In the last part, Chiang Kai-shek stepped ashore in Hong Kong and heard that Sun Yat-sen was still aboard a gunboat.

The man who had driven Sun to that point was Chen Jiongming. Yet for the four years before, Chiang had in fact been working under Chen. This part goes back in time to see how the two men came to that day.

Shantou, a Colonel on the Staff

In the spring of 1918, Chiang Kai-shek, then 30, went to Shantou on Sun Yat-sen's orders and joined the headquarters of the Guangdong Army for the Relief of Fujian. Its commander-in-chief was Chen Jiongming.

On March 15 he reported to headquarters and took up the post of colonel on the staff. In that day's diary he gave himself a pep talk: endure for five more years, work hard for five more years, and he would still be only 36. What could he not accomplish?

That evening Chen Jiongming gave him a dinner. In the diary Chiang called him "the Honorable Chen Jingcun."

For the next few months the diary is full of lines like "discussed matters with the commander-in-chief" and "the commander-in-chief held a secret meeting and fixed the date of the attack." He was a staff officer, offering advice and drafting battle plans. This was the steadiest stretch of the two men's relationship.

"Shame and Humiliation Such as I Have Never Known"

The calm did not last long.

On June 25 he wrote that since taking up his post he had suffered humiliation such as he had never known. He had resolved to resign three times and never gone through with it, partly because circumstances would not let him leave and partly because he meant to bear it.

Then he listed his own failings at length: indignation, grumbling, suspicion, showing off in speech, slackness in work. The entry reads like a self-criticism, yet it never says who had humiliated him.

Thirteen years later, in February 1931, while writing up old events at Tangshan, he spelled it out a little more: Ye Ju and others in the Guangdong Army resented him, sneered at the Nationalists, and often cursed Sun Yat-sen as "the Big Cannon," all to drive him away in anger. That is a later recollection, not a record made at the time.

On July 25, Xu Chongzhi wired back evasively and would not obey the order to attack Dabu and Fengshi. Chiang was furious. He wrote that Xu was his own close friend, while he and the commander-in-chief had "not a shred of personal feeling" between them; when his friend behaved like this, he was ashamed for him.

Early on the 31st he wrote his letter of resignation, took a junk down to Chao'an, and planned to go back to Shanghai.

A Letter That Caught Up with Him

On August 1, on a train bound for Shantou, he ran into Chen Qiyou.

Chen Jiongming had sent Chen Qiyou down the line on purpose to keep him. He carried a letter in Chen Jiongming's own hand, several hundred characters long, and one sentence in it said: the Guangdong Army can lose a hundred battles, but it cannot do without you alone.

Chiang read it, "heartsick," and "pondered it with tears in my eyes."

Still, he left. A few days later he was in Hong Kong.

Two weeks after that he turned on himself in the diary: one word out of place, one thing not to his liking, and he stormed off and resigned, which was wrong by reason and by rule alike. His superior had not blamed him but tried to keep him out of affection, which was as far as anyone could go. And he had even complained that his superior tried too hard to keep him.

It is one of the rare passages in the diary that speaks up for Chen Jiongming.

To Stay or Not to Stay

This back-and-forth would happen again.

In the autumn of 1918 he returned to the Guangdong Army, and in October became commander of its Second Detachment. The Zhangzhou campaign, the defeat at Yongtai and the scramble for army funds told in earlier parts all fall within these years.

On August 4, 1919, it happened again. Chen Jiongming sent Chen Qiyou to urge him back to his post. He "would by no means return," spoke harshly, and ran down Deng Zhongyuan behind his back.

In October 1920, as the Guangdong Army marched back into Guangdong, Chen Jiongming appointed him front-line commander of the Second Army. He declined. In the diary he sounded a little pleased with himself: neither Chen nor Xu had dared force it on him, which showed his sincerity more plainly than before.

When Chen Jiongming wanted him, he pulled away; when Chen let go, he came back. Over four years this became almost the fixed rhythm between them.

"Lord Jing Fights for Territory"

In February 1921 Chiang was in Guangzhou, helping plan the campaign to aid Guangxi.

