Articles

Sharing a similar fate: the historical process of the Korean Communists’ merger with the Chinese Communist Party (1919–1936)

Zhihua SHEN

ABSTRACT：In their early history, the Chinese and Korean Communists had little contact with one another. However, similar fates brought them together, and some Korean revolutionaries in China voluntarily joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After a futile effort to establish a Communist party in Korea, the Korean Communists shifted their attention to Chinese Manchuria. Under extremely difficult circumstances, different factions of the Korean Communist organizations either willingly or under force disbanded. However, after winning support from the Comintern, the CCP recruited a substantial number of Korean Communists. Thus, within a short period of time, the CCP expanded its strength in Manchuria. It also shouldered responsibility for assisting the Korean Communists in their efforts to establish their own party. In the aftermath of the September 18th Incident in 1931 the CCP Central Committee called for an armed struggle against the Japanese invaders. The Korean Communists in Manchuria became a force to be reckoned with. After the CCP gradually shifted the focus of its policy toward the War of Resistance against Japan, the Korean Communists in China became integrated into the CCP army.

KEYWORDS: Chinese Communist Party, Korean Communist Party, Sino–Korean relations

The politics of the Shanghai courts: the state, local elites, and social networks in Nationalist China, 1927–1937

Sei Jeong CHIN

ABSTRACT：This article explores the ways in which the Nationalist Party established dominance over the Shanghai courts in the foreign concession area to use them as weapons against political dissidents, and it analyzes the intricate relations among the Nationalist Party, local elites, and the Shanghai courts during the Nanjing decade (1927–1937). Building on recent studies that pay attention to the limited success of the Nationalist Party’s policy of putting the judiciary under Party control, this study demonstrates that the process of establishing the Nationalist Party’s dominance over the Shanghai courts was highly contested. The interplay between the Nationalist Party’s effort to gain control over the Shanghai courts by building formal and informal institutions and the local elites’ appropriation of their own social networks rendered the Shanghai courts vulnerable not only to the Party’s intervention, but also to the influence of social forces. I argue that due to the weak authority of the Shanghai courts, the Nationalist Party’s use of law against political foes could be a double-edged sword.

KEYWORDS: Shanghai courts, Nationalist Party, social networks, local elites, Shanghai lawyers, judiciary

Lao-Zhuang in the vernacular: two evolutionary readings

Jesse J. CHAPMAN

ABSTRACT：This article examines evolutionary thinking in Yan Fu and Hu Shi’s readings of the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. While Yan Fu employed a traditional exegetical form and Hu Shi wrote in journals and textbooks, both scholars employed a new, vernacular mode of reading classical texts. This new mode of reading is characterized by four primary features: commensurability, comprehensibility, fallibility, and contemporaneity. Unlike scholars of earlier generations, Yan and Hu treated classical Chinese texts as commensurable with Western thought and readily comprehensible in terms of modern ideas. Yan and Hu approached the Laozi and Zhuangzi as fallible texts subject to evaluation in light of Western ideas and contemporary conditions. Yan argued that the sages should be subjected to the same scrutiny as morally neutral modern scientists, while Hu urged readers to evaluate texts in terms of their pragmatic effects. Both writers highlighted areas of evolutionary thinking in the Laozi and the Zhuangzi, while evaluating the texts in terms of their potential to aid or hinder the evolution of the modernizing Chinese nation-state.

KEYWORDS: Laozi, Zhuangzi, hermeneutics, vernacular, evolution, Social Darwinism, history of science

The Nationalist government’s efforts to recover Chinese sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea after the end of World War Two

Qianping CHEN

ABSTRACT：Utilizing substantial archival materials, this article examines the process through which the Nationalist government reasserted Chinese sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea, including China’s stationing of troops on Dongsha Island, Yongxing Island, and Taiping Island. Well-prepared militarily, economically, and diplomatically, the Nationalist government achieved this strategic goal after overcoming various difficulties including insufficient ships and funds, unfavorable weather and maritime conditions, and the obstruction of the French colonial government in Vietnam. The Nationalist government also sent technicians to survey the islands and map out the sphere of Chinese maritime territory in the South China Sea, and it built two weather stations. These actions were publicized on December 1, 1947. During this process, the government of the United States adopted a policy of acquiescence due to its close collaboration with China. When the French government occupied one of the Xisha Islands and attempted to take firmer action, the United States and Britain pressured France to make concessions to China, which led the French government to seek a diplomatic solution.

