Glory just a dream/ Fame a scrap of pa-per/ Waves of reproach lash the skies/ Hooves clatter in icy streets.

-Wang Yuanheng (Yuan dynasty)

In early September, during a stopover in Hawaii on the way to attend the Panama Canal Conference and visit Central and South American countries, ROC president Lee Teng-hui went to see the Manchurian "Young Marshal" Zhang Xueliang, who lives in semi-reclusion in Honolulu. The visit attracted a great deal of public interest in Taiwan.

In October, when PRC state president Jiang Zemin visited the US, he also stopped off in Hawaii, and the media could not help speculating whether he too would call on the Young Marshal-and whether the Young Marshal would be willing to meet him.

Zhang Xueliang, one of the most controversial figures in modern Chinese history, has been judged very differently on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. This is a quiet reminder of the gulf between Taiwan and the mainland in everything from the view of history to political outlook.

Since the start of cross-strait contacts 10 years ago, every time 12 December (or "Double 12")-the anniversary of the Xi'an Incident-has come around, this historical event which was crucial to the fate of modern China has again been reexamined by scholars, and its main protagonist, Zhang Xueliang, who seems like the tragic hero of a Greek epic, has again been discussed: Did his actions make him a "traitor to the nation," or a "hero of our age"?

A Chronology of Zhang Xueliang's Life, by noted military historian Su Deng-chi, stands out among the mass of historical works about Zhang and the Xi'an Incident. It lays out materials documenting the important events, speeches, correspondence and so on of the Young Marshal's life in the form of a day-by-day record. There is no added commentary: the materials themselves are allowed to lead the reader into Zhang's extraordinary life, so imparting a vivid lesson in modern Chinese history.

However, to judge the selection of materials, the view of history presented, and the impartiality of the writing, we still need the guidance of experts. We have asked Associate Professor Liu Wei-kai of the Department of History at National Chengchi University, a historian of many years' experience with comprehensive knowledge of primary historical materials from this period of Republican history, to write a review of the Chronology which may also serve as a guide for readers.

(Anna Wang/tr. by Robert Taylor)

Zhang Xueliang is one of the most legendary and controversial figures in the history of the Republic of China. His legendary status comes from his swift rise and fall on the Chinese political stage; his controversial nature comes from the "Xi'an Incident," of which he was the main instigator.

Swift rise and fall

Zhang Xueliang (also spelt Chang Hsueh-liang) is the eldest son of Manchurian warlord Marshal Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tso-lin). In June 1928, after Zhang Zuolin was assassinated in a bomb attack, at the age of only 28 Zhang Xueliang inherited his father's political and military dominance of northeastern China. His rule in Manchuria achieved considerable success, and his contribution to the achievement of national unity should be seen in a positive light. In late 1928, undeterred by Japanese obstruction, Zhang resolutely decided that the northeast should change flags, thus reestablishing the unity of China after a long period of fragmentation. In September 1930, when a military campaign by Chiang Kai-shek against two northern warlords was at a stalemate, Zhang sent a telegram pledging his allegiance to the central government, and dispatched forces from the northeast into the Beijing-Tianjin area. This put an end to the six-month-old civil war, and again helped restore national unity. When in late 1930 he arrived in Nanjing as second-in-command of ROC land, sea and air forces, Chiang Kai-shek, as head of the National Government, personally led a party of high-ranking civil and military officers to meet him at Pukou, the rail terminus across the Yangtze from Nanjing-an unprecedented honor. Zhang Xueliang's star had risen rapidly in China's political firmament, and he was then at the zenith of his career.

After the Mukden Incident of 18 September 1931, as the three Manchurian provinces and Rehe (Jehol) fell to the Japanese in quick succession, Zhang Xueliang's aura rapidly faded, but his status as a symbol of those Chinese driven from their homes became ever more intense. Finally in December 1936, influenced by the Communist Party of China's policy of a national united front against Japan, Zhang staged the Xi'an Incident, in which he kidnapped Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and demanded that he abandon his policy of suppressing the communists, reorganize the government and send forces to resist the Japanese. In Zhang's view of things, he embarked on the Xi'an Incident reluctantly, but perhaps he did not realize what its outcome would be, or how it would change the course of his own life. After the Xi'an Incident he was placed under permanent house arrest. This brought his political career to an end, and he could no longer pursue his great ambitions.

Chiang Kai-shek kidnapped

The Xi'an Incident was one of the most crucial events in the modern history of China, and is even described by some historians as the turning point in modern Chinese history, because of its great influence on subsequent political developments. In terms of policy towards Japan, it was a catalyst which brought forward the Japanese invasion of China. Under the changed circumstances following the Xi'an Incident's peaceful conclusion, the National Government announced that it was ceasing its campaign to eradicate the communists. In fact this was a reversal of the long-followed policy of achieving internal unity before dealing with the external aggressor. For the CPC, which was in a desperate position, this policy adjustment brought a crucial reprieve, and this is what has made Zhang Xueliang such a controversial figure.

