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The December 9th Movement: A Case Study in Chinese Communist Historiography*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

John Israel
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Extract

Communist literature on “Contemporary (post-May 4) History” in which China begins a “bourgeois democratic reVolution” is more than an ideological exercise; it is autobiographical. The leading character is none other than the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) itself. The emotional inVolvement of mainland scribes is comparable to that of a public figure writing his biography. Every event from 1919 to the present is regarded in the light of the CCP's role. Communist leadership is even attributed to the May 4 Movement, which antedated the Party's formation by two years.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 23 , September 1965 , pp. 140 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1965

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References

1 Tse-tung, Chow, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual ReVolution in Modern China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960), p. 356Google Scholar.

2 hui, Chung-hua ch'uan-kuo hsueh-sheng lien-ho (ed.), Chung-kuo Hsueh-sheng ti Kuang-jung Ch'iian-t'ung (Peking, Chung-kuo Ch'ing-nien Ch'u-pan She, 1956Google Scholar, “Editor's Preface”).

3 Peiping was the pre-1949 name for Peking. The following outline is adapted in part from “Chronology” in Wales', Nym [Helen F. Snow] Notes on the Chinese Student Movement 1935–36, (Stanford: Hoover Institution on War, ReVolution and Peace, 1959), pp. 184–190Google Scholar. For narrative treatment of the subject, see Freyn, Hubert, Prelude to War: The Chinese Student Rebellion of 1935–1936 (Shanghai: China Journal Publishing Company, 1939)Google Scholar; and Chaps. 4 and S of the author's doctoral dissertation, “The Chinese Student Movement, 1927–1937,” Harvard, 1963Google Scholar, to be published by Stanford University Press.

November 1, 1935: 11 Peiping schools send manifesto demanding civil liberties to Fifth KMT Central Executive Committee Congress.

November 18, 1935: Peiping Student Union formed.

December 9, 1935: Nearly 2,000 students demonstrate in Peiping to present a six-point petition to Nanking representative, Ho Ying-ch'in.

December 16, 1935: Second demonstration draws approximately 8,000 participants. January 2–January 21, 1936: Peiping and Tientsin students conduct propaganda tour to rouse Hopei peasants against Japan. From this pilgrimage emerges a hard core of left-wing agitators centred in a Chinese National Liberation Vanguard, a front organisation for the CCP.

January 15, 1936: Conference of educators and students held in Nanking under auspices of Chiang Kai-shek.

February 20, 1936: Government Emergency Law initiates period of severe suppression of left-wing activists.

March 31, 1936: 1,200 youths demonstrate in memorial for Peiping high school pupil Kuo Ch'ing, who died in prison. CCP criticises this display as “left extremism.”

April 17, 1936: Peiping Student Union changes its name to Peiping Student National Salvation Union and adopts moderate policies to harmonise with the United Front strategy.

June 13, 1936: Peiping students demonstrate in response to the South-west Rebellion.

December 12, 1936: Leftist-inspired Peiping student demonstration precedes news of Chiang Kai-shek's kidnapping.

May 4, 1937: “Old “(leftist) Peiping Student Union clashes with “new “(rightist) union during an attempted unity meeting.

4 See China Weekly Review (CWR), Vol. 75, No. 3, 12 21, 1935, p. 100Google Scholar; Wales, , Notes, p. 44Google Scholar; Freyn, , Prelude, p. 34Google Scholar.

5 See CWR, Vol. 75, No. 3, 12 21, 1935, p. 100Google Scholar; Vol. 75, No. 5, January 4, 1936, p. 163; North China Star, December 12, 1935; North China Herald, December 25, 1935; New York Times, December 10, 11, 17, 1935.

