The shift from Neolithic to Bronze Age culture marks the beginning of recorded history in China. In the prehistoric period, the progenitors of the Han people (China's ethnic majority) were scattered in small tribes over the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Toward the close of the Neolithic period, these tribes were already using a primitive form of writing, and had developed a system to measure time and count numbers, called the "ten celestial stems and twelve terrestrial branches." They had developed a variety of articles for daily use, including clothing, pottery, and money, as well as boats, carts, and weapons.
Records of this time are primarily transcriptions of oral histories that were written down almost a thousand years later. With a paucity of verifiable facts, a legendary version of the rise of the Chinese nation is taught to Chinese school children as history. This legendary history lists a succession of sovereigns, the dates of their reigns, and their many specific accomplishments. However, the skeptic is apt to question, for example, the 100-year reign of Emperor Yao.
Scholars like Hu Shih (1890-1962) and Ku Chieh-kang (1893-1980) shared this skepticism. Their studies revealed successively more detailed treatments of historical events as time progressed. On this basis, they dismissed a fair portion of the records recounting China's early history. However, since what most Chinese have over the ages accepted as historical fact is as sociologically important as what actually happened, a summary of China's remote past is presented below.
While benefiting from an abundant water supply, the tribes in the Yellow River valley suffered heavy loss of life from recurring floods that inundated vast areas along its banks. One of the largest of these floods occurred near the end of the Age of the Five Rulers. A leader named Yu, after 14 years of struggle and with the help and cooperation of his people, finally succeeded in bringing the great flood under control in the last years of the 23rd century B.C.
| Dynasty | Divisions | Dates | Capital |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hsia | 2205-1766 B.C. | Anyi | |
| Shang (or Yin) | 1766-1122 B.C. | Anyang | |
| Chou | Western Chou | 1122-770 B.C. | Haoching (Sian) |
| Eastern Chou | 770-221 B.C. | Loyi (Loyang) | |
| (Spring and Autumn Period) | 770-476 B.C. | ||
| (Warring States Period) | 475-221 B.C. | ||
| Ch'in | 221-206 B.C. | Hsienyang | |
| (West of Sian) | |||
| Han | Western Han | 206 B.C.-8 A.D. | Ch'angan (Sian) |
| Hsin | 8-25 | Ch'angan | |
| Eastem Han | 25-221 | Loyang | |
| Three | Wei | 221-265 | Loyang |
| Kingdoms | Shu | 222-263 | Chengtu |
| Wu | 222-280 | Nanking | |
| Chin | Western Chin | 265-316 | Loyang |
| Eastern Chin | 317-420 | Nanking | |
| Southern | Former Sung | 420-479 | Nanking |
| Dynasties | Ch'i | 479-502 | Nanking |
| Liang | 502-557 | Nanking | |
| Ch'en | 557-589 | Nanking | |
| Northern | N. Wei | 386-534 | P'inch'eng |
| (Loyang) | |||
| Dynasties | E. Wei | 534-550 | Yeh (Honan) |
| W. Wei | 535-557 | Ch'angan | |
| N. Chi | 550-557 | Yeh | |
| N. Chou | 557-581 | Ch'angan | |
| Sui | 581-618 | Ch'angan | |
| Loyang | |||
| Yangchow | |||
| T'ang | 618-907 | Ch'angan | |
| Loyang | |||
| Five | Later Liang | 907-923 | Kaifeng |
| Dynasties | Later Tang | 923-936 | Loyang |
| Later Chin | 936-946 | Kaifeng | |
| Later Han | 947-950 | Kaifeng | |
| Later Chou | 951-959 | Kaifeng | |
| Sung | Northern Sung | 960-1127 | Kaifeng |
| Sourthern Sung | 1127-1279 | Hangchow | |
| Yuan | 1279-1368 | Peking | |
| Ming | 1368-1644 | Nanking | |
| Peking | |||
| Ch'ing | 1644-1911 | Peking |
Three Chinese tribes, the Hsia, Shang, and Chou tribes were located in the middle, eastern, and western parts of the Yellow River valley, respectively. The three tribes founded in succession three dynasties known to historians as the "Three Ancient Dynasties." The passage of political power from one dynasty to another meant the gradual amalgamation of all the tribes in the Yellow River valley. With the founding of each dynasty, there was an extension of China's territorial boundaries.
The Shang lasted more than six centuries, from 1766 B.C. to 1122 B.C. During this period, articles made of bronze were widely used. Extant pieces exhibit excellent workmanship and great variety in form. Between 1900 and 1928, archaeologists unearthed the ruins of a Shang city in modern Anyang County, Honan Province. The archaeologists discovered some 10,000 pieces of oracle bones and other relics of the dynasty. A study of the relics shows that China was by that time a fully developed agricultural nation.
Over a thousand years later during the Han dynasty, China's most famous historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien specifically recorded the names of 28 rulers of the Shang dynasty. Through archaeological discoveries of records of early Chinese life written on ox scapula and turtle shells (see Chapter 4, Language), the reigns of 20 of these rulers have been confirmed over the last century, so it is with the Shang dynasty that China's legendary history begins to merge with its provable past.
It is known that the 28th ruler of Shang was another tyrant named Chou, who was as cruel and despotic as Chieh, the last ruler of the Hsia dynasty. Chou's delight in waging wars and inventing new methods of torture led to widespread discontent among the people. One of the tribal chieftains, a popular leader living in the valley of the Wei River, was the Chou tribe's King Wu, a man destined to found a new dynasty. Leading a group of tribal armies in a huge uprising, King Wu denounced the oppressive rule of the Shang monarch and declared that the expedition was undertaken in response to the demands of the people. King Wu's famous remark that "Heaven sees and hears through the eyes and ears of the people", has been frequently quoted by later generations of politically-minded Chinese to express the idea that, while a king might rule by divine right, that right was conferred on him by the people who could revoke it.
The Chou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, probably because it established a very closely-knit political organization. The power of the Chou rulers was based upon tsung-fa, a system of inheritance and ancestral worship at a time when polygyny was the usual practice among the royalty and nobility. According to the tsung-fa system, the eldest son born of the highest ranking wife of a member of the royal household or nobility was called "the major branch" and inherited the right of succession to his father's throne or noble title. Other sons were known as "minor branches." They were given fiefdoms in the outlying districts and became feudal lords. The major branch inherited his father's fief; minor branches were granted subfiefdoms and became grand chamberlains. In this way a huge structure was built up, radiating from a central hub through endless infeudation and subinfeudation.
The Chou dynasty thus had a hereditary system of royal offices in the central government and a complete rural organization at the local level. Education was widespread, with a national university in the capital, and various grades of schools, known as shu, hsiang, and hsu in the villages.
Scholars and intellectuals were held in high esteem. Art and learning flourished as never before. The boundaries of the Chou dynasty were extended westward to modern Kansu, eastward to the Pacific Ocean, northward to what is now Shansi, and southward to the Yangtze River valley.
Historians have traditionally divided the rule of the Chou dynasty into two periods, the Western period from 1122 B.C. to 770 B.C. and the Eastern period from 770 B.C. to 221 B.C. During the Western period the Chou dynasty's capital was at Haoching, the site of modern day Sian, in Shensi Province. During the reign of King Yu, the 12th ruler of the Western Chou, a barbarian tribe known as the Ch'uan Jung sacked the capital at Haoching. King Yu was killed. His son, King P'ing, ascended the throne and moved the Chou capital to Loyi, now known as Loyang, in Honan Province.
The move to Loyi marks the beginning of the Eastern Chou dynasty. During the Eastern Chou dynasty, there was a marked decline in centralized authority. Political power was vested in the hands of feudal lords, and the Chou dynasty was nearly extinct.
The Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods brought destruction of the old order without the immediate emergence of a new one to take its place. The old ruling class was weak, and the barriers between the nobility and the common people had broken down. A new group of regional rulers sought to obtain the services of talented individuals who could help enlarge their political influence. The result was an unprecedented development of independent thinking and of original philosophies (see Chapter 26, Philosophy).
Ch'in Shih Huang (the first emperor of the Ch'in), who unified China, was an ambitious and aggressive monarch. After overthrowing the Chou dynasty, he built a completely new social and political order. In place of feudalism, he organized the country into 36 prefectures and a number of counties. Under this prefecture-county system of administration, all authority was vested in the central government. Governmental powers fell into administrative, supervisory, and military categories, each independent of the others. For the first time in Chinese history, China's written languages, currencies, weights, and measures were unified and standardized.
