Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T15:53:17.881Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Intellectuals and the One-party State in Nationalist China: The Case of the Central Politics School (1927–1947)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2014

CHEN-CHENG WANG*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of California Irvine, 200 Murray Krieger Hall Irvine, CA 92697-3275, USA Email: chenchew@uci.edu

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a new perspective on the relationship between Nationalist Party (GMD) cadres and Chinese intellectuals. By studying the Central Politics School, a major GMD political training institute for professional party cadres, I hope to reassess the nature of the GMD one-party state and remind researchers of the difficult choices it faced between backing party-liners needed for the political struggle and accommodating depoliticized intellectuals needed for public administration. This paper will argue that GMD political impotence in competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was due less to an inadequate recruitment of capable experts than to the over-specialization of its well-trained cadres on technical tasks. In fact, the cadres from the Central Politics School generally resembled those considered to be ‘intellectuals’ at educational level and in ideology. This compels us to reconsider how to define ‘intellectuals’ and whether they were as uniformly alienated from the one-party state as most of the scholarly literature suggests.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See Straus, Julia C., Strong Institutions in Weak Politics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998)Google Scholar and Kirby, William C., ‘Continuity and Change in Modern China: Economic Planning on the Mainland and on Taiwan, 1943–1958’, Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 24 (1990), pp. 121–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Bian, Morris L., ‘Building State Structure: Guomindang Institutional Rationalization during the Sino-Japanese War, 1937–1945’, Modern China 31:1, (2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 A few exceptions can be seen in Ferlanti, Federica, ‘The New Life Movement in Jiangxi Province, 1934–1938’, Modern Asian Studies 44:5 (2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 About the GMD's failure in gaining intellectuals’ support, see Tien, Hung-mao, Government and Politics in Kuomintong China, 1927–1937 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972)Google Scholar. Eastman, Lloyd, The Abortive Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Eastman, Lloyd, Chen, Jerome, Pepper, Suzanne and Van Slyke, Lyman P., The Nationalist Era in China 1927–1949 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 50CrossRefGoogle Scholar. As Margherita Zanasi correctly points out, affected by the Cold War historiography, scholars had been used to explaining the failure of the GMD by assuming a stereotyped GMD line that contrasted with the CCP's successful strategy. See Zanasi, Margherita, Saving the Nation: Economic Modernity in Republican China (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2006), pp.11, 232CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 On 5 May 1927, the Standing Committee of the GMD Central Executive Committee passed the proposal to establish the Central Politics School. From 1927 to 1947, the school was always controlled and financed by the GMD per se rather than by the Ministry of Education of the GMD government itself. In this sense, the Central Politics School was very different from other national universities and schools, which had to follow the government's regulations for higher education.

5 In his classic The Gate of Heavenly Peace, Jonathon Spence has given us an elaborate narrative of famous intellectuals who were affected by or involved with the Chinese revolution. However, because of the book's narrow focus, educated people who worked for existing regimes were largely excluded from his vision of the Chinese intellectual landscape. See Spence, Jonathon, The Gate of Heavenly Peace: the Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895–1980 (New York: Viking Press, 1981)Google Scholar.

6 Jinjian, Zhang, Mingcheng qi shi zi shu (The Memoir of Mingcheng at Age Seventy MQSZS), (Taipei: Chinese Administration Association, 1972), pp. 110, 129Google Scholar.

7 Jiezhong, Bai, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao gai kuang’ (‘The general situation of Guomindang Central Politics School’), in Wen shi zi liao cun gao xuan bian: zheng fu zheng dang, vol. 12 (The Selected Collection of Preserved Literary and Historical Materials: The Government and Parties WSZLCGXB 12) (Beijing: Chinese Literature and History Press, 2002), p. 760Google Scholar.

8 dong, Wan, ‘Xian wei ren zhi de Guomindang zhong yang dang wu xue xiao’ (‘The Rarely-known Goumingdang Central Party Affairs School,’)) Zhong shan feng yu (Wind and Rain in Zhong Mountain), 4 (2001), p. 40Google Scholar. Duan Xipeng taught in person the courses ‘The techniques of agitating masses’ and ‘The methods and measures regarding how to manipulate or boycott a meeting’.

9 Kang Ze had been one of the most hopeful political successors to Chiang Kai-shek. He was also a major executive of GMD anti-communist secret operations.

10 Gannu, Nie, ‘Ji Zhou Fohai Lin Bosheng’, (‘My Remembrances of Zhou Fohai and Lin Bosheng’) in Nie Gannu quan ji (The Complete Work of Nie Gannu), vol. 2 (Wuhan: Wuhan Press, 2004), p. 148Google Scholar.

