 1868. But it would end in the destruction of the
Manchu fleet inside of the Weihaiwei Harbor during the 1894-1895 Sino-Japanese War. This shattered the self-strengthening dreams completely. 1895
Treaty of Shimonoseki incarcerated China with 230,000,000 taels of silver and
cession of Taiwan (Formosa) and Penghu Islands (the Pescadores), in addition to
Japan's control of Korea. 
Thereafter,
reformists, like Kang You-wei, persuaded Emperor Guangxu into reforming the
system itself. This led to the power struggles between conservatives and
reformers which ended in Hundred Day Reformation. Empress Dowager Cixi's plot to revenge on foreigners by means
of the boxers would lead to 1900 Invasion by Eight Allied Powers, resulting in a
loss of 450,000,000 taels of silver which was to accrue to 982,000,000 tales
with interests included throughout the installments for 39 years. (In 1943,
'Boxer Protocol' was nullified after a total payment of 670 million taels of
silver.)
Meantime, revolutionaries, such as Dr. Sun Yat-sen, had
resorted to overthrowing the Manchu rule as an alternative way to rescuing
China. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who was denoted a doctor for his graduation from a
medical college in HK, organized 'Xing Zhong Hui', i.e., 'Society For Reviving
China' (Society to Revive China), in Honolulu in 1894 (Oct [lunar calendar]).
In A.D. 1898. Russia forced China into leasing Port Arthur. During the
1900 Boxer Rebellion, Russia occupied Manchuria and slaughtered Chinese in
batches. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, after the abortive First Canton Uprising In 1895,
would launch the Huizhou Uprising in 1900 by taking advantage of the boxer
debacle. Further details about Dr Sun Yat-sen could be seen at Sun Yat-sen's Devotion To Armed Rebellion.
Revolutionaries had conducted numerous
Assassinations & Uprisings. There were numerous uprisings and assassinations during this
time period. Assassins would include Shi Jianru, Tang Caichang, Wan Fuhua, Huang
Xing, Wu Yue, Hu Ying, Wang Han, Xu Xilin , Wang Zhaoming (i.e., Wang Jingwei),
Huang Shuzhong and Luo Shixun etc.
Empress Dowager Cixi's government,
under the pressure of both reformers and revolutionaries, would murmur reform in
1901. On Jan 29th, Manchu court pronounced "xin zheng" [i.e., Manchu new
administration], decreeing i) that "eight-part stereotyped essay" be abolished
from 1902 onward; ii) that provincial governments should select and dispatch
students for overseas studies; and iii) that grand school, middle school and
elementary school be established in capitals of provincial, prefecture and
county levels, respectively. Tao Chengzhang, who entered Peking twice in
1900 and 1901 in contemplation of assassinating empress dowager, was sponsored
by Cai Yuanpei for overseas studies in Japan in 1902.
Overseas Chinese
students in Japan would become the propelling force in the overthrow of Manchu
government, as expounded at Manchu "New Administration" & Overseas Chinese Students In
Japan. Japan, both its government and
its non-govermental notables, had played a significant role in fomenting China's
revolution. The incentive behind Japan's acquiesce would be its secretive
attempt to get rid of Russian influences in Manchuria. Japanese newspapermen,
who witnessed Russian killing and pillaging in Manchuria in 1903, claimed that
"The Han ethnic Chinese men of Manchuria would be killed off by Russians within
3 years, the country of China would be gone within 10 years, and the race of
Chinese would be gone within 100 years" 
(See Chen
Tianhua's Bell That Alarms China).
In March 1902, Cai Yuanpei established
"China Education Society" in Shanghai, and in Oct, established "Patriotic Women
School" and "Patriotic Society". In 1902, in Tokyo, Zhang Taiyan [aka Zhang
Binglin] and Qin Lishan established "Guangfu-gui" (i.e., Restoration Society),
also known as "Fugu-hui" (i.e., society for restoring antiquity), in memory of
China's fall to barbarians for 242 years. 
Japanese authority, at
the request of Manchu court, prohibited the 242 year commemoration convention.
Sun Yat-sen, who had a low profile invitation to a 1901 meeting held by
Guangdong Province natives for declaring provincial independence, would be
invited by Zhang Taiyan to attend the aborted "242 year convention".
Su
Manshu, later revolutionary-monk, enrolled in Waseda University in 1902.
Earlier, Su Manshu had joined "youth society" under the influence of Feng Ziyou
who had pioneered the propaganda of liberty and freedom by publishing a magazine
entitled "kai [open up] zhi [talent] lu [compilings]" in Yokohama in
1900. In Tokyo, in April 1903, over 500 Chinese students, under Lian Tianwei [a
cadet from Japan's infantry cadet academy], including 12 female students,
organized "student army" in the name of "righteous and brave army for resisting
Russians" as a result of continuous Russian occupation of Manchuria since 1900
boxer incident. Manchu envoy-minister to Japan Cai Jun asked Japan intervene in
dismissing the band. Thereafter, Liang-bi of Manchu infantry ministry
established a so-called "Committee for Qing Country Students Who Study Infantry
Military Subjects In Japan" in cooperation with Japanese government, culminating
in "Zhenwu [reviving martialness] Academy" [4th session onward till 1911], a military prep
academy similar to "Hu Cheng Academy" (? Cheng Cheng Academy - typo in first
character in some writings) [1st, 2nd & 3rd sessions].
While Sun
Yat-sen's Cantonese gang had mainly relied on secret societies for staging the
1895 Guangzhou Uprising & 1900 Huizhou Uprising, overseas students in
Japan, i.e., the Yangtze-Anhui gang and Hunan-Hubei gang, had resorted to
penetrating and instigating the defection of the Manchu New Army. In the
section on Manchu Qing Dynasty, we expounded upon propagation Of Revolution. Zhang Ji proposed armed rebellion in 1902. 
Huang Xing, who
co-established so-called "military nation citizen society" in May 1903, left
Japan for China on June 4th 1903, with a mission for staging armed rebellion,
i.e., aborted Changsha Uprising in
Oct 1904. In China, Japan returnee Chen Fan was distributor for "Subao
Newspaper" of Shanghai, which became the distributor for Japan-based monthly
magazine "compilings of translated works while studying overseas". In May 1903,
Zou Rong wrote "Ge Ming Jun" (i.e., revolutionary army or ranks) to
propagate changes in Shanghai, with Zhang Binglin authoring the preface. After
the banning of "Subao Newspaper" [i.e., Suzhou-he River Newspaper], Zhang
Shizhao established "guo min ri ri bao" [i.e., "National Citizen Daily Daily
Newspaper"] to continuously attack Manchu government. After the closure of
"National Citizen Daily Daily Newspaper" on Dec 3rd 1903, Su Manshu went to work
for Chen Shaobai's "China Daily Newspaper" in HK for a short while.
In
1904, Russo-Japanese War broke out with a surprise attack on Port Arthur by the
Japanese fleet. The next year, defeated on land and sea, Russia ceded to Japan
Port Arthur, the southern portion of the Manchurian Railway, and the southern
half of Sakhalin Island under the terms of the Treaty of Portsmouth.
In
1904, Tao Chengzhang returned to China and exerted his efforts in rebuilding
secret societies in Zhejiang Prov. In the winter of 1904, Restoration Society
was established in Shanghai, with Cai Yuanpei made into the president as a
result of Zhang Taiyan's imprisonment. Restoration Society proposed the slogan
of "restoring our Han ethnicity and returning our mountains and rivers".
In the spring of 1905, Sun Yat-sen visited Europe. In the spring, he
knocked on the door of Wu Zhihui who had refused to see him while in Japan in
1901, thinking that Sun might just be a 'Robinhood' kind of figure. With Liu
Chengyu's referral letter sent from San Francisco, Sun Yat-sen obtained
invitation from overseas students in Brussels and Berlin. While Sun touted the
role of secret societies, Zhu Hezhong alerted to the influences of students and
soldiers in Hunan-Hubei provinces as well as the possible unrestrained ambitions
of secret society members. After 3 day and 3 night talks, Sun Yat-sen was
convinced by Zhu Hezhong. Details could be seen at Sun Yat-sen's Establishing Contacts With Intelligentsia From
Societies of Yangtze Area. In July of
1905, Sun Yat-sen arrived in Japan from France. on Aug 13th, Sun Yat-sen made a
speech at a reception held by overseas students in Japan and called for
establishment of republic via revolution. on Aug 20th of 1905 (solar calendar),
Sun Yat-sen, who reportedly had spent idle time in Japan after losing his brave
men in prior uprisings, was supported by Huang Xing for organizing "Tong Meng
Hui" (i.e., 'Allied Society of China' or 'Revolutionary Alliance') in Japan, with a slogan calling
for expelling of the Tartars and restoration of our China. About 400 students
joined the secret society. "Tong Meng Hui", relaunching its newspaper as
"Min Bao", engaged in newspaper blasting at the constitutional monarchists, and within half a year drove monarchist newspaper into
bankruptcy. on June 29th 1906, Zhang Binglin [Zhang Taiyan] was released from
prison, and Sun Yat-sen dispatched messenger to have him fetched to Japan.
Jiang Yongjing estimated that "Tong Meng Hui" had conducted 24
uprisings from 1905 to 1911, with Sun Yat-sen participating in organization 8
times, and that prior to 1905, "Xing Zhong Hui" had conducted 2 uprisings
and the rest of parties 5 times. Revolutionaries pressed the Manchu government
into declaring Constitutional Monarchy Reform: In 1906, Manchu government would declare that they would
adopt Japan and Britain's system (i.e., "constitutional monarchy" with royal
house and Parliament) nine years later. They would agree to 'political reform'
beginning from 1907.
On March 4th 1907, Japanese government expelled
Sun Yat-sen at the request of the Manchu government. Owing to Sun Yat-sen's
monopolization of Japanese donation, Zhang Taiyan proposed a censure against Sun
Yat-sen. Meantime, Liu Shipei advocated for a re-organization of Allied Society.
Further details could be seen at Dispute With Sun Yat-sen & Separate Military Actions By
"Guang Fu Hui" Members.
on
Nov 14th & 15th 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu died,
consecutively. Manchu Regent Zai-li [Zai-feng] held the actual power over
three-year-old Emperor Xuantong (Aixinjueluo Pu-yi or Henry Pu Yi, later as
Emperor K'ang Te of puppet state Manchukuo). Manchu Regent Zai-li [Zai-feng]
thought that monarchism (not the same as parliamentarism) could save the Manchu
monarchy.
In April 1908, revolutionaries launched Hekou Uprising in
Yunnan Province. Tens of thousands of overseas students and Chinese celebrated
Yunnan independence in Tokyo. Later, Manchu court suspended government funding
for those students who played an active role in the relief activity to Hekou
Uprising. (From 1907 to 1908, revolutionaries launched altogether eight
uprisings that would include May 1907 Chaozhou [Chao Chow] Uprising in Guangdong
[by Yu Chou , Cheng Yong-bo & Yu Tong], Huizhou Uprising in Guangdong by
Deng Zi-yu, July 1907 Ching-Cho Uprising in Guangdong by Fung Chung, Oct 1907
Zhennanguan [Zheng-Nan-Quang] Uprising on Vietnam-Guangxi border by Wang
Ho-shun, and Qin-Lian Revolt by Huang Xing [Huang Ge-qiang].) 
Also
in 1908, Anqing Soldier Rebellion broke out, and over three hundred
revolutionaries were killed in Anhui Province. Xiong Chengji, a member under
Restoration Society, was responsible for this action. (Xiong Chengji was an
officer inside of cannons battalion, and led his soldiers for an uprising to
avenge Xu Xilin's death by taking advantage of imperial mourning. He, later in
Jan 1910, fled to Harbin of Manchuria where he was caught after a betrayal and
at age 24, got executed [without kneeling down] in Jilin on Feb 27th.)
On Dec 1st 1908, Tang Jiyao graduated from Japanese Infantry Cadet
Academy, with diploma conferred by Japanese emperor at the ceremony. (198 cadets
of 6th session were Chinese, including Wang Zhaoji, Li Genyuan, Liu Cunhou, Luo
Peijin, Yan Xishan, Sun Chuanfang, Lu Xiangting, Zhou Yinren, Tang Jiyao, Li
Liejun, Yin Changheng, Zhang Fenghui and Cheng Qian. Among 6th session graduates
of Japan Cadet, Yunnan Province would boast of Tang Jiyao, Luo Peijin, Li
Genyuan, Liu Zuwu, Zhao Fuxiang, Li Hongxiang, Ye Quan, Zhang Kairu, Xie Ruyi
and Gu Pinzhen.)
In 1909, Tao Chengzhang had an argument with Sun
Yat-sen in Southeast Asia over the matter of fund raising and appropriation, and
listed 14 crimes that Sun Yat-sen had committed. Tao Chengzhang re-organized
Restoration Society with Zhang Taiyan and Li Xiehe. In this year, two sisters,
Yi Weijun and Yi Ruizhi, both students of martyress Qiu Jin, attempted
assassination by going to Peking.
Reform consultancy committees (i.e.,
provincial viceregal assemblies) were set up for 'show' in all provinces in
1909. In Yunnan Prov, Tang Jiyao and returnee students from Japan took up
lecturer posts at Yunnan Province "infantry lecturing academy" which was headed
by Hu Jingyi and Gao Erdeng respectively. Li Genyuan assumed the superintendent
post at the academy.
In 1910, a military school attached to Manchu's
Yunnan Province 19th Division was incorporated into Yunnan Province "infantry
lecturing academy". on April 1st [lunar cal ?], Li Genyuan took over the
schoolmaster post from Gao Erdeng. Tang Jiyao was transferred to 19th Division
as tactician. Manchu military forces in Yunnan Province fell into the hands of
the revolutionaries. Li Genyuan and Luo Peijin recommended Cai E to Manchu
Governor-general for Yunnan-Guizhou provinces. In July [lunar cal ?] of 1910,
Cai E took over the post of 37th brigade chief under 19th Division.
By
1910, delegates of the provincial reform consultancy committees joined in a
national body at Peking, trying to hasten up parliamentary reform. However, the
new Manchu royal house still adopted a policy of absolving Han ethnic officials,
and they deprived Yuan Shi-kai (Yüan Shih-k'ai) of his military post. (It was
said that late Emperor Guangxu had left a will that his successor avenge on Yuan
for the treachery, but Emperor Guangxu's brother absolved Yuan by merely
depriving him of his military posts. )
Also in 1910, Wang Zhaoming (i.e., Wang Jingwei from Anhui Prov) returned
from Japan, and Chen Bijun, after tearing apart her colonial passport, followed
him to Peking. Wang Jingwei invited Huang Shuzhong and Luo Shixun in
assassination of Manchu Regent Zai-li [Zai-feng].
In October, 1910, Dr.
Sun launched Second Canton Uprising. on March 29th, 1911, Dr. Sun launched Third
Canton Uprising, i.e., Quang Chow revolt. Huang Xing [aka Huang Ke-qiang] pulled ahead the
uprising and personally led 100 men in the revolt, including main cadres like
Lin Juemin [Ling Jaio-ming], Fang Sheng-dong & Ju Zhi-xin [Zhu Zhixin]. 86
revolutionaries died during this battle, with the bodies of 72 revolutionaries
later collected and buried on Huanghuagang Hill [yellow flower hill] in Canton
by Huang Huagong. 
Both
Second Canton Uprising & Third Canton
Uprising were executed by Huang Xing.
(Jiang Yongjing stated that 29 martyrs came from overseas and the rest came from
six different provinces, with backgrounds varying from students to soldiers,
merchants, intellectuals, martial arts masters, workers and peasants. Jiang
Yongjing stated that the funds for this uprising and martyrdom, totaling 200,000
yuan or dollars, had mostly come from overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, North
America and Japan. Majority of 500 men pre-selected for this uprising had come
from HK and Southeast Asia, a reason that KMT and Sun Yat-sen claimed that
"overseas Chinese" were the mother of revolution.)
In April, 1911,
Manchu royal house reorganized the cabinet, but they still retained 9 ethnic
Manchu among altogether 14 members. Two brothers of the regent, Zai-Xun and
Zai-Tao, were both conferred the minister posts. King Qing-wang (Yi-kuang) was
appointed the post of prime minister. To replace deceased Han-ethnic officials
of Sun Jia'nai, Lu Chuanlin and Zhang Zhidong would be Xu Shichang as assistant
to Yi-kuang.
Numerous uprisings erupted throughout the nation. In the
Yangtze River area, in July of 1911, Song Jiaoren [Sung Chiao-jen 1882-1913],
being unhappy over the failure of March 29th Canton Uprising and lamenting the
deaths of revolutionaries in inconcerted uprisings (e.g., death of Xu Xilin in
Anqing, Wen Shengcai in Canton and Xiong Chengji in Manchuria), had organized a
Shanghai Branch of "Tong Meng
Hui". Xin Hai Revolution would be a
coordinated action by the revolutionary organizations reporting to Song Jiaoren.
Parallel to the assassinations and uprisings would be a Manchu suicidal
attempt at nationalizing the railways. Manchu minister Sheng Xuanhuai's railroad
naturalization led to 'Retaining (Recovering) Railroad' Movement in four provinces of Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei and
Guangdong, and set up the stage for various southern provinces to declare
independence.
Manchu Army System & Northern Warlords
Mr. Ding Zhongjiang wrote a
great book called "History of Northern Warlords" in 1964. He thoroughly
traced the warring history of China from 1912 to 1928. During this time period,
there had ensued 38 cabinets, with the shortest cabinet lasting only 6 days.
This period of Chinese Republic was called Northern Warlords time period because
the regimes in Peking were of the same lineage as Yuan Shi-kai cronies.
Per DZJ, the Northern Warlord Lineage could be traced to Manchu's
Xiang-jun (Hunan Province Army) and Huai-jun (Anhui Province Army). Yong Ying
(Brave Camp) System, including Xiang-jun and Huai-jun headed by Zeng Guofan and
Li Hongzhang, had exhibited themselves as a better army during the crackdown on
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Rebellion & Nian Rebellion. (Manchu Banner System/Green Camp System and Yong Ying (Brave Camp) System are covered in the qing.htm section.) After defeating the
Taiping Rebellion and the Nian (Nian-jun) Rebellion, majority of Xiang-jun and
Huai-jun troops were retained as garrisons in place of the Eight Banner and
Green-Camp soldiers. Gradually, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang and their cronies
took over the posts of governor-generals for Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces,
South-Sea Minister, North-Sea Minister and governor-general for Zhili Province
(Beijing area). Li Hongzhang, at age 42, took over governor-general for Zhili
Province in 1901.
During the 1894 Sino-Japanese War, however, the
backwardness of Huai-jun was shown by the total annihilation of Huai-jun's
Sheng-jun column in Korea. Before the 1894 defeat, Yuan Shi-kai spent 12 years
in Korea training the Korean army; after the 1895 defeat in the Sino-Japanese
War, Manchu government began to recruit the so-called Xin-jun ('New Army') in
accordance with the West's military system. King Chunqin-wang (Yi-xuan), King
Qingqin-wang (Yi-kuang), Weng Tonghe, Li Hongzhang and Rong-lu etc adamantly
recommended Yuan Shi-kai for training 'Xin-jun' or the New Army at Xiaozhan.
Yuan Shi-kai contacted Yin-chang of Tianjin's "Wubei Xuetang" Academy for
referrals of talents, and Yin-chang recommended to Yuan Shi-kai "Wubei
Xuetang" top students such as Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui, Liang Huadian and
Wang Shizhen. (Among the four guys, Liang Huadian accidentally drowned himself
on one night, and the other three would be appointed lecturer for field or
infantry battalion, cannons battalion, and cavalry battalion, respectively. The
three would become the so-called 'Distinguished Three' among the Northern
Warlord Armies later. Duan Qirui had at one time studied in military school in
Germany.) Yuan Shi-kai's training of the new army will be expanded to 12000 men,
with eight infantry 'ying' (i.e., camps or battalions) totaling 8000 men, two
cannon battalions, two battalions of cavalry totaling 1000 men, and 1000 men
engineering battalion. 'Engineering Battalion' was in charge of repairing arms,
building bridges, building castles, planting mines, sending telegraphs and
surveying maps. German, Japanese and American lecturers were hired, and a German
language school was also set up.
More available at Manchu-New-Army-New-Adm.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm
page for up-to-date updates.)
| * In Commemoration of China's Fall under the
Alien Conquests in A.D. 1279, A.D. 1644 &
A.D. 1949
* |
Founding Of The Republic Of China (ROC)
Chinese
saying goes that "the wind will be blowing through the whole storey-building at
the time the mountain rain is to pour down". Another soldier uprising,
Wuchang Uprising of
Oct 10th 1911 (termed Xin Hai Revolution), in Wuchang, Hubei Province, would
terminate the Manchu rule in China. Numerous factors contributed to the
overthrow of Manchu Qing Dynasty. The important point to remember is that it was
never an "accident" as the fuse appeared to be nor was it a revolution initiated
by a few military platoon chiefs. Cai Dongfan commented that Shen Xuanhuai's
railroad nationalization had led Manchu to its demise. Jiang Yongjing, in
"The Land-Sea Ebb History of KMT", attributed multiple-province members
recruited and disciplined by "Tong Meng Hui" in Japan to the success of
domino-effect provincial independence during 1911 Xin Hai Revolution. Late
Historian Shen Yunlong, in his book "An anthology of Events and Figures
During ROC Time", attributed Manchu Governor-general Zhang Zhidong's
launching innovative academies and military academies to the upbringing of a
generation of revolutionaries. Shen Yunlong also called the attention to Manchu
Qing's abolition of the imperial civil services exam as a fundamental cause in
re-orienting lots of talented Confucian-apprentices towards services under
Manchu Qing's re-organized New Army. (Manchu Qing had authorized Yuan Shi-kai in
rebuilding the New Army on basis of "rightside martial defense column", the only
remnant that survived the wars against the invasion of the Eight Allied Nations
while the other four columns had been basically decimated.)
Shen
Yunlong stated that "You planted cucumber, but you get the beans", which was to
ridicule the Manchu court as far as establishing its New Army was concerned. By
the time the uprising broke out, Manchu court had only fulfilled the recruitment
of two third of the original 36 division plan, with 16 divisions and 16 mixed
purpose brigades recruited. Wuchang Uprising was heralded by Manchu 8th Division
of the New Army in Hubei Prov. China should thank three bands of revolutionaries
for the overthrow of the Manchu and emergence of the Republic, namely, Sun
Yat-sen's Cantonese Band, Zhang Taiyan & Tao Chengzhang's Zhejiang Band, and
Huang Xing & Song Jiaoren's Hubei-Hunan Band. Looking back in history, one
would have to be moved by the great sacrifice and courage of southern Chinese,
especially those of Zhejiang Province where people carried the spirits of "King
Goujian Restoring Statehood" over two thousand five hundred years ago. (Note in
ancient times, Zhejiang people used to carry swords all the time in the similar
belligerent fashion as Japanese samurai.) Armed revolution, starting with Sun
Yat-sen's 1895 aborted Guangzhou [Canton] Uprising & 1900 Huizhou Uprising,
would be fomenting itself after the formation of "Tong Meng Hui". Though "Hua
Xing Hui" 1903 Changsha Uprising was aborted, relatively independent "Guang Hui
Hui" continued relentless assassinations and uprisings from 1905 to 1910.
At Wuchang, 8th Division possessed 2 brigades or 4 regiments of field
army, about 6000 men; 1 regiment of cannon column and 1 regiment of cavalry,
about 3000 men; and 1 engineering battalion and 1 logistics battalion, about
1000 men. Other than the armies which either stationed in provincial cities or
were relocated to Sichuan Province by Rui-fang for cracking down on railroad
recovery movement, Wuchang area boasted of 7500 New Army soldiers, including Li
Yuanhong's 21st mixed purpose brigade of 4300 soldiers.
Alliance of Secret Societies In Hubei Province
Wuchang
Uprising
Revolutionaries Cooperating With "Constitutional
Monarchists"
On Nov 13th, Chen Qimei, in Shanghai, called upon provinces
to send in representatives to Shanghai. Wuchang city agreed with revolutionaries
and constitutional monarchists in Shanghai city that a system similar to USA
should be formulated. Agreement was reached to have each province send in two
representatives, with one representing Manchu-era consultancy bureau and the
other representing provincial governor-general office.
With the
compromise of revolutionaries and constitutional monarchists, about 18 provinces
sent in their representatives to Shanghai. First meeting was held on Nov 15th
[Sept 25th per lunar calendar], with a decision to have governor-generals play
the role of the senate by mapping the "Continental Congress" scheme of the USA
at the time of the Independence War against Britain. At the request of Li
Yuanhong & Huang Xing, representatives split into two halves, with the group
of people for Wuchang to be bestowed with the responsibility of drafting China's
first constitution, i.e., "Organization Guidelines of the Interim Government of
the Republic of China" [later commonly known as "Interim Agreed-Upon Laws"].
Representatives also devised the 18-star national flag by mapping the US
national flag, which was symbolic of the 18 provinces which declared
independence from Manchu court.
The 18-star national flag will then be
replaced by "five color national flag" which would be symbolic of the union of
five ethnic groups of Han, Manchu, Mongol, Hui Muslim and Tibetans.
Domino
Effect Across China
Manchu
Invoking Yuan Shi-kai For Cracking Down on Revolutionaries
Revolutionaries Embarking on Establishing the Republic &
Stipulating the Constitution
Wu Luzhen Failing to Shake Up Yuan Shikai's Crony Forces
Yuan Shikai Talking 'Peace' With Revolutionaries
Revolutionaries Making Nanking the Capital of ROC
Sun Yat-sen Assumption of Interim Presidency of ROC
 |
Yuan Shikai
Pressuring Manchu Emperor Into Abdication
What the
Foreign Powers Did To China Prior To, During And After the 1911 Revolution
Flowery-republic-Frederick-McCormick
a) The 1900 Boxer was incited by Dowager Empress
Ci-xi whose purpose was to revenge on the European-American attempt at restoring
Emperor Guangxu in lieu of Ci-xi's selecting a junior prince as the successor
'crown prince'. The foreign powers, after weighing their interests in China, let
Ci-xi continue her rule in China.
b) In 1904, after the Russo-Japanese
War, Theodore Roosevelt, was writing how happy he was to see the Russians
defeated by the Japanese in Manchuria. This is similar to what Hoover claimed
when the Japanese invaded Manchuria on Sept 18th, 1931, i.e., good for
inhibiting the Russian communism.
c) In 1905, when Chinese boycotted
American goods [due to American extension and revision of Peking treaty with
discrimination against Chinese coolies], American President had mobilized 15000
marines for a planned attack at Canton.
d) In June of 1911, the
Americans instructed that China's railway restoration movement must be stopped
by any means, and in Sept, one month ahead of the Xin Hai Revolution, dispatched
the Asian Fleet warships to the Yangtze from the Philippines. President Taft
endorsed the policy of neutrality only after the Revolutionaries in Wuchang
promised to continue the Manchu unequal treaties.
e) on Oct 18th, 1911,
Sun Yat-sen went to Washington DC for a second time in the year for requesting a
meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State, in vain. In late 1911, American
newspapers carried articles blasting China's republic as a joke. The U.S. State
Department expressed 'worries' about the establishment of a republic in China in
a rash way. only the American missionaries, like in the resistance war in the
1930s, had supported China's efforts.
f) Both the American and British
ambassador received instructions to pressure the Manchu court on the matter of
invoking Yuan Shikai. The pressure was more than diplomatic, but monetary. The
foreign powers controlled China's customs, and the Manchu court got paid the
surplus of customs after the foreign powers got their pay first. After the Oct
10th Revolution, the foreign powers, in the name of 'neutrality', cut the
funding to the Manchu court. This is similar to what they did in stopping the
funds to the Canton government after Sun Yat-sen returned to Canton after
overthrowing the Guangxi clique in 1922. With the major source of money cut, the
Manchu court was in more panic than ever. Other than cutting the customs tax pay
to the Manchu court, the international financial consortium refused to loan to
the Manchu court, but hinted they were willing to give 3000,000 taels of silver
should Yuan Shikai return to control of the army. on Dec 20th, at the
Anglo-American-brokered south-north peace conference in Shanghai, six countries
"courteously" requested the peace negotiators to reach a truce in the interests
of both the Chinese and the foreigners.
g) Even after Sun tacked on
interim presidency on Jan 1st, 1912, the American government continued to state
that Sun Yat-sen was a doubtful person, and Yuan Shikai was the powerful man who
could control China. When ROC Foreign Minister Wang Chonghui wired to the U.S.
Government on Jan 17, Jan 19th, 1912, for the American recognition of the ROC,
both times, the Americans did not reply. Further, the Americans instructed that
no consulate should maintain contact with the revolutionaries in the south.
American reporters passed on the American message to Sun Yat-sen, make a deal
with Yuan, and don't count on Washington DC, and don't count on the Republic of
USA as your example and source of inspiration. --- Check out Frederick
McCormick: The Flowery Republic (London: John Murray, 1913), pp.
294-295.
h) After Sun Yat-sen quit the interim presidency, the U.S.
Congress congratulated on China's adoption and maintenance of a Republican
government, on Feb 29th, 1912. American was the first country to acknowledge
Yuan Shi-kai's government in the aftermath of national turmoil owning to the
assassination of Song Jiaoren in March of 1913.
- Americans did the
same hasty decision to give Chiang Kai-shek a badly-needed loan at the time
Whang Jingwei's puppet government officially launched in Nanking in March 1940.
The only reason the Americans decided to get involved in China in March 1940 was
a deliberate Chiang Kai-shek rumor that his Chongqing government could merge
with the puppet Nanking government, the same trick that Chiang Kai-shek used in
sending the fake Song Ziliang to HK for 'peace talks' with Japan for sake of
delaying the launch of the Nanjing puppet government.
(More available
at Century-long American hypocrisy towards China, and Anglo-American & Jewish romance with
Japanese.)
Yuan Shi-kai - the First President of the
ROC
Yuan Shi-kai,
seeing that Sun Yat-sen had become the first president of the ROC, hastened his
efforts to secure a fortune for himself. Yuan Shi-kai authorized Duan Qirui to
demand an imperial abdication in the name of 42 Manchu generals. Yuan Shi-kai
reached a deal with Sun Yat-sen in regards to pressuring the last Manchu Emperor
Xuantong (Aixinjueluo Pu-yi, r. 1909-1911) into abdication on Feb 12th of 1912.
Zhao Bingjun, back in early 1912, went to see last Manchu Qing Emperor Pu-yi to
relay Yuan Shi-kai's request for imperial abdication. After Sun Yat-sen resigned
on the 13th [14th per TDG], Yuan Shi-kai obtained the ROC presidency from Sun
Yat-sen subsequently when the interim upper house made the announcement on Feb
15th, 1912.
It was
not the first time Sun Yat-sen had "yielded" the leadership to someone else.
Jiang Yongjing pointed out that Sun Yat-sen, against the objection of Zheng
Shiliang, during the course of establishing the "Xing Zhong Hui" HK
branch in 1895, had yielded the HK branch president's post to Yang Quyun and did not succeed it till 1899.
(However, Chen Jieru
memoirs stated that Sun Yat-sen served Yang Quyun as a secretary for one year
before Yang Quyun's assassination death. Hsueh Chun-tun pointed out that Sun
Yat-sen, after the aborted 1895 Canton Uprising, had established a separate
"Xing [reviving] Han [Han ethnic Chinese] Hui [society]" till Yang Quyun gave up
the chair post of "Xing [reviving] Zhong [China] Hui [society]" in Jan 1900. In
Oct 1914 letter to Deng Zeru, Sun Yat-sen explained the reasons why he had
yielded the 'Interim Presidency' to Yuan Shi-kai. In 1921, Chiang Kai-shek
promised to his wife Chen Jieru that he would make Sun Yat-sen the only
"guardian-god" of the Republic of China should he rise to power, and later,
Chiang Kai-shek tried to destroy the photos and film of Sun Yat-sen standing
behind Yang Quyun by bribing the Japanese and HK businessmen. Later, Chiang
Kai-shek had conducted several nominal resignations, including the resignation
in Aug 1927 for the party unity between Nanking and Wuhan governments and the
resignation in 1931 after the Sept 18th Japanese Invasion of Manchuria etc.)
The Nanking government, on Feb
18th, 1912, dispatched a team headed by Cai Yuanpei for fetching Yuan Shikai
over to Nanking from Peking. The team, consisting of Song Jiaoren, Wang Jingwei,
Niu Yongjian, Wang Zhengting, Liu Guanxiong, Wei Chenzu, Zeng Zhaowen &
Huang Kaiyuan, left Shanghai on the 22nd by sea together with Tang Shaoyi, and
arrived in Peking on the 26th. Initially Yuan Shikai had no objection to
relocation to the south; however, on the 29th, soldiers around the Dongan-men
and Qian-men city gates suddenly went into a 'mutiny', raided the guesthouse
where the mission stayed, and forced the representatives into seeking asylum in
the legation area. Meanwhile, 'mutiny' spread to Tongzhou, Tianjin and Baoding.
Hence, Yuan Shikai claimed that he could not afford to relocate to Nanking. Per
TDG, Zhang Guogan had disclosed that he learnt from Xu Shichang that Yuan
Keding, i.e., Yuan Shikai's son, could be the culprit in stirring up the
'mutiny' for sake of imprisoning the Manchu emperor and making Yuan Shikai into
the new emperor. Since Yuan Shikai refused to come south while Li Yuanhong &
Zhang Binglin advocated for Peking as the nation's capital, Sun Yat-sen gave up
the demand and ratified Yuan Shikai's oath telegraph with the Senate on March
8th, 1912. Cai Yuanpei administered the oath on 10th in Peking.
The
second day after oath, Sun Yat-sen, in Nanking, released the "Interim
Agreed-Upon Laws" of the ROC, and adopted the French parliamentary government
structure. on March 13th, Yuan Shikai issued an order to have Tang Shaoyi work
on organization of the first cabinet of the ROC. Yuan Shikai promptly issued a
nationwide amnesty without consultation with the Senate [as a challenge to
assert his presidential power per TDG]. on the 29th, Tang Shaoyi
[1860-1938] completed the cabinet shuffling, with such prominent members as Tang
Shaoyi, Lu Zhengxiang [foreign ministry], Zhao Bingjun [Interior], Duan Qirui
[infantry], Liu Guanxiong [navy], Xiong Xiling [finance], Wang Chonghui
[justice], Cai Yuanpei [education], Song Jiaoren [agriculture and forestry],
Chen Qimei [commerce & industry], Shi Zhaoji [transportation] heading
various ministries. As pointed out by Tang Degang, foreign minister Lu
Zhengxiang held more power over premier Tang Shaoyi in the spirit of inheriting
the Manchu line of authority as demanded by the imperialist powers. As to Song
Jiaoren & Chen Qimei's admission to the cabinet, Tang Degang made an analogy
to Chiang Kai-shek's conferring similar 'industry' and 'enterprises' posts onto
the "third parties" and Mao Tse-tung's onto the "democratic vase parties". Chen
Qimei, with his real power base in Shanghai, refused to report to Peking.
The Last Chinese Reorganization Gold Loan of 1913
Huang Xing
[1874-1916] was retained as "housekeeper" in Nanking for dismissing 300,000
soldiers of various factions from the Xin Hai Revolution. The Republic of China,
for solving financial solvency and dismissing the soldiers, had resorted to
imperialist powers for huge loans which did not get approved till after Song
Jiaoren's assassination death on March 20th, 1913. Tang Shaoyi first initiated
the loan request for 8,5000,000 taels of silver with four countries of Britain,
the U.S., Germany & France whereas Japan and Russia joined in for
profiteering soon. (Mike Billington, in "How London, Wall Street Backed
Japan's War Against China and Sun Yat Sen", pointed out that "the House of
Morgan, functioning as an arm of British imperial policy within the United
States, first became seriously involved with the formation of a bankers'
Consortium for China, in 1909, consisting of banking interests from the United
States, Britain, France, and Germany. The British, under Hongkong and Shanghai
Bank chief Sir Charles Addis, took overall direction of the Consortium, with a
J.P. Morgan representative leading the American Group. Although the Consortium
did finance a Shanghai-to-Canton rail line, their primary task was to prop up
the decayed Ching dynasty against the mounting republican revolutionary
pressure".)
On March 30th, Tang Shaoyi enrolled in "Tong Meng Hui" at
the encouragement of Huang Xing & Cai Yuanpei. on April 1st, Sun Yat-sen
resigned his proxy duty. Within 3 months of the cabinet formation, Tang Shaoyi
resigned his post via a sudden disappearance. Per TDG, Gu Weijun, i.e., Tang
Shaoyi's son-in-law, had personally witnessed the quarrels between Yuan Shikai
and Tang Shaoyi. Yuan Shikai's cronies often joked in front of Tang Shaoyi by
saying that "the Premier is coming to bully our president again..."
Sun
Yat-sen, after relieving duties, went on a nationwide tour and speeches with his
son and daughter, Wang Jingwei, Liao Zhongkai, Zhang Shizhao, and Miss Soong
Ai-ling [i.e., later Mme H.H. Kung]. Sun traveled from Shanghai to Wuhan along
the Yangtze and made stops at Nanking, Wuhu, Anqing & Jiujiang. Before going
to Peking at Yuan Shikai's invitation, Sun Yat-sen made a trip to his Xiangshan
hometown in Guangdong on April 27th. Thinking that his two principles, i.e.,
"nationalism" and "civil rights", had been accomplished in China, Sun Yat-sen,
while making a speech in mid-June in Canton, emphasized only the aspect of
"people's livelihood" which was his propagating of "equalizing the land
ownership rights". Historian Tang Degang blamed China's bloody path of "state
socialism" [of both Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party and Mao Tse-tung's
Communist Party] on Sun Yat-sen's beliefs and practice of "radical socialism"
which ended in his collusion with Russian Bolshevikism in the 1920s and
designation of his "principle of livelihood" as equivalent to communism.
On June 14th, Huang Xing's Nanking office was officially dismantled.
Huang Xing declined Yuan Shikai's invitation to go to Peking as
"tactician-in-general". on June 15th, Tang Shaoyi disappeared from Peking. Tang
Degang pointed out that Tang Shaoyi was indignant over Yuan Shikai for changing
Wang Zhixiang's conferral of governor-general post for Zhili Province without
consultation with the cabinet. Yuan Shikai asked Lu Zhengxiang to re-organize
the 2nd cabinet. Song Jiaoren & Chen Qimei, without the cabinet posts, then
concentrated on party re-organization, i.e., making "Tong Meng Hui" into the KMT
for sake of grabbing the majority seats inside of the "National Assembly", i.e.,
the Congress but translated into the Parliament throughout this writing.
In accordance with Clause 53 of the "Interim Agreed-Upon Laws", the
Interim President must convene a Parliament within ten months. on Aug 27th, Yuan
Shikai ratified the "organization regulations for the Parliament of the ROC",
which was a combination of American, British and French systems: the Senate
[i.e., the Upper House] would have ten members for most of 22 provinces and
varied quota for minority provinces and the overseas Chinese; and the Congress
[i.e., the Lower House] would have members on basis of a rough estimate of one
congressman for a subset of 800,000 population. Tang Degang pointed out that
those 800 Parliament members had no constituents per se. Tang Degang cited Zhang
Yuefa's research in pointing out that over 600 parties had popped out in the
early Republic era, and that majority organizations had derived from the "Manchu
Royalist Party" [i.e., Kang You-wei & Liang Qi-chao's gang] and the
"Constitutional Monarchists". Song Jiaoren, who drafted the "Interim Agreed-Upon
Laws" and the "organization regulations for the Parliament of the ROC", adopted
the approach of combining several revolutionary organizations with "Tong Meng
Hui" (i.e., the 'Allied Society of China'), including "Tongyi Gonghe
Dang" (the united republic party that was once headed by Cai E), "Guomin
Gongjin Hui" (the society for people's concerted advancement), "Gonghe
Shijin Hui" (the society for republic advancement), & "Guomin Gong
Dang" (the people's public party). on Aug 25th, Song Jiaoren officially
convened the meeting of the KMT, with 1000 participants including Sun Yat-sen
who arrived in Peking one day earlier. Though Sun Yat-sen obtained 1130 votes,
he yielded the post of "chairman of the board" to Song Jiaoren.
Scholar
Yuan Shiwei rebuked Dr. Sun Yat-sen's blunders in the orientation towards the
"railway construction". In contrast, Song Jiaoren worked diligently for building
a majority KMT party inside of the Parliament. In Aug 1912, Song Jiaoren united
various parties and societies into the Guomindang (GMD or KMT) and supported Sun
Yat-sen as director of the board. However, Sun Yat-sen declined the director of
board and took on the railroad job. Song Jiaoren advocated Parliamentarism,
intending to make the KMT an incumbent party as a check on the presidency. Sun
Yat-sen and Huang Xing naively persuaded Yuan Shi-kai and Yang Du et al., into a
possible enrollment in the KMT in the hope that that Yuan Shi-kai could be a
part of the KMT upon membership in the KMT.
During one month stay in Peking, Sun Yat-sen held 13 tête-à-tête
discussions with Yuan Shikai. Presidential secretary Liang Shiyi witnessed some
talks that lasted 6-8 hours on some occasions, with topics covering the state
affairs and foreign relations. Liang Shiyi commented that Sun Yat-sen, having
detected Yuan's ambition, tried to pacify his opponent, while Gu Weijun later
disclosed that Yuan Shikai knew nothing about the "modern political thoughts".