On February 14 a military conference was held at the provincial office. He wrote that Deng Zhongyuan dodged responsibility and "Lord Jing fights for territory," leaving him stuck in the middle. In the end he grudgingly agreed, but he knew it would only get harder: haggling, scheming and maneuvering were not things he could do. If he did not leave soon, he would sooner or later earn people's resentment.

On the 19th he resolved to go back to Shanghai.

The line is short, but it is the first time the diary portrays Chen Jiongming as a man calculating for his own territory. That year Chen was governor of Guangdong and commander-in-chief of the Guangdong Army, and Sun Yat-sen was serving as extraordinary president in Guangzhou. The two men sat in the same government, but their aims were drifting further apart.

A Reply He Meant to Write

In September 1921 Chiang went to Nanning to see Chen Jiongming. Part 15 told that trip: the more he heard, the more impatient he grew, and he boarded a boat that afternoon. Chen asked him why he was willing to serve alongside a man who had run for president. He meant to answer by letter; the diary says nothing more.

At this point his way of addressing Chen had not changed. He still wrote "Lord Jing" and "Commander-in-Chief Chen." When his mother died, Chen sent 1,000 yuan in funeral money, and he entered it in his account of the funeral.

The Name Changes

On April 22, 1922, Sun Yat-sen came to Sanshui and Chiang went to see him. He heard that Chen Jiongming had left the provincial capital and resigned, and he was deeply unhappy.

A month later, on May 25, he wired Wang Jingwei, Hu Hanmin, Liao Zhongkai and Xu Chongzhi, urging them to secure the rear before pushing forward, and wrote of his "anger at certain persons occupying the provincial capital." He did not name the "certain persons."

On June 18, Wang Jingwei's letter reached Xikou. For the first time the diary says "Chen Jiongming has betrayed the party."

From "the Honorable Chen Jingcun" to "Lord Jing," and then to "Chen Jiongming, who has betrayed the party," took four years. Later still, the diary simply calls him "the rebel Chen."

Epilogue

That old letter had said the Guangdong Army could lose a hundred battles but could not do without him.

Four years later, the place Chiang was heading for was the gunboat that Chen Jiongming's guns were trained on.

Sources and narrative limits

  1. Diary: read from the user-supplied electronic transcription/OCR text of Chiang Kai-shek's diaries, 1917–1936 (the same base text as Part 15; whole-file SHA-256 593632d5add8f884f8b12a8bdd3c83f653bfd92d7d3d34a9372d8c7a36d393f3), entries for March 15, April 11, June 25, July 25, 26 and 31, August 1 and 16, and October 20, 1918; August 4, 1919; October 20, 1920; February 11–19 and September 17–19, 1921; the 1921 funeral account; April 22, May 25 and June 18, 1922; and the retrospective note written at Tangshan on February 21, 1931. The manuscript images were not examined.
  1. The August 4, 1919, entry: in the base text it sits among the August entries placed after "the last page of the June 1919 diary," so this article dates it to 1919. The base text notes many alterations in the 1919 volume, so the year is open to doubt.
  1. The 1931 Tangshan note, with its claims that Ye Ju and others resented Chiang and called Sun "the Big Cannon," was written thirteen years later, after Chiang's break with Chen, and takes an obvious side. The text marks it as a later recollection, not a record from 1918. Other lines in that note, such as the claim that Chen and his favorites were all preparing to flee, are not used.
  1. "The Guangdong Army can lose a hundred battles but cannot do without you alone" is Chiang's paraphrase in his diary of a sentence in Chen Jiongming's letter. The original letter has not been seen, and the base text has missing characters at this point.
  1. That Chen Jiongming was governor of Guangdong and commander-in-chief of the Guangdong Army in 1921, and that Sun Yat-sen took office as extraordinary president in May that year, are standard facts. For Chen's resignation in April 1922 and his troops' attack on the presidential office on June 16, this part gives only what Chiang heard and felt as recorded in his diary; the coup and the gunboat Yongfeng are not covered here.
  1. Age: Chiang was born on October 31, 1887, and was 30 in March 1918. The shift in how Chiang names Chen is the author's summary of the diary's wording; "Lord Jing," "Commander-in-Chief Chen" and "the rebel Chen" do not fall into neatly separate periods. The 1921 funeral account reads "博仪" in the base text; reading it as "funeral money" (赙仪) is the editor's judgment. No dialogue or inner thoughts have been invented for Chiang or Chen.

