Experiment of Federalisation in Republic of China in 1920s (On State Constitutionalism in early Republic of China)

AutorJiang Guohua
Páginas485-506

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I Introduction

The State Constitutionalism was originated in 1920s when the Republic of China was just founded and in a period of civil war. In some provinces of Southern China, Some politician considered that it was time to establish state Constitution and make the provinces self-governing states as the western countries did. This idea was also advocated by some famous ideologists and part of plain people.

The State Constitutionalism was the rage in several provinces in central and southern China, including Hubei, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan, Fujian, Henan, Jiangsu, Yunnan, Guangxi, etc. Hunan Province finally enacted its constitution, while the other provinces finished drafting bills or just a legislative scheme.

As an experiment of federalization, State Constitutionalism finally failed, but after eighty years, we may also find some clue of China’s development of Constitutionalism by retrospection of the history.

II Back ground: the divided north and south of china

After ten years’ struggle for National Constitutionalism from 19051to 19152, the ideologists and politicians all felt disappointed by Constitutionalism implemented by the central government and turned to another method of reform. And in the years around 1920, the country relapsed into a chaos caused by civil war. Stratocracy became the major form of politics, while the warlords in the north beat the drum for unification by force, the south uphold the idea of self-government in an area of province. One of the most important reasons why State Constitutionalism was launched is the rupture between the northern China and southern China. This kind of rupture might be interpreted both in politics and culture.

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2.1. The rupture in politics

China was divided into several parts by different forces around 1920; this condition was finally ended in 1927. The Republic of China was governed in name by Beijing government which took Xu Shichang3as nominal president, but it was really controlled by warlords; in southern China Sun Yat-sen4who is the founder of Republic of China constituted a military government in Guangzhou which was the capital of Guangdong province and made himself generalissimo of Republic of China. Both the north and south took themselves as legal government of Republic of China.

Both the north provinces and south provinces were controlled by warlords, and they were subjected to either north or south Government at least or at most on paper. China was divided into two parts in politics. This kind of division was prevalent after the establishment of the Republic of China in both parts of China.

"The fallacy of division of south and north was created by Yuan Shikai5

whose purpose was to provoke the northern people to dominate the south and corrupt the political system of Constitution; Duan Qirui6continued with this purpose and took the conduct more eagerly. He took northern China as an independent country and southern China as enemy state in his resignation. His purpose was so obvious."7Xia Zhishi8Said.

The southern China had the same idea as the northern China did. Tang Jiyao9promulgated a plain text when his army of Yunnan Province went to

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Sichuan which is another province in south China, the plain text said: "In a standpoint of territorialism, my army has to be involved in confrontation with the northern China as to consolidate the southern states. The republic which is constructed by our compatriot will never allow the northern China to corrupt arbitrarily; the south with more than half of Chinese population will never allow the minority of China to tyrannize in; Yunnan and Sichuan which are all parts of China will never allow the north to ruin by perverting the law."10

2.2. The rupture in culture

From another aspect, the rupture of China was also a culture phenomenon beside politics. "The Chinese take much of localism and stern with the differences among provinces."11Both business and politics separated into different parties based on regionalism. Localism may promote the development of local autonomy, but over-anxious of localism may also turn to splittism and political disorder.

Localism might do little harm to the country in peacetime, and will also do little harm in time of war with enemy from abroad. When China was invaded by other countries, this sort of drastic localism might always be taken place by nationalism, but when the provinces fight a battle with each other, the localism become a peace breaker. Between 1926 and 1927, the south army delivered a battle with the north and finally unified the country. When the army entered Henan province which was in subjection of North China, the agitprop found it hard to communicate with the people. They said in their reports, "The idioms we used in Wuchang12become useless, such as warlord, malfeasant, overthrow, etc. We have to explain these words repeatedly."13As we know, some words such as warlord might be new to the people, but other words such as malfeasant were frequently used in vulgar drama, why was it needed to explain repeatedly The phenomenon indicated the truth that Henan people were resisting the propaganda from the north.

The rupture between the northern China and southern China was a kind of extended localism, the dissimilarities between the two parts of China were obvious than ever before. The people were also hypersensitive with each other’s deeds.

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And in the other hand, the folk-customs of the south and north are dissimilar in many aspects even until now. The south people mainly take rice as staple food while the north people take wheat commonly; the south is much moister than the north; the south is mountainous while the north is almost an extensive and level area of land; and the south is much more multinational than the north; even the dialects of south can hardly be understood by the north.

The differences in so many aspects made it hard for the people from the two regions to understand each other, especially in the period of civil war.

III State constitutionalism as a result of dividing

State Constitutionalism was advocated strongly in the south of China, especially in the middle part of China. Hunan province, a province lay between the two parts of China was the most representative. Maybe we could find out the purpose of these provinces by analyzing the situation of Hunan province.

3.1. The awkward situation in the boundary

As we can see, the supporters of State Constitutionalism were provinces which are conventional symbols of backland. But this kind of conventional idea is based on a precondition of no civil war. In armed conflict with the enemy from abroad, they are certainly home front. But unfortunately it was a time of civil war and the traditional inland provinces such as Hunan, Jiangxi became battlefront.

As we know, the provinces in South China were governed by different warlords at that time. The warlords were fear for each other’s aggression and they also attempt to invade each others. Some warlords such as Zhao Hengxi, the Governor of Hunan province tried hard to protect the province from civil war, so he tried his best to establish a State Constitution and finally did it in 1922.

According to the Hunan Province Constitution, armies from other provinces are forbidden to enter Hunan Province without permission.14This article leads to the final abolishment of Hunan Province Constitution, because this article was an obstacle of anabasis from south to north.

Since the provinces were in so misfortune a condition, they had to find some protective stipulations as to prevent the aggression from other warlords. So the warlord’s attitude was in consideration of his strength of army. "Only Hunan Province finally established its Province Constitution, because Hunan lies between the north and south, without the Province Constitution, it will be easily drifted into war which is neither the people’s wish nor warlord’s wish. As a result, Province Constitution turned out to be a talisman of Zhao Hengxi who is a

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warlord lack of force power."15Mao Zedong16indicated.

Cai Hesen17revealed the warlords’ thought straight from the shoulder: "The warlords who are powerful enough might call for unification by force power, and demand for establishment of a strong central government, such as Cao Kun18 and Wu Peifu19. And the warlords who are lack of army force will call for State Constitutionalism, such as Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province. Some warlords are even chameleonic, when assuming the offensive, they might announce unification by force power, while retreat back to their land, and they might declare their opinion of self-government, such as Zhang Zuolin20." "It is just the only result of warlord autarchy."21

3.2. The desperation of National Constitutionalism

As we can conclude from the description above, the Province Constitutionalism is not really the warlords’ true purpose, what they looking forward to just were their own benefits. But as a result of the establishment of Province...

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