Jiang Kanghu

Jiang Kanghu (Who's Who in China 3rd ed.,1925)

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Jiang (江).

Jiang Kangu (Chinese: 江亢虎; pinyin: Jiāng Kànghú; Wade–Giles: Chiang K'ang-hu), (July 18, 1883－December 7, 1954), was a politician and activist in the Republic of China. He was the founder of the Socialist Party of China, the first anarchist-socialist party in China, which existed from 1911 to 1913.^[1] Jiang founded a university in Shanghai and became a faculty member of McGill University in Canada before returning to China to play an important role in the Wang Jingwei regime. His former name was "Shaoquan" (紹銓). He was born in Yiyang, Jiangxi.

Biography

Early life

Jiang Kanghu (around 1940)

Jiang Kanghu learned and began to develop a passion for socialism and anarchism while studying and traveling in Europe and Japan.^[2] And on that period, he served as educational adviser to Yuan Shikai.^[3] His reading abilities included Japanese, English, French, and German. In 1909 he attended the congress of the Second International in Brussels.

Early political activities

Jiang served briefly as a professor at Peking University, but was ousted from that position on the grounds of his ideological radicalism.^[4] In August 1911, shortly after losing his post at Peking University, Jiang Kanghu established the Association for Socialism, and in November renamed it the Socialist Party of China. The next year Jiang devoted himself to reformism, leading Sha Gan (沙淦) and many anarchists to withdraw from Jiang's party. In autumn 1913 the Socialist Party of China was dissolved by Yuan Shikai's order, and Jiang went to United States. He became a teacher at the University of California, where he presented a collection of 10,000 Chinese books to the University. In 1920 he returned to China.

Throughout his life Jiang continued to promote his views through his personal contacts, through his academic work, and through his writing. His views influenced contemporary Chinese who later became major political figures in China. After he became estranged from them, Chinese anarchists accused Jiang of being "hopelessly confused." This confusion was not apparent to Mao Zedong, who later stated that, as a student, Jiang's writings had been a major influence on the development of his own political, social, and economic theories.^[4]

Academic Career

Through his views Jiang came to be known as a "Socialistic Confucian". Jiang attempted to provide a traditional sanction for nationalizing agriculture by arguing that in antiquity there had existed an agrarian socialist utopia built around the well-field system that vanished after the Qin dynasty abolished the public ownership of land (which Jiang identified with contemporary practices of land tenureship). Jiang promoted the abolition of private property, a model of rapid industrialization led by the state, as much local self-government as possible, the establishment of universal public schooling, and the advancement of women's rights.^[4]

In April 1921 Jiang visited the Soviet Union. He participated to the Third World Congress of the Comintern in Moscow, and met with Vladimir Lenin. In August 1921 Jiang returned to China. In September 1921 Jiang established Nanfang University in Shanghai and became the president of that university. While he was the president of Nanfang Jiang criticized the Comintern and openly opposed both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China.

In 1922 Jiang visited Taiyuan, Shanxi, three times, with the intention of convincing the local warlord, Yan Xishan, of the need to carry out political, social, and economic reforms in Shanxi. Although Jiang ultimately failed to convince Yan to follow Jiang's suggestions for reform at that time, Jiang's ideas left a great and lasting impression on Yan. Over the next two decades, Yan would adopt ideas and methods that were very similar to those proposed by Jiang. Particular ideas that Yan may have borrowed from Jiang include the glorification of the village, a dislike for the money economy, a belief that the state must take over responsibilities previously held by the family, his hatred of "parasites" (mostly landlords and money-lenders), and the belief that practice (i.e. manual labour) is an inseparable component of learning.^[4]

In June 1924 Jiang reestablished the Socialist Party of China, and in January 1925 renamed it the New Social Democratic Party of China. In the Northern Expedition Jiang cooperated closely with the Beiyang General Wu Peifu, who fought against Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army. After the defeat of Wu Peifu to Chiang Kai-shek, Jiang was publicly criticized by the Kuomintang. In the face of public opposition Jiang dissolved his party and escaped to Canada.

Jiang served as Canada's first sinologist between 1930 and 1933, when McGill University appointed him as the Professor of Chinese Studies. During his professorship at McGill Jiang gained international notoriety through statements that he made in Pearl Buck's magazine, The Good Earth. In a review, Jiang wrote that although peasants, coolies, and other humble persons constituted the vast majority of the Chinese population, they "are certainly not representative of the Chinese people."^[4]

In 1933 Jiang returned to China and devoted himself to promoting socialism and traditional Chinese culture. In 1935 Jiang again visited Taiyuan, after Yan Xishan announced plans to implement a system of land reform in Shanxi. Jiang's impression of Yan at this time was so great that Jiang wrote an article lavishing praise on Yan, calling the warlord a "practical rather than a theoretical socialist."^[4]

Collaboration with Wang Jingwei

After the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, Jiang escaped to Hong Kong. In 1939 he was invited by Wang Jingwei to take a position in Wang's Japanese puppet-government based in Nanjing. Jiang accepted Wang's offer and traveled to Shanghai and wrote "The Shuangshijie Declaration about this Situation" (雙十節對時局宣言), asserting the establishment of a New East Asian Order. After helping to establish the Wang Jingwei Regime, Jiang was appointed Chief of the Examination Yuan in March 1942.

After the Wang Jingwei regime had collapsed, Jiang Kanghu was arrested by Chiang Kaishek's Nationalist government. But because of the ongoing Chinese Civil War his case was never brought to trial. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, he remained imprisoned in Shanghai. Jiang Kanghu died in prison on December 7, 1954.

See also

• Kuomintang
• Chiang Kai-shek
• Wang Jingwei
• Wang Jingwei Regime
• Yan Xishan

References

1. ^ Hsu Kwan-san (December 1979). "The Biographies of Eminent Chinese in the Republic of China (Minkuo Jen-wu Chuan) (Review)" (JSTOR, Purchase or Permission required). The China Quarterly (London: School of Oriental and African Studies) 0 (80): 867–871. ISSN 0305-7410. JSTOR 653053. "Chiang K'ang-Hu, the founder of the first Chinese anarchist-socialist party, the Socialist Party Party of China (1911-13) (p. 868)" 
2. ^ Fairbank, John King (1983) [1978]. "7" (Google Books). The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 393. ISBN 0521235413. http://books.google.com/?id=sk0qxSh88_AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22chiang+k+ang+hu%22#PPR1,M1. Retrieved 2008-01-07. 
3. ^ Spense, p.257
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Gillin, Donald G. Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province 1911-1949. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1967. pp.206-207

Footnotes

• Ceng Yeying (曾业英), Jiang Kanghu. Institute of Modern History, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (1978). The Biographies of Republic People, Vol.1 (民国人物传 第1卷). Zhonghua Book Company. 

Persondata
Name	Jiang Kanghu
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1883
Place of birth
Date of death	1954
Place of death