In addition, Ch'in Shih Huang undertook large-scale construction projects, building national roadways, waterways, and magnificent palaces. With the conquest of "barbarian" tribes in the south, the imperial authority was extended to the shores of the South China Sea. After repulsing an invasion from the north, Ch'in Shih Huang began construction of defensive walls in the north that were extended or rebuilt by later dynasties and which are now known collectively as the Great Wall of China.
In spite of these brilliant achievements, Ch'in Shih Huang put excessive trust in the efficacy of Legalist methods. By appointing Li Ssu, a legalist, as his prime minister, Ch'in Shih Huang established an unprecedented totalitarian regime. Books were burned to keep the people ignorant, and critics of the government and their relatives were executed. Large numbers of people were drafted for slave labor. Such despotic measures aroused much resentment and led to a nationwide rebellion. The Ch'in dynasty, which was overthrown seven years after Ch'in Shih Huang died, thus lasted only 15 years (221-206 B.C.).
The Han dynasty (206 B.C.-221 A.D.) is divided into two periods: the reigns of 12 emperors from 206 B.C. to 8 A.D., known as the Western Han; and the reigns of 14 emperors from 25 to 221, known as the Eastern Han. The Western Han had its capital at Ch'angan in the west, and the Eastern Han at Loyang in the east. There was an interregnum of 17 years from 8 to 25, during which the throne was usurped by Wang Mang.
The Han dynasty ruled over a strong and prosperous China. It was a glorious age in Chinese history that partially coincided with the era of Imperial Rome. The political and military might of the Han dynasty was so impressive that the Chinese since then have called themselves the "Han" people. The study of Chinese history, art, and literature is known in Chinese as "Han studies."
The Han dynasty inherited the political institutions of the Ch'in, but abolished many of its predecessor's totalitarian measures and policies. Political institutions of the Ch'in and Han were typical of all the dynasties that were to follow. A nine-chapter legal code drawn up in the early days of the Han dynasty served as a model for all later Chinese codes. Education flourished in both the Western and Eastern Han dynasties. At one point, over 30,000 students were enrolled in the national university at the Han capital. Chinese influence extended overseas and trade routes to the West were opened. The Han dynasty reached its zenith during the reign of Emperor Wu Ti (140-87 B.C.), who devoted his seemingly inexhaustible energies to promoting scholarship and military expansion.
Choosing from the different schools of thought that developed in the Warring States Period, Wu Ti placed special emphasis on Confucianism. He listed the Confucian classics as subjects of study for his ministers, and appointed well-read scholars to "professorships." Those doing research in Confucian studies were given priority for public positions. Confucianism thus gained official sanction over competing philosophical schools and became the core of Chinese philosophy.
After defeating the nomadic tribes in the north, Wu Ti opened a corridor west of the Yellow River in what is now Kansu, and won control over the Western Dominion in modern Sinkiang and Central Asia. The successors of Wu Ti continued to expand Chinese influence in the northwest, finally conquering all the different non-Chinese tribes in the Western Dominion.
One Han general, Pan Ch'ao, headed the garrisons in the Western Dominion for 30 years from 73 to 103. He sent envoys to Central Asian countries as far away as the Persian Gulf. This led to the opening of trade routes between the East and West and indirect relations between China and the Roman Empire. Persian merchants bought Chinese silk products and sold them to the Romans. A trade route from Ch'angan, the Chinese capital, led through the corridor west of the Yellow River, modern Sinkiang, Afghanistan, Iran, and Asia Minor to Europe. This trail is the famous Silk Route. The large number of Han dynasty relics which archaeologists have unearthed in Sinkiang provides conclusive evidence that this general region was a vital link between China and the West during the Han dynasty.
The Han dynasty expanded China's borders eastward as well. The first mention of Taiwan appeared in the *Records of the Grand Historian* written by Ssu-ma Ch'ien during the first century B.C. Ssu-ma Ch'ien's name for the island was "unexplored land." Several centuries later, Taiwan was known to Chinese as "land of the eastern barbarians."
China remained divided until the emergence of the Chin dynasty in 265 which kept Loyang as its capital. However, feuding among members of the imperial family arose before long and continued for 20 years, encouraging other peoples to invade the country.
Taking advantage of internal divisions in the Chin dynasty, five non-Han tribes previously conquered by the Han armies took up arms and defied imperial authority. In 316, a "barbarian" detachment sacked the capital city of Loyang, and even captured the fourth Chin emperor. Chinese living along the Yellow River were massacred by the invaders.
In moving the capital to what is now Nanking, the Chin emperor, Yuan Ti gave up control over the Yellow River valley and contented himself with rule over half of the country along the Yangtze River valley. This marked the end of the Western Chin and the inception of the Eastern Chin.
With the transfer of the capital to Nanking, many Chinese moved their families south to avoid persecution at the hands of the northern invaders. The entire Yellow River valley became a vast battlefield for five non-Han tribes and some of the remaining Chinese military chieftains. Sixteen minor kingdoms were established and fought among themselves. This was a time of anarchy which Chinese historians refer to as the period of the Five Barbarian Tribes and Sixteen Kingdoms.
There were 11 emperors during the 103-year rule of the Eastern Chin dynasty in southern China, which was overthrown in 420 by an ambitious military leader, Liu Yu. He founded a dynasty now known as the Former Sung, which was followed by a succession of dynasties over the next century and a half, such as the Ch'i, Liang, and Ch'en dynasties. These, along with the Former Sung, are known in Chinese history as the Southern Dynasties.
It was not until 439 that northern China was finally united by the Northern Wei dynasty founded in 386 by the Toba clan of the Hsien Pei tribe. The dynasty was strong for a time but later was torn by internal disturbances which caused it to be split into two countries, Eastern Wei and Western Wei. Overthrown by rebellions, the Eastern Wei became the Northern Ch'i and the Western Wei became the Northern Chou. In the final contest for supremacy in the north, the Northern Chou defeated the Northern Ch'i. Eventually a Han leader, Yang Chien, reunited China in 581 by toppling the Northern Chou dynasty and the Southern Liang and Ch'en dynasties. In all, the 316 years from the beginning of the Western Chin in 265 to the end of the northern and southern dynasties in 581 are now regarded as China's Dark Ages.
Chinese society underwent several significant changes during these years. Large-scale migration to the south made the Yangtze River valley more prosperous, and the economic and cultural center of China gradually shifted from the northwest to the southeast. The non-Han tribes that overran the Yellow River valley lived side by side with indigenous Han people. Over the centuries, the former were assimilated by the Han, forming a more diverse and dynamic Chinese nation than ever before.
The Sui dynasty was succeeded by the T'ang dynasty, founded by the house of Li. The T'ang dynasty was the most powerful dynasty since the time of the Han, and its second emperor, T'ai Tsung, was a great national leader. The Turks and other tribes in China's northwestern border regions called him "khan of the world." During his 22-year reign from 627 to 649, Chinese armies subjugated the non-Han tribes to the north and west of China proper. At the height of its power, the T'ang dynasty ruled over an empire which extended to Mongolia in the north, Sinkiang in the west, the northern part of the Korean Peninsula in the east, and the northern part of Annam in the south. The T'ang empire's political influence was felt as far away as India on the other side of the Himalayas. China's territorial possessions were greater than in any previous period.
Both the Sui and T'ang dynasties had their capital at Ch'angan in what is now Shensi Province. Ch'angan was an international city that harbored many merchants and students from faraway lands. During the T'ang dynasty, Arab and Persian traders visited the southern trade ports of Canton and Yangchow. While China's cultural and economic center was shifting south, the political center remained north of the Yellow River, in Ch'angan. T'ang political institutions were generally patterned after those of the Sui. Some of the Sui and T'ang institutions have survived to modern times. For example, the system of civil service examinations was first introduced by the Sui dynasty and developed further in the T'ang.
After centuries of political, economic, and social chaos during the Dark Ages, the Chinese people were revitalized during the T'ang dynasty. Especially noteworthy was the development of literature and art and the freedom of thought and belief. Poetry and music were highly developed during the T'ang dynasty, and two of China's most celebrated poets, Li Pai and Tu Fu, were writing some of China's best verse at this time. T'ang music and dancing were profoundly influenced by the cultures of the Western Dominion as many new musical instruments, songs, dances, and proto-theatrical forms were introduced into China from Central Asia. Extraordinary progress was made in ceramics, sculpture, calligraphy and painting. The daily life and customs of the Chinese of the time can be understood through poems, songs, and notes left by T'ang writers (see Chapter 25, Literature). Such activities as "picnicking in spring," "enjoying flowers," "planting bonsai," "watching lantern shows," "boat racing," "sipping tea," and "playing chess" are presented poetically and indicate the leisurely and refined life of the period.
