China In War And Revolution, 1895-1949

by Zarrow; Peter

• ISBN13: 9780415364485
• ISBN10: 0415364485
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In 1895 the military forces of the Great Qing Empire were defeated by Japan. The stakes seemed modest - a struggle for supremacy in peripheral Korea - but the defeat prompted an explosion of radical reform proposals in China and the beginning of elite Chinese disillusionment with the Qing government. In a larger sense, it also prompted five decades of efforts to strengthen the state and the nation, to democratize the political system, and to build a fairer and more unified society. The book weaves narrative together with thematic chapters that pause to address in depth central themes of China's transformation. While the book proceeds chronologically, the chapters in each part examine particular aspects of these decades in a more focused way, borrowing from the methodologies of the social sciences, cultural studies and empirical historicism. China in War and Revolution draws a picture of the personalities, ideas, and processes by which a modern state was created out of the violence and trauma ofthese decades.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xiii
Preface	xv
Acknowledgements	xix
PART I The road to revolution, 1895-1919	1	(144)
A prologue: The Boxers	2	(4)
The state of China at the dawn of the twentieth century	6	(6)
1 The rise of Confucian radicalism	12	(18)
Calls for institutional reform	15	(4)
Confucian radicalism in political context	19	(3)
Confucian radicalism in cultural context	22	(5)
Ideological revolution	27	(3)
2 1911: History and historiography	30	(23)
The 1911 Revolution as prologue	31	(4)
The 1911 Revolution as phase	35	(5)
Political revolution as conservative social change	40	(3)
Structural breakdown during the Qing	43	(5)
Revolutionary atmosphere	48	(5)
3 Ideas and ideals in the fall of the Qing	53	(22)
Empire and nation	54	(6)
Nationalism and state-building: Liang Qichao	60	(5)
Han nationalism: race and revolution	65	(10)
4 From the military dictator to the warlords	75	(20)
The politics of the early Republic	76	(3)
Foreign affairs and monarchism	79	(4)
Militarism and the warlord era (1916-27)	83	(4)
The causes and effects of militarism	87	(8)
5 Social conditions in the countryside	95	(17)
The basic patterns of rural life	96	(5)
The disintegration of rural society	101	(3)
Peasants. Resistance, rebellion, and revolution	104	(8)
6 Urban social change	112	(16)
Urban development: Civil society and the bourgeoisie	115	(2)
New social forces: Workers	117	(5)
New social forces: Students, women	122	(6)
7 Intellectuals, the Republic, and a new culture	128	(17)
Constitutionalism, federalism, reform	129	(4)
The New Culture movement	133	(4)
The fate of Confucianism in modern China	137	(3)
Anarchism and socialism in the early Republic	140	(5)
PART II Nationalism and revolution, 1919-37	145	(150)
8 Politics and culture in the May Fourth movement	149	(21)
The May Fourth movement, 1919-21	151	(4)
Imperialism and liberalism	155	(3)
The political significance of the May Fourth movement	158	(4)
Cultural revolution and social change	162	(5)
The modern nation and limits of change	167	(3)
9 National identity, Marxism, and social justice	170	(20)
"Problems versus isms" and liberalism versus Marxism-Leninism	173	(5)
"Science versus metaphysics" and modern Chinese conservatism	178	(5)
Anarchists versus communists: Defining Marxism	183	(4)
Common themes in May Fourth discourse	187	(3)
10 The rise of political parties	190	(20)
Guangzhou and the early Guomindang	192	(4)
The Chinese Communist Party and the First United Front	196	(7)
The "May Thirtieth" movement (1925)	203	(7)
11 Ideology and power in the National Revolution	210	(20)
Ideology and the Guomindang	212	(4)
Social radicalism in the 1920s: The peasantry	216	(5)
Social radicalism in the 1920s: Women	221	(9)
12 The Northern Expedition and the rise of Chiang Kai-shek	230	(18)
The Northern Expedition	231	(6)
The breakdown of the first United Front	237	(4)
The National Revolution and consolidation of power	241	(7)
13 The Nanjing decade, 1928-37: The Guomindang era	248	(23)
State-building in the Nanjing decade	251	(4)
Blue Shirts and new life: Guomindang fascism?	255	(3)
Economy, state, and society	258	(5)
Legitimacy, nationalism, and dissent	263	(8)
14 Peasants and Communists	271	(24)
The survival of the CCP	274	(5)
The Jiangxi Soviet	279	(4)
The lessons of the Futian Incident and guerrilla war	283	(5)
Intellectuals and their discovery of the masses	288	(7)
PART III War and revolution, 1937-49	295	(63)
15 The War of Resistance, 1937-45	299	(25)
The Japanese invasion	303	(10)
Nationalists at war	313	(3)
Chongqing and Nanjing at war	316	(8)
16 Mao, Maoism, and the Communist Party	324	(13)
Maoism to 1949	325	(4)
Rectification	329	(4)
The mass line	333	(4)
17 Revolution and civil war	337	(21)
Political protest and civil war	339	(5)
Communists and peasants, 1937-46	344	(8)
Peasants and politics: Radicalization	352	(6)
Epilog	358	(10)
Notes	368	(27)
Index	395