North vs South - Republican China
Various causes were at work to keep the Northern and Southern peoples apart both before and during the Revolution. Those of the South, especially the Cantonese, owing to their greater facilities for coming into contact with Europeans through travel and commerce, have been much more vividly impressed with the need of introducing Western methods into the Chinese political regime. The Cantonese were the first to go abroad to study in Western universities, and were the first to propagate revolutionary ideas and to organize revolutionary movements. During the progress of the Revolution, the South fought for the Republican cause with determination and of their own will, but many Northern provinces remained loyal to the Imperial Government, and those which severed their allegiance to it were prompted to do so more by the motive of escaping the attacks of the Revolutionists than by any sympathy with them. The North was by no means unresponsive to the introduction of reforms, and in fact, in the few years preceding the Revolution, it had witnessed marvellous strides in modern industry and education, thanks to the exertions of several enlightened and capable Viceroys; but it had no faith in violence and bloodshed, which were characteristic of the Revolutionists.
The cleavage was also widened by the difference in army organization. When the Manchu Government began its military reform, the Northern province of Chili, under the Viceroyalty of Yuan Shih-k'ai, was the first to drill its troops with European officers, to equip them with European arms, and to supply them with modern mechanical appliances. This army was the pioneer of China's new army, and is still its model, but it did not develop into a national force. It has become the army of the North, and the Southern provinces have armies of their own, equipped by their own arsenals, and supported by their own finance. It is true that all the provincial armies are under the control of the Ministry of War, but the Northern and the Southern armies never developed that spirit of comradeship towards each other which should prevail in a national force.
By following the example of Yuan Shih-k'ai in distributing provincial governorships among his Northern military colleagues, and stationing Northern troops in the South, General Tuan Ch'i-jui, one of his picked lieutenants, endeavoured to avoid internal insurrection and to exact allegiance from all the provinces. But the resentment of the Southern Constitutionalists against his autocratic rule grew and made itself felt. When Parliament was in session they made most strenuous efforts to thwart the policy of the Prime Minister, and to check the authority of provincial governors. Parliamentary tactics were fully employed to control and, finally, to overthrow the Cabinet of General Tuan Ch'i-jui. With his fall, the Northern governors revolted against Parliament.
General Tuan, though supported by nearly all the Northern governors, was opposed by several in the South, where he had failed to establish his authority and influence. When the North revolted, the South, including the provinces of Kwantung, Kwangsi, Kweichou, and Yunnan, declared itself loyal to the President and Parliament according to the Constitution.
The North, commanding a greater part of the wealth and resources of the country, is undoubtedly better equipped as a fighting unit; and, having at its service a better trained army and holding in its hands the machinery of the Central Government, it is certainly in a position to subdue the South. But the North is itself divided. In 1918 the President (Feng Kuo-chang) and the Prime Minister (General Tuan Ch'i-jui), though both members of the Northern military party, differed from each other in their policy towards the South. The former advocated conciliation, and found his supporters in the governors of the Central provinces in the Yangtze valley, while the latter was a champion of suppression, and found his supporters in the North. The difference, though it appeared to be one of policy, had a more subtle psychological cause.
With the North so divided and its counsel so confused, the South, comprising five wealthy provinces fighting for the Constitution, should find it easy to win in the field; but the South suffered from the same trouble as the North. For military operations against the North it depended on Southern governors who were just as selfish as their Northern colleagues. It also received, as its allies, brigands or military leaders who had some personal grievance against the North, and who desired to satisfy their greed and ambition by taking advantage of the quarrel between the Constitutionalists and the Militarists. Among the army commanders of the South, many had no sympathy at all with the democratic aspirations of the Constitutionalists, but fought their own battle under the cloak of a good cause.
This hopeless state of affairs was acknowledged and deplored by the Southern leader, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, who summarized the situation by saying that 'the struggle of military leaders for supremacy is equally rampant in the South and in the North', and that 'he has almost exhausted his voice in calling attention to this incoherent situation with no effect'.
The struggle between North and South was, strictly speaking, not territorial. Many from the South were in the service of the North, and many from the North were fighting for the Southern cause. In the second place, the bulk of the people, who took no direct part in politics, cherished no animosity ^mong themselves. The same language and the same civilization united them as one people. They inherited the same historical traditions, believed in the same creeds, and cherished the same aspirations. The barrier created by the difference in dialect had begun to be pulled down, as a result of the freer intercourse of the people, who can travel between the North and the South with greater comfort and ease, and thus had greater facilities for learning each other's dialects. In the National Assembly, in the law courts, and in the schools of higher grades, the Metropolitan mandarin dialect has been adopted as the official means of verbal communication. It was a dialect intelligible to four-fifths of the population, and the remaining fifth can pick it up without much difficulty.
The Cantonese were commercially energetic, and many of them had established themselves in several of the Northern ports. They were loved and admired; and in the course of their commercial transactions, no instance had arisen of an open hostility between North and South. The South was different from the North in economic aspects, but there had never been any conflict of economic interests.
The North may be more conservative and the South more radical, but no party in either of them - not even the Militarists and the Constitutionalists themselves - has ever intended to separate one from the other and to divide the country into two Empires or Republics. They wish well for the country as a whole, and on fundamental questions such as reorganization of national finance and industrial development they are at one. They only differ in their methods of attaining the same end.
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