Freedom of thought and belief was upheld throughout the T'ang dynasty. Nestorianism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Islam were introduced into China from the West as a result of the extension of Chinese national power westward. These religions, together with Buddhism, which was imported from India, and indigenous Taoism and Confucianism, were freely propagated throughout all parts of China.
The cultural and intellectual vigor of China under the T'ang dynasty attracted much admiration from abroad. To a large extent, Japan's traditional written language, architecture, and political institutions were imitations of T'ang models. A major political reform movement (the Taiko Reform) carried out in Japan during Emperor T'ai Tsung's reign in China was in fact a move to imitate T'ang institutions. It is estimated that some 1.7 million people immigrated from border areas to China during the rule of the Sui and T'ang dynasties.
The splendor of the T'ang dynasty lasted more than a century. But in 755, during the reign of Hsuan Tsung, a coup d'etat was staged by local military leaders. A period of internal struggle for power by the warlords followed, and the authority of the T'ang emperors gradually declined until the dynasty was taken over by General Chu Wen, who founded the Later Liang dynasty in 907. The T'ang dynasty lasted 289 years and spanned the reigns of 21 sovereigns.
Despite its extraordinary achievements in art, culture, basic sciences and external trade, the Sung dynasty was one of China's weakest dynasties, both economically and militarily. It was confronted by three powerful enemies descending from the north. The first of the enemies to arrive were the Khitan Tartars, who founded the Liao dynasty. The Sung dynasty and Liao dynasty fought each other for more than a century before the latter was conquered in 1122 by the Jurchen Tartars from the northeast. The Tartars also took the Sung capital of Kaifeng, carried away two Sung emperors as hostages in 1127, and founded the Chin dynasty. With the Yellow River valley in enemy hands, the Sung court was forced to move its capital to Hangchow in Chekiang, and thereafter was known as the Southern Sung.
With the removal of the Sung capital to Hangchow, the political and economic center of China shifted to the south, and the southeastern seaboard prospered. Maritime communications through trade between China and the South Sea islands, India, Arabia, and countries further to the west were developed. Canton, Mingchow (modern day Ningpo), Hangchow, and Ch'uanchow, all situated on the seacoast, were the most important trading ports of that time. Chinese porcelain, which was in such demand in Europe, was the major item exported. Many Arabian merchants came to China and were able to monopolize trade by sea. The increasing cultural contacts led to the introduction into the West of gunpowder, the compass, and the movable printing press--all Chinese inventions.
The 88-year period from 1279 to 1368 was an extraordinary one in Chinese history. Not content with the conquest of China, the Mongols continued their expansion, setting up four territorial kingdoms called khanates in the central, southwestern, and northwestern parts of Asia, and the eastern part of Europe. China itself even grew in size under Mongol rule. The Pescadore Islands were first settled by Chinese during the reign of the Mongols.
The Yuan dynasty was militarily strong and economically prosperous. *The Travels of Marco Polo*, describing conditions in China in the early days of the Mongol rule, perked the imaginations of incredulous Europeans. However, the immense expansiveness of the Mongolian empire also bore the seeds of its dissolution. With their harsh and oppressive measures, Mongol rulers aroused hatred among the Chinese. A caste system exacerbated existing ethnic and professional divisions. The Mongolian caste system ranked Han people inferior to all non-Han races. Political corruption and misgovernment in the latter days of the Yuan dynasty fomented a revolt that overthrew Mongol rule in China in 1368.
The first Ming emperor annexed the Okinawan Islands to cut the line of communication between the Japanese pirates and their homeland. An imperial emissary was sent to Okinawa in 1372 to confer upon its chieftain the title of "King of Okinawa," making him a vassal of the Chinese empire. To further counter the piracy problem, the Ming court outlawed Chinese emigration to Okinawa, Taiwan and other offshore islands in the 14th century. Chinese settlers in the Pescadore Islands were ordered to return to the mainland in 1387 and the archipelago was converted into a naval base for operations against Japanese buccaneers. Despite the imperial prohibition, some Chinese pioneers did find their way to Taiwan. In 1599, Chen Lai-chang, who came from Ch'uanchow, Fukien Province, cultivated the land from Hsinchuang to Mengchia (now called Wanhua). In the first decade of the 17th century, pirates such as Cheng Chih-lung made Peikang in southwestern Taiwan their base for trafficking. In subsequent years, immigrants from Fukien Province poured into the area in large numbers.
Early in the 15th century, an ambitious Ming monarch, Ch'eng Tsu (commonly referred to as the Yung Lo Emperor), moved the seat of government to Peking. The Yung Lo Emperor subjugated the people in present-day Vietnam, campaigned against the reorganizing Mongols, and showed an intense interest in overseas exploration. He equipped scores of seafaring ships, manned by tens of thousands of sailors, and placed them under the command of one of his closest advisors, Cheng Ho. In 1405, Cheng Ho led a naval expedition to Taiwan's southern port which is now known as Kaohsiung. In the years between 1406 and 1433, Cheng Ho also set sail for the South Sea islands, the Malay Peninsula, the Indian Ocean, and even for the eastern part of Africa on seven successive voyages. His travels to more than 50 countries constituted the greatest overseas venture in Chinese history.
Two main sea routes linking the East and West were discovered during the Ming dynasty, and, by the early 16th century, Portugal, Spain, Holland, and England were sending powerful fleets to Asian waters. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach China by sea. With the permission of Ming officials, the Portuguese set up an entrepot in Macau in 1535. In the following years, many Christian missionaries were brought to China on Portuguese ships. In 1601, the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci was granted an imperial stipend to reside in Peking. Other missionaries soon followed in his footsteps. Julius Aleni, Johannes Terrens, Didacus de Pentoja, Johannes Adam Schall von Bell, and Ferdiandus Verbiest brought not only their religion but also new concepts of arts, medical science, and water conservancy, not to mention mathematics, geography, astronomy, and the Gregorian calendar. Some of these intrepid Christians even served as officials in the imperial bureaucracy.
In the first decades of the 17th century, mounting administrative corruption and economic decline took their toll on the Ming dynasty. After years of rebellion, large bands of roving bandits commanded by Li Tzu-ch'eng stormed Peking, and the last Ming emperor, Szu Tsung, hanged himself. By this time, the Manchus had become a powerful force in the northeastern corner of China. The Manchus sent troops south of the Great Wall, under the pretext of helping the Ming general Wu San-kui, to put down the rebels under Li Tzu-ch'eng. Instead of assisting the Ming authorities, however, the Manchus occupied Peking and took over the reins of the government. The Ming dynasty, which encompassed the reigns of 16 emperors, had lasted 276 years.
Whereas Mongol rule in China 300 years earlier had been short-lived, Manchu rule was comparatively successful. At the outset of the Ch'ing dynasty, the Manchu court persecuted Chinese literati through the use of inquisitions to eliminate Ming loyalists, but as its power was being consolidated later on, the Ch'ing dynasty co-opted the energies of the Confucian bureaucracy by adopting a policy of appeasement rather than oppression. At the height of Ch'ing power, the Manchus utilized the best minds and richest human resources of the country, regardless of race, to carry out many scholarly projects. However, Western missionaries--active in China since the end of the Ming--lost the trust of the Yung Cheng Emperor due to their role in a power struggle for the throne. Christianity was banned in 1724, and the flow of Western technology into China slowed to a trickle thereafter. In the 18th century, the Manchu court was much more interested in working with the Han people under its rule rather than foreigners from far off places. The Manchu rulers became increasingly Sinicized as they absorbed the political ideas, literature, art, and philosophy of the Han people and allowed themselves to be viewed as a part of the Chinese nation. Large numbers of Han officials were employed in the Ch'ing officialdom. Ironically, the 268-year reign of the Ch'ing dynasty resulted in the nearly complete cultural assimilation of the Manchus by the Han people.
