Font Size: a A A

Research On Modern Military Service In China

Posted on:2016-06-11Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:L J JiangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1106330464950919Subject:Theater, film and television
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
In 16 September 1894, the Northern Fleet of Qing Dynasty engaged the Japanese Navy in battle on the Yellow sea and that was the famous Sino-Japanese Navel Battle in history. The war ended with the complete destruction of the Chinese Fleet. The defeat of Sino-Japanese Naval Battle made the Qing government realize that they had to accelerate their military strength,especially the construction of modern and regularized army, in order to demonstrate and consolidate the dynasty’s power. Under this severe international situation the Qing government was then determined to copy the training method of the European countries to form and train new army force, and this was when Yuan’s era began from the Tianjin station.The station was firstly appointed by the Qing government to Yufen Hu in 1893, Yufen Hu, the officer of Guangxi province to recruit and train the new army and was named as Ding Wu Jun.Meanwhile the Hubei governor Zhidong Zhang also set up an army force called Zi Qiang Jun. Hu left the team in 1895 due to lack of skills in training and Shi Kai Yuan was replaced with. Yuan appointed a German instructor to intensively train the new force with the western method and renamed it New Army. The old system of the military formation was phased out completely bythe New Army and a new system was established, consisting of different services included in infantry, artillery and engineer and also a foundation of division, regiment, battalion,company, platoon and squad. The soldiers had standard uniform and equipped with guns and new weapons instead of traditional cold weapons such as spears and machetes.After the failure of the Reform Movement in 1898, the Empress strengthened her power through centralization and reformed some parts of the former army force with the new one in different areas. The one Yuan established became a defending army force. This defending army force was attacked severely to lose in the battle when the Eight-Power Allied Forces got into Beijing and a part of them was destroyed. The government therefore asked Yuan to train the northern reserve force which was divided into thirty-six towns and seventy-two associations throughout the whole country from that time. Yuan’s system was formed. Zai Feng, the new emperor of the dynasty after the Empress and Guangxu’s death, compelled Yuan to resign as he was scared of Yuan’s power. He also reformed his army force into the Loyal Guards and then expanded the navy forces to build up the Navy Department. Yuan reported to the government about the idea of change of the army uniforms after the northernreserve forces was formed and asked for promulgating and implementing the new uniforms designed in German style. The rank system of the army was also set up firstly at that time in the history. That uniform turned into the official use for the northern reserve army for a short while and then was modified in logo when the army became the Loyal Guards. That is the reason that the history of Chinese first set of uniforms in late Qing Dynasty experienced two periods with former in German, French and Italian based style whereas later in Japanese.With the rise of the Revolution in 1911, this new army force trained by the Qing government showed out the strong power to solve the opponents whom overthrew the current government. At meantime it was used by Yuan to regain his power and took the revolutionary achievements to become the president of China’s Republic. After Yuan’s failure on the restoration of the monarchy and his death, an internal division of the Northern warlord caused into a gradual formation of Guangxi, Anhui,Fonghua and the other warlord. Some of the warlord seek refuge with different western countries that resulted in a difference styles in uniform. However, overall it was still based on uniform system of the northern reserve army force.In 1922 after the warlord had brought disaster to the Chinese nation, the great president Sun Yat-sen promptly ordered to the northern expedition, and it failed because of Jiongming Chen’s betray. He then decided to establish the Whampoa Military Academy to train revolutionary soldiers.Chiang Kai-shek was appointed to be the president and got the school formed and expanded rapidly into the National Revolutionary Army rapidly.Chiang Kai-shek commanded the first expedition to north in 1925 after Sun Yat-sen passed away to set up National Revolutionary Government in Nanjing as the capital and the National Revolutionary Army was formed. The second northern expedition commended in the following year to recapture Beijing and Xueliang Zhang refuged to Chiang Kai-shek which helped to achieve the national reunification. The national army eventually reorganized as the Kuomintang Army.The standard of National Revolutionary Army uniform was mainly based on Whampoa uniform, yet with rank and services logo varied.The Kuomintang uniform was more optimized that not only had formal and daily uniform, but also was more identified in materials and logos.This paper takes a time line from 1895 to 1930 with the training station ministries to the northern warlords and theNational Revolutionary Army. Within this 35 years of modern Chinese army’s evolution, it dated back from the northern navy to construction of military forces at earlier period of time focusing on the uniform style of the ground and navy forces,clothing, color graphics, logo identification and rank system.The military and the military’s images are highly attended by the community in the war years and the uniform sometimes would become a fashion mark. The phenomenon also occurred in the early Qing Dynasty and late Ming Dynasty and this paper explains the trend at that specific timeline provided rare reference source recorded in the history.
Keywords/Search Tags:New Army, Northern Standing Army, National Revolutionary Army, Military Style, Rank logo, Uniform fashion element
PDF Full Text Request
Related items