Sun Yat-sen claimed that "President Yuan Shi-kai being a man of great talents, I
hold out extraordinary hope that should he be on the presidency's post for 10
years, China would boast an army of several millions and that by that same
timeframe, I would be able to lay 200,000 li railroad tracks, with an expected
revenues of 8 million yuan per year, making China strong enough to be peers of
the world powers." As a way to retain Sun Yat-sen, Yuan Shikai agreed to let Sun
Yat-sen head the 'China railway construction' and furthermore appointed Huang
Xing as 'railway czar' for the Wuhan-Guangdong-Sichuan areas. Having pointed out
that China still failed to have 70,000 kilometer railway tracks by the end of
the 20th century, Tang Degang commented that Yuan Shikai had deliberately
allowed Sun Yat-sen to tack on the railway post while knowingly understood the
reality, and later accused Sun Yat-sen of "corruption" in squandering away the
funds. on Sept 9th of 1912, Sun Yat-sen accepted the title of 'plenipotentiary'
for the China national railroads [i.e., head of the National Railroad Bureau],
with a dream of laying 200,000 li distance railroad tracks. (2 li distance is
equivalent to approx 1 kilometer. Separately, Yuan
Shikai attempted to kick out Chen Qimei from Shanghai by offering 60,000 silver
dollar [equiv to US$60,000] travel expense for an overseas inspection of
industries & commerce. Chen Qimei, a friend of An Jung-geun, however,
offered significant amount of the money to the "Korean patriots" by
establishing a "New Asia Mutual Aid Society" in Shanghai.
Song Jiaoren - Re-organization of the Kuomingtang (KMT)
After the overthrow of
Manchu Qing Dynasty, "Tong Meng Hui" began to disintegrate. Zhang Binglin
rallied the Jiangsu-Zhejiang members for forming so-called 'United Society of
the ROC' which later converged with such monarchists as Zhang Jian into the
'United Party' (i.e., "Tongyi Dang"). In Hubei Prov, another group of
"Tong Meng Hui" allies, like Sun Wu, Lan Tianwei and Liu Chengyu,
supported Li Yuanhong to become the leader of "Min She" [the "People's
Society"] which later combined with anti-TongMengHui "Guomin Xiejin Hui"
(i.e., the National Advance Together Society) into the 'Republican Party'. Li
Yuanhong, before his being coerced into Peking by Yuan Shi-kai at Duan Qirui's
personal escort, still ruled Hubei Province. Li Yuanhong would adopt the advice
from Hu Kangmin [i.e., Hu Qiuyuan's father] in establishing an audit &
budget department. Hu Kangmin resigned his auditor post after Duan Zhigui, i.e.,
Yuan Shi-kai's crony, came to Hubei Province as the new governor-general.
The KMT was originally a loose organization comprising of several
revolutionary organizations, such as "Tong Meng Hui" (i.e., the 'Allied
Society of China'), "Tongyi Gonghe Dang" (the united republic party),
"Guomin Gongjin Hui" (the society for people's concerted advancement),
"Gonghe Shijin Hui" (the society for republic advancement), &
"Guomin Gong Dang" (the people's public party). [Tong Meng Hui",
moreover, was a lunar July 20th or solar Aug 20th, 1905 combination of various
anti-Manchu secret societies like Sun Yat-sen's original "Xing Zhong
Hui", Huang Xing/Song Jiaoren's "Hua Xing Hui" and Cai Yuanpei/Zhang
Binglin's "Guang Fu Hui". In then Tokyo, Sun Yat-sen was referred to
Huang Xing by Yang Du, a monarchist same as Kang You-wei and Liang Qi-chao.]
The KuoMinTang [KMT] (i.e., Guomindang [GMD] in pinyin), was commonly
known as the Nationalists. Semantically, it should be termed the National Party
or the Citizen Party. The KMT applied to the same group of revolutionaries
during several deferent stages and under different leadership. The KMT party
which had its root in "Tong Meng Hui" was coordinated by Song Jiaoren in
Peking at the absence of Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing, and the KMT was officially
found inside of the 'Hunan-Guangdong Natives' Hall' on August 25th of 1912, the
day after Sun Yat-sen arrived in Peking from Shanghai. The KMT stipulated nine
board directors, including Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren et al., and
29 councilors, including Hu Hanmin, Li Liejun, Jiang Yiwu, Sun Yujun, Tan
Yankai, Yu Youren and Ma Junwu. Song Jiaoren had publicly announced that he did
not have any difference of opinions from Sun Yat-sen, and Sun Yat-sen was
supported as director-general of the 'board of directors' of the KMT. Sun,
however, gave up the post for his dream of laying the tracks for the national
railroads.
Sun Yat-sen and Song Jiaoren differed on dealings with Yuan
Shi-kai's presidency. Sun advocated that his "Tong Meng Hui" act as a
challenger party against the incumbent president, while Song advocated a
Parliamentarism struggle against the presidency by making the KMT a majority
party. Huang Xing et al., tried to enroll Yuan Shi-kai and Yang Du as members of
the KMT. Yuan Shi-kai privately ridiculed the KMT by saying to Yang Du, a
monarchist, that he would be willing to be a revolutionary should the KMT
abandon its attempt at exercising the Parliament's restraints over the
presidency.
Under the leadership of Song Jiaoren, the KMT occupied 123
seats out of 274 seats in the Upper House, and 269 seats out of 596 in the Lower
House. The major rival to the KMT would be the 40 seats taken by "Gonghe
Dang" (i.e., the Republican Party), another loosely combined organization
founded on May 5th of 1912 with components like "Tongyi Dang" (the united
party), "Min She" (the people's society), and Pan Hongding's three
institutions of "Guo-min-dang", "Guo-min-xie-jin-hui" &
"Min-guo-gong-hui". The Republican Party had such prominent members as Li
Yuanhong, Zhang Jian, Zhang Binglin, Wu Tingfang, Tang Hualong and Wang Jitang.
Zhang Binglin later broke away from "Gonghe Dang" and restored his
"Tongyi Dang" (the united party).
Competing
with the KMT and the Republican Party would be a new party called "Min Zhu
Dang" (i.e., the Democrat Party) that was founded in Oct 1912 by Liang
Qichao (1873-1929) with the support of remnants of the "Gonghe Dang" like
Tang Hualong, Lin Zhangmin and Sun Hongyin. The Democrat Party also combined
"Gonghe Baojin Dang", "Gonghe Cuojin Dang", and "Guomin
Xinzheng She".
Song Jiaoren claimed that he would form a cabinet
consisting of the KMT members, only, which alienated such competitor parties as
the Republican Party, the United Party, and the Democrat Party. In mid-Oct, Song
Jiaoren made a trip to seeing his mother at Taoyuan [peach garden] hometown in
Hunan Prov. on Feb 1st, 1913, Song Jiaoren left hometown, traveled across
Eastern China, made "radical speeches" against Yuan Shikai's government [per
TDG]. Song's criticisms included accusations that Yuan Shikai was 'digging his
own tomb' while making a speech in the KMT branch in Hubei Prov. In Nanking, on
March 9th, Song emphasized the importance of "premiership" over the presidency.
Yuan Shikai, having failed two times to bribe Song Jiaoren, wired to Song
Jiaoren for a visit to Peking in regards to discussions about the cabinet
shuffling.
Song Jiaoren's Assassination & the Second
Revolution
Song Jiaoren worked diligently for building a majority KMT party inside of the
Parliament. But, Yuan Shi-kai, in order to fulfill his dictator or emperor's
dreams, hired an assassin to have Song Jiaoren assassinated on March 20th, 1913.
Song Jiaoren, who had turned down a 'blank checkbook' from Yuan Shi-kai's proxy,
traveled across the country and successfully campaigned to get the KMT members
elected to the majority seats in the Parliament. Further, at the time Song
Jiaoren departed the Tang Shaoyi cabinet, Yuan Shikai had offered 500,000 units
of gold which Song Jiaoren had declined. Tang Degang pointed out i) that Song
Jiaoren had resigned from the cabinet after Lu Zhengxiang claimed that he would
like to form a cabinet consisting of people with no party membership; and ii)
that Yuan Shikai had at one time contemplated upon having Song Jiaoren form a
"mixed party membership cabinet" but ultimately selected Zhao Bingjun for
forming the cabinet since Song Jiaoren advocated for one party [KMT] cabinet".
More available at Second_Revolution.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm
page for up-to-date updates.)
| * In Commemoration of China's Fall under the
Alien Conquests in A.D. 1279, A.D. 1644 &
A.D. 1949
* |
Yuan Shi-kai
intended to eradicate the KMT forces altogether and dispatched his military
apparatus against the southern provinces of Anhui-Jiangxi-Jiangsu-Hubei-Shanghai
etc. Yuan Shi-kai sent two columns to the south, with Duan Zhigui's First Corps
in charge of two divisions in Hubei-Jiangxi battlefield and Feng Guozhang's
Second Corps in charge of miscellaneous army corps against Nanking of Jiangsu
Prov. Duan Zhigui's First Corps included Wang Zhanyuan's 2nd Div and Li Chun's
6th Div. Yuan Shi-kai intended to have Duan Zhigui take over the
governor-general's post of Hubei Province and Feng Guozhang governor-general of
Jiangsu Prov. In Hunan Prov, Yuan Shi-kai's agents burnt the weapons depot. In
mid-July, Yuan Shi-kai dispatched two warships to Shanghai under the helm of
Zheng Rucheng and Zang Zhipin.
More available at Second_Revolution.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm
page for up-to-date updates.)
| * In Commemoration of China's Fall under the
Alien Conquests in A.D. 1279, A.D. 1644 &
A.D. 1949
* |
With the nodding
approval of Sun Yat-sen, the KMT governor-generals and generals, i.e., Li Liejun
of Jiangxi, Tan Yankai of Hunan, Bai Wenwei of Anhui and Xu Chongzhi of Fujian,
declared independence. Li Liejun, who had arrived in Shanghai for talks with
other former KMT governor-generals and Sun Yat-sen on June 15th after
resignation, would leave for Hukou of Jiangxi Province on July 8th. This would
be called the 'Second Revolution'.
More available at Second_Revolution.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm
page for up-to-date updates.)
| * In Commemoration of China's Fall under the
Alien Conquests in A.D. 1279, A.D. 1644 &
A.D. 1949
* |
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Song Qingling, who
graduated from the Wesleyan College at Macon of Virginia, had arrived in Japan,
met with Sun Yat-sen nine times for discussions, and then worked for Sun Yat-sen
as secretary which sister Song Ailing had undertaken previously. Chen Jieru's
memoirs stated that it was Soong Ai-ling who acted as the secretary but
recommended Soong Qing-ling after encountering her future husband Kong Xiangxi
in 1914. 
(Song Qingling (i.e., Soong Ching Ling or Mme Sun Yat-sen) was the
daughter of Song Yaoru who, a Hainan Island native, had worked as a coolie in the U.S. and
then a priest in Shanghai where he assisted Sun in printing the revolutionary
materials. Song Qingling, against the objection of her father in Shanghai, would
later go back to Japan to marry Sun Yat-sen on Oct 25th, 1915. Japanese Toyama
Mitsuru was surprised that Sun married a younger sister, not the elder sister.
This marriage was opposed by majority of the KMT comrades. Ma Beiming pointed
out that only the Japanese attended the matrimony. Sun Yat-sen's original wife
Lu Muzhen agreed to a divorce after the matter of fact or never went through an
official divorce. Ma Beiming also pointed out that Sun Yat-sen had adopted his
pen name 'zhongshan' after a Japanese noble family name, not the ancient Chinese
prefecture with the same name. Historian Tang Degang cited Mao Tse-tung's claim
of "learning from Sun Yat-sen" when Xiang Ying objected to the marriage between
Jiang Qing and Mao Tse-tung.)
More available at Second_Revolution.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm
page for up-to-date updates.)
| * In Commemoration of China's Fall under the
Alien Conquests in A.D. 1279, A.D. 1644 &
A.D. 1949
* |
In Aug 1913,
when Xiong Kewu rebelled against Yuan Shikai in Sichuan Prov, Cai E ordered that
Tang Jiyao dispatch Ye Quan's army to the aid of Sichuan Governor-general Hu
Jingyi. Though Governor-general Cai Er of Yunnan Province opposed the Second
Revolution, Yuan Shi-kai issued an order on Sept 28th, 1913 to have Tang Jiyao
assume the governor-general of Yunnan Province while Cai E came to Peking for
three month medical treatment. Cai E, together with Liang Qichao and the
"Progressive Party", had appeared to be supporters of Yuan Shikai;
however, Yuan Shikai intended to relocate Cai E away from the provincial post
the same way as he did to vice president Li Yuanhong. (Cai E remained in Peking
for three years, and had to resort to pleasure with "distinguished prostitute"
Xiao-feng-xian for distracting attention from Yuan's control, an event that had
caused him to delay treatment when he wrongly believed that his deadly throat
disease was possibly related to the sexually-transmitted disease. Alternative
saying is that Liang Qichao and Cai E had agreed to have Cai E leave Yunnan
Province on the precondition that Cai E go back to his native Hunan Province to
replace Tan Yankai, which Yuan had renegaded on once Cai E arrived in Peking.
(Tang Jiyao was converted to the official governor-general of Guizhou Province
on May 6th of 1912 after Cai E pacified the opposing factions in the province
prior to leaving for Peking.) After Tang Jiyao vacated Guizhou Province on Nov
1st, Xie Ruyi tacked on Tang Jiyao's post while Liu Xianshi was conferred the
post of "hu jun shi". (Liu Xianshi, in early 1912, had borrowed Tang
Jiyao's Yunnan Province army in killing dozens of feuds from the "autonomy"
faction and the provincial consultancy bureau of Guizhou Prov.)
Yuan Shi-kai Trampling on the Republic
The Second
Revolution helped Yuan Shikai in taking control of three provinces of Anhui,
Jiangxi and Guangdong. Moreover, Yuan Shikai managed to eliminate the
independence of Hunan Province [Tan Yankai], Zhejiang Province [Zhu Rui], Yunnan
Province [Cai E], and Guangxi Province [Cen Chunxuan]. Li Yuanhong would later
be coerced into Peking as well. Before Li Yuanhong was coerced into Peking, he
had taken drastic measures in cracking down on the KMT. For example, Li Yuanhong
requested with Yuan Shikai in having Jiang Yiwu executed: At the time Tan Yankai
declared independence for Hunan Province during the Second Revolution, Jiang
Yiwu was conferred the post of "zhaohu-shi [pacifier emissary] for the
Hubei-Henan provinces"; after Tan revoked independence, Jiang Yiwu was accused
of rebellion and escape; Jiang Yiwu was caught in Quanzhou by Chen Bingkun the
"zhenshou-shi [garrison] emissary" for Guilin of Guangxi Prov; and Jiang Yiwu
was executed at age 28 on a red carpet. Tang Degang guessed that over 10,000
people could have died during and after the Second Revolution.
Yuan
Shi-kai did not outlaw the KMT or dismiss the Parliament till after his
presidency confirmation. on Oct 10th of 1913, Yuan Shi-kai, having hijacked the
Parliament in passing the 'election law' ahead of the Constitution and locked up
the Parliament members to coerce an election, was officially elected president
of the ROC after barely passing the majority ballots needed after three rounds
of ballot casting. on Oct 16th of 1913, Yuan Shi-kai proposed an amendment of
the 'Interim Agreed-upon Laws' of 1912 in the attempt of aborting the birth of
the official Constitution and expanding his presidential power over the
Parliament. on Oct 22nd, he tried to have eight cronies sit in at the
Parliament. on Oct 25th, he wired his provincial officials to have them voice
opposition to drafting the official Constitution. Yuan Shi-kai's cronies,
including Ni Sichong, Zhang Xun and Jiang Guiti et al., shouted about
eradicating the rebels, proposed the dismissal of the Parliament, and called the
Parliament members as people's enemies. on Nov 4th of 1913, Yuan Shi-kai,
against the objection of Liang Qi-chao (the Progressive Party leader), outlawed
the KMT and deprived 438 KMT members of their Parliament representative title.
In the winter of 1913, Li Zongren, after graduation from the "infantry
rapid progress school", was assigned a job as an assistant lecturer at Guangxi
Prov's Officers Lecture & Practice School in Nanning. Governor-general Lu
Rongting set up the school to help rein in and elevate his generals who were
mostly of banditry background from the Manchu era. Similar to Lu Rongting,
northern Chinese governor-generals, like Zhang Zuolin, Zhang Zongchang, and
Zhang Zuoxiang etc, were also of banditry background from the Manchu era. After
school master Lin Bingyi squandered away funds on the Shanghai Bund, Officers
Lecture & Practice School was shut down. Li Zongren returned to the
countryside in autumn of 1914.
In further order on Nov 14th, 1913, Yuan
Shi-kai demanded that the former KMT Parliament reps must provide five persons
as a guarantee before departing the capital. Tang Hualong, speaker for the Lower
House and a leader of the Progressive Party, expressed objections to Yuan
Shi-kai's order. The Upper House, on Dec 3rd, rebuked Yuan Shi-kai for causing
the collapse of the Parliament. Yuan Shi-kai secretly maneuvered the provinces
to prevent the backup reps from filling the vacancy of the national Parliament.
In Yunnan Province, rebellion erupted against Tang Jiyao on Dec 8th
when Yang Chunkui, chief of the secret society "ge [brother] lao [elder] hui
[society]" launched a Second Revolution in the pretentious name of Sun
Yat-sen and Li Genyuan. Yang Chunkui took over the Dali city. Tang Jiyao quelled
the rebellion by Dec 23rd. Later in April of 1914, Tang Jiyao quelled another
rebellion in Lin'an-fu [Jianshui] county of Yunnan Prov.
In western
Henan Province & northern Hubei Prov, a rebellion erupted in the autumn
under the banner of "Bai [white] Lang [wolf]" which was said to be either a
mutation of some peasant called Bai Lang or possibly the Chinese way of calling
an 8th son of the family via "ba lang". Tang Degang cited Tao Jueying's account
in stating that possibly Bai Lang was formerly a tactician serving under martyr
Wu Luzhen. Du Chunhe's account, however, stated that Bai Lang was a
semi-literate or illiterate peasant. Alternative accounts stated that the KMT
sent over emissaries to Bai Lang from southern China to assist with the
rebellion. At the time of the Second Revolution, Huang Xing did dispatch
officials and officers to Bai Lang's team for a concerted fight against Yuan
Shikai, and further conferred him the post of governor-general for Henan Prov.
With 10,000 men at the peak, Bai Lang sacked over 50 cities across five
provinces, reaching as far as Gansu Province in the northwest. His troops then
decided to go back to the hometown. Unable to control his soldiers, Bai Lang
agreed to a return. The Soldiers gradually dissipated once they entered
hometowns in Henan Prov. on Aug 5th, 1914, Bai Lang was ambushed by Yuan
Shikai's army and got killed. Tang Degang pointed out that Bai Lang's death was
similar to that of Ren Gui of the Nian Rebellion during the Manchu Era.
on Nov 5th of 1913, Xiong Xiling called upon various provinces in
sending over representatives for an "administration meeting". on the 26th, Yuan
Shikai designated eight persons for preparing a politics meeting, which would
include Li Jingyi, Liang Dunyan, Fan Zengxiang, Cai E, Bao Xi, Ma Liang, Yang Du
& Zhao Weixi. Tang Degang pointed out that Yuan Shikai played a trick in
having his "kitchen cabinet" [i.e., a cabinet organized by Xiong Xiling, leader
of the "Progressive Party", in the aftermath of outlawing the KMT] rename a
scheduled "administration meeting" to the "politics assembly". on Dec 15th of
1913, Yuan Shi-kai convened the 69 member 'politics assembly of senators' in the
Chengguang-dian Palace. on Jan 10th of 1914, Yuan Shi-kai dismissed the
Parliament by invoking the 2nd enactment of the 'politics assembly of senators'.
on Jan 26th, a draft for "organization of the meeting for the 'agreed-upon
laws'" was published.
After that, Yuan Shi-kai began to modify the
'Interim Agreed-upon Laws' and adopted the presidential structure in place of
Parliamentarism. Yuan Shi-kai had the 'Security and Policing Laws' passed for
controlling the dissidents and populace. on March 18th, 57 member "meeting for
the 'agreed-upon laws'", headed by Sun Yujun & Shi Yu, was launched, which
ended in the promulgation of Yuan Shikai's "New Agreed-Upon Laws" on May 1st. on
March 20th, Yuan Shi-kai proposed to build the ROC in two stages: i) the stage
of modification on the 'Interim Agreed-upon Laws', and ii) the stage of mending
the Constitution. on April 29th of 1914, Yuan Shi-kai passed the 'New Interim
Agreed-upon Laws', with stipulations like two administrative posts of presidency
and secretary of state (replacing the State Council), one-house legislature, and
a presidential consultancy agency called the 'house of participating
politicians'. The 'house of participating politicians' was empowered with
mending the Constitution. The 'New Interim Agreed-upon Laws' went into effect on
May 1st. Aside from the election laws which allowed Yuan to act as president for
10 years, to continue the following term in renewal, and to designate a secret
name list of three succeeding candidates, the new constitution did devise some
basic laws like forestry, citizenship, publication right & etc. Before the
legislative branch was established, the 70-member 'Senate' was to act on its
behalf. (Tang Degang made an analogy of Yuan's senate to Chiang Kai-shek's
"national politics participation meeting" and Mao Tse-tung's "people's
consultative conference".)
With proposals from Xiong Xiling's cabinet,
Yuan Shi-kai initiated a reform in 1914 by separating the governor's job from
that of governor-general. The Governor-general, i.e., "du du", was
renamed to "jiang jun" [i.e., general], while a separate post entitled
"xun [patrol] an [pacifying] shi [emissary]" was to take charge of the
civil matter in each province. As to Yunnan Prov, Yuan Shi-kai dispatched Ren
Kecheng as "xun [patrol] an [pacifying] shi [emissary]", and cut year
1915's military funding to 240000 yuan from 360000 yuan in the prior year. To
curtail Yunnan Province, Yuan Shikai dispatched Cao Kun's 3rd Division &
Zhang Jingyao's 7th Division to the border of Sichuan-Yunnan provinces, and sent
Chen Huan [and two brigades] to Sichuan in replace of Hu Jingyi's
governor-general post. Yunnan Province was surrounded by Wang Zhanyuan of Hubei
Prov, Tang Xiangming of Hunan Province and Long Jiguang of Guangdong Province.
Guangxi Province's Lu Rongting was the only ally of Tang Jiyao. A second reform
by Xiong Xiling's cabinet would be dividing the provincial administration into
three levels of province, circuit and county.
In Shanghai, in the old
days, Dr Sun Yat-sen often utilized the service of a Jewish [Silas Auron Hardon]
in holding the meetings. on the Shanghai Bund, in 1914, numerous revolutionaries
converged in brothel-like entertainment centers for the "revolutionary"
meetings. Dong Zhujun's book "My one Century" (Sanlian Bookstore, Peking,
China, Sept 1997 edition) stated that Yuan Shi-kai dispatched Zheng Rucheng,
Yang Xiaochuan, Hong Shuzu and Zhu Zhanyuan to Shanghai for arresting and
extraditing the revolutionary activists from extraterritorial territories. Dong
Zhujun claimed that Sichuan Prov's Governor-general Chen Huan dispatched the
agents to Shanghai for dealing with the revolutionaries of Sichuan Province
nativity. 
Xia Zhishi, former
deputy governor-general of Sichuan Province during the 1911 Xin Hai Revolution,
encountered 15-year-old Dong Zhujun at Chang-San-Tang-Zi
[i.e., the No. 1 brothel, similar to Tokyo's Ginza area facilities], and before
fleeing to Japan, conspired to have the little girl escape from the brothel on
the eve of being pressured into prostitution. on the ship to Japan, Dong Zhujun
noticed that Soong Ching-ling [i.e., later Mme Sun Yat-sen] was on board, too.
In Japan, Dong Zhujun was called "wang[2] guo[2] nu[2]" by the Japanese, a word
to mean someone who lost his or her country. Xia Zhishi did not return to
Sichuan Province till after Cai E, Li Liejun and Tang Jiyao waged the Republic
Restoration War in Dec 1915.
After the failure of the Second
Revolution, Chiang Kai-shek left for Japan. It was through Chen Qimei that
Chiang Kai-shek first met Sun Yat-sen in early 1914. [Chiang Kai-shek's self
accounts stated he was accorded an intimate meeting by Sun Yat-sen in Shanghai
in 1913. Li Ao pointed out that the KMT records deliberately lied in stating
that Chiang Kai-shek first met Sun Yat-sen in June 1910.]
In July of
1914, Sun Yat-sen re-organized his party into the Chinese Revolutionary Party.
Chen Qimei was the first to press his fingerprints on the personal allegiance
form while some other revolutionaries were turned away by Sun Yat-sen's
stringent demand. Chiang Kai-shek was No. 102 on the roll among 741 members
who had registered from Dec 1913 to July 1914. Chiang was dispatched back to
Shanghai for organizing the rebellions. After the Shanghai rebellion aborted,
Chiang Kai-shek was sent to Manchuria for checking out the revolutionary
movement, which turned out to be a scam by someone for obtaining the
revolutionary funding.
The First
World War & China - Japan's Twenty-one Demands
Tang Degang pointed out
that Russia and Japan signed three secret treaties, with such clauses as
dividing Manchuria & Mongolia should China's revolution lead to the national
instability. Russia and Japan, after the 1904-5 war, colluded between themselves
to strike several secret agreements regarding the Northestern territory of
China. Three times, in 1907, and consecutively in 1910 and in 1912, the two
countries signed secret treaties and reached some kind of compromise and
coordination as to their separate spheres of influence in Manchuria and
Mongolia. Fortunately, the 1911 Xin Hai Revolution ended in a matter of less
than 3 months, while the KMT Second Revolution was even shorter in duration.
WWI broke out on July 28th, 1914. During WWI, on January 18, 1915,
the Japanese government, under prime minister Okuma Shigenobu and foreign
minister Kato Takaaki and minister Hioki Eki, attempted to impose the Twenty-One
Demands [under five groupings] onto the Republic of China. on Aug 15th, 1914,
Japan issued an ultimatum to Germany as to ceding the Jiaozhou-wan Bay to be
under the Japanese management and the Chinese sovereignty no later than Sept
15th, 1914. The Jiaozhou-wan Bay was first leased to Germany for 99 years on
March 6th, 1898 in the aftermath of death of two German missionaries. Before the
one-month ultimatum was to expire, Japan, on Aug 23rd, 1914, attacked the German
interests in China. Twenty thousand Japanese soldiers landed in Longkou, and
then attacked Qingdao. Yuan Shikai, to maintain neutrality, had to carve out an
area for the two parties to fight. Though China designated the area to the east
of the Weixian county train station, the Japanese, having declined the German
request for handover of the leased territory to China, would go west to occupy
the Jiao-Ji [Qingdao-Jinan] Railway on the pretext that the railway was a
Sino-German venture. on Oct 6th, the Japanese took over the Jinan train station,
arrested the German staff, and expelled the Chinese staff. Paul Reinsch, i.e.,
the American legation envoy who arrived in China in the wake of President Yuan
Shi-kai's expulsion of the KMT members from the Parliament in 1913, "warned
Washington of Japan's menacing ambitions when the Japanese army seized the
German areas of influence in China, in Shandong Province" per Mike Billington.
(Paul Samuel Reinsch, supportive of Yuan's government in Peking and intent on
implementing Dr. Sun Yat-sen's plan laid out in "The International
Development of China", had tried to circumvent the pro-British and pro-Japan
Morgan consortium by soliciting help from Frank Vanderlip [head of National City
Bank] of the American International Corporation (AIC) in 1915 and John Abbott of
the Continental and Commercial Trust and Savings Bank in Chicago.)
On
Jan 8th, 1915, Japan first raised the 21 demands, which were to force China into
an equivalent semi-vassal status by taking advantage of the European countries'
entanglement in WWI. The Japanese, to hoodwink the world opinion, made two
copies of the draft, skipping the terms of the Group VI in the briefings with
the Western reporters. Yuan Shi-kai divulged part of the Japanese scheme to
presidential adviser George Morrison who contacted Henry Donald to get a
dispatch sent to The Times which refused to publish the version other than the
Japanese version. Wellington Koo secretly passed on the Japanese demands to the
American legation. With words from the Americans, the Chinese side did not yield
on the Japanese demand that China accept the Japanese as political, economic and
military advisors. The Japanese government, following revision of the demands on
26 April 1915 under the pressure of the Americans, sent a final demand on 7 May
1915 to the Chinese as an ultimatum. The following day the Chinese government,
aware of its inability to wage war against Japan, reluctantly agreed to Japan's
demands. The end result was Yuan Shikai’s consent to the twenty-one demands,
which came to be known as the May 9 National Humiliation, one of the many
national humiliation days in Chinese history. The subsequent Sino-Japanese talks
resulted in treaties and memorandums concluded with Japan on May 25, 1915.
With limited support from the Americans, China stood up against Japan
in declining the conditions in regards to the hiring of Japanese advisers for
the Chinese military and government agencies. Though, President Wilson's China
policy was what this webmaster referred to as the 100-year American hypocrisy.
It was pivoted from the hypocritical nature of America's Open Door Policy for
China, which was originally an idea sold to the Americans by the British career
customs officer working in Manchu China's customs office. The reason that China
should remain open to all powers, in the opinion of the U.S. president Thomas
Woodrow Wilson, was that the 'white civilization' and its domination in the
world rested largely on the ability to keep China intact, in the sense that
should China fall completely under the Japanese [or the Tsarist Russian or
someone else] influence, then the massive Chinese manpower could be utilized
like by Genghis Khan to conquer the world. This was the theme of the Yellow
Peril, which was inverse to what the British ambassador claimed to Albert
Wedemeyer during WWII that a strong and unified China would pose a threat to the
Whitemen’s position in the Far East and immediately throughout the world. So to
say that the nation of China should be managed delicately, that is, should
not be allowed to grow too powerful to pose a threat to the white civilization,
nor should it be allowed to be hijacked by a non-U.S. power since China's
immense human labor could be turned against the white civilization. (During
WWII, the Japanese, who was brought up by the Americans and the British, never
realized that they could at most conquer half of China, not as a whole.)
More available at Japan_Twenty-one_Demands.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm
page for up-to-date updates.)
| * In Commemoration of China's Fall under the
Alien Conquests in A.D. 1279, A.D. 1644 &
A.D. 1949
* |
Yuan Shi-kai's
Imperial Enthronement
After the humiliating "21 demands" agreement, Yuan Shikai, on
May 8th, 1915, had mentioned to his top ministers that "China should 'bury head
to work diligently for 10 years and then raise head to face Japan' as British
minister-envoy Sir John Jordan had suggested; otherwise, China could be in even
worse scenario ten years from now." However, Yuan Shikai would soon forget about
the national humiliation as he was eager to be an emperor.
To further
his dream of being an emperor, Yuan Shikai gradually adopted some changes to
imitate imperial China. Yuan Shikai dismantled the premiership and the cabinet,
designate a post of "secretary of state" [Xu Shichang] in the same fashion as
Ming Dynasty's "da xue shi" or Qing Dynasty's "junji dachen", and
made ministerial chiefs report to president. Yuan Shikai restored two
imperial-era organizations, i.e., "ping zheng yuan" [Manchu "du chai yuan"] and
"shu zheng ting" [i.e., "yuan shi tai"], which were for the criminal prosecution
and officialdom censorship. A bribery law was made to execute any official who
took in 500 yuan equivalent of the currency, which ultimately led to the death
of Peking Capital Police Chief Wang Zhiqing. After initiating the reform to
separate the provincial administration from governor-generals, Yuan Shikai
established two military agencies, i.e., the "Generals' Office" [headed by Duan
Qirui] and the "grand marshals' office".
Back in May 1914, Yuan Shi-kai
first exhibited his intent to usurp the republic per "Biography of Tang
Jiyao". Tang Degang stated that Yuan had three fears, i.e., the opposition
from his crony generals, the opposition from Japan, and the opposition from
Western powers on the matter of economic 'blockade' like the loans. Yuan
Shikai's wariness about losing control over the cronies could be seen in the
hiring of Cai E, i.e., a non-northern lineage general of Japan cadet background
per TDG [whereas quite some historians treated Cai E's relocation as a way to
"get the tiger away from his den"]. Yuan Keding, i.e., an elder son who crippled
himself while riding a horse, would propose to his father that the Yuan family
could live beyond 60 should Yuan Shikai declare himself an emperor. Furthermore,
Yuan Keding printed fake editions of the Japanese "Shuntian Shibao Daily"
newspaper to make Yuan Shikai believe that his arch enemy since the Korean War,
i.e., Japan, had support for Yuan's imperial enthronement. After enthronement in
Dec 1915, Yuan Keding's sister and brother found out about the trick and
reported to their father. Yang Du, in mid-April 1915, authored an article
entitled "Theories of the Constitutional Monarchy for Salvation of the Nation".
on June 22nd, Feng Guozhang came to Peking for seeing Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai
assured Feng that he had no ambition for imperial enthronement since his elder
son Yuan Keding was handicapped, his second son Yuan Kewen was a 'fake' scholar,
and his 3rd son Yuan Keliang a 'bandit'. After Feng left the residency, Yuan
Shikai angrily said, "How could Feng Guozhang do this to me?" Privately, Yuan
also assured Xu Shichang that he would retire in London should his cronies
pressure him into imperial enthronement. The American legation, in addition to
collecting Goodnow's thesis, also reported to Washington D.C. that Yuan Shikai
was unlikely to become an emperor.
Earlier, Yuan Shikai had hired two
foreigners as politics and legal science advisers, i.e., American Gu-de-nuo
[Frank J. Goodnow, 1859-1939] and Japanese Ariga Nagao, for supporting the
enactment of an imperial system in China. Ariga Nagao, to flatter Yuan, called
himself by the ancient title of "wai [alien country] chen [minister]". Frank J.
Goodnow, dean of the law school at Columbia U, for his studies in the
French-style "republican constitution", was invited to China under the Carnegie
Endowment For Intl Peace; however, Tang Degang believed that Gu Weijun
[1887-1985] & Wang Chonghui [1881-1958] could be behind it. Invitation for
the 3-year contract was before Song Jiaoren's assassination death. Goodnow
arrived in Peking on May 3rd, 1913, but left for a schoolmaster's post of John
Hopkins U in Aug 1914. During this timeframe, Goodnow devised his constitution
for China against the "Temple of Heaven Constitution" and support Yuan Shikai's
stance against the KMT 2nd Revolution. on Nov 29th, 1914, in NY, Goodnow took
credit for China’s constitution reform at a politics society meeting. In July
1915, Goodnow paid China a visit, and authored an article on the "republic vs
monarchy" which was widely quoted by Yuan Shikai's cronies as something to prove
that the "hereditary autocracy" was better than the non-hereditary republic".
Goodnow cited the example of Oliver Cromwell [1599-1658], two French imperial
restoration & Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz [reign 1876-1910] to prove his
points. After so-called "Latter Six Gentlemen" organized a preparatory committee
for Yuan Shikai's enthronement on Aug 14th, Goodnow made a public announcement
on the 17th, claiming that his writing was merely of academic research nature.
More, Goodnow published his original text on the "Peking Gazette"
newspaper.
Yang Du advertised his "preparatory society" on Aug 23rd,
1915. The "Latter Six Gentlemen" included Yang Du, Sun Yujun, Yan Fu, Liu
Shipei, Li Xiehe and Hu Ying. Quite some of the organizers were previously
members of the "Tong Meng Hui" alliance. The "Theories of Constitutional
Monarchy for Salvation of Nation" was published on Aug 26th. Yuan Shikai, who
was constantly nervous about enthronement, was pleased to know that Yan Fu
[i.e., the 1st schoolmaster of Peking U] had joined the "preparatory society".
Yang Du's "preparatory society" launched a nationwide enrolment movement by
mailing out the application forms, gallop forms and Goodnow's article to leaders
of all provinces as well as in the capital. In the capital, other than top
leaders [like Li Yuanhong, Duan Qirui, Xu Shichang & Zhang Jian], majority
folks expressed support. Provincial leaders, other than Feng Guozhang &
Zhang Xu, the rest of governor-generals had expressed support as well, including
the non-northern lineage people like Tang Jiyao & Yan Xishan. By Sept 2nd,
19 generals made a joint petition. Yang Du's "preparatory society" then changed
its civilian status by proposing the establishment of a "citizen petition
corps". Some senators, who advocated a "national petition united society" for
taking control of the petition movement, then proposed to organize a "national
assembly" on the pretext that the "citizen petition corps" had submitted tons of
petitions. Tang Degang stated that the "6 gentlemen" had expanded into "13
gestapos" with the addition of opportunist senators. on Sept 6th, Yuan Shikai,
having known that the Senate had agreed to make him an emperor, ordered that
Yang Shiqi read aloud his declination which had a reservation as to acceptance
should the whole nation wish to see so. Liang Shiyi compromised the Senate
proposition by transforming Yang Du's "preparatory society" into the
government-funded "constitutional monarch advancement society" in mid-Oct. The
"national assembly" then turned into a "national representative assembly"
whereby provinces sent in their reps for a vote on changing the government
structure as well as the republican system. 1993 representatives voted for a
change in early Dec of 1915. on Dec 11th, Whang Daxie, shouting three "long live
10,000 years", submitted the letter of petition to have Yuan Shikai become an
emperor. (Tang Degang pointed out that Yang
Du's imperial proposition to Yuan Shikai had its social background, i.e., the
Chinese popular resentment over the social instability in early Republic Era.
Tang cited Li Zongren's claim that the Chinese mentality in the Republic era was
much worse than that in the late Manchu era, at which time all Chinese were in
high spirits for the sole purpose of making China strong and prosperous. Tang
also cited Jiang Fucong of Taiwan's Central Library in pointing out that Taiwan
in the late 20th century was even worse than the KMT era of the early 20th
century: Jiang Fucong stated that he could not understand the widely-reported
incest matter in the Taiwan media since in the late Manchu era, a county
magistrate was ordered to be deprived of his duty when some man under the
jurisdiction hit a birth-mother. Using this line of thought, we could say that
Communist China was even worse than the KMT of Taiwan: e.g., HK truck drivers
had been able to set up the "second wives villages" at the HK-Shenzhen border,
and 82-year-old scientist Yang Zhenning had just married with a 28-year-old
young woman.)
On Dec 12th [Dec 13th per TDG], 1915, Yuan Shi-kai proclaimed
himself Emperor Hongxian. on the 15t, Yuan conferred the title of King
Wuyi-qin-wang onto Li Yuanhong who managed to put it off. on the 21st, over 40
cronies received the ranks of duke, marquis, count, viscount and baron. Yuan
Shi-kai's imperial enthronement was even opposed by such Manchu monarchists as
Kang You-wei. Kang You-wei, in his wire, mentioned the early days when Yuan
Shi-kai called Kang You-wei by 'elder brother' and supported Kang You-wei's
"Self-Strengthening Society" (i.e., 'qiang xue hui'). Similarly, Liang
Qichao published an article on Sept 3rd, 1915, on the "Jing [Peking] Bao
[newspaper]", entitled "What a weird thing to talk about the National
System?" Liang Qichao, claiming to be an old-fashioned "constitutional
monarchists" from the Manchu-era but having switched role with the old-time
"revolutionaries", ridiculed Yang Du by questioning the wisdom of imperial
enthronement with the following statement: "Why should we change the 'National
System' when the Presidential Election Laws, which explicitly stipulated that
the President could choose to transfer power to anybody, including either son[s]
or the 'able men', appeared to be far advanced than the hereditary monarchy?"
Liang Qichao, having pointed out that he had predicted the ensuing chaos of
revolution in the late Manchu era, would now predict that China would face more
serious chaos 10 years from then with the advent of Yuan Shikai's imperial
enthronement. Incidentally, Liang Qichao, who wrote the article in so-called
"baozi [newspaper] wen [language]", i.e., the intermediary between the classic
Chinese language and the vernacular Chinese language, would portend the coming age of the New Culture per TDG.
(Tang, having naivelly called Mao Tse-tung's vernacular writing excellent,
further likened Liang Qichao's article to Abraham Lincoln's claim that Harriet
Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had started America's civil war.)
Both KMT factions looked to Yunnan Province as a base for uprising
should Yuan Shikai proclaim himself an emperor. Sun Yat-sen's Chinese
Revolutionary Party was engaged in fighting against Yuan Shikai in the
Shanghai-Zhejiang area. Huang Xing's faction, i.e., Li Liejun et al., had made
an alliance with Tang Jiyao of Yunnan Prov. Liang Qichao, seeing that Yuan
Shikai had no intent for the 'monarchist structure', would oppose Yuan Shi-kai
as well [??? one-sided opinion should we examine Liang's article against the
imperial enthronement above]. Tang Degang pointed out that anti-enthronement
movement would not easily succeed without the internal discord among the
northern lineage generals like Feng Guozhang. Duan Qirui, i.e., Yuan's top
general as well as Li Hongzhang's disciple, had been replaced in Aug after Yuan
Shikai adopted his son's opinion in having retiree Wang Shizhen come back to the
front stage again. Yuan's "four friends", like Xu Shichang, Li Jingyi, and Zhang
Jian et al., had exhibited lukewarm attitudes and resigned their posts once Yuan
got enthroned. Japan, on Jan 19th, 1915, issued a warning to Yuan Shikai.
Details about the "republic restoration war" by southwestern provinces would be
covered in the section the "republic restoration war" below. In this section,
Chen Qimei & Chiang Kai-shek's activities would be covered.
