Warlord Era” in Early Republican Chinese History
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Mutiny in Hunan: Writing and Rewriting the “Warlord Era” in Early Republican Chinese History By Jonathan Tang A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair Professor Peter Zinoman Professor You-tien Hsing Summer 2019 Mutiny in Hunan: Writing and Rewriting the “Warlord Era” in Early Republican Chinese History Copyright 2019 By Jonathan Tang Abstract Mutiny in Hunan: Writing and Rewriting the “Warlord Era” in Early Republican Chinese History By Jonathan Tang Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair This dissertation examines a 1920 mutiny in Pingjiang County, Hunan Province, as a way of challenging the dominant narrative of the early republican period of Chinese history, often called the “Warlord Era.” The mutiny precipitated a change of power from Tan Yankai, a classically trained elite of the pre-imperial era, to Zhao Hengti, who had undergone military training in Japan. Conventional histories interpret this transition as Zhao having betrayed his erstwhile superior Tan, epitomizing the rise of warlordism and the disintegration of traditional civilian administration; this dissertation challenges these claims by showing that Tan and Zhao were not enemies in 1920, and that no such betrayal occurred. These same histories also claim that local governance during this period was fundamentally broken, necessitating the revolutionary party-state of the KMT and CCP to centralize power and restore order. Though this was undeniably a period of political turmoil, with endemic low-level armed conflict, this dissertation juxtaposes unpublished material with two of the more influential histories of the era to show how this narrative has been exaggerated to serve political aims. Gradual reform and innovations like federalism have been excluded from memories of the era in favor of a return to highly centralized, autocratic rule. Tan, Zhao, and their peers were unable to adapt to the emerging mass politics of their era, and thus did not achieve the necessary publicity to make their achievements more well-known. Another dimension to the dissertation is its local character. At the turn of the twentieth century, Hunan was still an internal frontier, far from the more cosmopolitan coast. Moreover, it lay at the crossroads between north and south, making it geostrategically important for all those who wished to militarily conquer the whole of the former Qing empire. Those from the province, like Tan and Zhao, were convinced of their homeland’s importance, and, cognizant of the prominent political role that their predecessors played in nineteenth century, sought to emulate their example through good governance and innovative politics. By redirecting our attention to these local successes, however limited, and reframing our interpretation of the 1920 mutiny, this dissertation argues against the revolutionary paradigm of Chinese history to highlight an alternative possibility for how local governance could have worked, demonstrates how elite culture enabled the success of Qing elites like Tan and Zhao while preventing their later success in the mass politics era, and suggests new possibilities for future research on the politics of early Republican China. 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents i Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii Introduction: How Reinterpreting a Mutiny Reframes Modern Chinese History 1 Chapter 1: Education, Application, and the History of Hunan 16 Chapter 2: Reform, Revolution, and the Future of China 35 Chapter 3: Warlordism, Federalism, and Sensational Narratives 53 Chapter 4: Factionalism, Betrayal, and the 1920 Pingjiang Mutiny 71 Chapter 5: Culture, Loyalty, and the 1920 Pingjiang Mutiny 89 Epilogue: Memories, Mass Politics, and Lives 107 Works Cited 122 i Dedication For Grace, in gratitude, with love ii Acknowledgments This dissertation owes much to many, only some of whom I am able to list here for reasons of space and time. My deepest appreciation is for Wen-hsin Yeh, whose patience and wisdom never failed to impress. She read countless drafts, remained steadfast in her encouragement, yet never allowed me to produce work that fell below her standards. I could not have asked for a better model of scholarship and teaching to emulate. You-tien Hsing provided unflagging cheer from beginning to end. Mary Elizabeth Berry and Peter Zinoman made crucial last minute contributions that made this dissertation possible. Andrew Barshay, Alexander Cook, and Nicolas Tackett were also generous with their time, energy, and instruction. At UC Berkeley, I received institutional and financial support from the Department of History, the