Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T05:07:54.490Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Centralized Regionalism: The rise of regional fiscal-military states in China, 1916–28

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2020

HUAIYIN LI
HUAIYIN LI*
Affiliation:
Nanjing University; University of Texas at Austin Email: hli@utexas.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Warlordism in early Republican China was more than political fragmentation and intensive warfare. It involved serious efforts and breakthroughs in state-making at the regional level. Warlords or regional forces that centralized and bureaucratized their fiscal and governing institutions would eventually outcompete those who did not. Geopolitical advantages and access to modern economic and financial resources added to their competitiveness. The Guangdong-based Guomindang force prevailed over all others precisely because of a combination of all these factors in its state-building efforts by 1928. Central to state-making in early twentieth-century China, therefore, was the rise of regional fiscal-military states and their rivals for national dominance. China joined some of the most prominent latecomers to nation states in other parts of the modern world in their shared bottom-up path of state-building.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 253 - 291
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their detailed and constructive comments and suggestions.

References

1 Sheridan, James (1966), Chinese Warlord: The Career of Feng Yu-hsiang, Stanford University Press, StanfordGoogle Scholar; Gillin, Donald (1967), Warlord: Yen Hsi-Shan in Shansi Province, 1911–1949, Princeton University Press, PrincetonCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kapp, Robert (1973), Szechwan and the Chinese Republic, Yale University Press, New HavenGoogle Scholar; Lary, Diana (1974), Region and Nation: The Kwangsi Clique in Chinese Politics, 1925–1937, Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar; Wou, Odoric Y. K. (1978), Militarism in Modern China: The Career of Wu Pei-fu, 1916–39, Dawson, FolkestoneGoogle Scholar; McCormack, Gavan (1977), Chang Tso-Lin in Northeast China, 1911–1928, Stanford University Press, StanfordGoogle Scholar; McCord, Edward (1993), The Power of the Gun: The Emergence of Modern Chinese Warlordism, University of California Press, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar; Suleski, Ronald (2002), Civil Government in Warlord China: Tradition, Modernization and Manchuria, Peter Lang, New YorkGoogle Scholar.

2 Pye, Lucian (1971), Warlord Politics: Conflict and Coalition in the Modernization of Republican China, Praeger, New YorkGoogle Scholar; Waldron, Arthur (1995), From War to Nationalism: China's Turning Point, 1924–1925, University of California Press, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar.

3 See, for example, Ch'i, Hsi-sheng (1976), Warlord Politics in China, 1916–1928, Stanford University Press, StanfordGoogle Scholar; Nathan, Anderw J. (1976), Beijing Politics, 1918–1923: Factionalism and the Failure of Constitutionalism, University of California Press, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar; Ch'en, Jerome (1979), The Military-Gentry Coalition: China under the Warlords, University of Toronto–York University Joint Center on Modern East Asia, TorontoGoogle Scholar; Xin, Li 李新 and Zongyi, Li 李宗一 (eds) (1987), Zhonghua minguo shi 中華民國史 [History of the Republic of China], series 2, vol. 2, Zhonghua shuju, Beijing, pp. 212–246Google Scholar; Xinxia, Lai 來新夏, Jingyi, Jiao 焦靜宜, Jianlai, Mo 莫建來, Shuyong, Zhang 張樹勇, and Benjun, Liu 劉本軍 (2000), Beiyang junfa shi 北洋軍閥史 [A History of the Northern Warlords], Nankai daxue chubanshe, Tianjin, pp. 596–602Google Scholar. For studies that question the conventional wisdom on decentralization and personalization in the late-Qing and early Republican periods, see Liu, Kwang-ching (1974), ‘The Limits of Regional Power in the Late Ch'ing Period: A Reappraisal’, The Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 207–223Google Scholar; MacKinnon, Stephen R. (1973), ‘The Peiyang Army, Yuan Shih-k'ai, and the Origins of Modern Chinese Warlordism’, Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 405–423CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See, for example, Wilbur, C. Martin (1968), ‘Military Separatism and the Process of Reunification under the Nationalist Regime, 1922–1937’, in Ho, Ping-ti and Tsou, Tang (eds), China in Crisis: China's Heritage and the Communist Political System, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, vol. 1, book one, pp. 203–263Google Scholar; Zhitian, Luo 羅志田 (2000), ‘Nanbei xinjiu yu Beifa chenggong de zai quanshi’ 南北新舊與北伐成功的再詮釋 [‘The New and the Old in the South and the North: A Reinterpretation of the Success of the Northern Expedition’], Kaifang shidai 開放時代, no. 9, pp. 47–62Google Scholar.

