unit 4: the chinese revolution

Unit 4: The Chinese Revolution

中国革命

AOS 1: 1898-1949

• 1898 – 1911: Qing Dynasty• 1911 - 1927: Era of the Warlords• 1927 – 1949: Republic of China (Guomindang)

AOS 1: 1898-1949

• SECTION A: SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONCommon Questions: Sun Yat Sen, Boxer

Rebellion, Era of the Warlords, Jianxi, Long March and Yan’an or a timeframe

AOS 1: 1898-1949• Section B: Document Analysis

This slide has been modified and some imagesRemoved. Please download past exams from 2005 to2009 that have been included in past exams

Fall of the Qing: External

• H umilations (from various foreign powers):• O pium• M issionaries• E xtraterritoriality

• F engshui (the breaking of)• A nnexations• C oncessions• T reaty Ports• S pheres of Influence

Fall of the Qing: Internal

• 1898: Hundred Day Reforms• 1900: Boxer Rebellion• 1905: Formation of Tongmenghui• 1907: Death of Cixi & Guangxu• 1911: Railway Recovery Movement• 1911: Wuchang/Wuhan Uprising

Hundred Day Reforms

• 1898: Hundred Day Reforms– Japan used as model of reform (Meiji Restoration)– Kang Youwei as advocate for reform– Pushed through by Emperor Guangxu lasting 103 days

• B udgeting• E ducation • R ailways• P olitics• S implification of Laws

– Squashed by Cixi

Significance: Any last chance China had to reform had been lost

Boxer Rebellion

• 1900 (13/6): Boxer Rebellion– Instead Cixi throws her support Yihetuan (Righteous

& Harmonious Fists)• 1901 (7/9): Boxer Protocols– Further humiliation

“Cixi’s support of the Boxers had proved as unwise as it had been ineffective.”- Michael Lynch

Significance: Qing had very few supporters – drastic/hopeless attempt at gaining support by Cixi…

Cixi“On the whole, the Qing reforms fulfilled the

hopes of very few.” - Patricia Buckley Ebrey“Her ruthlessness was a proverbial as her

extravagance” John Robottom“This rule of an autocratic and reactionary

woman … was the main reason why no modernisation could be effected.” – C.P Fitzgerald

BUTSterling Seagrave reassessed how much

historians relied on in particular Kang Youwei & Edmund Backhouse. “… A very entertaining caricature, but its is completely phoney.”

Sun Yixian (Sun Yat-Sen)

• 1905: Forms the Tongmenghui (Common Alliance League)

• San Min Zhuyi (3 People’s Principles– Nationalism– Democracy– People’s Livelihood

• Tongmenghui funded a series of popular rebellions against the Qing between 1908-11: All failed, but it set a precedent.

• Significance: Gave China an alternative to the Qing dynasty

Wuchang Uprising

• 1907: Pu-yi becomes child emperor

• Significance: continued weak leadership

• By 1911 all it would take is a little spark to topple the Qing

• Wuchang/Wuhan Uprising• 1/1/1912: Sun Yixian declared

provisional president of the new republic

Yuan Shikai

• Given presidency by Sun to guarantee abdication of Puyi

• Quickly betrays the revolution– Effectively bans the GMD– 1915: 21 Demands to Japan

• Significance: continued rule of corruption

• Upon his death China splits into different regions ruled by warlords

May Fourth Movement

• Triggered by the Versailles Treaty in 1919• Part of the larger New Cultural Movement• More Patriotic movement compared to the 1911

Revolution which was anti-Manchu rather than Pro-China

• Use of ‘ideas’ as weapons.– Therefore big growth in study of new ideas including

western ideas– No coincidence: growth in GMD popularity and formation of

the CCP• Significance: helped produce the two parties that were

to fight for control of China (both with the aim of unity)

Formation of the CCP

• Li Dazhao (Beijing University) founded a Marxist study group in 1918. – Both Mao Zedong (his assistant)

and Chen Duxiu were converted.

