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The New Life in Action: The Nationalist Government in South Jiangxi, 1934–37

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Extract

The destruction of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) main base areas in Jiangxi province was regarded by the Nationalist government as a major accomplishment, and in many respects it certainly was. In the last of the five great encirclement campaigns launched under Jiang Jieshi's direction 800,000 soldiers, thousands of civilian cadres and political workers, and myriads of ordinary citizens were mobilized into a huge organization which, like some giant anaconda, ponderously coiled its long lines of roads and blockhouses around the Soviet areas in South Jiangxi, squeezing more and more tightly for a year and a half until, in late 1934, a tattered and worn remnant of the CCP was able to slip wearily between its folds and set out on the epic Long March. Behind in Jiangxi it largely abandoned the wasted carcass of the Central Soviet Area to the Nationalist government.

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1981

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References

1. Taylor, George, “Reconstruction after revolution: Kiangsi province and the Chinese nation,” Pacific Affairs, Vol. 8, No. 3 (September 1935), p. 302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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3. For a new view of the Tongzhi Restoration, see Polachek, James, “Gentry hegemony: Soochow in the T’ung-chih Restoration,” in Wakeman, Frederic Jr, and Grant, Carolyn (eds.), Conflict and Control in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), pp. 211–56.Google Scholar For the Guomindang government, see Philip Kuhn, “ Local self government under the Republic,” in Ibid.. pp. 257–98; and Eastman, Lloyd, The Abortive Revolution (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1974).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. There are a large number of newspaper accounts and magazine articles reporting on visits to the recovered areas. One of the best is the long, anonymous article in an unknown newspaper entitled “ Gan sheng shoufu feiqu xiankuang ” (“ Present conditions in the Jiangxi province recovered bandit areas ”), preserved in Vol. 40 of the Yokota Minoru clipping collection in the Tōyō Bunko. A selection of newspaper accounts is collected in Hatano Kenichi, Chūgoku kyōsantō shi (A History of the Chinese Communist Party) (Tokyo, 1961), in Vol. 4, pp. 581773.Google Scholar A number of magazine articles and news accounts are collected in hui, Ke sheng shi gan zheng zhi yanjiu (ed.), Youke hua Jiangxi (Visitors’ Comments on Jiangxi) (Shanghai: Yue xue han shudian, 1937).Google Scholar

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6. For population decline see, among others Ibid., passim, and Hao, Wang, Shoufu feiqu, pp. 4849.Google Scholar For surplus of women, see Wang Hao, Ibid.; Liu Qingke, “ Jiangxi sheng zhi baojia ” (“ The baojia in Jiangxi province “)in Youke hua jiangxi, pp. 260,263–65.

7. Hao, Wang, Shoufu feiqu, pp. 4748,Google Scholar 50–52. Youfen, Chen, “Ruijin xian jingji gaikuang,” (“General economic conditions in Ruijin xian”) in Jingji xunkan (Economics Fortnightly), Vol. 6, No. 11 (15 April 1936), p. 66;Google ScholarZeyuan, Li, “Ningdu xian di wu qu jingji zhuangkuang” (“Economic conditions in the fifth ward of Ningdu xian ”) in Jingji xunkan, Vol. 7, No. 8 (15 September 1936), p. 56;Google Scholardaxue, Jinling. Nongxueyuan, . xi, Nongye jingji (ed.), Kanan, Kohoku, Anki, Kōsei yon shō kosaku seido (The Tenancy Systems of Henan, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangxi), trans, by Nongxueyuan, (Tokyo. 1940), p. 46.Google Scholar

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9. For a discussion of the rural reconstructionists, see Thomson, James Jr., While China Faced West (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969). For the Blue Shirts, see Eastman, Abortive Revolution, Chapt. 2. For CCP influence on KMT ideology, seeGoogle ScholarDirlik, Arif, “The ideological foundations of the New Life Movement: a study in counter revolution,” Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 34, No. 4 (August 1975), pp. 948–49,976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Zonghuang, Li, Xian xing baojia zhidu (The Present Baojia System) (Yongning: Zhonghua shuju, 1943), p. 20.Google Scholar

11. Tairiku chōsakai (trans.). “ Shohi jihon kosaku o ikani jisshi suru ka?” (“ How will the work of bandit-supression be carried out? ”) (n.p., 1933), p. 16. This work is a Japanese translation of an article by an unknown author in the Chinese journal Han xue yuekan (Sweat and Blood Monthly).