Li Ka-shing Foundation Program in Modern Chinese History, the Center for Chinese Studies, the Institute of East Asian Studies, the Student Mentoring and Research Teams pilot program, and the Haas Junior Scholars Program for Doctoral Candidates. The Fulbright Foundation and the Institute of Modern History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences were also crucial for making this project possible. In Beijing, Chai Yiyun, Liu Wennan, Ma Siyu and Wang Chaoguang were warm and welcoming hosts. In Changsha, Li Yumin provided crucial sponsorship during an important summer, and James Hudson was a much-needed intellectual companion. The staff at the Hunan Provincial Archives were understanding and kind. In Taipei, Ning Jennifer Chang, Yung-fa Chen, and Ch’ang Peng-yuan were cheerful guides who unwearyingly answered innumerable questions from an ignorant graduate student. Portions of this manuscript were presented at academic conferences and workshops in Beijing, Philadelphia, Seattle, Taipei and Berkeley, and were greatly improved there. I am grateful for the organizers, panelists, and discussants: Geremie Barmé, Matthew Berry, Jesse Chapman, Melissa Dale, Madeline Yue Dong, Tom Gold, Keren He, Rebecca Karl, Elizabeth Lawrence, Wei Luo, Quinn Javers, Seung-Youn Oh, Michael Tsin, John Yasuda, and Gang Zhao. Over the course of my doctoral studies I was also the beneficiary of responses to emailed inquiry, audience comments during panels, introductions to other scholars, and encouragement-in-passing from Joseph Esherick, Karl Gerth, Joshua Hill, Edward McCord, Stephen MacKinnon, Thomas Mullaney, Rebecca Nedostup, Kristin Stapleton, Donald Sutton, Hans Van de Ven, and Di Wang. I also credit Thomas Bernstein, Eileen Chow, Peter Gordon, Natasha Heller, William Kirby, Eugenia Lean, Roderick MacFaquahar, Pauline Peters, Guobin Yang, and Madeleine Zelin for inspiring me along this strange and often meandering academic journey in the first place. iii Fellow graduate students at UC Berkeley and beyond offered advice, critique, encouragement, support, and feedback, including but not limited to Christoffer Bovbjerg, Wesley Chaney, Cyrus Chen, Sakura Christmas, Julia Chuang, Charlotte Cowden, Caleb Ford, Kristi Govella, Paulina Hartono, Andrea Horbinski, Ying Hu, Brooks Jessup, Kevin Landdeck, Peiting Li, James Lin, William Ma, Scott McGinnis, Emily Mokros, Ti Ngo, Joseph Passman, Larissa Pitts, Beatrice Schraa, Kerry Shannon, Evelyn Shih, Philip Thai, Linh Vu, Michelle Wang, Eloise Wright, Shoufu Yin, and Margaret Tillman. Shijie Margaret heroically edited a complete draft of the dissertation at a very late stage and deserves special thanks. The staff of the UC Berkeley History Department continually went above and beyond the call of duty, especially Alex Coughlin, Todd Kuebler, and Mabel Lee. Linda von Hoene and Graduate Division were particularly gracious at the close of this project. Sabrina Soracco, Massimo Mazzotti, David Johnson, Stephanie Ballenger, and David Beecher showed me how to teach. Jianye He, Bruce Williams, and the staff at the East Asian Library showed me how to read. At the University of San Francisco, John Nelson, Brian Dempster, and Annmarie Beida welcomed me to a second intellectual home in the Bay Area. Over the years I have benefited from the fellowship of countless framily around the world who donated meals, sympathetic ears, and sometimes even roofs. The brilliance of students in sections and seminars at USF and at UC Berkeley were also a source of great inspiration. My parents faithfully supported their son’s peculiar vocational interests, in spite of their better judgment; my sister and her family reminded me that there was life after school; my in-laws contributed unceasing and highly necessary prayer. My wife Grace deserves exceptional praise and gratitude for all of the burdens, intellectual and otherwise, that she has shared with me over the course of this project. This text is dedicated to her; I might have written its words (and remain fully responsible for its many errors!), but she was and has been the life raft that has kept it afloat during the fiercest storms and darkest days. Thank you for all that you do for our family. I love you. You are my home. Our son Bennett, to paraphrase the words of another, added years to the work, but joy to the years. Finally, thanks be to the one whose steadfast love endures forever. S.D.G. iv Introduction: How Reinterpreting a Mutiny Reframes Modern Chinese History On November 25th, 1920, Hunan Governor Tan Yankai (1880-1930) resigned from office and boarded a boat that would take him to Shanghai. Mutineers from Pingjiang, less than 80 miles away from the capital of Changsha, were approaching; he had no other way of