51 Interview with Liu K'e-shu, Taipei, Mar. 1967. Although undertaken in part for political reasons, these reforms also were an outgrowth of feelings provoked by Ch'en's poverty during his youth. His father, a village schoolteacher, earned such a meager income that in order to subsist the family had to incultivate with its own hands the small amount of land in its possession. Ch'en Ch'eng's brother has said, “As children, my brother and I knew what it was to work in the fields side by side with the farmers.” (Interview with Ch'en Cheng-hsiu, Tai-pei, 03 1967Google Scholar) Ch'en's subsequent behavior suggests that this experience gave him at least some insight into the plight of China's rural masses, for whom he conceived a certain empathy which generally was not shared by Chinese leaders who came from the urban middle class or the more affluent groups in the countryside. Moreover, because of his family's poverty Ch'en was obliged to withdraw from middle school and attend instead a government-supported normal school, where he obtained an education which he frequently called inadequate. All of this helps explain why Ch'en fell so completely under the influence of Teng Yen-ta and Yen Chung, who were in large part responsible for his lifelong enthusiasm for Dr. Sun's so-called “Third People's Principle” of min-sheng chu-i or “The People's Livelihood.” (Interview with Kuo Chi, Taipei, 02, 1967Google Scholar) His belief in the reincome sirability of social and economic reforms was rein forced by his experiences in Kiangsi, during 1933 and 1934, where he was much impressed by the way in which the Communists used such reforms to win widespread support among the peasants, (Ministry of National Defense, pub., Collected Speeches of Ch'en Ch'eng, p. 71Google Scholar) According to his brother, Ch'en Ch'eng wanted to confirm the land reforms carried out in Kiangsi by the Communists but was unable to do so because he lacked civil authority over Kiangsi. (Interview with Ch'en Cheng-hsiu) He contented himself with publishing and distributing at his own expense Communist documents having to do widi social and economic reform which his troops had captured in Kiangsi. (Hsiang-hsiang, Wu, op. cit., p. 9Google Scholar) Furthermore, while serving as dean of the officer training school at Lu-shan he scheduled as speakers outspoken proponents of radical social and economic reform, such as the controversial economist Ma Yin-ch'u. (ch'ün, Liu Chien, op. cit., p. 220Google Scholars) Perhaps his belief in the desirability of social and economic change also was strengthened by his brief association with the reform-minded Yen Hsi-shan during the Communist invasion of Shansi in 1936. Japan's invasion of China gave Ch'en Ch'eng an opportunity to put into effect, at least on a small scale, many of the reforms which he long had envisioned. In 1938, after becoming civil governor of southwestern Hupeh, as well as commander of the Sixth War Zone, he had his reform-minded friend Yen Chung installed as acting civil governor of Hupeh. Yen proceeded to lay the groundwork for a sweeping program of social and economic reform which began in 1940, when Ch'en resigned his other posts in order to concentrate on the defense and reconstruction of southwestern Hupeh. In spite of intense opposition on die part of landlords, rents, which in the past had averaged between 60 and 70 percent of the crop, (Interview with Ch'en's subordinate and confidant Hsü Nai, Taipei, Nov. 1966) were reduced to no more dian 37 percent of the annual harvest, while, at the same time, the provincial audiorities made earnest, although less successful, efforts to lower interest rates to 20 percent. (Hsi-tse, Wu, op. cit., pp. 25–26Google Scholar). By means of a rigorously enforced program of rationing, barter, and public distribution of commodities prices were more or less stabilized, in contrast to the raging inflation which afflicted much of the rest of Chiang Kaishek's wartime domain. (Ibid.) Administrative reforms and the care with which Ch'en selected his subordinates resulted in a government so honest that throughout the areas ruled by Chiang Ch'en Ch'eng's name became virtually synonymous with incorruptibility, a trait which, later, much commended him to Joseph Stilwell. Furdiermore, in order to meet die educational needs of the youth of southwestern Hupeh, as well as of the diousands of refugee students who had fled there from Japanese-occupied areas, Ch'en erected a large complex of publicly financed middle schools, where all qualified young people could obtain not only a tuition-free education but likewise a cost-of-living allowance which enabled them to devote full time to their studies. (Liu Chen, “Yung-yüan huo tsai jenmin te shin-li” (“He