12. Cheng Shikui, “ Shi nian lai zhi Jiangxi tezhong jiaoyu ” (“ Ten years of Jiangxi Special Education ”), in Gan zheng shi nian bian ji weiyuanhui (ed.), Gan zheng shi nian (Ten Years of Jiangxi Administration) (Nanchang?: 1941) sep. pag., p. 1.

13. One good account of refugee conditions on the fringes of the Soviet areas is Shuai Xuefu, “Wo ruhe zuo jiaofeiqu Taihe xianzhang” (“How I served as magistrate of Taihe xian in the bandit-suppression areas ”), in Jiangxi wenxian (Documents ofJiangxi), No. 73 (July 1973), pp. 3335.Google Scholar For examples of petty merchants and others fleeing, see Zhiming, Yang, “Xiankao Shengping shilue” (“ A brief biographical sketch of my late father”), in Jiangxi wènxian, No. 88 (April 1977), p. 56. On large numbers of peasants fleeing, see Liu Zucheng, “Kōsei shō nanbu shufuku sekku shisatsuji ” (“ Record of a tour of the recovered Red areas in South Jiangxi ”) (n.p., 1934), p.6a. This last item appears to be a Chinese journal article translated by Japanese intelligence; it is available at the Tōyō Bunko.Google Scholar

14. Liu Zucheng, Ibid..

15. Tairiku chōsakai, “ Shohi jihon,” p. 7.

16. Xu Ying, “ Di gui yuanzhu “ (“ Return the land to the original owners ”), in Youke hua Jiangxi, p. 48; Yokota Collection. “ Feiqu xiankuang,” selection 38.

17. Xu Ying, “Di gui yuanzhu,” p. 48.

18. Yokota Collection, Ibid.. s. 56. For peasant uneasiness, see Gengya, Chen, Gan, Wan, Xiang, E shichaji (Account of a Visit to Jiangxi, Anhui, Hunan and Hubei) (Shanghai: Shenbao yuekan she, 1934), p. 48;Google ScholarXianting, Fang, “Lun Jiangxi Jingji” (“On the Jiangxi economy”), in Youke hua Jiangxi, p. 99.Google Scholar

19. Kung-ch’uan, Hsiao, Rural China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1960), pp. 4383.Google Scholar

20. This discussion is a synthesis of material drawn from a number of works. See Zonghuang, Li, Xian xing baojia, pp. 2538; Liu Qingke, “Jiangxi baojia,” passim;Google ScholarJuntian, Wen, Zhongguo baojia zhidu (China’s Baojia System) (Shanghai: 1936), pp. 365–91, 403–404, 428–34;Google ScholarJiang, Huang, Zhongguo baojia shiyan xin bian (A New Collection on Experience with the Baojia) (Nanjing. Zheng zhong shuju, 1935) pp. 146270.Google Scholar

21. Qingke, Liu, “Jiangxi baojia,” pp. 236–37;Google ScholarWenkui, Liao, “Jiangxi sheng feichang shiqi chi zhengzhi xunlian” (“Political training in Jiangxi province during the extraordinary period”), in Youke hua Jiangxi, pp. 6583.Google Scholar

22. Cheng Shikui, “Jiangxi tezhong jiaoyu,” p. 1.

23. Ibid.. Many Sun Yat-sen schools simply took the existing Lenin schools and renamed them. For an example, see Gengya, Chen, Gan…shichaji, p. 52.Google Scholar

24. Shikui, Cheng, “Jiangxi tezhong jiaoyu,” pp. 1112.Google Scholar

25. For a good recent study of the New Life Movement, see Dirlik, “Ideological foundations” Although the New Life Movement originated in Jiangxi, and was highly promoted there, its impact on the ex-Soviet areas seems to have been quite slight, except through the Sun Yat-sen schools. The fact that these schools, and the entire Special Education Movement, were heavily involved with the Blue-Shirt-dominated Special Movement Force lends credence to Eastman's contention that the New Life Movement was inspired by the Blue Shirts. See Eastman, Abortive Revolution, Chap. 2.

