On Jiang Barry's Military Thinking

Jiang Baili, the famous military theorist and military educator, was the major founder of the military thought during the Republic of China period. When he was young, he studied abroad in Japan and Germany for many years, which enriched his knowledge and broadened his eyesight greatly. By inheriting Chinese traditional military thoughts and absorbing the western modern military theories, he created a new system of military theory, which matched Chinese conditions well.This article could be divided into six parts:The first part mainly introduced the founding process of Jiang Baili's military thought. Under the influence of the save-the-nation thought in late Qing dynasty, Jiang Baili was determined to join the army and save Chinese people from the oppression of the imperialism.The second part elaborated Jiang's National Defense thought. Jiang Baili considered that there was a close relationship between the economic power and the military force, and the economic interests always were the origin of the war. Under the threat of Japanese invasion in 1930's Jiang Baili investigated western countries' defense strategies and put forward the total war thought and the total mobilization theory to fight against the enemy.The third part analyzed Jiang Baili's Army Building thought. In this part the author detailed Jiang's theory from four aspects: the precondition of army building, the principle of army building, the specific content of army building, and the new system of military service.The fourth part expounded Jiang Baili's strategic thought against Japanese invasion. According to the different military conditions of China and Japan, Jiang Baili considered that we must set up a stable central defense area to protract war course and try to deplete Japanese military force. And he certainly believed China would win the war at the last if we did this.The fifth part summarized the characteristics and the impacts of Jiang Baili's military thoughts. As the author indicated the patriotism spirit reflected in Jiang's works influenced the contemporary people deeply. And for the outstanding foresight of his military thought, both the total war theory and the national defense strategy were adopted by the central government to defeat the enemy. All of these were beneficial to the independence of the Chinese nation.The last part was the latter end. Because of the great contribution he had did for the country, Jiang Baili will no doubt take an important status in Chinese military thought history.