6 CWR, Vol. 76, No. 1, 03 7, 1936, p. 35Google Scholar; quoted in Wales, , Notes, p. 49Google Scholar.

7 Wales, , Notes, p. 49Google Scholar.

8 Freyn, , Prelude to War, p. 21Google Scholar.

9 Snow, Edgar, Journey to the Beginning (New York: Random House, 1958), pp. 139–143Google Scholar.

10 Wales, , Notes, p. 2Google Scholar.

11 See Wales, , Notes, p. 60Google Scholar; author's interview with Edgar Snow, March 22, 1957.

12 “Chung-kuo kung-ch'an chu-i ch'ing-nien t'uan chung-yang wei-yuan-hui wei k'angjih chiu-kuo kao ch'uan-kuo ko-hsiao hsueh-sheng ho ko-chieh ch'ing-nien t'ung-pao hsuan-yen” (“Proclamation of the Chinese Communist Youth Corps Central Executive Committee to Students of the Nation's Schools on the Subject of Resisting Japan and Saving the Nation”), I-erh chiu Yun-tung (The December 9th Movement) (IECYT) (Peking: Jen-min Ch'u-pan She, 1954), pp. 136–139Google Scholar.

13 Tse-tung, Mao, “On the New Democracy,” Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Vol. 3 (New York: International Publishers, 1955), p. 149Google Scholar.

14 Po-ta, Ch'en, “I-erh chiu yun-tung san chou-nien chi-nien hui” (“Commemorative Meeting for the Third Anniversary of the December 9th Movement”), Chieh-fang (Liberation), No. 58, p. 19, 12 12, 1938Google Scholar; reprinted in Mu-tan-kiang shih ch'ing-nien fuan chou-wei-hui (ed.), Wei-ta tt I-erh chiu Yun-tung (The Great December 9th Movement) (WTTIECYT), Mutankiang, 1948, p. 18.

15 Li-ch'un, Hsü, “I-erh chiu yun-tung ti-ssu chou-nien” (“The Fourth Anniversary of the December 9th Movement”), Tu-shu Yueh-pao, Vol. 1, No. 10, 12 I, 1939, p. 453Google Scholar.

16 Ibid. p. 454.

17 Chi, Ch'ung, “Ta-chi yii hui-chi,” Chieh-fang Jih-pao (Liberation Daily) (Yenan), 12 9, 1944Google Scholar.

18 Ibid.

19 I-lin, Yao, “Chi-nien i-erh chiu shih chou-nien” (“Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of December 9”), Chieh-fang Jih-pao, 12 13, 1945Google Scholar.

20 Ibid.

21 See WTTIECYT, pp. 17–19.

22 Ibid. p. 12.

23 Hsueh, Li, “I-erh chiu yun-tung yii kung-nung hsiang chieh-ho” (“Consolidation of the December 9th Movement with the Workers and Peasants”), Chung-kuo Ch'ingnien (Chinese Youth) (CKCN), Nos. 53–54, 12 9, 1950, p. 22Google Scholar.

24 Ibid.

25 See note 19, above.

26 I-lin, Yao, “I-erh chiu hui-i” (“Recollections of December 9”), CKCN, Nos. 53–54, 12 9, 1950, p. 21Google Scholar.

27 Ibid.

28 Chih-lan, Liu, “I-erh chiu chiao-yu-le wo” (“December 9 Taught Me”), CKCN, Nos. 53–54, 12 9, 1950, p. 26Google Scholar.

29 Wen-Ian, Hsiao, “Kuan-yu ssu-hsiang kai-tsao i-erh chiu kei wo-men ti chiao-hsün” (“Lessons that December 9 Gives Us Concerning Thought Reform”), CKCN, No. 80, 12 8, 1951, p. 1Google Scholar.

30 ibid. pp. 1–2.

31 “Tsou-kuo ti tao-lu” (“The Road We Have Travelled”), CKCN, No. 102, 12 1, 1952, pp. 3–5Google Scholar.

32 “Wo shih i-erh chiu ch'un-chung tui-wu chung-chien ti i-ko” (“I Was One in the Ranks of the December 9th Masses”), CKCN, No. 102, 12 1, 1952, p. 6Google Scholar.

33 Ibid.

34 Hsuehsheng yun-tung shih-yao chiang-hua (Hankow: Shang-tsa Ch'u-pan She, 10 1951), p. 60Google Scholar; revised edition, May 1953.

35 Yu, Chi, “I-erh chiu ti i-ko tse-mien” (“One Aspect of December 9”), CKCN, No. 126, 12 1, 1953, pp. 21–22Google Scholar.

