Liang Huazhi
Encyclopedia
Liang Huazhi (1906, Dingxiang
, Shanxi
– April 24, 1949, Taiyuan
, Shanxi) was a Kuomintang
official who served in the warlord Yan Xishan
's government. A relative of Yan, Liang rose rapidly through Shanxi's power structure, founding and leading a number of organizations dedicated to combating both internal and external threats to Yan's rule. At first radically socialist and later radically anti-communist, Liang's life illustrates the rapid and dramatic career changes that were not uncommon in the chaotic age in which he lived. Liang is best known for the way that he died, committing suicide in a spectacular fashion as a final act of defiance against Shanxi's Communist invaders.
Like many Chinese men before 1949, Liang had more than one name. In contemporary Chinese sources he is more commonly known as "Liang Dunhou" (梁敦厚).
, and who were determined to see a similar degree of economic progress achieved in modern China. Liang's enthusiasm for realizing Soviet accomplishments were so well known that, before the Second Sino-Japanese War, a Japanese writer accused Liang of being a Communist.
, Yan created the "Patriotic Sacrifice League", a semi-independent organization composed primarily of students and recent graduates for the purpose of encouraging the resistance against the Japanese invasion of China that Yan believed was imminent. Liang, who by 1936 was serving as Yan's personal secretary and enjoyed Yan's complete confidence, became one of the main leaders of the Sacrifice League. In 1937 the Japanese finally invaded and occupied the northern half of Shanxi, suffering over 50,000 casualties. After the Japanese invasion Liang served as the Director of the Political Department of the Second War Zone, which included Shanxi, Suiyuan, Chahar, and northern Shaanxi
. In order to help defeat the Japanese Yan enlisted the assistance of the Communists, who entered Shanxi and initially cooperated with Yan in order to defeat the Japanese.
In July 1937, shortly after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident
, Liang's Sacrifice League led efforts to arrest, and promote awareness about the dangers of, Japanese spies and hanjian
. After the Japanese began to seriously threaten Yan's capital of Taiyuan, Yan authorized the expansion of the Sacrifice League's "Dare-to-Die Corps" to a force of 15,000 men. This branch of the Sacrifice League became known as the "New Army", was composed mostly of young students, and became known for its fanatical resistance against the Japanese and for the pro-Communist views of its membership. During 1937 and 1938 Yan actively replaced his own magistrates with members of the Sacrifice League, who he believed were less selfish, more enthusiastic, and thus better qualified to lead an organized resistance against Japan. After withdrawing to southern Shanxi and waging a guerilla war against the Japanese, Yan owed much of his ability to work with and mobilize the local people to the efforts of Liang's Sacrifice League, whose members placed a high priority on their cooperation with the common people.
By 1939 Yan's relationship with the Communists had become very poor. Because the Sacrifice League was suspected of being pro-Communist, Yan actively suppressed it, arresting many of its members and attempting to disarm its Dare-to-Die Corps. Those who escaped fled to join the Communists. Liang remained loyal to Yan; and, by the early 1940s, was known as being fanatically anti-Communist. After the destruction of the Sacrifice League, Liang became the commander of Yan's police force, responsible for investigating and arresting citizens suspected of being Communists in the area that Yan controlled. Liang's rapid intellectual change, from radical support to radical opposition of Communists and communism, illustrates the dramatic shifts of allegiance that often took place within the minds of individual Chinese between 1937 and 1945.
The fall of Taiyuan was one of the few examples in the Chinese Civil War
in which Nationalist forces echoed the defeated Ming loyalists who had, in the seventeenth century, brought entire cities to ruins resisting the invading Manchus. Many Nationalist officers were reported to have committed suicide when the city fell. Liang Huazhi fought for years against the Communists in Shanxi until he was finally trapped in the massively fortified city of Taiyuan. For six months Liang led a savage resistance, leading both Yan's remaining forces and those of the warlord's thousands of Japanese mercenaries. When Communist troops finally broke into the city and began to occupy large sections of it, Liang barricaded himself inside a large, fortified prison complex filled with Communist prisoners. In a final act of self-sacrifice, Liang set fire to the prison and committed suicide as the entire compound burned to the ground.
Dingxiang County
Dingxiang County is a district of Shanxi, China. It is under the administration of Xinzhou city.-References:*...
, Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
– April 24, 1949, Taiyuan
Taiyuan
Taiyuan is the capital and largest city of Shanxi province in North China. At the 2010 census, it had a total population of 4,201,591 inhabitants on 6959 km² whom 3,212,500 are urban on 1,460 km². The name of the city literally means "Great Plains", referring to the location where the Fen River...
, Shanxi) was a Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
official who served in the warlord Yan Xishan
Yan Xishan
Yan Xishan, was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China. Yan effectively controlled the province of Shanxi from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution to the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War...
's government. A relative of Yan, Liang rose rapidly through Shanxi's power structure, founding and leading a number of organizations dedicated to combating both internal and external threats to Yan's rule. At first radically socialist and later radically anti-communist, Liang's life illustrates the rapid and dramatic career changes that were not uncommon in the chaotic age in which he lived. Liang is best known for the way that he died, committing suicide in a spectacular fashion as a final act of defiance against Shanxi's Communist invaders.