Two
months back, in Oct of 1915, Chen Qimei regrouped his forces for a rebellion
against Yuan Shi-kai in Shanghai. on Nov 10th, Zheng Rucheng was assassinated by
Chen Qimei's gang, i.e., assassin Wang Mingshan & Wang Xiaofeng. Yang Shande
succeeded Zheng Rucheng. Chiang Kai-shek proposed an attack at both the Wusong
Battery and the Longhua Battery plus control of Navy warships in the Huangpu
[Whampoo] River. on Dec 5th, uprising aborted when only one warship,
Zhaohe-jian, echoed the rebels on the Huangpujiang River in the Shanghai Bund.
Li Dongfang claimed that Captain Huang Mingqiu of Zhaohe-jian Warship
deliberately went ashore to attend a reception party for Sa Zhenbing so as to
avoid the promised uprising. Hence, Yang Hu led 30 people onto the ship but had
to hammer-strike to open the ammunition cabin. Revolutionaries failed to acquire
the skills to launch the shelling. Another boat of revolutionaries failed to
obtain the license from the Bund customs to go into the Huangpu River. Warships
Yingrui & Tongji, having at first refused to shell Zhaohe, would be forced
to attack Zhaohe. Later, Chen Kejun and about a dozen people who stranded on the
Zhaohe Warship due to heavy injuries were killed by Yuan Shikai's cronies. on
the shore, Wu Zhongxing took over the telegraph building and one police bureau.
Chen Qimei and Chiang Kai-shek slipped away from the Yuyangli Lane headquarters
when they heard Chen Guofu intentionally arguing with the French police
downstairs. Chen Guofu and a few were arrested by the French. Li Dongfang
claimed that altogether 300 revolutionaries took part in action, with over
twenty having sacrificed their lives. Chen Jieru's memoirs claimed that Chiang
Kai-shek believed that this aborted rebellion had helped propel the nationwide
struggles against Yuan Shi-kai's imperial enthronement.
Cai Er &
Tang Jiyao launched the Republic Restoration War on Dec 15th [?], 1915. (Note
that Cai E arrived in Yunnan on Dec 18th via a stopover in Haiphong of Vietnam,
and per TDG, arrived in Kunming on the 19th.) However, Yuan Shi-kai, against all
odds, still held the enthronement ceremony on Dec 31st and decreed that year
1916 would be the first year of the Hongxian Era of the Empire of China. on
Jan 27th, Guizhou Province declared independence. on Feb 15th (?) [March 15th
per "Biography of Tang Jiyao"], Guangxi Province declared independence. Li
Zongren memoirs stated that it was Lin Hu who made a stealthy return to Guangxi
from overseas and persuaded Lu Rongting into declaring independence. Lin Hu
assumed the post of 6th Corps commander of the Republic Restoration Army where
Li Zongren was a platoon commander hired for training the new recruits by means
of outdated Japanese guns.
Yuan Shikai on March 22nd revoked the
imperial enthronement, and the Hongxian Era the next day after 83 days of farce.
In April, the provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangxi followed suit by
declaring independence. The northern armies had a truce with the southern armies
in Sichuan Prov, and Long Jiguang was forced into independence in Guangdong
Prov. on April 12th, in Zhejiang Prov, Tong Baoxuan, a KMT member, declared
independence. on April 22nd, Yuan Shikai further conceded by naming Duan Qirui
the secretary of state for sake of formation of a cabinet.
Li Dongfang
stated that revolutionaries in Zhejiang Province took over Hangzhou on April
10th and proclaimed independence. on April 14th-15th, Zhang Zhongquan, Zhang
Xingli, Cai Zhengfan & Wang Shanyue, i.e., several platoon chiefs in the
149th & 150th regiments of Fang Gengsheng's 75th mixed brigade at the
Jiangyin Battery, launched an uprising. Soldiers took over two batteries and two
counties of Jiangyin & Jingjiang, supported Xiao Guangli as
commander-in-chief of the "jiang [Yangtze] jing [quelling] jun [army] of the
Chinese Revolutionary Army", and dispatched a messenger to Chen Qimei. You Min
arrived in Jiangyin on April 17th, and changed the "jiang [Yangtze] jing
[quelling] jun [army]" to the "su [Suzhou] chang [Changzhou] jun [army]". Chiang
Kai-shek, and Yang Hu were sent to Jiangyin for leading the rebellion against
Yuan Shikai's warships near the Jiangyin Battery of Jiangsu Prov. on the 23rd,
revolutionaries fought a battle against Feng Guozhang's army sent over from
Nanking but later on April 25th, had to disband in face of attacks by the armies
from Suzhou, Changzhou, Shanghai and Wuxi. North of the Yangtze, Feng Guozhang
ordered that Zhang Xun attack Jingjiang. (You Min, after fleeing to Shanghai,
led some people to Shandong where he joined the uprising by Wu Dazhou & Bo
Ziming. After an internal strife, You Min's soldiers were disarmed by Bo Ziming.
You Min was caught and executed on Aug 17th by Zhang Xun while taking train back
to Shanghai from Shandong.)
On April 27th, Sun Yat-sen returned to
Shanghai from Japan. on May 8th, Yuan Shi-kai dispatched assassins to have Chen
Qi-mei killed in Shanghai. Chen Qimei was assassinated by Yuan Shi-kai's cronies
after a setup by Li Haiqiu who lured Chen Qimei into a trap on the pretext of
asking Chen to act as a guarantor of a mining enterprise in exchange for funding
the revolutionary movement. Chen Jieru memoirs stated that it was on May 18th,
1916 that Chen Qimei was assassinated. Chen Jieru memoirs claimed that Chiang
Kai-shek had become decadent as a result of the death of Chen Qimei. (LI
Dongfang stated that it was Zhang Zongchang who had bought over an assassin
called Cheng Zi'an and killed Chen Qimei in a Japanese area residency, and that
it was Chiang Kai-shek who arranged the funeral while Chen Qimei's family
members were too scared to come out.)
On May 5th, Tang Jiyao
established a "Southwestern China Military Council" in demand of Yuan Shikai
resignation and Li Yuanhong succession. 
on May 17th,
Feng Guozhang convened a meeting of provincial leaders in Nanking as to
demanding Yuan Shikai's stepdown. Feng Guozhang felt betrayed by Yuan Shikai
because he had helped to allay rumors about Yuan Shikai enthronement after going
to Peking to receive a personal assurance from Yuan Shikai. Feng often made an
analogy of Yuan Keding to Cao Pi, i.e., the son of Cao Cao during Three Kingdom
time period.
On May 23rd [May 22nd per "Biography of Tang Jiyao"], Chen
Huan, i.e., a Yuan Shikai crony, declared Sichuan Provincial independence. Yuan
Shi-kai's crony and Governor-general of Sichuan Province also declared severance
of relations from Yuan Shi-kai. on May 27th [22nd ?], Tang Xiangming i.e. a Yuan
Shikai crony, declared independence in Hunan Prov. Yuan Shikai died on June 6th.
Yuan Shi-kai died of grievances on June 6th. (Li Zongren memoirs adopted June
5th as the date for Yuan Shi-kai's death.)
The Republic
Restoration Wars
 |
|
Duan Qirui's Ascension To Power, &
Compromises
The death
of Yuan Shi-kai, i.e., Emperor Hongxian, on June 6th of 1916 (lunar calendar),
at age 58, could be considered a historical division point as to China's fate.
Japanese Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu wrote an article of warning or
admonition nature, mentioning that Yuan Shi-kai died from his being
horrified/maddened by concerted national opposition to the restoration of
imperial system and the usurpation of the Republic Of China. Yuan Shi-kai acted
an emperor for 83 days, only. Yuan Shi-kai's personal friend, Chen Huan, joined
the trend of provincial wires stating their independence from the central
government by sending a wire about severance of personal relations with Yuan
Shi-kai on May 22nd. Nine governor-generals had declared independence from the
Peking government. When Yuan Shikai was opposed by his Northern Military Lineage
generals, he revoked the emperor's title and changed the governance back to the
Republic. Yuan Shi-kai commented that he had seen a star falling off the skies;
that his family members had rarely lived beyond the age of 59; and that the last
time he saw the meteor would be during the time when Li Hongzhang passed away in
1901. Japanese Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu cautioned that Yuan Shi-kai's
death was a matter that was key to the rise and fall of the Republic Of China
and rebuked Yuan Shi-kai for not realizing that China's millennia of imperial
system had been mostly occupied with pleasure-seeking and literature-decoration.
Before his death, Yuan Shi-kai, on June 2nd, wired to have 40-year-long
pal, Xu Shi-chang, recalled from the retirement. Yuan Shi-kai was said to have
changed his will at the last minute, deleting his son's name (Yuan Keding) from
the list. Yuan Shi-kai's last few words, i.e., "He had doomed me", had been
inferred to be a blame of his son for pushing through the agenda of imperial
restoration. In accordance with Yuan Shi-kai's will, three persons, Li Yuanhong,
Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui, were to take over the governance, with Vice
President Li Yuanhong acting as the new President of the Republic Of China. The
will also stated that Infantry Chief Minister be Duan Qirui, Foreign Minister
& Transportation Minister be Cao Rulin, Interior Minister be Wang Jitang,
Finance Minister be Zhou Ziqi, Navy Minister be Liu Guanxiong, Justice Minister
and Agri-Commerce Minister be Zhang Zongxiang, and Education Minister be Zhang
Guogan. Duan Qirui, initially reluctant to yield presidency to Li Yuanhong, had
later insisted that Li Yuanhong be the president against the persuasion of
numerous northern military lineage officers. This would be a tactic to appease
the KMT and the 'Republic Restoration Armies' in southern provinces.
Succession Of the Presidency By Li Yuanhong 
Li Yuanhong,
who initially intended to give up the right for sake of not antagonizing the
northern military warlords, succeeded the presidency on June 7th, with Feng
Guozhang acting as vice president. Duan Qirui, who had opposed Yuan Shi-kai's
emperor enthronement the most, would now compel Li Yuanhong into the so-called
Parliamentarism structure, thus limiting Li Yuanhong's presidency to nothing
other than a nominal title. The Northern military warlords, having lost Yuan
Shi-kai as their common master, would now be engaged in conflicts and struggles
among each other.
When Governor-general Chen Shufan of Shenxi Province
revoked independence, Duan Qirui conferred Chen Shufan the title of "hanwu
jiangjun" (i.e., Han martial general) and accepted him as a new member of
the Northern Militarist Clique on June 10th, 1916. The KMT veteran leader, Yu
Youren, wired a rebuke telegraph to Chen Shufan. Since Governor-general Chen
Huan of Sichuan Province revoked independence, Duan Qirui refused to acknowledge
Chen Huan's governor-general status, thinking that Chen Huan might be of help to
his Hubei native, i.e., President Li Yuanhong, and that Chen Huan might collude
with an opponent called Feng Guozhang. Historians agreed that Duan Qirui treated
Chen Huan as a traitor of the "Northern Militarist Clique" when Chen Huan wired
over a letter stating that he had severed the personal relations with late
president Yuan Shi-kai.
Duan Qirui continued Yuan Shi-kai's policy in
having Cao Kun assist Zhou Jun's attack on Chen Huan. Cao Kun was a northern
government marshal in charge of Sichuan Prov, Zhou Jun was a general in charge
of the First Sichuan Division and magistrate of the Chongqing City, while Chen
Huan was a governor-general stationed in Chengdu the capital of Sichuan. Zhou
Jun dispatched brigadier general Wang Lingji and five battalions against Chen
Huan. Zhou Jun called on Sichuan native generals under Chen Huan, like Liu
Cunhou and Xiong Kewu, to rebel against Chen Huan [an alien provincial ruler].
Chen Huan requested with Governor-general Cai E of Yunnan Province for relief.
Cai E, being sick himself, petitioned with Tang Jiyao for sending the relief to
Chen Huan. Chen Huan originally possessed three mixed (enlarged) brigades;
however, brigadier general Li Bingzhi was retained in Chongqing by Cao Kun, and
Wu Xiangzhen and Feng Yuxiang were not enthusiastic about defending Chen Huan.
Before Cai E & Tang Jiyao's relief armies came to Chengdu, Chen Huan had
surrendered his city to Wang Lingji on June 25th, 1916.
Long Jiguang
revoked independence to show affinity with Duan Qirui on June 9th without
consulting with "jun wu yuan", i.e., the Southwestern China Military
Council. Long Jiguang intended to drive out the Guangxi/Yunnan armies. on June
21st, Duan Qirui conferred the post of "xun an shi" onto Long Jiguang and
dispatched the Northern Warlord lineage armies to the relief of Long Jiguang.
Duan Qirui sent Governor-general Li Chun of Jiangxi Province and
Governor-general Li Houji of Fujian Province to the border areas with Guangdong
Province as well as the navy fleet to Canton.
Reinstatement of the
'Interim Agreed-upon Laws'
Tang Jiyao and Cen Chunxuan in southwestern
China wired over demands that the new Peking government i) restore the
'Interim Agreed-upon Laws' of 1912 in place of the 'New Agreed-upon Laws' of
1914, ii) assemble the Parliament with members of the 1913 Parliament, iii) fill
in the post of Vice Presidency, iv) institute the State Council, v) punish the
13-member clique responsible for pushing through Yuan Shi-kai's imperial
enthronement, and vi) convene a special military meeting for governor-generals
or generals of all provinces to attend in Shanghai. The 13-member clique
would include the so-called 'Latter Six Gentlemen': Yang Du, Sun Yujun, Yan Fu,
Liu Shibei, Li Xiehe and Hu Ying. (The 'Former Six Gentlemen would be those who
were betrayed to Empress Dowager Cixi by Yuan Shi-kai during the Hundred Day Reformation.)
More available at Interim-Agreed-upon-Laws.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm
page for up-to-date updates.)
| * In Commemoration of China's Fall under the
Alien Conquests in A.D. 1279, A.D. 1644 &
A.D. 1949
* |
Re-convening of Parliament & Revival Of
Parties
On August 1st
of 1916, the Parliament was reconvened in Peking, with Wang Jiangxiang and Wang
Zhengting in charge of 138 attendants in the Upper House, and Tang Hualong and
Chen Guoxiang in charge of 318 in the Lower House. Li Yuanhong swore his
allegiance to the Constitution as the new president of ROC. Cabinet ministers
like Duan Qirui (field army), Chen Jintao, and Cheng Biguang (navy) etc also
participated in the opening ceremony.
In Guangdong & Shanghai area,
the KMT still retained its influence even though Chen Qimei was assassinated by
Yuan Shi-kai's cronies. After the republic restoration war, the 'Progressive
Party' extended its influence into Guangdong Province when Lu Rongting invited
over Liang Qichao. In Sichuan-Guizhou-Yunnan provinces, Liang Qichao's
Progressive Party were active in its expansion. The KMT already split into two
factions, i.e., Sun Yat-sen's Chinese Revolutionary Party and the 'KMT European
War Research Society'. Huang Xing et al., opposed Sun Yat-sen's new party for
its stringent requirements like i) the fingerprinted membership and ii) the oath
of personal loyalty to Sun Yat-sen. (The KMT European War Research Society,
before the outbreak of WWI, had called for a cessation of struggles against Yuan
Shi-kai for sake of concerted efforts in countering Japan's 21 Demands. It would
be Li Genyuan who led the call in the name of 28 senior ex-KMT leaders,
including Cheng Qian, Chen Jiongming and Zhang Shizhao et al. Huang Xing had
left Japan for the U.S. by that time after Sun Yat-sen requested with him for a
time period of 2 years to go the way of the "Chinese Revolutionary Party".)
Progressive Party members advocated no partisanship after the death of
Yuan Shi-kai. After the Parliament reconvened, the Progressive Party split into
Tang Hualong's constitutional discussions society and Liang Qichao's
constitutional research society. The two factions later converged into the
'Research Clique'. The KMT European War Research Society transformed into Zhang
Ji's constitutional consultative society which split into three more factions
headed by Zhang Ji, Sun Hongyi and Lin Sen/Ju Zheng, respectively. Out of the
four ex-KMT organizations would ensue the "politics studies society" (Gu
Zhongxiu/Zhang Yao), the "people's friends society", and the "politics leftover
club".
On August 10th, Li Yuanhong called upon all factions and parties
to possess same heart as well as uphold the governance. Also in August Cai E
assumed the posts of both governor-general and governor of Sichuan Prov. on Oct
30th, the Parliament added Feng Guozhang [i.e., military leader of the Zhi-xi
faction] as the vice-president of the ROC.
In Oct of 1916, Japan had a
cabinet change, and the new prime minister purportedly advocated for friendship
with China. The Japanese foreign minister invited China's minister-envoy Zhang
Zongxiang for a secret talk and promised to give loans to China. Zhang Zongxiang
relayed the message to Cao Rulin, and Cao Rulin persuaded Duan Qirui into the
new policy of 'pacifying the outsider before quelling the internal enemies'.
Duan Qirui hence reversed Yuan Shi-kai's policy of befriending the remote powers
like Britain and the U.S., in preference for friendship with Japan. China's
State Council, without notifying the president, dispatched Cao Rulin to Japan as
a special emissary. When Cao Rulin presented to Li Yuanhong a paper for
conferring the lordship onto the Japanese emperor, Li Yuanhong rebuked the
treachery and adopted Zhang Guofu's advice in having the Parliament debate the
issue. Duan Qirui, for sake of obtaining the secret Japanese loans, would
compromise with the Parliament as well as Japan in dispatching a non-Japanophile
minister to Japan on Feb 27th of 1917.
Duan Qirui's
Premier Post vs Li Yuanhong's Presidency
Li Yuanhong, sort of self-righting doll or roly-poly, was used
by Duan Qirui as a rubber stamp. Duan Qirui had a higher ranking over brigadier
Li Yuanhong at the Manchu times and often took Li Yuanhong as someone who
enjoyed 'free lunch'. The two never liked each other. Duan Qirui had personally
traveled to Wuchang of Hubei Province to escort Li Yuanhong to Peking for
serving as a puppet vice president under Yuan Shi-kai. Duan Qirui's secretary,
Xu Shuzheng, often brought a list of new personnel conferrals to Li Yuanhong for
the rubber stamping without any consultation with Li Yuanhong as to
qualifications of those personnel, and moreover, Xu Shuzheng often exhibited
disrespect for Li Yuanhong.
Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui had some common
ground, though. When Yuan Shi-kai was in reign, Li Yuanhong had been ordered to
send decree to various governor-generals to enforce the separation of the
military posts from the civil posts and to reduce the military staff at the
provincial level. Duan Qirui, however, intended to cut down the military
personnel of southern provinces, only; Duan Qirui also intended to maintain the
control over the national military forces at the Ministry of Field Armies. Duan
Qirui made a plan for retaining 40 infantry divisions and 20 independent
brigades nationwide, with a division containing 10,000 men and a brigade
containing 5000 men, and at the provincial level, Duan Qirui made a plan
apportioning 200 battalions of provincial guards, with each battalion containing
500 men.
When Duan Qirui refused to pull out his northern lineage
armies from Sichuan/Hunan provinces, the southern provincial governor-generals
did not follow the arms reduction order at all. In addition to the southern
provincial governor-generals, Liang Qichao had been mobilizing his supporters
in Sichuan-Guizhou-Yunnan provinces for making his newly-found 'Progressive
Party' an armed band.
Conflicts In Sichuan Province After Cai
E's Vacation
Cai E, who has assumed the posts of both governor-general
and governor of Sichuan Province in August 1916, would request for a sick leave
for treating throat in Japan. Cai E arranged for Luo Peijin to assume his posts,
for Dai Kan [member of the Progressive Party] to assume the "military
superintendent", and for Liu Cunhou to tack on the corps chief of the 1st Corps.
Cai E died shortly after he arrived in Japan. Three factions, i.e., Luo Peijin
[Yunnan native] Dai Kan [Guizhou native] and Liu Cunhou [Sichuan native], would
be engaged in the power struggles.
Liang Qichao dispatched emissary to
Chongqing of Sichuan Province for sake of assisting Dai Kan over Luo Peijin. Dai
Kan secretly contacted Liu Cunhou for a cooperation in fighting against Luo
Peijin. Liu Cunhou, chief of the Sichuan native army's first corps, with Duan
Qirui's support, would take advantage of the rift between Luo Peijin of the
Yunnan army and Dai Kan of the Guizhou army in order to expel the two
out-of-state guys who acted as governor-general and governor of Sichuan
province, respectively. Liu Cunhou colluded with Jin Yun'e [i.e. infantry
ministerial chief of the Peking government] in dealing with the Yunnan Province
army. In Sichuan Prov, the Sichuan army possessed five divisions and one mixed
brigade, the Yunnan army two divisions, and the Guizhou army one mixed brigade.
In Jan 1917, the Peking government dispatched Wang Zhixiang to Sichuan Province
for compressing the army. Luo Peijin agreed to compress the Sichuan redisent
armies to three divisions and one mixed brigade for Sichuan, one division and
one mixed brigade for Yunnan, and one mixed brigade and one detached regiment
for Guizhou as well as to make the resident Yunnan-Guizhou armies subordinate to
the Peking government. Luo Peijin suggested to Duan Qirui in having Liu Cunhou
relocate to Peking, but Duan Qirui intentionally disclosed it to Liu Cunhou. In
March Luo Peijin published the military shrinkage plan to which Liu Cunhou
opposed immediately. Duan Qirui secretly maneuvered to have Luo Peijin and Liu
Cunhou escalate into open conflicts on April 18th of 1917. Meanwhile, Dai Kan
instigated Luo Peijin in solving the problem of Liu Cunhou militarily.
On April 13th, Luo Peijin arrested his former subordinate Chen Zepei,
i.e., Sichuan provincial army 4th Div chief. on the 15th, the 4th Div was
disbanded; however, soldiers were collected by Liu Cunhou right away. on the
18th, at the north gate of Chengdu, Liu Cunhou's army attacked the convoy
carrying the guns of the dismissed 4th Div. For one week, the two sides engaged
in lane to lane fighting. The Peking government pretended to mediate over the
conflict by having Dai Kan take over the posts from Luo Peijin. The end result
is that Luo Peijin retreated out of Chengdu for a compromise with the Sichuan
army.
Dai Kan antagonized Liu Cunhou by eating his promise of yielding
the post of Sichuan military superintendent. Liu Cunhou assassinated a Dai Kan
crony and sent troops to the outskirts of Chengdu. At this time, pigtail general
Zhang Xun, having driven away Li Yuanhong in Peking, restored last Manchu
Emperor Pu-yi onto the throne. Zhang Xun sent an order to confer the post of the
"Manchu Governor of Sichuan Prov" onto Liu Cunhou. Dai Kan, utilizing Zhang
Xun's conferral, petitioned with Tang Jiyao [Yunnan Prov] & Liu Xianshi
[Guizhou Prov] in quelling the "traitor to the Republic". By July 5th, the
Sichuan army began to attack Dai Kan who had the 5000-men Guizhou army.
Alternatively speaking, "Biography of Tang Jiyao" [by Zheng Xuetao -
Cheng Yuechong - Li Jun - Xu Hongjun: PO Box 3652, Hongkong, March 1979
edition]] claimed that Dai Kan ordered that Xiong Qixun's brigade launch a
surprise attack at Liu Cunhou on the night of July 5th. Fighting continued for
half a month. on the 17th, Dai Kan retreated out of the south gate of Chengdu.
At the border of Renshou county Dai Kan would be killed by the Sichuan army in
an ambush on July 21st. In Peking, Liang Qichao, saddened by the loss of his
party member Dai Kan, rebuked Duan Qirui for supporting the Sichuan army.
Sichuan would undergo further rounds of tripartite wars.
In mid-July
1917, the Sichuan Province army continued to engage with the Yunnan &
Guizhou armies in the Battle of Qing-Mei, and in Aug-Sept, the Battle of Zi-Nei.
Having realized that the Sichuan fighting were the attempt of the northern
government in exercising total control of the province, Tang Jiyao joined Sun
Yat-sen in launching the movement of "safeguarding the interim agreed-upon
laws".
China's Declaration Of War on Germany (1917)
Dong
Zhujun's "My one Century" stated that Duan Qirui and Li Yuanhong had
quarrels in regards to China's declaration Of war on Germany. The declaration of
war was more an infighting between the two factions than a Chinese attempt at
asserting its role in the international arena. Sun Yat-sen, who opposed the war
participation, wrote in his 1917 book The Vital Problem of China,
questioning: "Is it right for England to rob China of Hong Kong and Burma, to
force our people to buy and smoke opium and to mark out portions of Chinese
territory as her sphere of influence?. . . If one really wants to champion the
cause of justice today, one should first declare war on England, France and
Russia, not Germany and Austria. . . . When another country is strong enough to
be utilized, Britain sacrifices her own allies to satisfy its desires, but when
that country becomes too weak to be of any use to herself, she sacrifices it to
please other countries." (As records showed, Sun was bribed by the Germans in
opposing China's entry to WWI.) The KMT critics, including Li Ao, had attributed
the foresight to the northern government, though.
In Peking, Duan Qirui
obtained the support of Liang Qichao's "Progressive Party" in countering Li
Yuanhong. While Duan Qirui obtained the support of Japan, Li Yuanhong threw
himself into the camp of Britain and the U.S. (The role of the U.S. was dubious
as Reisch, one of the very few Americans with sympathy for China and the Chinese
people, appeared to be urging China to join the war as a way to reap the fruits
of the post-war world reorganization while the U.S. satte department had no such
endorsement.) Li Yuanhong obtained support from Zhang Ji's KMT "constitution
consultative society". In March 1917, Duan Qirui organized a so-called "du
jun [governor-general] tuan [delegation]" to exert pressure on Li Yuanhong
for sake of having China declare war on Germany. Li Yuanhong, though a
roly-poly, refused to cooperate with Duan Qirui on the war declaration.
Few months later, there was divulsion of Duan Qirui's secret agreements
with Japan for the bank loans. Taking advantage of this notorious event, on May
23rd, Li Yuanhong ordered the deprivation of Duan Qirui's premier post. After Li
Yuanhong revoked the premier post of Duan Qirui, Duan Qirui would travel to
Tianjin where he instigated the governor-generals for a declaration of
"independence" from the Peking government. on May 29th, Ni Sichong declared
independence for Anhui Province. Manchuria, Shandong, Shaanxi Henan and Shanxi
provinces followed suit.
Tang Jiyao declared allegiance to Li
Yuanhong's presidency, advised against Ni Sichong's "rebellious" independence,
cautioned Liu Cunhou as to Sichuan Province's tripartite wars, and petitioned
for cooperation among the Southwestern Governor-generals. In June, Duan Qirui
established a so-called "general tactics department" for independence-declared
governor-generals in Tianjin. Hence, Li Yuanhong invited pigtail general Zhang
Xun into Peking for mediation. At the demand of Zhang Xun, Li Yuanhong dismissed
the parliament on June 12th. Tang Jiyao called upon the southwestern generals
for a "Second Campaign For Restoring The Republic". Zhang Xun then forced Li
Yuanhong into resignation. In cooperation with monarchist Kang Youwei, Zhang Xun
took advantage of the chaos in restoring Aixinjueluo Pu-yi back to the throne in
the Forbidden City on July 1st, 1917.
Zhang Xun's
Restoration Of the Imperial House
On April 10th, 1917, in southern China, Lu Rongting assumed the
post of "xuan [visiting] yue [monitoring] shi [emissary]" which would be above
governor-general ["du jun"]. Lu Rongting designated Chen Bingkun and Tan Haoming
as governor-general ["du jun"] for the Guangdong-Guangxi provinces,
respectively. Together with Tang Jiyao & Liu Xianshi, i.e., governor-general
["du jun"] for the Yunnan-Guizhou provinces, the four guys comprised the power
base of southwestern China.
On July 1st, Zhang Xun fetched the last Manchu emperor from the forbidden
city for an imperial restoration and declared the Era of the 9th Year of Manchu
Emperor Xuantong. Li Yuanhong resigned his presidency in Peking and sought
asylum inside of the Japanese legation, while vice president Feng Guozhang
assumed the ROC presidency in Nanking. Tang Jiyao, for a "Second Campaign For
Restoring The Republic", organized 8 corps of "jing-guo-jun [the army that
pacifies the country]" and devised a strategy of a four-route campaign.
Duan Qirui held an oath of war at Machang and cracked down on the Zhang
Xun imperial restoration by organizing a 50000-men "tao [campaigning against] ni
[rebel] jun [army]". on July 12th, Zhang Xun fled, and Fu-yi abdicated for a
second time in his life. Duan Qirui invited Feng Guozhang to Peking for acting
as proxy president on the excuse that Li Yuanhong had legally resigned his
presidency already. Duan Qirui, after re-asserting his role as premier and
infantry minister, refused to re-convene the parliament or safeguard the
"interim agreed-upon laws".
Tang Jiyao, in collaboration with Lu
Rongting, declared that Southwestern China do not acknowledge the Duan Qirui
cabinet. Tang & Lu requested for the return of Li Yuanhong presidency. Sun
Yat-sen called upon the parliament representatives in going south. Since Duan
Qirui intended to set up a new Parliament, Sun Yat-sen called upon the former
parliament members and the Navy officers for a move to Canton on July 17th. on
July 22nd, 1917, Navy General Cheng Guangbi declared a defection to the south as
an echo for Sun Yat-sen's call. Per Zhang Yufa, those parliament members who
went to the South would be mostly KMT members from the 1913 Parliament and the
"constitution consultancy society" faction of the 1916 Parliament. on Aug 5th,
the Parliament representatives flocked to Canton in the south where they
convened a special session. on Aug 11th, Tang Jiyao insisted upon the "interim
agreed-upon laws" in a public wire. on Aug 18th, 130 Parliament members declared
the extraordinary session of the Parliament. Sun Yat-sen convened a special
session of the Parliament on Aug 25th. on 30th, the Extraordinary Parliament
passed the organization guideline for the transitionary military government. on
Sept 1st, the Special Session of the Parliament selected Sun Yat-sen as the
"Grand Marshal for infantry and navy" of the military government. on Oct 3rd,
Sun Yat-sen wired to express opposition to Peking's convening the upper house of
the Parliament. Armies of the south and north went into conflict in Hunan
Province.
The Southern Government & Protecting the 'Interim
Agreed-Upon Laws'
KuoMingTang [KMT] (i.e., Guomindang [GMD] in pinyin), commonly
known as the Nationalists, was formed on basis of a loose organization
comprising of several revolutionary organizations, such as "Tong Meng
Hui", "Tongyi Gonghe Dang", "Guomin Gongjin Hui", "Gonghe
Shijin Hui", & "Guomin Gong Dang". KMT was coordinated and
founded by Song Jiaoren in Peking on August 25th of 1912. KMT stipulated nine
board directors, including Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren etc, and 29
councilors, including Hu Hanmin, Li Liejun, Jiang Yiwu, Sun Yujun, Tan Yankai,
Yu Youren and Ma Junwu. Song Jiaoren had publicly announced that he did not have
any difference of opinion from Sun Yat-sen. Sun Yat-sen was supported as the
'board of director' of KMT. Sun Yat-sen, however, later gave up the 'board of
director' post for his dream of laying railroad. Song Jiaoren worked diligently
for building a majority KMT party inside of the Parliament. But, Yuan Shi-kai,
in order to fulfill his dictator or emperor's dreams, would hire an assassin to
have Song Jiaoren assassinated on March 20th 1913. (Historian Tang Degang, who
had befriended the grandson of Yuan Shikai, had proposed an alternative
explanation as to the culprit behind the assassination.)
In Guangdong
Prov, Chen Jiongming, with the assistance of Yuan Shi-kai, had robbed Hu Hanmin
of the governor-general post. Hu Hanmin, who was made into governor-general of
Guangdong after 1911 revolution, had first resigned the post to be secretariat
of Sun Yat-sen's interim presidency in Nanking around the turn of 1911-1912;
after Yuan Shi-kai's succession of interim presidency in Peking, Hu Hanmin
returned to Guangdong Province to serve as governor-general, till Chen Jiongming
took over the post. Inside of Guangdong Province army, a division chief by the
name of Zhong Dingji struggled with Chen Jiongming for power. A brigade chief by
the name of Su Shenchu fought against Zhong Dingji. Another brigade chief by the
name of Zhang Woquan fought against Su Shenchu.
After the assassination
of Song Jiaoren on Mar 20th 1913, revolutionary leaders had changes of mind as
to fighting Yuan Shikai. Huang Xing, having first proposed an armed opposition,
would later advocated for legal means in fighting Yuan Shi-kai. The discord had
caused the KMT a loss of time in taking initiatives while Yuan Shikai, with an
international consortium loan that was suddenly approved by ill-motivated
Anglo-American bankers, decided to take heavy-handed action against the KMT.
KMT, for sake of maintaining peace, had surrendered governor-general posts of
several southern provinces. But Yuan Shi-kai intended to eradicate the KMT
forces altogether and dispatched his military against the southern provinces of
Anhui-Jiangxi-Jiangsu-Hubei-Shanghai etc. With the nodding approval of Sun
Yat-sen, KMT governor-generals and generals, like Li Liejun of Jiangxi, Tan
Yankai of Hunan, Bai Wenwei of Anhui and Xu Chongzhi of Fujian, declared
independence. Sun Yat-sen, in July 1913, issued a proclamation to the Chinese
citizens in regards to 'campaigning against Yuan Shikai for treason'. on July
23rd of 1913, Yuan Shi-kai revoked Sun Yat-sen's title of "plenipotentiary" for
China national railroads, a job Sun Yat-sen accepted on Sept 9th of 1912 to
fulfill his dream of laying 200,000 li distance railroad tracks. on the same
day, Yuan Shi-kai declared Huang Xing, Chen Qimei and Bai Wenwei as 'traitors'.
Second Revolution ended with the defeat of Li Liejun by Yuan Shi-kai's army and
the loss of Nanchang in Jiangxi Province on Aug 18th of 1913. In Anhui Prov,
Yuan Shi-kai's crony, Ni Sichong, took over governor-general post on Aug 28th of
1913. In Jiangsu Prov, Zhang Xun sacked Nanking on Sept 1st 1913.
Cai
Er first proclaimed neutrality on behalf of three provinces of
Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan, and then claimed to supply three divisions to aid Yuan
Shikai. In Guangdong Prov, Long Jiguang assumed governor-general post, and Chen
Jiongming fled on August 5th. Sun Yat-sen left for Guangdong on Aug 2nd, with an
intention to treat Guangdong Province as homebase; en route, at a stopover in
Mawei of Fujian Prov, a Japanese consulate official informed Sun Yat-sen of the
possible Long Jiguang conspiracy in Canton; Sun Yat-sen, together with Hu
Hanmin, then changed ship to Taiwan; and thereafter, Sun Yat-sen secretly
arrived in Japan and stayed in the home of Toyama Mitsuru, i.e., Japanese
spiritual leader of "black dragon society", the successor to Genyosha a secret
society. Documents dating to Sept 27th 1913 had shown that Sun Yat-sen was
already contemplating on his new party. Chiang Kai-shek, i.e., Jiang Zhiqing,
signed the enrolment form from Shanghai on Oct 29th. In July of 1914, Sun
officially re-organized KMT into the so-called "Zhonghua Geming Dang",
i.e., Chinese Revolutionary Party.
Yuan Shi-kai did not outlaw KMT or
dismiss the Parliament till after his presidency confirmation. on Oct 10th of
1913, Yuan Shi-kai, having hijacked the Parliament in passing the 'election law'
[on Oct 4th ]ahead of the Constitution and locked up the Parliament members to
coerce an election, was officially elected the president of ROC after barely
passing the majority ballots needed, ensuing three rounds of ballot casting.
Parliament members passed Yuan Shikai after over 1000 rascals surrounded the
building in the name of "citizen corps". Fireworks erupted thereafter to
celebrate Yuan Shikai's election. on Oct 16th of 1913, Yuan Shi-kai proposed an
amendment of the 'Interim Agreed-upon Laws' of 1912 in the attempt of aborting
the birth of the official Constitution and expanding his presidential power over
the Parliament. Yuan Shikai, being not happy over the Oct 3rd 1913 "Constitution
of the Temple of Heaven", would order a revision of "Interim Agreed-Upon Laws".
on Nov 4th of 1913, Yuan Shi-kai, against the objection of Liang Qi-chao
(Progressive Party leader), outlawed KMT and deprived 438 KMT members of their
Parliament representative title. on Dec 15th of 1913, Yuan Shi-kai convened the
69 member 'politics assembly of senators', and on Jan 10th of 1914, Yuan Shi-kai
dismissed the Parliament by invoking the 2nd enactment of the 'politics assembly
of senators'.
In July of 1914, Sun Yat-sen formed "Zhonghua Geming
Dang", i.e., the Chinese Revolutionary Party, in the attempt of reviving the
spirits of the former "Tong Meng Hui". Huang Xing etc opposed Sun
Yat-sen's new party for its stringent requirements of i) fingerprinted
membership and ii) oath of personal loyalty to Sun Yat-sen. Sun Yat-sen's new
party was boycotted by senior KMT leaders like Li Liejun, Bai Wenwei, Tan
Renfeng, Chen Jiongming and Zhang Ji. (Also in year 1914, Liu Sifu established a
so-called anarchist communism society in Shanghai, and March of this year, Li
Shumeng, aka Jiang Qing, i.e., Mao Zedong's future unofficial wife, was born in
Shandong Prov.)
On Aug 15th 1914, Japan issued an ultimatum to Germany
as to ceding Jiaozhou-wan Bay to Japan management and Chinese sovereignty by the
deadline of Sept 15th. (Later, on May 25th 1915, Japan forced China into signing
a secret agreement which was to incorporate "Twenty one Demands" raised
previously.)
Short History Of Southern Revolutionary Movement
Tripartite Wars In Sichuan Province
Movement For Protecting the 'Interim Agreed-Upon Laws'
'Law Safeguarding Wars'
Sun Yat-sen
Departing 'Grand Marshal' Post For Shanghai
Continuing 'Law
Safeguarding Wars' Between South & North
Sun Yat-sen's
Activities In Shanghai
Versailles Peace Conference & May 4th 1919 Students'
Movement
New
Round Of Wars In Sichuan Province (1920) & Tang Jiyao's Exile
Civil Wars Among Northern Warlords
Imperialists &
Supplanting Proxies Among Warlord Generals:
War Between
Zhi-xi/Feng-xi & Wan-xi (1920)
First War Between Zhi-xi
& Feng-xi (1922)
Cao Kun Bribery of Elections (Oct 5th 1923)
First Jiangsu-Zhejiang War (i.e., War Between Zhi-xi & Wan-xi,
1924)
Second War Between Zhi-xi & Feng-xi (1924)
Second Jiangsu-Zhejiang War (i.e., War Between Zhi-xi & Feng-xi,
1924-1925)
War Between Sun Chuanfang & Feng-xi, 1925)
War Between Guo Songling (Feng-xi) & Zhang Zuolin (Feng-xi),
1925
War Between Feng Yuxiang & Li Jinglin (Zhi-xi) /Zhang
Zongchang (Shandong Prov), 1925
War Between Feng Yuxiang &
Wu Peifu (Zhi-xi) / Zhang Zuolin (Feng-xi) / Li Jinglin (Hebei Prov)-Zhang
Zongchang (Shandong Prov), 1926:
Intra-Provincial Wars Among
Warlords
Russia, Britain
& Japan - Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia & Manchuria
Per Scholar Yang Yuqing,
Sino-USSR relations could never have a breakthrough on the matter of i)
Mongolia, and ii) Zhong-dong Railroad of Manchuria (i.e., Chinese Eastern
Railway). In 1910 and 1911, Russia and Japan had reached secret treaties in
regards to their 'spheres of influence' in Mongolia and Manchuria. (Tang Degang
pointed out that Russia and Japan, after 1904-5 war, became friends overnight,
and signed secret treaties on July 30th 1907 and July 4th 1910 for subdividing
Manchuria into two spheres of influence. The line of division would be in
present Jilin Province, from Russian-Korean border to Gunchun, to Jingbo Lake
[Bi-er-teng Lake], to Xiushuidian.)
When Xin Hai Revolution broke out
in 1911, Mongolian lama, under the instigation of Czarist Russia, expelled
Manchu officials and declared Mongolia independence on Nov 30th (lunar
calendar). http://www.un.int/mongolia/histdoc.htm claimed that in July 1911, the Khalkha princes, high
functionaries and lamas had already discussed the separation of Mongolia from
Manchuria. on Dec 28th (lunar calendar), Mongolian lama declared the era of
Gongdai, i.e., 'supporting together'. http://www.un.int/mongolia/histdoc.htm claimed that on 29 December Jebtzundamba Khutukhtu YIII was
proclaimed Bogd Khan, head of the religion and the State." Russia tried to force
Manchu China into acknowledging Mongolia independence. Russia emissary also
visited London to have an agreement on acknowledging Britain's interests in
Tibet in exchange for Britain’s reciprocal acknowledgement of Russia's claim in
Outer Mongolia. Tang Degang pointed out that Russian governor for Siberia,
Nikolai Muraviev, in 1854, had proposed to Czar a suggestion to wrestle Outer
Mongolia from China.