36 Fairbank, John K. and Wright, Mary, “Documentary Collections on Modern Chinese History,” Journal of Asian Studies (JAS), Vol 17, No. 1, 12 1957, p. 55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 IECYT, in the series Chung-kuo Hsien-tat Shift Tzu-liao Tsung-k'an (Collection of Sources on Contemporary Chinese History) (Peking: Jen-min Ch'u-pan She, 1953–1954)Google Scholar.

38 “P'ing-chin hsueh-sheng lien-ho hui k'uo-ta hsuan-ch'uan t'uan hsia-hsiang hsuanch'uan” (“The Peiping-Tientsin Student Union Propaganda Corps Goes to the Country to Disseminate Propaganda”), IECYT, pp. 61–69; originally published in Ta-chung Sheng-huo, Vol. 1, Nos. 111 and 12, January 25 and 02 1, 1936Google Scholar.

39 Fairbank, and Wright, , “Documentary,” p. 55Google Scholar.

40 “Ch'u-pan she kuan-yü pen shu ti shuo-ming,” IECYT.

41 IECYT, op. at., note 12, above.

42 Chi Yu, op. tit., note 35, above.

43 ibid.

44 Wo Kuo Hsueh-sheng Yun-tung Shih-hua (WKHSYTSH) (Hankow: Hu-pei Jen-min Ch'u-pan She, 11 1954)Google Scholar.

45 Hsueh-sheng, op. cit., note 34, above.

46 Unfortunately, Wang Nien-k'un did not use the documentary collection carefully. Perhaps he was rushing to meet a publication deadline when it appeared. For example, he continued to date the November 1, 1935, Petition as November 5. (See 1953 edition, p. 50; 1954, p. 38.) His numerical calculations (e.g., that there were more than 10,000 students in the December 9 demonstration, of whom one was killed and more than 500 injured, that more than 30,000 students and tens of thou-sands of townspeople marched on December 16, see 1954 edition, pp. 41–43) are gross exaggerations compared with the non-commital attitude of the earlier editions and the more conservative figures of The December 9th Movement. Wang's estimates apparently are based upon WTTIECYT, p. 39, although he has taken the liberty of raising this Volume's statistic of 20,000 students on December 16 to 30,000.

47 WKHSYTSH, p. 41.

48 Fang, Tzu (Hsiao Wen-Ian, pseud.), Chi I-erh chiu (OEC) (Peking: Pei-ching Ta-chung Ch'u-pan She 1955)Google Scholar.

49 ibid. pp. 37–38.

50 IECYT, p. 29.

51 ClEC, p. 28.

52 CKCN, Nos. 53–54, December 9, 1950, p. 24. The same text appeared in the Jen-mln Jih-pao (People's Daily), December 9, 1950, and in Hua, Hu and others (ed.), Chungkuo Hsin Min-chu Shu-l Ko-ming Shih Ts'an-k'ao Tzu-liao (Materials on the History of China's New Democratic ReVolution) (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1951), pp. 337–346Google Scholar. According to Hsiao, the original was included in I-erh chiu Man-yü (Chat on December 9), 1940.

53 CIEC, p. 4.

54 CKCN, op. dt., note 29, above.

55 This article was reprinted with only inconsequential changes in the 1960 and 1961 editions of Hsiao's anthology. Although “the thought of Mao Tse-tung” had once again become respectable, to say the least, and was lauded in a 25th anniversary article in the same collection, this phrase inexplicably remained deleted from the earlier commemorative. This oversight can be attributed to careless editing.

56 “Tsou i-erh chiu ti kuang-jung tao-lu” (“Follow the Glorious Path of December 9”), CKCN, No. 174, 12 1, 1955, p. 2Google Scholar.

57 “Kuan-yu hsueh-sheng ho kung-nung chieh-ho ti wen-t'i” (“Regarding the Problem of Students' Consolidation with the Workers and Peasants”), CKCN, No. 174, 12 1, 1955, p. 4Google Scholar.

58 Chung-hua, op. cit., note 2, above.

59 Chung-kuo hsueh-sheng yun-tung ti ku-shih (CKHSYTTKS) (Nanking: Kiang-su Jen-min Ch'u-pan She, 05 1957), p, 23Google Scholar.