Like many Chinese men before 1949, Liang had more than one name. In contemporary Chinese sources he is more commonly known as "Liang Dunhou" (梁敦厚).
Early career
Liang's political career began in 1932, at the age of 26, when he was named a member of the Kuomintang Shanxi Provincial Governing Committee.Schemmel Liang was Yan Xishan's nephew, and rapidly gained power within Yan's government in the environment created by Yan's radical economic policies (modeled on those of the Soviet Union) in the early 1930s. The opposition that Yan's socialist economic policies aroused among Shanxi's traditional elites made Yan favour the service of young, progressive followers with modern educations. From the start, Liang's influence on his uncle Yan was profound. By the 1930s Liang was the leader of the group of young bureaucrats in Shanxi who admired the industrial accomplishments of the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and who were determined to see a similar degree of economic progress achieved in modern China. Liang's enthusiasm for realizing Soviet accomplishments were so well known that, before the Second Sino-Japanese War, a Japanese writer accused Liang of being a Communist.
Second Sino-Japanese War
In September 1936, on the eve of the Second Sino-Japanese WarSecond Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
, Yan created the "Patriotic Sacrifice League", a semi-independent organization composed primarily of students and recent graduates for the purpose of encouraging the resistance against the Japanese invasion of China that Yan believed was imminent. Liang, who by 1936 was serving as Yan's personal secretary and enjoyed Yan's complete confidence, became one of the main leaders of the Sacrifice League. In 1937 the Japanese finally invaded and occupied the northern half of Shanxi, suffering over 50,000 casualties. After the Japanese invasion Liang served as the Director of the Political Department of the Second War Zone, which included Shanxi, Suiyuan, Chahar, and northern Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
. In order to help defeat the Japanese Yan enlisted the assistance of the Communists, who entered Shanxi and initially cooperated with Yan in order to defeat the Japanese.
In July 1937, shortly after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident
Marco Polo Bridge Incident
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army, often used as the marker for the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War .The eleven-arch granite bridge, Lugouqiao, is an architecturally significant structure,...
, Liang's Sacrifice League led efforts to arrest, and promote awareness about the dangers of, Japanese spies and hanjian
Hanjian
In Chinese culture, a Hanjian is a derogatory and pejorative term for a race traitor to the Han Chinese nation or state, and to a lesser extent, Han ethnicity. The word Hanjian is distinct from the general word for traitor, which could be used for any race or country...
. After the Japanese began to seriously threaten Yan's capital of Taiyuan, Yan authorized the expansion of the Sacrifice League's "Dare-to-Die Corps" to a force of 15,000 men. This branch of the Sacrifice League became known as the "New Army", was composed mostly of young students, and became known for its fanatical resistance against the Japanese and for the pro-Communist views of its membership. During 1937 and 1938 Yan actively replaced his own magistrates with members of the Sacrifice League, who he believed were less selfish, more enthusiastic, and thus better qualified to lead an organized resistance against Japan. After withdrawing to southern Shanxi and waging a guerilla war against the Japanese, Yan owed much of his ability to work with and mobilize the local people to the efforts of Liang's Sacrifice League, whose members placed a high priority on their cooperation with the common people.
By 1939 Yan's relationship with the Communists had become very poor. Because the Sacrifice League was suspected of being pro-Communist, Yan actively suppressed it, arresting many of its members and attempting to disarm its Dare-to-Die Corps. Those who escaped fled to join the Communists. Liang remained loyal to Yan; and, by the early 1940s, was known as being fanatically anti-Communist. After the destruction of the Sacrifice League, Liang became the commander of Yan's police force, responsible for investigating and arresting citizens suspected of being Communists in the area that Yan controlled. Liang's rapid intellectual change, from radical support to radical opposition of Communists and communism, illustrates the dramatic shifts of allegiance that often took place within the minds of individual Chinese between 1937 and 1945.
Civil War
Hostilities continued between the Communists and Yan's forces shortly after the surrender of the Japanese in 1945. These hostilities continued until 1949, when the Communists took control of most of Shanxi, completely surrounding Yan's capital, Taiyuan, and cutting it off from all sources of military and logistical supply. In 1949, shortly before his death, Liang was named the Chairman of the Government of Shanxi.The fall of Taiyuan was one of the few examples in the Chinese Civil War
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
in which Nationalist forces echoed the defeated Ming loyalists who had, in the seventeenth century, brought entire cities to ruins resisting the invading Manchus. Many Nationalist officers were reported to have committed suicide when the city fell. Liang Huazhi fought for years against the Communists in Shanxi until he was finally trapped in the massively fortified city of Taiyuan. For six months Liang led a savage resistance, leading both Yan's remaining forces and those of the warlord's thousands of Japanese mercenaries. When Communist troops finally broke into the city and began to occupy large sections of it, Liang barricaded himself inside a large, fortified prison complex filled with Communist prisoners. In a final act of self-sacrifice, Liang set fire to the prison and committed suicide as the entire compound burned to the ground.