For PRC historians, the Xi'an Incident was a turning point in the CPC's fortunes, so both the incident itself and its instigators, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, are held in high esteem. Zhang and Yang have been elevated to the status of national heroes, and when at a 1956 CPC Central Committee symposium marking the 20th anniversary of the Xi'an Incident, Zhou Enlai praised Zhang Xueliang as "a person of eternal merit," he set the basic tone for the CPC view of Zhang's actions in the Xi'an Incident. For more than 40 years, mainland writers inside and outside the CPC have never departed from this line. From the archive materials about Zhang's contacts with the CPC leadership before the Xi'an Incident which have been released by the mainland authorities over the last few years, and from various reminiscences by CPC leaders, it is not hard to appreciate the gratitude implied in Zhou's description. For the CPC, trapped in northern Shaanxi and suffering severe material privations, Zhang Xueliang's opportune assistance came as a lifeline. For instance, in Deng Rong's My Father, Deng Xiaoping, Yang Shangkun recounts how before the Xi'an Incident Deng Xiaoping was dangerously ill with typhoid fever, but thankfully Zhang Xueliang sent the Red Army a gift of two truckloads of supplies, including cigarettes and some cans of condensed milk. Nie Rongzhen and others decided to give the condensed milk to Deng to supplement his diet, and he gradually recovered. Thus Deng's life was saved. Yang also tells how the smokers among them shared the cigarettes, passing them around in a group, and other such details.

Sympathy and help for the Red Army

Compared with the high estimation accorded to Zhang Xueliang on the mainland, writers in Taiwan generally take a much more matter-of-fact view, seeing his instigation of the Xi'an Incident as treasonable-a deliberate act of insubordination and an overt challenge to the law and to military discipline. Of course there are those who, whether out of sympathy for Zhang, out of disdain for the government's policy of keeping him under permanent house arrest, or for whatever other reasons, are forgiving of his actions. But we have to realize one immutable fact: at the time, Zhang Xueliang was second-in-command of the northwestern counterinsurgency forces, with full military and political authority in the northwest, and charged with suppressing the communists to restore internal order. Yet in fact he was in covert contact with the CPC, secretly reached a cease-fire agreement with them, gave them material assistance, and even secretly helped them in attacking the government forces sent to eradicate them. All these actions are things which cannot and should not be tolerated by either the law or military discipline.

As for the facts about Zhang Xueliang's contacts with the CPC, and in particular the question of just how close their relationship was, for lack of materials researchers in Taiwan were long able to approach this issue only through the small amount of intelligence obtained by the government and released by official historical research organizations, from Zhang's own memoirs, and from the reminiscences of other figures connected with the event. Thus their interpretation of this aspect was generally not very clear-cut, and this was a blind spot in research on Zhang and the Xi'an Incident. But in recent years, contact across the Taiwan Strait has meant that historians can read and use the archive material made public on the mainland and the results of mainland research. From these, along with such materials as the diary of Xu Yongchang (Hsu Yung-chang) published by the Academia Sinica's Institute of Modern History, researchers have begun to gain a clearer understanding of Zhang Xueliang's relationship with the CPC. Professor Chiang Yung-ching, of the Graduate Institute of History at National Chengchi University, first used these materials when writing the article "Zhang Xueliang's and Zhou Enlai's Yan'an Meeting and the Factors Leading up to the Xi'an Incident," and has since written a succession of related articles exploring Zhang's relationship with the CPC. The book A New Investigation of the Xi'an Incident-Research into Zhang Xueliang's Relations with the Communist Party of China, by Yang Kuisong, a mainland researcher specializing in CPC-KMT relations, has also been published in Taipei. Yang's book is the first historiographical work to fully discuss Zhang Xueliang's relationship with the CPC leadership, and also presents a new interpretation of the factors directly behind the Xi'an Incident. The abundant archive material upon which the author draws also provides scope for further research into this issue. At the Xi'an Incident 60th Anniversary Symposium held in Taipei on 12 December 1996-the day of the anniversary-by the ROC Historical Materials Research Center, almost half the 11 papers presented focussed on Zhang's prior relationship with the CPC. And due to the continuously growing amount of material available, A Chronology of Zhang Xueliang's Life-A True Record of the Rise and Fall of the Manchurian Young Marshal, by China Times deputy editor Su Deng-chi, was published in Taipei on the same day.

A much-studied event

A Chronology of Zhang Xueliang's Life presents a detailed, strictly chronological day-by-day record of Zhang Xueliang's life in tabular form, covering the 96 years from his birth in 1901 to the 60th anniversary of the Xi'an Incident in 1996. Su Deng-chi has been researching the Xi'an Incident for many years and has published numerous articles on the subject. He has a very individual view of Zhang Xueliang, and in place of an author's preface includes an essay entitled "The Debate on Zhang Xueliang's Role is Not Over," in which he assesses Zhang's life as a whole. In it he writes: "Zhang Xueliang's rollercoaster career, from the extraordinary promise of his youthful years to his arrest, is full of contradictions and frustrations. He detested civil war, but led troops fighting in civil wars for over a decade; he was eager to fight the Japanese, but failed when he did so; he opposed communism half his life, but at the crucial juncture saved the communist party; he was faithful to Chiang Kai-shek for years, yet while in the field rebelled and kidnapped Chiang, and in the end was kept locked up by Chiang for decades. The clash between these cherished ideals and these real actions, apart from being a cruel irony of history, is also a tragedy rooted in his own character. The right and wrong, good and bad of his actions will still be argued about by future scholars" (pp. 14-15). The book is actually a by-product of Su Deng-chi's research into the Xi'an Incident and Zhang Xueliang. In his introductory essay, Su comments on the process of its compilation as follows: "I did not start out with the intention of writing a chronology of the historical personage Zhang Xueliang. Initially I simply arranged excerpts from materials on him in chronological order for my own education and for ease of reference. But after several years, I was surprised to find I had amassed over 200,000 Chinese characters of material, which I am now publishing in the hope that it will be useful to scholars who share the same interest" (p. 15).

