Perspectives On A Changing China by Joshua Fogel William T. Rowe

Author:Joshua Fogel, William T. Rowe [Joshua Fogel, William T. Rowe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Regional Studies, Political Science, World, Asian
ISBN: 9781000301038
Google: awWdDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

The Leadership of Military Academies

Provincial governors and governors-general were given responsibility for organizing and financing the new military academies after 1900, but not all provincial officials responded to the call with equal vigor. After the death of Liu K'un-i in 1901 and the eclipse of Chang Chih-tung, Yuan Shih-k'ai became the most active provincial governor in military reform.

Active provincial officials must have had mixed motives. Doubtless most wanted to strengthen China against foreign encroachment and realized that a strong army required competent officers. The Japanese victory over Russia in 1905 convinced these officials that they should follow the Japanese model in promoting military academies. Provincial loyalties may have dominated the motivations of others. Military primary schools often excluded nonprovincials and favored native instructors who had been educated abroad. Thus in some cases the schools became a means of counteracting Peking's centralizing pressures after 1900. Individual governors apparently used military academies to train officers responsive to their own needs.

Competition among provinces, as well as between the provinces and Peking, might also have affected the development of academies. Governors reportedly competed in offering returned students high positions in their own military academies.39 Moreover, the failure to establish academies even after the imperial edicts of 1901 might be attributed to competition. Governors of outlying provinces, perhaps jealous of the funds Yuan received for building his divisions of the New Army, were slow to react when ordered to support military education out of their own provincial treasuries.40 Shensi Governor Sheng-yun, for example, complained in 1904 that he lacked enough revenue for training new troops. And Ch'en Ch'ün-hsuan, governor-general of Kwangtung-Kwangsi in 1903-1906, refused to set up units for the New Army because of his dislike of Yuan and Prince Ch'ing, two powerful members of the Army Reorganization Commission. This is also a plausible reason why Kwangsi delayed the establishment of an academy, because Governor Ch'en had previously cooperated by setting up a school and sending students to Japan during his tenure as governor-general of Szechuan.41

Another obstacle to opening military schools was simply finding enough qualified teachers. Military schools were commonly staffed by a supervisor, a director, an inspector, and from four to fifteen instructors.42 Scarcity of trained Chinese meant that instructors at the earliest academies were mostly foreigners—either German or Japanese. After 1900, teaching personnel fell into four categories: Japanese and other foreigners, Chinese trained by foreigners in Chinese academies, Chinese trained in Japan, and Chinese trained by Chinese in China. The last group eventually became the largest, but only after primary, middle, and short-course schools had been in operation for several years.

At the outset, instructors were mainly Japanese and Chinese who had been trained in Japan. Between 1900 and 1905, Japanese instructors were gradually replaced by trained Chinese. Some idea of the changing situation is evident in the rules drawn up in 1908 by the Ministry of Education to prevent disputes between Chinese authorities and foreigners employed at provincial schools. Permission of the Army Ministry and the Education Ministry was required before foreigners

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