* This article is based on a study which I published in Japanese in the Kindai Chūgoku Kenkyū (Studies of Modern China), Tokyo, No. 2, December 1958, pp. 1–97, under the title “Chūgoku Saisho no Kyōsan Seiken, Kai-riku-hō So-i-ai-shi.” This study was revised during my stay at the Far Eastern and Russian Institute, University of Washington, in Seattle for the present publication. I wish to acknowledge the valuable assistance rendered by Mr. Frank Holober and by the members of the Far Eastern and Russian Institute, particularly by Professors Franz Michael, George Taylor and Marius Jarisen, Miss Shirley Simmons and Messrs. Kang Hee-woong, Samuel Solberg and Paul Friedland.

¹ The unsuccessful attempt by Li Lieh-chün, Huang Hsing, and other groups to upset Yuan Shih-k'ai's régime, which took place in the summer of 1913 and was suppressed by Yuan's troops within a few months.

² This movement took place at the end of 1915, and forced Yuan to give up his plans to become emperor.

³ Kazuki, Sonoda, Shina shin jin-koku-ki (The Who's Who of Modern China, classified by province) (Mukden: Ōsakayagō Shoten, 1927), pp. 257, 456–457, 480–485Google Scholar. Shui-hsien, Li, “A Preliminary Study on the Relation between Ch'en Chiung-ming, Narkomindel and C.C.P.” Chung-kuo hsien-tai-shih ts'ung-kan (Memoirs on Contemporary History of China), Vol. 2, ed. by Hsiang-hsiang, Wu (Taipei: Cheng-Chung Shu-chü, 1960), p. 423et seq.Google Scholar

⁴ The only source material available which shows the general situation of Hai-feng under Ch'en Chiung-ming is P'eng P'ai's “Hai-feng nung-min yun-tung” (Peasant Movement in Hai-feng). Originally this was contributed to the departmental periodical of the Peasants Department, Central Committee of the Kuomintang Party, Chung-kuo nung-min (Chinese Peasants), Vol. 1 (Jan. 1926), 3 (03 1926), 4 (Apr. 1926)Google Scholar. It was revised and published in book form in October 1926, and finally a third version was reprinted in Ti-l-tz'u kuo-nei ko-ming chan-cheng shih-ch'i te nung-min yun-tung (The Peasant Movement During the Period of the First Revolutionary Civil War) (Peking: K'o-hsueh Ch'u-pan-she, 1953)Google Scholar. The argument of this section is my hypothesis based upon Feng P'ai's own article. In the subsequent footnotes, references to this article will be based on the Jen-min Ch'u-pan-she version.

⁵ P'ai, Feng, “Hai-feng nung-min yun-tung,” p. 98.Google Scholar

⁶ Chung is a maternal relative of Ch'en (Shui-shen, Li, op. cit., p. 424).Google Scholar

⁷ I-mou, Chung, “Hai-lu-feng nung-min te pa-nien chan-tou” (“The Eight-year Struggle of the Peasants in Hai-lu-feng”), Chin-tai-shih tzu-liao (Source Materials for Modern History) (Peking: 1955), No. 4, p. 186.Google Scholar

⁸ Yang-ling, Ho, Nung-min yun-tung (Peasant Movements) (Nanking (?): 1928), Chapter IV, pp. 6–9Google Scholar. The only reference that I have been able to obtain up to this time about the Red Flag-Black Flag organisations is P'eng's article. He says: “Formerly every village and every ciao in Hai-feng belonged to either the Black Flag or the Red Flag, and sometimes the hsieh-tou resulted in terrible slaughter. One who belonged to the Red Flag would not hesitate to kill even his own father-in-law or brother-in-law if they belonged to the Black Flag.’ P'ai, P'eng, op. cit., p. 65.Google Scholar

⁹ Hsieh-tou means “armed conflict” and refers to private battles between clans or cliques in South China.

¹⁰ Statistics of migration from Hai-feng are found in P'ai, P'eng, op. cit., p. 84.Google Scholar

¹¹ Wales, Nym, Red Dust (Stanford Un.: 1952), p. 199Google Scholar. As the Hakka women ordinarily did not bind their feet, this Hakko custom might have influenced the other peasants to give up the practice of foot-binding, if, indeed, they had ever followed this custom.