Concerned with suppressing rebellions in southern and northwestern China, the Ch'ing leadership was blindsided by the naval supremacy of Western nations which began to assert themselves along China's southeastern coast. While Europe was being transformed and invigorated by the rise of nationalism, rationalism, colonialism, and ultimately the industrial revolution, Ch'ing rulers sought stability within China's borders and so continuously shut out a world they did not understand and could not control. By the mid-19th century, however, Western powers were not content to leave China isolated, for they coveted Chinese markets and resources. They were dissatisfied with perennial trade deficits with China, unhappy about being treated unequally by the royal court of China which viewed trade as bestowing a favor, and chafed at being restricted to doing business in several small ports.
High productivity in light and heavy industries drove European countries (especially England) outward in a search for markets and resources. By the early 18th century, England dominated overseas trade, having gained dominance of the seas over Spain and Holland. During the next century, colonialism and resource exploitation backed by military force went hand in hand with the push to develop overseas markets by major European nations.
The seeds of the Opium War of 1839-42 were sown in a worsening trade relationship between Great Britain and the Ch'ing court. The Ch'ing government was desperate about the loss of 1.8 million silver yuan its populace was spending on 30,000 chests (each containing more than 100 catties) of opium each year. In January 1839, Ch'ing Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu was made responsible for stamping out the opium trade. He closed down 13 guilds in Canton after foreign merchants such as Lancelot Dent refused to yield all the opium stored on Lingting Island. The foreign merchants finally gave in and handed more than 20,000 chests of opium to Lin who, to the great dismay of the drug dealers, promptly burnt it. In July 1840, British warships occupied Tinghai and headed for T'ientsin. In August, Taku was attacked. A Ch'ing official, Ch'i Shan gave way to English demands for indemnity and ceded Hong Kong to England. But England was not satisfied with the agreement. So the British government sent a new plenipotentiary, Henry Pottinger, who attacked Amoy in 1841, Shanghai in 1842, and then set off for Nanking. The Treaty of Nanking was then signed on August 29, 1842. It has proved to be the most important treaty in China's modern history, for it was the first of a series of unequal treaties signed with Western powers. The Treaty of Nanking also marked the beginning of a long period of internal turmoil and external concession for China over the next 150 years. The 13 articles in the treaty stipulated that five ports were to be opened for British trade and consulates were to be established there; Hong Kong was ceded to England; 2.1 million silver yuan were to be paid in four installments. Supplementary clauses signed later further stipulated consular jurisdiction over Englishmen residing in China.
After the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, Belgium, Holland, Prussia, Spain, Portugal, the United States, and France also asked to establish consulates in China. In 1844, the Treaty of Wanghsia was concluded with the United States, stating that the U.S. would enjoy whatever privileges China granted to other nations. This was equivalent to China granting most-favored nation to the U.S. Later that year, a friendly agreement called the Treaty of Whampoa was signed with France.
By signing the Treaty of Nanking, China agreed to open five ports, including Canton, to foreign trade. However, the residents of Canton at first refused to allow Englishmen to enter the city and then attacked the Englishmen already there. In early 1856, a French missionary was killed in Kwangsi. Later that year the Arrow Incident occurred, in which a Hong Kong-registered ship (i.e., under the protection of the English government), the Arrow, was searched in Canton by Ch'ing soldiers and 12 of its sailors were arrested. All these incidents finally led to an Anglo-French expedition against Peking in 1858 and the burning of the imperial summer palace by invading troops. The Ch'ing court was compelled to make further concessions in the 1860 Treaty of Peking.
The Ch'ing court's inability to resist foreign invasion, its corrupt troops, and a heavy tax burden resulting from great indemnities to foreign countries produced a strong anti-Manchu sentiment among the general public. In 1850, eight years after the Ch'ing defeat in the Opium War, the T'ai-p'ing army led by Hung Hsiu-ch'uan rose at Chintien in Kwangsi. Hung declared himself the Heavenly King of the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace in 1851, and claimed that, after he read through a biblical tract titled Good Words for Exhorting the Age, God gave him visions. Hung proclaimed himself the Son of God, younger brother of Jesus Christ. Hung's charismatic manner and religious fervor were able to persuade people of his spiritual powers. Generalized grievances and the broad religious claims drew large numbers of followers. The T'ai-p'ing rebels campaigned on the Kwangsi-Kwangtung border until 1851, when they swung north and seized the city of Yungan along with great stores of cash, food, and new recruits, who swelled their number to 60,000 or more. They occupied Nanking in 1853. Hung ruled the Nanking-based Heavenly Kingdom for 11 years before it collapsed under the onslaught of Ch'ing armies in 1864.
After the suppression of T'ai-p'ing, power in the Ch'ing military was shifted to Han generals such as Tseng Kuo-fan and his proteges, who were called upon to put down three other uprisings occurring at the same time: the Nien uprisings in the north, the Muslim uprisings in the northwest, and the Miao uprisings in the southwest.
The veteran Nien forces may only have numbered 30,000 to 50,000 troops, but their effect was disproportionate to their size. They were active in parts of Shantung, Kiangsu, Anhui, and Honan. Some of the Nien rebels collaborated with the remnants of T'ai-p'ing forces. They developed guerrilla strategies and conducted a grim scorched-earth policy. But the armies of Li Hung-chang, the supreme commander of military affairs for Nien suppression, were equipped with rifles, artillery, and gunboats purchased from abroad. In 1868, the Nien uprisings were squelched.
During the reign of the Yung Cheng Emperor, the Ch'ing court had adopted the practice of replacing hereditary local chieftains of southwestern aborigine tribes with non-hereditary appointees from the central government. Yet, the Miao tribes were against such a policy and in 1854 the Miao tribes in Kweichow rebelled. Within five years, all of Kweichow Province was up in arms. Only after the suppression of the T'ai-p'ing Rebellion could the Ch'ing spare forces to launch a systematic campaign against the Miao. In early 1872, the Miao leader Chang Hsiu-mei was killed. It had taken 18 years to bring military activities to a close in the area. More than one million Miao people were killed, leaving the Miao population at less than one-tenth of its original number.
Muslim uprisings took place in several provinces. The Yunnan Muslim uprising in 1855 was caused by the massacre of several thousands of Muslims in Kunming and Yungchang by imperial armies. It was finally suppressed in 1872. The Shensi-Kansu Muslim uprising was sparked by the attempt of T'ai-p'ing forces to seize Sian in 1862. The high-handed suppression of the rebels by the Manchus ended the uprising in 1873. The Sinkiang Muslim uprising in 1864 impinged on foreign interests in the area. The British, coveting the vast area of southern Sinkiang, sided with the Muslims, while Russia, which was hoping to seize control of northern Sinkiang, supported the Ch'ing against the rebels. Ch'ing armies led by General Tso Tsung-t'ang quelled the upheavals in 1877 and secured China's sovereignty over the area.
Chinese and Japanese spheres of influence overlapped in Korea, and Japan was showing interest in taking over Taiwan. The Ch'ing court sent Liu Yung-fu and his armies to safeguard the island. Unfortunately, the military modernization undertaken during the self-strengthening program proved to be a complete failure when war between China and Japan finally broke out in 1894. Japan quickly breached Chinese defenses and sank most of its northern navy. The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed the next year, compelling the Ch'ing to pay a huge indemnity, open its seaports, recognize the independence of Korea, and cede the Liaotung Peninsula, Taiwan, and the Pescadores to Japan.
The repeated defeats that China suffered at the hands of foreign powers, the weakness and incompetence of the Ch'ing court, along with the success of the Meiji Reformation in Japan, prompted many thinking Chinese to take action. Under the leadership of K'ang Yu-wei and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, a reform movement was initiated in 1898. The Kuang Hsu Emperor sympathized with this movement, but met with strong opposition from his aunt, the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi, and other conservative elements in the Ch'ing court. The movement came to an inglorious end after only 100 days and was followed by a coup d'etat in which the Kuang Hsu Emperor was imprisoned by the Empress Dowager. Those who had played leading parts in the movement were executed or exiled.
Popular discontent with internal misgovernment, plus anti-foreign sentiment aroused by the unequal treaties, combined to spark the Boxer Uprising in 1900. The Boxers laid siege to the foreign legation in Peking, where a combined force of Japanese, French, British, Russian, and American troops held out for over a month. The siege was broken when the forces of eight foreign powers marched from T'ientsin and scaled the walls of Peking. The foreign powers then took the opportunity to loot Peking in one of the most disgraceful episodes of modern diplomatic history. In the signing of the Treaty of Peking the following year, China was disarmed and forced to pay large indemnities. This treaty was regarded as the most humiliating of all the unequal treaties.