11 Zuozhong, Liu, ‘Nie Gannu qi ren qu shi’ (Nie Gannu's anecdotes), Bai nian chao (The Tide of the Century), 10 (2003), p. 66Google Scholar. Zhou Fohai had been one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party. After he joined the GMD, he became a core member of Wang Jingwei's clique. Wang Jingwei had been Sun Yet-sen's most trusted assistant. Through the 1930s, he was the major rival to Chiang Kai-shek for the GMD leadership.

12 Zhang Jinjian, MQSZS, p. 116.

13 Zhang Jinjian, MQSZS, p. 115. Wang, Luo, Yang and Zhou were all fellows of Academia Sinica, the highest academic institute in China. Fang was a philosopher who gained his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, USA.

14 Bai Jiezhong, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao gai kuang’, p. 760; Yicheng, Ruanet al., Wo de da xue sheng huo (My College Life), vol. 1 (Taipei: Chinese Daily, 1980), p. 27Google Scholar.

15 Sun Liren may be one of the most well-known GMD generals in the Western World. In 1942, he rescued 7,000 British soldiers and civilians from a Japanese siege in Burma, and was therefore decorated Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

16 Weixian, Deng ed. Sun Liren yuan an ping fan!—Sun Liren jiang jun de cheng gong yu shi bai(The Rehabilitation of Sun Liren's Injustice case!: The Success and Failure of General Sun Liren), (Taipei: Xinmei Press, 1988)Google Scholar. See the digital version on http://blog.boxun.com/hero/201002/xsj1/2_1.shtml [accessed 22 July 2013].

17 Wan Dong, ‘Xian wei ren zhi de Guomindang zhong yang dang wu xue xiao’, p. 41.

18 Weiliang, Gao, ‘1927 Guomindang zhong yang te bie wei yuan hui po xi’ (‘The Analysis of the Guomindang Central Special Committee in 1927’), Jin dai shi yan jiu(Modern History Studies), 3 (1988), p. 158Google Scholar; Weiyun, Zhou, ‘Fang Dongmei: zai dangwai de shu dai zi’ (‘Fang Dongmei:The Bookworm outside the Parties’), Gong chan dang yuan(The Communists), 1 (2008), p. 47Google Scholar.

19 For a time, Guomindang Central Party Affairs School members actively assisted Li Zongren and the other military leaders in the fight against Wang Jingwei. Students impersonated ordinary people in the Nanjing streets in order to arouse the crowd's enthusiasm. Yet, a couple of weeks later, to help Chiang Kai-shek return to power, similar actions were adopted again in order to subvert Li Zongren's political league. See, Wen, Zhang, ‘Wo zai guo min dang zhong yang dang wu xue xiao de qin shen jing li’ (‘My Personal Experience in Guomindang Central Party Affairs School’), in WSZLCGXB 12, p. 773Google Scholar.

20 Deng Weixian ed. Sun Liren jiang jun de cheng gong yu shi bai, see http://blog.boxun.com/hero/201002/xsj1/2_1.shtml [accessed 22 July 2013].

21 See Cuiqiong, Xie, ‘Nie Gannu nian pu’ (‘The Chronology of Nie Gannu’), Zhong guo wen xue yan jiu(Chinese Literature Study), 1 (1988), p. 89Google Scholar; Ze, Kang, Kang Ze zi shu ji qi xia luo(Kang Ze's Confession and His Ending), (Taipei: Biographical Literature Press, 1998), p. 21Google Scholar.

22 Houqi, Lin, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao chu qi qing kuang’ (‘The Early Situation of Guomindang Central Politics School’), Fujian wen shi zi liao: CC Zhong guo zai min ne mu ji shi (Fujian Literary and Historical Materials: CC (Central Club) clique's China and its inside stories), 28 (1992), p. 195Google Scholar; Anyi, Qian, ‘Kang zhan qian zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao jian wen’ (‘My Experience in Central Politics School Before the War of Resistance’), in WSZLCGXB 12, p. 790Google Scholar.

23 Wan dong, ‘Xian wei ren zhi de Guomindang zhong yang dang wu xue xiao’, p. 41.

24 Lin Houqi, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao chu qi qing kuang’, p. 189.

25 Weikai, Liu ed, Luo Jialun xian sheng nian pu(The Chronology of Luo Jialun), (Taipei: Guomindang Central Party history Commitee, 1996), p. 100Google Scholar.