26. For information on the Special Movement Force, see Eastman, , Abortive Revolution, pp. 7074;Google Scholar see also Young, C. W. H., New Life for Kiangsi (Shanghai: 1935), pp. 2941; Yokota Collection, “ Feiqu xiankuang,” s. 2.Google Scholar

27. Shikui, Cheng, “Jiangxi tezhong jiaoyu,” pp. 1213.Google Scholar

28. Ibid.. p. 12.

29. Chen Heqin, “Jiangxi baoxue di huigu ji janwang” (“Recollections and prospects for bao schools in Jiangxi”), in Ganzheng shinian, pp. 1–16 (sep. pag.). Both the government's local control and education reforms can be seen as part of the national government's attempt to extend its hand further into the 20th-century Chinese countryside. For a forceful expression of this concept, see Kuhn, “Local self-government.”

30. Tairiku chosakai, “Shohi jihon kosaku,” p. 16; Naiqi, Xiang; “Yu feiqu tudi quli shuodao tudi zhengce” (“From the adjustment of land in bandit areas to the land policy”), in Dizheng yuekan (Journal of Land Economics), Vol. 1, No. 12 (December 1933), pp. 17031709; “Jiang weiyuanzhang dui tudi zhengce yi jian” (“Chairman Jiang's views on land policy”), Shishi xinbao, 26 December 1933.Google Scholar

31. Shishi xinbao, Ibid.

32. Peng Xuepei, “Jiangxi nongcun feiqu shichaji” (“Record of a tour of the Jiangxi rural bandit areas”), in Youke hua Jiangxi, p. 29.

33. XuYing, “Di gui yuanzhu,” p. 49.

34. Ibid.. pp. 50–59.

35. Ibid.. p. 49; “Ning, Xing, Yu, Hui, Rui, Shi liu xian nongcun jiujing tudi chuli gongzuo gaishu” (“Report on the status of rural relief and land reorganization work in the six xian of Ningdu, Xingguo, Yudu, Huichang, Ruijin, and Shicheng”) in Jingji xunkan, Vol. 6, No. 4 (5 February 1936), p. 44;Google ScholarJiangxi sheng di ba xingzhengqu jingji shehui diaocha jihua” (“Statistics on the economic and social survey of the Eighth Administrative Area in Jiangxi”) Jing i xunkan, Vol. 6, Nos. 5/6 (25 February 1936), p. 43;Google Scholar for Rehabilitation Committees near Jinggangshan, see Gengya, Chen, Gan…shichaji, p. 47;Google Scholar for Committees in Yiyang xian, see Guokang, Hu, Dui di douzheng jingyan huiyilu (Recollections of My Experiences Struggling Against the Enemy (Taiwan: Guangming chubanshe, 1963), p. 67.Google Scholar

36. Leang-li, Tang (ed.), Suppressing Communist-Banditry in China (Shanghai: China United Press, 1934), pp. 107110.Google Scholar

37. Hao, Wang, Shoufu feiqu, pp. 5455.Google Scholar

38. Ibid.. pp. 59–61,66.

39. Thomson, James Jr., While China Faced West, pp. 201, 113.Google Scholar

40. Hao, Wang, Shoufu feiqu, pp. 5456.Google Scholar

41. Ibid..

42. Ibid.. pp. 57–58.

43. Ibid.. pp. 66–67.

44. Campbell, W. K. H., Co-operation for Economically Underdeveloped Countries (Geneva: League of Nations, 1938), p. 72.Google Scholar

45. Xu Ying, “Jiangxi nongcun gaizhin shiye di quanmao” (“The whole story of rural reform in Jiangxi”), in Youke hua Jiangxi, p. 127.

46. Ying, Xu, “Di gui yuanzhu,” pp. 53, 55, 57.Google Scholar

47. For an example of attacks on Special Education, see Jiahuan, Huang, “Te jiao yiwang,” (“Remembrances of Special Education” ), in Jiangxi wenxian, No. 79 (January 1975), p. 57; for cutback in funds, see Cheng Shikui, “Jiangxi tezhong jiaoyu,” p. 12.Google Scholar

48. Hejin, Chen, “Jiangxi baoxue,” pp. 3,6–7.Google Scholar

49. Min, Yu (pseud.?), “Tezhong jiaoyu yu ‘shoufuqu’minzhong” (“Special education and the people of the ‘recovered areas’ ”) in Zhongguo Nongcun, Vol. 2, No. 10 (October 1936), p. 76.Google Scholar

50. For information on the baojia system in Jiangxi, see Liu Qingke, “Jiangxi baojia,” and Huang Jiang, Zhongguo baojia, passim.