5 See, for example, McCormack, Chang Tsolin in Northeast China, p. 250; Wou, Militarism in Modern China, pp. 29, 39, 262.

6 See, for example, Kuisong, Yang 楊奎松 (2003), ‘Sun Zhongshen churang Man-Meng quanyi wenti de zai tantao’ 孫中山出讓滿蒙權益問題的再探討 [‘A Reexamination of Sun Yat-sen's Compromise on the Issues of China's Rights and Interests in Manchuria and Mongolia’], Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo jikai 中央研究院近代史研究所集刊, no. 40, pp. 249–262Google Scholar; Yilin, Jin 金以林 (2005), ‘Diyu guannian yu paixi congtu: yi ershanshi niandai Guomindang Yue ji lingxiu wei zhongxin de kaocha’ 地域觀念與派系衝突——以二三十年代國民黨粵籍領袖為中心的考察 [‘Notions of Locality and Factional Conflict: An Examination Focusing on the Guomindang Leaders of Guangdong Origin in the 1920s and 1930s’], Lishi yanjiu 歷史研究, no. 3, pp. 115–128Google Scholar.

7 Tilly, Charles (ed.) (1975), The Formation of National States in Western Europe, Princeton University Press, PrincetonGoogle Scholar.

8 Brewer, John (1989), The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State, 1688–1783, Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar; Rasler, Karen and Thompson, William (1989), War and State Making: The Shaping of the Global Powers, Unwin Hyman, BostonGoogle Scholar; Tilly, Charles (1990), Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1992, Blackwell, MaldenGoogle Scholar; Downing, Brian (1992), The Military Revolution and Political Change: Origins of Democracy and Autocracy in Early Modern Europe, Princeton University Press, PrincetonGoogle Scholar; Glete, Jan (2002), War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden as Fiscal-Military States, 1500–1660, Routledge, New YorkCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Storrs, Christopher (ed.) (2009), The Fiscal-Military State in Eighteenth-Century Europe: Essays in Honor of P. G. M. Dickson, Ashgate, BurlingtonGoogle Scholar.

9 Yumin, Zhou 周育民 (2000), Wan Qing caizheng yu shehui bianqian 晚清財政與社會變遷 [Finance and Social Change in the Late-Qing Period], Shanghai renmin chubanshe, Shanghai, pp. 242–244, 389–396Google Scholar.

10 Zenghe, Liu 劉增合 (2014), Cai yu zheng: Qing ji caizheng gaizhi yanjiu 財與政：清季財政改制研究 [Finance and Politics: A Study of Financial Reform in the Last Years of the Qing], Sanlian shudian, Beijing, pp. 80–198Google Scholar.

11 guan, Zhongguo dier lishi dang'an 中國第二歷史檔案館 (ed.), 1979–2000), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian 中華民國史檔案資料彙編 [Compilation of Archival Material on the History of the Republic of China], Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, Nanjing, part 3, vol. 1, p. 87Google Scholar; Shiyi, Jia 賈士毅 (1934), Minguo caizheng shi 民國財政史 [A Fiscal History of the Republic], Shangwu yinshuguan, Shanghai, pp. 45–46, 170Google Scholar.

12 For a description of the financial crisis of the Beijing government, see van de Ven, Hans J. (1996), ‘Public Finance and the Rise of Warlordism’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 829–868CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Zhou Yumin, Wan Qing caizheng yu shehui bianqian, p. 371.

14 Yinfu, Yang 楊蔭溥 (1985), Minguo caizheng shi 民國財政史 [A History of Finance in the Republican Period], Zhongguo caizheng jingji chubanshe, Beijing, pp. 5–9Google Scholar.

15 Lai Xinxia et al., Beiyang junfa shi, p. 594.

16 Shiyi, Jia 賈士毅 (1932), Minguo xu caizheng shi (1) 民國續財政史 （一） [Supplement to the Fiscal History of the Republic], vol. 1, Shangwu yinshuguan, Shanghai, pp. 138–139Google Scholar.