One of the foreign powers sacking Peking, Russia, also took the opportunity to occupy Manchuria. When the troops of the other foreign powers withdrew from Chinese territory, Russia refused to leave Manchuria. This led to conflicts of interest with Japan and to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. Through the Treaty of Portsmouth signed in 1905, a victorious Japan obtained complete control over Korea and rights and interests in southern Manchuria, leaving the north to Russia. Thereafter, Manchuria and Mongolia became flash points of further conflict between Japan and Russia, with China as the only loser.
In 1905, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who had been exiled for his involvement in the anti-Ch'ing movement, organized the Revolutionary Alliance in Tokyo. This organization sponsored an entire network of revolutionaries inside China. On October 10, 1911, Dr. Sun's supporters in Wuch'ang, fearing their cover was blown by the recent arrest of one of their agents, seized the initiative and raised the standard of revolt in Hupei Province. Drawing on a wellspring of popular support and the defection of numerous officers in the local garrison, the revolutionaries soon captured Wuhan. Two months later, revolutionaries fought and won a pitched battle in Nanking. On January 1, 1912, the Revolutionary Alliance, which by that time controlled 16 of the Ch'ing dynasty's 22 provinces, established a provisional parliament in Nanking and elected Dr. Sun Yat-sen to the provisional presidency of Asia's first democratic republic--the Republic of China.
Northern China, however, was effectively controlled by Yuan Shih-k'ai, who had served the Ch'ing dynasty in a variety of high posts. To break the deadlock and unify China, a settlement was reached between revolutionaries in the south and the military strongman Yuan in the north. The last Ch'ing emperor abdicated. Dr. Sun Yat-sen agreed to relinquish the provisional presidency of the Republic of China to Yuan Shih-k'ai. And, Yuan promised to establish a republican government. On February 12, 1912, the last Ch'ing ruler, the Hsuan T'ung Emperor, gave up his throne. The rule of the Manchus lasted 268 years and spanned the rule of ten emperors.
As the former governor-general of Chihli, Yuan had trained the Peiyang Army which was an elite Western-style army. He coerced the newly established parliament into formally electing him to the presidency, and was inaugurated on October 10, 1913. Upon his ascension to China's highest political office, Yuan sought to disband Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Alliance, which had been reorganized into the Kuomintang. Yuan Shih-k'ai also dissolved the parliament and then assumed dictatorial powers. In an effort to appease China's rapacious neighbor in the northeast, Yuan Shih-k'ai agreed to Japanese demands--known as the Twenty-one Demands --for special rights and privileges in Shantung in May 1915. As time passed, it became obvious that Yuan was planning to restore the imperial system with himself on the throne. Unmoved by the advice of foreign governments and the opposition of the Kuomintang, Yuan Shih-k'ai declared himself emperor on December 12, 1915.
That month, Ch'en Ch'i-mei led a revolt against the incipient restoration of monarchy in China. More significant was a military revolt in Yunnan Province, led by the governor of Yunnan, T'ang Chi-yao and General Tsai O. Joined by Li Lie-chun and other revolutionary generals, these men established a National Protection Army and demanded that Yuan cancel his plan to re-establish monarchy in China. During the spring and early summer of 1916 more and more provinces and districts declared independence from the Yuan regime. Faced with intense and mounting opposition, Yuan Shih-k'ai fell gravely ill and died on July 6, 1916. General Li Yuan-hung, vice president of the democracy that Yuan Shih-k'ai had sought to dismantle, succeeded the presidency, and General Tuan Ch'i-jui retained his post as premier.
Highly ambitious and supported by many sen ior commanders from the old Peiyang Army clique, Tuan Ch'i-jui quickly began to gather power in his own hands. In February 1917 when the American government severed diplomatic relations with Germany and invited China to do the same, President Li Yuan-hung strongly opposed the move, but Premier Tuan and his supporters were able to push through China's declaration of war on Germany on August 14, 1917. Despite sending over 100,000 men to France during World War I, China reaped little benefit from its entry into the war. It was assured a seat at the Versailles Peace Conference, but the Chinese delegation to that meeting of world leaders was stunned to discover that Germany's holdings in China were not going to be returned to the Chinese people. Rather, the Western powers had agreed to Japanese claims to the German concession in Shantung Province. Major portions of Shantung were to be held by another foreign colonial power, Japan.
On May 4, 1919, students in Peking protested the decision at the Versailles Peace Conference. A riot ensued and many students were arrested. Waves of protest spread throughout the major cities of China. Merchants closed their shops, banks suspended business, and workers went on strike to pressure the government. Finally, the government was forced to release the arrested students and discharge some of the Chinese officials who had collaborated with Japan. Ultimately, the Chinese government refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles.
An intellectual revolution sparked by the events of May 4, 1919 and often referred to as the May Fourth Movement gained momentum during the first decade of the Republic of China. The movement was led by a new generation of intellectuals who scrutinized nearly all aspects of Chinese culture and traditional ethics. This new intelligentsia emerged in China after the traditional examination system was suspended in 1905 and educational reform enabled thousands of young people to study science, engineering, medicine, law, economics, education, and military science in Japan, Europe, and the United States. The "overseas students" returned to modernize China and, through their writings and lectures, exercised a powerful influence on the next generation of students. Guided by concepts of individual liberty and equality, a scientific spirit of inquiry, and a pragmatic approach to the nation's problems, the new intellectuals sought a more profound reform of China's institutions than what was accomplished by the self-strengthening movement of the late Ch'ing dynasty or the republican revolution. National Peking University, China's most prestigious institution of higher education, was transformed by its chancellor, Tsai Yuan-p'ei, who had spent many years in advanced study in Germany. Tsai made the university a center of scholarly research, and inspired educators all over China. A proposal by Professor Hu Shih, that literature be written in the vernacular language rather than in the classical style, won quick acceptance.
Important economic and social changes occurred during the first years of the republic. With the outbreak of World War I, foreign economic competition against native industries abated, and state-run light industries experienced brisk development. By 1918, the industrial labor force numbered 1.8 million workers. A large portion of capital flowed from the agricultural sector to new industries in China's coastal provinces, and modern Chinese banks with growing capital resources were able to facilitate expanding financial needs.
In the 1920s the United States, Great Britain, and Japan seemed to be moving toward a new postwar relationship with China. At the Washington Conference, the major powers agreed to respect the sovereignty, independence, and territorial, and administrative integrity of China; to give China opportunity to develop a stable government; to maintain the principle of equal opportunity in China for the commerce and industry of all nations; and to refrain from taking advantage of conditions in China to seek exclusive privileges. The powers also agreed to steps leading toward China's tariff autonomy and the abolition of extraterritoriality.
Having witnessed the collapse of the fledgling central government he had worked so hard to create, Dr. Sun Yat-sen turned south to his home province of Kwangtung where he established a military government in August 1917. Little more than a year later, he reorganized his party into the modern day Kuomintang (KMT, also known as the Nationalist Party), and in 1921 Dr. Sun Yat-sen assumed the presidency of the newly formed southern government in Canton. When war between the northern warlords erupted the next year, Dr. Sun issued a manifesto urging the unification of China by peaceful means. However, even the political idealist, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, was to be disappointed by two more years of sporadic fighting between warlords. Finally in 1924, Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his southern government moved to set up a military academy which would train an officer corps loyal to the Kuomintang and dedicated to the unification of China. Dr. Sun appointed Chiang Kai-shek as commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy.
On November 10, 1924, Dr. Sun Yat-sen called for the early convocation of a national people's convention to bring each of China's regional leaders to the conference table. Two weeks later, Tuan Ch'i-jui became the provisional chief executive of the Peking-based government, and Dr. Sun Yat-sen, as head of the southern government, travelled north to hold talks with Tuan. While in Peking, Dr. Sun succumbed to liver cancer and died on March 12, 1925 at the age of 59. His dream of a unified and democratic China freed of foreign constraint had yet to be realized.
Dr. Sun's untimely demise left the southern government in the hands of a steering committee. This 16-member committee established a national government in July 1925 and some 11 months later appointed Chiang Kai-shek commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army. In this capacity, Chiang Kai-shek launched a military expedition northward to eradicate various feuding warlords in central and northern China. This military campaign lasted three years and came to be known as the Northern Expedition. On March 22, 1927, the first troops of the National Revolutionary Army entered Shanghai. Two days later, Nanking fell. Despite a split between the right and left wings of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek was able to establish a new National Government in Nanking on April 18, 1927, and the Northern Expedition continued without interruption.