• Li and Chen establish the CCP and first meeting of 13 delegates held in Shanghai 1921.

• Nan Chen, Bei Li. (Southern Chen Northern Li)

First United Front• Sun-Joffe declaration 26 Jan

1923• CCP members would become

members under the GMD (only CCP 420 members in 1923)

• 3 Communists (out of 24) given seat in central executive

• Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) sent to Moscow for military training and later founding of Huangpu military academy

Northern Expedition

• By 1927: Communists have 57,000 members– Spurred out by events in major cities

• Death of Sun 11 March 1925• By 1926 Jiang had outmaneuvered main

opponents• In 1926 Jiang launches Northern

Expedition to unify China

Shanghai Massacre

• Jiang turns on the Communists in Shanghai 26 March 1927

• Significance: change in CCP organisation & leadership

• Jiang consolidates control over China

Jianxi Soviet

Jianxi Soviet

• Because of failed uprisings (spurred out by Stalin) CCP forced to establish Soviet bases in rural regions

• Zhu and Mao establish Jianxi Soviet (Jinggangshan then Ruijin)

• Land Reforms• 3 million peopleSignificance: provided a framework for future revolutionary work

Red Army

• Red Army Rules of Conduct– Prompt obedience to orders– No confiscation from poor

peasants– Return all borrowed articles– Replace damaged articles– Struggle to the death against

the enemy

Significance: Positive alternative to previous armies & governments

The Long March

The Long March

• Encirclement Campaigns• Zunyi• Propaganda & Luding Bri

dge (Dadu River)

• Snow Mountains & Eastern High Grasslands

• Arrival at Shaan-Gan-Ning Soviet (Shaanxi later renamed Yen’an)

Zunyi

• Was Mao undisputed leader?“The Zunyi meeting … inaugurated

a new central leaderhip with Comrade Mao Zedong at its head.” – Liu Po-cheng

“Mao was not made chief of either the Party or the army at Zunyi … he became a member of the Secretariat.” – Jon Halliday

Propaganda & Luding Bridge

• “When they saw the soldiers coming, they panicked and fled…” – Sun Shuyun

• “The best estimations give a figure of 15,000 dead and 30,000 unexplained … the majority almost certainly deserted.” – Sun Shuyun (on Xiang River)

Significance

• They survived• Mao = undisputed

leader• Propaganda victory• Yan’an as strategic base

Yan'an & WWII

• Yan'an Way– Mass Line– Red Army– Three Thirds– Continuous Revolution– On New Democracy

• Rectification CampaignSignificance: Mao further

develops his revolutionary ideas with relatively low resistance from Japanese

• Xi’an Incident & Second United Front

• Sino-Japanese War (WWII) 1937-1945

Significance: Chiang forced to deal with the bulk of Japanese military

Yan'an & WWII

• “Behind the Japanese lines the Communist-led guerillas remained virtually alone…” – Stuart Schram

• “The Japanese sought to take over the coastal cities … they had to defeat mainly Nationalist, not Communist forces…” – Jack Gray

Civil War

• Did Jiang lose the Civil War or did the CCP steal China away from him

• “The speed of the takeover was the result of the completeness of the demoralisation, disintegration and collapse of the Nationalist regime.” – Pichon Loh

AOS 2: (1949-1976)

• Early Reforms & the Korean War• Hundred Flowers Campaign• The Great Leap Forward• Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

AOS 2: 1949-1976

• SECTION A: DOCUMENT ANALYSIS- Mao on the GPCR- JD Spence on the launch of the GPCR- Nine Commentaries of the Communist Party (GLF)- Speech from Mao (100FC)- Lee Feigon on the Great Leap Forward

- SECTION B: Essay2009 SE: Jenner states that ‘almost everyone . . . had

learned to be afraid’. How had society been affected by the Revolution?

Use evidence to support your answer.