On July 8th 1912, Russia and Japan signed the 3rd
secret treaty over Inner Mongolia. Russian S.D. Sazonov and Japanese Honno
Ichiro [[Benye Yilang]] signed the secret treaty in St Petersburg to subdivide
Inner Mongolian into two halves. on Oct 3rd of 1912 (lunar cal), Russian
minister-envoy to China, Ivan Korostovets, went to Mongolian capital for signing
"Russo-Mongolia Treaty", making Mongolia a puppet protectorate of Czarist
Russia. Russians recruited 40000 Mongolians from four banners for organizing a
Mongolian Army, and supplied 40000 rifles, 4000 cases of bullets, 8 cannons, and
2 million Russian currency. Foreign minister Liang Ruhao resigned at the news of
Russian-Mongolian treaty. Yuan Shikai ordered that Lu Zhengxiang succeeded the
post for negotiating with Russians in Nov 1912. only America expressed
opposition to Russian attempts in Outer Mongolia but softened its stance due to
its colonialism in the Philippines, while Japan & Britain kept the silence
for their secret treaties. Yuan Shi-kai's Cabinet tried very hard to retain
Mongolia and exchanged wires with Mongolian lama several times. Mongolia lama
expressed his opinions of trying to have self-protection rather than following
the suit of Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan. Meantime, Yuan Shi-kai ordered that Zhang
Shaozeng meet the banner leaders of two Inner Mongolian tribal alliances and
successfully solidified China's control over Inner Mongolia.
On the
other side of the border, imperialists had been probing into Tibet incessantly.
Back in 1845, two French priests were caught in disguise of merchants and
expelled from Tibet; two more French priests were killed in 1851 & 1854 by
locals while penetrating into Cha-yu-he river valley from India; and in 1861,
French priests encountered resistance from Tibetan lamaists in Lhasa and the
entire southwestern China.
British, after colonizing India, never let
loose its eyes on Tibet. Historian Tang Degang pointed out that Britain, which
had supported US in propagating the 'Open Door Policy' in the aftermath of 1900
Boxer Incident, never intended to have anyone else share its interests in Tibet.
Prior to Xin Hai Revolution, Britain had coerced Manchu China into five unequal
treaties on Tibet, i.e., in the years of 1890, 1893, 1904, 1906, 1908. Tang
Degang further pointed out that it was not Manchu's skillful diplomacy but
British cunningness that allowed Manchu China to claim suzerainty over Tibet as
a way to defray possible Russian encroachment. In deed, 13th Dalai Lama received
the Russian conferral of "emperor for safeguarding Buddhist laws". However,
taking advantage of 1904 Russian-Japanese War, Britain, under Sir Francis
Younghusband, invaded Lhasa in the summer. 13th Dalai Lama fled to Qinghai and
then Kulun for seeking Russian help. British erected 9th Panchen [Panchan] Lama
as a puppet. Britain tried to extract 500,000 pounds as war compensation. Manchu
resident-minister to Tibet was dismissed. Tang Shaoyi of Tianjin customs office
was sent to India for negotiating with British. Dalai Lama, however, requested
for a visit to the Forbidden City before Dowager Empress Cixi and Emperor
Guangxu died. Yuan Shikai & Zhang Zhidong proposed that Sichuan Province
army escorted Dalai back to Tibet. Tibet was pacified by Governor-general Zhao
Erfeng in 1909. British secretly coerced Dalai to India. 13th Dalai Lama was
deprived of his title by Manchu court in 1910. After 1911 Xin Hai Revolution, in
June 1912, British escorted Dalai back to Lhasa, expelled Manchu-era officials,
and slaughtered pro-China folks. (At the time, Dalai Lama was in charge of 3550
monasteries or 302,500 monks and 1201,438 households of serfs, while Panchen
Lama 327 monasteries or 13700 lamas & 6752 households of serfs.)
After Tibetan lamas attacked Sichuan Prov, the new
governor-general for Sichuan Prov, i.e., Yi Changheng, counter-attacked Tibetan
army. Tibetans retrieved Dalai Lama in 1911 for declaring the independence after
Xin-hai Revolution that overthrew Manchu rule. British escorted Dalai back to
Tibet. on the matter of Tibet, Yuan Shi-kai ordered that Yunnan Governor-general
Cai E and Sichuan Governor-general Yi Changheng quell the Tibetan independence
rebellion in Tibet/Sichuan areas. Sichuan Governor-general Yi Changheng
dispatched General Zhong Ying as "xing zheng shi" or administrator to
Tibet. In July of 1911, Yuan Shi-kai reached a compromise with British
minister-envoy in restoring the title of 13th Dalai Lama in exchange for
Britain's acknowledgement of the Republic of China. on April 6th of 1912,
Tibetans, under instigation of the British, drove off Chinese army and intruded
into Sichuan Prov; on Sept 1st, Dalai Lama requested for peace; and on Oct 28th,
Dalai Lama was restored his title. In Oct 1913, Yuan Shikai's government
dispatched a delegation to the Simla Conference which ended in July 1914 to no
avail. British intended to divide Tibet into two parts, i.e., Outer Tibet and
Inner Tibet [Qinghai, and parts of Sichuan & New Dominion Prov]. British
first proposed the McMahon Line in the attempt of cutting the Tibetan territory
south of the Himalaya Ridge for India. Sir Henry McMahon planned to grab a
territory three times the size of Taiwan Island. Fortunately, Britain had to
exert its efforts to WWI, hence suspending its ambition against Tibet for the
time being. (McMahon dispute would lead to Sino-Indian Border War in 1962. When
Tang Degang visited India in the name of Columbia U, he noticed that Indian
women and beggars were busy going through military exercises for recovering
"lost" McMahon territories. Tang Degang ridiculed Tibetan's inheriting the
"nationalism" of WWI-WWII eras by likening it to i) Thai royal family's
collusion with Japanese [for expanding Thai influence throughout southeast Asia
and southwestern China during WWII, and ii) Communist China's making up in
southwestern China a so-called Zhuang-zu Minority the name of which Li Zongren
of Guangxi nativity had never heard of since birth.)
Yuan Shi-kai's Cabinet,
headed by Zhao Bingjun, conferred the foreign minister post onto Lu Zhengxiang.
China and Russia, after eight month negotiations, reached an agreement on Feb
7th of 1913, with nominal Chinese sovereignty over Outer Mongolia. http://www.un.int/mongolia/histdoc.htm mentioned that one of the documents to prove this is the
Sino-Russian declaration of October 23, 1913, whereby Russia recognized China's
suzerainty over Mongolia. In fact the 1915 agreement confirmed China's suzerain
status. Some historians tend to interpret the agreement as if Bogd Khan's
Mongolia was an autonomous part of China." Zhao Bingjun Cabinet collapsed after
Song Jiaoren was assassinated; Lu Zhengxiang cabinet negotiated for five months
with Russians since Nov 1912, but the draft was disapproved by the Senate; and
the new foreign minister, Sun Baoqi, re-negotiated with Russia for another four
months. By Nov 4th [Nov 5th per TDG] of 1913, Sun Baoqi signed the treaty with
Russia after Yuan Shi-kai incapacitated the Congress by expelling 360
Nationalist (KMT) members due to Sun Yat-sen's launch of Second Revolution. on
June 7th 1915, Russian, China & Mongolia signed the 22-clause trilateral
treaty in Kyakhta. Treaty, in four languages, did acknowledge China's nominal
suzerainty over Outer Mongolia as well as China's territorial integrity with the
inclusion of Outer Mongolia. Tang Degang pointed out that Russians yielded the
suzerainty issue for fear that Japan might take advantage of WWII to partition
China on the matter of Southern Manchuria, Shandong Peninsula and Eastern Inner
Mongolia.
Later, Chiang Kai-shek, after establishing his control over
China in 1927, would establish a Mongolia-Tibet Committee, but did not have the
chance to dispatch official to Tibet till 1934 when Tibetan religious factions
were having a dispute over the heir of 13th Dalai Lama: Huang Musong of
Mongolia-Tibet Committee was dispatched to Lhasa to enforce the Emperor Qianlong
tradition that was established in 1792 after Manchu defeated and expelled the
Gurkha from Tibet. on Feb 23rd 1940, Wu Zhongxing came to Lhasa for hosting the
heir pick, and left Kong Qingxiang in Tibet as admin department chief of
Mongolia-Tibet Committee of ROC. Tibetan Regent Rizhen Hutuketu, to express his
affinity with Chinese, had dispatched a solicititude delegation with 10000 sheep
skin and 500,000 silver dollars to Chongqing as a support for the Chinese
generals and soldiers who were resisting Japanese aggression. In spring of 1944,
taking advantage of British weakness in India turmoil, Chiang sent Shen Zonglian to Tibet with huge amounts of gold, silver and foreign
currency. In New Delhi, Shen Changhuan & Shen Zonglian argued with Sir Olaf
Caroe as to the difference of territorial ownership and suzerainty over Tibet.
Sir Basil Gould followed the path of Shen Zonglian in bringing over lots of
gifts for Tibetan lamas and nobles. A grandiose National Day reception was held
in Lhasa on Oct 10th 1944. on Aug 14th 1945, Tibetans and Chinese celebrated the
victory over Japan. At the urge of Shen Zonglian, Tibet dispatched two
representatives to KMT's "National Representative Assembly" in 1946-7. To rein
in Tibetans, Shen managed to have the son of Dalai Lama's brother sent to China
for studies.
Russian Revolution: Nationalism vs
Internationalism
Russian Revolution, per Harold Isaacs, could be divided into
stages: internationalism under Lenin (till his death in 1925) and Russian
nationalism under Stalin. This division might have some merit in the early years
of Lenin's revolution, at which time Soviet Russia, blockaded in all directions
by imperialist powers under the helm of Great Britain, had sought reconciliation
with and sympathy from Chinese. Lenin had offered such lip-service as to
nullifying all unequal treaties imposed on China by Czar Russia. Should China's
Northern (Warlord) Government, under the leadership of Yuan Shi-kai's disciples,
seek for breakthroughs in relations with Russia, maybe something could have been
achieved. (Whereas today, Communist China, under Jiang Zemin, had accepted
status quo with Russia and reportedly had signed secret treaties giving
up territories taken over by Russia and USSR.)
In the Russian Far East,
on Nov 18, the Bolsheviks under Konstantin Aleksandrovich Sukhanov (1894 - 1918)
seized power in Vladivostok. on June 29th 1918, Czarist loyalists, with the help
of the Czech Legion, defeated the Bolshevik rule in Vladivostok. The Allied
Forces, commanded by the Japanese Lt Gen Otani Kikuzo and joined by Chinese
[together with contingents from Canada, France, Italy, Poland, Rumania, Serbia,
the UK and the US], helped to end the Soviet authority in the rest of the area.
A so-called Supreme White Russian authority was claimed by the Provisional
Government of Autonomous Siberia under Pyotr Yakovlevich Derber The Soviets did
not reclaim control till Jan of 1920 when pro-Soviet partisans created three
"non-Bolshevik" administrations to serve as a buffer zone against Japan. At the
risk of being arrested by Japanese and China's northern government, Chinese
communism activists, like Liu Shaoqi, had to slip through the frontier to get
onto the train for Moscow. Soviets did not take control of the Far East till
after Japan, on Oct 25 1922, withdrew from the coast. Japan was to retain
control over the Northern Sakhalin till 1925.
On July 4, 1918, Georgy
Vasilyevich Chicherin, commissar for USSR Foreign Affairs, declared that
Bolshevik Russia had unilaterally renounced all Czarist unequal treaties with
China as well as Czarist agreements with Japan and other countries relating to
China. This policy was again set forth in a manifesto issued on July 25, 1919 by
deputy commissar Leo Karakhan.
Comintern was established in March of 1919. After the failures of
communist revolution in Germany and Hungary, Lenin turned his attention to the
east. The July-Aug 1920 Second Meeting of Comintern spelled out clauses in
regards to instigating revolution in the Orient. on September 27, 1920, the
Soviet government, per Harold Issac, "reiterated its denunciation of all
previous treaties, renounced all Czarist annexations of Chinese territory, and
returned to China free of charge and forever all that was ravenously taken from
her by the Czar's government and by the Russian bourgeoisie." However, Soviet
missions to China, under M. I. Yurin and A. K. Paikes, tried fruitlessly from
1920 to 1922 to negotiate a new treaty with China due to Western and Japanese
pressure on the Peking government. (Harold Issac mentioned that "there were some
significant equivocations, relating to the Chinese Eastern Railway in
particular, which strongly suggested second thinking by at least some Russians
in policy-making positions at the time.")
Per Scholar Yang Yuqing,
Northern (Warlord) Government, headed by Duan Qirui's Wan-xi Cabinet, initially
refusing to acknowledge USSR as legal government of Russia, had allowed Czarist
Russian embassy to continuously operate in Peking and remitted the 'Boxer
Protocol' indemnity payments to the Czarist Russian embassy. In May of 1918,
Northern (Warlord) Government and Japan signed two so-called 'Sino-Japanese
Military Agreement In Regards To Jointly Defending Against Enemy (i.e., USSR)'.
USSR was threatened both by Czarist Russian White Army remnants in Outer
Mongolia / Russian Far East as well as extra Japanese army deployment which was
invited over to Manchuria.
On March 7th of 1918, Duan Qirui's Wan-xi
Cabinet set up the pro-Japanese Anfu Club (i.e., Anfu Clique), with 'an' meaning
safe and 'fu' meaning happy. Th Anfu Clique, built on top of the Zhonghe Club
with the support of Xu Shuzheng, had leading members such as Wang Jitang and
Wang Yinchuan et al. The Anfu Clique won 330 seats in the new election for the
Parliament. Five provinces declined participation in the election of the
Parliament members, three provinces were unable to participate due to the raging
civil wars, and 14 provinces participated. Next to the Anfu Clique would be 120
seats taken by the 'Old Transportation Clique' and 20 seats taken by the
'Research Clique'. on Aug 12th of 1918, the Upper House of the Parliament was
dismissed, and the New Parliament, nicknamed the Anfu Parliament, was
instituted, with Wang Jitang as the speaker (i.e., "yi zhang).
The first batch of Soviet agents, who were sent to China by the Chita
government and by the Irkutsk Bureau of the Comintern, failed to reach any deal
with the Wan-xi government at Peking. When the Soviet October Revolution broke
out, China invaded Mongolia. Tang Degang pointed out that the reason that the
Mongolians had invited the Chinese back by taking advantage of the Russian
turmoil would be the economic benefits that imperial Chinese dynasties had
historically bestowed upon the nomadic regimes in contrast with the
"economically exploiting" imperialists like the Russians. The Mongolians, whose
chieftains enjoyed the rankings as king under Manchu Qing Dynasty, had
historically dwelled in Peking after the Mongol banner army joined the Manchu
banner army in conquering China in 1644. Hence, hundreds of years later, the
Mongols had assimilated into the Chinese society by the time of the 1911 Xin Hai
Revolution, with no intention of returning to the northern plains.
http://www.un.int/mongolia/histdoc.htm mentioned that "thus, under the pretext of protecting Mongolia
from the Bolshevik danger, Kuomintang [wrong ! the Northern Government] troops
led by Hsu Shu-cheng [Xu Shuzheng] invaded Mongolia from the South in 1919,
while Baron Ungern von Sternberg, a fugitive of the October Revolution,
infiltrated into the country from the North in 1920." Xu Shuzheng utilized an
ancient military tactic adopted by Dong Zhuo of Han Dynasty and created a false
impression that his soldiers kept rolling into Ulan Bator from the south: Xu
Shuzheng had soldiers hide inside trucks, drive away at night, and come back
standing on the truck at daylight. Twenty two days later, the Outer Mongolians
agreed to be re-united with China. on Nov 26th, 1919, Dr Sun Yat-sen
congratulated Xu Shuzheng from Shanghai, praising him as comparable to Ban Chao,
Fu Jiezi & Chen Tang of Han Dynasty.
In August of 1920, Duan
Qirui's Wan-xi Cabinet was overthrown by Wu Peifu's Zhi-xi Cabinet. Wan-xi meant
for Duan Qirui's origin in Wan or Anhui Prov, while Zhi-xi meant for Wu Peifu's
military power based in Zhili or Hebei Prov. (Wu Peifu was a Shandong native.)
Wu Peifu revoked the Czarist Russian embassy, allowed the delegation of the USSR
Far Eastern Republic (i.e., the Chita Government) to visit Peking, and nullified
the military agreements with Japan. The Irkutsk Bureau of the Comintern, the
USSR Foreign Relations Ministry as well as USSR Far East Republic all tried to
have breakthroughs in relations with China. Per Harold Isaacs, "when Wu did
seize the government in Peking in 1920 and set up a puppet civilian cabinet of
his own, the Far Eastern expert V. Vilensky wrote in Izvestia: Wu P'ei-fu has
hung out his flag over the events which are taking place in China and it is
clear that under this flag the new Chinese cabinet must take an orientation in
favor of Soviet Russia."
In early 1921, the Soviets assisted Mongolian
revolutionaries, Qiao-ba-shan [Kh. Choibalsan] and Su-ha-ba-tuo-e [S.
Sukhbaatar], in establishing the Mongolian People's Party (renamed to People's
Revolutionary Party in 1925). http://www.un.int/mongolia/histdoc.htm mentioned that "this time the revolutionary struggle was led
by Ts. Bodoo, S. Sukhbaatar, Kh. Choibalsan and their comrades-in -arms. The
Mongolian People's Party established by them, seized political power, expelled
foreign aggressors from the country with the assistance of Soviet Russia, and
protected its independence and established a limited monarchy with People's
Government in 1921." The Soviet Red Army intruded into Outer Mongolia in May of
1921 (June per solar calendar) without Chinese approval. In June of 1921, the
Soviet Far East Republic Army and Mongolian People's Army occupied Kulun (Ulan
Bator).
On May 20th, 1921, the Northern Government signed the first
equal treaty with a Western power (i.e., Germany) in modern history. (Li Ao
eulogized the Peking government for its foresight in joining the WWI while the
KMT elements had mostly objected to China's war participation, for which the
Italians chimed in to grab part of the German bounty that was due to China at
the end of WWII.) on June 15th of 1921, commissar for the Soviet foreign
relations committee, Chicherin (Qie-qi-lin in Chinese), pretentiously notified
China that the Red Army would withdraw soon after quelling the White Army
rebels. About 25000 Russians fled to Shanghai after the fall of Vladivostok in
1920 and 1922, separately, and 17000 Czarist Russian White Army, with amour
vehicles included, joined the army of Manchurian Warlord Zhang Zuolin, with 2000
dead in the battles with other warlords & the nationalist KMT government. (A
couple of thousand Russian White Army soldiers and their family fled to Xinjiang
under General Annenkov [?].) The Soviets set up a Parliamentary royal house in
Mongolia in June (July per solar cal) and transformed it to a Mongolian People's
Republic in Oct (Nov per solar cal). on Nov 5th of 1921, the Soviets and
Mongolia signed a treaty, with such terms as acknowledging the independence of
Mongolia as well as retaining the Red Army as garrison forces in Mongolia
indefinitely.
Wu Peifu, in 1922, further defeated pro-Japan Warlord
Zhang Zuolin [Chang Tso-lin], i.e., Feng-xi of Manchuria. Wu Peifu, a staunch
Chinese nationalist, never compromised with the Soviets or Russians on the
matter of Mongolia.
After Wu Peifu's defeat, the Soviets abandoned Wu Peifu in
preference for Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolution movements in Southern China. The
Soviets' national interests certainly outweighed its internationalism as shown
by their futile attempt to have Wu Peifu acknowledge the puppet Mongolian
government. In addition to supporting Sun Yat-sen, the Soviets decided to
support and implant the Chinese communist agents who were required to have
allegiance to the Comintern under a slogan that the 'proletarian have no
motherland'.
Sun Yat-sen's
Return To Canton After Expelling Gui-xi
In Southern Chinese Province of Guangdong, Sun Yat-sen and Chen
Jiongming would be entangled in the power struggles. (Liu Xiaobo mistakenly
eulogized Chen Jiongming's support for so-called "allying multiple provinces for
self-determination" as heralding China's forerunner federationist movement.)
Yue-jun (i.e., Guangdong native army), headed by Chen Jiongming, was organized
in Dec of 1917 on basis of Zhu Qinglan's police/guard battalions . To make Chen
Jiongming into a real military pillar, Sun Yat-sen originally dispatched Hu
Hanmin and Wang Zhaoming to Governor Zhu Qinglan for making Chen Jiongming into
the so-called "commander of governor's bodyguard column". Governor Zhu Qinglan
was forced into resignation by Governor-general Chen Bingkun of the Gui-xi
faction (i.e., Guangxi Province native army that stationed in Guangdong after
the republic restoration war). Sun Yat-sen asked Cheng Biguang negotiate with Lu
Rongting for relocation of Chen Bingkun and assignment of twenty battalions of
Zhu Qinglan's police/guard army into the 'marines' under the command of Cheng
Biguang's navy. on Dec 2nd of 1917, Chen Jiongming was conferred the post of
"commander of Guangdong army for aiding Fujian Prov" and was ordered to lead
4000-5000 'marine' army towards neighboring Fujian Province where he expanded
his army and developed it into his private warlord or militarist forces.
(Meanwhile, Sun Yat-sen ordered that five navy warships attacked the Chaoshan
area for assisting Chen Jiongming's attack on Fujian Prov. The Navy action
aborted after Long Jiguang landed from across the Hainan Island Straits.) From
1918 onward, Chen Jiongming refused to answer Sun Yat-sen's calls and stationed
in the Shantou area for self development. on Feb 26th of 1918, Canton military
government experienced another power struggle as Cheng Biguang went through an
assassination. (Scholar Yuan Weishi claimed that Sun Yat-sen could be behind the
assassination of navy minister since Cheng Biguang had objected to Sun Yat-sen's
demands in bombarding the Gui-xi army headquarters. Cheng Biguang, a Guangdong
native, had earlier defected from the Peking government and escorted Sun Yat-sen
to the south with the warships under his command.)
Per DZJ, Sun
Yat-sen, having become so wary of the ambition and disobedience of Chen
Jiongming, contemplated on the upbringing of a new military strategist, i.e.,
Chiang Kai-shek. Sun Yat-sen first wired to Chiang Kai-shek on Mar 2nd of 1918,
and Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Canton from Shanghai 3 days later. Chiang
Kai-shek was asked to see Chen Jiongming, Deng Keng and Xu Chongzhi in the
coastal Shandou area of Guangdong Province on Mar 11th. Chiang Kai-shek then
served Chen Jiongming as director of tactics department for the Guangdong army
on March 15th of 1918. Chen Jieru memoirs claimed that Chen Jiongming, who
always trusted the Cantonese only, had assigned Chiang Kai-shek a post as
tactician for sake of avoiding offence against Sun Yat-sen.
More
available at Guangdong-Guangxi_War.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm
page for up-to-date updates.)
| * In Commemoration of China's Fall under the
Alien Conquests in A.D. 1279, A.D. 1644 &
A.D. 1949
* |
Movement of
"Allying Multiple Provinces For Self-Determination"
The movement of "allying
multiple provinces for self-determination" originated from Tan Yankai and Zhao
Hengti's aspiration for Hunan Province to be ridden of the armies of the
northern warlord lineage. Hunan was ruled by Zhang Jingyao the notorious
northern lineage general whose armies had killed civilians, robbed rich people,
and raped women throughout their garrison time period. Tan Yankai, after
recovering Hunan Province in 1920, declared the Hunan autonomy in the name of
commander-in-chief of Xiang-jun (i.e., Hunan native army) on July 17th. Tan
Yankai intended to ride above the south-north conflicts into which Hunan, being
the center of China, had been invariably drawn on each and every occurrence.
Zhao Hengti, i.e., governor of Hunan from 1921 to 1926, continued the line of
"allying multiple provinces for self-determination". Hunan Province passed its
own provincial constitution, and Mao Zedong, i.e., a later communist leader who
had at one time joined Hunan's army in the aftermath of 1911 revolution, would
vehemently support the Hunan independence movements in his writings.
Being in similar boat as Hunan Province would be Sichuan Province which
also stood out as the conflict zone between the north and the south. Other than
Hunan & Sichuan provinces, Chen Jiongming of Guangdong Province had his
thoughts about "provincial self-determination" which, per Mike Billington
[http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/3123morgan_v_dr_sun.html], was also the "SYNARCHISM" work of imperialists and
capitalists. (In "How London, Wall Street Backed Japan's War Against China
and Sun Yat Sen", Mike Billington pointed out that "British refusal to work
with Sun Yat Sen was transformed into overt military operations against him in
1922. The British Consul General in Shanghai, after reviewing Sun's
International Development of China, accused Sun of trying to supplant
colonial Hongkong as a trans-shipping center by Canton, and linked Sun to
Bolshevik activities in the South. The British, under Addis' direction,
provided Chen Chung-ming, a warlord in the Canton region, with a $500,000 loan
to conduct a military assault on Sun and his KMT base in Canton, which nearly
succeeded. At the same time Addis began making direct economic and military
deals with other regional warlords, encouraging them to act independently of
either Peking or Canton.")
Disputes Between Sun Yat-sen And Chen Jiongming
Sun
Yat-sen, after assuming the extraordinary presidency post on May 5th of 1921,
also expressed concurrence with "allying multiple provinces for
self-determination", stating that for sake of uniting the country, autonomy in
each and every province could be sought after initially by having provinces
enact "provincial constitution", elect governors, and push power-sharing onto
county levels.
However, the movement of "allying multiple provinces for
self-determination", conducted by Guangdong Prov's Chen Jiongming, was also
translated into so-called 'federationist' movement in English language. Also
wrongly translated into English would be the term "coalition government" for the
government of allied provinces. Few scholars, including Liu Xiaobo, had
mis-interpreted Chen Jiongming. An article by Leslie H. Chen entitled
"Nationalism, Federalism and China's Search for Modernization - An Historical
Perspective" (chen-jiongming.com/English/material/paper/chen_paper1.htm) extolled Chen Jiongming. Should we examine the context
of Chen Jiongming's rebellion (not a mutiny) against Sun Yat-sen as well as the
assassination of Deng Keng by Chen's cousin, then we could even claim that it
was Chen who frustrated Sun so much that Sun finally accepted Maring [Henricus
Sneevliet]'s offer of Soviet aid and CCP's individual enrolment in KMT. Not to
mention Chen Jiongming's collusion with Peking government, something that would
prove that Chen's grandiose talk about "allying multiple provinces for
self-determination" was something covering up his ulterior motives.
Scholar Yuan Weishi pointed out that Dr. Sun Yat-sen was commented to
have possible disregard for human life and to have resorted to political
assassinations as well and that Sun Yat-sen, using his follower Zhu Zhixin,
Huang Dawei, Zhang Ji, Ju Zheng and Tian Tong etc, were behind the
assassinations and attempted assassinations of Dian-jun General Fang Shengtao in
Jan 1918, Navy Minister Cheng Guangbi in Feb 26 1918, Yue-jun General Chen
Jiongming in April 1922, and Deng Keng (? doubtful). After Chen Jiongming showed
antagonism, Sun Yat-sen was recorded to have instructed Huang Dawei in
eliminating Chen via a pistol at the time Chen came to Guangxi for meetings with
Sun.
Disputes between Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming were about
difference of personal ambitions: Sun Yat-sen was looking towards uniting China
militarily while Chen Jiongming was more interested in being a warlord-like
ruler of one province. As to Chen Jiongming's opposition on the matter of Sun
Yat-sen's "extraordinary presidency", it was more to do with Chen Jiongming's
unhappiness over Sun Yat-sen's control over Guangdong Province as a president of
the nation. Conflicts between Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming, as expounded in
the section "Chen Jiongming Rebellion Against Sun Yat-sen", was very much a trickery by Chiang Kai-shek.
Tang Jiyao's Seeking Alliance With Canton Government
Election of 'Extraordinary President' of ROC
Sun Yat-sen's Attempt At Routing Guangxi Province For Clearing
The Rear
Tang Jiyao's Recovering Control Over Yunnan
Province Army Stationed In Guangxi
In Yunnan Prov, Gu Pinzhen had first
administered the province by separating civil from military affairs after
ousting Tang Jiyao on Feb 8th 1921. Later, Gu Pinzhen took over governor job,
reversed many of Tang Jiyao's reform measures as to education, and further
implemented county-level officials with his military cronies. While Tang Jiyao
had pacified two banditry chiefs [Yang Tianfu & Wu Xuexian], Gu Pinzhen
induced Yang Tianfu into an execution, which led to a rebellion of Yang Tianfu's
followers. Separately, Wu Xuexian rebelled by amassing over 10000 bandits. on
Aug 1921, 58 counties petitioned with Gu Pinzhen for quelling rampant banditry
and rescinding governorship.
Yunnan Province armies which originally
stationed in Hunan-Guizhou provinces, i.e., those troops led by Hu Ruoyu, Zhu
Peide & Yang Yiqian, had a total headcount of about 20000 at Guilin of
Guangxi Prov. Li Youxun & Long Yun, who came to the fight from Mengzi of
Yunnan Prov, had expanded to 7000-8000 soldiers at Liuzhou of Guangxi Province.
Since Gu Pinzhen refused to provide any assistance to Yunnan Province armies
which answered Sun Yat-sen's call for northern expedition, Tang Jiyao decided to
stage a comeback to Yunnan Province to topple Gu Pinzhen. Around mid-autumn,
Tang Jiyao dispatched emissaries to Liuzhou for seeing Li Youxun & Long Yun.
Emissaries, Wang Jiuling & Gao Xiangchun, then went to see Zhu Peide, Yang
Yiqian, Hu Ruoyu & Zhang Ruqian in Guilin. Tang Jiyao further pacified Wu
Xuexian banditry inside of Yunnan Prov. Then, Tang Jiyao conferred corps chief
onto Yang Yiqian, Li Youxun & Hu Ruoyu, and ordered that Guilin armies
converge to Liuzhou. In the spring of 1922, Tang Jiyao departed HK for Liuzhou
of Guangxi Province. After arriving in Liuzhou, Tang Jiyao added Tian Zhonggu as
a corps chief of the "jing guo jun" [army that pacifies the country]. Zhu Peide,
at the persuasion of Li Liejun, returned to Sun Yat-sen's camp. Tang Jiyao
ordered a two prong attack at Yunnan Province via Baise of Guangxi Province and
Xingyi of Guizhou Prov.
Sun Yat-sen dispatched Jun Shizeng to Liuzhou
for dissuading Tang Jiyao from a campaign against Yunnan Prov. Tang Jiyao
requested a leave of absence for three months so that he could quell Yunnan
Province before joining the northern expedition. Li Youxun died of an attack by
Guizhou Province army shortly after entering Yunnan Prov, and Long Yun was
upgraded to chief of 1st Corps of "jing guo jun". on Feb 20th, Tang Jiyao army
reached Sicheng of Yunnan Prov. on 23rd, Sun Yat-sen rebuked Tang Jiyao as
"violating the order of northern expedition", and ordered that
Guizhou-Yunnan-Guangxi provinces stop Tang Jiyao.
Gu Pinzhen dispatched
Yang Ximin & Zhang Kairu against the two prong attack by Tang Jiyao. At
Shizong, Yang Zhen's followers rebelled against Yang Ximin and declared
neutrality. on March 7th, Tang Jiyao's army took over Kaihua of Yunnan Province
and forced Zhang Kairu into a retreat to Mengzi. In cooperation with Wu Xuexian
banditry, Tang Jiyao's army forced Zhang Kairu into a retreat to Ami. on 13th,
Gu Pinzhen counter-attacked Tang Jiyao's army at Mengzi. After a defeat, Gu
Pinzhen retreated to Tianshengguan pass. on March 25th, Wu Xuexian's soldiers
launched a sudden attack at Gu Pinzhen and killed him. In May, Tang Jiyao
returned to Kunming of Yunnan Prov.
At about the same time, Yuan
Zuming's "ding [quelling] qian [Guizhou] jun [army]", from western Hunan Prov,
came to Guiyang of Guizhou Province to drive off Wang Wenhua & Lu Tao in
April 1922. However, Yuan Zuming refused to accept his former boss Liu Xianshi
and furthermore threw himself into the camp of the northern government. Yuan
Zuming also declined to support Tang Jiyao as the commander-in-chief of three
provinces of Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan. At the turn of summer-autumn, Hu Guoxiu
brigade under Hu Ruoyu's Yunnan Province army obtained the approval from Yuan
Zuming for a homecoming to Yunnan Province via Guizhou domain. However, Wang
Tianpei's Guizhou Province army broke the promise by disarming Hu Guoxiu
brigade. In mid-Feb 1923, Tang Jiyao & Tang Jiyu cousins supported Liu
Xianshi & Liu Xianqian brothers in campaigning against Yuan Zuming. By Dec,
Tang Jiyu took over Huiyang and restored Liu Xianshi's governorship. Yuan Zuming
fled to Sichuan Prov.
With the restoration of his throne in Yunnan
Province in May 1921 [by disrupting Sun Yat-sen's northern expedition layouts],
Tang Jiyao abandoned Sun Yat-sen's cause of the northern expedition. Tang Jiyao
issued a second proclamation as to rescinding governor-general post and
advocated "Allying Multiple Provinces For Self-Determination". on Aug 1st 1922,
Tang Jiyao re-organized provincial government with the passage of 22 clause
regulations. In the autumn of 1923, Tang Jiyao devised "new regulations as to
county governance". Subsequently, Tang Jiyao issued regulations in regards to
autonomy in town and country of Yunnan Province. In comparison with the rest of
the country, Tang Jiyao exerted extraordinary efforts into construction,
education & infrastructure projects. Tang Jiyao, since 1913, had built
highways and city parks, constructed railroads, developed mining industries,
encouraged silk development, founded schools and colleges, opened an aviation
school, built electricity generation stations, and built water treatment plants.
After quelling Yunnan Prov, Tang Jiyao rezoned Yunnan Province into
five military districts, to be controlled by Hu Ruoyu, Tian Zhonggu, Long Yun,
Zhang Ruji & Li Xianting, respectively. Military subdividing and separation
of civil from military administration would sow the seeds of future rebellion.
Similar to Gu Pingzhen mutiny after an aborted Sichuan campaign, Tang Jiyao
would be toppled by his followers as a result of aborted Guangxi campaign
[Feb-Aug 1925]. (Refer to "Li Zongren Frustrating Tang Jiyao's Attempt At Canton
Usurpation By Defeating Yunnan Province Army". Shortly afterward, Tang Jiyao passed away at age 44 on May
23rd 1927. After Tang Jiyao's death in 1927, Long Yun built a grandiose tomb
incorporating Italian Gothic & Greek architecture designs. Li Zongren
memoirs sarcastically called Tang Jiyao a Roman-emperor equivalent for the
Ancient-Medieval European uniforms worn by Long Yun's bodyguards. [Long Yun, a
Yi-zu aboriginal, had enrolled in Yunnan Jiangwu-tang or Military Lecture
Academy at the same time as Lu Han during the aftermath of Xin Hai Revolution.
Long Yun was promoted to regiment-equivalent due to his martial arts skills
displayed during a fight with a French boxer.])
| Generations of people in the 20th century,
including Dr. Sun Yat-sen, had naive and utopian fondness for the Russian
October Revolution of 1911. Sun Yat-sen misunderstood Lenin's "goodwill"
lip-service in nullifying the unequal treaties imposed on China by Czar Russia,
and hence entered into an alliance with the Soviet Union and the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP). Sun Yat-sen, in order to win support from the USSR, had
contacted Lenin two times in 1918, and in 1922 correspondence with Joffe,
expressed much softer stance on the Mongolia independence and the Chinese
Eastern Railroad. Chicherin, back on July 4th, 1918, had rescinded the unequal
treaties during the 5th Soviet Congress, and Karakhan, further on July 25th,
1919, re-affirmed the USSR's rescission of unequal treaties. From 1920 to 1923,
the USSR continuously sent representatives to China for talks with the
northern/southern warlords as well as with Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the communism
activists. Joffe, a representative of Lenin, came to Shanghai, and on Jan 26th,
1923, promised to Sun Yat-sen in a joint declaration that they would help China
to reunite under the Three People-ism without implanting communism in China.
Mikhail Borodin's military supplies (120,000 rifles) and a package of 2 million
Mexican dollars in annual aid made Sun Yat-sen declare a new policy of "allying
with the USSR and allowing the CCP members to join the KMT individually". Dr.
Sun Yat-sen, after 26 Jan 1923 Sun-Joffe Joint Statement, had fallen into a de
facto Soviet agent, sowing the seeds of struggles and conflicts between the KMT
and the CCP as well as the disasters of the Chinese people in the 20th century.
