Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:53:26.845Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Politics of Chiang Kai-shek: A Reappraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Get access

Extract

“For forty years,” Sun Yat-sen said in March 1925 in the Tsungli's Will, “I have devoted myself to the cause of the people's revolution with but one end in view, the elevation of China to a position of freedom and equality among the nation.” “But,” he lamented, “the work of the Revolution is not yet done.” For forty years since, Chiang Kai-shek has been at the very center of the Chinese political limelight. During half of this period, from 1928 to 1949, he was to a remarkable degree China itself. But like Sun, he has also failed to consummate the Kuomintang movement and the work of the revolution.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Chung-yang jih-pao, T'ai-pei, January 6, 1965, p. 1.Google Scholar

2 Cf. Scott, John, Crises in Red China (N. Y.: Time, Inc., 1962), pp. 1018.Google Scholar

3 Kai-shek, Chiang, “Some Reflections on My Fiftieth Birthday,” in Hsiung, S. I., The Life of Chiang Kai-shek (London: Peter Davis, 1948), Appendix II, p. 373Google Scholar; also published as “Message to the Chinese Nation,” People's Tribune, XV, No. 4 (November 16, 1936), pp. 199205.Google Scholar The Chinese text is in Ting-fu, Chiang, Chiin cheng ling-hsiu Chiang Chieh-shih (Chiang Kai-shek., the Military Statesman) (Shang-hai: Ch'ang-fen shu tien, 1941), pp. 15.Google Scholar

4 Chiang, “Some Reflections on My Fiftieth Birthday,” p. 375.

5 Ibid., pp. 375–76.

6 Ibid., p. 378.

7 Kai-shek, Chiang, “My Religious Faith,” The Collected Wartime Messages of Chiang Kai-shek,, 1937–4$, compiled by the Chinese Ministry of Information (N. Y.: John Day Co., 1946), I, 59.Google Scholar

8 Chieh-shih, Chiang, Chiang tsung-t'ung chi (The Collected Works of President Chiang) (T'ai-pei: Kuo-fang yen-chiu yüan, 1960), II, 2443.Google Scholar The English rendition in Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 210–13Google Scholar, is a much more faithful translation than that in Tong, Hollington K., Chiang Kai-shek. (Taipei: China Publishing Co., 1953), pp. 544–45Google Scholar

9 Hsiung, , op. cit., p. 209.Google Scholar

10 Tong, , op. cit., p. 54.Google Scholar

11 Chung-cheng, Chiang, Soviet Russia in China (N. Y.: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1958), pp. 3536.Google Scholar

12 Chien-nung, Li, The Political History of China, 1840–1928, trans, and ed. by Teng, Ssu-yu and Ingalls, Jeremy (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1956), pp. 295–98Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 219–20.Google Scholar

13 Li, , op. cit., pp. 498–99Google Scholar; China Year Book, 1928, pp. 1205Google Scholar, 1328; Bate, Don, Wang Ching-wei: Puppet or Patriot? (Chicago: Ralph Fletcher Seymour, 1941), pp. 8588Google Scholar; Leang-li, T'ang, Wang Chingwei: A Political Biography (Tientsin: China United Press, 1931), p. 14Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 223–24.Google Scholar

14 For Chiang's funeral oration, see Ssu-ch'eng, Mao, Min-ktto shih-wu nien i-ch'ien chih Chiang Chieh-shih hsien-sheng (Mr. Chiang Kai-shek., 18871926) (n. p., 1937), 11th ts'e, pp. 70b73a.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., 12th ts'e, pp. 1a, 25b.

16 Ibid., pp. 22b–23b; Leang-li, T'ang, The Inner History of the Chinese Revolution (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1930), pp. 214–23Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 226–29.Google Scholar Chiang now says that Wang Chingwei was responsible for the action taken against Hu Han-min; see Chiang, , Soviet Russia in China, p. 37.Google Scholar

17 Wilbur, C. Martin and Lien-ying, Julie How, eds., Documents on Communism, Nationalism, and Soviet Advisers in China 19181927 (N. Y.: Columbia University Press, 1956), pp. 211–12Google Scholar; Li, , op. cit., p. 500Google Scholar; T'ang, , Inner History, p. 230.Google Scholar

18 T'ang, , Inner History, pp. 234–35Google Scholar, 323–24. Chiang made the military report to the Congress instead of Wang, who was Chairman of the Military Council; see Hsiung, , op. cit., p. 238.Google Scholar

19 Hsiung, , op. cit., p. 238Google Scholar; Ssu-ch'eng, Mao, op. cit., 13th ts'e, pp. 42b50a.Google Scholar

20 T'ang, , Inner History, pp. 235–36Google Scholar; Pu-lai, Chen and Cheng-chu, Tang, Chronology of President Chiang Kai-shek., trans, by Shen, Sampson C. (Taipei: China Cultural Service, 1954), pp. 1213.Google Scholar