¹² P'ai, P'eng, op. cit., p. 45.Google Scholar

¹³ I-mou, Chung, op. cit., p. 180.Google Scholar

¹⁴ I-mou, Chung, Hai-lu-feng nung-min yun-tung {Peasant Movements in Hai-lu-feng) (Canton: Kwangchou Jen rain Ch'u-pan-she, 1957), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

¹⁵ We might picture the town of Hai-feng in the twenties as being much the same as the following description of it in about 1911: “This town exists as the seat of a hsien office. It produces peanuts, sugarcane, rice and so forth, as does Lu-feng. Although they say that the population of this town is 30,000, actually it seems to be only 7,000 or 8,000. The number of houses may be less than a thousand. The busiest street is Tung-men-chieh (East Gate Street), which is mostly paved with stone and about a quarter of a mile long. It looks clean by Chinese standards. But commercial stores are few and the majority of people seem to be peasants.” Shtna shobetsu zenshi (A Description of China's Provinces) (Tokyo: Tōa Dōbun-kai, 1917), I, p. 246.Google Scholar

¹⁶ I-mou, Chung, Hai-lu-feng nung-min yun-tung, loc. cit.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Feng, Hou, “Hai-lu-feng nung-min yun-tung te ling-tao-che P'eng P'ai” (“P'eng P'ai, the Leader of the Peasant Movement in Hai-lu-feng”), Hung-ch'i p'iao-p'iao (Red Flags Fluttering) (Peking: Chung-kuo Ch'ing-nien Ch'u-pan-she, 12 1957), Vol. V, p. 32Google Scholar. October 22, 1896, was the sixteenth day of the ninth month, 1896 in the lunar calendar. The registration files of Waseda University in Tokyo show that he was born on “the sixteenth day of the ninth month, the twenty-eighth year of Meiji.” The lunar calendar was in use in the Ch'ing Dynasty. P'eng might not have converted the lunar date into the solar date when he reported the date of his birth at Waseda University. It is nearly certain that he was born on the sixteenth day of the ninth month according to the lunar calendar. But as to the year of his birth, Mr. Hou mentions 1896, while Waseda University the twenty-eighth year of Meiji, or 1895. A third source is Jōhōbu, Gaimushō (The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Public Information Bureau) ed., Kaitei gendai Shina jinmei-kan (A Revised Who's Who in Modern China) (Tokyo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1928), p. 57Google Scholar. It says “P'eng is thirty-three years old now.” Supposing that he was in his thirty-third year in 1928, he should have been bom in 1896. Still another rather unreliable source gives the date also as 1895: Who's Who, p. 70Google Scholar, in Shina mondai jiten (A Dictionary of Chinese Problems) (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron-sha, 1942).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Tan is a unit of dry measure. A tan in Kwangtung Province is approximately equivalent to three U.S. bushels. Dōbunkai, Tōa, op. cit., p. 1216.Google Scholar

¹⁹ P'ai, P'eng, op. cit., p. 52.Google Scholar

²⁰ Feng, Hou, op. cit., p. 36.Google Scholar

²¹ From registration files of Waseda University.

²² Tadao, Kikukawa, Gakusei shakai undo-shi (History of Student Socialist Movements), revised ed. (Tokyo: Umiguchi Shoten, 1947), pp. 54, 68.Google Scholar

²³ Kazue, Kuwajima, Chu-nan-shi chiho kyosanto oyobi kyosanto no kodo jokyo ni kansuru chosa hokoku-sho (Report of an Investigation Concerning Activities of the Communist Party and Communist Bandits in Central and South China) (Tokyo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1930), p. 213Google Scholar. In 1958, in reply to a question from the author, Mr. Takatsu, ex-Representative of the Japanese Socialist Party in the Diet, answered “I remember his name P'eng P'ai, quite well. But I cannot identify him now, as there were so many Korean and Chinese comrades in our group.”

²⁴ The Yuan Shih-k'ai government submitted to a major part of the Twenty-One Demands on May 7, 1915. From that time, the Chinese considered May 7 as one of the memorial days of national humiliation.

²⁵ Kung-pi, Wang, “Tung-yu hui-han-lu (hsüan-lu)” (“A Part of the Report of Activities in Japan”), Chin-tai-shih tzu-liao (1955) No. 2, pp. 108–123.Google Scholar

²⁶ Hui, Fang, “P'eng P'ai lieh-shib yii i-chiu-i-chiu-nien wu yüeh ch'i-jih Chung-kuo liu-jih hsueh-sheng Tung-ching shih-wei yu-hsing yun-tung.” (“P'eng P'ai the Patriot and a Demonstration Parade of Chinese Students in Tokyo on May 7, 1919”), Li-shih yen-chiu (Historical Studies), No. 2, 1954.Google Scholar

²⁷ I-mou, Chung, Hri-lu-feng nung-min yun-tung, pp. 14–20.Google Scholar

²⁸ I-mou, Chung “Hai-lu-feng nung-min te pa-nien chan-tou,” p. 180Google Scholar; Hai-lu-feng nung-min yun-tung, p. 9.Google Scholar

²⁹ P'ai, P'eng, op. cit., pp. 50–51.Google Scholar

³⁰ Feng, Hou, op. cit., p. 38.Google Scholar

³¹ I-mou, Chung, “Hai-feng nung-min te pa-nien chan-tou,” p. 181.Google Scholar

³² P'ai, P'eng, op. cit., p. 85.Google Scholar

³³ The Lu-an Jih-k'an and the Lu-an Jih-pao, mentioned above, must be the same paper.

