A Brief History of the Tujia: The Tujia During the 1911 Revolution and Republican Era (Part 1)
Chapter 5: The Late Semi-Colonial and Semi-Feudal Society — In this turbulent era of foreign invasion and warlord division, the Tujia stepped forward to wage tenacious struggles against foreign aggressors and domestic reactionary forces amid the democratic and national liberation movements.
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
Chapter Five: The Late Stage of the Semi-Colonial and Semi-Feudal Society
In the late stage of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, China faced invasion by powerful enemies abroad and warlord separatism at home, with political turmoil and raging wars, and was in a time of crisis. Against the social and political background of the democratic revolution and national liberation, the Tujia people stepped forward and waged tenacious struggles against foreign invaders and domestic reactionary forces, even at the cost of their lives, creating many heroic deeds that moved people to song and tears.
Section One: The Tujia People During the Revolution of 1911 and the Republic of China Period
I. The Tujia People in the Revolution of 1911
In October 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, and some Tujia revolutionaries in Wuhan played a positive role in bringing about this armed uprising. In 1910, Deng Yulin of Badong County and Mou Hongxun of Lichuan County joined the revolutionary group the Gongjinhui (Progressive Association) in Wuchang and became its backbone members. They vigorously spread bourgeois democratic revolutionary ideas among the New Army and the Lianghu Normal School, contacted revolutionary patriots, developed members, and set up secret organs, making the Gongjinhui an important revolutionary group in Wuchang. In order to strengthen leadership over the revolutionary forces in the Wuhan area, through Deng Yulin's extensive mediation, the two revolutionary groups the Wenxueshe (Literary Society) and the Gongjinhui decided to act jointly and on September 24 formed a unified leadership organ for the uprising. Thereafter, they actively took part in formulating the uprising plan and deploying the armed forces. After the Wuchang Uprising, when negotiating the organization of the military government, because the main members of the revolutionary party were not in Wuhan, someone proposed Deng Yulin as governor, but he declined on the grounds that his military rank was low and he lacked the power to rally people. After the military government was established, Deng Yulin served as commander of the Seventh Brigade (equivalent to a brigade commander), directing troops to counterattack the Qing forces coming south and defend Wuhan; Mou Hongxun served as president of the Zhonghua Minguo Gongbao (Republic of China Gazette), vigorously promoting the revolution. Both made indelible contributions in the Wuchang Uprising.
News of the Wuchang Uprising quickly spread to the Tujia areas of western Hubei, and the Tujia and Han peoples were deeply inspired and extremely excited, all "shouting with joy like thunder, vying to raise the Han banner and hail the new nation for ten thousand years." But the local Qing officials were trembling with fear and imposed a blockade on this inspiring good news, keeping it secret. Before the Revolution of 1911, the activities of the Huidang (secret societies), anti-feudal secret associations spontaneously organized by peasants in the counties under Shinan Prefecture, were extremely active and were regarded by the Qing rulers as a mortal threat. To prevent peasant resistance, the Qing government specially established the Heshi Military Defense Circuit and dispatched one battalion of patrol troops and one battalion of the army to be stationed there. After the Wuchang Uprising, they feared it would spread to the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou border area and lived in constant dread.
On October 18, following the Wuchang Uprising, the New Army in Yichang quickly declared independence, established the Hubei Army Yichang Headquarters, and elected Tang Xizhi as commander. At that time, because the Yichang revolutionary army was short of troops and unable to attend to Shinan, Tang Xizhi on the one hand telegraphed Li Rukui (also written Li Rugui), commander of the army battalion stationed at Shinan, urging him to rise up; on the other hand he sent inspector Zhang Weibin to Shinan to sound out where the army battalion stood on the revolution, so as to instigate the army battalion to respond to the uprising. At the same time, Zeng Guanghui, Zhai Xieyang, and other representatives of the Yichang militia also went to the counties under Shinan Prefecture to carry out activities. Zhang Fengming, prefect of Shinan, was panic-stricken, and Li Rukui, commander of the army battalion, hesitated. After Zhang Weibin's extensive efforts and a detailed introduction to the Wuchang Uprising and Yichang's response, and with the tide of events and the people's allegiance, Li Rukui finally contacted the gentry, scholars, and merchants of all walks of life and on October 28 rose in response, declaring independence, ordering the circuit, prefecture, department, and county authorities to hand over their seals, and Li became commander of the Hubei Army Shinan Headquarters. Not long after, Li Yuanhong sent Zeng Chufan, Xu Zhanlong, and others to Enshi, intending to transfer the army battalion to aid other areas of Hubei, but they actually shot Li Rukui dead and replaced him by appointing Zhu Yangwu, commander of the patrol battalion, as commander of the Shinan Headquarters.
The Revolution of 1911 in the Shinan Prefecture area was realized in the peaceful form of mobilizing Qing troops to defect, so the power of the Qing dynasty was not dealt a heavy blow, and power easily fell into the hands of Zhu Yangwu, commander of the Qing patrol battalion. Using the power he had usurped, Zhu Yangwu seized the opportunity to "extort in a hundred ways, until the people could not bear to live," so that "the people of Shi and He suffered his poisoning and trampling for several months." Deeply afflicted by the new disaster, the Tujia and Han peoples went one after another to the Hubei Governor's Office to accuse Zhu Yangwu. Li Yuanhong specially appointed Feng Renquan as pacification commissioner for Shi and He, "to settle people's hearts." After Feng Renquan arrived at Shinan Prefecture, he abolished the Shi-He Headquarters, and the troops stationed at Shinan were merged into the Jing (zhou) Yi (chang) Headquarters under the command of Tang Xizhi, thus ending Zhu Yangwu's reactionary rule.