26 Fan Changjiang eventually left the school where he had studied for three years because he hated the GMD policies. Then, he became a famous journalist and finally joined the CCP. Today, the highest journalism prize in the People's Republic of China is in his name. See Changjiang, Fan, ‘Wo de qing nian shi dai’ (‘My Youth’), in Liang, Yang ed., Xue shu ming ren zi shu(The Self-description of Famous Academics), (Guangzhou: Huacheng Press, 1998), p. 314Google Scholar.

27 Liu Weikai ed., Luo Jialun xian sheng nian pu, p. 100.

28 Lin Houqi, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao chu qi qing kuang’, p. 193.

29 Yu, Ming, ‘Zhong yang zheng zhi xuexiao de xuesheng sheng huo’ (‘The Student Life in Central Politics School’), Du li ping lun(Independent Review), 186 (1933), p. 14Google Scholar. The seven departments were administration, finance, economics, law, education, journalism, and diplomacy. Three colleges were Land Economics, Statistics, and Cooperative Economics.

30 Lin Houqi, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao chu qi qing kuang’, p. 191.

31 Hefu, Zhao, ‘Hui yi zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao dui xue sheng de jiao yu’ (‘The Remembrance of the Student Education in Central Politics School’), WSZLCGXB 12, pp. 795796Google Scholar.

32 Tianfang, Cheng, Cheng Tianfang Zao nian hui yi lu(The Memoir of Chang Tianfang's Early years), (Taipei: Biographical Literature Press, 1968), p. 98Google Scholar.

33 Zhao Hefu, ‘Hui yi zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao dui xue sheng de jiao yu’, p. 794.

34 Lin Houqi, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao chu qi qing kuang’, p. 196. Also see Mengwu, Sa, Zhong nian shi dai(Middle Age), (Taipei: Sanmin Bookstore, 1967), pp. 3637Google Scholar.

35 Shunsheng, Zou, Hui yi lu(Memoir), (Taipei: The Atlantic Book Corporation, 1968), p. 46Google Scholar. The Youth Party represented the radical right wing in Chinese politics. It strongly opposed the GMD one-party dictatorship. Before he taught at the Central Politics School (hereafter, ‘CPS’), Zou had been arrested by the GMD for his political activity.

36 Ming Yu, ‘Zhong yang zheng zhi xuexiao de xuesheng sheng huo’, p. 16.

37 Chuanyu, Zho ed., Sa Menwu zhuan ji zi liao(The Biographical Materials of Sa Menwu), (Taipei: Tianyi Press, 1985), p. 17Google Scholar; Baimin, Liu, Xing zheng xue lun gang(The Outline of Administration), (Chongqin: Chinese Culture Service, 1947), pp. 1821Google Scholar. Hongyuan, Sun, Zhong guo xian dai zheng zhi xue de zhan kai: Qinghua zheng zhi xue xi de zao qi fa zhan1926–1937(The Development of Modern Chinese Political Science: The Early Development of Qinghua Department of Political Science, 1926–1937), (Beijing, Sanlian Bookstore, 2005), pp. 355356Google Scholar.

38 Ostrom, Vincent, The Intellectual Crisis in American Public-administration (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1989), pp. 2324, 29–31Google Scholar.

39 The Five Power Constitution was invented by Sun Yat-sen who imitated Trias Politica in the Western countries but who further separated the appointment power from the executive power and the supervision from legislation in order to avoid the pitfalls he had observed in Western politics.

40 Bokang, Xue, Ren shi xing zheng da gang (The Introduction of Personnel Administration), (Nanjing: Zhengzhong Bookstore, 1936)Google Scholar; Preface by author, Preface by Gan Naiguang, and pp. 19–20. Xue obtained his Masters degree in Political science from Washington University, USA.

41 Xue Bokang, Ren shi xing zheng da gang, p. 21.

42 kangli, Jiang, Xing zheng xue yuan li(The Theories of Administration), (Shanghai: Minzhi Bookstore, 1933), p. 1Google Scholar. Simply put, the spoils system means that the ruling party takes all governmental positions in reward for its partisans’ support.

43 Jiang Kangli, Xing zheng xue yuan li, p. 4.

44 Yicheng, Ruan, Ba shi yi shu(The Memoir at Age Eighty), (Taipei: Lienching Press, 1984), p. 274Google Scholar.

45 Yicheng, Ruan, ‘Zheng fu hai bu gou qiang you li ma?’ (‘Is the Government Not Strong Enough?’), Shi dai gong lun (Time's Public Opinion), 28 (1932), p. 20Google Scholar.