³⁴ There is a confusion about this date between the May 4 demonstration and the May 1 one.

³⁵ I-mou, Chung. Hca-lu-feng mmg-min yun-tung, pp. 124–125.Google Scholar

³⁶ “In 1920 or 1921, Comrade P'eng P'ai became one of the most active leaders of the Communist organisation. He was active as an agitator among workers in Canton for a short while after he became a Communist.” Yü Te, “P'eng P'ai t'ung-chih ch'uan-lüeh” (“A Short Biography of Comrade P'eng P'ai”), Ying-shen, Hua ed., Chung-kuo kung-ch'an-tang lieh-shih ch'uan (Biographies of Martyrs of the Chinese Communist Party) (Hongkong: 1949), p. 46Google Scholar. Another source indicates that he was a member of the Communist Party from 1920 on. See the editor's note in Peng-pai [sic] “Memoirs of a Chinese Communist,” Living Age, Vol. 344, No. 4399, 04 1933, p. 117Google Scholar. He did not go out of the Hai-lu-feng district after his return home from Japan until the fall of 1923 when he made a trip to Hong Kong. If Yü Te's description is correct, he must have become a Communist on his way from Tokyo to Hai-feng in 1921.

³⁷ I-mou, Chung, op. cit., p. 10.Google Scholar

³⁸ P'ai, P'eng, op. cit., pp. 61–67.Google Scholar

³⁹ P'eng P'ai explained that these markets were formerly controlled by “gentry, local rascals and temple curates.” Ibid., p. 65.

⁴⁰ Ibid., p. 69. These slogans used among members clearly show that the peasant union stuck to protecting the interests of tenant farmers and did not concern itself with the interests of small landed farmers. The present author regrets being unable to find source materials which could provide answers to the questions about the union's attitude toward small local merchants and landed farmers.

⁴¹ Ibid., pp. 65–69.

⁴² Ibid., pp. 75–80.

⁴³ Ibid., pp. 71, 79.

⁴⁴ Ibid., pp. 68, 78.

⁴⁵ Ibid., p. 91.

⁴⁶ Ibid., p. 98.

⁴⁷ Ibid., p. 86 et seq. This was a peasant union in “nothing but name,” as P'eng himself indicated later. P'ai, P'eng, “Kuan yii Hai-feng nung-min yun-tung te i-feng-hsin” (“A Letter Relating to the Peasant Movement in Hai-feng”), Hsiang-tao Chou-pao (Guide Weekly) No. 70, 1924.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Wales, Nym, op. cit., p. 200.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Hui, Su, “P'eng P'ai t'ung-chih ho t'a ling-tao te Hai-lu-feng nung-ming yün-tung” (Comrade P'eng P'ai and the Hai-lu-feng Peasant Movement under His Leadership), yeh-chien-hsüeh-hsiao, Wu-han-shih-chi-kuan Ma-k'o-ssu-Lieh-ning-chu-i (Marx-Leninism Night School of the Wuhan City Departments) ed., Chung-kuo Kung-ch'an-tang tsal chung-nan-ti-ch'ü ling-tao Ko-ming-tou-chêng te li-shih tzu-liao (Historical Materials on the Revolutionary Struggles led by the Chinese Communist Party in Central and South China), Vol. 1 (Wuhan: Chung-nan Jen-min Ch'u-pan-she, 1951), p. 174.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Nym Wales, loc. cit.

⁵¹ P'ai, P'eng, op. cit., p. 132.Google Scholar

⁵² Yūji, Muramatsu, “Shoki no Chūgoku Kyōsantō to nōmin” (“The Chinese Communist Party in Its Beginning and the Peasant”), Kazankai, ed., Ajia, kako to genzai (Asia, Past and Present) (Tokyo: Kazankai, 1955), p. 158et seq.Google Scholar

⁵³ Chang-lung, Lo, “Shantung min-chung te ko-ming ch'ao-liu” (“The Revolutionary Current of the People in Shantung”), No. 40, 09 16, 1923Google Scholar, consisting of 11 lines; “Chianghsi Ma-chia-ts'un nung-min k'ang-shui yun-tung” (“A movement to Refuse to pay the Land Tax at Ma-chia-ts'un in Kiangsi”), No. 41, 09 23 1923Google Scholar, about half a page; “Ch'en Chiung-ming ch'iang-tzu hsia te Hai-feng nung-min” (The Peasants of Hai-feng under the Cruel Suppression of Ch'en Chiung-ming), No. 43, 10 17, 1927, eighteen lines.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Kikan, Onodera, Koku-kyō kōsō-shi shi-ryō (Source Matertal on the History of the Kuomintang-Communist Struggle), mimeo. (Shanghai: Onpdera Kikan, 1939), pp. 180–183, 462–464Google Scholar. According to its introduction, this book is a complete translation of Chung-kuo Kung-ch'an-tang chih t'ou-shih (A Perspective of the Chinese Communist Party), Kuomintang, Central Committee, ed. Onodera Kikan, the Organ of Onodera, was a Japanese military intelligence organisation led by Colonel Makoto Onodera, which operated for a short period in 1939.