17 Lai Xinxia et al., Beiyang junfa shi, pp. 618–619.

18 Xinxia, Lai 來新夏 (2000), ‘Beiyang junfa jituan de tedian’ 北洋軍閥集團的特點 [‘Characteristics of the Warlord Cliques in North China’], Fujian luntan 福建論壇, no. 2, pp. 55–62Google Scholar; Jianlai, Mo 莫建來 (2006), ‘Lun Wanxi junfa de xingcheng’ 論皖系軍閥的形成 [‘The Formation of Anhui Clique of Warlords’], Anhui shixue 安徽史學, no. 1, pp. 82–87Google Scholar.

19 Lai Xinxia et al., Beiyang junfa shi, pp. 990–991.

20 Bingrang, Hao 郝秉讓 (2001), Fengxi junshi 奉系軍事 [The Military of the Fengtian Clique], Liaohai chubanshe, Shenyang, p. 174Google Scholar. See also McCormack, Chang Tso-Lin in Northeast China, p. 48.

21 Hao Bingrang, Fengxi junshi, pp. 39–42. See also McCormack, Chang Tso-Lin in Northeast China, pp. 100–106.

22 Suleski, Civil Government in Warlord China, pp. 47–49. See also Jingwei, Kong 孔經緯 and Fu Xiaofeng 傅笑楓 (1989), Fengxi junfa guanliao ziben 奉系軍閥官僚資本 [The Bureaucratic Capital of the Fentian Clique of Warlords], Jilin daxue chubanshe, Changchun, pp. 41–42Google Scholar.

23 Gillin, Warlord, pp. 19–25.

24 Xutian, Wang 王續添 (2000), ‘Difangzhuyi yu minguo shehui’ 地方主義與民國社會 [‘Localism and Society during the Republican Period’], Jiaoxue yu yanjiu 教學與研究, no. 2, p. 61Google Scholar.

25 Yuan, He 賀淵 (1998), ‘1912–1927 nian Yan Xishan zhi Jin sixiang chutan’ 1912–1927年閻錫山治晉思想初探 [‘A Preliminary Study on Yan Xishan's Thoughts on Governing Shanxi during the Period from 1912 to 1927’], Jindaishi yanjiu 近代史研究, no. 1, pp. 232–245Google Scholar.

26 He Yuan, ibid., p. 243.

27 Gillin, Warlord, pp. 27–29.

28 Jijie, Mo 莫濟傑 and Fulin, Chen 陳福霖 (1991), Xin Guixi shi 新桂系史 [History of the New Guangxi Clique], vol. 1, Guangxi renmin chubanshe, Guilin, pp. 11–27Google Scholar. See also Lary, Region and Nation, pp. 27–32.

29 To some degree, the three strongmen were able to work together also because of the perfect complementation of their respective personalities. While Li was said to be kind-hearted, tolerant, and generous, which made him a welcome political leader, Bai was eloquent, resourceful, and resolute, which made him a superior military commander, and Huang's detail-minded and hands-on inclinations made him a good administrator. See Yugui, Wang 王玉貴 (1996), ‘Shi xi xin Guixi jiuju minguo zhengtan de yuanyin’ 試析新桂系久據民國政壇的原因 [‘A Preliminary Analysis of the Reasons behind the Prolonged Activism of the New Guangxi Clique in Republican Politics’], Guangxi shehui kexue 廣西社會科學, no. 3, p. 76Google Scholar.

30 Mo and Chen, Xin Guixi shi, p. 372.

31 Levich, Eugene W. (1993), The Kwangsi Way in Kuomintang China, 1931–1939, Sharpe, Armonk, pp. 65–98Google Scholar; Zhaoyi, Tan 譚肇毅 (2009), ‘Xin Guixi lun’ 新桂系論 [‘A New Interpretation of the New Guangxi Clique’], Guangxi shehui kexue 廣西社會科學, no. 6, pp. 14–19 and (2010)Google Scholar, ‘Xin Guixi de “sanzi zhengce”’ 新桂系的’三自政策’[‘The New Guangxi Clique's “Three-Self Policy”’], Guangxi difangzhi 廣西地方誌, no. 1, pp. 47–51.