21 Ssu-ch'eng, Mao, op. cit., 14th ts'e, p. 60aGoogle Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., p. 240Google Scholar; T'ang, , Inner History, p. 249.Google Scholar

22 Chiang, , Soviet Russia in China, p. 38Google Scholar; Chen, and Tang, , op. cit., p. 13.Google Scholar

23 Ssu-ch'eng, Mao, op. cit., 14th ts'e, pp. 71a–b.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., p. 80b.

25 Chiang, , Soviet Russia in China, p. 39.Google Scholar

26 Ssu-ch'eng, Mao, op. cit., 14th ts'e, pp. 60a83aGoogle Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 242–43Google Scholar; Chiang, , Soviet Russia in China, pp. 3940.Google Scholar

27 T'ang, , Inner History, pp. 245–47Google Scholar; Li, , op. cit., p. 501Google Scholar; Bate, , op. cit., pp. 100–04Google Scholar; Sokolsky, George E., “The Kuomintang,” China Year Book., 1928, p. 1341.Google Scholar

28 Ssu-ch'eng, Mao, op. cit., 14th ts'e, p. 83aGoogle Scholar; 15th ts'e, pp. 38a–47a.

29 T'ang, , Inner History, p. 247.Google Scholar

30 Chiang, , Soviet Russia in China, pp. 4041.Google Scholar

31 T'ang, , Inner History, pp. 246–47Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 245Google Scholar, 248.

32 Wilbur, and How, op. cit., pp. 229–30Google Scholar; Chen, and Tang, , op. cit., pp. 1314Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 247–48Google Scholar; Tong, , op. cit., p. 61Google Scholar; China Year Book., 1928, p. 1381.Google Scholar

33 Ssu-ch'eng, Mao, op. cit., 15th ts'e, pp. 63a66bGoogle Scholar; Wilbur, and How, op. cit., pp. 221–22Google Scholar; 228–29; Chiang, , Soviet Russia in China, pp. 4041.Google Scholar

34 Wilbur, and How, op. cit., pp. 218–21Google Scholar, 248–65.

35 Schwartz, Benjamin I., Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952), p. 55Google Scholar, quoting “Kei Chiang Chieh-shih ti i-feng-hsin (A Letter to Chiang Kai-shek),” Hsiang-tao chou-pao (Guide Weekly), No. 151 (June 9, 1926).

36 Chiang, , Soviet Russia in China, p. 41.Google Scholar

37 Liu, F. F., A Military History of Modern China, 1924–1949 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956), pp. 3738Google Scholar; Fischer, Louis, The Soviets in World Affairs, 1917–1929 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), II, 661–63.Google Scholar

38 T'ang, , Inner History, pp. 260–62.Google Scholar

39 Wilbur, and How, op. cit., p. 398Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., p. 267.Google Scholar

40 T'ang, , Inner History, pp. 261–62Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 263–64.Google Scholar

41 Tang, , Inner History, p. 256Google Scholar; China Year Book., 1928, p. 1266.

42 Sokolsky, , op. cit., 1928, pp. 1360–61Google Scholar; Sokolsky, George E., “The Kuomintang,” China Year Book., 1929–30, p. 1157Google Scholar; Isaacs, Harold, The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1951), pp. 142–52.Google Scholar

43 T'ang, , Inner History, pp. 263–65Google Scholar; Bate, , op. cit., pp. 110–11.Google Scholar

44 T'ang, , Inner History, pp. 267–68Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 269–70.Google Scholar

45 T'ang, , Inner History, p. 269Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., p. 271.Google Scholar

46 T'ang, , Inner History, p. 290.Google Scholar

47 T'ang, , Inner History, pp. 289319Google Scholar; Sokolsky, , op. cit., 1928, pp. 13851400Google Scholar; Hsiung, , op. cit., p. 292.Google Scholar

48 Hsiung, , op. cit., p. 286.Google Scholar

49 Tuan-sheng, Ch'ien, The Government and Politics of China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961), pp. 9798Google Scholar, 153–55.

50 Hsiung, , op. cit., p. 303.Google Scholar

51 Ibid., p. 293.

52 Ch'ien, , op. cit., pp. 9899.Google Scholar

53 Ibid., pp. 99–100, 166; Hsiung, , op. cit., pp. 308–09.Google Scholar

54 Ch'ien, , op. cit., p. 100.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., pp. 99–100, 122, 158.

56 Ibid., pp. 128–32. Chiang ordered in 1938 the dissolution of factional organizations in the party, but the factions remained as before.

57 Tse-tung, Mao, “The Situation and Our Policy After the Victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan,” Selected Works, V (1962), 11.Google Scholar

58 Tse-tung, Mao, “Chiang Kai-shek Is Provoking Civil War,” Selected Works, V, 27.Google Scholar I have not been able to locate an original copy of this document to verify Mao's having actually made this allegation on August 13, 1945. Whatever the case may in fact be, it is safe to say that Mao held this view of Chiang at that time.

