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WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT
WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Published in 1938 by The McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York Copyright 1938 by The McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. First Hyperion reprint edition 1973 Library of Congress Catalogue Number 73-888 ISBN 0-88355-081-4 Printed in the United States of America Dedicated with filial affection to...
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PAUL MYRON WENTWORTH LINEBARGER
PAUL MYRON WENTWORTH LINEBARGER
United States Judge in the Philippines, Counselor to and Biographer of President Sun Yat-sen, Formerly Legal Adviser to the National Government of China...
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FOREWORD
FOREWORD
To the cynic, two nations clasped in murderous embrace yet nominally living in peace with each other might well be one of the miracles of our century. No less miraculous has been for many the tenacity of Chinese resistance to Japan's invasion ever since the first bullets whizzed through the night near the Marco Polo Bridge southwest of Peking early in July, 1937. The undeclared war has spread disaster through an area larger than that immediately affected in Europe's battles from 1914 to 1918; hu
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply indebted to the five gentlemen who have read the entire manuscript in some one of its stages. My father, Judge Paul Myron Wentworth Linebarger, has given me tireless help in this as in all my projects, for which I shall never be able to tender sufficient thanks. My teacher, Professor Harley Farnsworth MacNair of the University of Chicago, supplied numerous addenda and corrigenda of great value from his knowledge of modern Chinese history. Professor Arthur N. Holcombe of Harvard Unive
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Notes
Notes
1. For a description of this system see below, pp. 18 ff. 2. Cf. H. Arthur Sterner, Government in Fascist Italy , New York and London, 1938. 3. Cf. Fritz Morstein Marx, Government in the Third Reich , 2d ed., New York and London, 1937. 4. Cf. Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Soviet Communism , 2d ed., New York, 1937. 5. See below, p. 197 . 5. See below, p. 197 . ...
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Chapter I
Chapter I
The continuity of Chinese civilization depends not alone upon its political virtues, but upon its working effectiveness in all relevant spheres of human activity. In emphasizing certain aspects of old China, it is impossible to trace the entire broad evolution. 1 In fact, the emergence of those devices which, along with government in the narrow sense, guided China in her long past dates back to prehistory. Throughout the ages, however, Chinese life has preserved its identity. Chinese culture is
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Notes
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1. For a good general introduction to Far Eastern history and politics see G. Nye Steiger, A History of the Far East , Boston, 1936, the most complete of one-volume works; Harold M. Vinacke, A History of the Far East in Modern Times , New York, 1937, especially good for social, economic, and governmental developments; René Grousset, Histoire de l'Extrême Orient , Paris, 1929; and Richard Wilhelm, Ostasien , Potsdam and Zurich, 1928, a brilliant short outline. Diplomatic history is dealt with by
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Chapter II
Chapter II
Of the constituent movements of modern China, the most important has focused on the personality, principles, and following of Sun Yat-sen (1867-1925). Now known primarily as the Nationalist movement, it has at various times emphasized different aspects of its program. In its simplest and most fundamental points, the movement has fallen heir to early patriotism. It has assumed different names: the Society for the Regeneration of China (1894-1905), or Hsing Chung Hui ; the League of Common Allianc
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Notes
Notes
1. Sun Yat-sen, How China Was Made a Republic (unpublished manuscript written in Shanghai in 1919, now in possession of the present author), p. 4. 2. On the Manchu reforms see H. M. Vinacke, Modern Constitutional Development in China , Princeton, 1920, and Meribeth E. Cameron, The Reform Movement in China , 1898-1912, Stanford, 1931. On the revolutionary group see T'ang Leang-li, The Inner History of the Chinese Revolution , New York, 1930. 3. See below, pp. 41 ff. 4. See below, pp. 145 ff. 5. S
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Chapter III
Chapter III
The right-wing Nationalists, establishing the National Government of China at Nanking in 1927, found themselves in the position of revolutionaries sitting at roll-top desks. After more than forty years of criticism and opposition, the movement had assumed the responsibilities of government. In breaking with the Communists the Nationalists lost the doctrinal edge of the extreme Left; thenceforth there were to be groups more radical than themselves. This disheartened some of the revolutionaries, w
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Notes
Notes
1. For the military aspects see below, pp. 108 ff. ; for the immediate governmental aspects see below, pp. 167 ff. 2. The best account of the internal politics of the Kuomintang between 1927 and 1933 is to be found in Gustav Amann, Chiang Kaishek und die Regierung der Kuomintang in China , Berlin and Heidelberg, 1936. 3. See below, pp. 172 ff. 4. See above, pp. 51 ff. 5. Lin Yutang, Letters of a Chinese Amazon and War-Time Essays , p. vi, Shanghai, 1930. 6. See below, pp. 182 ff. 7. See below, p
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Chapter IV
Chapter IV
From the outside, militarism seems to dominate the Chinese scene. China is frequently interpreted in terms of personalities instead of mass inclinations, wide-filtering habits, and extensive relocations of thought. The picturesqueness of the Chinese leaders has done nothing to prevent the notion of many romantic autocracies from appearing real: the Dog-Meat General, six feet tall, diabolically cruel and brazenly comic, with his veritable zoological garden of ladies from all over the world; the C
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Notes
Notes