51. Chengkao, Zhou, “Haocheng mofan di Jiangxi mintuan he baojia” (“The model militia and baojia of Jiangxi”), in Hanxue yuekan, Vol. 7, No. 6 (September 1936), pp. 4647;Google Scholar Zhang Zhengsan, “ Baoxue jiaoshi ying zhuyi tangqian di san ge shehui wenti ”(“ The three social problems to which bao school teachers should currently give their, attention ”) in Jiangxi difang jiaoyu (Jiangxi Local Education), No. 47 (11 June 1936), p. 3;Google ScholarGengya, Chen, Gan … shichaji, pp. 23, 30.Google Scholar

52. Chen Gengya, Ibid.. p. 26.

53. Ibid.. p. 8.

54. On the nature of the people of the recovered areas, see “Yu Min,” “Tezhong jiaoyu,” p. 76. Even after the Soviet areas had been recovered, some people continued to feel that resistance was inevitable if major changes were not made in the land system. See Xingeng, Fu, “Zhengli xin shoufu feiqu tudi zhi wo jian” (“My opinion on reorganizing the land in the recovered bandit areas”), in Zhongyang ribao, 23 April 1935.Google Scholar

55. In some places, peasants even voluntarily handed over their land without being asked. See Xinghun, Luo, “Xingguo tudi diaocha jiyao” (“Essentials of the Xingguo land survey”), in Zhongyang ribao, 12 February 1935.Google Scholar

56. Huang Yanpei and Huang Dayuan, “Kōsei nanbu kaifuku sekku shisatsu ki” (“Record of a trip to the recovered Soviet areas in South Jiangxi”), in Hatano, Chūgoku kyōsantō shi, pp. 613–14. What seems to be the original text of this article appears in Shishi xinbao of 3 September 1934 under the title “Nanchang xinglu daoguan feiqu ji” (“An account of the Nanchang Headquarters’ guided tour of the recovered bandit areas”).

57. For examples of CCP accounts of the fate of the recovered areas, see the essays in bianweihui, Zhongnan tongxun xuanji (ed.), Guangrung di tudi, yingxiung di renmin (Glorious Land, Heroic People) (Wuhan: wunan tongsu cnubanshe, 1952).Google Scholar

58. Hao, Wang, Shoufu feiqu, p. 46.Google Scholar

59. Ibid..

60. The problem of people leaving the land and either migrating to the cities or pursuing vagrant lives was so serious that some encouraged the government to use the baojia system to coerce people to remain on the land and refuse them permission to leave. See Ibid.. p. 76.

61. George Taylor, “Reconstruction after revolution,” p. 310. This section on the peasants’ reactions to government programmes is not meant to convey the impression that no peasants in the recovered areas resisted government intrusion into their lives. On the contrary, there are a large number of CCP accounts of the recovered areas which are filled with tales of peasants who aided CCP guerilla bands still operating in the mountains, or who carefully preserved Soviet period banknotes. Most of this resistance, however, was passive or covert. I know of no accounts of peasants rising up to seize land, etc., after the Long March. For examples of the CCP literature, see bianweihui, Zhongnan, Guangrung di tudi, and chubanshe, Renmin (ed.), Geming di guxiang (The Homeland of the Revolution) (Hankou: Zhongnan renmin chubanshe, 1950).Google Scholar