60 Shu, Yang (Hsiao Wen-Ian, pseud.), “Ch'ing-nien jen yao chien-chueh ken-cho kungch'an-tang tsou,” 12 9, 1957, CIEC (5th ed.), 1960, pp. 40–42Google Scholar.

61 People's Daily, December 9, 1957.

62 Shu, Yang (Wen-Ian, Hsiao, pseud.), “Ts'ung chih-shih ch'ing-nien ho kung-nung ch'unchung chieh-ho t'an-ch'i” (“On the Consolidation of Intellectual Youth with the Working and Peasant Masses”), 12 9, 1958, CIEC, 1960, p. 44Google Scholar.

63 CIEC, 1955, p. 9.

64 CIEC, 1960, pp. 1–9, passim.

65 People's Dotty, December 9, 1957.

66 Nan, Chang, “I-erh chiu chi Huang Ching t'ung-chih” (“December 9 Memories of Comrade Huang Ching”), Wen Hut Pao (Shanghai, 12 9, 1958)Google Scholar.

67 “I-erh chiu yun-tung ti ching-kuo” (“The Events of the December 9 Movement”), ibid.

68 Hsiao Te (Hsiao Wen-Ian, pseud.), “I-erh chiu yun-tung chien-lun” (A Brief Discussion of the December 9 Movement”, Kuang-ming Jih-pao, December 9, 960, reprinted in CIEC, 6th ed., 1961, p. 54.

69 Chung-kuo Ch'ing-nien Ch'u-pan She (ed. and pub.), I-erh chiu hui-i-iu (EECHIL).

70 “Rewriting Modern History in Communist China: A Review Article,” Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 24, No. 2, 11 1955, p. 174Google Scholar.

71 Some differences between the two have no apparent political motivation. “Several hundred” and “several thousand” in Chinese are justifiably translated as “many.” Less understandably, an article attributed to P'eng Yüan-li in the original is by-lined Shih Li-teh in the English.

72 IECHIL, p. 146. See Roar of a Nation (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1963), p. 118Google Scholar.

73 IECHIL, p. 153; Roar, p. 129.

74 Roar, p. iv.

75 ibid. p. II.

76 See Li-teh's, Shih account of action at the Hsuan-wu Men in “Chi liu” (“The Rapids”), IECHIL, p. 45Google Scholar; Roar, p. 14.

77 “I-erh chili tsai T'ien-chin” (“December 9 in Tientsin”), IECHIL, p. 72Google Scholar.

78 Lin, Wang, “Hui-i Huang Ching t'ung-chih” (“In Memory of Comrade Huang Ching”), IECHIL, pp. 167–168Google Scholar; Roar, pp. 131–134, mentions the meeting at Yenching on the eve of December 9, but criticises its inadequacies, implying that even if this missionary school was playing an important role in the early stages she was doing it poorly. Wang claims that because of planning mistakes the procession was scattered and the ranks brought together only through the skill of CCP leader Huang Ching.

79 Li-teh, Shih, IECHIL, p. 55Google Scholar; Roar, p. 27.

80 See Nan-hsiang, Chiang, “Chi i-erh chiu yun-tung ti chan-shih—Yang Hsueh-ch'eng t'ung-chih” (“In Memory of Comrade Yang Hsueh-ch'eng”), IECHIL, pp. 176–186Google Scholar; Roar, pp. 146–159, and Yuan-li, P'eng or Li-teh, Shih, “Chi Huang Ch'eng” (“A Tribute to Huang Ch'eng”), IECHIL, pp. 187–196Google Scholar; Roar, pp. 160–172.

81 Chiin-ch'en, Yang, “I-erh chiu yun-tung ti hui-i” (“Recollections of the December 9 Movement”), Chieh-fang Jih-pao (Yenan: 12 9, 1944)Google Scholar; reprinted in IECYT, p. 52.

82 I-ku, Chang, “P'ing-chin hsueh-sheng lien-ho hui k'uo-ta hsuan-ch'uan” (” The Peiping-Tientsin Student Union Disseminates Propaganda”), Ta-chung Sheng-huo, Vol. 1, No. 11, 01 25, 1936, p. 273Google Scholar; reprinted in IECYT, p. 63.