(Historian Tang Degang blamed China's bloody path of "state socialism" [of
both Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party and Mao Tse-tung's Communist Party] on
Sun Yat-sen's beliefs and practice of "radical socialism" which ended in his
collusion with Russian Bolshevikism in the 1920s and designation of his
"principle of livelihood" as equivalent to communism.) China's fate and fortune did not evolve by itself. Note that two countries that had both impacted China enormously would be Russia and Japan. The demise of the Republic of China on mainland China being attributed to the American sellout, though, the actual agents and saboteurs inside the American government were mostly implanted by the Russians and the Comintern. The Russians provided the roubles that fomented the world revolution by violence in the 20th century. Before the alliance with the USSR, Sun Yat-sen was noted for his collusion with the Japanese in opposing both the Manchu court and Yuan Shi-kai's imperial enthronement. Significant in the Chinese revolution would be the Japanese factor, as evidenced by the fact that the ceremony for the convention of Sun Yat-sen's "Tong Meng Hui" [i.e., the 'Allied Society of China' or the 'Revolutionary Alliance'] was first held inside the building of semi-governmental Japanese " Kokuryukai [black dragon society]". The Japanese national policy, however, was to fund and support any Chinese faction and rivalry against the centralized regime for sake of creating chaos and turmoil in China. (Though, Mme Chiang Kai-shek, who personally met Dr Sun Yat-sen's Japanese friends in HK in early 1938 for war mediation, emphasized that among the 72 martyrs buried on the Huanghuagang Hill would be one Japanese friend who participated in the 29 March 1911 uprising.) Note that Sun Yat-sen's decision to ally with Russia and the CCP was induced by the antagonisms from the imperialistic powers. Sun Yat-sen complained to reporters of "New York Times" in July, 1923 about this kind of imperialistic antagonisms towards the Chinese revolution. After Sun Yat-sen reorganized the military government in Canton in Dec 1923, the foreign diplomatic corps stopped the funding of 13% of the customs surplus that was due to the southern government on the pretext that the Canton government did not represent the whole area of Southwest China as stipulated by the prior funding agreement. Wu Tingfang protested against the foreign corps' Canton legation and threatened to take over custody of the customs office as a revenge. To counter the threat of the Canton government, the foreign powers sailed their warships and gunboats to Bai'E'Tan [i.e., white swan pond] area of Canton as a show of force. As pointed out by Xin Hao-Nian, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's threat to take over the customs and withhold surplus from the Canton Customs was opposed by various imperialistic powers. In December of 1923, Britain, the U.S., France, Japan, Italy and Portugal etc sent their warships and gunboats to Canton to exert pressure on Sun Yat-sen for sake of protesting against the threat of customs tax withholding. It is no strange that the imperialist powers would oppose Sun Yat-sen since China's revolution was induced by the invasions of the foreign powers in the first place. From the outset of the Xin Hai Revolution of 1911, the imperialist powers had opposed China's democracy process, and this is best exemplified by the U.S. ambassador's pressuring the Manchu government into recalling Yuan Shi-Kai for sake of cracking down on the 1911 Xin Hai Revolution. At http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/3123morgan_v_dr_sun.html, Mike Billington wrote for "Executive Intelligence Review" an article entitled "How London, Wall Street Backed Japan's War Against China and Sun Yat Sen", pointing out the behind-the-scene manipulations as to "SYNARCHISM AND WORLD WAR". As stated by Mike Billington, "... British synarchist banking interests, centered around Bank of England head Montagu Norman, Hongkong and Shanghai Bank director Sir Charles Addis, and J.P. Morgan chief executive Thomas Lamont, deployed militarily and politically to destroy Sun Yat Sen and his influence. ... when their subversion and looting failed to crush Sun's republican movement, the British threw their weight behind the synarchist/fascist forces in Japan, financing the Japanese military occupation of the Chinese mainland... By 1931, J.P. Morgan had floated $263 million in loans for Japanese borrowers, including direct loans to the government in 1930", with quite some of the funds going direct to the Southern Manchurian Railway under disguise to avert the world opinions. The Anglo-American hostility and subversion against China continued well into the 1940s, at which time General Wedemeyer, right after succession of Stilwell's post in 1944, reported to Washington D.C. in a cable, stating that "...British Ambassador personally suggested to me that a strong unified China would be dangerous to the world and certainly would jeopardize the white man's position immediately in Far East and ultimately throughout the world". More available at "Changing Alliances on the International Arena", "Century-long American hypocrisy towards China", "Anglo-American & Jewish romance with the Japanese", "Joe Stilwell's Authorization To Assassinate Chiang Kai-shek", and "What Foreign Powers Did To The Flowery Republic Prior To, During And After The 1911 Revolution". (Anglo-American supremacists, today, should have no worry about China anymore since the so-called "elites" of China, relatives and families of the Chinese government officials, and the "street and market people of the cities", men and women included, had already capitulated to the West. What remained "unconquered" would be the humblest people of this earth, i.e., billion peasant Chinese, whom the communist government had already enslaved and bondaged on behalf of the West. The Chinese communist rulers, who were pre-occupied with "pleasure-seeking and literature-decoration" like the Manchu rulers, would most likely lose badly during the next confrontation which could be very well against the old feud [i.e., Japan, now a lethal force under the American umbrella, but having no memory of either the pardon from the Republic of China or the humiliation of being declined a decent surrender by the Russians].) In conclusion, the Chinese Revolution, being cornered since inception, would never be able to escape the web knit by the superpowers and financial conglomerates of the 20th century. That is what I will call here as the Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, not the same as Harold Isaacs' book Tragedy of The Chinese Revolution, i.e., the Chinese revolution failed as a result of the ideological difference between Stalin, Bukharin and Trotsky on the matter whether China's revolution was at the stage of the Russian 1905 Revolution or the Russian 1917 Revolution. On Jan 17th, 2004, reformer Zhao Ziyang, after 15 years of house arrest, passed away. People who had hoped for a change at this juncture might be disappointed should no significant mourning-related activity or political loosening happen in China. In history, China's dynastic substitution was mostly the results of usurpation, mutiny or foreign invasion, except for the Yellow Turbans of Eastern Han Dynasty and the Red Turbans of Yuan Dynasty: mutiny applied to Li Zicheng & Zhang Xianzhong rebellion in late Ming Dynasty, and the Xin Hai Revolution in late Qing Dynasty, as well as applies to the scenario of the 1927 Communist Revolution against the Nationalist Government. The 1895 aborted Canton Uprising and the 1900 Huizhou Uprising had ensued in the aftermath of the Manchu debacle in the Sino-Japanese War and the Manchu debacle in the boxer movement, respectively. Hence, one would have to pessimistically expect that the Chinese communists would commit suicide by themselves one way or the other [e.g., attacking Taiwan] in order to see a revolution similar to the Xin Hai Revolution that had overthrown the Manchu rule. (After we have closely examined the historical context of China's reforms from 1979 to 1989, we would understand that in today's China, i.e., year 2005, there will be void of any chance of change. This is because the "Enlightened Intelligentsia" had been routed since the 4 June 1989 Massacre, while no significant regenerating force had ever emerged. The damage to China's fortune was many times worse than the abortion of the late Manchu-era "Hundred Day Reformation" at which time incessant foreign invasions had sustained the fighting spirits and martialness of the Chinese people, as seen in the Assassinations & Uprisings.) Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu & the New Culture Movement The Chinese communists (CCP) had a saying, 'At the sound of the cannon blasting from the Russian October Revolution of 1917, China was bestowed with the gift of the Marxism/Leninism creeds.' Further, the CCP claimed that the May 4th Student Movement of 1919 had guided the Chinese proletarian to the front stage of the revolution in the attempt of legalizing the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 [or 1920]. maoism.org/msw/vol2/mswv2_13.htm carried an article written by Mao Tse-tung in 1939, emphasizing the role of the working people (i.e., workers and peasants). Further, there had been confusion as to the "New Culture Movement" and the "May 4th 1919 Students' Movement". Prof Zhou Yueshan's viewpoint is that the "New Culture" movement brought about the "May 4th Movement", and the concept of the "New Culture" movement was further propagated in the aftermath of the "May 4th Movement". Hu Qiuyuan biographical memoirs stated that China's intellectuals had undertaken three roads to counter Japan's 21 demands presented to Yuan Shikai on Jan 8th, 1915, i.e. launching the "New Culture Movement" among other things. No matter the "New Culture" movement or the "May 4th Movement", China's enlightenment movement was doomed to be overtaken by politics & patriotism in an era that the jungle law dictated the history of mankind. What Is the New Culture Movement? Prof Zhou Yueshan had listed Luo Jialun & Fu Sinian's magazine "New Tide" together with the "Weekly Commentary" newspaper and Chen Duxiu's "New Youth", and called the three publications the three big contributors to the New Culture Movement. It was widely agreed that Cai Yuanpei, after the assumption of the principal post at Peking University in 1917, had taken a series of drastic reform measures on the issues of i) academic freedom and ii) student autonomy. Prof Zhou Yueshan claimed that Cai Yuanpei had promoted the combination of Chen Duxiu's "New Youth" activists and Peking University activists. Among the top guest professors at Peking University would be Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Qian Xuantong, Liu Bannong, Shen Yinmo and Zhou Shuren [Lu Xun], i.e., prominent activists who advocated for the "literal revolution". Later, when Sun Yat-sen expressed support for the students arrested during the May 4th Movement, he pointed to the "few conscientious promulgators" by inferring to those above-mentioned leaders of the New Culture Movement and endorsed the term "new culture movement". Conclusion is that it was Cai Yuanpei who, a revolutionary and patriot in essence, heralded China's new culture movement [i.e., the new cultural movement or the new intellectual movement]. Cai Yuanpei
[1868-1940] was a Manchu era "imperial academy" scholar who passed the imperial
exam for "xiu cai" [distinguished student] at age 17, "ju ren" [recommended
examinee for the capital exam] at age 23, and "jing shi" [the imperial examinee
secondary in excellence, after top 3 titles of 'zhuang yuan', 'bang yan' and tan
hua'] at age 24. Cai Yuanpei, after seeing the demise of the "Hundred Day
Reformation", resigned for hometown where he devoted himself to education at
Shaoxing's China-West School where the students included Jiang Menglin. In 1901,
Cai Yuanpei taught at Shanghai's South-Sea Public School. In 1902, Cai Yuanpei
co-established the "Patriotic Women School" in Shanghai. After a short visit to
Japan, Cai Yuanpei returned to assume the post of president of the "Chinese
Education Society". Cai Yuanpei resigned his post at the South-Sea Public School
to lend support to China's first student protests at the school, and then
established the "Patriotic Society" and invited Wu Zhihui & Zhang Taiyan as
teachers. In 1905, Cai Yuanpei joined Sun Yat-sen's "Allied Society" and assumed
the post of the Shanghai branch of the secret society. From 1907 to 1911, Cai
Yuanpei studied philosophy, literature, anthropology, psychology, aesthetics and
ethics in Germany. After the 1911 Xin Hai Revolution, Cai Yuanpei returned to
China to assume the post of education minister. Cai Yuanpei would be responsible
for designing China's curricula for schools and colleges, but he would resign in
protest of Yuan Shi-kai's ruling. After intermittent studies in Germany, Cai
Yuanpei returned to China on Dec 26th, 1917 for the post of principal of the
National Peking University. The New Culture Movement would yield the following results: i) adoption of the commonly-spoken Chinese language ('bai hua wen', i.e., vernacular) and abolition of the classical Chinese language ('wen yan wen'); ii) emergence of a whole generation of great writers and thinkers like Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Liu Bannong, Guo Moruo etc; iii) the women's liberalization movement, and iv) the enlightenment and liberation of free thoughts for students and intellectuals. (Tang Degang pointed out that Liang Qichao, who wrote on Sept 3rd, 1915 "What a weird thing to talk about the National System?" on "Jing [Peking] Bao [newspaper]" in so-called "baozi [newspaper] wen [language]", would portend the coming age of the New Culture. Tang Degang stated that the elderly people of his times had predicted that when the kids grew up, they would be reading and writing in the "Newspaper Language", i.e., the intermediary between the classics Chinese language and vernacular Chinese language.) The side effects would be the trashing of the Chinese traditions and essences, the decadence lifestyle resulting from sexual liberalization, the nihilism of the Chinese nationality and the wholesale Westernization, the embracing of Bolshevikism, and the conversion of numerous intellectuals into the communists who looked to the Bolshevik Russians as their 'step-father'. (The Chinese communists, when joking about their death or sacrifice of life, often stated that they were to report to Marx in their after-life.) The early twentieth century would also see a "fad" among China's young men and women for the West, with Hu Shi being an adorer of Browning and revolutionary-monk Su Manshu an adorer of British Poet Byron who died in the Greek independence war. The fad could be equivalent to each young man or woman picking one European name as his or her adorer: Hu Shi was an adorer of Browning while studying in America, while Revolutionary-monk Su Manshu, an adorer of British poet who died in the Greek independence war, had called on fellow countrymen to fight Yuan Shi-kai's imperial enthronement in 1916 by means of an analogy, possibly alluding to his maternal birth background as a Japanese. (Su Manshu translated the "Biography of Byron" into Chinese.) Marx writings and German "superman philosopher" Friedrich Nietzsche writings were included among those schools of thoughts. Sun Yat-sen's faithful follower, i.e., martyr Zhu Zhixin, had written a book with admiration for both Marx and Nietzsche. Numerous men and women poets and writers took extreme delight in the Russian romance writings and practiced the "Nora" lifestyle as preached by the NORA Literature, i.e., Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House". Different scholars differed on the definition of the new culture movement. Hu Shi emphasized the parallel by pointing to the European Renaissance. Mainland Chinese thinker Li Zehou, having studied the new culture movement, concluded that China's enlightenment movement was unfortunately overtaken by the "politics and patriotism" movement that invariably became the mainstream thoughts in the context of the Japanese invasion. (Li Zehou, 1986, disapproved Su Xiaokang's "River Elegy" which was a whole-hearted embracing of the "blue civilization" in lieu of the "yellow civilization".) The Impact of the Russian October Revolution on the Chinese Intellectuals As cited by Xin Hao-nian in "Which Is The New China", Historian Zhang Yufa pointed out that Marxism spread to China much earlier than 1917; that in 1903, Zhao Bizhen translated into Chinese the Japanese book "Modern Socialism" (Kinsei Shakaishugi by Fukui Junzo); that in 1906, Newspaper "Min Bao" (People's Newspaper) began to publish segments of the "Communist Manifesto"; that in 1912, a so-called 'Research Society Into Socialism' was set up; that Liang Qichao began to publish research series into the 'Das Kapital', 'Perspectives on Historical Materialism', and 'Marxist Socialism' etc; and that in 1912/1913, immediately ensuing the 1911 Xin Hai Revolution, Xu Qiwen established the "Workers' Party of ROC" and Jiang Kanghu established the "Chinese Socialist Party". The "Gongxue-she" [study together society] under Liang Qichao and Jiang Baili had published a series of books on Marx. Hu Hanmin and Dai Jitao wrote about 'materialism' in the winter of 1919; and on Nov 1st, Dai translated an article about interpretation of the "Das Kapital". From 1919 onward, among writers or translators on communism, Lenin and Marx would be Yuan-quan, Zhi-xi, Gu Zhaoxiong [Gu Mengyu], Huang Lingshang [Huang Wenshan], Liu Binglin, Chen Qixiu, Wei-ci, Zhou Binglin, Li Zezhang, Wang Lian, Jun-li [Zhang Junli?], Gong-zhan [Hu Gongzhan?] and Luu-qin. In addition to Marx/Engels, many works by Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer and Thomas Huxley had already appeared in Chinese translations. Note many of those translations were actually second-hand, namely, translated from the Japanese version. Zhang Yufa further stated that the initial reaction of the Chinese media to the Russian revolution was a surprise at the coup d'etat and that only after Lenin showed the lip-service about nullifying unequal treaties with China did some intellectuals like Li Dazhao express admiration for the victory of Bolshevik communism in 1918. Zhang Yufa claimed that Marxism was treated more as an academic subject around that time and that  Chen Duxiu's
magazine, "The New Youth", in the May 1919 edition, had merely selected
the subject of Marxism as its monthly special edition. Aside from "New
Youth" & "Weekly Commentary", the Progressive Party's "Morning
Post" and KMT's "ROC Daily" & "Construction Magazine" had
carried discussions on socialism and Marxism. As cited by Xin Hao-nian, the
Russian October 1917 Revolution had nothing to do with Marxism spreading to
China and that the May 4th Movement of 1919 had nothing to do with the working
people's awakening to and participation in the Chinese revolution.
Scholars who resented communism often alluded to the personal life of Chen Duxiu and Lu Xun as exemplifying the low quality of early communism activists. In deed, Chen Duxiu's decadent life style with the Japanese prostitutes of the Ginzai entertainment district, prior to his return to Shanghai to launch the magazine in 1915, could be validated by his attempts to have the revoltionary-monk Su Manshu identify with him. Chen Yongfa stated that it was Shanghai's anarchists who had first applauded the Russian Revolution in "Labor" magazine. "Labor" magazine, in March 1918, wrote about "Herald of the Social Revolution in Russian" and "Brief Introduction to Li-ning [Lenin]". However, the anarchists worldwide soon blasted the Bolsheviks for the crackdown on their French master who went to Moscow for cheering up the revolution. Chen Yongfa further stated that the USSR did not pay attention to the Orient till after gaining an upper hand in the Civil Wars that started from Nov 1917. Prior to a march at Eastern Siberia, the USSR issued its "First Karakhan Proclamation" of July 25th, 1919, re-affirming the USSR's rescission of unequal treaties. Chen Yongfa cited Wang Yujun's research in pointing out that Peking's northern warlord government did not get a copy of the "Karakhan Proclamation" till just days before Grigorii N. Voitinsky (Zarkhin) visit. (See alternative analysis of the two-faceted "karakhan manifesto".) Nevertheless, the Russian October 1917 Revolution had certainly inspired the Chinese intellectuals' interest in communism. The USSR's offer of nullifying all unequal treaties had won a "delighted and sympathetic hearing for Russia among all classes of Chinese" per Harold Isaacs. The 'Communism study group' or 'Marxism study group' had been first formed in 1918. The Western Betrayal To China on Japan's Inheriting the German Interests To celebrate the Nov 11th, 1918 victory of China as an WWI ally, China's Duan Qirui government declared a three-day holiday. Duan Qirui held a military parade on the Tian'an'men Square, and numerous activists gave their speech on the square.  Li Dazhao gave a
speech stating that the WWI victory was the victory of commoners. Li Dazhao, who
earlier published an article on 'Comparison of the French Revolution and the
Russian Revolution' on July 1st, 1918, would send to the "New Youth"
magazine another article entitled 'The Victory of Bolshevikism' for publication
on Nov 15th, 1918, i.e., for applauding the Russian revolution's anniversary. on
Nov 28th, Li Dazhao repeated his early speech in today's Zhongshan Park of
Beijing where the late German minister Baron Klemens von Ketteler's tombstone
was transferred there with the new inscription 'Victory of Justice'. Chen Yongfa
claimed that China's intellectuals, deeply disappointed over the evaporation of
the Wilson 14 principles, finally turned to Russian Bolshevikism as a result of
the Western betrayal to China on the matter of Japan's inheriting the German
interests. Chen Yongfa cited Chen Duxiu's change of attitude in calling Wilson
by "wei [W] da [big] pao [cannon]' [i.e., the 'false promise crook'] rather the
'first good man of this world'. Chen Yongfa stated that philosopher Zhang
Dongsun had commented that socialism research had become a fad after WWI in
China. The cause and effect of Western countries' betrayal to China on the matter of Japan inheriting the German interests on the Shandong Peninsula would be the students' movement on May 4th, 1919. So to say that the New Culture Movement had brought about the liberalization of thoughts among the intellectuals and students who in turn pushed forward with the agenda of the anti-imperialism May 4th Movement, i.e., a student movement that today's communists both have revered and feel haunted by. The New Culture Movement vs the May 4th 1919 Students' Movement As put forward by Prof Zhou Yueshan of Taiwan's Politics University in 1979, the communists had mutated the history of the New Culture Movement and May 4th Students' Movement by selectively listing some subprime figures such as Li Dazhao and Lu Xun. Though, people are easily confused by the fact that quite some activists of the new culture and the May 4th student movements had been founders of the communist party. Lu Xun, who was working inside of the culture ministry of the northern government in 1919, had later commented in apathy about newspapermen using students' uniform as a vendor jacket. In another sense, Li Dazhao and Lu Xun did not count among the mainstream thinkers and propagators of the New Culture Movement, per Zhou Yueshan. Right after the May 4th Movement of 1919, Li Dazhao published his article 'My Marxist Perspectives' on "New Youth". Li Dazhao was said to have been ahead of Chen Duxiu in accepting communism by half a year. Chen Duxiu, on June 8th of 1919, debated with scholar Hu Shi in regards to "more research into issues and less talk about ism". Hu Shi, after visiting Sun Yat-sen in Shanghai, returned to Peking with a copy of Sun Yat-sen's "Guideline For Building China" and propagated "more research and less talk about ism". Chen Duxiu was arrested by the government for his political activity in June 1919, and Li Dazhao continued to engage Hu Shi by writing "Another Discussion In Regards To Issue vs Ism" on Aug 17th. Hu Shi [Hu Shih], a student of the American empiricism school of thought, engaged Li Dazhao by publishing the "Third Discourse on Issue & Ism" and the "4th Discourse on Issue & Ism" on the "Weekly Commentary". By "hollow talks about ism", Hu Shi was alluding to Li Dazhao et al., on the matter of twisting the Bolshevikism after perusal of a few pages of Britannica. After being released from prison, Li Dazhao escorted Chen Duxiu to Tientsin, where Chen Duxiu made a further trip to Shanghai. Chen Duxiu re-oriented his "New Youth" magazine's guidelines in Oct of 1919, took over the leadership as the only editor per Zhou Zuoren, and published a declaration of magazine editorial standgrounds. on Nov 12th, Chen Duxiu wrote 'The Basis For Practicing Democracy'. on Dec 1st, Chen Duxiu published an article entitled 'To The Workers Of Beijing' on the "Morning Post" [i.e., Progressive Party's newspaper]. "The New Youth" also carried a commentary on the First Karakhan Proclamation on July 25th, 1919. There had been a surge of activities in anti-Confucianism propagation by the intellectuals and students across the nation, i.e., the New Culture Movement. The New Culture Movement, with staunch proponents like Hu Shi, Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu and Lu Xun etc, had sowed the seeds of rebellion among the young students who took to the streets on May 4th, 1919 in protest of the humiliation imposed by the League of Nations in having WWI victor country China acknowledge Japan's inheritance of the German interests on the Shandong Peninsula. The May 4th Movement of 1919, not necessarily something which had pushed China's working people onto the stage of revolution, had led to subsequent organization of various 'Marxism study groups', precursors to the 'Socialist societies' in 1919 and various provincial sections or branches of the Chinese Communist Party Organization Committees in 1920. Among the founders of the CCP would be student leader Zhang Guotao who led the students' attack at the Northern Government ministers' residencies during the May 4th Movement. The "New Youth" Magazine  Chen Duxiu
launched the "The New Youth" at age 36 in 1915 as a counter against the
"Revering Confucius & Reviving Antiquity" movement that was endorsed by Yuan
Shi-kai. We could not discount the role played by "The New Youth", on the
Sept 1915 edition of which Chen Duxiu (Ch’en Tu-hsiu), a professor at Peking
National University, advocated for a new thinking that mandated the breakaway
from the Chinese traditions and Confucianism. As Harold Isaacs put it down, Chen
Duxiu proclaimed that the new youth should "fight Confucianism, the old
tradition of virtue and rituals, the old ethics and the old politics . . . the
old learning and the old literature." In Jan 1919 edition of "New Youth",
Chen Duxiu advocated Mr. De (i.e., democracy and political thoughts of the West)
and Mr. Sai (i.e., natural sciences of the West) as well as trashed China's
'national essence' and 'classics literature'. The direct link of Chen Duxiu's "The New Youth" magazine to the ghost or specter of communism in China would be the Russian implication. The Soviet archives had revealed that the 'Russo-Chinese News Agency' in Shanghai had utilized "The New Youth" publishing house and its branches across China as a nexus for developing the 'Chinese Socialist Youth League', precursors to the Marxism study groups and the Chinese Communist Party. Conservatist Confucians & Buddhism-humanitarianism Blended Confucians Following Chen Duxiu's call for "Down With Confucian Academy !" would be Li Dazhao who polarized the relationship between emperor and citizens and between liberty and dictatorship. Scholar Wu Yu criticized Confucian's filial piety. Lu Xun criticized the 'National Essence School of Thought' and the 'School of Thought on Western Means & Chinese Essence'. In contrast, the conservatives upheld Confucianism as the creed for ruling a country like China. Yuan Shi-kai, who had enthroned as an emperor for 83 days in 1916, had sorted out the Confucius descendants for theorizing his imperial restoration. Yuan Shi-kai first issued the Confucian decree in 1913.  Yan Fu and Liang
Qi-chao, with 200 scholars, established a Confucianism Public Society; and in
Shanghai, Kang You-wei was made into president of the Confucianism Society. In
Sept 1916, Kang You-wei, who had proclaimed Confucian a 'reformist' for sake of
pushing through the 1898 'Hundred Day Reform', would petition with the Peking
government to have Confucianism declared a state creed (i.e., state religion).
After Yuan Shi-kai's abortive attempt at the imperial restoration, Zhang Xun, a
'pigtail general' of the northern military lineage as well as a conservative
Confucian, had a short-lived imperial restoration in July 1917. (Zhang Binglin
rebuked the Confucianism societal movement.) Liang Suming, i.e., the Last Confucian Of China, wrote an article "An Exploration Into Yuan Dynasty" in 1918 and hence was appointed lecturer of philosophy in Peking University at the age of 25. He would later advocate a new school of Buddhism based on the humanitarianism, loving-kindness and compassion. He was labeled a conservative for his criticisms of facile westernization and modernization. Later in the 1930s, he launched an experiment with agriculture in Shandong Province by setting up village schools and Confucian academies, i.e., the "Rural Reconstruction Movement". Liang Suming and Hu Shi differed on the matter of Confucianism. Hu Shi, i.e., a returnee from America as well as a student of John Dewey, had claimed to his Chinese classmates in the U.S. that they should not mind politics but concentrate on studies at the outbreak of the May 4th, 1919 student movement. It would be during his late years that Hu Shi acknowledged to Tang Degang that he was wrong in 1919. Liang Qi-chao, who was first a "royalist" and then a "constitutional monarchist", was merely a chess piece in a board game per Mike Billington who stated that "London's leading synarchist spokesman, Bertrand Russell, traveled to China in 1921-22, sponsored by none other than Liang Chi-chao's 'Society for Chinese Lectures'. Liang also sponsored John Dewey's trip to China, which was financed by the New Republic, a journal set up by Morgan partner, and old China hand, Willard Straight. Between them, Russell and Dewey set in motion a process of subversion which would infest China for decades, leading all the way to the nightmare of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s".
The So-called Workers' Awakening & Their Anti-Imperialism Role Xin Haonian was correct in saying that the May 4th Movement had nothing to do with the workers' awakening to and participation in the Chinese revolution. The Chinese merchant guilds, Petit-Bourgeois, popular press, dock workers, students and ordinary citizens already participated in numerous boycotts. There had occurred an anti-American boycott in 1905 in reaction to the racially discriminating U.S. policies toward the Chinese coolie workers inside the United States. Leftist writer Ah Ying pointed out that the anti-American boycott originated from China's opposition to the 1904 American attempt at renewing the 1880 Peking Treaty, by citation of which the U.S. had expanded the "excluding-Chinese constraints" to as many as 61 clauses. When the overseas Chinese launched a petition with the Manchu government against the Peking Treaty renewal,the mainland Chinese answered with anti-U.S. boycotts. Per Ah Ying, the Chinese were first "shanghai'ed" to California in 1847 in the aftermath of the American annexation of the Mexican province. The second wave of coolies came in 1865 when the U.S. constructed the continental railways and highways. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/cubhtml/cicTitles12.html contained a dossier of files on "The Chinese in California, 1850-1925". In California, the Chinese coolies dug the canal, built the dykes, and turned 400,000 acres of the Sacramento marsh land into the agricultural land. "The Chinese Exclusion Act" was based on a 1879 California state law which discriminated against the Chinese as scapegoats for the 1877 economic recession. The Peking Treaty of 1880 buried inside such clauses as allowing the U.S. government to take measures against the Chinese coolies. (See cprr.org/Museum/Fusang.html for the Chinese Railroad Men working as coolie in America under the ferocious White men's racial discrimination. Also see SAN LUIS OBISPO'S CHINESE for the context of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, ironically after the anti-slavery 1861-65 U.S. Civil War and the enactment of the Civil Rights Act.) From 1883 to 1903, the Chinese who lived in America had decreased to 100,000 from 300,000. The U.S. government, after acquiring Hawaii in summer of 1898 and the Philippines in Dec 1898, applied the "Chinese Exclusion Act" to the Chinese on the two islands, and further, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law to have the "Chinese Exclusion Act" applied throughout the U.S.-controlled islands and territories over the world, making the Chinese the lowest caste, a fundamental cause in Chinese suffering in ethnic cleansing which occurred in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia etc. [The Philippines fought independence war against Spain on June 12th, 1898 and declared independence against the U.S. on July 4th, ending in about 600000 casualty in the clashes with the U.S. in the next two years.] In 1943, the CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT was repealed by the American Congress, with China awarded a yearly immigration quota of 102 persons. The U.S. was not the only country to have used the Chinese coolie. From 1847 to 1875, 150,000 Chinese coolies sold to Cuba as 'zhu zai' [i.e., piggy coolie], and the Portuguese specialized in selling the Chinese women and Chinese girls overseas as sex slaves throughout the latter half of the 19th century. Chinese coolies built the Panama Railway. Peru, Pacific Islands, West Indies, North Africa, South Africa, and Australia had all engaged in the Chinese coolie slave trade. The anti-American boycott was the strongest in Guangzhou (Canton) of Guangdong Prov where most coolies had departed on the sea trip for the so-called Jin-shan [San Francisco, i.e., Mount Gold]. The Chinese in Shanghai, Tianjin (Tientsin) and Singapore had all echoed their support even though the imperialist authorities in various extra-territories had issued edicts against the boycott and cracked down on it. Among the demands that arose in the anti-American boycott would be revocation of the concession granted to an American firm for construction of the Guangzhou-Hankou (Canton-Hankow) Railway. After the anti-U.S. boycott would be the anti-Japan boycott of 1908. The anti-Japanese boycott was more anti-governmental in nature. It arose from the Chinese authorities' submission to Japan in connection with a shipping incident. The merchants across the nation burned the Japanese merchandise, and workers at the docks refused to unload goods from the Japanese vessels. China's modern industry beginning with the 1863 weapons manufacturing [per Zhou Cezong], rapid growth was seen during the time period of WWI as a result of European nations' entangle in the war than dumping of cheap manufactured goods to China. From 1914 to 1920, China enjoyed its golden age of industrial development, with textile and flour processing factories springing up across the country. The Chinese no longer treated "land" as the only investment but turned to industrial, commercial and banking industries. By 1920, the Chinese "silver dollar" replaced the Mexican dollar as the currency of commerce. Old style money centers transformed to the banks. Cities exploded in population growth. In 1919, Peking had 600,000 people. By 1923, Peking doubled its population to 1.1 million. Bankrupt and the poverty-stricken peasants either turned to cities to be workers or enrolled in the militarist armies as soldiers. Per Harold Isaacs, "at the end of 1916 there were already nearly 1,000,000 industrial workers in China and their number nearly doubled by 1922"; "in 1918, according to incomplete records, there were twenty-five recorded strikes in the country, involving fewer than 10,000 workers"; and "an army of nearly 200,000 Chinese laborers had been sent to Europe during the war. Many of them learned to read and write and, even more significantly, came in contact with European workers and the higher European standard of living. They returned with new ideas about man's struggle to better his estate. Nationalist sentiment had taken strong hold among them. Many on their way back from Europe had refused to step ashore at Japanese ports during the furor over Shantung. When strikes in factories began to deepen the roar of the May 4 movement, the returned laborer was already regarded as 'the stormy petrel of the Chinese labor world' ... the guilds were beginning to break up and to divide into labor unions and chambers of commerce. Chinese workers, new to their machines and new to the ideas and techniques of labor organization, were thrust at once into the political turmoil that rose around them. Their strikes in Shanghai and other cities in 1919 more than anything else forced the release of student demonstrators arrested in Peking and hastened the resignation of the offending government officials". The Versailles Conference & the May 4th Students' Movement
Before China's student movements, the Korean students already launched a massive protest against the Japanese colonial rule. Jin Baifan, aka, Jin Jiu [Kin Kau, aka Kim Ku, i.e., friend of Chinese revolutionaries Huang Xing & Chen Qimei], returned to Korea to join the March 1st, 1919 Korean Student Movement against Japan after being released by the Japanese for implication in Dec 1909 An Jung-geun's assassination of Hirobumi Ito. After the Japanese crackdown on the Korean student movements, Jin Jiu escaped to China via Andong [Dandong] to take charge of the "interim Korean government", i.e., "Da Haan Minh Guo", an entity that was sabotaged by the U.S.A. after it implanted pro-American Syngman Rhee after WWII. The Korean patriots, like Li Chengwan [Syngman Rhee], established a Korean restoration movement in Shanghai under the Chinese auspice. The "interim Korean government" was set up for sake of sending a rep to the Geneva Peace Conference as an answer for Wilson's call for the national self-determination. on April 11th, 1919, inside of the French concession territory in Shanghai, the Korean exiles passed ten clauses of the interim Korean constitution, and made Syngman Rhee into president of "Da Haan Minh Guo"; however, Syngman Rhee and An Changhao were refused entrance to the Geneva meeting. (Back in 1912, Chen Qimei, a friend of An Jung-geun, established with the "Korean patriots" a "New Asia Mutual Aid Society" in Shanghai.) The May 4th Students' Movement was induced by, again, China's humiliation in the hands of foreign imperialists. As a victor of the First World War, China was abandoned by the West in the conflicts over Japan's succession of Germany's interests in China's Shandong Province. Throughout WWI, the Chinese people had been holding out high hopes for "Woodrow Wilson's promises of self-determination and social justice for all peoples". Per Mike Billington, "United States Ambassador Reinsch...in 1917, ... was called upon to convince China also to join the war against Germany... by promising the Chinese that they would be granted sovereignty over the former German territories in China, which had been occupied by Japan at the start of the war". (Bollington could be wrong as Reinsch, one of the few pro-China Americans ever in history, was the one who wanted China to join the war to reap the benefits post-WWI, not the United States government.) on Nov 11th, 1918, the Chinese government declared a three day celebration of the victory of WWI. The von Ketteler’s monument was dismantled. on Nov 17th, 60000 people paraded on the streets. The Chinese people believed that the Wilson 14 Points [first raised on Jan 8th, 1918] would secure China's sovereignty, including the rescission of the secret treaty with Japan and recovery of the Shandong Peninsula. However, once the Versailles Conference started on Jan 18th, 1919, news came from Paris that Japan might inherit the German interest in Shandong. After WWI, the Peking government dispatched a team of diplomats, headed by Lu Zhengxiang and Gu Weijun [Wellington Koo], to the conference for sake of revoking the German/Austrian interests in China, nullifying partial if not whole set of the 1915 Sino-Japanese Agreements, and restoring China's rights to the extra-territories (leased territory or concession territories), extraterritoriality and the customs office. Diplomat Gu Weijun had several rounds of debates with the Japanese representative and leaders of the West in regards to China's restoration of territorial integrity on the Shandong Peninsula. The Japanese representative tried to invoke a 1918 secret treaty between China and Japan to maintain its claim of interests in Shandong. Chinese delegation speaker, Wang Zhengting, disclosed that it was a diplomatic memorandum exchange by China's emissary Zhang Zongxiang, only. Japan was angered by China's claim that China would publish the secret treaty and advised China in observing the diplomatic protocol. Japan tried to have the Peking government recall those Chinese diplomats from Paris, but various Chinese provinces wired over support to the Peking's government. China published Japan's memorandum in regards to Japan's notification. With Peking's ambiguous instructions, the Chinese representatives published the secret agreements on Feb 12th of 1919 (lunar calendar). Two months later, the Conference touched on China's issue again. Japan opposed Wilson and Lloyd's suggestion to have Shandong taken over by the League of Nations and threatened the Conference with refusal to sign the peace treaty with defeated Germany as a closure of war. Japan also threatened to disclose its secret treaties signed with Britain-France-Italy in regards to its succession of the German interest in Shandong. George Lloyd apologized to Gu Weijun for the secret treaty with Japan and Wilson cited that China had already agreed to the terms with Japan in 1915/1918 and should observe its obligations. At the Versailles Conference, the West, including U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, claimed that China had already agreed to the terms among the infamous Japanese 'Twenty-one Demands' of 1915 that China was coerced into when Japan and Britain attacked Germany's Far East interest during the early years of WWI. China protested against Britain-U.S.-France's decision in regards to transfer of the German interest to Japan. Wilson, who brought the '14 Points Peace Plan' to the conference, left France in disappointment, and the U.S. Congress refused to ratify the Paris Conference terms or join the League of Nations. The Chinese students in Japan first took action against the "traitor ministers" of the Peking government, and then students of Peking answered with a massive protest that would come to be called the May 4th, 1919 Students' Movement. The May 4th, 1919 Students' Movement would compel China's diplomats into refusal to sign the peace treaty in Paris. Reinsch, sympathetic to China all along, on June 7, 1919, resigned his position as the United States envoy to China, and warned Wilson that "the fruits of 140 years of American work will be lost." (Later on May 20th, 1921, the Northern Warlord Government signed the first equal treaty with a Western power, i.e., Germany, in modern history. Li Ao eulogized the Peking government for its foresight in joining WWI while the KMT elements had mostly objected to China's war participation. By the way, Hitler had at one time expressed extreme hatred of the Japanese for the deaths of Germans in Qingdao and deprivation of the German interests in the Far East during a talk with a Chinese representative in late 1930s.) Per Mike Billington, "...on the sidelines of the Versailles Conference, ...The newly created [Anglo-American] Consortium, with representatives from Britain, the United States, France, and Japan, met at the Paris offices of the Banque de l'Indo-Chine, chaired by Thomas Lamont. Fresh from their victory at Versailles, the Japanese delegation to the Consortium insisted that Manchuria and Inner Mongolia be excluded from the agreements of the Consortium, due to Japan's "special interests." Although Lamont agreed, the international anger over the betrayal of China at Versailles made it impossible to agree fully to the Japanese demand. Instead, the Consortium agreed that the South Manchurian Railroad, and other already existing Japanese projects in China, would be excluded from Consortium oversight, but they would not grant any regional exclusion—at least, not publicly. Lamont then arranged a trip to Japan for early 1920 to further discuss the synarchist strategy for Asia. ... Lamont's 1920 trip to Tokyo marked the beginning of a process whereby the British and their Morgan ally would systematically support and finance the Japanese occupation of China over the 1920s and 1930s, ... Lamont established close personal relationships with Inouye Inosuke, who would alternate between head of the Bank of Japan and Finance Minister, until his death in 1932, and Mitsui head Baron Takuma Dan, perhaps the richest man in Japan." The Chinese students in Japan were the first group of protesters and they had lay siege of Zhang Zongxiang, a pro-Japan ROC emissary to Japan. Chinese students in Japan asked Zhang Zongxiang why he had not sold out his wife after he had sold out China. Students in Peking, hearing of the students' activities in Japan, launched into full motion a city-wide protest movement that would come to be known as May 4th Students' Movement (later to be designated Communist China's Youth Memorial Day). Students across Peking made preparations on May 3rd.  Inside of
Peking University, at 10:00 am on May 4th 1919, Sunday, student leader Luo
Jialun just returned from a visit to Peking Advanced Normal College. At the
proposal by Di Junwu, Luo Jialun wrote a student proclamation in the name of eight colleges and
universities of Peking. The draft
called for workers and merchants of the nation to take action [strikes]
immediately and called for a National Convention for sake of punishing the
traitors and arguing for national sovereignty. The proclamation was to be
printed by Li Xinbai's "populace printing house", to be distributed by 20000
copies. Zhang Guotao had been deputy chief of the students' association for
Beijing University, and later acted as the chairman for the united student
associations of Beijing colleges and universities during the May 4th Movement of
1919. Fu Sinian was the chairman for the student association of Beijing
University, and led the charge at residency of foreign minister. Fu Guoyong, at
http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/3/11/14/55145.html, stated that two days before the eruption, Cai Yuanpei,
the schoolmaster of Peking University, had assembled class heads for instigating
the student movements. At about 1:00 pm, on May 4th, over 3000 students converged upon Tian'an'men Square, with banners calling for "Revocation of 21 Demands", "Return of Qingdao" and "Punishing Traitors". After 2:00 pm, students marched towards the foreign legation area; however, extraterritory police in front of American embassy refused to let students walk through. Students then decided to go straight to the residency of Cao Rulin. Police in front of Cao Rulin's house did not stop the students. Students climbed into the place through a window, ransacked the furnishings, and caught and hit Zhang Zongxiang who happened to be visiting Cao Rulin. Cao Rulin himself hid in a secret room and escaped the students. Students then lit the mosquito vent and burnt Cao Rulin's so-called Zhaojialou Residency. Police reinforcement arrived, put down the fire, and arrested about 32 stranded students. After the students were arrested, colleges and universities across China echoed the support. Cai Yuanpei, i.e., the schoolmaster of Peking U, claimed to be willing to take the blame so that students could be released. By May 7th, Peking authority had to release the students. Students across the nation propagated the "national salvation". In Yixing of Jiangsu Prov, i.e., a typical southern Chinese town, Xu Zhucheng [1907-?], during the timeframe of summer school break, witnessed the spread of posters and slogans across the town, with such wording as "Return My Qingdao !", "Would Rather Die To Resist Japanese Commodities !", and "Never Let The [Patriotic] Fever Last Five Minutes !". Students put up dramas entitled "The Hatred Of Koreans Over Loss Of Country". Wan Yijun, a student who returned to hometown from Shanghai for summer break, acted as Korean assassin An Jung-geu [An Chongwen]. (Per Xu Zhucheng, Wan Yijun joined the communist movement and died during 1928 Yixing Uprising.) Further details of May Fourth Movement will be covered at May4th.htm Chen Yongfa claimed that China's intellectuals, deeply disappointed over the evaporation of Wilson 14 principles, finally turned to Russian Bolshevikism as a result of the Western betrayal to China on the matter of Japan's inheriting German interests. Chen Yongfa cited Chen Duxiu's change of attitude in calling Wilson a 'big cannon W' [i.e., 'false promise crook'] rather 'first good man of this world'. Chen Yongfa stated that philosopher Zhang Dongsun had commented that socialism research had become a fad after WWI in China. The USSR/Comintern Seeking & Implanting Chinese Partners USSR had three groups of diplomats and activists in China: Peking's USSR embassy in Peking was in contact with Wu Peifu's northern warlord lineage government; Comintern stationed in Shanghai and its rep Hendricus (Henk) Josephus Franciscus Marie, aka Maring, was in charge of organizing and supporting the CCP; and USSR stationed a second corps in Guangzhou (Canton) in charge of relations with Sun Yat-sen's KMT government. Chen Yongfa stated that USSR did not pay attention to the Orient till after gaining an upper hand in the Civil Wars that started from Nov 1917. In May 1919, USSR first established First Communist International. By late 1919, Soviet Red Army crossed the Urals and entered Baikal Lake area.  In April 1920,
USSR established Chita Far East Republic for countering the intervention by US
and Japan. Prior to a march at Eastern Siberia, USSR issued its "First Karakhan
Proclamation" of July 25th 1919, re-affirming USSR's rescission of unequal
treaties. Grigorii N. Voitinsky was dispatched to China by V.D.