Early Reforms

• Political: New Party and Government Structures – 3 tier process: PRC, CCP & PLA– Mao as chairman of both PRC & CCP - Liu Shaoqi as Vice Chairman, Zhou Enlai as Premier, Deng Xiaoping as

Secretary-General of the Secretariat and Peng Dehuai as head of PLA • Economic:

– Curbed inflation rates– Land redistribution (fanshen & Speak Bitterness)“Between 2 and 5 million landlords may have been executed.” Jasper

Becker– First Five Year Plan

• Social:– Marriage Laws 1 May 1950. Also Cleanliness and Public Health Drives

Early Reforms

• Korean War– Mao: “China has stood up!”– Made China more reliant on USSR for assistance

“The Korean War was a mistake, 100% wrong” – Mao

Early Reforms• Internal Impact

– San Fan (3 Antis Campaign) 1951• Graft, Waste and Bureaucracy (anyone with Western ties, unsuitable backgrounds

and resistance to change)

– Wu Fan (5 Antis Campaign) 1952• Bribery, Tax evasion, Theft of State Property, Cheating on Government Contracts

(excessive profits) and Industrial Espionage)

** Extension of Mao’s rectification campaign: ruined many lives! For Tens of Thousands it meant Mass Struggle and Self-Criticism, for more it meant quick trials and execution.

“The Campaign to suppress counter-revolutionaries burned white-hot.” – Philip Short

“Many capitalists simply turned red when the heat went on…” Ross Terrill

Early Reforms

• “The new regime was authoritarian and often repressive.” – Maurice Meisner

• “Once the state was secure, Mao began the systematic terrorization of the population.” – Jon Halliday

BUT• “For most [of the population] it was a better

world.” J.W Esherick

100 Flowers Campaign

• Jack Gray: “China would be inoculated with a benign form of the Hungarian distemper, and so saved from the real disease.”

• Campaign Relaunch: March 1957• Anti-Rightist Movement: May 1957

Great Leap Forward

• Mao’s drive for more improvements after the first five year plan

• Typified by:– Backyard Steel Production– Agricultural Experimentation & Failure (Lysenkoism,

close planting & deep ploughing)– Four Pests Campaign– Large Scale (Peoples) Communes (inc. kitchens &

entertainment)– Large scale projects– Result: Famine! 30 million deaths estimated

Great Leap Forward

“The Great Leap Forward was an epoch-making success.” – Wilfred Burchett

“Heavy Losses” – Edgar Snow“China was starving.” Harrison Salisbury“An all-time first-class manmade famine … The

GLF had played itself out as a Mao-made catastrophe.” – John Fairbank

Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 1961-1976

• Mao’s attempt to regain power after Wuhan Plenum of 1958• Bombard the Headquarters: Beginning of Mao’s turn on the

party• Red Guard – “to rebel is justified”

– Uni students, high school students and later workers. – Lin Biao’s attack on the four olds.

• CHIC: Customs, Habits, Ideas, Cultures

– Little red book– Rallies at Tiananmen square

• Resulted in factional fighting • Targeting of teachers and principals and anyone who represented “old ways”


• Soon turned onto any of Mao’s opposition• The Gang of Four


• No.1 and No.2 capitalist roaders (Lin & Deng) • Use of the Red Guard to remove any

opposition to Mao!


• Once Mao again in full power again turns on those who supported him: students– Students sent out to countryside to learn from the

grassroots of socialism (peasants)

• Fall of Lin Biao: Failed coup & dies 13/9/1971 • 1976 (year of the dragon); Zhou 1/8; Zhu 6/6; Mao 9/9

• Gang of Four arrested October 6

Historiography

• Maoist View: Mao, Edgar Snow• Marxist View: will not really need in the exam –

interesting for period between 1921 & 1936)• Western Liberal View: Michael Lynch, Stuart

Schram, Immanuel Hsu, C.P Fitzgerald• Revisionist View: typified by authors such as

Harrison Salisbury, Sun Shuyun, Jon Halliday (with his wife Jung Chang), Jack Gray and Philip Short

unit 4: the chinese revolution

Documents