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Provincial Independence vs. National Rule: A Case Study of Szechwan in the 1920's and 1930's

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Robert A. Kapp
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Abstract

For many reasons, including the importance of local geographic variation, twentieth century Chinese phenomena such as “warlordism” must be examined in individual sub-national cases. Szechwanese provincial militarists maintained a high degree of independence from outside control and stood aloof from central government politics from the end of the Northern Expedition until 1935. However, a combination of communist military pressure and provincial economic collapse finally induced Szechwan's leading militarist to seek Nanking's help. From early 1935, the National Government attempted to bring Szechwan within its sphere of military, economic, and political influence. In its struggle with entrenched provincial militarists, Nanking employed a complex set of reforms, at the heart of which were measures for the restricting of local administration and the extension of formal administrative control into local society. When the Sino-Japanese War Erupted in July 1937, however, Nanking had achieved only very partial success. The Nationalists' final peacetime opportunity to solve the modern dilemma of central vs. sub-national power in China had passed.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , May 1971 , pp. 535 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1971

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References

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3 The text of the “General Order” appears in Chou Kʻai-chʻing, “Chien-she hsin ssu-chʻuan ti chan-wang” (Outlook for Creation of a New Szechwan), Kuo-wen chou-pao (hereafter KWCP), May 27, 1935.

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11 Lockhart (Hankow) to State Department, July 9, 1928. State Department Archives (S.D.) 893.00/P.R. Chungking 1.

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14 Liu Hang-shen, “Jung-mu pan sheng” (Half a Lifetime in the Inner Circle), Hsin-wen tʻien-ti (Newsdom—hereafter HWTT), August 26, 1967, pp. 24–25.

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16 The Reorganization Crisis is well treated in Sheridan, pp. 240–267.

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20 Tung, “Chʻih-huo.” Also Huang Tzu-ching, ed., “Chʻuan-shen chʻü ko-ming ken-chü ti hsüan-chi” (Selected Materials on the Szechwan-Shensi Revolutionary Base), Chin-tai shih tzu-liao (Modern Historical Materials), No. 3 (1958), pp. 105–41, esp. 107.

21 Tʻien Cho-chih, “Ssu-chʻuan wen-tʻi” (The Szechwan Problem), KWCP, July 23, 1934. See also Chʻuan-kuo ching-chi wei-yüan-hui (All-China Economic Committee), ed. Ssu-chʻuan kʻao-chʻa pao-kao shu (Report on Szechwan) (Shanghai, 1935), p. 57.

22 Yu-chiu, Chang, “Ssu-chʻuan chih chin-pi kʻung-pu yü Liu Hsiang tung-hsia” (Szechwan's Currency Crisis and Liu Hsiang's Eastward Journey), Yin-hang chou-kʻan (Banker's Weekly), December 4, 1934, pp. 11–20.Google Scholar

23 For coverage of Liu's visit to Nanking, see KWCP and the Peiping Shih-pao for late November and early December, 1934. See also Ho Kuokuang, Pa-shih tzu-shu (Recollections at Eighty) (Taipei, 1964), p. 26.

24 Kuo-tʻao, Chang, “Wo ti Hui-i,” Ming-pao yüeh-kʻan, January 1970, pp. 78–83Google Scholar. See also Yü-kao, Hu, Kung-fei hsi-tsʻuan chi (Record of the Communists' Westward Trek) (Kweiyang, 1946), pp. 583–607.Google Scholar

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26 Chung-yang yin-hang yüeh-kʻan (Central Bank Monthly), August 1935, pp. 1730–31. See also Chün-shih wei-yüan hui wei-yüan chang hsingying cheng-chih kung-tso pao-kao (Political Work Report of the Headquarters of the Chairman of the Military Affairs Committee—hereafter HYPK) (Nanking, 1935), p. 118.

27 On taxation, see Cho-chih, Tʻien, “Ssu-chʻuan wen-tʻi,” and Lü Pʻing-teng, Ssu-chʻuan nung-tsʻun ching-chi (Economy of Szechwanese Farm Villages) (Shanghai, 1936), pp. 457–530.Google Scholar

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29 Ssu-chʻuan hsing-cheng tu-chʻa chuan-yüan shih-cheng yen-chiu hui-i chi-lu (Proceedings of the Conference of Szechwan Special Administrative Inspectors on Political Implementation—hereafter CYCL) [Chengtu], 1935, p. 45.