Tragedy born of his own personality

In terms of content and the materials quoted from, the book seems likely to achieve this objective. It is clearly ordered, lucidly expressed, and draws on a rich body of materials. According to the bibliography at the end of the book, these include 19 archive files and compilations of historical material; 130 monographs, research papers and memoirs; and 18 bulletins, periodicals and newspapers, covering pretty much all the research and materials on Zhang Xueliang and the Xi'an Incident available in published form on either side of the Taiwan Strait today. For those interested in researching Zhang Xueliang and modern Chinese history, it is a highly useful reference work. The map of Zhang's time under house arrest, at the front of the book, is a good example of the author's careful approach. In schematic form, with explanatory texts, it traces Zhang Xueliang's movements during his period of permanent house arrest from 25 December 1936, after he escorted Generalissimo Chiang by air from Xi'an to Luoyang, via Nanjing, Fenghua in Zhejiang, Huangshan in Anhui, Pingxiang in Jiangxi, Chenxian and Yuanling in Hunan, Xiuwen, Kaiyang, Xifeng and Tongzi in Guizhou, Chongqing (Chungking) in Sichuan, Yangmingshan in Taipei, Hsinchu and Kaohsiung, to the Peitou district of Taipei, where he was allowed to build a house and settle in 1961. The map gives the reader a very clear picture of Zhang's movements. The 35 photographs included in the book are also something rarely seen in works in this field in both their number and the quality of their content.

Of course, the book does have its faults too. For example, the record of Zhang's administration of Manchuria from 1928 to 1931 is incomplete, and some periods of his life are not covered at all: for instance, there is no mention of his activities in Europe during a nine-month visit from April 1933 to January 1934. This may be due to a lack of material. The recent article "Zhang Xueliang's Intellectual Journey During his Stay in Europe," referred to by the Japanese researcher Nishimura Shigeo at the Xi'an Incident 60th Anniversary Symposium, states that there is a detailed record in "Zhang Xueliang's Relinquishment of Office and Travels Abroad, and Other Activities," in the North China section of "Compilation of Miscellaneous Information on the Local Political Situation in China" in the Japanese foreign ministry's diplomatic history archives. If the author prepares a revised edition, he should be able to consult that material to fill the gap. The book also contains some factual and chronological errors. For instance, the description of the founding meeting of the Si Wei ("Four Social Bonds") Association (a support group for Chiang Kai-shek) on 12 May 1934 is at variance with historical records. In fact, this is because the author relies on accounts from memory, but people's memories are not entirely reliable. As far as I understand, ROC official historical research organizations have in their collections the original files on the Si Wei Association's founding. For a future edition the author could make a detailed check against the archives of such institutions as the National Museum of History and the KMT's Department of Party History.

Awaiting a balanced view

Overall, these few faults do not detract from the Chronology's virtues. It provides a comprehensive summary of the results of research to date on both sides of the Taiwan Strait into Zhang Xueliang and the Xi'an Incident, and suggests a likely direction for future research. The book's publication also reminds us of the books on Zhang Xueliang now in the shops, such as A Critical Biography of Zhang Xueliang by Wang Guangdi (aka Sima Sangdun), Zhang Kuitang's Biography of Zhang Xueliang and Fu Honglin's Zhang Xueliang and the Xi'an Incident, which are all by overseas or mainland researchers. All these works either, because they appeared rather early, rely on a limited corpus of material, or, because of the environment in which they were produced, show a bias in their content and in the opinions expressed. Today, most of the mainland and Taiwanese materials on Zhang Xueliang have been made available, and we look forward to the appearance of a biography of Zhang Xueliang with an entirely fresh perspective and a balanced judgement.

p.132

Title: A Chronology of Zhang Xueliang's Life-A True Record of the Rise and Fall of the Manchurian Young Marshal

Author: Su Deng-chi

Publisher: Yuan-Liou Publishing Co. Ltd.

Pages: 479 pages.

p.134

During a stopover in the US state of Hawaii on the way to a conference in Panama in early September, President and Mrs. Lee Teng-hui made a special trip to see the reclusive "Young Marshal" Zhang Xueliang and Ms. Zhao Yidi, his companion of more than 70 years. National Security Council secretary-general Ting Mao-shih, the then foreign minister John Chang and the then ROC representative in the US, Jason Hu, all joined the Lees on this visit, making for a historic scene. (courtesy of the Presidential Office)