CHAPTER 3 No Place for Good Memories: Chengdu 1911

What Happened on 7 September 1911

The ‘Chengdu massacre’ is said to have triggered a wholesale rebellion of the Sichuanese people against the Qing court and catalyzed a nationwide revolu- tion that ended dynastic rule in the same year. After months of nonviolent protests initially mounted by the gentry against the imperial government’s decision to nationalize the provincial railroad, what happened on 7 September turned this peaceful cause into a fierce revolt, boosted mass uprisings in the surrounding regions, and led to a turning point in history. It all began with a ruse cautiously executed by Qing officials to quell the railway disputes by arresting its ringleaders. On the morning of 7 September, Governor-General Zhao Erfeng lured nine of the leaders of the railroad pro- tection movement to the viceregal yamen and imprisoned them there. News of the arrest leaked out quickly, and crowds of sympathizers and petitioners rushed to the yamen to plead for the release of the leaders. Tragedy followed when the situation got out of hand: as the crowd surged angrily into the court- yard through the gateway, Zhao’s soldiers fired, killing dozens of civilians (the numbers of deaths and casualties differ in various accounts). The bloody sup- pression of the riot immediately instigated military confrontations on the outskirts of Chengdu, and the provincial capital was soon besieged by revo- lutionary forces and political upheavals, which contributed ultimately to the downfall of the Qing dynasty. The fundamental issue that precipitated armed conflict and violence was the Qing court’s attempt to centralize railroad construction as part of a series of vital reforms to modernize the empire. In May 1911, the Manchu government had announced its decision to nationalize all existing private trunk railroads in order to take full control over construction of rail systems countrywide. This drastic measure instantly met with resistance in Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, and Sichuan, from local people who had vested interests in regional railway enterprises. In Sichuan, this centered on the line from Hankou to Sichuan. In June, the gentry, merchants, and provincial council members established the Sichuan Railroad Protection Comrades League (Sichuan baolu tongzhihui) to defend the affairs of the Sichuan-Hankou Railroad Company under the lead- ership of members of the Sichuan gentry, including Pu Dianjun and Luo Lun, and some provincial assembly members. Anxiety and outrage flared during a

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004292666_004 No Place For Good Memories: Chengdu 1911 97 series of shareholders’ meetings, where people demanded to maintain private ownership and management of the company, and objected to seeking more financial loans from foreigners, as called for in the nationalization policy. Strong anger was expressed at Qing officials; in particular, the Minister of Posts and Communications, Sheng Xuanhuai, was accused of stealing the line. In May, Sheng had signed a contract with the representatives of a four-power group representing England, France, Germany, and the United States to raise huge railway loans. Stockholders in Sichuan denounced the nationalization policy for compromising local and national interests. The floating of loans from foreign powers would result in the potential loss of Chinese sovereignty. Political tensions mounted when the original cause of defending regional rail rights engendered a provincial autonomy movement. Opposition spread to all walks of life to include students, workers, merchants, and townspeople. Meanwhile, popular zeal was stirred up throughout the province as numerous regional railroad protection associations were set up on the county level to support the movement in Chengdu. In August, Chengdu citizens staged mass strikes to paralyze the city. Students boycotted classes, small merchants closed down their shops, and people talked about withholding taxes province-wide to show their determination and defiance. Still, nonviolent protest remained the rule until the watershed of 7 September.200 The Great Wave, the last part of Li Jieren’s trilogy, presents a panorama of Chengdu’s everyday life during the latter half of 1911, as the railroad protests unfolded into a mass movement and the Xinhai Revolution approached. The political events only constitute an exterior framework in the novel, however. Li Jieren seeks to seize on the foundational series of events that led to the revo- lution, as well as their impact on a place and its inhabitants, who are inad- vertently caught up in the radical consequences of overthrowing a state and remaking social norms. The Great Wave (1937) is the longest of the works in the trilogy; it is composed of three volumes201 in about five hundred thousand words. Its narrated time by contrast occupies a mere five months. Instead of depicting a unilinear direction of revolutionary change from chaos to order, the panoramic novel focuses on the complexity and multiplicity of change,

200 For historical accounts of the railroad dispute and mass protests in Sichuan, see Hedtke, “The Szechwanese Railroad Protection Movement”; Hedtke, “Reluctant Revolutionaries,” pp. 226–27; Stapleton, Civilizing Chengdu, pp. 170–80; Di Wang, Street Culture in Chengdu, pp. 211–21; Y.C. Wang, Chinese Intellectuals and the West, 1872–1949, pp. 216–79. 201 A fourth volume was aborted because of the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s.