30 KWCP, August 26, 1935.

31 Hua Sheng [pseud.], “Ssu-chʻuan chih hsien ti-fang tsʻai-cheng” (Szechwan's District and Local Finance), SCWH, September 1966, pp. 1–9. See also KWCP, April 30, 1935.

32 Chou Kai-chʻing, “Chien-she hsin ssu-chʻuan ti chan-wang.”

33 Chiang Chung-cheng [Chiang Kai-shek], O-mei hsün-lien chi (Collected Remarks Made at the Omei Training Center) (Nanking, 1947), p. 290.

34 Liu Hang-shen, “Jung-mu pan sheng,” HWTT, October 21, 1967, p. 23. See also CYCL, p. 23.

35 Ho Kuo-kuang, pp. 34–35.

36 Mi Chʻing-yün, “Chiang-fei huo-chʻuan chi” The Record of Bandit Chiang's Predations in Szechwan), Chin-tai shih tzu-liao,. Number 4 (1962), pp. 85–86. See also HYPK, p. 13.

37 Mi Chʻing-yun, pp. 87–88.

38 Ssu-chʻuan yüeh-pao, May 1935, pp. 211–12. Also Chʻeng Mou-hsing, Chiao-fei ti-fang hsing-cheng chih-tu (Bandit Suppression Local Administrative Systems) (Shanghai, 1936), pp. 48–78.

39 See for example Kai-shek, Chiang, Chiang Tsung-tʻung yen-lun hui-pien, ti-i shih-chʻi (Speeches of President Chiang, First Period) (Taipei, 1956), p. 133.Google Scholar

40 Teng Han-hsiang, Teng Ming-chieh hsien-sheng yen-lun chi (Collected Speeches of Teng Han-hsiang) [Chengtu], (1937), p. 41.

41 See the letter of J. O. P. Bland to the Times of London in the October 22, 1935 edition of the Times. Also Mills (Chungking) to London, May 7, 1937, F.O. 371/20984.

42 Two of many sources on this are Pai Yua-yüan, “Labor Tax in the Building of the Szechwan-Hunan Highway,” in Agrarian China, ed. by the Institute of Pacific Relations (London, 1939), pp. 110–12 and Hsiang Shang, Hsi-nan lü-hsing chi (Travels in the Southwest) (Shanghai, 1937), p. 292.

43 Mi Chʻing-yün, p. 90.

44 Liu Hang-shen, “Jung-mu pan sheng,” HWTT, October 21, 1967, p. 24. Also Ho Kuo-kuang, pp. 29–30.

45 Ssu-chʻuan hsien-hsün (Szechwan District Training), May 10, 1936, pp. 62–68.

46 See the “Chronicle of Events” sections of Ssu-chʻuan yüeh-pao for the spring months of 1936.

47 Pai Yua-yüan, p. 112. See also Huang Yenpʻei, Shu tao (The Road to Shu) (Shanghai, 1936), pp. 103–04.

48 Willys Peck (Nanking) to State Department, May 27, 1937, S.D. 893.00/14137. See also Peck, Graham, Through China's Wall (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1940), p. 184.Google Scholar

49 New York Times, June 5, 1937, p. 8. SCWH, June, 1968, pp. 29–30.

50 Chen, Sun, “Ssu-chʻuan chin i-pu tʻung-i yü kʻang-chan” (Szechwan's Progress toward Unification and the War of Resistance), SCWH, October 1966, p. 3.Google Scholar

51 Knatchbull-Hugessen (Peiping) to London, June 7, 1937, F.O. 371/20970.

52 A standard version of the story of Liu's death is Tai Kao-hsiang, “Liu Hsiang chin-ching huanping ching-kuo chui-i” (Recollections of Liu Hsiang's Visit to the Capital and His Illness), Chʻun-chʻiu, January 1968, p. 8.

53 Gillin, Donald G., Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1967).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 Ibid., p. 48.

55 Ibid., pp. 47–48.

56 Ibid., pp. 24.

57 Ibid., p. 109.

58 Ibid., p. 111.

59 Ibid., p. 110.

60 Ibid., p. 119.

61 Ibid., p. 214.