A Study On Henan Bandits During The Period Of The Republic Of China (1912-1927)

After the Republic of China was founded, because of political corruption, wars between warlords, class oppression and frequent natural disasters, the society was out of order and full of unrests. Under this circumstance, a large number of poor peasants were obliged to risk their lives and gather to be bandits for a living. The disaster of bandits in Henan was the most serious, among the top of the whole country. Bandits are a special social group with unique organized structure and behaviors, whihe fighting against local authorities, robbing landlords, they posed a greater threat to common peoples'lives and properties. This article tries to analyze the causes,features and effects of Henan bandits from 1912 to 1927, showing the social characteristics of Henan at that time from one perspective.Part one is a brief introduction of Henan bandits. Before the founding of the Republic of China, Henan was known for its plenty of bandits. During the Xinhai Revolution,some bandits who had the tendency of revolution were called on by the capitalist revolutionaries to take an active part in this revolution. After the founding of the Republic of China, Henan was full of unrests and the bandits ran rampant to the greatest extent. The bandits in this period were of the largest number and complicated components. Their life had a variety of features.Part two is the cause of Henan bandits. During the early period of the Republic of China, Henan bandits were among the top of China. There are a wide variety of reasons. Under the national environment they had local characteristics unique to Henan province.They can be divided into political causes, economic causes, natural causes and socical cultural factors, and so on.Part three is the characteristics of Henan bandits. The distribution, inner discipline and social behaviours of Henan bandits were quite special. They ran rampant ,which pose a great challenge to the social stability. Owing to frequent wars, the bandits in this period had obvious features of the time, i.e forming large groups of solider-bandit, transforming each other.Part four is about the social defence against bandits. Because of bandits'great harm, the local authorities, common people and the Chinese Communist Party separately took different measures to prevent and administer them according to their own different understandings. The government mainly suppressed, killed and placated them; common people mainly organized self-defence against them; the Chinese Communist Party mainly contacted them, dealing with them in different ways, dividing and attacking them.Part five is the conclusion. After the initial development at the end of the Qing Dynasty, prosperity in the first years of the Republic of China, decline in the period of Nanjing Koumingtang Government, separation during the Anti-Japanese War, and dying out at the end of the Republic of China, Henan bandits at last were eliminated by the Chinese Communist Party's large—scale extermination. Bandits'disaster has already been abolished but it has taught us a good lesson that social stability needs efforts and co-ordinations from all parties.