The Chinese government realized the Chinan massacre and the assassination of Chang Tso-lin were premeditated actions designed by the Japanese militarists to provoke war while China was still divided. Chiang Kai-shek thus ordered the National Revolutionary Army to continue its northward march but to avoid Japanese controlled areas in northern China. This strategy frustrated the Japanese schemes and effectively unified China under the National Government based in Nanking.
Japanese militarists remained undaunted. Believing Manchuria to be strategically and economically vital to their plans for the conquest of all Asia, Japanese officers in Shenyang (Mukden) sabotaged the Southern Manchuria Railroad on September 18, 1931, and ambushed the Northeastern Chinese Army. The Japanese government was systematically extending its control over all of Manchuria. To deflect world opinion which condemned their actions, the Japanese installed a puppet regime known as Manchukuo in 1932. The "land of the Manchu" proved to be no more than another stepping stone for the extension of Japanese aggression.
Following a wave of murders and arson by Japanese agents in Shanghai, Japanese armies attacked that city on January 28, 1932. Chinese armies successfully defended Shanghai, but the ROC was compelled to move its seat of government inland to Loyang in Honan Province.
In 1934, after long negotiations, Japan acquired the Soviet interests in the Chinese Eastern Railway, the last legal trace of Russian influence in Manchuria. In 1935, Japanese armies attempted to detach Hopei and Chahar provinces from Chinese control and threatened Shansi, Suiyuan, and Shantung provinces. A humiliating T'angku Truce was then signed, which in effect handed northern Hopei Province to the Japanese.
At this point, the Chinese communists opted for a new "united front" strategy against Japan. In effect the communist leaders suggested that the National Government fight the Japanese instead of the communist armies. The National Government, however, argued that the communists must capitulate to central authority before China could effectively repel Japanese encroachment. The National Government's policy, therefore, was one of "unity before resistance against foreign aggression." While further Japanese transgressions made this policy a costly one, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was determined to carry on the anti-communist campaign. He ordered the Northeastern and Northwestern armies to attack the communist forces in northern Shensi Province. When the Northeastern Army, commanded by Chang Hsueh-liang, disobeyed the order to pursue the war against the communists, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Sian on December 12, 1936 to confront Chang Hsueh-liang. Chang's army subordinates, however, shot Chiang Kai-shek's bodyguards and arrested the generalissimo. When news of events in Sian reached other cities, it resulted in a huge outpouring of public support for Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. At Christmas of 1936, Chang Hsueh-liang freed the generalissimo and escorted him back to Nanking. The Sian Incident had two major consequences: the popular support for Generalissimo Chiang was reaffirmed, but his efforts to subjugate the communists were set back.
On July 7, 1937, a minor clash between Japanese and Chinese troops near Peking finally led China into war against Japan. (In Chinese this conflict is called the Eight-Year War of Resistance Against Japan.) From this point on, Chinese resentment of over half a century of Japanese barbarism was expressed in the form of overt, concerted, and armed resistance. The war against Japan unfolded in three stages: a first stage of undeclared war beginning with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident (or) on July 7, 1937; a second intermediate stage beginning in late 1938; and a third stage that began with China joining the Allied Forces after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and which lasted till the surrender of Japan in 1945.
During the first stage of the war, Japan won victory after victory. T'ientsin was occupied in July 1937 and Peking in August. After three months of fierce fighting, Shanghai was captured by the Japanese on November 11, 1937. The ROC's capital, Nanking, fell in December. The fall of the capital is now known as the Rape of Nanking because Japanese forces occupying the city killed some 300,000 people (defenseless civilians and Chinese troops that had already laid down their arms) in seven weeks of unrelenting carnage. The loss of Nanking forced the ROC government to move its capital up the Yangtze River to the city of Chungking, which was shielded by a protective mountain screen. By the end of this initial phase of the war, the ROC government had lost the best of its modern armies, its air force and arsenals, most of China's modern industries and railways, its major tax resources, and all the Chinese ports through which military equipment and civilian supplies might be imported. However, China had won the battle in Tai'erchuang on April 6, 1938, which proved that well-equipped, well-fed, and well-trained Chinese troops could defeat the best of the Japanese forces. So long as China continued to resist, Japan's tenuous control over its holdings in China would tie up a considerable portion of the Japanese occupation armies.
At the beginning of the second stage of the War of Resistance, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek convened a military conference in southern Hunan Province. He concluded that Japan's fighting capability had reached its peak, and it would be to the advantage of the Chinese army to fight in the mountain areas. The strategy was to stalemate the enemy in the vast range of mountains and leave them no room for maneuver. China was ready for a time-consuming war of resistance.
In 1940, Japan set up a puppet government in Nanking under Wang Ching-wei. But the Chinese people would not submit. Hundreds of thousands of patriotic Chinese continued to attempt the difficult trek to Chungking. Students and faculties from most colleges in eastern China travelled by foot to makeshift quarters in distant inland towns. Factories and skilled workers were re-established in the west.
The government rebuilt its scattered armies and tried to purchase supplies from abroad. But the supply lines were long and precarious. When war broke out in Europe, shipments became even more scarce. After Germany's conquest of France in the spring of 1940, Britain bowed to Japanese demands and temporarily closed Rangoon, Burma to military supplies for China. In September 1940, Japan seized control of northern Indo-China and closed the supply line to Kunming. While Japan had more than 1,000 planes, China had only 37 fighter planes and 31 old Russian bombers that were not equipped for night flying. The United States, however, had by then sold the Republic of China 100 fighter planes--the beginning of an American effort to provide air protection to the ROC.
By the summer of 1941, the United States knew that Japan hoped to end the undeclared war in China and was preparing for a southward advance toward British Malaya and the Dutch Indies, planning first to occupy southern Indo-China and Thailand, even at the risk of war with Britain and the United States. On July 23, 1941, President Roosevelt of the United States approved a recommendation that the U.S. send large quantities of arms and equipment to China, along with a military mission to advise on their use. The military mission arrived in October 1941. By December 1941, the United States had implicitly agreed to help create a modern Chinese air force, to maintain an efficient line of communication into China, and to arm 30 divisions of soldiers. The underlying goal was to revitalize China's war effort as a deterrent to Japanese military and naval operations southward. The logistics line for all foreign aid depended on the 715-mile Burma Road, which extended from Chungking to Lashio, the Burmese terminus of the railway and highway leading to Rangoon.
The third phase of the war against Japan began on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and shortly afterwards the United States and Britain declared war on Japan. China, which also formally declared war against Japan after four years of staunch resistance, joined the Allies in waging the Pacific War. On January 2, 1942, Generalissimo Chiang assumed the office of Supreme Commander of the China Theater of War. This escalation of the Sino-Japanese conflict raised Chinese morale but did damage China's strategic position. With the Japanese conquest of Hong Kong on December 25, 1941, China lost its air link to the outside world and one of its principal routes for shipping supplies. By the end of May 1942, the Japanese held most of Burma, and China was almost completely blockaded.
Following an initial grant of US$630 million in lend-lease supplies, the United States granted China a loan of US$500 million in February 1942, and Great Britain stated its willingness to lend £50 million. This helped to stabilize the Chinese currency and provided China with better terms of trade. A solution to the supply problem was found in an air route from Assam, India, to Kunming in southwest China--the dangerous "Hump" route along the southern edge of the Himalayas. In March 1942, the China National Aviation Corporation began freight service over the Hump, and the United States began a transport program the next month. It was not until December 1943 that cargo planes were able to equal the tonnage carried over the Burma Road by trucks two years before, but China's needs for gasoline, arms, munitions, and other military equipment were still not adequately met.
Both air force development and army modernization were pushed in early 1943. A training center was created near Kunming and a network of airfields was built in southern China. By the end of 1943, the China-based American Fifteenth Air Force had achieved tactical parity with the Japanese over central China, and began to bomb Yangtze River shipping. The Fifteenth Air Force even successfully raided Japanese airfields on Taiwan. China's determination was beginning to pay off. During November and December of 1943, the leaders of the Allied countries met in Cairo, Egypt. In the December 1st Cairo Declaration, the return of Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores was promised to China. The prewar system of extraterritoriality--whereby Chinese courts had no jurisdiction over any foreigner residing in China--was abolished. In addition, the Allies pledged themselves to "persevere in the... prolonged operations necessary to procure the unconditional surrender of Japan."