lives Forever in the Hearts of Everyone”), Chuan-chi wen-hsüeh (Biographical Literature) (04 1965, pp. 29–30.)Google Scholar Ch'en recalled that because of his own family's poverty he had been unable to obtain a proper education and said he was determined not to let the same fate befall able but impoverished young people living in southwestern Hupeh. (Ibid.) Consequently, whereas in the past southwestern Hupeh had been an educational backwater, now it began producing an unusually large number of middle school and college graduates. (Interview widi Liu K'e-shu.) The acclaim which Ch'en's achievements in southwestern Hupeh won for him may have been in part responsible for his appointment, in 1949, as governor of Taiwan. A person close to Ch'en says that his policies while in charge of southwestern Hupeh were prototypes of die reforms which he subsequently carried out in Taiwan. (Interview with Kuo Chi, Taipei, Feb. 1967) While commanding Nationalist forces in Shensi and, following Japan's surrender, in Manchuria, Ch'en tried, although without much success, to initiate many of the reforms which he had carried out in southwestern Hupeh. (Hsiang-hsiang, Wu, op. cit., pp. 16–17 and 18–19Google Scholar) In 1945 he had the Ministry of War publish two volumes describing diese reforms, presumably in the hope that odier Chinese leaders would adopt them. (Liu Ch'ien chün, ed. and comp., E-cheng chi-yao) (Annals of the Government of Hupeh), 2 vols., (Chungking, 1945)Google Scholar When his friend and former subordinate Chu Huai-ping accepted a post as district magistrate in central Hupeh, Ch'en urged Chu to put into effect in his district the social and economic reforms which, together, they had enacted in southwestern Hupeh. (Chu Huai-ping's piece on page 225 of Ch'en ku fu-tsung-t'ung chi-nien chi.) In 1948 Ch'en resigned from all his posts, largely for political reasons, but also in order to undergo a serious operation. While recuperating he read books having to do with English socialism and became enthusiastic about many Fabian ideas. (Interview widi Wu Hsi-tse, Jan. 1967.) According to Wu, one of the books was by Fei Hsiao-tung, the famed radical sociologist.) His brodier says that at heart Ch'en always was a socialist. (Interview with Ch'en Cheng-hsiu.) Later, he had published in Taiwan several books dealing with Fabianism, (Chung-yang kai-tsao wei-yüan-hui wen-wu kung-ying she (Material Supply Bureau, Central Reform Committee), pub., Fei-pien she te ching-shen yü fang-fa (The Spirit and Methods of the Fabian Society) (Taipei, 1951)Google Scholar, Ying-kuo kung-tang ho hsin-she-hui (The English Labor Party and the New Society) (Taipei, 1950)Google Scholar and Ying-kuo kung-tang she-hui chu-i yü nung-keng (The English Labor Party, Socialism, and the Peasant) (Taipei, 1952)Google Scholar, which he probably likened to Sun Yat-sen's third principle of min-sheng chu-i. A person who visited him shortly after he became governor of Taiwan found Ch'en utterly preoccupied with realizing in Taiwan Sun's principle of the people's livelihood. (Chien-ch'ün, Liu, op. cit., p. 225.Google Scholar) All of this suggests die complexity of Chiang Kai-shek's regime, which came to command the allegiance of persons subscribing to a wide range of ideologies or having very different views with respect to social, economic, and even political matters. Although tied to Chiang by bonds of personal loyalty, as well as mutual self-interest, men like Ch'en Ch'eng did not abandon their convictions but instead repeatedly urged them upon Chiang, often in the face of bitter opposition on the part of other members of his coterie. By surrounding himself with men who, albeit loyal to him, differed reradically on the issues confronting his regime Chiang Kai-shek left himself free to go in any direction he pleased, since he always could find among his most trusted followers a certain number willing to implement with enthusiasm whatever policies he chose to follow. The result was a government dominated by an uneasy coalition of frequently irreconcilable factions, ranging from conservative and even reactionary groups such as the “CC Clique” to comparatively progressive elements represented by Ch'en Ch'eng, who consistently advocated not only resisting Japan but also land and other reforms which, eventually, he was allowed to put into effect in Taiwan. Moreover, whereas Ch'en Washing was a soldier, many of those opposed to him were civilians. This raises a question concerning the role of the military as an instrument of modernization which I have discussed at length in other publications, such as the last chapter of my book Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province, 1911–1950 (Princeton, 1967).Google Scholar