46 Jian, Wang, Zhong guo jin dai de fa lu jiao u (Modern Chinese Law Education), (Beijing: Chinese Political and Law Press, 2001), pp. 342344Google Scholar.

47 Ruan Yicheng, Ba shi yi shu, pp. 336–338.

48 Baichuan, Tao, Kun qiang hui yi you shi nian(Another Ten Years of Perseverance), (Taipei: Dongda Press, 1995), p. 298Google Scholar.

49 Zhongxie, Mei, Min fa yao yi(The Important Explanations of the Civil Law), (Beijing: Chinese Politics and Law Press, 1997)Google Scholar, Xie Huaishi's preface.

50 Zhao Hefu, ‘Hui yi zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao dui xue sheng de jiao yu’, p. 797.

51 Hanming, Guo, ‘Zhong yang zheng xiao zai Chongqing hui yi pian duan’ (‘Some pieces of Memory about Central Politics School in Chongqing’), in WSZLCGXB 12, p. 766Google Scholar.

52 Zheng, Xiao, Xiao zheng hui yi lu: tu di gai ge wu shi nian(Xiao Zheng's Memoir: Fifty Years’ Land Reform), (Taipei: The Institute of Chinese Land Economics, 1980), pp. 6566Google Scholar. Xiao studied land economics at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

53 Fan, Liu, ‘Wo suo zhi dao de de guo min dang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao’ (‘What I know about the Guomindang Central Politics School’), Xinshao wen shi zi liao(Xinshao Literary and Historical Materials), 2 (1989), p. 110Google Scholar.

54 Zhao Hefu, ‘Hui yi zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao dui xue sheng de jiao yu’, p. 795.

55 Yuqing, Yang, ‘Lue tan Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao’ (‘A Rough Talk on Guomindang Central Politics School’), in Wen shi zi liao xuan ji(The Selected Collection of Literary and Historical Materisls), (Beijing, Literary and Historical Materials Press, 1985), p. 114Google Scholar.

56 Xueyuan, Zhang, ‘Zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao de xin wen jiao yu’ (‘The education of Journalism in Central Politics School’), in Zhong guo xin wen xue hui nian kan(The Annual of Chinese Journalism Association), (Chongqing: Chinese Journalism Association, 1942), p. 104Google Scholar. Further analysis of this source shows that Dang Yi was only taught for two hours a week during the first year at the School, whilst the curriculum included classes of Chinese and English (four hours a week), political science and economics (three hours a week), and social science classes such as comparative government, international relations, and civil law, never disappeared completely from the table.

57 Zhao Hefu, ‘Hui yi zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao dui xue sheng de jiao yu’, p. 794.

58 Yang Yuqing, ‘Lue tan Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao’, p. 114; Lin Houqi, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao chu qi qing kuang’, p. 192.

59 Qi, Shan, Wuo de Yi sheng: Shan Qi hui yi lu (My life: Shen Qi's Memoir), vol. 1 (Taipei: Lianjing Press, 2003), p. 47Google Scholar; Lunxuan, Wang, ‘Zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao nei qian Chongqing qian hou’ (‘Before and After the Central Politics School moving to Chongqing’), in WSZLCGXB 12, p. 769Google Scholar; Jiyun, Cheng, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao’ (‘Guomindang Central Politics School’), in Zhong hua wen shi zi liao wen ku: zheng zhi jun shi bian(The Corpus of Chinese Literary and Historical Materials: Politics and Military), vol. 8 (Beijing: Chinese Literary and Historical Press, 1996), p. 794Google Scholar; Zhang Jinjin, MQSZS, p. 224.

60 Sa Mengwu, Zhong nian shi dai, p. 25.

61 ‘Tao Baichuan Liao you shu zha’ (The Letters of Tao Baichuan and his colleagues and Friends), Dang an yu shi xue (Archives and History), 5 (1996), p. 11.

62 Baichuan, Tao, Kun mian qiang juan ba shi nian(Eighty years of Perseverance), (Taipei: Dongda Press, 1984), p. 365Google Scholar.

63 See the report ‘Jin Yong: ban bao zhi shi pin ming xie xiao shuo shi wan wan’ (‘Jin Yong: Running the Newspaper is for My Life: Writing Novels is for Fun’), Shi dai zhou bao (Time Weekly).

64 Cheng Jiyun, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao’, p. 798; Kechen, Zhou, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao jiu xue jian wen’ (‘My experience of studying at Guomindang Central Politics School’), Fushun wen shi zi liao xuan ji(The Selected Collection of Fushun Literary and Historical Materials), 1 (1982), p. 154Google Scholar.