KEYWORDS: Nationalist government, War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, sovereignty over the South China Sea, affirmation of South China Sea territorial sphere

The United States government’s deliberations and actions on the status of the South China Sea Islands, 1943–1951: the formation of American policy towards South China Sea disputes

Guang LI

ABSTRACT：In 1943, the United States began to consider the issue of the world order after the end of World War II; at that time, the status of the islands in the South China Sea remained undetermined. Towards the end of the war, a US policy-planning document on this issue favored either returning the islands to one of the parties claiming sovereignty or placing the islands under international trusteeship once the war ended. Immediately after the end of World War II, the United States withdrew its support for an international trusteeship, and it did not back up any single party’s claim of sovereignty over the islands. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United States did not clarify its stance on the issue of sovereignty over the South China Sea islands, hoping the eventual outcome would not favor the newly founded People’s Republic of China. Finally, the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951, signed under the guidance of the United States, stipulated only that Japan relinquish the islands, but failed to identify who would take them over. The San Francisco Peace Treaty signaled the formation of the official US policy towards disputes over the islands in the South China Sea.

KEYWORDS: Nansha Islands, Xisha Islands, United States, San Francisco Peace Treaty

Forum

The origins of the South China Sea issue

Guoqiang LI

ABSTRACT：China discovered and was the first to name and explore the South China Sea islands and the adjacent waters, and China has exercised sovereignty and jurisdiction over them since the Tang and Song dynasties. In modern times, imperialists shattered the peace of the South China Sea using advanced weapons, but Chinese sovereignty over this area has never been challenged. In the more than 60 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese government has pursued the principle of “claiming sovereignty, shelving disputes, and seeking joint development” and has exercised sovereignty and jurisdiction over and explored the South China Sea islands and territorial waters peacefully and effectively. The lure of resources and profits and strategic competition among countries beyond the region, however, have complicated the prospects for resolving the South China Sea issue.

KEYWORDS: History of the South China Sea, sovereignty over territorial waters, maritime rights and interests

Politics and revolution during the Republican era – a social history perspective: an interview with Wang Qisheng, December 29, 2016

Qisheng WANG & Wennan LIU

Special Collection

The Qingshuijiang Documents: valuable sources for regional history and cultural studies of the Miao frontier in Guizhou

Yingqiang ZHANG

ABSTRACT：The Qingshuijiang Documents, a collection of private documents written in Chinese, date from as early as the period in which the Qing government began developing the Miao frontier; these documents first appeared on the middle and lower reaches of the Qingshuijiang River and have remained there ever since. The Qing’s efforts to open new frontiers during the Yongzheng reign led to economic and social changes in the Qingshuijiang River valley in southeast Guizhou. These changes centered on the growth of forestry, ranging from planting and cutting trees to shipping and trading in timber. The Qingshuijiang Documents are original records of this historical process and a live reflection of it. Once widely kept in private hands, these documents are valuable not only for research on regional cultural change since the Qing, but also for formulating new perspectives and exploring methods for the study of private historical documents.

KEYWORDS: The Qingshuijiang Documents, the Qing, the Miao frontier in Guizhou, private documents, regional society

Book Reviews

The new history of modern China written by scholars across the strait (volume 1: the late Qing period, volume 2: the Republican period), edited by WANG Jianlang and HUANG Ko-wu, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2016, vol. 1, 548+1170 pp., vol. 2, 596+1224 pp., ISBN 978-7-5097-8451-8, ISBN 978-7-5097-8198-2

Lili LI (李丽丽)

Institution and everyday life: public health in Beijing, 1905–1937, by DU Lihong, Beijing, China Social Sciences Press, 2015, 395 pp., ISBN 978-7-5161-5772-5

Qingyun ZHAO (赵庆云)

The normalization of the law in the Qing dynasty: ethnicity and status, by HU Xiangyu, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2016, 260 pp., ISBN 978-7-5097-8773-1

Shichun TANG (唐仕春)

A study on Ronglu and late Qing politics, by MA Zhongwen, Beijing, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2016, 363 pp., ISBN 978-7-5097-8894-3

Ce HAN (韩策)

The Chinese Nationalist government’s diplomatic decisions during the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, by ZUO Shuangwen, Beijing, The Unity Press, 2015, 301 pp., ISBN 978-7-5126-3507-4

Shan LI (李珊)

Calling a truce or declaring war: the Guomindang’s postwar policy on the Northeast issue, by WANG Chaoguang, Beijing, China Renmin University Press, 2016, 245 pp., ISBN 978-7-300-23449-6

Longfei WANG (王龙飞)

Marching north: the struggle between the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and Zhang Guotao, by LIU Tong, Beijing, Shenghuo Dushu Xinzhi Joint Publishing Company, 2016, 520 pp., ISBN 978-7-108-05795-2

Wei REN (任伟)

Stories about the “marginal man”: the tragedies of several “problematic” ordinary persons, by YANG Kuisong, Guangzhou, Guangdong People’s Publishing House, 2016, 364 pp., ISBN 978-7-218-10623-6

Kunrui LI (李坤睿)