83 Chun-ch'en, Yang, IECYT, p. 58Google Scholar.

84 “Tao nung-ts'un ch'ü” (“Off to the Countryside”), EECHIL, pp. 144–145Google Scholar; Roar, p. 115. We touch here upon the problem of wartime peasant motivation, recently the subject of controversy. See Johnson, Chalmers, Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power: The Emergence of ReVolutionary China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962)Google Scholar, and Giffln, Donald G., “Peasant Nationalism in the History of Chinese Communism,” JAS, Vol. 23, No. 2, 02 1964, pp. 269–281Google Scholar. Was there such a thing as “peasant nationalism” or did the rural populace support wartime guerrilla activities as an extension of the class struggle? Available evidence indicates that, as of January 1936, students were most successful in reaching the peasants with economic issues. Only rural schoolteachers and pupils responded enthusiastically to nationalistic appeals. See Freyn, , Prelude, pp. 39, 48–49Google Scholar. Areas “softened” by students became important guerrilla areas during the war.

85 IECHIL, p. 145; Roar, p. 115, reads “leaders of the brigade.”

86 IECHIL, p. 146; Roar, p. 117.

87 “Chi Hu,” IECHIL, p. 49; Roar, p. 20.

88 The best-seller and popular movie by authoress Mo, Yang, Ch'ing-ch'un Chih Ko (Peking: Jen-min Wen-hsueh Ch'u-pan She, 1960)Google Scholar, The Song of Youth (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1964)Google Scholar tells the same story in the form of historical fiction.

89 Mao Tse-tung Hsuan-chi (Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung) Vol. 2 (Peking: Jen-min Ch'u-pan She, 1953), p. 546Google Scholar; quoted in Lien-pi, Li, IECHIL, p. 124Google Scholar; Roar, p. 108.

90 Tsun-p'eng, Pao, Chung-kuo Ch'tng-nien Yun-tung Shih (History of the Chinese Youth Movement) (Taipei: Cheng-chung shu-chü, 1954), pp. 159–167Google Scholar.

91 Hsi-sheng, T'ao, “Pei-p'ing erh-san shih” (“Events in Peiping ”), part 3, Chuan-chi Wen-hsueh(CCWH), Vol 2, No. 1 (01 1963), p. 8Google Scholar.

92 Te-chun, Ch'in, “Chi ch'i-ch'a cheng-wei-hui shih-ch'i ti hui-i” (“Recollections from the Time of the Hopei-Chahar Political Council”), CCWH, Vol 2, No. 1 (01 1963), p. 21Google Scholar.

93 Soviet Russia in China (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1957), p. 67Google Scholar.

94 Lin, Wang, IECHIL, p. 167Google Scholar; Roar, p. 132.

95 IECYT, pp. 144, 149.

96 IECYT, p. 82; WKHSYTSH, p. 41; CKHSYTTKS, p. 19: also see Li-teh, Shin. “Chi liu,” IECHIL, p. 51Google Scholar; Roar, p. 22; “Chiang Kai-shek… ordered [his troops] to massacre the patriotic students.”

Reports of fatalities may have originated in leaflets distributed shortly after the December 9 demonstration, quite possibly on December 16. According to one, “a hundred or more of us students were killed, wounded and arrested by [police]”: “Kao nung-min t'ung-pao” (“To Our Peasant Countrymen”). Another stated: “A co-ed, stabbed in the chest by a policeman's bayonet, later died”: “Kao Kung-jen” (“To the Workers”). However, these accounts must be adjudged sceptically since they were neither reaffirmed in subsequent student propaganda nor reported by the sympathetic Press. In contrast, the martyrdom in March 1936 of one youth, Kuo Ch'ing, incited a mock funeral demonstration.

97 CIEC, 1961, p. 48. Italics added.

98 WTTIECYT, p. 14.

99 Ta-nien, Liu, “Hsü-yao chochung yen-chiu wu-ssu yun-tung i-hou ti li-shih” (“The Study of Post-May 4 History Must be Emphasised”), Ltehih Yen-chiu (Historical Retearch), 1958, No. 5, p. 10Google Scholar.