65 The Chinese tend to see the prepuce or blind gut as filthy and unnecessary parts of the human body. These two terms, therefore, were used to connote the GMD cadres as dirty and useless figures. Liu Fan, ‘Wo suo zhi dao de de guo min dang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao’, p. 112. These political instructors received other nicknames from the faculty. The professors sarcastically called them ‘yellow mandarin jackets’, or ‘party sticks’. See Guo Hanming, ‘Zhong yang zheng xiao zai Chongqing hui yi pian duan’, p. 768; Limin, Zhu, Zhu Limin xian sheng fang wen ji lu (Reminiscences of Mr. Limin Chu), (Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 1996), p. 52Google Scholar.

66 Zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao da xue bu di shi qi xue sheng bi ye ji nian ce (The Yearbook of the Tenth Class of Central Politics School Undergraduate Department ZXDSQBYJNC), (Chongqing: Central Politics School Undergraduate Department, 1942), p. 65.

67 Yan'an, located in North Shaanxi province, is a very dry and poor area of Northwest China. It served as the CCP's headquarters during the war against Japan.

68 Chen, Yung-fa, Yan'an de yin ying(The Shadow of Yan'an), (Taipei: Academia Sinica, 1990)Google Scholar; Yimin, Li, Li Yimin hui yi lu (The Memoir of Li Yimin), (Changsha: Hunan People's Press, 1986), pp. 99100Google Scholar; Zhenlu, Liu, ‘Kang da xue xi pian duan hui yi’ (‘Clips of studying in People's Resist-Japan Military and Political University’), Yan'an wen shi zi liao (The Literary and Historical Materials of Yan'an), 5 (1989), pp. 2526Google Scholar. Lu, Sima, Dou zheng shi ba nian (The Eighteen-year-long Struggle), (Hongkong: Asia Press, 1953), pp. 7475Google Scholar.

69 Bisson, Thomas A., Yan'an in June 1937, (Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, 1973), p. 37Google Scholar.

70 Fang, He, Cong Yan'an yi lu zou lai de fan si: He Fang zi shu(The Introspection of my experience since in Yan'an: the Self-description of He Fang), (Hongkong: Mingbao Press, 2007), p. 69Google Scholar.

71 Xia, Shen, Yan'an si nian, 1942–1945 (The Four Years in Yan'an, 1942–1945), (Zhengzhou: Elephant Press, 2009), pp. 96101Google Scholar.

72 ZXDSQBYJNC, p. 65.

73 Cheng Jiyun, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao’, p. 799.

74 ZXDSQBYJNC, pp. 69–78. A CPS student Chang Hsi-cheh recalled how his intellectual interest was deeply influenced by a CPS philosophy teacher, He Lin, a Harvard master and student of Afred N. Whitehead, who led him to the world of Hegel. See Hsi-cheh, Chang, Chang Hsi-cheh xian sheng fang wen ji lu(Reminiscences of Mr. Chang Hsi-cheh CHCFW), (Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 2000), pp. 2123Google Scholar. Xu Zhongpei in her autobiographical novel also recalled how translating foreign journal articles became a campus-wide intelligent recreation and a way to earn extra pocket money by submitting translations to big newspapers. See Zhongpei, Xu, Yu yin (Lingering Sound), (Taipei: Chongquang Art Press, 1969), p. 25Google Scholar.

75 Guo Hanming, ‘Zhong yang zheng xiao zai Chongqing hui yi pian duan’, p. 768; ZXDSQBYJNC, pp. 90–94.

76 Wo de da xue sheng huo, vol. 1, p. 117.

77 Wu, Shu, Shu Wu ko shu zhi zuan(The Oral Autobiography of Shu Wu), (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2005), p. 108Google Scholar.

78 ZXDSQBYJNC, p. 53; Yiqin, Yuan, ‘Hui yi xin wen jie qian bei Yu Songhua’ (‘Recalling the Journalistic Predecessor Yu Songhua’), Shi ji {The Century} 6 (1998), p. 49Google Scholar.

79 Guo Hanming, ‘Zhong yang zheng xiao zai Chongqing hui yi pian duan’, p. 768.

80 Zhang Jinjian, MQSZS, pp. 228–229.

81 Depu, Wang, Zheng hai you zong (Traces in Official Life), (Taipei: Longwen Press, 1990), vol. 2, pp. 240247Google Scholar.