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The subsequent Japanese decision to surrender was delivered to the Allies through Switzerland the next day. On August 14, Japan announced its formal surrender in accordance with the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of July 1945 and declared that "the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out." The Japanese government accepted this in the instrument of surrender concluded on September 3, 1945 between Japan and the Allies. The Japanese armies in mainland China surrendered to the ROC government on September 9, 1945 in Nanking.
The government and the Chinese communists held peace talks which culminated in an agreement on October 10, 1945. The agreement called for the convening of a multiparty political consultative council to plan for a liberalized postwar government and to draft a constitution for submission to a national assembly. When the Chinese communists continued to accept the surrender of Japanese garrisons, occupy cities, and confiscate property, Chiang Kai-shek ordered an offensive against them in November. Hostilities lasted throughout December and the early part of January 1947. At this point, U.S. President Harry S. Truman dispatched George Marshall to China. Marshall was able to negotiate several cease-fires during 1947, but a pattern of non-cooperation between the government and the communists soon escalated into open conflict.
While ROC troops were busy suppressing the incipient communist rebellion, Chiang Kai-shek was hurrying to implement true democracy throughout China. On January 1, 1947, the Constitution of the Republic of China was promulgated. Within the year members of the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan, and Control Yuan were democratically elected. In April 1948, the new National Assembly elected Chiang Kai-shek to the presidency of the Republic of China. These moves toward true democratic government, however, were overshadowed by a communist offensive that cut Manchuria off from the rest of China.
The military setback was compounded by serious economic problems. Inflation continued unabated, caused principally by government financing of military and other operations, particularly for maintaining large garrison forces. Apart from the loss of millions of Chinese lives, the Eight-Year War Against Japan had generated huge war debts, not to mention serious financial distress in the private sector. The government had run a budget deficit every year since 1928. Alarmingly, money supply increased by 500 times between 1937 and 1945. Retail prices of daily necessities were so inflated that even middle-class families tottered on the brink of abject poverty. This unrestrained inflation triggered a national recession and alienated the public from its elected representatives.
By 1948, communist forces had cut lines of communication and destroyed vital outposts along the Lunghai and Pinghan railways, isolating many cities. In December, the pivotal battle for Hsuchow was lost. This defeat was followed by the fall of T'ientsin and Peking on January 19, 1949. Other cities in northeastern China were lost by March. In early 1949, Chiang Kai-shek began deploying a force of 300,000 troops in Taiwan backed by a few gunboats and some planes. After the Chinese communists successfully crossed the Yangtze River, the government of the Republic of China began relocating its offices to Taiwan. As the mainland was falling to the communist rebels, some two million people (both soldiers and civilians) accompanied the ROC government to the island province of Taiwan.
Chinese products such as silk, ceramic wares and sugar were transported by Dutch ships from Taiwan to Europe and other countries in the East. The Dutch introduced intensive farming to Taiwan and recruited laborers from southern China (mainly from Fukien and Kwangtung provinces) to develop the southern part of the island. Taiwan soon became an exporter of deer hides, venison, sugar, and rice.
Spanish forces based at Luzon since 1521 attempted to extend their influence northwestward to Taiwan. In 1626, the Spanish landed at Keelung and occupied the northwest Taiwan coast where the Dutch had not yet ventured. The Spanish stayed 16 years, rarely planting cash crops. The northern ports of Keelung and Tamsui served as the Spanish main transportation centers. The Dutch drove the Spanish out in 1642 and took over control of northwestern Taiwan. However, economic development in this area under the Dutch never matched that in southwestern Taiwan.
Within the 20-year rule by Cheng's family, schools were built and an elaborate irrigation system set up on Taiwan. Advanced technology for refining salt and sugar was imported across the Taiwan Straits, and rice cultivation became widespread in southern Taiwan. Under the protection of warships, direct trade with Japan and with European colonies throughout Southeast Asia expanded. Taiwan's population increased from 50,000 to 120,000. It was not until 1683 that Manchu forces succeeded in taking over Taiwan.
The Japanese, as well as other foreign powers, were deeply interested in the wealth of Taiwan. During the Opium War, British warships patrolled Taiwan's coast to check for any moves by the Ch'ing forces stationed on the island. Commodore Matthew Perry, commander of the U.S. East Indian Fleet, sent warships to Keelung to measure water depth and mineral reserves in 1854. Four years later, Prussian ships fired on indigenous people in southern Taiwan. After the conclusion of the Treaty of T'ientsin in 1858, four Taiwan ports, Anp'ing, Tamsui, Takou (modern day Kaohsiung) and Keelung, were opened to foreign trade. In 1866, American warships bombarded indigenous people in southern Taiwan to punish their slaughter of two shipwrecked American sailors. In 1869, British warships attacked Anp'ing and demanded better terms for the camphor trade. In 1874, Japan's Meiji government sent troops to attack indigenous people of Mutan She to force the Ch'ing court into dropping its opposition to the Japanese annexation of Okinawa. France attacked and shut down Keelung, Tamsui, and the Pescadores to curb Ch'ing power in 1884. All this made the Manchu court realize Taiwan's importance as a gateway to the seven provinces along the southeastern coast. Capable Ch'ing officials such as Shen Pao-chen and Liu Ming-ch'uan were appointed to develop Taiwan's infrastructure and strengthen its defenses.
Shen Pao-chen, the administrator of shipping affairs, was put in charge of Taiwan's defense in 1874. Shen recommended lifting the ban on immigration from the mainland, encouraged the exploration of Taiwan's eastern coast, promoted the development of northern Taiwan, educated indigenous people, organized a local militia, constructed cannon emplacements along the coast, and petitioned for a full-time governor to be solely responsible for Taiwan instead of placing the island under the jurisdiction of the governor of Fukien Province. The exploitation of coal at Keelung began under his administration. Foreign specialists were employed to prospect for coal in 1868, and surveys of the island's crude oil and sulphur resources were also made. Aware of the need for better communications, Shen Pao-chen also recommended the construction of telegraph lines linking central and southern parts of Taiwan, as well as Taiwan with Fukien Province across the Taiwan Straits.
Ting Jih-ch'ang was another important figure in developing Taiwan. Arriving in Taiwan in early 1876, he focused on the construction of railroad and telegraph lines. During his tenure in office, some 47 kilometers of telegraph cable were installed in southern Taiwan, but due to budget limitations and other restrictions, he never realized his dream of constructing a railroad in Taiwan. After Ting was transferred, Wu Tsan-ch'eng and Tsen Yu-ying were, in successive appointments, made responsible for Taiwan's defense. Owing to budget and priority considerations of the central government, however, their programs to develop modern infrastructure on Taiwan were somewhat restrained.
In 1885, the Ch'ing dynasty made Taiwan its 22nd province. The following year, Liu Ming-ch'uan was appointed the first governor of Taiwan who had been put in charge of Taiwan affairs in 1884. His administration focused on modernizing Taiwan's defenses (to protect Taiwan from foreign aggression), implementing tax reforms (to make Taiwan financially independent), and educating indigenous peoples (to pacify them). Under Liu's rule, Taiwan was divided into three prefectures, one autonomous prefecture, three offices, and 11 counties. A land survey was completed in 1889, and a railroad connecting Keelung and Hsinchu was completed in 1893. Telegraph lines linking Taipei, Keelung, Tamsui, and Tainan, as well as submarine lines between Tamsui and Fuchow in Fukien Province and between Anp'ing and the Pescadores, were completed in 1888. A postal office was set up in the same year, nine years before China formally established its own postal system. An irrigation system was planned to increase agricultural production. A general trade office was established to encourage foreign trade, and Western-style schools were set up. Such measures laid a foundation for Taiwan's development during the Japanese colonial rule.
When the cession of Taiwan to Japan was affirmed in 1895 under the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Manchu officials stationed in Taiwan, such as T'ang Ching-sung and Liu Yung-fu, and local celebrities, such as Chiu Feng-chia, declared independence on May 25, 1895 and formed the Democratic Taiwan Nation to resist Japan's takeover. Armed resistance was conducted mainly in northern Taiwan until June 6 when Japanese troops formally entered Taipei. Once Taipei fell, the Taiwan nationalists shifted their base to Tainan under the command of General Liu Yung-fu, but the move proved to be of little help. On October 21, Japanese troops entered Tainan, and organized resistance against Japanese occupation of Taiwan was stopped for the time being. A total of 7,000 Chinese soldiers were killed in the conflict, and civilian casualties numbered in the thousands.
