¹ Sources differ as to the exact date, it being variously given as 1887, 1891, and 1893. However, the most recent date agrees best with statements made by Kuo in certain of his autobiographical fragments.

² Min-kuo ming-jen t'u-chien [Biographical dictionary of famous people of the republic] (Nanking: Tz'u-tien kuan, 1937), vol. 2, p. 2–82. Only the first two volumes have been published. The Political Department was a political general staff under the Military Council. Its duties were to indoctrinate the troops with revolutionary ideas, to spread propaganda among the people and the enemy, and in general to direct the political phases of the campaign. The very close liaison that existed between these political officers and their military colleagues will be noticed in the course of the memoir.

³ See chapter XXV below.

⁴ Min-kuo ming-jen t'u-chien, vol. 2, p. 2–82; China year book (Shanghai: North China Daily News & Herald, 1939), p. 184; Who's who in China (5th ed. Shanghai: China Weekly Review, 1936), p. 131; Mo-jo tai-piao tso-hsüan (Shanghai, 1941), preface, pp. 1–2.

⁵ Edited by Lin Yü-t'ang and T'ao K'ang-te First issue dated September 16, 1935.

⁶ The pagination is as follows: no. 20, pp. 399–402; no. 21, pp. 447–51; no. 22, pp. 495–98; no. 23, pp. 539–43; no. 24, pp. 586–89; no. 25, pp. 75–78; no. 26, pp. 88–90; no. 27, pp. 170–74; no. 28, pp. 216–19; no. 29, pp. 295–98; no. 30, pp. 335–38; no. 31, pp. 354–57; no. 32, pp. 435–36; no. 33, pp. 484–85; no. 34, pp. 5 37–40. The above account of the history of the memoir is from a note by Kuo prefixed to the first instalment.

⁷ Kuo is probably referring here to his return to Kwangtung with the forces of Ho Lung and Yeh T'ing.

⁸ This is Chi Te-fu. He is described in Chapter XXII as a native of Shantung who, after graduating from high school, went to Soviet Russia and joined the Communist party. He returned after a short time to take part in the Chinese revolution.

⁹ Literally “earth-nail.” This term is an alternative name for “dandelion.” Cf. Daijiten (Hei-bonsha), vol. 17, p. 407.3. (E.B.)

¹⁰ This is Teng Yen-ta famous revolutionary leader and leftist. He was born in 1891 in Hui-yang Kwangtung. He graduated in 1918 from Paoting Military Academy and spent three years in Europe. On his return to Canton in 1926 he became Educational Director of the Whampoa Military Academy and later director of the General Political Department of the Revolutionary Army. With the fall of Wuhan he became Director of the Hankow Provisional Headquarters and Governor of Hupeh. After the reuniting of the Wuhan and Nanking governments he was read out of the Kuomintang and went abroad to France and Germany. During this period he founded the Third Party which counted among its adherents Madame Sun Yat-sen and Eugene Chen. He returned to China in 1930 and published articles in Shanghai attacking both Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists. Shortly afterward he was arrested and shot. Min-kuo ming-jen t'u-chien, vol. 1, p. 6–88; Who's who in China, 4th edition, p. 375; Leang-li, T'ang, The inner history of the Chinese revolution (London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1930), pp. 287–88Google Scholar; Line-barger, Paul M. A., The China of Chiang K'ai-shek (Boston: World Peace Foundation, 1941), p. 178.Google Scholar

¹¹ Yüeh-chou was captured by the Nationalist forces August 22, 1926. Tong, Hollington K., Chiang Kai-shek, soldier and statesman (Shanghai: The China Publishing Company, 1937), vol. 1, p. 109.Google Scholar

¹² The forces of Wu P'ei-fu, against whom this first phase of the campaign was directed, were known as the Northern Army, Wu's base of power being in North China. The Nationalist forces were known as the Revolutionary Army or the Southern Army.

¹³ In the condensed Japanese version of the memoir cited above, this name is given in kana (first occurrence p. 90), the romaji of which yields “Terunin.” The translator has not been able to identify this man.

¹⁴ Phonetic representation by means of Chinese characters of the English word “broken.”

¹⁵ One of the Nationalist armies. It was commanded by Li Chi-shen who, however, remained behind. The two of its three divisions that took part in the campaign were commanded by Chang Fa-k'uei and Ch'en Ming-shu respectively. Leang-li, T'ang, op. cit., p. 251.Google Scholar

¹⁶ From the description it is possible that the reference here is to T'ang Sheng-chih, a former adherent of Wu P'ei-fu who earlier in the year had gone over to the Nationalist cause and whose Hunanese troops had been re-organized as the Eighth Army. Tong, , op. cit., p. 98.Google Scholar

¹⁷ A famous statesman-poet of the ancient state of Ch'u and author of the Li sao, one of the classics of early Chinese literature. Dismissed from office and banished by his ruler as a result of malicious slander, tradition has it that he committed suicide by jumping into the Mi-lo holding a heavy stone.

¹⁸ An indirect way of saying “There is still reason to hope.” The allusion is to a passage in the “Hsiang Yü pen-chi” of Ssu-Ma Ch'ien's Shift chi [Historical memoirs]: “Though there be but three families left in Ch'u, the destroyer of Ch'in will certainly be Ch'u.”

¹⁹ Originally chief of the general affairs division of the Political Department, Chu Tai-chieh became vice chief of its Propaganda Division just before the beginning of the Northern Expedition. See Chapter XXV below.