32 Jingzhong, Liu 劉敬忠 (2004), Guominjun shigang 國民軍史綱 [An Outline of the History of the Guomin Army], Renmin chubanshe, Beijing, pp. 79–82, 104–105, 275, 316, 356–357Google Scholar.

33 By August 1926, the Soviet Union provided to Feng's army with 31,500 rifles, 51 million bullets, 272 machine guns, 60 cannons, 58,000 shells, and 10 aircrafts (Liu Jingzhong, Guominjun shigang, p. 369).

34 Liu Jingzhong, Guominjun shigang, pp. 342, 397–400.

35 Jia Shiyi, Minguo xu caizheng shi (1), p. 139.

36 Shanji, Kuang 匡珊吉 and Guangyan, Yang 楊光彥 (1991), Sichuan junfa shi 四川軍閥史[History of Warlords in Sichuan], Sichuan renmin chubanshe, Chengdu, pp. 92–99Google Scholar; Kapp, Szechwan and the Chinese Republic, pp. 34–38.

37 Kuang and Yang, Sichuan junfa shi, pp. 451–457. See also Kapp, Szechwan and the Chinese Republic, pp. 136–141.

38 Jiarong, Shen 沈嘉榮 (ed.) (1993), Jiangsu shigang, jindai juan 江蘇史綱，近代卷 [An Outline of the History of Jiangsu, the Volume of the Modern Period], Jiangsu guji chubanshe, Nanjing, p. 292Google Scholar.

39 weiyuanhui, Jiangsu sheng zhengxie wenshi ziliao 江蘇省政協文史資料委員會 (ed.) (1993), Minguo Jiangsu de dujun he shengzhang 民國江蘇的督軍和省長 [The Military Governor and the Provincial Governor in Republican Jiangsu], Jiangsu wenshi ziliao bianjibu, Nanjing, p. 102Google Scholar; Mingsheng, Chen 陳明勝 and Xiaoyun, Shen 申曉雲 (2009), ‘Jiangsu sheng fei du yundong yu sheng zizhi’ 江蘇省廢督運動與省自治 [‘The Movement for Abolishing the Governor and Provincial Self-Government in Jiangsu’], Jiangsu shehui kexue 江蘇社會科學, no. 6, pp. 179–183Google Scholar.

40 Jia Shiyi, Minguo xu caizheng shi (1), p. 140; Table 2.

41 Wilbur, Martin C. (1976), Sun Yat-sen: Frustrated Patriot, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 29–35Google Scholar; Berger, Marie-Claire (1998), Sun Yat-sen, Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp. 247, 296Google Scholar.

42 Wilbur, ‘Military Separatism’, pp. 220–221, 231–232, 244; McCord, The Power of the Gun, pp. 313–314.

43 Waldron, From War to Nationalism, pp. 273–275.

44 Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen, p. 278.

45 Qingjun, Qin 秦慶鈞 (1982), ‘Beifa zhanzheng shiqi de Guangdong sheng caizheng’ 北伐戰爭時期的廣東省財政 [‘Finance in Guangdong Province during the Northern Expedition Period’], in Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi Guangdongsheng Guangzhoushi weiyuanhui wenshi ziliao yanjiu weiyuanhui 中國人民政治協商會議廣東省廣州市委員會文史資料研究委員會(ed.), Guangzhou wenshi ziliao 廣州文史資料, no. 27, pp. 161–191Google Scholar. See also Wilbur, ‘Military Separatism’, pp. 227–229.

46 Hong, Zhu 朱洪 (2007), ‘Dageming shiqi Sulian he Gongchanguoji dui Guo-Gong liang dang jingji yuanzhu zhi bijiao’ 大革命時期蘇聯和共產國際對國共兩黨經濟援助之比較研究 [‘A Comparison between the Aids to the Guomindang and the CCP Provided by the Soviet Union and the Cominintern during the Great Revolution Period’], Dang de wenxian 黨的文獻, no. 2, pp. 52–57Google Scholar.

47 Qin Qingjun, ‘Beifa zhanzheng shiqi de Guangdong sheng caizheng’, pp. 169, 171. One silver tael equalled 1.09 silver yuan in 1910.