59 Cf. Loh, Pichon P. Y., ed., The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest or Collapse? (Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1965).Google Scholar

60 Cf. Bodde, Derk, Peking Diary: A Year of Revolution (N. Y.: Henry Schuman, Inc., 1950), pp. 9395Google Scholar; Bodde, Derk, “Why the Communists Have Won in China,” Foreign Policy Bulletin, December 30, 1949, pp. 180–81Google Scholar; Fairbank, John K., The United States and China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 183205Google Scholar, 221–25; Fairbank, Jonn K., “Past and Present: Is Mao Merely the Latest ‘Emperor’ in China's Age-Old Cycle of Dynasties?New Republic, May 13, 1957, pp. 1114Google Scholar; Wright, Mary C., “From Revolution to Restoration: The Transformation of Kuomintang Ideology,” Far Eastern Quarterly, XIV, No. 4 (August, 1955), 515–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar, an adapted version of which appears in her book, The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T'ung-Chih Restoration, 1862–1874 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1957). PP. 300–12.Google Scholar

61 Tong, , op. cit., pp. 153–56Google Scholar; “New Life Movement and Other Developments on China's Political Stage,” China Weekly Review, March 24, 1934, p. 126Google Scholar; Chu, Samuel, “The New Life Movement, 1934–1937,” Researches in the Social Sciences on China, ed. by Lane, John E. (N. Y.: East Asian Institute, Columbia University, February, 1957), pp. 117.Google Scholar

62 Yen-ying, Lu, “Confucianism: Its Past and Present,” China Critic, VIII, No. 2 (January 10, 1935), 3640Google Scholar; “Confucius in 1935,” China Critic, X, No. 10 (September 5, 1935), 222–23Google Scholar; Yen-ying, Lu, “Can Confucianism Help Democracy?Asia, September, 1935, pp. 531–35.Google Scholar

63 Kai-shek, Chiang, China's Destiny, with notes and commentary by Philip Jaffe (N. Y.: Roy Publishers, 1947), p. 95.Google Scholar Cf. Stevens, Charles R., “A Content Analysis of the Wartime Writings of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung,” Asian Survey, IV, No. 6 (June, 1964), 890903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

64 China Year Book., 1962–63 (Taipei), pp. 547–48.Google Scholar

65 Chung-yang jih-pao, April 10, 1961, p.1.Google Scholar

66 Kai-shek, Chiang, “Essentials of the New Life Movement,” in Bary, William Theodore deet al., Sources of Chinese Tradition (N. Y.: Columbia University Press, 1960), p. 803.Google Scholar

67 Hsin-ming, Wanget al., “Chung-kuo pen-wei ti wen-hua chien-she hsūan-yen (Declaration for Cultural Construction on a Chinese Basis),” Wen-hua chien-she (Cultural Construction), I, No. 4 (January, 1935), pp. 15.Google Scholar For the English rendition by Wing-tsit Chan, see Bary, deet al., op. cit., pp. 854–56.Google Scholar

68 Hu Shih, “Criticism of the ‘Declaration for Cultural Construction on a Chinese Basis,’” trans, by Chan, Wing-tsit in Bary, deet al., op. cit., pp. 856–57.Google Scholar

69 Shih, Hu, “Ch'ung-fen shih-chieh hua yü ch'üan p'an hsi hua (Complete Internationalization and Total Westernization),” Hu Shih wen-ts'un (T'ai-pei: Ya-tung t'u-shu-kuan, 1953), Collection IV, Ch. 4, pp. 541–44Google Scholar, originally published in Ta kung pao, June 23, 1935.

70 Washington Daily News, July 5, 1949, as inserted by William, Senator Knowland in die Congressional Records, Vol. 95, Part 7, 81st Cong., 1st sess. (1949), p. 8821.Google Scholar

71 Yat-sen, Sun, The Principle of Democracy, trans, by Price, Frank W., edited by the Commission for the Compilation of die History of die Kuomintang (Taipei: China Cultural Service, [1954?]), pp. 55, 92–93.Google Scholar

72 Ssu-ch'eng, Mao, op. cit., 14th ts'e, p. 40b.Google Scholar

73 Tong, , op. cit., p. 149.Google Scholar

74 Cf. Boorman, Howard L., “Wang Ching-wei: China's Romantic Radical,” Political Science Quarterly, LXXIX, No. 4 (December, 1964), 504–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

75 Tsou, Tang, America's Failure in China, 1941–1950 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), pp. 384–85.Google Scholar

76 Ch'ien, , op. cit., pp. 126–28.Google Scholar

77 Stuart, John Leighton, Fifty Years in China: The Memoirs of John Leighton Stuart (N. Y.: Random House, 1954), p. 163.Google Scholar

78 Ibid., p. 277.

79 Ibid., p. 275.