1. Herrlee G. Creel, The Birth of China , p. 141, London, 1936. 2. Ibid. , pp. 142-154. 3. Marcel Granet, Chinese Civilization , p. 270, New York, 1930. Quoted by permission of the American publishers, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 4. Henri Maspero, La Chine antique , p. 131, Paris, 1927. This is one of the most valuable surveys of ancient China. 5. An elementary discussion of this period is to be found in Paul M. A. Linebarger, The Political Doctrines of Sun Yat-sen , pp. 25-29, "Nation and State in Ch
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Chapter V
Chapter V
Yüan's closing years might have resembled Napoleon's rise from the position of First Consul to that of emperor, had he not been checked at the very last moment by armed uprisings and expressions of deep popular contempt. Even so, he retained control of the country. 1 The humiliation of his defeat lacked even dramatic compensations, and he died in June, 1916, of disease, poison, or chagrin. With his death the Republic had a chance to stand by itself, but it could not. The Age of the War Lords Yüa
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Notes
Notes
1. See below, pp. 154 ff. 2. Rodney Gilbert in The China Year Book , 1921-2, p. 519, Tientsin, 1921. 3. Ibid. , 1926, p. 1065. 4. Ibid. , p. 1062. 5. See above, pp. 51 ff. 6. See above, pp. 58 ff. 7. Gilbert, loc. cit. , 1928, pp. 1283-1285. 8. Ibid. , 1931, pp. 251 ff. 9. Source confidential. 10. John H. Jouett, "War Planes over China," Asia , vol. 37, pp. 827-830, 1937. 11. See below, pp. 167 ff. 12. The China Year Book , 1936, p. 427. 13. Japanese Chamber of Commerce of New York, The Sino-Jap
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Chapter VI
Chapter VI
The governing of China is not and has not been confined to governments. In many instances the working of specific institutions called governments has been of less importance than that of other establishments and organizations. The problems of government in Republican China are affected but not determined by the fate of individual governments. Movements and armies have predetermined action; governments have reflected it. Government in China may be divided into three chief periods. The first exten
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Notes
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1. See above, p. 17 ff. , 83 ff. 2. Herrlee G. Creel, The Birth of China , p. 138, London, 1936. 3. Leon Wieger, S. J., La Chine à travers les âges: hommes et choses , pp. 22-25, Hsien-hsien, 1920. This is among the most useful handbooks of Chinese history and bibliography. It is written on a popular level and designed for the rapid and easy information of Catholic missionaries in China. H. F. MacNair, Modern Chinese History, Selected Readings , Shanghai, 1923, will be found entertaining as well
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Chapter VII
Chapter VII
On October 9, 1911, a follower of Sun Yat-sen, one of the heroic and desperate "Dare-to-dies" who had harassed the imperial government for years, was working over a bomb in the Russian concession in the upriver port of Hankow. The bomb exploded accidentally; the secret storage of munitions was discovered; the next day, in the ensuing turmoil, the Republic of China was born. Double Ten Day (October 10, 1911) has since been celebrated as the Chinese Fourth of July. When the imperial officials soug
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Notes
Notes
1. Sun Yat-sen, How China Was Made a Republic (unpublished manuscript written in Shanghai in 1919, now in possession of the present author), p. 40. 2. See above, p. 43 ff. 3. Wu Chih-fang, Chinese Government and Politics , p. 361, Shanghai, 1934. Wu's work, and Kalfred Dip Lum, Chinese Government , Shanghai, 1934, are the two surveys in a Western language of modern Chinese government. Wu's work, while carefully done and containing a great deal of useful material, is patterned rather closely afte
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Chapter VIII
Chapter VIII
The National Government of China set up at Nanking in April, 1927, was not definitively organized until late that year. Chiang K'ai-shek had to resign from the government before the Left Kuomintang group would accept the regime. In the following year, with the return of Chiang and the adoption of a new constitution (Organic Law of the National Government), the Nanking government was more firmly established than any previous government since the death of Yüan Shih-k'ai. A high price had been paid
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PARTY MEMBERSHIP
PARTY MEMBERSHIP
The Executive Yüan was headed, as were all the others, by a yüan president ( yüan-chang ), assisted by a vice-president, a secretary-general, and a director of political affairs. The yüan included all the major executive ministries, and the formal meeting of the Executive Yüan was a meeting of the Yüan officers, the heads of the ministries, and other directing officials. Such meetings took place once a week and corresponded to cabinet meetings in Western countries. The executive work of the enti
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Notes
Notes
1. See above, p. 41 ff. 2. See Wu Chih-fang, Chinese Government and Politics , pp. 147 ff., Shanghai, 1934. 3. The outline given and the description offered are brief and generalized because the Japanese invasion will probably lead to recurrent reorganization of the government. Shih Chao-ying and Chang Chi-hsien (editors), The Chinese Year Book , 1936-1937, have an excellent series of short descriptions by acknowledged authorities of the organs of government. Some of these are: Tsui Wei-wu, "Kuo
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Notes
Notes
1. See above, p. 41 ff. 2. Paschal M. d'Elia, S. J., The Triple Demism of Sun Yat-sen , p. 132, Wuchang, 1931....
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CHRONOLOGY OF DYNASTIES
CHRONOLOGY OF DYNASTIES
This is the accepted time scheme in China. The dates are the Western equivalents of the most widely current Chinese computation, which is known to be incorrect or haphazard from the eighth century b.c. back. The periods given for the dynasties are chronological formulas rather than the exact expression of political realities. For a discussion of the materials of Chinese historiography, see Charles S. Gardner, Chinese Traditional Historiography , Cambridge, 1938. For an excellent short summary of
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