Fang Xianjue

Infobox Military Person
name= Fang Xianjue
方先觉
lived= 1903 - 1983
placeofbirth= Xiao County, Jiangsu
placeofdeath=Taipei, Taiwan


caption= General Fang Xianjue
nickname=
allegiance=
serviceyears=1926 - 1968
rank=General
commands=10th Army, National Revolutionary Army
unit=
battles=Battle of Changde
Battle of Changsha Battle of Taierzhuang
awards= Order of Blue Sky and White Sun

Fang Xianjue (Traditional Chinese: 方先覺 ; Simplified Chinese:方先觉) was born in a small Jiangsu village gentry family in 1903. After studying with the village tutor, he went to Xuzhou Provincial High School, and later studied at the Nanjing 1st Industrial School, then later went to National Central University. After completing his formal education, he decided to attend Whampoa Military Academy and graduated class of 1926.

He started as a platoon leader in the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), and got promoted to the rank of army general during the Second Sino-Japanese War. After KMT lost the Chinese Civil War, he relocated with the Nationalists to Taiwan and later became the deputy commander of the NRA army group in charge of defending the Pescadores Islands. General Fang personally participated in the Battle of Taierzhuang, the Battle of Changde, and the Battle of Changsha. Retired from military in 1968, he became a Buddhist monk and later died in 1983.

Defense of Hengyang

Fang Xianjue commanded the NRA 10th Army in the Defense of Hengyang, where he was besieged for 47 days after fighting off numerous assaults by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). After running out of ammunition and supplies, with no hope of getting reinforcement, he surrendered to the Japanese on the condition that all POW would not be harmed and all wounded Chinese soldiers would get medical treatment. The Japanese commander unconditionally accepted his terms out of respect for his fierce defense of Hengyang, where the IJA suffered almost 20,000 causualties in its attempt to take the city (this number is almost 1/2 of total Japanese casualty suffered from the entire Operation Ichi-Go).

He later escaped from captivity and received a hero's welcome from Chiang Kai-shek in Chungking, where he received the Order of Blue Sky and White Sun. The surviving Japanese veterans of the 11th Army, who personally participated in the battle of Hengyang, organized a group trip to Taipei to pay respect to Fang Xianjue in 1983 after his death.

External links

* [http://140.122.76.115/KM/Data/Teacher/1035/Data/ebook/298/ebookdata/page/%A4%E8%A5%FD%C4%B1/page.htm 抗日名將方先覺]
* [http://www.mgjs.com/01wenzhang/03renwu/fangxianjue_shijun.htm 抗战中的方先觉]
* [http://www.yzdsb.com.cn/20050810/ca515525.htm 抗日战场(19)衡阳----全城炸剩三栋屋]
* [http://www.xxcb.com.cn/Articles/05/07/29/685577.HTM “惟欠一死”方先觉]
* [http://news.china.com/zh_cn/history/all/11025807/20050623/12426532.html 人物追析:试析衡阳保卫战中方先觉投降日军事件]