⁵⁵ Eudin, Xenia Jukoff and North, Robert C., Soviet Russia and the East, 1920–1927, A Documentary Survey (Stanford Un.: 1957), pp. 344–345.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Hatano, Ken'ichi ed., Shina Kyōsan Tōshi (A History of the Chinese Communist Party) (Tokyo: Gaimushō Jōhōbu [Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Public Information Bureau], 1932), pp. 46–49.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ The question of how the radical reforms proposed by the Comintern were modified into such an inoffensive and mild form by the Chinese Communist Party is an. import ant one. The author has been unable to obtain any major pertinent source material.

⁵⁸ Cited from its Japanese version, “Shina kokumin kakumei to shafcai kaikyū” (“The National Revolution in China and Her Social Classes”), Shin'ichi, Yamaguchi tr., Shina Kakumei ronbun-shu (A Collection of Articles about the Chinese Revolution) (Tokyo: Marukusu Shobō, 1930), p. 13.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Hsiang-lao Chou-pao, No. 34, 08 1, 1923Google Scholar. Whether this opinion was Ch'en's own, or dictated by the Comintern, is a problem which cannot be answered accurately from available sources.

⁶⁰ See above, p. 173.

⁶¹ Hsiang-tao Chou-pao, No. 48, 12 12, 1923.Google Scholar

⁶² Chao Heng-t'i, who was Governor of Hunan Province and belonged to the Wu P'ei-fu group.

⁶³ Chi'i-yüan, Lo, ed., “Pen-pu i-nien-lai kung-tso pao-kao kai-yao” (“Short Report about the Activities of our Department for This Year”), Chung-kuo Nung-min, No. 2, 1926Google Scholar. A mainland Chinese source indicates that the Chinese Communist Party took the initiative in establishing the Peasants' Department in the Central Party Head quarters of the Kuomintang. Yu-i, Chang ed., Chung-kuo chin-tai nung-yeh-shih tzu-liao (A Documentary History of Agriculture in Modern China) (Peking: San-lien Shu-tien, 1957), I, p. 675.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Ch'i-yüan, Lo, op. cit.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ibid.

⁶⁶ Chung-cheng, Chiang (Kai-shek), Soviet Russia in China, A Summing Up at Seventy (New York: Parrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1957), p. 31.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Lu, Tsou, Kuo-min-tang sklh-kao (A Draft History of the Kuomintang) (Shanghai: Shang-wu Yin-Shu-kuan, 1929), I, p. 386.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Ch'i-yuan, Lo, op. cit.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Ibid.

⁷⁰ Ibid.

⁷¹ Pai-ch'uan, Fan, “Chung-kuo kung-ch'an-tang ch'eng-li ch'u-ch'i te nung-min yun-tung” (“Peasant Movements During the Establishment of the Chinese Communist Party”), Shih-hsueh chou-k'an (Historical Studies Weekly) of the Ta Kung Pao (Shanghai edition), 04 3, 1952.Google Scholar

⁷² Ti-i-tz'u kuo-nei ko-ming chan-cheng shih-ch'i te nung-min yun-tung (The Peasant Movement During the Period of the First Revolutionary Civil War) (Peking: Jen-min ch'u-pan-she, 1953), p. 143et seq.Google Scholar

⁷³ Kikan, Onodera, op. cit., p. 369.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ For instance, Yu-i, Chang, op. cit., I, p. 676.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Ch'i-yüan, Lo, op. cit.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Yang-ling, Ho, op. cit., IV, pp. 53–71.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ The present writer could not find any source material which shows this exactly.

⁷⁸ They were called “Chief Manager” until the fifth term. In the sixth term the bead was called “Principal.”

⁷⁹ “Nung-min-pu nung-min yun-tung wei-yuan-hui ti-i-tz'u hui-i-lu” (The Minutes of the First Committee for the Peasant Movement, Peasants' Department), Chung-kuo Nung-min, No. 4, 1926Google Scholar; The Peasant Movement During the Period of the First Revolutionary Civil War, p. 20et seq.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Lu, Tsou, op. cit., 1, p. 386.Google Scholar