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Third Force: Zhang Junmai (Carsun Chang) and the National Socialist Party of China, 1932-1937
- Republican China
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 19, Number 1, November 1993
- pp. 113-139
- Article
- Additional Information
Third Force: Zhang Junmai (Carsun Chang) and the National Socialist Party of China, 1932-1937 by Roger Jeans In September 1931, the Japanese engineered the Mukden Incident, and by March 1932 all of Manchuria was in their hands. Although this was not the first example of Japanese aggression in China in those years (in 1928 the Japanese had clashed with troops of the Northern Expedition in the Jinan Incident) and opposition to the Guomindang (GMD) following its assumption of state power in 1927 was not unknown (the China Youth Party [CYP] had been in existence since 1923), as a result of this threat to the survival of the Chinese nation, a number of minor political parties and groups appeared during the 1930s.1 Dissatisfied with the GMD's equivocation in the face of aggression, as well as its one-party dictatorship, they preached opposition to the government, as well as resistance to the Japanese. Among these parties was the National Socialist Party of China (NSP), founded by Zhang Junmai and his colleagues in 1932. Previous studies of the 1930s have neglected the role of minor parties such as the NSP, in favor of an exclusive focus on factional struggles within the GMD, the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, the continued warlord threat, and Japanese aggression. These were undeniably the main stories of this decade, along with the impact of the world depression on China. However, they were not the whole story. Parties like the NSP and men like Zhang Junmai, in both thought and action, contributed to the rich political ferment of this era. To fail to grant them their "day in history" is to overlook an opportunity to weave a few more threads into the intricate tapestry ~f history.2 This essay focuses on Zhang Junmai, one of the leading figures in the ranks of these third-party figures opposed to both the GMD and the CCP in the 1930s. He was a leader--if not the only leader--in the NSP between the Mukden Incident and the outbreak of the War of Resistance in July 1937 (and beyond). He was repeatedly elected head of the party, was the primary drafter of its program, was a mainstay of the party journal, and, in his travels throughout prewar China, relentlessly pushed the cause of the NSP with a diverse collection of regional power-holders. In short, it is hard to imagine the history of the NSP during the 1930s without Zhang. Following a brief sketch of his career prior to the Mukden Incident, to give the reader some background, this essay attempts to trace Zhang's contributions to NSP activities and thought, as well as his impact on Chinese politics in general, during the period 19321937 .3 The outbreak of the War of Resistance in the latter year ended this early phase of the NSP's history. During the war, the party (like the other minority parties) participated in the United Front against Japanese invasion, and hence was largely dormant (e.g., there were no party congresses) until the end of the war and the outbreak of civil war brought a renewed burst of activity. ORIGINS OF A THIRD FORCE LEADER, 1906-1931 Born in 1887, Zhang Junmai (Jiasen; d. 1969) was early enough to receive a classical Confucian education yet .late enough to enter the modem schools that were cropping up in the waning days of the Qing dynasty.4 Hence, he studied the Four Books and the Five Classics, but also attended the Guang Fangyan Guan (School for the Study of Numerous Dialects), as well as Aurora Academy, in his hometown of Shanghai, where he studied the sciences and Western languages. Even though he took the xiucai degree in 1902, it was not long before he was swept up by the wave of excitement for studying abroad. Thus, from 1906-1910 he enrolled at Waseda University in Tokyo. Like many other Chinese students in Japan before the 1911 Revolution, he could not avoid politics, and soon was immersed in the constitutionalist movement led by Liang Qichao. Despite some tensions in later years, he was to remain a follower of Liang until the latter's death in 1929...