Vilensky-Sibiryakov. Chen Yongfa cited Wang Yujun's research in pointing out
that Peking's northern warlord government did not get a copy of "Karakhan
Proclamation" till just days before Voitinsky visit. Contact With Wu Peifu In August of 1920, Duan Qirui's Wan-xi [Anhui Prov faction] Cabinet was overthrown by Wu Peifu's Zhi-xi [Hebei Prov faction] Cabinet. Wu Peifu revoked Czarist Russian embassy, allowed the delegation of USSR Far East Republic (i.e., Chita Government) to visit Peking, and nullified the military agreements with Japan. Irkutsk Bureau of the Comintern, USSR Foreign Relations Ministry as well as USSR Far East Republic all tried to have breakthroughs in relations with China. M. I. Yurin delegation came to Peking on Aug 26th of 1920, and Comintern emissary Grigorii N. Voitinsky (Wei-jing-si-ji in Chinese) paid a visit to Wu Peifu's counselor in Luoyang of Henan Prov on Oct 9th. Another Comintern rep Marin wrote in his memoirs that Chita Republic and Comintern reached a conclusion that Wu Peifu was a better choice than southern government led by Sun Yat-sen. Wu Peifu defeated pro-Japan Warlord Zhang Zuolin, i.e., Feng-xi of Manchuria in 1922. Wu Peifu, a staunch Chinese nationalist, never compromised with Russians on the matter of Mongolia. on March 15th of 1922, USSR Far East special emissary reported to Lenin about China's factions/parties and their influences around the country and proposed that USSR should cooperate with Zhi-xi's Wu Peifu. A few months later, V. Vilensky wrote to Trotsky and Chicherin about Wu Peifu's importance in China's politics. Contact With Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen was very much ignored by USSR in the beginning. Sun Yat-sen had congratulated USSR on the victory of the revolution on the New Year Day of 1918, and Lenin asked Chicherin relay a reply to Sun Yat-sen which was never received per Xin Haonian. Sun Yat-sen sent another wire to USSR in late 1918 for a united revolution front. Comintern probed the possibility of cooperation with Sun Yat-sen few times, and in the autumn of 1920, Voitinsky met Sun Yat-sen in Shanghai. Sun Yat-sen had high hope for cooperation with USSR. However, M. I. Yurin kind of despised Sun Yat-sen's political influences in Canton. More Russian agents wrote reports on Sun Yat-sen. Maring came to China in the spring of 1921 and met Sun Yat-sen in Guangxi Prov. on Oct 31st of 1921, Chicherin wired to Chita Republic's foreign affairs ministry to inquire about the possibility of establishing relations with Canton Government without antagonizing the Peking Government. Chicherin, further, wrote to Lenin with an attachment of a letter from Sun Yat-sen. With Lenin's approval, Chicherin instructed USSR emissary to China, A. K. Paikes, to have secretive contacts with Sun Yat-sen in Canton. Maring observed the January 1922 Seaman's Strike in Canton/HK and appreciated the Chinese nationalism under Sun Yat-sen's KMT leadership. More available at Russians-Sun_Yat-sen.pdf. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
The Soviets' Contact With Chinese Communism Activists Comintern's claws entered China with the assistance of a Chinese-turned Russian Bolshevik called Yang Mingzai (aka Yang Haode). In April 1920 (May 6th per solar calendar), Voitinsky, aka Hu Dingkang in Chinese name, a rep from the Irkutsk Bureau of the Comintern (i.e., Far East Bureau), brought a team to Peking of China, with Yang Mingzai as an interpreter. Voitinsky and Yang Mingzai met Li Dazhao several times and requested for meeting with student leaders such as Zhang Guotao [aka Zhang Teli], Li Meigeng, Liu Renjing and Luo Zhanglong inside of the library of Beijing University. Voitinsky, a graduate of political economy from some American university, also invited students to his hotel for individual talks and disbursed politics-related books in multiple languages. (Yang Mingzai, born in 1892 in Pingdu County of Shandong Prov, threw himself into Manchuria in 1901 for seeking a better livelihood. Yang Mingzai went on to Vladivostok, Siberia and Moscow for employment consecutively. During Oct Revolution, Yang Mingzai enrolled himself in the Bolshevik party and participated in various wars. Yang Mingzai was later sent to "Toiler's University of the Far East" for training, and after graduation, was dispatched to Vladivostok for taking charge of 'Overseas Chinese United Society'. Yang later spent the years of 1925-1927 working at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, retired himself to academic studies in Peking during the time period of 1928-1929, and went back to Irkutsk in 1931 where he passed away due to illness.) Voitinsky was then referred to Chen Duxiu in Shanghai by Li Dazhao. Voitinsky discussed with Chen about establishing the CCP. In May of 1920, Yang Mingzai attended the founding of 'Marxism Research Society' of Shanghai. In Aug, Yang Mingzai, together with Chen Duxiu, Li Hanjun, Shen Xuanlu, Chen Wangdao, Yu Xiusong and Shi Cuntong [aka Shi Fuliang whose woman Wang Yizhi went for Zhang Tailei], established 'Communist Party Launch Panel of Shanghai'. Thereafter, Yang Mingzai and Yu Xiusong founded the 'Socialist Youth League of Shanghai'. Yang Mingzai contributed to the publication of "The New Youth" and "Communist" by writing articles. Yang Mingzai rented a two storey detached house at 6 Yuyangli Street of Shanghai for hosting Russo-Chinese News Agency, Foreign languages Society and Socialist Youth League Office. Yang Mingzai acted as the president for Russo-Chinese News Agency and Foreign languages Society. Foreign languages Society was a school that later sent numerous agents to USSR for studies, including Liu Shaoqi, Ren Bishi, Xiao Jingguang, Luo Yinong, Ren Zuomin, He Jinliang and Xi Zhizhen. Ms. Voitinsky taught Russian at the foreign language school. Yang Mingzai and Chen Duxiu hosted the 'Shanghai Machinist Society' launch panel meeting at this location on Oct 3rd of 1920. Voitinsky and Yang Jingzai frequently traveled between Shanghai and Beijing. Yang Mingzai stopped over in his native Shandong Prov where he guided Wang Jingmei and Deng Enming in setting up communism study group of Shandong Prov. Voitinsky worked with Li Dazhao and Zhang Guotao etc in setting up communism study group in Beijing in Oct 1920. Luo Zhanglong recalled that Voitinsky had held the founding meeting inside of Li Dazhao's library office before he departed for USSR. More activists, like Deng Zhongxia and Gao Junyu, joined the Beijing branch. Luo Zhanglong was in charge of "Workers Weekly" newspaper, while Zhang Guotao in charge of organization. In Spring of 1921, Yang Jingzai and Zhang Tailei went back to Russian Far East to report to the Comintern. In June of 1921, Yang Jingzai and Zhang Tailei attended Comintern Third Congress in Moscow. (Zhang Guotao, for his later betrayal, was frequently omitted in the records; however, Zhang Guotao had been among the earliest revolutionaries to have personally met Lenin.) Bu June of 1921, eight communism study groups were in actions for organizing CCP, including i) Beijing (Peking) city - Li Dazhao, Zhang Tailei, Deng Zhongxia, Zhang Guotao, Liu Renjing, Luo Zhanglong and Li Meigeng; ii) Wuhan city - Chen Tanqiu, Dong Biwu, Bao Huiseng and Li Hanjun; iii) Guangdong Prov - Tan Pingshan, Chen Gongbo and Chen Dacai; iv) Jinan city, Shandong Prov - Wang Jingmei and Deng Enming; v) Hunan Prov - Mao Zedong; and vi) Tokyo city - Shi Cuntong and Zhou Fohai [Zhou Fuhai]. By late 1921, a "Far East Exploited Peoples' Conference" [aka Toilers' Conference] was held in Moscow. Recent release of Soviet archives dated Dec 21st of 1920 show that Voitinsky and four Chinese revolutionaries set up a 'revolutionary committee' in Shanghai, with three offices of publication, information and organization. Comintern established a 'Russo-Chinese News Agency' in Shanghai, with a branch in Beijing. Voitinsky claimed that this 'revolutionary committee' had hosted several "conference of students' representatives" in Beijing, with attendants from universities in Beijing, Tianjin, Hankou and Nanjing (Nanking) etc, which resulted in the official founding of the 'Socialist Youth League' of China on Aug 17th of 1922. Students' representatives were admitted to 'revolutionary committee'. Shanghai's Russo-Chinese News Agency was temporarily taken over by Peking's USSR embassy, and Comintern Rep Maring was dispatched to Shanghai for organizing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Second Comintern Congress was over. (From 1921 to 1923, Maring paid three visits to China in total.) Maring's notes in Dutch archives mentioned that Chen Duxiu was the leader of CCP in Shanghai, with his "The New Youth" magazine enrolling a total of 50-60 people in 7-8 centers across the nation. Maring mentioned that 'revolutionary committee' set up a so-called spare-time laborer's school called Workers' Club and that the school had to stop operations when funds ran out at the departure of Voitinsky. At that time, Chen Duxiu left for an education minister post in Guangdong Prov at the invitation of Chen Jiongming. (Communist records stated that Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao were instructed to do propaganda work for the warlords in the south and north respectively as a way of making the communist case, not for making a living.) When various provincial representatives convened in Shanghai for founding the CCP in July 1921, Chen Duxiu was absent. Maring said that CCP was considered a branch of the Comintern and that CCP, headed by Maring and Zhang Guotao, requested with Chen Duxiu for abandoning his education official career in Canton. CCP planned to have Chen Duxiu return to Shanghai for publishing a monthly communism magazine as well as organizing workers' trade union in major cities like Shanghai, Canton and Peking. When Chen Duxiu returned to Shanghai 20 days after the party founding, Maring persuaded him into agreeing to an alliance with KMT and then left for Canton for a meeting with Liao Zhongkai. Liao Zhongkai sent Maring to Sun Yat-sen who was organizing his own Northern Expedition army as a result of discord with Chen Jiongming. Per Chen Gongbo, 'Russo-Chinese News Agency' set up a branch in Canton where they debated with the anarchists on such party organ newspapers as "Socialist" and "Laborer World". Maring, having stayed in China from 1921 to 1923, was responsible for maintaining contacts with both KMT and CCP, with often conflicting orders from USSR Foreign Affairs Ministry and Comintern.  In June of 1922,
Maring pushed through the Moscow demand, at the Second CCP National Session, to
have CCP ally with KMT against the objections of such senior CCP founders as
Zhang Guotao. Zhang Guotao, who practiced an early CCP policy to mobilize
workers' movement in northern China, suffered a setback when Wu Peifu cracked
down on the Feb 7th 1923 Jing-Han Railroad Workers' Strike. During the second
session of the Second CCP National Session, Zhang Guotao agreed to shifting
CCP's revolutionary agenda to Shanghai/Canton in the south and accepting the
KMT-CCP alliance. The fundamental reason that CCP needed the cover of KMT would
be the fact that communists were seen as "monsters" in the eyes of the warlord
governors in both southern and northern China while KMT was a legalized party
organization after the death of Yuan Shi-kai. That's why Cai Yuanpei etc could
still worked as schoolmaster in Peking while Sun Yat-sen's Canton government was
in military conflict with the Peking government. Communists, by tagging
themselves as KMT members, played the procedural workaround to expand its own
ranks, making its underground activity legalized. Though, communists' agenda was
apparently the ultimate revolution, and they never hid this prediction in front
of KMT leadership.  KMT leader Wu
Zhihui was shocked to utter a claim that KMT had a life expectancy of only 30
years. That was because Chen Duxiu claimed to KMT elderly Wu Zhihui that
China might take 30 years to reach socialism. At the Second CCP National Plenary, CCP leader Chen Duxiu etc echoed Maring's opinions that China's revolution should go through two stages the same way as USSR had undergone the 1905 & 1917 revolutions, i.e., i) democratic revolution and ii) socialist revolution. Zhang Guotao and Cai Hesen etc, however, believed that China could skip the first stage to enter socialist revolution right away. At the Third CCP National Plenary of 1923, Chen Duxiu had an upper hand. By the Fourth CCP National Plenary, Zhang Guotao weighed over Chen Duxiu in advocating a Proletarian socialist revolution in lieu of a Bourgeois democratic revolution. For more about Soviet scheme against China, please refer to The USSR, Comintern, KMT & CCP [Modified : Saturday, 31-Mar-2012 04:10:20 EDT] The Guangdong-Guangxi War & Li Zongren's Emergence Chen Jiongming Rebellion Against Sun Yat-sen At http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/3123morgan_v_dr_sun.html], Mike Billington wrote about the "SYNARCHISM" work of imperialists and capitalists in an article entitled "How London, Wall Street Backed Japan's War Against China and Sun Yat Sen". Mike Billington pointed out that "British refusal to work with Sun Yat Sen was transformed into overt military operations against him in 1922. The British Consul General in Shanghai, after reviewing Sun's International Development of China, accused Sun of trying to supplant colonial Hongkong as a trans-shipping center by Canton, and linked Sun to Bolshevik activities in the South. The British, under Addis' direction, provided Chen Chung-ming, a warlord in the Canton region, with a $500,000 loan to conduct a military assault on Sun and his KMT base in Canton, which nearly succeeded. At the same time Addis began making direct economic and military deals with other regional warlords, encouraging them to act independently of either Peking or Canton."  Chen
Jiongming's ultimate rebellion against Sun Yat-sen was very much a trickery of
Chiang Kai-shek. According to Chen Jieru's memoirs, before and after the
confrontations between Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming, Chiang Kai-shek had sowed
dissensions by writing to various military and political leaders inside of
southern government. Chiang Kai-shek's personal character had doomed China from
right here. Similar scenario of dissension would be subsequent Chiang Kai-shek
trickery against Liu Zhenhuan [Guangxi army] and Yang Ximin [Yunnan army], i.e.,
two generals who had contributed to the overthrow of Chen Jiongming regime. Chen
Jieru's conclusion is that Chiang Kai-shek could easily turn his friends into
foes. On Oct 8th, Sun Yat-sen proposed the "Act for Northern Expeditions" to the Parliament in Canton, and shortly thereafter, held the ceremony of "Oath of Northern Campaigns" in Canton. on Oct 15th, Sun Yat-sen took ride of Warship Baobi and arrived in Wuzhou of Guangxi Prov on Oct 17th. In Guangxi Prov, Sun Yat-sen toured numerous cities, made public speeches as to northern campaigns, designated his 'grand military base' in Guangxi, and re-organized the armies under his immediate influence. Sun Yat-sen conferred CIC (commander-in-chief) of Dian-jun onto Zhu Peide, CIC of Gan-jun (Jiangxi Prov army) onto Peng Chengwan, CIC of Qian-jun onto Gu Zhenglun, chief military counselor post onto Li Liejun, and secretary post onto Hu Hanmin. At Wuzhou of Guangxi Prov, Sun Yat-sen re-organized armies into three corps, with Li Liejun, Xu Chongzhi and Li Fulin in charge, respectively. Sun wired to Chen Jiongming for a meeting about northern campaigns in Wuzhou as well as a plan for appropriation of 40 battalions of Yue-jun army, but Chen Jiongming declined it. At this time, Chen Jiongming stationed his troops at Nanning of Guangxi Prov. on Oct 25th, Sun arrived in Nanning and paid a visit to Chen for enlisting support of the northern campaigns. Chen Jiongming claimed that he would need half a year for a rest of his troops. on 29th, Sun returned to Wuzhou. 
Maring, who came to China in the spring of 1921, met Sun Yat-sen in Guangxi
Prov. on Oct 31st of 1921, Chicherin wired to Chita Republic's foreign affairs
ministry to inquire about the possibility of establishing relations with Canton
Government without antagonizing the Peking Government. Bao Huiseng's
Memoirs claimed that it was Maring who gave Sun Yat-sen, someone who lacked
real command of loyal forces, the hope and courage in revoking Chen Jiongming's
posts in June of 1922. However, Sun Yat-sen's personal charisma among
Southwestern China's generals or militarists should never be discounted. Sun
Yat-sen's later acceptance of Russian packages should be ascribed to
frustrations at the Chen Jiongming rebellion as the correct cause-effect.
More available at Chen_Jiongming-Rebellion-Against-Su_Yat-sen.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
On June 20th 1922, Chen rebels attacked Hu Hanmin in Shaoguan. Hu Hanmin left Shaoguan for a trek across the mountains to find Xu Chongzhi's army. Hu Hanmin retreated to Ganzhou of Jiangxi Prov on June 27th. on July 2nd, majority of Northern Expedition armies, Xu Chongzhi, Li Fulin, Zhu Peide and Huang Dawei, turned around to fight Yue-jun's rebellion; Li Liejun remained in Jiangxi to protect the rear. However, the first division, headed by Liang Hongkai, marched straight back to Huizhou to serve under Chen Jiongming. Xu Chongzhi etc changed route to fight rebels in Shaoguan, with Zhu Peide's Dian-jun as herald force. Liang Hongkai and his 1st Div of Guangdong Prov Army slipped away to join Chen Jiongming. Hu Hanmin suggested following the footstep of Liang Hongkai and then attacked Chen Jiongming via a havoc, but Xu Chongzhi advocated for retaking Shaoguan. Liang Hongkai joined Xiong Luue against the northern expedition army; Shen Hongying destroyed two thirds of Huang Dawei's 1st Corps at Wenyuan; and Tan Meng brigade under Chen Jiayou's Hunan Prov Army steered away some of Li Fulin's 3rd Corps. At a hospital in Nanxiong, Li Liejun and Xu Chongzhi split into two groups for Hunan & Fujian, respectively. Li Liejun was disarmed by Zhao Hengti in Hunan. In Fujian, Xu Chongzhi's 2nd Corps and Li Fulin's 3rd Corps took over Tingzhou. With Lu Yongxiang's mediation, Hu Hanmin reached an agreement with Wang Yongquan of Wan-xi Clique against rival Li Houji who defected to Zhi-xi Clique after July 1920 Zhi-xi vs Wan-xi War. More available at Chen_Jiongming-Rebellion-Against-Su_Yat-sen.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
The USSR / Comintern Alliance With KMT & CCP Three agencies of USSR, i.e., Peking's USSR embassy, Comintern stationed in Shanghai and USSR corps in Guangzhou (Canton), were involved in China's politics. The three groups had different agenda and objectives and often had conflicting functions and redundant tasks. Voitinsky and Maring were responsible for developing and organizing the CCP. Maring and Joffe were responsible for changing Comintern's "Irkutsk line" to full cooperation with Sun Yat-sen. With Trotsky's financial support and endorsement, Borodin brought 120,000 (?) rifles and 2 million Mexican dollars to Sun Yat-sen's KMT in Canton and contributed to the so-called China's "Da Ge-ming" (i.e. "Grand Revolution"), also termed the 'First Revolutionary Civil War' by the CCP, a campaign that would unite China under Sun Yat-sen's KMT government. More available at USSR-Comintern-KMT-CCP. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
For more about Soviet scheme against China, please refer to The USSR, Comintern, KMT & CCP [Modified : Saturday, 31-Mar-2012 04:10:20 EDT] The KMT First National Congress (Jan 1924) On March 2nd 1923, grand marshal office for infantry and navy was re-established in Canton, with Chiang Kai-shek offered a job acting as military tactician, which Chiang Kai-shek did not report to till 1.5 months later. Chen Jieru memoirs stated that Chiang Kai-shek caused his clients a loss of 20,000 yuan in buying textile stocks. After Zhang Jingjiang paid off the debts, they sent off Chiang Kai-shek to Canton where the couple arrived on April 20th. During this time period, Chiang Kai-shek couple was invited to Wang Jingwei's residency for a banquet in honor of Gui-jun General Liu Zhenhuan. Sun Yat-sen, calling 35-year-old Liu Zhenhuan as "Buddha Liu", eulogized his bravery by pointing out that Liu Zhenhuan had incurred two bullets piercing through shoulder and stomach without letting up at the Battle Of Boluo. Wang Jingwei's wife, i.e., Chen Bijun [aka Beeky], explained to Chen Jieru why revolutionary movements had failed in the past and why Russian assistance might change the picture this time around. At the banquet, Chiang Kai-shek, in order to befriend and impress General Liu Zhenhuan, offered a HK tour invitation. Liu Zhenhuan couple were delighted to tour HK with Chiang Kai-shek introducing rich "patriotic" businessmen [i.e., Sun Yat-sen's financial donors, including Lee Po's sons, Mei Quong-Tart, and Lamese Zee-min Lee] and British customs officer Joseph Brennan. On Aug 14th of 1923, i.e., on July 13th [lunar calendar], Sun Yat-sen dispatched Chiang Kai-shek and a delegation to Moscow for a three month inspection trip. Chen Jieru memoirs stated that Chiang Kai-shek departed Canton on July 28th, arrived in Shanghai on Aug 2nd and met Maring on Aug 5th. The four person team included Chiang Kai-shek, Shen Dingyi, Zhang Tailei and Wang Dengyun, and they arrived in Moscow on Sept 2nd. From Aug to Nov 1923, Chiang Kai-shek wrote at least five letters to Chen Jieru, with repeated mentioning of the black cloak that he was wearing. Chen Jieru secretly ordered with James Zee-min Lee in HK after she found out that Chiang Kai-shek was captivated by the black-colored cloak that Joseph Brennan was wearing. Chiang Kai-shek letters stated that he met with Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin, I.V. Galinin [Jia-li-ning], Grigory Yevseyevich Zinovyev (G.Y. Zinoviev) [Ji-luo-wei-ye-fu], Leon Trotsky and etc, discerned dual leadership in Soviet Red Army 144th Infantry Regiment, audited the mass meeting attended by 220,000 people, and bought Marx's "Das Capital". In Russia, Chiang Kai-shek came into conflict with Chinese communist activists as to disrespect for Sun Yat-sen. After returning to Shanghai on Dec 15th 1923, Chiang Kai-shek deliberately delayed his report to Sun Yat-sen for dissatisfaction over Sun Yat-sen's nomination of Borodin in his absence. After a complaint to Sun Yat-sen when no response was heard, Chiang received a wire from Sun Yat-sen in late Dec to have Chiang Kai-shek go to Canton immediately. On Oct 5th 1923, Cao Kun became president after bribing the Parliament. Sun Yat-sen issued a most wanted list for the Parliament members as well as Cao Kun.  on Oct 6th,
Mikhail Markovich Borodin, aka Mikhail Gruzenberg (Grusenberg or Gerg), arrived
in Canton after stopover in Harbin, Shenyang and Beijing. Borodin had served as
counselors in Mexico, Scotland and Turkey consecutively, and served as a
counselor to Mustapha Kemal Pasha before taking on the task for China. In
Karakhan's Sept 23rd letter to Sun Yat-sen, Borodin was touted as a trust-worthy
rep of Karakhan himself as well as the rep of USSR. Five days after Borodin
arrival, Sun Yat-sen began the work of re-organizing KMT with Borodin. Per USSR
adviser Alexander I. Cherepanov, Sun Yat-sen had ignored CCP's request for
re-organizing KMT till Borodin arrival. Borodin proposals included the revision
of KMT guidelines to emphasize 'mass propaganda', to stipulate party objectives,
to establish a second KMT center in Shanghai and branches elsewhere, to hold a
KMT national congress as soon as possible, and to detail the tasks and work
style for individual KMT members. More available at KMT_First_National_Congress.pdf. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
For more about Soviet scheme against China, please refer to The USSR, Comintern, KMT & CCP [Modified : Saturday, 31-Mar-2012 04:10:20 EDT] Founding of the Chinese Communist Party
The curriculum for China's colleges and universities invariably included three political courses, 'History of CCP', 'Dialectical and Historical Materialism' and 'Marxist Philosophy'. (Similar but simplified versions of textbooks would be offered at both junior and senior high schools, all shitty cliché designed to brainwash people as well as wear out their will and youth.) Yin Zuowei, a university professor in charge of CCP history course in early 1980s, always mentioned Zhang Guotao's fate, i.e., natural death in a Canadian 'hospice' in Dec 1979, as something for ridiculing a deserter or traitor. In comparison with those veterans who died of persecutions during the cultural revolution, Zhang Guotao could be considered a lucky guy. Li Dazhao's propagating Communism Among College Students In 1918, at Peking University, Li Dazhao was banned from organizing "Marxism thought research society". Among Li Dazhao's disciples would be student leader Zhang Guotao. Zhang Guotao, born in Pingxiang County of Jiangxi Prov in 1897, was among the most prominent practitioners of early communism and hosted the founding meeting for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shanghai in July 1921 at the absence of both Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu. Zhang Guotao had been deputy chief of the students' association for Beijing University, and later acted as the chairman for the united student associations of Beijing colleges and universities during the May 4th Movement of 1919. During May 4th Movement, Fu Sinian & Zhang Guotao led the siege and burning of a Northern Government minister. In May 1919, Li Dazhao published the Morning Post newspaper in Peking and opened a special column for Marxism research. Also in May 1919, Mao Zedong organized Hunan student united society to echo Peking student movement during the May 4th Movement. 70,000 Shanghai workers held a strike in support of Peking students. On Jan 29th 1920, Zhou Enlai led over thousand students for a petition protest in front of Governor's office for Zhili Prov. 24 student leaders, including Zhou Enlai, would be arrested by police chief Yang Yide and imprisoned for 180 days. In March, Li Dazhao, Deng Zhongxia, Gao Junyu, Qu Qiubai, Heh Mengxiong and Luo Zhanglong re-established "Marxism thought research society" in Peking. Yun Daiying, meanwhile, established "Liqun Book Society" together with Lin Biao and Lin Yueying cousins in Wuchang of Hubei Prov for propagating communism. Voitinsky & Yang Mingzai's Mission To China In March-April 1920, Voitinsky [Wu Tingkang in Chinese] and a Chinese-turned Russian Bolshevik called Yang Mingzai, came to Peking where they met Li Dazhao through the referral of a Russian professor [Bao-li-wei], and later met with student leaders such as Zhang Guotao, Li Meigeng, Liu Renjing and Luo Zhanglong inside of the library of Beijing University. Voitinsky was then sent to Shanghai's Chen Duxiu by Li Dazhao for talks about establishing the CCP. In April, Mao Zedong dropped by at Confucius' birthplace Qufu while en route to Shanghai from Peking. Mao visited Zhou Zuoren in Peking, paid visit to Sun Yat-sen [Sun Zhongshan] as well as Chen Duxiu in Shanghai. Mao returned to Changsha where he worked with Heh Shuheng in setting up "Russia studies society", "Hunan society for promoting reform", and "cultural book society". In May of 1920, Yang Mingzai attended the founding of 'Marxism Research Society' of Shanghai. In June, Shi Cuntong and Zhou Fohai established communism study group in Japan after taking the "Da Kapital" course from Japanese Marxist professor Kawakami Hajime ("Research on Social Problems"), and in July, Cai Hesen advocated organization of communist party in France. In Aug, Yang Mingzai, together with Chen Duxiu, Li Hanjun, Li Da, Shen Yanbin, Shen Xuanlu, Chen Wangdao, Yu Xiusong and Shi Cuntong, established 'Communist Party Launch Panel of Shanghai'. Chen Wangdao translated 'communist manifesto' into Chinese. (Dai Jitao exited the founding panel after Sun Yat-sen rebuked his communism activities.) Thereafter, Yang Mingzai and Yu Xiusong founded the 'Socialist Youth League of Shanghai'. Yang Mingzai rented a two storey detached house at 6 Yuyangli Street of Shanghai for hosting Russo-Chinese News Agency, Foreign languages Society and Socialist Youth League Office. Voitinsky and Yang Jingzai frequently traveled between Shanghai and Beijing. Yang Mingzai stopped over in his native Shandong Prov where he guided Wang Jingmei and Deng Enming in setting up communism study group of Shandong Prov. In Oct 1920, Voitinsky worked with Li Dazhao and Zhang Guotao etc in setting up communism study group in Beijing. Also in Oct, Changsha of Hunan Prov, Guangdong Prov, and Wuhan of Hubei Prov launched communism groups. (Mei Lanfang began his fame in Beijing Opera.) In Spring of 1921, Yang Jingzai and Zhang Tailei went back to Russian Far East to report to the Comintern. In April 1921, Liu Shaoqi and a dozen youth boarded the freight ship for Vladivostok via a stopover in Nagasaki. At Japanese-controlled Vladivostok, Liu Shaoqi etc was briefly detained by the consulate official of northern government official. With pass from Prof Ivanov of Vladivostok University, they slipped through the Yi-man River border into Khabarovsk [Boli], took three-month train ride for Moscow and later became the first batch of graduates of Oriental Toiler University. By June of 1921, eight communism study groups were in actions for organizing CCP, including i) Beijing (Peking) - Li Dazhao, Zhang Tailei, Deng Zhongxia, Zhang Guotao, Liu Renjing, Luo Zhanglong and Li Meigeng; ii) Wuhan - Chen Tanqiu, Dong Biwu, Bao Huiseng and Li Hanjun; iii) Guangdong - Tan Pingshan, Chen Gongbo and Chen Dacai; iv) Jinan, Shandong - Wang Jingmei and Deng Enming; v) Hunan - Mao Zedong; and vi) Tokyo - Shi Cuntong and Zhou Fohai (Zhou Fuhai). For more about Soviet scheme against China, please refer to The USSR, Comintern, KMT & CCP [Modified : Saturday, 31-Mar-2012 04:10:20 EDT] 'Junior CCP Traveler-Branch In Europe' In Paris of France, Zhou Enlai, in cooperation with Sichuan natives (such as Deng Xiaoping [? too junior] and Zhu De), organized the so-called 'Junior CCP Traveler-Branch In Europe' in June 1921. Paris activists would include Li Fuchun, Zhao Shiyan, Chen Yannian, Li Weihan, Cai Hesen and Xiang Jingyu, i.e., remnant overseas students from 'qin gong jian xue' movement that was organized by Cai Yuanpei's Sino-French Education Board. (Sino-French Education Board abandoned the project in Jan 1921 as a result of the education board's pursuit of French government refunding overcharged boxer indemnity for sake of establishing Sino-French education institutions in China.) Zhou Enlai was said to have analyzed the coal-miners' strike of Britain in April of 1921 and worked with Zhao Shiyan etc in setting up a CCP branch on basis of communism study group of Paris in June of 1921. 'Junior CCP Traveler-Branch In Europe' was later renamed 'Chinese Communist Youth League Traveler-Branch In Europe'. Zhou's self account stated that he had organized Chinese Communist Youth League after he returned to France from Germany in 1922, by which time membership swelled to over 300 across four countries (France, Germany, Britain and Britain) from original 20 something. Zhou's team included Wang Ruofei and Luo Mai in addition to Zhu De [in Germany], Nie Rongzhen [in Belgium], and Chen Yi [in France]. In Aug of 1922, Zhou Enlai took charge of editing the magazine "Shao Nian" (i.e., Junior) and propagated the theories of communism in Paris. Zhou's self account also stated that over 100 members of the youth league later joined CCP and that in 1923, he was authorized by Sun Yat-sen to organize KMT-in-Europe in cooperation with a KMT activist by the name of Wang Jingqi. KMT activists in Europe included Zhang Lisheng and Zhang Daofan and their main agenda was to fight another Chinese party called the "Youth Party" for influence and membership. ("Youth Party", i.e., an overseas Chinese state-ist organization mapping Italian scheme, was headed by Zeng Qi and Li Huang. Deng Xiaoping was active in writing articles against "Youth Party" and later was accused by French of conspiring in assassination of "Youth Party" leaders. After overseas student protests of May 30th Bloody Incident, Deng Xiaoping, under French police monitoring, would leave for Moscow in early 1926.) Other than fighting the "Youth Party", Zhou Enlai was noted for his activities against Belgium-born French Priest Father Vincent Lebbe who, a devout priest first sent to China in 1895, went back to France to assist with Chinese students. Zhou Enlai, directly under French Comintern per YMC, edited "Red Light Fortnightly" [i.e., Chi Guang], attacked Father Lebbe by propagating the notion that "Religion is the opiate that enslaves the people." (Father Lebbe, later from 1937 to 1940, would organize medical relief activities to the Chinese during the resistance war against Japan. He died in June 1940 after being released by communist forces led by Liu Bocheng.) Brief History Of Zhou Enlai & Deng Xiaoping In France, Zhou Enlai made a living by acting as a correspondent for newspapers in China. In contrast, Deng Xiaoping worked as a machinist in a iron & molding factory, a handicraft worker in raincoat and rubber tire factory, an assistant in a restaurant, and a worker in a auto assembly line while spending his 5 years in France. Deng Xiaoping first traveled to France at the early age of sixteen. Deng Xiaoping possibly joined Zhou Enlai's 'Junior CCP Traveler-Branch In Europe' in 1922. In June 1923, Deng Xiaoping was admitted to renamed 'Chinese Communist Youth League Traveler-Branch In Europe' as nicknamed "Dr. mimeograph" for printing "Red Light" semi-monthly that started in Feb 1924. Zhou was born in Huai'an of Jiangsu Prov but claiming ancestry at Shaoxing of Zhejiang Prov which supposedly had produced majority 'shi ye' [i.e., county magistrate's counselors] for the nation, a job that he would hold for Mao Tse-tung throughout his life. Zhou was said to have remote blood relationship with Lu Xun [Zhou Shuren]. Zhou, who later transferred to his junior uncle's wife for the lineage, went to Manchuria in 1910 to be with his father and elder uncle. In 1913, Zhou entered Nankai Middle School, participated in students movement against Japan's 21 Demands in 1915, went to Japan for further studies in 1917, returned to China during 5-4-1919 Movement, enrolled in Nankai University where he edited the newspaper for Tianjin city students' united associations. Zhou Enlai was arrested in Jan 1920 for leading students' movement at Nankai University, Tianjin. Also arrested would be Zhou Enlai's girl friend Zhang Ruoming. The two, after being released in Nov 1920, left for France together. (Zhou Enlai, in his Sept 1946 interview with an American journalist, Lieberman?, did not mention his private life. See secretchina.com/news/articles/3/5/5/41621.html for Sima Lu's article about Zhou Enlai and his women. We could not tell why Zhou Enlai and Zhang Ruoming broke off in Paris, but revelations show that Zhou had impregnated a fat German servant girl at the Paris guest house where Zhou had stayed. During Zhou's visit to Germany in early 50s, a mingle-face young man was presented to Zhou as his 'grandson'.) In France, Zhou Enlai was among the student leaders who were coordinating student organizations across several European countries, with the main focus being the competition against the Youth Party for membership expansion. With the KMT-CCP alliance going on in Canton, Zhou Enlai received assignments from Sun Yat-sen as well. 'Chinese Communist Youth League Traveler-Branch In Europe' kept the liaison with Comintern in Moscow. After a student protest movement against the legation of the Republic of China, French police paid increasing attention to the Chinese communism activists. one step ahead of French police, Deng Xiaoping traveled to the Soviet Union after 1924. He was in the Soviet Union until 1926 when he returned to China. Comintern Third Congress & Founding of the Chinese Communist Party In June of 1921, Yang Jingzai and Zhang Tailei attended Comintern Third Congress in Moscow. Meanwhile, Maring was pushing through the CCP establishment inside China. on July 21st of 1921, Zhang Guotao, with Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao as absentee leaders, hosted the First National Session of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai. (Chen Yongfa claimed that Peking area dispatched their representatives to Nanking's "Junior China Society" instead of Shanghai's "communist party launch panel meeting".) Twelve more representatives across the nation and two Russians (Maring & Nikolsky) attended the meeting, which was later moved from the Shanghai extraterritory area to a boat on Lake Nanhu, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. Li Da's wife suggested the lake's locality where she had attended high school earlier. Representatives would include Zhang Guotao and Liu Renjing from Beijing, Mao Zedong and He Shuheng from Hunan, Wang Jingmei [college student] and Deng Enmin [high school student] from Shandong, Li Hanjun, Dong Biwu, Chen Tanqiu and Bao Huiseng from Hubei, Chen Gongbo from Guangdong, Zhou Fuhai and Li Da from Shanghai.  The relocation
of the meeting away from "shi-ku-men" [i.e., stone-grotto-style gated
residence areas] at 76 Xingye Road (previously 3 Shudeli Lane, 106 Wangzhi Road
[Bei-le-lu Road?] of French extraterritory), now known as First CCP Congress
Memorial Hall, was due to some stranger knocking on the door and breaking in on
the night of July 30th while meeting was in session. Ten minutes after the
representatives' vacating the house, 3 French policemen led detectives and
inspectors to the house for checking out on two Russians (Maring and Nikolsky)
who were spotted earlier by French-hired detectives. Among the founders, Chen Gongbo [Ch'en Kung-po] & Zhou Fohai [Chou Fu-hai] later went to the KMT [Kuomintang] camp. Zhou Fohai separated himself from the communists after accepting a post at a university, enrolled in KMT under the influence of CC Clique, and became the minister of KMT's Propaganda Department, with publication of a book entitled "Theory & System Of Three People's Principles". Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, nicknamed Southern Chen and Northern Li, did not have the convenience to attend the meeting. 24-year-old Zhang Guotao was declared as the organization minister of CCP while Chen Duxiu was made secretary general for the politburo and Li Da the propaganda minister of CCP. (Later, Zhou Enlai was said to have emphasized to Zhang Guotao on one occasion that Zhang Guotao should not leave the party he had founded. However, Zhang Guotao fled to Nationalist territory on April 5th of 1938, after he joined the CCP group for sacrificial oblation activities at Huangdi's Pilgrimage in middle Shenxi Prov. Zhang Guotao, whose main forces were lost to Ma Family Muslim cavalry during the western expeditions, had begun to think about desertation after his son was said to have been bullied by Mao Zedong on a street. In exchange for Zhang Guotao's renouncing his CCP membership, Mao Zedong released Zhang Guotao's wife Yang Zilie from Yan'an.) Still one interesting thing would be CCP's denial of first communist party established by Yang Shangkun's brother in Sichuan Province in 1920. At the absence of Chen Duxiu, Maring assisted Zhang Guotao in founding the CCP in July 1921 as a branch of the Comintern. Within weeks of the July 1921 meeting, Maring was pushing through his agenda to have an KMT-CCP alliance. In Aug, Guo Moruo published poems "Goddess" and Mao Zedong launched "Hunan Self-Study University". Comintern Instruction As To Alliance With KMT & "Two-Stage Revolution" Zhang Guotao visited USSR and met Lenin. After return to China, Zhang Guotao was at one time against Chen Duxiu and Comintern's instructions as to acceptance of Sun Yat-sen's Nationalist Party, i.e., Kuomintang (Guomingdang) or KMT, as the revolutionary leader. Zhang Guotao was criticized as an 'opportunist' by Borodin and Pavel Mif etc. Zhang Guotao personally propagated Marxism among the workers, railroad workers and miners, and helped to set up 'workers' club, workers' associations, and workers' consolidated associations [i.e., trade union equivalent]. In June of 1922, Maring pushed through the Moscow demand, at the Second CCP National Session, to have CCP ally with KMT against the objections of Zhang Guotao. Zhang Guotao, having suffered a setback when Wu Peifu cracked down on the Feb 7th 1923 Jing-han Railroad Workers' Strike, agreed to shifting CCP's revolutionary agenda to Shanghai/Guangzhou in the south and accepting the KMT-CCP alliance during the Second Plenary of the Second CCP National Session. CCP agreed with Maring that China's revolution should go through two stages the same way as USSR had undergone the 1905 & 1917 revolutions, i.e., i) democratic revolution and ii) socialist revolution. On May 20th 1924, Zhang Guotao was arrested by the Northern Warlord Government and would not be set free till Dec 25th. A Short History Of Zhang Guotao Zhang Guotao, appearing like a black horse within CCP, had one more antagonism to communist policies. After Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) purged the communists and Wang Jingwei wavered in his stance on alliance with CCP and USSR, Zhang Guotao was empowered as a special emissary of CCP Central Committee to launch the armed rebellion, i.e., "August 1st 1927 Nanchang Uprising" in Jiangxi Prov. However, Zhang Guotao did not fully agree with the uprising till noon of July 31st because Zhang Guotao was still hoping that KMT's Zhang Fakui, who had sheltered the communists after Wuhan's separation of CCP from KMT, would stand on the same side as CCP. August 1st would later become CCP's army founding memorial date. Zhang Guotao, who was originally dispatched to Nanchang to oppose armed rebellion, would give in to Zhou Enlai etc in launching the August 1st Nanchang Uprising, which was earlier than Mao Zedong's "Autumn Harvest Uprising in Hunan Prov". In 1928, at the order of Comintern, CCP held its Sixth National Session in USSR. Chen Duxiu, a staunch supporter of Comintern policies, tactics and instructions, refused to go to USSR for the meeting which had already blamed Chen Duxiu as a scapegoat for the disintegration of Nationalist-Communist Alliance. Zhang Guotao attended the meeting in Moscow where he was detained for brainwashing the 'opportunism' tendencies till 1931. Meanwhile, USSR sent over so-called 28.5 Bolsheviks, including Wang Ming, Bo-gu, Zhang Wentian, Kang Sheng, Lu Dingyi etc, for taking over the leadership of CCP. In 1931, Zhang Guotao, together with Chen Changhao, returned to China from USSR, via Trans-Siberia Railroad route, passing through Japanese-controlled Manchuria and riding Japanese ships to Shanghai. As one scholar commented, Japanese agents knowingly let through Russia-trained Chinese communist insurgents, even after checking out the passport names like Zhou Enlai etc, the same way as the German Kaiser’s releasing Lenin for sabotaging Russia and changing WWII developments. Japanese agents often cautioned the communists that though they were safe on ship, they might not be so upon arrival in Shanghai. Zhang Guotao and Chen Changhao, escorted to Wuhan by Gu Shunzhang (who was caught by KMT and turned into a traitor shortly), would change vehicles mid-way and successfully arrive in communist guerilla areas where they organized CCP's 4th Flank Red Army in the cross-border areas of Hubei-Henan-Anhui provinces. CCP Central Flank Red Army broke through the KMT siege in Jiangxi Prov for a long march, while Zhang Guotao already led his 4th Flank to Sichuan where they multiplied into 50,000 men. At the time when the Central Flank converged with the 4th Flank in 1935, Mao Zedong had less than 10,000 men. Mao Zedong and Zhang Guotao had a dispute in regards to leadership as well as the direction of movement. Mao Zedong, being afraid of Zhang Guotao's possible coup d'etat, would flee the scene, and Zhang Guotao had convened a temporary CCP Central Committee. The two had later reconciled at the intervention of Comintern, but this incident had sowed the seed of strife between the two. Mao Zedong later 'borrowed the enemy knife' in ordering a Western Expedition of Zhang Guotao's army for confrontation with Ma family cavalry in Qinghai-Gansu areas. The end result would be Zhang Guotao's losing military forces and leadership and the eventual defection of Zhang Guotao to KMT territories in 1938. For more about Soviet scheme against China, please refer to The USSR, Comintern, KMT & CCP [Modified : Saturday, 31-Mar-2012 04:10:20 EDT] CCP Organized Workers' Movement CCP began to get heavily involved in the workers' movement right after its founding. Beginning from late 1921, CCP northern bureau organized railroad workers' strikes on eight railroads. By April of 1922, at Changxindian, CCP prepared for organization of the consolidated union for Jin-Han Railroad. Liu Shaoqi was recalled back to China from Moscow. Chen Duxiu personally dispatched Liu Shaoqi to Hunan Prov in the summer of 1922. Liu Shaoqi was to report to Mao Tse-tung's CCP Hunan Executive Committee, a building where Mao Tse-tung and Yang Kai-hui took as their residency. This would be the first meeting of the two who would become life and death feuds during the cultural revolution of 1960s. On May 1st, Anyuan miners established worker club. Mao Tse-tung and Li Lishan had instigated among workers at Anyuan consecutively since late 1921. on Sept 9th, 2400 railroad workers at the segment of Yue-Han Railroad established worker club and declared a strike. In Hanyang, Metal Factory workers also launched a strike. Mao Tse-tung dispatched Liu Shaoqi to Anyuan on Sept 11th for assisting Li Lishan. on Sept 14th of 1922, Li Lishan and Liu Shaoqi launched the 13,000 men "Anyuan Miners' Strike" and "Zhuzhou-Pingxiang Railroad Workers Strike" at the Hunan-Jiangxi border, defeated the crackdown by army, and forced the authorities into signing concessions by Sept 18th. Among 13,000 men would be 12000 miners and 1000 railroad workers. Liu Shaoqi personally went to see curfew garrison commander during this strike. on Sept 18th, Li Lishan and Liu Shaoqi celebrated the victory with over 10000 workers. Per Deng Zhongxia, Liu Shaoqi's accomplishments of establishing seven workers' school, five reading rooms, one worker library, and two consumer cooperatives would become the only glorious establishment in the aftermath of Feb 7th 1923 crackdown on Jin-Han Railroad Workers' Strike. The Consolidated Union for Jing-Han Railroad was scheduled for its commencement on Feb 1st of 1923, with open invitations of over 300 presidents and activists of all railroad union and workers' unions. But, on Jan 29th, Wu Peifu, being notified of the event by Zhengzhou's railroad chief Zhao Jixian, would order that Jin Yun'e crackdown on the meeting. Zhengzhou police declared martial law on Feb 1st and encircled the union gathering. Shi Wenbin, in face of crackdown, declared the founding the union. By late afternoon, the police destroyed the scene of the meeting. Luo Zhanglong, Shi Wenbin and Wang Zhongyi made a decision for a general concerted strike across the country (from Peking to Zhengzhou to Wuhan) beginning on Feb 5th [? Feb 4th per Wang Jianji & Wang Yuanchao]. 