In November, Chongqing declared independence and established the Shu Military Government, and then Youyang, Xiushan, Qianjiang, and other counties responded one after another. Liu Yang, president of the Tongzhihui (Comrades' Association) who had long been active in Youyang, upon learning of the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising, immediately contacted Tujia members Bai Jinzhen, Peng Anguo, and others to plot an uprising in response. With the financial support of the wealthy Youyang merchant Ruitaili, they secretly gathered several hundred local militia and greenwood outlaws, with Bai Jinzhen as commander and Peng Zao and Peng Can as deputy commanders, and organized an armed uprising. After the uprising they split into two routes to attack the Qing troops on garrison duty. Bai Jinzhen led part of the righteous army to attack Xiushan, and at Shidi on the border between Youyang and Xiushan, fought a fierce battle with the patrol army of Qing commander Gao Yulin, and Bai Jinzhen and his son died heroically in battle. Peng Can led the main force of the righteous army to strike at Youyang county town and Longtan. Gao Yulin, alarmed, again led Qing troops galloping to resist. The Tujia, Han, Miao, and other peoples rose one after another to cut off the Qing army's reinforcements. Under the powerful offensive of the uprising army and the peoples of all ethnic groups, Gao Yulin, isolated and without reinforcements, did not dare resist and fled with his remnant troops. When the uprising army reached Youyang county town, the residents of all ethnic groups in the city rose in response, and the gentry Chen Yanshi seized the opportunity to force prefect Xie Huxian to hand over his seal, and Xie fled secretly with the seal. In mid-November, Liu Yang and Peng Can led their troops into the city, declared independence, and soon afterward recovered Xiushan.
Although Youyang drove out the Qing officials and declared independence, the leaders of these uprising armies did not take power into their own hands, but instead handed it over to the landlords and gentry. After Liu Yang and Peng Can entered the city, they elected Chen Yanshi, Chen Jucan, Chen Deyuan, Ran Yulong, and Xia Sheng as five commanders to hold power in Youyang.
Echoing the Youyang uprising, Qianjiang County also raised the banner of uprising. In January, during the uprising on the Sichuan-Hubei border, the wife of the leader Wang Keming, née Yang, who had been killed by Qing troops, was determined to avenge her husband because her family had been broken and her people killed. When she learned of the Wuchang Uprising, she immediately organized more than a hundred people, in the name of the revolutionary army, and wrote to Tan Guocai urging him to rise up quickly. At this time Tan Guocai, who had fled abroad after the failure of the January uprising, returned to Qianjiang from northern Huai upon hearing the news. Tan Guocai, believing the revolutionary army had really arrived, led more than a hundred people into the county town, convened a meeting of the gentry and common people and gave a speech, and the crowd was stirred with excitement. Qianjiang magistrate Wang Liangding then arrested the gentry Wang Feiran, who had once joined the Iron-Blood Heroes Society, and branded him the "ringleader." Née Yang, with righteous courage, stepped forward and went straight to the county office, publicly declaring: This matter was my doing and has nothing to do with Wang Feiran; "if you want to kill him, please kill me first." Seeing that the tide had turned, Wang Liangding released Wang Feiran. Qianjiang declared independence on November 13, established a military government, and elected Peng Zhuchen as commander.
On October 22, revolutionaries occupied Changsha and declared Hunan independent, and the prefectures and counties responded to the news, except that Zhu Yijun, the Qing official who ruled western Hunan as circuit intendant of the Chen-Yuan-Yong-Jing Military Defense Circuit, put up a desperate resistance and refused to respond. On the one hand he sent his Qing troops toward Changsha, proclaiming that he would "suppress the rebels and defend the king"; on the other hand he concentrated his forces, set up strict defenses, held fast to Fenghuang Ting city, and strictly investigated the activities of revolutionaries. Tongmenghui member Tian Yingquan contacted the Gelaohui leader Tang Shijun in Fenghuang Ting, organized the "Guangfu Army," sent people to the surrounding villages to mobilize the Miao, Han, Tujia, and other peoples to prepare for uprising, and also sent people to contact the officers and soldiers in Fenghuang city so as to coordinate. On October 27, the righteous armies of various routes attacked Fenghuang Ting city, but because the uprising was launched ahead of time and contact inside and outside was lost, the righteous army suffered heavy casualties and temporarily withdrew. Tan Yankai, who had seized the post of Hunan governor through a counter-revolutionary coup, specially appointed Li Jihong as brigade commander, leading a brigade of the New Army to Changde to block the Qing troops under Zhu Yijun, and also ordered local gentry to win over Zhu's subordinates. With a mass uprising led by revolutionaries within and troops pressing from without, Zhu, seeing that the tide had turned, was forced to hand over power, and at the end of December Fenghuang declared independence. Then Yongshun, Baojing, and other counties also declared independence and established the Western Hunan Military Government.