Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015. 182 pp. (Tables, map.) US$50.00, cloth. ISBN 978-988-8208-39-5.
This book originates from a doctoral dissertation presented to the University of Texas at Austin in 1994. Composed of eight chapters, the book evaluates the symbiotic relationship between communal organizations and agrarian revolution in South China. By conceptualizing peasant revolutions as grassroots efforts to subvert and change the sociopolitical structure of communal politics, Zhang argues that the ecological and sociopolitical settings of rural organizations determined the processes, patterns, and outcomes of peasant uprisings. In particular, the institutional setup of communal organizations shaped how peasants acted politically and how they assessed the potential gains and losses from joining the Communist movement (72).
Delving into the theories of Chinese Marxism, moral economy, rational choice, and structural transformation, Zhang highlights the spatial variations of the Communist uprisings in Jiangxi and Hunan provinces. While the Communist cadres had little presence in rural Hunan, tuan-lian (local militias) showed a remarkable ability to organize themselves. They took advantage of the political vacuum created by the advancing Communist-Nationalist troops to launch “spontaneous and radical” revolts against landlords and powerholders in 1926–1927 (22). By comparison, the Communists had great difficulty enlisting the support of lineages in Jiangxi’s revolutionary upheavals of 1929–1934. Because lineage leaders and members were skeptical of the Communists’ vision and remained ideologically “passive and conservative” (2–4; 119), the socialist land reform in Jiangxi was a failure (32).
Much has been written about the diverse patterns of the Chinese Communist mobilization. Zhang’s study substantiates many of the existing scholarly interpretations. First is the localization of the Communist revolution. Along the same reasoning of Elizabeth Perry, Odoric Wou, and Stephen Averill, Zhang reveals the variations of peasant uprisings in Hunan and Jiangxi, places where Mao Zedong and other regional Communist leaders acquired, improved, and mastered the strategy of rural mobilization. Consulting the newly released party documents, Zhang critiques the hagiographic depiction of Mao in the conventional party history. What Zhang presents is a complicated picture of policy adjustments, crisis resolutions, and constant negotiations between Communist outsiders and rural communities. Field operatives, peasant recruiters, and military officials seldom interacted with peasant communities in a vacuum. Their interactions were affected by a range of exogenous and endogenous factors, and a web of human relations that had predated the arrival of the Communist Party. For example, in the interior of Jiangxi, with powerful communal organizations like lineages and bandits, the Communists had to be flexible and accommodative, adapting their revolutionary agendas under different political, socioeconomic, and military circumstances.
The second scholarly interpretation substantiated by Zhang is the crucial role played by extra-local activists. Lacking adequate resources in the initial stage of the revolution, the Communists needed to partner with communal groups. The personalities of the communal strongmen, their predatory and protective operations, and their negotiations with the Party often influenced the recruitment and retention of peasant rebels. When the extra-local cadres’ objectives conflicted with local expectations, tensions and conflicts would escalate into violent confrontations. Consequently, the Communists had to eliminate these communal leaders due to their local allegiances.
Equally important is the persistence of intra-party rivalries between native and extra-local revolutionaries. The multilayered disputes among local Communists, regional party cadres, and top party leaders greatly impacted the process of peasant uprisings. Similar to the communal organizations that they set out to co-opt, these Communist tactical units embodied their unique political visions, vested interests, and policy expectations. Cadres of various levels debated about the management of the revolution, the construction of base areas, the advancement of struggle strategies and tactics, and the appropriation of student unions and peasant associations as revolution-building instruments.
Methodologically, Zhang is correct to emphasize the influences of communal contexts on the Communist mobilization. But the analysis remains largely a thematic study of revolutionary politics at the elite level. Though Zhang refers to some examples of co-opting lineages, bandits, and militias, he does not draw on the primary sources to elaborate these issues. Revolving around the Party’s revolutionary policies, his study would be more informative if he reconstructed the diverse patterns of peasant mobilization and consciousness-building efforts in Hunan and Jiangxi.
Furthermore, he has yet to problematize the term “peasant” in the investigation. Using “peasant” as an analytical category allows him to conceptualize an external-turned local agrarian movement. However, the official documents indicate that the peasant supporters came from both rural elites and commoners who often appropriated the Communist support to empower themselves in the local habitus of resource competition. The picture of party-and-community encounters exhibited different patterns and results, and it was filled with angst, violence, and confusion. At the end, the outcome of the revolution lay in the mutual negotiations and situational adaptations undertaken by individual cadres and communal leaders. This calls for a need to reassess the Chinese Communist activities in specific temporal and spatial settings.
Although the book breaks little new ground, non-specialist readers will still benefit from its tightly written summaries of the multiplicity of the Chinese Communist revolution.
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee
Pace University, New York, USA
pp. 347-349