62. In 1958 a CCP economic geography reported the province contained 500,000 mou of land which had been “abandoned as a consequence of human destruction. … Most of it is found in the old Soviet areas.” It further reported: “According to investigations, the population of Juichin, Hsing-kuo, Yung-hsing, Tung-ku, I-yang and Hengfeng [all xian in the ex-Soviet areas] in 1956 was from one third to one fourth less than it had been in the Soviet era.” Ching-chih, Sun (ed.), Economic Geography of Central China (Hupei, Hunan, Kiangsi) (Beijing, 1958)Google Scholar (trans, by Joint Publications Research Service, n.p., 1960), pp. 393,402. In the early 1970s a traveller in the area around Jinggangshan reported that many terraced hillsides there were still uncultivated. (Personal communication from Carl Crook to author, Stanford, California, November 1976). For labour costs, supra, notes 8 and 9. CCP post-1949 investigations also report that labour costs in the ex-Soviet areas were still very high. See Junxiu, Liu, “Jiangxi nongcun jieji guanxi yu ge jieceng tudi janyu di chubu yanjiu” (“Jiangxi rural class relations and research on the first steps for taking possession of the land of various strata”), in bianjibu, Renmin chubanshe (ed), Xinqu tudi gaige qian di nongcun (The Countryside in the New Areas Before Land Reform) Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1951), pp. 4445,Google Scholar 47. That the condition of most peasants’ lives remained poor is suggested by the persistence of opiumgrowing and other forms of social unrest. For opium-growing in the recovered areas, see Dangping, Lu, et al. (eds.), Jiang Bozhang xiansheng shiwenji (The Collected Poetry and Prose of Mr. Jiang Bozhang) (Taibei, 1972), p. 140.Google Scholar For outbreaks of banditry and feuding, see Hao, Li, “Wo di shenghuo zhuanji” (“My biography”), in Jiangxi wenxian, No. 74 (October 1973), p. 48.Google Scholar

63. Kuhn, Philip, “Local self-government under the republic: problems of control, autonomy and mobilization,” in Wakeman, Frederic Jr, and Grant, Carolyn, Conflict and Control in Late Imperial China (Berkeley, 1975), p. 288.Google Scholar

64. For a discussion of the tuhao lieshen, see Ibid. pp. 287–95.

65. For examples of guerrilla units launching attacks into the Soviet areas, and of their leaders returning to take up militia commands in the recovered areas, see Xuefu, Shuai, “Taihe xianzhang,” p. 35;Google ScholarJunsheng, Huang, “Xianyan Huang Zhenzhong jiangjun xingjuang” (“A brief biographical sketch of my late father General Huang Zhenzhong” ), in Jiangxi wenxian, No. 16 (July 1967), pp. 23;Google ScholarZeliaoshi, , “Ouyang Jin xiansheng shilue” (“A biographical sketch of Mr. Ouyang Jin”), in Jiangxi wenxian, No 80 (April 1975), p. 39.Google Scholar

66. For mention of people just going through the motions of baojia organization, see Liu Qingke, “ Jiangxi baojia,” p. 246; Huang Jiang, Zhongguo baojia, pp. 264–65. For domination of baojia by unscrupulous people, see Ibid.. p. 247.

67. See supra note No. 65.

68. Zhang Zhengsan, “Baoxue jiaoshi,” p. 3.

69. Chen Gengya, Gan … shichaji, p. 48.

70. Zhang Zhengsan, “Baoxue jiaoshi,” p. 3.

71. For schools as centres of anti-government activity and as seedbeds for the growth of CCP activists, see the various biographies of Jiangxi communist leaders contained in sheng, Jiangxi. ting, Min zheng (ed.), Buxiu di geming zhanshi (Immortal Revolutionary Warriors) (Nanchang, 1960).Google Scholar For an example of the importance of schools as centres of elite power, see Bozhang, Jiang, “Zhishi sanshi nian” (“Thirty years of the Zhiyang Normal School”) in Lu Dangping et al. (eds.), Jiang Bozhang xiansheng shi wenji, pp. 3451.Google Scholar

72. For discussion of the problems of the bao schools, see Hechin, Chen, “Jiangxi baoxue di huigu ji zhang wang” (“Recollections and prospects for bao schools in Jiangxi”)in Ganzheng shinian, pp. 716.Google Scholar

73. Xu Ying, “Di gui yuanzhu,” p. 50.

74. Ibid.. Zou Huagai, “Renka, Eishin, Neikō san ken shūfuku ku tochi shori tokusatsu hōkoku” (“Report on the supervision of land management in the three recovered xian of Lianhua, Yongxin, and Ninggang”), in Hatano, Chūgoku kyōsantō shi, p. 712. A portion of this latter article appears in Zhongyang ribao, 6 December 1934.

75. Liu Junxiu, “Jiangxi nongcun jieji guanxi,” p. 52.

76. Ibid.. See also Zhang Gensheng, “Zhongnanqu gesheng nongcun shehui jieji qingkuang yu cudian guanxi di chubu diaocha” (“First stage investigation of the rural social class situation and tenancy relations in the South-Central Area”), in Renmin chubanshe, Xinqu tudi gaige qian di nongcun, p. 28.

77. Thomson, While China Faced West, p. 158.