²⁰ This is a reference to the Hanyehping Iron and Coal Company which was organized as a commercial concern in 1900. Its iron mines were located near Ta-yeh and its smelters at Han-yang and on the bank of the Yangtze River near Shih-hui-yao somewhat east of Ta-yeh. It was a commercial failure and became heavily indebted to Japanese interests. Practically disorganized since 1928, only the Ta-yeh mines continued to be worked, for the benefit of the Japanese. The China year book (1931), p. 326 and (1935), p. 578.

²¹ On July 30, 1927, the Communist generals Ho Lung and Yeh T'ing staged a coup in Nan-ch'ang and set up an independent revolutionary government. The revolt was suppressed by August 5. Tong, , op. cit., p. 171Google Scholar and Leang-li, T'ang, op. cit., pp. 287–88.Google Scholar Kuo meanwhile had joined Ho Lung and Yeh T'ing, his name being carried as member of the Revolutionary Committee and concurrently Chairman of its Propaganda Committee. Although he was not in Nan-ch'ang at the time of the outbreak, he probably arrived there soon afterward, as he followed Ho and Yeh on their retreat into Kwangtung. Min-kuo ming-jen t'u-chien, vol. 1, p. 2–83.

²² Born in 1894, a native of Hsin-hua in Hunan, Ch'eng Fang-wu was a friend of Kuo's during the latter's student days in Japan. He later was one of Kuo's colleagues in the Ch'uang-tsao She and collaborated with him in certain literary endeavors. Tokio, HashigawaChūkoku bunka-kai jimbutsu sōkan [Biographical dictionary of Chinese literary figures] (Peking: Chung-hua Fa-ling Pien-yin-kuan, 1940), p. 218.Google Scholar

²³ A unit of the Nationalist armies consisting of five divisions and under the command of T'ang Sheng-chih. Tong, , op. cit., pp. 100–101.Google Scholar

²⁴ The Nationalist Army.

²⁵ “Down with imperialism!” and “Down with Japanese imperialism!” were very common Nationalist slogans.

²⁶ A method of torture traditionally ascribed to Chou, the last ruler of the Shang Dynasty. The victim was made to walk on a greased bronze pillar which was suspended over a bed of hot coals.

²⁷ . A type of light couch probably named after Yang Kuei-fei, famous concubine of emperor Hsiian-tsung of the T'ang Dynasty.

²⁸ Ma-tao-chu-i , a word coined by Kuo on the model of jen-tao-chu-i “humanitarianism.” “Equinitarianism” is the translator's own coinage.

²⁹ One of the decisive battles in the campaign. For an account of this engagement see Tong, , op. cit., pp. 109–111.Google Scholar

³⁰ Pai Ch'ung-hsi was born in 1893, a native of Kuei-lin (Kweilin), Kwangsi. He graduated from the Paoting Military Academy and participated in the 1911 revolution against the Manchu Dynasty in Wu-ch'ang. As indicated by Kuo, he was acting chief of the General Staff of the Nationalist armies at the time of the Northern Expedition in 1926. In 1927 he was garrison commander of the Shanghai and Wu-sung (Woosung) area. A strong advocate of armed resistance to Japan, he has played a prominent part in China's struggle against Japan. He is a member of the Supreme National Defence Council, of the Military Affairs Commission, and of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee. Who's who in China, supplement to the fifth edition (1940), p. 36, and The China year book (1939), p. 194.

³¹ Kuo reproduces the original Cantonese of this quotation by means of characters read in the mandarin dialect with sounds similar to the Cantonese. In Wade-Giles romanization it reads as follows: “Tiao na ma, nai mou hai Ko-ming-chün? Nai hai fan-ko-ming-ti Pei-yang-chün?”

³² Liu Tso-lung was a divisional commander under Wu P'ei-fu. He had been ordered by Wu to defend the city of Han-yang, but instead he went over to the Nationalist cause and opened the city to the Revolutionary Army. Shortly afterward he was made commander of the newly organized Fifteenth Army. Tong, , op. cit., pp. 112Google Scholar and 114.

³³ That is, in the shape of the Chinese character “eight.”

³⁴ Chan Ta-pei was active in the Chinese Revolution from the beginning. He managed a newspaper in Hankow which was forced to close by the Manchu Dynasty. In 1913 he was elected a member of the Hupeh provincial council. In 1926 he became a reserve member of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee. After the fall of Wuhan he became a member of the Committee of the Hupeh Provincial Government and concurrently Finance Commissioner. In November, 1927, when T'ang Sheng-chih was defeated in Hupeh, he fled to the Japanese concession in Hankow. On December 17 he was arrested and shot as a communist. Li Han-chiin was a close associate of Chan Ta-pei. When the end came, the two were living together in the Japanese concession in Hankow. Li even shared the same fare as Chan, being shot as a communist at the same time as the latter. Min-kuo ming-jen t'u-chien, vol. 2, p. 9–33. [The second character in Li's name equals Giles 3836.]

³⁵ This is a reference to the Chinese system of civil service examinations that existed before the Republic. It was the practice for promising men from all over the country to be selected to go to the capital to take examinations.

³⁶ Kuo's meaning is apparently that Chan Ta-pei was “slated” for this post even before the Nationalists had captured Hupeh. As a matter of fact he did come to hold the position later when a Nationalist government of Hupeh was organized.