Resistance against alien rule never ceased on Taiwan though. To strengthen their rule, the Japanese rulers issued numerous edicts to check Chinese resistance. *The Bandit Penalties and Punishments Decree* was the most infamous. According to Japanese records, more than 10,000 "bandits" were executed between 1898 and 1920. Lo Fu-hsing, leader of the Miaoli Incident (1913) who had participated in Dr. Sun's overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty, and Yu Ch'ing-fang, leader of the Tapani Incident (1915)--the largest-ever revolt organized by Taiwan residents, were all executed according to the decree.
The Tapani Incident, in which more than 10,000 local Taiwanese lost their lives, marked a turning point of Taiwan's resistance against Japanese rule. After the revolt was finally put down, armed resistance was replaced by political movements focusing on national consciousness. To teach Taiwan residents about nationalism, overseas Taiwanese students established the Shengying Society, the Ch'ifa Society, and the Hsinmin Society between 1919 and 1920 and petitioned for legal and political reforms by the Japanese rulers in Taiwan. On the island itself, such associations as the Society for Promoting the Establishment of a Taiwan Council, the New Taiwan Alliance, the Taiwan Culture Association, the Taiwan Civilian Party, and the Local Self-governance Federation were established. Many of these groups published their own magazines and newspapers in Chinese and Japanese, and were active until the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II.
The president of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, appointed a committee headed by Ch'en Yi to take over the island's administration in 1945. Ch'en was the first administrator of Taiwan, and he worked with the Taiwan Garrison Command to ensure a smooth transition of power. After Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender, the Japanese authorities on Taiwan made no effort to continue governing the area, and, before the ROC's administration could be put into place, a dangerous political vacuum ensued. In late September 1945, before the Japanese formally surrendered Taiwan to the Republic of China, ROC armies arrived at Keelung, Tsoying, Kaohsiung, Tamsui, and Taipei. However, the major fighting component of Nationalist troops remained on the Chinese mainland to fight the growing communist insurgency. Government inefficiency in Taiwan was a serious problem. Opportunists and carpetbaggers tried to seek financial and political advantages. Smuggling was rampant. Taiwan residents, both long-time natives and new arrivals from the mainland, were upset by the unjust appropriation of personal property, shortages of daily necessities, galloping inflation, and unchecked profiteering.
It was under such conditions that the February 28 Incident took place in 1947. An old woman had been injured while protesting against the expropriation of untaxed cigarettes she was selling in the T'aip'ing Ting section of Taipei. The public was deeply angered when a passer-by was shot in the commotion and the assailant was given shelter in a nearby police station. Early the next morning, the Tobacco & Wine Monopoly Bureau was besieged by thousands of people demanding the punishment of the murderer. When it became apparent that no official response was forthcoming, the crowd attacked the bureau and rioting soon spread throughout the island.
Lin Hsien-t'ang, a public opinion leader, and other prominent members of the Taiwan elite organized the February 28 Incident Management Committee on March 2, 1947, and proposed democratic elections for county chiefs and city mayors; the abolition of government monopolies; government guarantees for human life and property; and protection of the freedom of speech, publication, and assembly. Governor Ch'en Yi, who had proposed the formation of the committee in the first place, turned to the Chinese mainland for help. On March 9, 1947, the 21st division of the Nationalist army landed at Keelung. By March 14, many local leaders and the members of the Management Committee had been arrested. These people included landowners, entrepreneurs, doctors, and teachers. A considerable number of them were executed, but some escaped overseas. Ch'en Yi was later replaced by a moderate administrator.
In 1949, the communists launched an all-out offensive on the Chinese mainland. On May 19, the Taiwan Garrison Command proclaimed the *Emergency Decree* (martial law) throughout Taiwan Province. By early 1949, a force of about 300,000 Nationalist troops was stationed in Taiwan. As the ROC government refused to compromise on the Chinese communists' eight-point program, fierce fighting broke out in Canton and Amoy in October, and the ROC government was forced to move to Taiwan in December.
At first the situation on Taiwan was very tenuous, but, with the outbreak of the Korean War in late June 1950, U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered the U.S. Seventh Fleet to protect Taiwan against Chinese communist attack. The U.S. also provided Taiwan with economic aid. On March 3, 1955, Foreign Minister George K.C. Yeh and U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles exchanged instruments of ratification of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty in Taipei to formally substantiate the neutralization of the Taiwan Straits. The international community sided with Taiwan and the internal situation began to stabilize. On August 23, 1958, the Chinese communists began shelling Quemoy in the Battle of the Taiwan Straits. The communist attack was repulsed, and, on October 23, 1958, the U.S. and the Republic of China issued a joint communique reaffirming solidarity between the two countries.
The ensuing decade brought a period of relative stability to the ROC on Taiwan. President Chiang Kai-shek used the time to re-invigorate Taiwan's economy. Land reform and a series of economic development plans undertaken during the 1950s and 1960s drastically reduced the inflation of wartime years and rapidly increased the island's productivity. When government leaders realized the economic bottleneck presented by Taiwan's narrow domestic economy, they quickly opted for an export promotion strategy. As a resource-poor but labor-rich country, the ROC began with various light manufactured exports produced by labor-intensive industries. Like many other developing countries, the ROC on Taiwan suffered from a shortage of capital at the early stage of economic development and relied on U.S. aid, yet by 1965, Taiwan's economy was doing so well that foreign assistance was no longer required. That year the U.S. aid program was terminated and the ROC's savings rate was a tremendous 19.5 percent of the GNP. Between 1962 and 1985, Taiwan's economy grew by an average of 9.3 percent per year, over two times the average economic growth rate of industrialized countries during this period. (For detailed information on the economic development in the ROC on Taiwan in recent years, please see Chapter 12, The Economy.)
The 1970s were a period of continued economic growth but political and diplomatic challenge. The ROC economy managed to ride out global recessions sparked by two oil embargoes but the global political environment was changing quickly. At the end of 1970, a campaign was launched to prevent the U.S. from transferring the Tiaoyut'ai Islands to Japanese sovereignty in 1972 together with the Ryukyu Islands. As the campaign was under way, the U.S. signalled a sudden change in its relationship with the ROC on Taiwan by stating that the "status of Taiwan remained undecided." In 1971, President Chiang Kai-shek announced that the ROC would withdraw from the United Nations rather than share a seat with the Chinese communists. The next year the ROC severed diplomatic relations with Japan when it recognized communist China, and, in the same year, U.S. President Richard Nixon visited the Chinese mainland. President Chiang passed away on April 5, 1975, and was succeeded by the vice president, Yen Chia-kan. In the next presidential election held on March 21, 1978, Chiang Ching-kuo was elected president of the ROC. He had been in office less than eight months when, in December 1978, President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would shift diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the "People's Republic of China."
As the turbulent 1970s drew to a close, few international observers would have predicted that the ROC on Taiwan would continue to prosper, and yet, President Chiang Ching-kuo was able to stabilize the situation by implementing major infrastructure projects, expanding trade ties with other countries, and modernizing the ROC's defensive arsenal. President Chiang will be best remembered, though, for his commitment to rejuvenating the democratic functions of the ROC polity. Before passing away on January 13, 1988, President Chiang oversaw the lifting of the *Emergency Decree* which had been the legal basis for the enforcement of martial law in the ROC on Taiwan for over three decades.
President Chiang's successor, President Lee Teng-hui has sworn to uphold his predecessor's legacy of democratic reform. In 1991, after taking office, he abolished the *Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion* adopted in 1948 to give the government more power during politically unstable periods. This abolishment of the *Temporary Provisions*, in effect, reinstated parts of the ROC Constitution that had been frozen during the period of communist rebellion. Since then certain articles of the ROC Constitution have been amended and new articles are added to facilitate further political reforms. (For more information on the ROC government and its political system, please see Chapter 6, Government and Law, and Chapter 7, Political Parties and Elections.)
Under the ROC Constitution, the people and territory of the mainland and Taiwan are integral parts of the ROC and should not be divided. The fall of the Chinese mainland to the Chinese communists was a tragic lesson for the ROC government. The sad state of affairs that has existed on the mainland in the subsequent four decades has only reinforced the determination of the government and people of the ROC to reunite all of China under the Three Principles of the People. (For more information on the ROC's national unification policy, please see Chapter 8, Mainland Affairs and National Unification Policy.)