1000 kilometer long Jin-Han Railway collapsed within 3 hours of the strike. 10,000 workers in Wuhan city paraded on the streets to echo the strike of 30000 railway workers. At Zhengzhou, Jin Yun'e, chief of 14th division, arrested several workers' representatives who had earlier visited his military office for appealing workers' case. At Jiang'an, workers forced the authorities into releasing some representatives. At Wuhan, workers dispatched a delegation to Jiang'an to show support for the strike. At Changxindian, on the night of Feb 6th, Cao Kun's army began to attack the workers and arrested workers' leaders including Shi Wenbin. Luo Zhanglong was called to Changxindian, near Lugouqiao Bridge, for organizing the rescue activity. Luo Zhanglong and Ge Shugui led 3000-4000 workers and encircled the police bureau where two battalions were stationed. Another battalion came to crack down on workers, and altogether five activists were killed and 29 wounded. Luo Zhanglong, wounded in the fight, relocated his strike office to Peking. on the afternoon of Feb 7th, Governor-general Xiao Yaonan (for Hunan Prov) slaughtered workers at Jiang'an train station of Hankou and killed 32 workers including Lin Xiangqian (CCP member). Another activist, Shi Yang, was arrested and executed on Feb 15th. Crackdown also went on at Baoding, Baobeidian, Zhangde, Xinyang, Xinxiang and Yancheng. This would be termed "Feb 7th 1923 Jing-Han (Peking-Wuhan) Railroad & Mine Strike". Altogether over 40-50 people died, 300 injured, 60 arrested, and 1000 workers dismissed. To avoid further sacrifice, CCP northern bureau declared a termination of strike. Zhao Jixian, however, proposed to Wu Peifu and Cao Kun for a continuous crackdown on CCP. Peking government announced whoever communist caught would be executed. In Peking, government broke into a workers union guest house and arrested the person in charge; the printing house under Beijing University was destroyed; and "Workers Weekly" was closed down. Tianjin city's "Workers Weekly" was destroyed, too. Over 40 people in Peking, Tianjin, Zhengzhou and Fengtai were arrested. on March 22nd, 1923, over one thousand people, including Mrs. Shi Yang, attended the funeral of Feb 7th Strike victims against the government's pressure. In Shanghai, similar mourning activity was held. Canton's Chinese Seamen's Consolidated Union sent over wire of condolences. In late 1924, Liu Shaoqi relocated to Canton as deputy committee chair for the Chinese Consolidated Workers' Trade Union. When Japanese capitalists of "Inside-Outside 7th Textile Factory" cracked down on Shanghai workers and killed 20-year-old CCP leader Gu Zhenghong on May 15th 1925, CCP members took blood-stained clothes to schools and factories and led mass protests on May 30th. British extraterritory police made arrests of protesters. At 3:00 pm, 10000 protested converged upon Laozha extraterritory police bureau on Nanking Road. Protesters surrounded the extraterritory police bureau. British, on May 30th, shot dead dozen protesters on Nanking Road. on the night, CCP made a decision to launch a city-wide protest against the imperialists, with Liu Shaoqi, Li Lishan and Liu Hua in charge of the frontline struggles. on June 1st [May 31st per Wang Jianji & Wang Yuanchao], Shanghai Consolidated Workers Union was established, with Li Lishan acting as chair. 200000 workers and 30000 students launched a strike. Liu Shaoqi promptly arrived in Shanghai from Qingdao where he had held Sifang Machinery Factory strike, and Liu Shaoqi took on the post of general affairs director (i.e., general secretary) for Shanghai union. Schools, factories, shops, transportation all came to a halt in Shanghai. By June 10th, imperialist authorities cracked down on protesters nine times, killed over 60 Chinese, and inflicted heavy injuries to over 70 Chinese. Nationwide, Chinese launched anti-imperialism protests. on June 11th, 200000 Shanghai workers held another gathering in demand of revocation of extraterritoriality and foreign troop garrisons. CCP's "Hot Blood Newspaper" and KMT's "Nationality Newspaper" bombarded imperialism. Imperialists resorted to cutting off water and electricity to counter the strike movement. When Shanghai Chamber of Commerce declared a cessation of shop closures on June 26th, ending the "three strike" movement, Liu Shaoqi's worker unions insisted on the struggle. Soon, CCP had to yield to an end to student strike and worker strike. on Aug 22nd, rascals intruded into the office of Shanghai Consolidated Workers Union but failed to arrest CCP leaders. on Sept 18th, Feng-xi military faction closed down Shanghai Consolidated Workers Union and put out a most-wanted-list for Liu Shaoqi. Liu Shaoqi left for Hunan in Dec. Hunan Governor-general Zhao Hengti arrested him on Dec 16th 1925 and released him on Jan 16th under the pressure of nationwide appeals. (It was said that it was Liu's classmate, i.e., Yang Jianxiong who had contacted Heh Yaozu & Ye Kaixin in petitioning for freeing Liu Shaoqi; however, Yang Jianxiong, who followed Cheng Qian in "Hunan Prov uprising" in 1949 for the communist camp, failed to be accorded a visit from Liu Shaoqi in Peking, got arrested by Ningxiang communist police upon returning home, and consequently got executed by Hunan communist government as "evil hegemony" with a purported Liu Shaoqi instruction that Yang Jianxiong should be dealt with in accordance with party guidelines.) Liu Shaoqi returned to Canton on Feb 19th 1924 and took on the task of leading Guangdong-HK Strike. At the time of May 30th 1925 Movement, communist party, which had firm control of Shanghai University as a citadel, had been using the campus as its base. Shanghai University was converted in 1922 from a low accreditation college called "Southeast Advanced Vocational Normal School". Initially, KMT senior leader Yu Youren assumed schoolmaster post, but let CCP member Deng Zhongxia take charge as "education director". Consequently, leftist and communist figures entered the college as professors, including Qu Qiubai, Cai Hesen, Yun Daiying, and Zhang Tailei. Per Chen Fangming's "Commentary Biography of Xie Xuehong" [Vanguard Publishing House, Taipei, Taiwan, July 1991 edition], Shanghai U was deemed CCP's 2nd most important theoretical cradle. Lots of Moscow returnees had lectured at Shanghai U. Xie Xuehong, who had followed her lover from Taiwan to Tokyo to China, would participate in the May 30th 1925 Movement in Shanghai by joining the group of Taiwan patriots in the name of "Taiwan autonomy society". Taiwan patriots, who already launched socialist and communist activities in Taiwan, would propagate the slogan of "Recovering Taiwan" during Shanghai parade. Xie Xuehong, aka Xie Feiying, got admitted to Shanghai U in June with CCP auspice. Among schoolmates would be later Taiwan communist gang called "Shanghai University faction". A few months later, Xie Xuehong was sent to Orient University [Toilers' University] in Moscow, while another Taiwan native, i.e., Lin Mushun, was sent to Dr Sun Yat-sen University. ("Taiwan autonomy society" was founded by Cai Xiaoqian, Lian Zhiwang & Lin Weijin in May 1924. Also note that several memoirs mixed up the two Russian universities: Dr Sun Yat-sen University was open to KMT members, while Orient University mainly for communists.) Peasants' Poverty Is China's Poverty Harold Isaacs stated in chapter 2 of his book 'The Tragedy of The Chinese Revolution': "More than three-quarters of China's population, or more than 300,000,000 people, depend upon the land for their livelihood. The problems of these millions are the problem of China. Their poverty is China's poverty. All of China's hopes for the future depend on releasing the productive energies of this great mass of people. Up to now they have been drained by a system which has taken away from them the fruits of their infinite toil as well as the land itself, and has given them nothing in return." Harold Isaacs pointed out that one official estimate made in 1927 held that 55 percent of the Chinese peasantry was entirely landless and 20 percent holders of inadequate land." He further stated that "from sectional studies made under his direction, Professor Chen Han-seng [i.e., an undercover communist under Lattimore] estimated in 1936 that no less than 65 percent of the peasant population was either entirely landless or land hungry, i.e., possessing land in parcels too small and too burdened by all the adverse conditions of the regime to provide a living even on the barest subsistence level." Harold Isaacs had a point-blank viewpoint as to the failure of China's industrialization to rescue the peasants from bankruptcy. He echoed Chen Han-seng's opinion that "unlike the European burghers of the past, the urban men of property in China remained bound by a thousand links to the pre-capitalist or semi-feudal system of exploitation on the land. The peasant was subject to the depredations of landlord, usurer, merchant, banker, war lord, tax collector, and local official. The interests of these groups fused and became the interlaced interests of the ruling class as a whole." Deeply rooted in this setting would be the conflicts of the Chinese city bourgeois and the Chinese peasants in their struggle and revolution for liberation, with the only common thread being the overthrow of the yoke imposed on the two parties by the foreign imperialists. On the matter of peasants, Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) was not the only nor the first person who had heralded the peasants' movement. Per Harold Isaacs, "the peasants had also begun to stir and group themselves into organizations before the revived Kuomintang made its appearance in 1924. The modern Chinese peasant movement was cradled in Haifeng, in the East River districts of Kwangtung, by Peng Pai, one of the most appealing figures of the Chinese revolution." Peng Pai, similar to Mao, was born in landlord's family. Peng Pai, originally a school teacher who lost his job due to leading his students on the May Day demonstration in 1921, joined the CCP and went back to the countryside where he organized the Haifeng Peasant Association. Again per Harold Isaacs, "thus begun, the organization spread rapidly to neighboring districts and the framework of a Kwangtung Provincial Peasant Association was already in existence before the middle of 1923... Peasant struggles against the landlords, against the magistrates, police, and soldiery, multiplied throughout the East River districts and ignited similar conflicts in the west and north of the province... Demands (for) reduction of land rent passed over almost immediately to demand for its total abolition. " Per anthology "Seventy Year Wind & Cloud Records of CCP" (Chinese Periodical Publication Inc, San Gabriel, Ca, 1992 edition), the first peasant movement leader should be ascribed to Shen Dingyi who, a Shanghai CCP founder, donated his family fortune to the revolution and later returned to his native town of Yaqian-zhen Town, Xiaoshan-xian County, Zhejiang Prov where he set up an elementary school and later recruited 68 year old peasant called Li Chenghu for establishing a peasant association on Sept 27th of 1921. Eight villages in Xiaoshan-Shaoxing area had imitated Yaqian in setting up peasant associations within one month, with full set of Yaqian peasant association declaration and guidelines transcribed. The government cracked down on the peasants' movement for 'reduction in land rents' and Li Chenghu was arrested and tortured to death in prison on Jan 24th of 1922. "The New Youth" magazine and Shanghai newspapers had reports on this incident. (Shen Dingyi went on a four person Dr Sun Yat-sen Delegation tour of USSR with Chiang Kai-shek. After communist leader Qu Qiubai seduced his daughter-in-law in 1924, Shen took another turn by joining the West Hill faction and joined senior KMT leaders for a meeting in front of Sun Yat-sen's altar in Peking. Expelled from CCP as well as disliked by Chiang Kai-shek's KMT, Shen Dingyi was assassinated in Aug 1928. See Keith Schoppa's "Blood Road: The Mystery of Shen Dingyi in Revolutionary China", Berkeley, 1995.) Exploiting the land & peasant problems of China, Mao Zedong's Land Revolution (Peasant Revolution or Agrarian Revolution), which was supposed to strive for the happiness of the mass of people, had inflicted only pains on the Chinese peasants and enslaved the Chinese peasants into a caste of uneducated, obedient and poverty-stricken people who had been deprived of both their land and their right to leave the land. This caste society was covered in another section where we discussed the formation of 'agricultural cooperatives' three years after the victory of communist revolution and later the "people's communes". Mao Zedong & the Peasant/Land Revolution
Mao Zedong [Mao Tse-tung], a figure who had changed China for much worse, had been first described by Edgar Snow in his book "Red Star Over China". Edgar Snow, who secretly entered communist territory in June of 1936 under the escort of CCP's special agent Deng Fa, had first-hand interview with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai etc. Edgar Snow stayed in Yan'an for 4 months and covered extensively the stories of the Long March. At the insistence of Snow, Mao Zedong disclosed his early life, and the chapter on Mao's personal life would later be transcribed in various Shanghai publications around 1937-8. Mao Zedong disclosed to Snow his 1907 marriage with a 18-year-old girl from neighboring Luo family. Mao Zedong told Snow she was 20 and they had no intimacy with each other. At that time of marriage, Mao Zedong was four years younger than his wife but he already grew into a tall lad. Mao family of Shaoshan and his wife's Luo family, both local wealthy land-owners and Confucian gentry, had been engaged in generations of inter-marriages per familial lineage records. Per scholar Peng Mingdao, Mao Zedong had acted as kind of half-son for his father-in-law: In 1911, after the death of his first wife in 1910, Mao Zedong, still a student in Changsha the capital of Hunan Prov, had gone to his father-in-law's place, about 6 Chinese li distance, for planting paddy rice as half-son; in 1925, Mao Zedong and his second & official wife had visited his old father-in-law; and in Jan of 1927, Mao Zedong paid a last visit to his old father-in-law. Peng Mingdao pointed out that Mao's family tree records had a sentence stating that Mao's youngest son, Mao Anlong, be adopted by the family of his old father-in-law. Peng said that Mao Zedong had instructed his eldest son to see the Luo family in 1950 and offer financial support. In 1959, Mao Zedong returned to Shaoshan home and had a dinner with his first wife's youngest sister who married a Mao cousin in neighboring Maohua-chun Village. Peng stated that Mao Zedong and his first wife, contrary to what Mao told Snow in the 1936 interview, had very good terms for three years. When Mao Zedong's first wife, Yi-xiu, died in 1910, 17-year-old Mao Zedong was in extraordinary sorrow and wrote the later disputed poem which his second wife (Yang Kaihui) had shown to her best friend (Li Shuyi). In April of 1910, at Changsha the provincial capital, hunger-stricken people stormed the governor's office, customs office and foreign consulates after inflation led to suicides of a worker and his sons, i.e., a tragic event of suicide by jumping into the river as a result of the earlier suicide death of the mother of the children. Manchu government cracked down on the rebels and displayed decapitated heads of the rebels on the Liuyang-men City-gate. Some escapees passed through Mao's hometown school, relaying the news, which had shaken the mind of Mao and his classmates considerably. After the death of Yi-xiu, Mao Zedong invited all his past teachers for a banquet and asked them persuade his father into giving up the idea to have Mao inherit family's rice merchant business so that he would be allowed to leave for Hunan provincial capital for studies. Mao hence began his long journey of revolution which later recruited and sacrificed numerous family members. (See Peng Mingdao's analysis of Yi-xiu story for more details. In 1957, Li Shuyi, whose husband Liu Zhixun had scarified his life for Mao's revolution around Honghu Lake of Hubei Prov in 1932 [in fact, being purged by communist peers], wrote to Mao Tse-tung with a poem she wrote for her late husband in 1933 and mentioned a Mao poem that Yang Kaihui had shown her; Mao re-wrote a different poem on May 11th 1957 as a reply to Li Shuyi; and Mao would recall his original 1910 poem to his personal nurse Wu Xujun in 1973. Liu Zhixun was beaten to death by CCP's "reactionary purge committee" per Wen Yu's 1994 book "Leftist Catastrophe of China". Incidentally, Jiang Qing, jealousy of Mao Tse-tung's emotions for the first wife, would write a letter to Tang Na [Li Jiliang] in 1958 and asked movie director to pass on to Tang Na who was operating restaurant in Paris at the time.) While in Changsha, 1911 Revolution broke out and Manchu rule was overthrown. Mao joined the revolution army for six months and quit the army after Yuan Shi-kai & Sun Yat-sen reached a deal about unification of China. In 1913, at age 20, Mao Zedong, with the highest score, was admitted to Changsha's Hunan Fourth Normal College (which later converged with First Normal College). For 4 years, Mao persisted in cold water shower each morning. While studying at Changsha's First Normal College, Mao Zedong began to read the books by both reformists (i.e., monarchists) and revolutionaries as well as anarchists. In 1915, Mao organized a student movement trying to expel the college president, wrote about 'national shame' on student magazine in regards to Yuan Shi-kai's acceptance of Japan's 21 Demands, and posted a public notice for making penpal friends during the summer break, with Luo Zhanglong, Li Lishan and etc answering his pen-pal call. Also in this year, boycott against Japanese products went into full swing in major cities, and Chen Duxiu published his "New Youth" magazine in Shanghai. Later CCP leader Liu Shaoqi, at age 18, entered Ningxiang Middle School at Changsha with a recommendation letter attentioned to Heh Shuheng, and subsequently applied for admission to Governor-general Tan Yankai's Infantry Military Academy which broke down into ashes during the 1917 Constitution Restoration War. Mao participated and hosted the establishment of students' society, at one time enjoying the highest vote as the most popular guy. In April 1917, Mao published his first article on "New Youth". During summer break, Mao toured 5 counties with Xiao Zisheng as a companion. In Dec 1917, Mao hosted free nighttime education for 120 workers at the college. Also in 1917, Mao and his college classmates, together with city police, successfully encircled about 2000 fatigued north warlord army via a military tactics from ancient 36 tactics and disarmed the soldiers. on April 14th 1918, Mao, together with Cai Hesen and Xiao Zisheng, participated and hosted "Xin Min Xue-hui" (i.e., New Citizens Society). Mao had assembled 21 cadres by posting his pen-pal advertisement on campuses of all major Changsha colleges, including the women's normal college (where the notice aroused schoolmaster's suspicion). Mao continued to lead college students for maintaining peace in Changsha when Zhang Jingyao of northern warlord lineage army engaged southern revolutionary government in military conflicts and fighting. First Normal College would later produce hundreds of communism activists, with over one hundred of them to fall martyrdom to struggles between CCP and KMT. (This same Hunan Normal College would be attended in 1979 by an activist called Liang Heng who bragged, in "Son Of The Revolution", about his being 'a good student of Chairman Mao', the "Son Of The Revolution" and his exotic love with a female American professor and the subsequent marriage attended by various communist cadres and revolutionaries. Note the farce that the same opportune and practical cadres and revolutionaries, not many years before that, had vehemently shouted 'Down With American Imperialism'. Jung Chang's "Wild Swans" would be another good example to illustrate the "going West" mentality among sons and daughters of communist cadres as well as the kind of nepotism relationship which was invoked for sending their sons and daughters to "Worker-Peasant-Soldier University" and consecutively obtaining the limited "overseas study" quota.) Teaching at First Normal College would be an intellectual called Yang Changji who had spent 10 years studying in Japan and Britain, consecutively. Prof Yang Changji returned to Changsha for a teaching career in 1913, and he was noted for assembling students at his home for debates and discussions. Prof Yang Changji's daughter, i.e., Yang Kaihui (1901-1930), was an intelligent girl who was admitted to No. 40 Junior School of Changsha at age 7. Prof Yang Changji often claimed that Xiao San was his best disciple and intended to have his daughter engage with Xiao San. In 1914, Mao Zedong first met Yang Kaihui at Prof Yang's home. This would implicate the loss of human lives in Yang family in the future. one of Mao Zedong's classmates mentioned that they did not even utter a single word during lunch or dinner at Prof Yang's home, not to mention any chance of direct talk with the little girl. Mao Zedong had few most intimate classmates during this timeframe, including Tao Siyong, a classmate as well as a girlfriend. Tao Siyong was counted as one of three talented female students by Prof Yang Changji, with the other two being Ren Peidao and Cai Chang. Among Mao's alumni would be Cai Hesen and a later poet Xiao San (aka Xiao Zisheng), counted with Mao as Prof Yang's three talented male students. (Among most Mao biographies I read, I only found "Mao Tse-tung's Youth Years" carrying reference to Prof Yang's talented students of 3 males and 3 females. After checking with Yi Lirong, Peng Mingdao, at http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/4/7/18/68721.html, analyzed a Mao poem dated Dec 1923 to have reached a conclusion that it could be for Tao Yi, i.e., Tao Siyong.) In 1918, France, which had recruited over 150,000-200,000 Chinese labor for its war efforts against Germany during WWI, encouraged Chinese students to study there. Cai Yuanpei, Wu Yuzhang and Li Shi organized the so-called 'qin gong jian xue' movement, which was to help liaison Chinese students for going to France for studies while performing diligent working part-time off-campus as a means of support. Beijing (Peking) had 'qin gong jian xue' HQ, while branches were set up in Shanghai and hinterland provinces. ('qin gong jian xue' movement sounds similar to modern-day brokering agencies which milk money out of Chinese youths eager to desert China for a better life in Japan, Australia/New Zealand, Europe and North America. Student patriotism in 1910-20s, however, should not be discounted. Some French philanthropist had written about their agency's helping those students. Later, around 1920, about 2000 Chinese students incurred livelihood problems after Sino-Franco Bank, a financial organization supported by French communism and socialism supporters, collapsed. http://www.secretchina.com/news/articles/3/9/2/49955.html pointed out i) that Sino-French Education Board failed to raise more funds; ii) that beginning from 1920, organizers like Li Shizeng lost interest in 'qin gong jian xue' as a result of French government plan in refunding overcharged boxer indemnity for establishing Sino-French education institutions in China; and iii) Cai Yuanpei announced in 1921 that Sino-French Education Board would no longer support overseas students.) Mao Zedong and thousands of students from Hunan-Sichuan provinces went to Beijing in Aug of 1918 for studying French and making preparations for overseas studies. Numerous historians commented that overseas studies in France were no more than enrollment in some language prep school while majority students could not solve livelihood problems. In late 1919, Mao Zedong etc went to Shanghai to board the ship, and at the last minute, Mao changed mind and went to the dock to see his classmates , [including Xiao San, Xiang Jingyu and Cai Hesen] and comrades depart for France instead. In early 1920, Mao cited Prof Yang as a good example that going overseas was not a must for gaining knowledge. Mao was said to have been responsible for borrowing money for the trip of his classmates by going to a rich Hunan Prov native in Shanghai, and Mao had reimbursed this rich Hunan man after the 1949 victory of revolution. (Nobody had second-guessed the reasons why Mao did not go to France in 1919. one explanation was an attempt to link Mao Zedong's cancelling Paris trip to the illness of his mother who had passed away on Oct 5th 1919 at age 52. Mao's father whom Mao had rebelled against in early years would die of sudden illness at age 50 on Jan 23rd 1920. I would not rule out Mao's entanglements with his women in Changsha, including Tao Siyong.) In the summer of 1918, Prof Yang Changji relocated to Peking University at the referral of scholar Zhang Shizhao. Mao was graduated from college in June. By Aug-Sept of the year, Mao Zedong came to Peking, too, and with the referral from Prof Yang, Mao worked as an assistant librarian under Li Dazhao at the Peking University library. While in Peking in 1918, Mao Zedong first met Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, the earliest propagators of communism. Mao Zedong disclosed to Edgar Snow that he began to fall in love with Yang Kaihui while staying in Peking, which is disputable in light of fact that Mao Zedong's classmates had disclosed that the young girl would usually sit by quietly, listening to the discussions between her father and her father's students. In this year, Li Dazhao was banned from organizing "Marxism thought research society" at Peking University. In May 1919, Mao organized "Hunan student united society" to answer Peking student's movement during the May 4th Movement. Meanwhile, 70,000 Shanghai workers held a strike in support of Peking students. Liu Shaoqi departed Changsha for Peking at the encouragement of May 4th Movement. Mao Zedong left for Hunan Prov thereafter, but paid a visit to Prof Yang in Peking and had a short stay in Prof Yang's home in Peking. Mao Zedong claimed that he had turned into a Marxist believer after the second visit to Peking. Mao Zedong returned to Changsha of Hunan Prov where he might have had the disputed love affair with Tao Siyong. Mao Zedong's best friends and classmates had touched on Mao's love story with Tao Siyong, with definite conclusion that it did not break up because of Yang Kaihui. In another word, Mao-Tao broke up with Tao Siyong before Yang Kaihui returned to Changsha. (secretchina.com/news/articles/3/3/22/37809.html carried an article claiming that Mao hand-picked heir, Hua Guofeng, was Mao Zedong's son from a 1920 affair with a Yao-surname woman whose father was a Shanxi Prov merchant doing business in Changsha. Hua Guofeng, with a reign from 1976 to 1980, was responsible for building the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall where the crystal coffin was housed. Hua Guofeng paid yearly visit to Mao Zedong with his family members, personally issuing the order to have three bows in front of Mao's dead body.) In May 1919, Li Dazhao published the "Morning Post" newspaper in Peking and opened a special column for Marxism research. In neighboring Tianjin, Zhou Enlai and Ma Jun launched the "Society of Awakening" [i.e., "Jue Wu She"] in Nankai University. In this year, Fu Sinian first advocated Romanization of Chinese characters. on June 11th, Chen Duxiu was put into prison for his radical thoughts on "New Youth" Magazine. In July 1919, Mao Zedong edited a publication called "Xiang-jiang River Commentary" and wrote articles appealing for the release of Chen Duxiu from the government's imprisonment. In July of 1919, Mao Zedong wrote an article about Russian revolution, entitled 'The Great Unification of Common Peoples'. In late Aug 1919, thousands of Tianjin-Peking students surrounded Presidential Palace in protest of Ma Liang's crackdown on students in Shandong Prov, ending in the arrest of student rep Ma Jun. Liu Shaoqi, unable to afford tuition for college in Peking, joined the students in forcing the northern government into the release of Ma Jun on Aug 30th. After that, Liu Shaoqi entered Baoding's Yuede Middle School for one year "simultaneous study and work program", but quit the idea of going to France when news came that French authorities prohibited Chinese students from going there. Also in Aug 1919, in Hunan Prov, Hunan Governor-general Zhang Jingyao censored Mao's "Xiang-jiang River Commentary" magazine. Mao organized the movement for expelling Governor-general Zhang Jingyao of northern warlord lineage and led Hunan students' delegation to Peking where he appealed to nationwide for support and revealed Zhang Jingyao's atrocities in Hunan Prov. Historians stated that Mao Zedong's thoughts turned to anarchism from his original belief in Kang You-wei/Liang Qi-chao's reformist school. Mao Zedong once proposed for Hunan Prov to be a independent statelet in addition to eulogizing Russia's Oct Revolution. By late 1919, Mao was introduced by Li Dazhao and Deng Zhongxia for enrolment in the "Society of Junior China". In August 1920, Mao Zedong and He Shuheng etc set up 'Russia Studies Society' and 'Communist Studies Hunan Branch'. Liu Shaoqi, hearing of 'Russia Studies Society', made up his mind for "simultaneous study and work program" in Russia in lieu of France. Liu Shaoqi, with recommendation from Heh Minfan of Chuanshan Society, enrolled in "Socialist Youth League". After brief studies of Russian language in Shanghai, Liu Shaoqi departed for Russia in April 1921 together with Ren Bishi, Xiao Jingguang, Zhou Zhaoqiu and Hu Shilian etc. When Yang Kaihui's father passed away in 1920, Yang Kaihui returned to Changsha. According to an account by Mao Zedong's classmate (i.e., Xiao San) who was studying in France, Yang Kaihui wrote a letter to him from Peking, stating that her father had passed away, that her father always thought of him as the best disciple, and that she was going back to Changsha of Hunan Prov. In Changsha, Yang Kaihui enrolled in Xiangfu Women's Middle School under the help of Li Shuyi's father. Tao Siyong, apparently having broken off with Mao Zedong, left Hunan Prov for Shanghai where she worked as an educator. In the summer of 1920, Chen Duxiu set up the first communism study group. Mao Zedong paid a second visit to Shanghai and met with Chen Duxiu. Mao Zedong later recalled that Chen Duxiu's firm belief in communism had been a major factor shaping Mao's thoughts. By the end of 1920, Mao Zedong got married with 19-year-old Yang Kaihui. On Jan 1st of 1921, Mao Zedong, at a "New Citizen Society" meeting, advocated communism over "socialist democracy". For the whole year of 1921, Mao Zedong devoted himself to the establishment and operations of 'Hunan communist organization'. In Feb, Mao Zedong and his brother Mao Zemin went back to Shaoshan for the Spring Festival. In the spring, Mao Zedong, together with Yi Lirong and Chen Shu'nong, visited schools of several Hunan counties, including Yueyang, Huarong, Nanxian, Changde and Xiangyin. Mao Zedong went to Hengyang with Xia Minghan for organizing communist party. In June, Mao Zedong left for Shanghai where he attended the two-month-long conference for establishing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In Aug, Mao organized self-study college in Changsha, and in Sept and Nov-Dec, Mao visited Anyuan Mine twice for organizing workers' movement. (Yang Kaihui enrolled in CCP right after Mao Zedong's return from the First National Session of the Chinese Communist Party. Yang Kaihui worked in Mao Zedong's 'self-study college' in 1920, went to Shanghai in 1923 where Mao Zedong had relocated one year ago as the minister of organization for CCP, and born three sons for Mao Zedong. The eldest son, Mao Anying, was born in 1922, and later in Nov 1950 died in Korea from the kerosene bombs (i.e., incendiary bomb) dropped by American airplanes.) In Dec of 1921, Peking's "Morning Post" printed Lu Xun's writing "The Diary Of A Psychic Man". In Jan 1922, Mao organized funeral for two worker leaders who died during Changsha Textile Factory's crackdown on worker protest as well as established the so-called Hunan Youth Library. In Feb, HK workers launched a general strike against the British authority and made HK a dead port. In April, Mao made a speech at 3rd Normal College in Hengyang, and in May, Mao organized CCP's Hunan committee and made himself the secretary in charge. In Sept, Mao Zedong, Guo Liang, Li Lishan and Liu Shaoqi organized railroad worker strike, cement and carpenter worker strike, printing house worker strike and Anyuan Railroad and Mine Strike. In Dec 1922, Mao led workers' representative for talks with Governor Zhao Hengti. A Short History Of Mao Tse-tung After 1923 More available at Mao_Tse-tung.htm Borodin, Moscow & Chinese Revolution Borodin and Sun Yat-sen, however, did possess differing viewpoints on the matter of anti-imperialism. Sun Yat-sen intended to oppose the imperialists who exploited China only, while Borodin attempted to incorporate China's national revolution into the general umbrella of world anti-imperialism revolution. Sun Yat-sen explained to Borodin multiple times that China could not afford to support the revolutionaries in Korea, Vietnam and India in their fighting against imperialism. (Patriotic Korean exiles often toured Chinese schools and colleges to propagate the salvation and resistance movements of the Koreans against Japanese. In 1921, one such Korean, by the name of Jin Zaitian, visited Hu Qiuyuan's Qianchuan Middle School with photos showing Japanese massacre of Koreans.) Jiang Yongjing interpreted Sun Yat-sen's stance as a continuance of his long-standing policies of 'quelling internal enemies before expelling external invaders'. CCP members, meantime, followed through with Comintern instructions in inciting 'mass movements'. Jiang Yongjing mentioned that Chiang Kai-shek, against the CCP objection, had ended the year-long Guangdong-HK Strike for sake of launching the Northern Expeditions. Jiang Yongjing ascribed Chiang Kai-shek's decision of purging the communists to CCP's provoking such anti-foreign incidents as in Shanghai and Nanking. Jiang Yongjing went further to point out that Chiang Kai-shek, in face of Japanese provocation and slaughter of Jinan civilians and KMT soldiers, had fully adopted Sun Yat-sen's policies of 'quelling internal enemies before expelling external invaders' by circumventing around Jinan City of Shandong Prov for sake of completing the Northern Expeditions. Also a member of CCP would be a Vietnamese revolutionary by the name of Ho Chi Minh. Chinese version of Ho Chi Minh legends would put him in the cloak of inheriting the given name and surname of a Chinese pal who had sacrificed his life in the Northern Expeditions. Vietnamese version would elevate Ho Chi Minh into a figure who took instructions direct from Borodin. According to Vietnamese account, "in secret, aboard an ice-covered Soviet vessel, Ho Chi Minh put into Leningrad... for two years the Russians paid him flattery. In Leningrad they lent Ho a fur coat, treated him to roast meats and two-finger-long cigarettes. In Moscow they invited Ho, about 30 years old, to sit with the President of the Third International. In return, Ho helped the Russians organize their 'University for Toilers of the East', and accepted training... After graduation from Moscow in 1925, Ho embarked upon a slithering, 15-year journey through the Communist underground of the world. He would appear shaven-headed in Thailand, disguised as a Buddhist monk, he would show up in the Latin Quarter of Paris, explaining to waiters how to prepare his food. In Canton, Ho worked for Borodin, the Russian intriguer who helped undermine China. In Singapore, Ho organized Southeast Asia's Comintern. And when Indo-China's Nationalist Party rebelled against the French in 1930, Ho Chi Minh played it coldly; although he was constantly posing as a Nationalist, Ho and his Reds stood aside and let the Nationalists die." (Likewise, Kim Il-sung of North Korea, who joined the Chinese communist guerilla forces in Manchuria, might have appropriated the same name of a martyr who died in the resistance war against Japan.) Borodin was responsible for assisting the establishment of the Whampoa (Huangpu) Military Academy which started its first session of 470 students in May 1924. Seven months earlier, on Aug 14th of 1923 [i.e., on July 13th per lunar calendar], Sun Yat-sen dispatched Chiang Kai-shek and a delegation to Moscow for a three month inspection trip, and Chiang Kai-shek remained in USSR for three months. Per Harold Isaacs, on his return to Canton at the end of the year, Chiang became the dark-haired darling of Borodin and the Russian military advisers." However, Chen Jieru pointed out that after returning to Shanghai on Dec 15th 1923, Chiang Kai-shek deliberately delayed his report to Sun Yat-sen for dissatisfaction over Sun Yat-sen's nomination of Borodin in his absence. After a complaint to Sun Yat-sen when no response was heard, Sun Yat-sen wired to Chiang in late Dec to have Chiang Kai-shek go to Canton immediately. In Moscow, Comintern reorganized the 'University for Toilers of the East' into 'Sun Yat-sen University' in honor of the late Sun Yat-sen who passed away on Mar 12th of 1925. More available at University-for-Toilers-of-the-East. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Li Zongren Quelling Guangxi Prov, & Wars In Southwest China Chiang Kai-shek & the Whampoa Military Academy Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi, aka Jiang Zhongzheng) was quite a senior revolutionary in comparison with the communist counterparts. Chiang Kai-shek participated in both the Xin Hai Revolution of 1911 and the Second Revolution of 1913. Chiang Kai-shek did not appear again in Sun Yat-sen's southern revolution till the year 1918. Sun Yat-sen often lamented the death of Chen Qimei (aka Chen Yingshi) as a result of Yuan Shi-kai'a assassination in 1913, and likened Chiang Kai-shek, a disciple of Chen Yingshi, to the brave and chivalric anti-Manchu secret society that Sun Yat-sen once led prior to 1911 Xin Hai Revolution. Sun Yat-sen, before his 1925 death in Peking, had murmured the name 'jieshi' (i.e., Chiang Kai-shek's first name) several times. Ding Zhongjiang stated that Sun Yat-sen, wary of the ambitions and disobedience of Chen Jiongming, first wired to Chiang Kai-shek on Mar 2nd of 1918 to have Chiang serve as director of tactics department under Chen Jiongming's Guangdong army on March 15th. During several rounds of power struggles between Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming, Chiang Kai-shek resigned multiple times and left Guangdong for Shanghai. Chiang Kai-shek did not enjoy full trust from Sun Yat-sen till he came to the ranks of Sun Yat-sen on Warship Yongfeng during the Chen Jiongming Rebellion. Even so, Chiang Kai-shek was recorded to have written to Sun Yat-sen a letter requesting that Sun Yat-sen trust him (Chiang) the same way Sun Yat-sen had placed trust in Chen Qimei. On June 16th 1922, Chen Jiongming rebelled against Sun Yat-sen. Chiang Kai-shek received a telegraph on 18th, departed Shanghai on 25th, and arrived in Canton on 29th. In Aug of 1922, Sun Yat-sen left Canton for Shanghai in the aftermath of Chen Jiongming rebellion. By Aug 9th, Chiang Kai-shek served Sun Yat-sen for 40 days. Thereafter, Chiang Kai-shek served one month duty in Fujian's Sun Yat-sen army as tactician for 2nd Corps of the "Eastern Route Army For Campaigning Against Chen Jiongming". on Jan 26th 1923, Joffe-Sun Declaration was issued in Shanghai. Sun returned to Canton after Chen Jiongming was driven out of Canton. on Feb 18th 1923, Sun Yat-sen and revolutionary leaders called upon Chiang Kai-shek numerous times; however, Chiang Kai-shek did not depart Shanghai till April 15th. Chiang served for less than 3 months this time around. After touring USSR for three months, Chiang Kai-shek returned to his hometown on Dec 15th and did not return to duty till Jan 16th 1924. on Jan 24th, Chiang was empowered with the post of chairman for the preparatory committee of Whampoa academy. Chiang resigned his post by claiming that this post had no real military authorizations. Chiang did not depart Shanghai again till April 14th when Yue-jun [Guangdong Prov] Commander Xu Chongzhi promised to offer Chiang a post as chief military tactician. Chiang Kai-shek left for Shanghai when Sun Yat-sen planned to assign the post of principal for Whampoa Academy onto Xu Chongzhi and did not return till Sun Yat-sen fully empowered Chiang Kai-shek with the said post. After Sun Yat-sen went to Peking for peace talks in early 1925, Chen Jiongming remnants in Dongjiang area attempted a comeback. Ultimately, Chiang Kai-shek led his Whampoa cadet army on two Eastern Expeditions against Chen Jiongming and expelled Chen Jiongming to HK from Guangdong, setting the foundations of the national revolution that would overthrow the northern warlord lineage government and unite China under KMT's southern government. A Short History Of Chiang Kai-shek In 1895, at age 8, Chiang Kai-shek's father Jiang Zhaocong passed away, and his mother Wang Caiyue left the Jiang home with allocation of portion of Jiang family's assets. (Chen Jieru stated that her mother's private detective heard that Chiang Kai-shek's mother relocated to Zhejiang Prov by making his son an adopted son of Chiang family, i.e., the story of "Zheng San-fa-zi". However, Li Dongfang's "Complete Biography of Chiang Kai-shek" traced Chiang's family history to the 3rd son of Zhou Dynasty Duke Zhougong, and repeated the disputed claim that Chiang cut the pigtail in Ningbo while studying at Longjin Middle School of Fenghua in 1906.) In 1901, Chiang was married with Mao Fumei who was 5 years ahead of Chiang, and 14 year old Chiang was recorded to be busy about playing fireworks rather than going through the matrimony. At age 18 (?), Chiang, with financial assistance from his uncle-in-law, traveled to Baoding of Hebei Prov for studies in a Manchu preparatory military school. Li Ao keenly pointed out that Chiang Kai-shek's 1st visit to Japan in March [lunar calendar] 1906, funded by his mother, ended in his return to China the second year when Japan's military school refused to admit Chiang Kai-shek for lack of Manchu certification. Zhang Qun's memoirs stated that around 1907, he was admitted as a Sichuan Prov student when Manchu government established "tongguo [nationwide] lujun [infantry] sucheng [fast track] xuetang [academy]" in Baoding of Hebei Prov. Chiang Kai-she's 1944 self-account stated that he was admitted as one of the 40 students from Zhejiang Prov. Clearly, financial assistance from Chiang Kai-shek's uncle-in-law funded the trip to Baoding. In the winter of 1907, about 60 students, including Zhang Qun & Chiang Kai-shek, were selected for further studies in Japan. In Japan, Chiang enrolled in 11th Session of Zhenwu Military Academy in 1908. Ding Zhongjiang stated that while practicing sword in Japan on one morning, Chiang was spotted by Chen Qimei, an activist in Sun Yat-sen's "Tong Meng Hui" organization. (Chen Qimei, inspired by his brother Chen Qicai's career success due to overseas studies in Japan, was sponsored for studies in a Tokyo police academy in Japan by his brother at age 30 in 1906 and thereafter joined the revolutionary movement.) KMT records stated that Chiang Kai-shek, in 1908, for a second time, went to Japan where he joined "Society Of Alliance" ['tong men hui'] with Chen Qimei's referral and earnestly read Zou Rong's "Revolutionary Ranks" ['ge ming jun']. Li Ao pointed out that Chiang never went to Japan's infantry cadet academy for studies but served in 1910 as a second-class private in a Japanese field cannons column [i.e., the 19th Echelon of the Field Cannon Army of the 13th Japanese Division] after studies in Zhenwu Academy. (To rebut the deceit, Li Ao, in his book "Li Ao on Chiang Kai-shek, Book one", listed all Chinese graduates from Japan's infantry cadet academy from 1st Session to 10th Session to prove the non-existence of Chiang Kai-shek. Li Ao cited Li Zongren in pointing out Chiang Kai-shek's false claim as a 6th session graduate of the cadet. Note: Jiang Zuobin was 4th session graduate; Wang Zhaoji, Li Genyuan, Liu Chunhou [Liu Cunhou?], Luo Peijin, Yan Xishan, Sun Chuanfang, Lu Xiangting, Zhou Yinren, Tang Jiyao, Li Liejun, and Cheng Qian were 6th session graduates of Japan Cadet; Xu Shuzheng was 7th session graduate; Zhang Huizan was 8th session graduate; and Wang Boling & Zhang Qun were 10th session graduates.) Book "Biography Of Tang Jiyao" clearly provided the process of Japanese military school system, with internship a pre-requirement for entering the academy. Li Ao pointed out that KMT records deliberately lied in stating that Chiang Kai-shek first met Sun Yat-sen in June 1910. Sun Yat-sen, after being expelled from Japan years ago, had a 15-day stopover in Japan before being sent away to Singapore by Japan in the summer of 1910. Meanwhile, Chen Qimei, being not in Japan for the whole year of 1910, would not be able to present Chiang to Sun at all. In Japan, Chiang also became the youngest of three sworn blood brothers with Chen Qimei & Huang Fu. However, Li Ao pointed out that Huang Fu's "Iron & Blood Great Men Society" ['zhang fu hui'], a small circle of cadet students who later became the nucleus of provincial military leaders during 1911 uprising, did not see Chiang Kai-shek on the roster. (Li Ao did not know that the pre-requirement of membership in 'zhang fu hui' would be the cadet identity.)  Chiang
