Warlord Soldiers: Chinese Common Soldiers 1911-1937

187 Pages·1985·4.269 MB·English

by  Diana Lary

Publications in the series are:
Party Leadership and Revolutionary Power in China (1970)
edited by John Wilson Lewis
Authority, Participation and Cultural Change in China (1973)
edited by Stuart R. Schram
Mao Tse-tung in the Scales of History (1977) edited by Dick
Wilson
Shanghai: Revolution and Development in an Asian Metrop­
olis (1980) edited by Christopher Howe
Mao Zedong and the Political Economy of the Border Region.
A Translation of Mao’s Economic and Financial Problems (1980)
edited and translated by Andrew Watson
The Politics of Marriage in Contemporary China (1981) by
Elisabeth Croll
Food Grain Procurement and Consumption in China (1984) by
Kenneth R. Walker
Class and Social Stratification in Post-Revolution China (1984)
edited by James L. Watson
WARLORD SOLDIERS
CHINESE COMMON SOLDIERS, 1911-1937
Good iron does not make nails,
good men do not make soldiers
DIANA LARY
Department of Histoiy
York, University, Canada
The right of the
Uni rent ty of Cambridge
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10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1985
First published 1985
Printed in Great Britain by
Redwood Bum Limited, Trowbridge
Library of Congress catalogue card number: 84-23803
British Library Cataloguing m Publication Data
Lary, Diana
Warlord soldiers: Chinese common soldiers,
1911-1937. - (Contemporary China Institute
publication)
i. China - History - Republic, 1912-1949
I. Title II. Series
951-04 »774.5
ISBN O 521 30270 6

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
A soldier of the Chihlian [Zhili] army, igs6 X
Introduction I
i Sources of soldiers 13
Mercenaries, volunteers and conscripts - the attractions of
mercenary service - regionalised recruitment
2 Going into the army 24
Personal recruitment - recruitment through entrepreneurs -
local authority recruitment - street recruitment - standards
for recruits - recruitment of serving soldiers and bandits
3 Life in the army 36
Basic training and soldier assimilation - indoctrination -
licence - army pay - soldiers* dependents - comradeship
4 Officers and men 49
Contractual and paternalistic relationships - neglectful and
predatory relationships-social gulf between officers and
men - officer maltreatment of soldiers
5 Bandh/soldier - soldier/bandit 59
Common characteristics and distinctions between soldiers
and bandits - recruitment of bandits - soldiers turned
bandits
6 Grey rats and grey wolves 71
Traditional levels of violence - the modern growth of
violence - army depredations on the civilian population -
vii
Contents
soldier violence towards civilians - looting - rape - theft -
vandalism - the effects of violence - resistance to violence -
the self-protective mentality
7 Bad iron 83
Stereotypes of soldiers - soldier mentality - Zhu Zhixin’s
concept of the abnormal psychology of soldiers -
the process of brutalisation
8 Leaving the army 9«
Desertion - disbandment - retirement
9 Militarism and chronic violence IOI
Appendix i Chinese soldiers - biographical notes 112
Appendix 2 4Younger brother’ (‘Didi’) 116
Appendix3 Reports of mutinies 123
Appendix 4 ‘In the army’ 129
Appendix5 ‘As the bandits do things’ «35
Appendix 6 ‘The murderer’ «37
Appendix 7 ‘Good and evil effects of war in West China’ 146
Appendix 8 ‘The words of a soldier’ 148
Notes «55
Bibliography 168
Index «74
Vlll

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many people have helped me during the research and writing of this
book. My greatest debt is to Jerome Ch’en, to whom this book is dedi­
cated with my deep gratitude for all that he has taught me during the
past two decades. Thomas and Evelyn Rawski have given me an
enormous amount of help and encouragement, and the benefit of
their perceptive criticism. My colleagues in Toronto, Gerald Jordan,
B. M. Frolic, Margo Gcwurtz, Peter Mitchell and Victor Falken­
heims have all made different contributions. Other scholars in the
China field have given me the benefit of .their comments: Chang
Wenjin, University of Pittsburgh; Philip Huang, University of Cali­
fornia, Los Angeles; Li Zongyi and Qi Wenxin, Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences; Cai Shaoqing, University of Nanjing. Ramon Myers
and his stafT at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, helped
me greatly with materials. I also benefited from the use of collections
in China. I thank Tang Biao and Sun Xiufu of the Second Historial
Archives, Nanjing, and Ji Guilin and Zhang Kejiang of the Nanjing
Library for their assistance. I received financial support for my work
from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of
Canada, and from the York University Minor Research Grants
Committee. Chen Tiejian of the Institute of Modem History,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, very kindly wrote the dedi­
cation for me. Doris Rippington and York University’s Secretarial
Services did all the typing work, with great efficiency. Nikita, Tanya
and Anna Lary did not help directly, but gave me the warmth and
comfort to compensate for the lonely life of research and writing.
A solder oj the Chihlum [ZhiUJ army, 1926 {photo by permission oj the BBC Huiton Picture
Library)