PENG PAI AND THE ORIGINS OF RURAL REVOLUTION UNDER WARLORDISM IN THE 1920S: HAIFENG COUNTY, GUANGDONG PROVINCE

After the revolution of 1911, peasants in Guangdong province were increasingly subjected to hardships. Military cliques ravaged the countryside in a naked contest for power, collecting from a landlord two or three years' land taxes within a year. In his turn, whenever possible the landlord passed the burden onto his tenants by demanding increased rents and rent deposits. However, the peasantry passively accepted the system as it was. They were unable to conceptualize an alternative system or even to perceive that traditional institutions were the cause of their oppression. Nevertheless, the countryside was objectively ripe for a revolution. Only leadership was lacking.; The first revolutionary intellectual who provided the peasant with leadership was Peng Pai (1896-1929), a communist. In June, 1922, he began to devote himself to organizing the peasants of his native Haifeng county in Guangdong's East River region. By May 1923, he established the Provincial Peasant Association of Guangdong with headquarters in Haifeng and with a membership of twenty-six thousand families.; In the summer of 1923, the occurrence of a natural disaster precipitated severe conflict between peasants and landlords. A typhoon and heavy floods devastated the season's crops. Although it was customary in Haifeng for landlords to reduce rents in a year of poor harvest, they now refused to do so for they, too, were encountering difficulties since Chen Jiongming, in order to finance his growing military expenditures, was now asking the landlords to pay not only the 1923 taxes but also the taxes for 1924 a year in advance. Consequently, the peasant association passed a resolution stating that they would pay at most thirty per cent of the usual rent due at harvest time. Not surprisingly, the landlords refused to accept this resolution. At the same time, on August 16, the landlord forces stormed the peasant association headquarters and apprehended twenty-five leaders.; Peng asked for Chen Jiongming's personal intervention in the matter imploring him to release the jailed leaders, recognize the peasant movement, and allow the reduction of rents. Wishing to recruit Peng to his service and to use the support of the organized peasants as a counterweight in the struggle against Sun Yat-sen, Chen weighed the importance of the landlords as financial and political supporters against the liability of antagonizing the peasantry. Chen finally decided to approve the resumption of the peasant movement in February of 1924.; Meanwhile, the landlords in Haifeng pressed Chen to suppress the rural mass movement. They pointed out the danger in his policy to use communist-directed organized peasants the Guomindang Communist government in Canton. But, Peng's opponents were unable to make him place the reactivated peasant association under a ban at this point.; However, Chen soon made a painful decision to suppress the peasant movement. His relations with Great Britain was the most important factor in this decision for after his split with Sun in 1922, Chen had formed close ties with England. As British interests in China ran counter to those of the revolutionary government in Canton, Chen appears to have wanted to show solidarity with his ally by suppressing the communist-directed peasant movement in the territory under his jurisdiction. He did so on March 21, 1924.; Nevertheless, the effect of the ban was minimal. Peng simply fled to Canton. His departure signaled the formation of an alliance between the peasants of the East River region and the Guomindang to fight Chen Jiongming, who now represented the landlord class and the interests of British imperialism.