82 Kai-shek, Chiang, ‘Zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao chuang xiao de zong zhi yu jiao xue de fang zhen’ (‘The Establishing Objectives and Teaching Principles of Central Politics School’), in Zong tong jiang gong si xiang yan lun zong ji(The Corpus of President Jiang Jieshi's Thoughts and Speeches), vol. 16, (Taipei: Guomindang Central Party History Committee, 1984), pp. 340341Google Scholar. Whampoa Military Academy was established in 1924 by Sun Yat-sen as the institute in which to train party military officers. The academy's first chancellor was Chiang Kai-shek who turned this school into his most important political power foundation.

83 Zhong yang dang wu zheng zhi xue xiao bi ye tong xue diao cha lu (The Survey of the Graduates of Central Party affairs and Politics School ZXBYTXDC), (Chongqing: Central Politics School, 1940), pp. 1–26.

84 Zhang Jinjian, MQSZS, pp. 143–161, 286–289.

85 Fan Changjia recalled that in his first year, the school still taught socialist theories, though communism was not included. These socialist courses would not be stopped until the CPS was established. See Fan Changjiang, ‘Wo de qing nian shi dai’, p. 312.

86 ZXBYTXDC, pp. 27–169.

87 The school's job assignment was not mandatory. On the contrary, the jobs distributed to graduates were greatly influenced by their own personal choices. Every student received a job preference sheet three months before they graduated. On the sheet, students filled in their three most-wanted jobs. The school tried to arrange the job distribution according to this information, see Chen Jiyun, ‘Guomindang zhong yang zheng zhi xue xiao’, p. 796. Of course, since good positions were always limited and competitive, not everyone was appointed to their ideal job. However, students could refuse to do an assigned job they did not like and try to find their own good job, see CHCFW, p. 26. Therefore, occupational distribution reflected not only the school's educational direction and goals, but also the identities and preferences of the students themselves.

88 Chen Guofu and his brother Chen Lifu were Chiang Kai-shek's main allies and leaders of the CC (Central Club) clique. Under Chiang's acquiescence, the major positions of the GMD were actually controlled by this clique.

89 See Zhicheng, Xiao, Ba shi xu chuan yu zhan shi hui yi (The Preface Autobiography at Age Eighty and Memoir of the Wartime), (Taipei: unknown, 1983), p. 63Google Scholar; Shizheng, Wang, Jianjin, Wang and Runhua, Wang ed., Guo li Zheng zhi da xue(National Chengchi University), (Taipei: Nanjing Publication Corporation, 1981), pp. 317318Google Scholar.

90 Xiao Zhicheng, Ba shi xu chuan yu zhan shi hui yi, p. 63; Guofu, Chen, Chen Guofu quan ji(The Complete Work of Chen Guofu), vol. 1, (Taipei: Zhengzhong Bookstore, 1952), pp. 204206Google Scholar.

91 Xiao Zheng, Xiao zheng hui yi lu: tu di gai ge wu shi nian, p. 100.

92 Ibid., pp. 91–95; Chen Guofu, Chen Guofu quan ji, vol. 2, p. 138.

93 she, Da hua wan bao, Yu Jingtang xian sheng ji nian wen ji (The Memorial Anthology of Yu Jingtang), (Taipei: Cai tuan fa ren lin gong xiong zheng xue tian, 1985), p. 157Google Scholar.

94 See Kaisi, Chen, Hui shou ba shi nian (In retrospect of my eighty years’ life), (the author, 1986), p. 45Google Scholar.

95 Zhongsheng, Dong, ‘Chen Guofu de mi mi’ (‘The secrets of Chen Guofu’), Zhong wai za zhi (Zhongwai Magazine), 205 (1987)Google Scholar, see http://blog.boxun.com/hero/xsj1/77_1.shtml [accessed 22 July 2013].

96 Houxiang, Chen, ‘Chen Liefu zai chun er san shi’ (‘Some Stories about Chen Liefu’), Gaochun shi zhi zi liao (Gaochun Historical Materials), 8 (1988)Google Scholar.

97 Zhongsheng, Dong, Wo men ru he zuo xian zheng gong zuo(How did we do the work of County Administration), (Taipei, the author, 1957)Google Scholar, Preface, I.

98 Guo li Zheng zhi da xue, pp. 323–324.

99 Huayun, Wang, ‘Xindu shi jian shi mo’ (‘The Ins and Outs of Xindou Incident’), in Chengdu wen shi zi liao xuan ji: kang ri zhan zheng juan xia juan: tian fu kang zhan(The Selected Collection of Chengdu Literary and Historical Materials: War of Resistance: War in Shichuan), (Chengdu: Sichuan People's Press, 2007), vol. 2, pp. 535538Google Scholar.