Notes (original diary wording, all from the base text above; translations by the editor)

  1. March 15, 1918: "Endure for five years, study hard for five years, and I will be no more than 36; what could I not do, what could I not accomplish? In the morning I went to headquarters and took up the post of colonel on the staff." "In the evening, after the dinner given by the commander-in-chief, the Honorable Chen Jingcun, I discussed plans with Chief of Staff Deng."
  2. June 25, 1918: "Since taking up my post I have suffered shame and humiliation such as I have never known. I resolved to resign three times and never did, partly because circumstances forced me not to, partly because I meant to endure."
  3. July 25, 1918: "Saw Commander Xu Ruwei's reply wire, evasive again and again, not obeying the order to attack Dabu and Fengshi; I was extremely indignant. Ruwei is my close personal friend, while the commander-in-chief and I have not a shred of personal feeling between us. Seeing this, I cannot help being ashamed for my friend, and so I am all the firmer in resigning..." July 31: "Up at six this morning and wrote my resignation. [characters missing] Took a junk down to Chao'an at once, resolved to return to Shanghai."
  4. August 1, 1918: "At noon took the train for Shantou and met Chen Qiyou on board; [missing] the commander-in-chief had sent him specially to keep me along the way. Received his letter in his own hand, [missing] hundred characters, with words such as 'the Guangdong Army can lose a hundred battles but cannot do without you alone.' His words [missing] made me heartsick, and I could not help pondering them with tears in my eyes."
  5. August 16, 1918: "At one word out of place, one thing not to my liking, I flew into a temper and resigned and went off alone. This was not only against reason but against rule. My superior did not blame me but kept me out of affection, which was as far as anyone could go. Yet I even reproached him for trying too hard to keep me. Truly I failed my own friendship utterly."
  6. August 4, 1919: "Commander-in-Chief Chen sent brother Qiyou to urge me back to my post. I would by no means return, but my words were rash and harsh, and I said things disparaging Zhongyuan."
  7. October 20, 1920: "Today I was appointed front-line commander of the Second Army of the Guangdong Army. I declined and did not accept. Neither Lord Jing nor brother Ru[wei] dared force it on me, which shows my sincerity more plainly than before..."
  8. February 14, 1921: "In the morning went to the provincial office to discuss military plans. Zhongyuan avoided blame and Lord Jing fought for territory, leaving me cornered and miserable. Though I grudgingly agreed in the end, there will be more difficulties from now on; haggling, scheming and maneuvering are not things I can do. If I do not leave in time I will surely earn resentment, hurting feelings to no practical purpose. Why should I do it?" February 19: "Resolved to return to Shanghai."
  9. Funeral account, 1921: "Received the president's wire of condolence, with funeral money of 2,000 yuan; Commander-in-Chief Chen, 1,000 yuan." (The base text reads "博仪"; reading it as 赙仪, funeral money, is the editor's judgment.)
  10. April 22, 1922: "Heard that Commander-in-Chief Chen Jiongming had left the provincial capital and resigned; I was deeply unhappy." May 25: "Anger at certain persons occupying the provincial capital and rebelling against orders." June 18: "...Was shocked to learn that Chen Jiongming has betrayed the party..."
  11. Retrospective note written at Tangshan, February 21, 1931: "The Guangdong men Ye Ju, Weng and Shiliang (names as in the base text) resented me without end, sneering at our Nationalist Party, and often cursed the Premier as 'the Big Cannon,' wanting to make me leave in anger. Though angry at heart, I forced myself to bear it..." (So in the base text; "县" there may be a transcription error.)