48 Jingping, Wu 吳景平 (1992), Song Ziwen zhuan 宋子文傳 [Biography of Song Ziwen], Fujian renmin chubanshe, Fuzhou, pp. 5–34Google Scholar.

49 Zhongguo dier lishi dang'an guan (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian, part 4, pp. 1400–1404; Qin Qingjun, ‘Beifa zhanzheng shiqi de Guangdong sheng caizheng’, pp. 161–191.

50 Degang, Tang 唐德剛 (ed.) (2005), Li Zongren huiyilu 李宗仁回憶錄 [A Memoir of Li Zongren], Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, Guilin, p. 251Google Scholar.

51 Zhongguo dier lishi dang'an guan (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian, part 4, p. 1400.

52 Zhongguo dier lishi dang'an guan (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian, part 1, vol. 1, p. 518.

53 Wu Jingping, Song Ziwen zhuan, p. 43.

54 Xianlin, Zeng 曾憲林, Chenggui, Zeng 曾成貴, and Xia, Jiang 江峽 (1991), Beiyang junfa shi 北洋軍閥史 [A History of the Northern Warlords], Sichuan renmin chubanshe, Chengdu, pp. 73, 197Google Scholar.

55 Wu Jingping, Song Ziwen zhuan, pp. 43, 61.

56 Jia Shiyi, Minguo xu caizheng shi (1), pp. 112, 114–116.

57 Wu Jingping, Song Ziwen zhuan, pp. 43–47.

58 guan, Zhongguo dier lishi dang'an (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian, part 4, pp. 1485–1486Google Scholar; Tianshi, Yang 楊天石 (ed.) (1994), Zhonghua minguo shi, di er bian, di wu juan, Beifa zhanzheng yu Beiyang junfa de fumie 中華民國史 第二編 第五卷 北伐戰爭與北洋軍閥的覆滅 [History of the Republic of China, part 2, vol. 5, The Northern Expedition and the Demise of the Northern Warlords], Zhonghua shuju, Beijing, pp. 420–427Google Scholar.

59 Taylor, Jay (2009), The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China, Cambridge, MA: Belknap, pp. 77–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 Wu Jingping, Song Ziwen zhuan, pp. 58–59.

61 dang'anguan, Shanghaishi 上海市檔案館 (ed.) (1983), Yi jiu er qi nian de Shanghai shengye lianhehui 一九二七年的上海商業聯合會 [The Shanghai Association of Commerce in 1927], Shanghai renmin chubanshe, Shanghai, pp. 57–59Google Scholar.

62 Zhongguo dier lishi dang'an guan (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian, part 5.1, vol. 1, pp. 4–5.

63 Shanghaishi dang'anguan (ed.), Yi jiu er qi nian de Shanghai shengye lianhehui, pp. 74–75.

64 guan, Zhongguo dier lishi dang'an (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian, part 5.1, vol. 1, pp. 521–522Google Scholar.

65 Shanghaishi dang'anguan (ed.), Yi jiu er qi nian de Shanghai shengye lianhehui, p. 110.

66 Zhenghua, Wang 王正華 (2002), ‘1927 nian Jiang Jieshi yu Shanghai jinrong jie de guanxi’ 1927 年蔣介石與上海金融界的關係 [‘Jiang Jieshi's Relationship with the Financial Circle in Shanghai in 1927’], Jindaishi yanjiu 近代史研究, no. 4, p. 105Google Scholar.

67 Coble, Parks (1986), The Shanghai Capitalists and the Nationalist Government, 1927–1937, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 32–35Google Scholar.

68 Ibid., pp. 32–35.

69 Zhongguo dier lishi dang'an guan (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian, part 5.1.1, pp. 520–522.

70 Jia Shiyi, Minguo xu caizheng shi (1), p. 216.

71 Taylor, The Generalissimo, p. 84.

72 Zhongguo dier lishi dang'an guan (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian, part 3, vol. 2, pp. 4, 6, 63, 65, 74, 79, 180–181, 276. See also Kuhn, Philip (2002), Origins of the Modern Chinese State, Stanford University Press, Stanford, p. 134Google Scholar.

73 Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, p. 99.

74 Ch'en, The Military-Gentry Coalition, p. 141.