Research On The Mutiny Of Wuchang And Ichang In Hubei During The Republic Of China (1920-1921)

Under Wang Chan-yuan's governing,there frequently occurred many martial mutinies in Hubei.Among these mutinies,the November 29th Mutiny of Ichang,the June 4th Mutiny of Ichang and the June 7th Mutiny of Wuchang had the greatest impact that resulted in heavy losses to the Wuyi local society.For Yichang,some social people were self-defense,and even asked by themselves for the concession.Additionally,to recovery the economy and to solve the problem about military supplies of the garrison army,Yichang merchants actually have publicly implemented opium sales.For Wuchang,as the capital and the political center of Hubei Province,there was an outbreak of such a serious mutiny,will inevitably cause a great panic towards Wuhan and all parts of Hubei masses.After the event of Wu Yi,the central authorities in view of the seriousness of the situation,immediately sent some professional staff to go to Hubei to carry out the investigation,and to give financial allocation,meanwhile,closely maintaining the stability of different provinces.Hubei local autihorities have also taken prompt measures to maintain social order and set up a rehabilitation office in Wuhan to deal with the aftermath actively.Because of the serious loss of foreigners,foreign governments have made representations to the Chinese government and demanded compensation,and even put forward the case of Yichang concession.At the same time,all parts of society have been also actively involved in the aftermath,the chamber of Commerce,the provincial parliament,charity and other social groups have played a role.In addition,due to unexpected catastrophes of Hubei province,Hubei people increasingly dissatisfied with Wang' s governing,thus some peacefiul petition activities have been implemented continually by the leader of the Townsmen Association in Beijing.However,the Beijing government disregarded the public opinion,still strongly sustained the maintaining of Wang Chan-yuan,which made the petitioners to realize that a simple peace petition has no avail,using force to drive Wang Chan-yuan becomes the general trend.Therefore,as Jiang Zuobin,Li Shucheng as the representative of the autonomous people began to seek military support from neighboring provinces.Since Hunan and Sichuan provinces may be gain benefits from the war,they sent troops to Hubei province and gave a hand to make the war.Finally,Wang Chan-yuan stepped down,with Wu Peifu as the representative of the Luo faction warlords in Hubei,Hubei's political situation has changed.The mutiny of Wuchang and Ichang is inevitable,which is both a concentrated performance about sharp social contradictions during that period and an expression of the whole disordered society.This paper attempts to comprehensively describe the mutiny of Wuchang and Ichang,and then analyzes the mechanism of its appearance,discusses the government's control of the society and makes an objective estimation about the impact of the event on the political situation.In addition,this paper also hopes to interpret the other side of the mutiny of Wuchang and Ichang itself,taking this event as the starting point,to study Hubei local social situation during the late Wang Chan-yuan's governing,also can recognize the complexity of warlord politics and the republic of China in 1920s,thus profoundly understand a potential approach and show the trend of society.