100 Shixu, Yang, ‘Xin du shi jian yu Chen Kaisi’ (‘The Xindu Incident and Chen Kaisi’), Xindu wen shi zi liaoi(Xindu Literary and Historical Materials), 1 (1984), pp. 126127Google Scholar.

101 Da di (The Earth), 92 (1999), http://www.people.com.cn/dadi/199908/19990801012019.html [accessed 7 July 2013]. Zhou would become a famous historian in America for his The May fourth movement: intellectual revolution in modern China.

102 Xiande, Xi, ‘Ma Heling Ma Yingjiu fu zi yu ge ming shi jian yan jiu yuan’ (‘Ma Heling, Ma Yingju and Academy of Revolutionary Practice’), Chuan ji wen xue (Biographical Literature), 88:6 (2006), pp. 810Google Scholar.

103 Xi Xiande, ‘Ma Heling Ma Yingjiu fu zi yu ge ming shi jian yan jiu yuan’, p. 8.

104 Chen Kaisi's report illustrates that by 1947 there were 682 CPS graduates working in Shichuan,. only 14 of whom pursued party affairs. See Guo li Zheng zhi da xue, p. 324.

105 James Q. Wilson divides administrative agencies into four types according to whether administrative input and outcome can be observed: production organizations, craft organizations, procedural organizations and coping organizations. In the two former kinds of organization, because the administrative outcome can be observed, it is easier for administrators to evaluate the effect of work and to make improvements. However, in the latter two types, administrative outcome is difficult or impossible to measure. As a result, the actual effect of work is hard to evaluate. In the case of procedural organizations, for example, we may know how many hours a CPS local functionary worked a day (the input) but cannot confirm how useful the work was to the GMD (the outcome). In the case of the coping organizations, we can neither appraise how hard CPS judges devoted themselves to the regime's stability by recording the time they spent on cases, nor realize how well their sentences defended the dignity of the regime's law. See Wilson, James Q., Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do it, (New York: Basic Books, 1989), pp. 158173Google Scholar.

106 Hongmei, Li, Longxiu, Zhang, ‘Jiang Jingguo yu san qing tuan zhong yang gan xiao’ (‘Jiang Jingguo and the Central Cadre School in the Youth Corp of Three People's principles’), Dang shi wen yuan xue shu ban (The Essays of the Party History: Volume for Academy), 4 (2007)Google Scholar. Chiang Ching-kou inherited Chiang's political power and became the second generation leader of the GMD regime in Taiwan after Chiang's death in 1975.

107 Chen Yungang, ‘Wo suo zhi dao de shi wan zhi shi qing nian cong jun shi mo’ (‘The Whole Story I Knew About Ten Thousand Youths Joining up the Army’), Hong Yan chun qiu, (2003).

108 Kongyang, Wang, ‘Jiang Jingguo de huangpu: Zhong yang gan bu xue xiao jian wen’ (‘Jiang Jingguo's Whampoa Military Academy: My Experience in Central Cadre School’), Wu hou wen shi zi liao xuan (The selection of Wuhou Literary and Historical Materials), 4 (1995), pp. 102103Google Scholar. Also see Xia Mingxi, ‘Jiang Jingguo pei yang gan bu de ji di: zhong yang gan bu xue xiao ce ji’ (‘The Base For Jiang Jingguo to train his cadres: The Profile of Central Cadre School’), Feng hua wen shi zi liao (Fenghua Literary and Historical Material), (1985), p. 67.

109 See Wenxiu, Yao, ‘Gan Naiguang yu guo min zheng fu xing zheng ge xin’ (‘Gan Naiguan and the Nationalist Government's Movement of Administrative Efficiency’), Guangxi shi fan da xue xue bao: zhe xue she hui ke xue ban(Journal of Guangxi Normal University: Volume for Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2 (2009), p. 126Google Scholar; Rongxiao, Fu, ‘San shi nian dai guo min zheng fu xing zheng xiao lu yun dong yu xing zheng xiao lu yan jiu hui’ (‘The Nationalist Government's Movement of Administrative Efficiency and the Commission of Administrative Efficiency in 1930s’), Zhejiang dang an (Zhejiang Archives), 1 (2005), pp. 2627Google Scholar; Hongyuan, Sun, ‘Xing zheng xiao lu yan jiu hui yu kang zhan qian de xing zheng xiao lu yun dong’ (‘The National Government Commission of Administrative Efficiency and the Movement of Administrative Efficiency’), Shi xue yue kan (Journal of Historical Science), 2 (2005), pp. 5055Google Scholar.