Kai-shek, during the summer break in 1911, came back to Xikou-zhen Town,
Fenghua-xian County, Zhejiang Prov to see his newly born son Jiang Jingguo who
was born by Chiang's first wife Mao Fumei. KMT records stated that Jiang Jingguo
was born on April 27th 1910 [March 18th 1910 per lunar calendar]. Li Ao pointed
out that either Chiang Kai-shek had slipped back into China sometime in 1909 or
satiric writer Jiang Nan's assassination death might be related to the
description of deviation of Jiang Jingguo's personal appearances from that of
his father. In 1911, when Wuchang Uprising broke out, Chiang Kai-shek, at the request of Chen Qimei, immediately returned to Shanghai with Zhang Qun & Chen Xingshu by faking a leave of absence and then mailing uniforms back to his Japanese officer. In Shanghai, he joined the staff of Chen Qimei (Ch'en Ch'i-mei, aka Chen Yingshi) and organized 'dare-to-die column' for recovering Shanghai from Manchu rule. (Li Dongfang's "Complete Biography of Chiang Kai-shek" claimed that Chiang returned to China from Japan, met with Chen Qimei and was dispatched to Zhejiang Prov for preparatory work, then went back to Japan to report to his Japanese officer when vacation ran up, and did not leave for China till two months later, i.e., after Xin Hai Revolution. Further, Chiang had returned to China with about 120 students and cadet practitioners, with acquiesce of Japanese officers, per Li Dongfang.) On Nov 3rd 1911, Chen Qimei was arrested by Manchu while leading the attack on Manchu's Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau. The next day, revolutionaries sacked the garrison and freed Chen. Chen's crony, later in a meeting, coerced Shanghai revolutionary factions into making Chen the governor-general by means of a display of firearms at the meeting. In Zhejiang Prov, on the morning of Nov 4th, Chiang, with five columns or 100 comrades, participated in attacking Manchu Governor Zeng-yun's office. A Manchu battalion chief, Gu Naibin, echoed the uprisng. Chiang later joined the Jiangsu-Zhejiang allied forces in attacking Jiangsu's provincial capital, i.e., Nanking. In the Yangtze Delta, Restoration Society prevailed in the fights against Manchu, with numerous martyrs such as Xiong Chengji, Xu Xilin and Qiu Jin etc. Chiang Kai-shek, on Jan 14th 1912, was responsible for assassinating Tao Chengzhang the leader of Restoration Society. (Li Ao cited Deng Wenyi's "Chairman Chiang Kai-shek" in stating that Chiang Kai-shek, on Jan 14th 1912, personally shot Tao Chengzhang inside of Guangci Hospital at the order of Chen Qimei. Three days earlier, Tao Chengzhang received a letter from Sun Yat-sen demanding an explanation for Tao's 1909 accusations of 14 crimes. At the times of Chiang Kai-shek death in 1975 and Mao Tse-tung death in 1976, I read about an article in regards to Guangci Hospital murder. Shang Mingxuan pointed out that Chiang bought over a Restoration Society traitor called Wang Zhuqing for the job at 2:00 am on Jan 14th.) Ding Zhongjiang's pro-KMT writing stated that i) Chiang Kai-shek later went overseas for an inspection tour and handed over the control of his army to Zhang Qun and that ii) Zhang Qun subsequently delivered the same army to Chen Qimei when Zhang Qun himself went to Britain for a tour of foreign industries. Chen Jieru's memoirs stated that Chiang Kai-shek quit his job in 1912 because the rank was too low for him. Jiang Huiguo mentioned that Chiang Kai-shek went into hiding in his Zhejiang hometown after the assassination of Tao Chengzhang. Ding Zhongjiang stated that during the Second Revolution, both Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Qun returned to Shanghai from Japan and that Chiang Kai-shek called on his followers to support Chen Qimei as the commander-in-chief of 'Shanghai Army for Campaigning Against Yuan Shi-kai Imperial Enthronement'. During the Second Revolution War, in Shanghai, Chen Qimei ordered that Chiang Kai-shek attack the Gaochang-miao Weapons Depot which was guarded by Yuan Shi-kai's 1300 navy soldiers under Zheng Rucheng. Chiang Kai-shek attacked Gaochang-miao for few days in vain, and then rerouted towards Songjiang and attacked it in vain, either. Li Dongfang's "Complete Biography of Chiang Kai-shek" claimed that Chiang's mother had sold properties for providing financial support to Chiang Kai-shek, Niu Yongjian & Chen Qimei. Second Revolution ended with the defeat of Li Liejun by Yuan Shi-kai's army and the loss of Nanchang in Jiangxi Prov on Aug 18th of 1913. In Anhui Prov, Yuan Shi-kai's crony, Ni Sichong, took over governor-general post on Aug 28th of 1913. In Jiangsu Prov, Zhang Xun sacked Nanking. In Shanghai area, Yuan Shi-kai conferred the post of "zhen shou shi" (i.e., garrison commissary) of Shanghai onto Zheng Rucheng, "zhen shou shi" of Songjiang onto Yang Shande, and governor-general of Fujian Prov onto Liu Guanxiong. In Guangdong Prov, Long Jiguang assumed governor-general post and Chen Jiongming fled on August 5th. In Sichuan Prov, Xiong Kewu declared independence on Aug 9th but resigned within one month. In Hunan Prov, Li Yuanhong recommended Tang Xiangming (Tang Hualong's brother) to Yuan Shi-kai for the governor-general post to have Tan Yankai and Zhao Hengti replaced on Oct 24th of 1913. After the failure of the Second Revolution, Chiang Kai-shek & Zhang Qun left for Japan. Zhang Qun re-entered Japan's cadet in Tokyo to become the 10th session graduate in 1915. It was through Chen Qimei that Chiang Kai-shek first met Sun Yat-sen in early 1914. (Li Ao did list two speeches by Chiang Kai-shek to validate the timing of the first possible encounter between Chiang Kai-shek and Sun Yat-sen to be in Shanghai sometime in 1913. Before that, Chiang Kai-shek, for sake of elevating himself to the rank of Sun Yat-sen, made himself a sworn brother with both Zhang Jingjiang and Chen Qimei. Zhang Jingjiang [Chang Ching-chiang], in 1909, gained Sun Yat-sen's confidence by donating half of his Paris assets during the anti-Manchu revolutionary time period.) On July 8th of 1914, in Japan, Sun Yat-sen re-organized his party into Chinese Revolutionary Party. Chen Qimei was the first to press his fingerprints on the personal allegiance form while some other revolutionaries were turned away by Sun Yat-sen's stringent demand. Chiang Kai-shek was No. 102 on the roll among 741 members who had registered from Dec 1913 to July 1914. Chiang was dispatched back to Shanghai for organizing rebellions. After Shanghai rebellion aborted, Chiang was sent to Manchuria for checking out the revolutionary movement, which turned out to be a scam by someone for obtaining revolutionary funding per Ding Zhongjiang. In Oct of 1915, Chen Qimei regrouped his forces for a rebellion. on Nov 10th, Zheng Rucheng was assassinated by Chen Qimei's men. on Dec 5th, uprising aborted when only one warship, Zhaohe-jian, echoed the rebels on the Huangpujiang River. Chen Qimei and Chiang Kai-shek slipped away when they heard Chen Guofu intentionally argued with French police downstairs. Chen Jieru memoirs claimed that Chiang Kai-shek believed that this aborted rebellion had helped propel the nationwide struggles against Yuan Shi-kai's imperial enthronement. Zhang Qun accepted a teaching job at Batavia in 1915 for making a living and would not return to China till Yuan Shi-kai's death the next year. Zhang Qun termed the struggle against Yuan Shi-kai imperial enthronement as the "Third Revolution". on March 22nd 1916, Yuan Shi-kai abandoned his emperor's title after about 81 days' enthronement. In April 1916, Chiang Kai-shek and Yang Hu went to join a rebellion in Jiangyin Battery of Jiangsu Prov. But on May 18th 1916, Chen Qimei was assassinated by Yuan Shi-kai's cronies after a setup by Li Haiqiu in luring Chen Qimei into a trap by means of asking Chen act as a guarantor of a mining enterprise in exchange for funding the revolutionary movement. Further details could be seen at "Struggles Against Yuan Shi-kai's Imperial Enthronement by Chinese Revolutionary Party". After 1916, Chiang Kai-shek's intermediate career was shrouded in mystery and notoriety. Chiang was depicted as quite decadent, anything you could imagine what a Shanghai Bund rascal, speculator or broker would be. Chen Jieru memoirs claimed that Chiang Kai-shek had become decadent as a result of the death of Chen Qimei. Chen Jieru memoirs stated that Chiang Kai-shek, from 1917 to 1920, was "unemployed" in Shanghai; however, editor of the memoirs corrected this statement in pointing out that it did not conform with some historical writings. Zhang Qun claimed that he and Chiang Kai-shek served Sun Yat-sen as attaché inside of Sun Yat-sen's "grand marshal office" which was established on Aug 31st 1917 after Cheng Biguang's Navy escorted Sun Yat-sen to Canton from Shanghai. Available evidence would be a "grand marshal" entourage photo taken on March 3rd 1918, with Chiang Kai-shek inside. Chiang, from 1918 onward, had served Sun Yat-sen on and off. From March 1918 to June 1922, Chiang had been in active duty for one and half years, and participated in one real war, i.e., the Battle of Yongtai. In 1920, Chiang Kai-shek joined Zhang Jingjiang, Dai Jitao and Chen Guofu in trading stocks on Shanghai Bund, and declined Sun Yat-sen's invitations numerous times. Li Ao, after spending over two days sorting through Chiang Kai-shek's traces, pointed out that Chiang Kai-shek, for 14 times, from 7/31/1918 to 2/21/1924, had either quit the jobs or deserted the posts or resigned his work, with the first occurrence being 7/31/1918 quitting the "tactician" job under Chen Jiongming [after four month service] and the last occurrence being 2/21/1924 quitting the Whampoa academy preparatory committee due to Sun Yat-sen's plan [?] in assigning the "principal" job onto Xu Chongzhi. To gain an glimpse of Chiang Kai-shek's past, one would have to rely upon "Chie Jieru's Memoirs", a book that was published in a different name entitled "I Had Been Chiang Kai-shek's Wife For Seven Years" (Solidarity Publishing House, July 2002, Peking, China, ISBN 7-80130-593-0). on the Shanghai Bund, Chiang Kai-shek, per Harold Isaacs, "came into contact with Yu Ya-ch'ing, then already a powerful comprador, and Chang Ching-chiang, a millionaire banker and dealer in bean curd and curios. Chiang also associated with Huang Ching-yung, one of Shanghai's notorious underworld leaders, and is generally believed to have become a member at this time of the most powerful secret society in Shanghai, known as the Green Circle ['qing bang']. Gangsters, bankers, military men, murderers, thieves, smugglers, and brothel-keepers helped draw the original lines of the portrait the world was to come to recognize as Chiang Kai-shek." Chiang Kai-shek, who went into financial entanglements with powerful richmen, would later be bailed out by those tutors or sponsors, to be shipped to Canton for service under Sun Yat-sen. Recent revelation of Chiang Kai-shek's private diaries, purportedly written during the Shanghai Bund time period, had quite some pages about his abortive fights against lust and sex. It is extremely difficult to make a linkage of this kind of decadent Chiang Kai-shek to a later political figure who instructed his elder son as to diligent studies of ancient Chinese classics (such as "shuo wen jie zi") in the private aspect and commanded the Whampoa Cadet Army in the public aspect. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek forced Chen Jieru into a trip to USA for sake of marrying Song Meiling. Chen Jieru received warm welcome from governor of Hawaii and Chinese compatriots in US in almost all cities, but was denied assistance by China's diplomatic legation. After return to China, Chen Jieru spent her time in Shanghai till she fled to Chongqing in the aftermath of the Pacific War. Chen Jieru, in 1961, under the arrangement of CCP leader Zhou Enlai, migrated to HK where she authored the memoirs that was sold out by her dealer to Chiang Kai-shek's cronies. There could be a communist red hand in the publication of Chen Jieru's memoirs. KMT Preparation For Establishing the Military Academy Back on March 2nd 1923, Sun Yat-sen's grand marshal office had decided to set up a military lecture school to be headed by Cheng Qian, which would be to mimic various schools set up by provincial army factions like Dian-jun, Xiang-jun [Hunan Military Academy], Yue-jun [Xijiang Military Academy], Yu-jun and Gan-jun. In mid 1923, Sun Yat-sen decided to dispatch a four-person "Dr Sun Yat-sen Delegation" panel, consisting of Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Tailei, to Moscow for studying the Red Army system. Chiang Kai-shek left China in July 1923 [Aug? per solar calendar] and remained in USSR for three months. on Nov 26th, KMT executive committee decided to launch National Army Cadet School, to be headed by Chiang Kai-shek and Liao Zhongkai. Per Harold Isaacs, on his return to Canton at the end of the year, Chiang became the dark-haired darling of Borodin and the Russian military advisers." Chen Jieru's memoirs stated that Chiang Kai-shek delayed his report and went straight home instead of going to Canton as a show of protest about Sun Yat-sen's hiring Borodin while Chiang Kai-shek was still touring USSR. In Jan 1924, Sun Yat-sen first established a field army lecture academy named "Cadet Academy of the National Army", with himself to act as principal. With the Russian funding, Sun Yat-sen renamed the school into "Preparatory Committee of Cadet Academy of the National Army", with Chiang Kai-shek serving as committee chairman, and designated the site of former navy academy and infantry school on Huangpu Island as the school location. Chen Jieru's memoirs stated that 200000 silver dollars were allocated for launching expenses and that Russia only supplied equipment, weapons and ammunitions. "Preparatory Committee" was established on Feb 6th, with Wang Boling, Li Jishen and Ye Jianying etc acting as members. Military lecturers included Qian Dajun, Gu Zhutong, and Liu Zhi etc. Russian advisers, totaling 50, would include Alexander I. Cherepanov [Qi-lie-po-nuo-fu] and General V.V. Blücher (Galin, i.e., Jia-lun). Deng Yanda and Xu Qian acted as two assistants to Chiang Kai-shek. Chen Jieru's memoirs stated that Chiang Kai-shek was conferred "commissar" of KMT Military Commission on Feb 3rd 1924. on May 3rd 1924, Chiang Kai-shek was made into the 'president' (principal) of the academy as well as garrison commander for the Changzhou Castle on Huangpu Island. Chen Jieru's memoirs stated that they moved into their first fixed residency on the island on May 15th. Whampoa Military Academy Xu Xiangqian, a Shanxi native who had enrolled in Shanxi Provincial National Normal College (a paramilitary college fully funded by Yan Xishan [Yen Hsi-shan] the governor of Shanxi Prov) from 1919 to 1921 and later unsuccessfully worked as a school teacher, would leave for Shanghai's preliminary Whampoa Academy exam with several pals in Feb 1924 under the help of his elder brother who had connection to some officer in Nationalist Army.  After passing prelim exam in Shanghai, Shanxi gang were sponsored
for further trip to Canton for final exam, and some folks expressed desire to
sell themselves as 'zhu zai' (i.e. piggy
coolie) for overseas work or to go to France for "diligent overseas studies"
should they fail the final. At Canton, over a dozen Xu pals took the exam at
Guangdong Advanced Normal College and were all admitted even though Xu Xiangqian
stated that he scored zero on math exam. Similarly, examinees from neighboring
Shenxi Prov, with the referral letter from Yu Youren, were all admitted as well.
Also passing the Shanghai prelim exam would be Hu Zongnan and Ling Guangya who
rode the Japanese ship Songshan-wan for Canton. Heh Zhonghan and Jiang Fusheng,
who missed the Shanghai exam, would hire a boat for chasing the Japanese ship.
With the help of Hu and Ling, Heh and Jiang climbed up the ship, and the four
became good friends since. Heh and Jiang were allowed to take final exam after
writing a letter to Liao Zhongkai stating that they, with prior overseas studies
in Russia, had given up a career as reporters for sake of joining military
training at Whampoa. Chen Xizeng, i.e., the nephew of Chen Qimei, was admitted
to Whampoa without a test.  Xuan Xiafu, a Zhuji
native of Zhejiang Prov, was sent to Canton's Whampoa Academy by the CCP with
about one dozen youths. (Xuan Xiafu returned from Japan in 1922, joined Yu
Xiusong, Xuan Zhonghua & Yu Datong in revolutionary activity in Zhejiang,
and enrolled in "socialist youth league" and "communist party" successively.)
Chen Geng
[1903-1961], who was sent to military academy under Sun Yat-sen's grand marshal
office in Canton in Nov 1923, would take exam for Whampoa Academy under CCP
instructions in April 1925. (Later on Oct 27th 1925, Chen Geng rescued Chiang
Kai-shek on the battlefield for which he would be spared death and allowed to
flee Nanking in 1933.) All the above folks became attendee of First Session of
Whampoa Academy. The stories of Hu Zongnan & Xu Xiangqian would probably be
enough to serve as a snapshot of CCP-KMT histories. More available at Whampoa_Military_Academy.pdf. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Confrontation With the Canton Merchant Guild Chen Jieru memoirs stated that it would be "heavy taxation" that caused Canton's merchant guilds in threatening a "closing shops" strike. Chen Jieru wrote that both the merchants and the intellectuals of Canton hated Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek for harboring communism as well as retaining Yunnan-Guangxi provincial armies at their expenses. Hence, Canton's merchant guilds, under the leadership of Chen Lianbo [i.e., a broker at Hongkong-Shanghai Bank], made a purchase of 9000 rifles overseas for arming their members. At the order of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek confiscated 1000 guns from a Norwegian ship and more over, transferred the goods to Whampoa Island. More available at Whampoa_Military_Academy.pdf. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Upheavals In Peking & Sun Yat-sen's Northern Trip  Feng Yuxiang, taking advantage of Zhi-xi & Feng-xi War, would rebel against Cao Kun & Wu Peifu. Wu Peifu ordered three pronged attacks at Manchuria, departing Jing-Feng Railway, Xifengkou Pass, and Gubeikou-Jehol, respectively. While being ordered on the northern route of Gubeikou Pass, Feng Yuxiang reached a secret agreement with Zhang Zuolin's Manchurian Army for toppling Cao & Wu. on Oct 23rd, 1924, Feng Yuxiang's army suddenly made a stealthy entry into Peking. In Peking, Feng Yuxiang put Cao Kun under house arrest in Yanqinglou and later executed Cao Kun's military attaché Li Yanqing. Parliament representatives, who had elected Cao Kun as a result of voting bribery, fled to neighboring Tianjin. Feng Yuxiang and Duan Qirui etc wired to Sun Yat-sen for a joint meeting about unification of China. More available at Sun_Yat-sen_Northern_Trip.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Chiang Kai-shek's Sacrificing 3000 Whampoa Cadets In Jan, taking advantage of Sun Yat-sen's departure for Peking, Chen Jiong-ming assembled 70,000 army against Canton in collaboration with Fujian-Jiangxi-Hunan armies, with Lin Hu and Hong Zhaolin in command. In Canton, Yang Ximin, a Dian-jun general, was made into the leader of a joint army consisting of Xu Chongzhi's Yue-jun, Tan Yankai's Xiang-jun, Liu Zhenhuan's Gui-jun, Fan Zhongxiu's Yu-jun and remnants of Hubei, Shanxi-Shenxi soldiers. However, Chen Jieru's memoirs claimed that it was Chiang Kai-shek who initiated the attack at 30000 strong army of feud Chen Jiongming at Huizhou [i.e., so-called 1st precarious pass of southern China]. Chen Jieru disclosed that Chiang Kai-shek always had a slogan at the academy, which was to state that "to unite China, first thing to do is unite Guangdong". Hence, Chiang Kai-shek heavily enrolled communists for staffing his Whampoa academy for the "agitation skills" as well as "heightened political consciousness". Li Ao, in his book on Chiang Kai-shek, adopted the title of military leader of "chi jun" [i.e., red-colored army] for Chiang Kai-shek. (Separately, communists, during later rebellions, called their peasant-organized local defense army by the so-called "chi [red] wei [defense] jun [army]".) Chen Jieru stated that "lives of 3000 youths were used for defeating Chen Jiongming". Chen Jieru called it by the well-known "Jieshi [Kai-shek] War", which proved that none of the other army heads had any desire for a war other than Chiang Kai-shek himself. on Jan 15th, eastern expedition order was issued. A decisive battle was waged at Danshui on Feb 15th, with 2000 cadet soldiers defeating 6000 strong Chen Jiongming army. on Feb 1st 1925, 3000 students from Whampoa military academy formed two regiments and joined the First Eastern Campaign against Chen Jiongming, and together with Xu Chongzhi's Yue-jun Army, defeated 30,000 strong enemy within two months, penetrated to Shantou (i.e., Chen Jiongming's homebase), and drove Chen remnants to Fujian Prov. Whampoa students sacked Dongguan on Feb 5th, Danshui on Feb 15th, Haifeng and Lufeng by late Feb, Lihu on March 3rd, Chaozhou and Shandou on March 7th, Mianhu on March 13th. Hu Zongnan, appointed a lieutenant in 8th company of 3rd battalion of 1st regiment, was promoted to chief of machinegun platoon at the Battle of Mianhu. Hu Zongnan, before the battle, wrote a letter to Heh Zhonghan, expressing a determination for martyrdom. After defeating Lin Hu's 20,000 forces, Whampoa students chased enemies out of Dongjiang River area, causing Chen Jiongming flee to HK, Hong Zhaolin flee to Fujian border, and Lin Hu flee to Jiangxi Prov. Final battle at Huizhou in mid-March was recorded to be a bloody one by Chen Jieru. Academy cadets altogether broke through four barriers: barbed iron-wire-made cauldrons, wooden-plates with 3 inch nails, wooden-horses with barbed wires, and 15 feet high electricity walls. Chen Jiongming fled to HK, Hong Zhaolin fled to Fujian Prov, while Lin Hu fled to Jiangxi Prov. Per Chen Jieru, Chiang Kai-shek made a speech at Huizhou, disclosing that they had incurred a casualty of over 3000 among the cadets. Chiang Kai-shek stated that over half of his students had sacrificed their lives. That is probably why Xu Xiangqian later mentioned that he had located mostly cadets from 3rd & 4th sessions among 1927 Canton Commune insurgents. Hu Hanmin, having learnt of Sun Yat-sen death in Peking on March 12th, did not disclose the news to students till after Dongjiang [East River] area was secured. Chiang Kai-shek Stealing Xu Chongzhi's Guangdong Prov Army Chiang Kai-shek Dismissing Xiong Kewu's Sichuan Prov Army Chiang Kai-shek's Trickery Against Yang Ximin/Liu Zhenhuan Second Eastern Expeditions Against Chen Jiongming Li Zongren Frustrating Tang Jiyao's Attempt At Canton Usurpation By Defeating Dian-jun Tang Jiyao, who declined the post of "deputy marshal" for disliking Hu Hanmin's "proxy marshal" title, would attempt at an usurpation of Canton government after Sun Yat-sen passed away in Peking on March 12th 1925. More available at Tang_Jiyao-Downfall. (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Ideological Struggles Inside the Whampoa Military Academy Whampoa Military Academy was also a ground for brewing political struggles. Inside Whampoa, communist member Xuan Xiafu claimed to classmates that Chiang Kai-shek was a 'neo-warlord'. Classmate Luo Jinwu reported it to Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Kai-shek rebuked Xuan Xiafu. on July 6th 1924, Chiang Kai-shek assumed commissar for KMT special party HQ inside of Whampoa Academy. Chiang Kai-shek designated group leaders, including Xuan Xiafu, for heading sub-committees of KMT special party HQ inside of Whampoa Academy. Xuan Xiafu proposed an election instead. After refusing to write repentance letter, Xuan Xiafu left Whampoa Academy. Later, on July 31st 1945, Xuan Xiafu was ordered to be abducted and executed by Chiang Kai-shek while Xuan Xiafu was serving as a representative of Xi'an office of communist-controlled Eight Route Army. Xu Xiangqian stated that CCP established a branch right after commencement and CCP member Jiang Xianyun was responsible for organizing "Joint Society of Young Military Men" in Jan 1925. Xu Zhen stated that Li Zhilong and Zhou Yiqun were responsible for this communist society. (Jiang Xianyun later died as a regiment chief during northern campaigns.) Xu Zhen also wrote that it would the communists who assassinated Liao Zhongkai in the attempt of transplanting the crime onto Hu Hanmin. In antagonism to "Joint Society of Young Military Men", Heh Zhonghan (He Zhonghan), Yuan Shouqian, Feng Ti and Miao Bin established "Sun Wen [Sun Yat-sen] Ism Society". The two organizations fought against each other within the academy. Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei had to intervene to have two factions stop fighting each other. In late 1924, Chinese communist party issued an urgent secret order to various provinces to urge its activists in recommending examinees for Whampoa Academy. Lin Biao, who had assisted Yun Daiying and Lin Yueying in early communism activity, was sent to Canton for attending Whampoa 4th Session. Heh Zhonghan, when relocated to Meixian county, worked with Hu Zongnan in setting up a branch of "Sun Wen [Sun Yat-sen] Ism Society" in Meixian. Li Zhilong was said to have disrupted Heh Zhonghan's preparatory activity of a meeting room at Meixian. Chiang Kai-shek, at one time, demanded that Zhou Enlai hand over a list of communist members inside of Whampoa, but Zhou deferred it by saying that he had to consult with CCP central committee. As a compromise, Zhou Enlai relocated Li Zhilong away from Whampoa Academy and assigned Li Zhilong a job at weapons depot and navy consecutively. By April 1926, Chiang Kai-shek ordered that both societies dissolve on their own accords. Xu Xiangqian claimed that "Joint Society of Young Military Men" had impacted over 2000 military officers and played a considerable role in advancing communist agenda. Meanwhile, Peng Pai and Mao Zedong launched peasant movement lecture and practice school under KMT's party apparatus. Mao Tse-tung [Mao Zedong] also served as deputy propaganda minister for some time.  Back in Nov
1924, Zhou Enlai returned to China for serving as director of politics
department at the academy. (Zhou Enlai's self account stated that he returned to
China in the summer of 1924, first acted as a lecturer, and then promoted to
director of politics department at the Whampoa Academy by the winter in
contradiction with some anti-commie claim that Zhou was appointed the director
via a recommendation letter from some top Soviet leader. Zhou Enlai's self
account also stated that he taught 4 sessions at the academy, participated in
two eastern campaigns against Chen Jiongming in 1925, and left the director post
after Chiang Kai-shek's Zhongshan Warship Incident in March 1926. Chen Jieru
memoirs claimed that it was red-tie-wearing Chiang Kai-shek who enrolled Zhou
Enlai in KMT and promoted Zhou Enlai to the post of director of politics
department.) The 5-30 Bloody Incident, HK-Guangdong Strike, & Boycott Movements Workers and sailors in HK, back in Jan 1922, organized a "HK Sailors Strike". When British authorities closed down two unions and arrested workers' leaders, over 100000 people held a strike. To lend assistance to HK workers and sailors, Canton's sailor union office organized a blockade of HK. To help with subsistence of the workers and sailors on strike, sailor union office called upon 100000 workers and sailors in walking back to Canton. on March 4th 1922, workers and sailors, on the way back from HK and when passing through Shamian, encountered police crackdowns, which led to a death toll of 6 workers and a casualty of several hundreds. Railroad workers in Canton, Jing-Han Line, and Long-Hai Line rose up in support of HK workers and sailors. 56 days later, British authorities had to make shipping companies increase wage by 15-30%, reinstate the unions, release the arrested leaders, and reimburse the families for the victims of "Shamian Bloody Incident". More available at Anti-Imperialist-Movements.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
Wang Jingwei & the KMT Left-Wing Wang Jingwei (1883-1944), aka Wang Zhaoming, was a senior revolutionary who joined Sun Yat-sen's "Tong Meng Hui" in Japan in 1905. Wang Jingwei was noted for his agitation and propaganda skills, first demonstrated in his debates on "Min Bao Newspaper" [People's Journal] against monarchist Liang Qi-chao's "Xin-Min [New Citizen] Ye Bao" newspaper and later observed by Hu Hanmin during 1908 speeches among overseas Chinese in Singapore. Wang Jingwei, a person commented to be handsome and smart, was also courageous in his 1910 attempted assassination of Manchu Qing Regent. Hu Hanmin and Wang Jingwei, deemed right hand and left hand of Sun Yat-sen since 1905, were at one time also 'slick throat' comrades. Hu Hanmin was recorded to have burst into big cries at night when he dreamt of Wang Jingwei's being executed by Manchu Regent Zai-feng; similarly, Wang Zhaoming, upon hearing of the defeat of the March 29th 1911 Canton Uprising, would took for granted the prison guards' words that Hu Hanmin had died in the uprising, cried about the death of Hu Hanmin, and wrote three mourning poems. However, Wang Jingwei's latter half of the life, since 1925, was tinted, per JYJ (page 6 of "The Land-Sea Ebb History of KMT", "zhuanji wenxue publishing house", Taipei, Taiwan, 1993 edition). Wang Jingwei, with the encouragement of Borodin and the assistance of Liao Zhongkai, became obsessed with power control after the death of Sun Yat-sen. In the end, Wang Jingwei threw himself into the camp of the Japanese invaders in setting up the Puppet Nanking Government during WWII. Dr. Sun Yat-sen conferred the post of "da yuanshuai" (i.e., grand marshal) and governor for Guangdong Prov onto Hu Hanmin before departing for Peking for sake of peace talks with Northern Warlord Lineage government. Sun Yat-sen's Grand Camp in Canton was controlled by 'KMT Central Politics Meeting', with three members of Hu Hanmin, Liao Zhongkai and Wu Tiyun. When Sun Yat-sen fell ill, Borodin, Wang Jingwei and Ma Chaojun etc went inside of Russian embassy for discussions with Leo Karakhan. Borodin told Wang Jingwei that he should be the natural successor of Sun Yat-sen. on March 12th, Sun Yat-sen passed away in Peking due to liver cancer. Peking newspapers eulogized Sun Yat-sen as the 'founding father' of ROC, a reverence name later adopted by KMT standing committee on Mar 21 of 1940. (Sun Yat-sen, before his death, had mentioned that 'enemies are just beside you' when Wang Jingwei requested time and again for death bed instructions. I would not be able to tell whether Sun Yat-sen had realized his blunder in allying with USSR/CCP and meant the 'enemies' to be Russian and CCP agents.) Hu Hanmin added Wang Jingwei to the three member 'KMT Central Politics Meeting'. Wang Jingwei, with the support of Liao Zhongkai, began to expand 'KMT Central Politics Meeting' into 11-member "national government commissar meeting". Wang Jingwei renamed the Grand Camp of the Grand Marshal in Canton to the 'National Government'. After manipulations, Wang Jingwei was elected to be the chairman of the new National Government. on June 15th, Wang Jingwei decided to organize the grand marshal office into the National Government. Chen Jieru memoirs stated that Chiang Kai-shek demanded on June 20th 1925 that KMT executive commissar committee admit him as a member by displaying military forces via a curfew. Chiang Kai-shek, for his harsh arrests of senior KMT members, was nicknamed "Ningbo's Napoleon". In lower Yangtze, "Orient Magazine" published some photos of Chiang Kai-shek and Borodin. When some publications cautioned against the emergence of neo-warlord [i.e., Chiang Kai-shek], KMT senior leader Wu Zhihui disputed it by claiming that he saw no sign of such a neo-warlord. On Aug 20th 1925, Liao Zhongkai was assassinated. KMT ordered a special commissar committee for handling the emergency, with Wang Jingwei, Xu Chongzhi and Chiang Kai-shek on board. Soon, investigations would implicate both Hu Hanmin and Xu Chongzhi in the assassination. In a resolution passed on Sept 1st 1925, Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek expelled Hu Hanmin to USSR and Xu Chongzhi to Shanghai, making Chiang Kai-shek the de factor military leader. More available at Assassination-of-Liao_Zhongkai.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
The Zhongshan Warship Incident On March 20th of 1926, Wang Jingwei's left-wing suffered a setback when Chiang Kai-shek fought back by having his crony, Wang Boling, organize a coup. This would be the 'Zhongshan Warship Incident' where 'zhongshan' was a pen name that Sun Yat-sen adopted possibly after a Japanese royal noble name. Conflicting stories exist as to the cause of this incident. The captain of Zhongshan Warship, Li Zhilong, was a CCP member who used to serve Chiang Kai-shek on the trip between Canton and Huangpu (Whampoa). Li Zhilong, after throwing himself into Wang Jingwei's camp, was promoted from KMT party commissar to the captain of the warship and then promoted to the bureau chief for Navy Department consecutively. on basis of communist account, before March 18th of 1926, Li Zhilong obtained the approval of Wang Jingwei to have some warship soldiers replaced when rumors spread that Chiang Kai-shek planned to have his crony take over the ship. Meanwhile, Chiang Kai-shek heard the rumor that Li Zhilong planned to abduct Chiang during the next ride and send Chiang to Vladivostok in Russian Far East. Xu Zhen stated that Chiang was alerted by repeated phonecalls by Deng Yanda in regards to the time of Chiang Kai-shek's return to Whampoa Academy from Canton. After Chiang said he was not to return to Whampoa, Li Zhilong called Chiang and answered that he was under Deng Yanda's order to have sailed warship back and forth between Whampoa and Canton. Li Dongfang claimed that Chiang never disclosed the name of the person who made repeated calls on March 19th but it was thought to be Wang Jingwei. Chen Jieru claimed that Chen Bijun [i.e., Wang Jingwei's wife] called her five times on March 18th to check out the itinerary of Chiang Kai-shek, and that it would be Chen Jieru's warning that Chiang Kai-shek called Whampoa Academy's education section chief to check out a conspiracy against him. More available at Zhongshan-Warship-Incident.pdf (Check RepublicanChina-pdf.htm page for up-to-date updates.)
For more about Soviet scheme against China, please refer to The USSR, Comintern, KMT & CCP [Modified : Saturday, 31-Mar-2012 04:10:20 EDT] The Northern Expedition & the Unification Of China In northern and central China, warlords engaged in escalating conflicts. During "Zhi-xi vs Feng-xi War", Feng Yuxiang defection led to the collapse of Cao Kun Regime. In mid-Sept 1925, Feng-xi's Manchurian Army arrived in Shanghai, leading to Sun Chuanfang's decision in expelling Feng-xi Manchurian army. In late 1925, Zhang Zuolin's Feng-xi military faction entered Shanhaiguan Pass, and Feng Yuxiang's National Army evacuated from Peking. Feng Yuxiang's National Army fought against Zhang Zuolin's Feng-xi Manchurian army in March 1926, which led to the blockade of Tagukou Port by Feng Yuxiang's National Army. Japanese shelled Feng Yuxiang's National Army and protested against Peking government by citation of the 1901 Boxer Protocol. Duan Qirui's bodyguards shot dead over twenty students including two females who petitioned against an ultimatum from eight countries in regards to the blockade of Tagukou Port, i.e., "March 18th Bloody Incident". Wu Peifu took advantage of the "Tianjin War" between Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin's Feng-xi Manchurian Army in making a comeback. Wu Peifu led his army northward. Wu Peifu collaborated with Zhang Zuolin in defeating Feng Yuxiang's National Army. Duan Qirui resigned his post in April 1926. Northern China was in chaos. In central China, Li Zongren of Guangxi Prov instigated Hunan Prov's Tang Shengzhi into a defection to the revolutionary camp of southern government. In Feb, Li Zongren dispatched Bai Chongxi & Xia Wei on a mission of accompany Ye Qi [Tang Shengzhi's rep] to Canton. In March, Tang Shengzhi, i.e., 4th Div Chief under Zhao Hengti, demanded that Zhao revoke the "provincial constitution' of Hunan Prov. Tang's three brigades attacked Changsha, Liling and Hengshan. Li Zongren dispatched troops into Hunan Prov for assisting Tang Shengzhi's fight against Zhao Hengti [i.e., Wu Peifu's crony]. Zhao refused to order his three other division chief on a counter-attack, resigned his governor post for Shanghai on March 11th, named Tang proxy governor, and refused to meet with Wu Peifu while en route to Shanghai. 3rd Div Chief Ye Kaixin requested that Wu Peifu enter Hunan Prov for fighting Tang Shengzhi. Ye Kaixin lost Yueyang in late March, but retook the city on April 19th with the help of Wu Peifu. In early May, two other division chiefs of Hunan Prov army, i.e., Heh Yaozu & Liu Xing, joined in to fight Tang. Li Zongren went to Canton to sell the idea that Southern Government should assist Tang Shengzhi in attacking Wu Peifu before Zhi-xi Army and Manchurian army hit south after winning a possible upper hand over Feng Yuxiang at the Battle of Nankou in northern China. Wu Peifu diverted his forces for a fight with Feng Yuxiang in Nankou, northern China. Later during the Nankou Battle, Feng Yuxiang was defeated by the Manchurian Army. With the urging by Li Zongren as well as the volunteering by Li Jishen, southern government mounted a northern expedition that would re-unite China. Sun Chuanfang's Taking Control Over Five Lower Yangtze Provinces Li Zongren Declaring Guangxi Prov's Allegiance to Canton Government Li Zongren Pushing For the "Northern Expedition" Li Jishen Volunteering To Be Herald Troops Of "Northern Expedition" Phase I Of the "Northern Expedition" The Changsha Military Meeting Battles of Miluo-he River, Dingsi-qiao Bridge & Hesheng-qiao Bridge Siege of Wuchang Phase II Of the "Northern Expedition" The KMT Purging of the CCP Hu Hanmin Credited With Harsh Measures 'Purging Communists' of 1927 CCP and Borodin Maneuvered For the Return of Wang Jingwei From France Mao Zedong Fomenting the Rascal-proletariat "Peasant Movement" Tang Shengzhi's Rise To Power CCP-Led Workers' Uprisings In Shanghai The Nanking Bloody Incident In the Hands Of Communists and Imperialists During Chiang Kai-shek's trip to Japan in Dec 1927, rumor went that American ambassador to Japan visited Chiang Kai-shek and obtained a guarantee as to American interests in China. In early 1928, Huang Fu had to make an apology for the British-American human loss and property damages that were incurred after communist-dominated 6th & 2nd Corps of the Nationalist Army took over Nanking on March 24th, 1927 and engaged in a rampage against foreigners for provoking a wider anti-imperialist war. Chiang Kai-shek blamed on communist-infiltrated 6th & 2nd Corps for the turmoil. Seagrave mistakenly cited an "American investigation" in pointing out that the northern lineage troops pillaged foreigners for instigating the international intervention though the KMT rightists blamed the 1927 Nanking Bloody Incident on the communists. - Dorothy Borg and Leighton Stuart were adamant that it was Chinese communists who perpetrated the crime of killing Westerners in Nanking. The communist culprit who directed the rampage later instigated the 1933 Fujian Mutiny, by the way. Conflicts Between KMT Leftists & Rightists Chiang Kai-shek Cracking Down on Communists In Collusion With Gui-xi 'Ning (Nanking) - Han (Wuhan) Split' Continuing Northern Expeditions By Wuhan & Nanking Regimes KMT Leftist Splitting With Communists Due To Schemes Disclosed By Comintern Rep M.N. Roy Communist Mutiny At Nanchang Reconciliation Between KMT Leftists & Rightists The Second Northern Expedition The Red Terror vs White Terror The Communist Armed Revolution The Japanese Invasion (1931-1945) The 1945-1949 Civil Wars The Bloody 50 Years: 1949-1999 Written by Ah Xiang |
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