110 See Morris L. Bian, ‘Building State Structure: Guomindang Institutional Rationalization during the Sino-Japanese War, 1937–1945’.

111 Jiang kangli, Xing zheng xue yuan li, preface, 3; Jinjian, Zhang, Xing zheng xue de li lun yu shi ji (The Theory and Practice of Administration), (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1935), p. 6Google Scholar.

112 Lei, Chen, Cengxian, Wang, ‘Xing zheng san lian zhi kao cha’ (‘On the difference of administration trisection system from the administration three unite system’), Li shi dang an (Historical Archives), 4 (2006), pp. 110111Google Scholar; Guixia, Zhou, ‘Xing zheng san lian zhi shu lue’ (‘The General Introduction of Three-in-One Administrative System’), Zhong guo xing zheng guan li(Chinese Public Administration), 11 (1994), p. 45Google Scholar; Hongming, Chen, ‘Jiang Jieshi tui xing xing zheng san lian zhi de yuan yin tan xi’ (‘An Analysis of The Reasons Jiang Jieshi Promoted Three-in-One Administrative System’), Li shi jiao xue (History Teaching), 6 (2008)Google Scholar.

113 CHCFW, pp. 25–28.

114 Yungang, Chen, ‘Zheng da fan Jiang Jingguo de xue chao’ (‘The Anti-Jiang Jingguo Student Movement in National Chengchi University’), Shi ji 2 (2004), p. 34Google Scholar.

115 Julia C. Strauss uses ‘Weberian technocracy’ to describe a highly efficient and rationalized administration filled by foreign and Chinese experts who could avoid corrupt influences from a pre-modern society by establishing Westernized, professionalized, and apolitical institutions. To reach such a politically desirable state, in Strauss’ words, required a series of ‘institutional breakthroughs’. See Strauss, Julia C., ‘The Evolution of Republican Government’, in Reappraising Republican China, (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 8185Google Scholar.

116 Wen-hsin Yeh points out that the essence of the GMD partification education was ‘in spite hostile to individual fulfillment and suspicious of open-ended intellectual inquiry’ and fiercely criticized by Chinese liberal intellectuals. See Yeh, Wen-hsin, The Alienated Academy: Culture and Politics in Republican China, 1919–1937, (Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1990), p. 180CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

117 Yingshih, Yu,‘Zhong guo zhi shi fen zi de bian yuan hua’ (‘The Marginalization of Chinese Intellectuals’), in Zhong guo zhi shi fen zi lun (On Chinese Intellectuals), (Zhengzhou: Hunan People's Press, 1997), pp. 163173Google Scholar. He observes the process in which Chinese intellectuals such as Hu Shi were culturally and politically marginalized by the party state during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century.

118 According to Bourdieu, a field is a hierarchically structured locus where a given set of resources is produced, circulated, scrambled, and consumed by agents who occupy positions in this field. See Bourdieu, Pierre, The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993) pp. 67Google Scholar. In this paper, the field mainly means CPS and the venues where the CPS members acted. Habitus could be seen as a particular lifestyle formed by specific socioeconomic and cultural conditions of a field, and may be used to decide whether or not an individual belongs to a social group. See Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: a Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, trans. Nice, Richard (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), p. 208Google Scholar. I have used this concept to describe the political agendas and practices that were generally appreciated by those people who considered themselves to be intellectuals.

119 This paper echoes John Fitzgerald's observation that the process of reorganizing the GMD into a Leninist party was never smooth and was met with much resistance from GMD liberals. The influence of the GMD liberals remained in the party untill well after it had actually adopted Leninist principles. See Fitzgerald, John, Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the Nationalist Revolution, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), pp. 191195Google Scholar.

120 Julia C. Strauss, ‘The Evolution of Republican Government’, p. 77.

121 In his analysis of Chinese one-party states, William C. Kirby points out that the GMD had ‘developed an ability to cohabit with several generations of technical and managerial elites’. Nevertheless, he believes that the momentum of democratization could only come from quarters outside the party. This paper indicates, however, that it seems likely that the GMD might itself contain the element or tradition to transform from one-party dictatorship to democracy. See Kirby, William C., ‘The Chinese Party-state under Dictatorship and Democracy on the Mainland and on Taiwan’, in Kirby, William C. ed., Realms of Freedom in Modern China, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), p. 136Google Scholar.