Federal frontiers : the constitution of Hunan Province in 1920s republican China

Abstract

This thesis complements a recent body of scholarship revisiting constitutional developments in early Republican China, a period which has hitherto been portrayed as the ‘dark era’ before Nationalism and Communism. Making use of previously unused archival materials from Changsha, Taipei and London, this dissertation focuses on the 1922 Constitution of Hunan. China’s first provincial constitution, Hunan’s constitution was an ahistorical, radical palimpsest bearing the impressions of the US and Swiss constitutions with a separation of powers, direct democracy and no less than eleven provisions for provincial referenda. The thesis explores the origins of constitutionalism in Hunan, with its proud history of autonomy that became the spearhead of China’s federal movement; and analyses how the constitution was drafted, promulgated and functioned. In counterpoint to Marxist scholarship, it is argued that the constitutional experiment in Hunan in the 1920s should not be regarded as a failure. Indeed, the ultimate reason that constitutionalism in Hunan did not endure for longer is not because it was, or perhaps more pointedly even is, inherently incompatible with the Chinese polity – rather federalism has been a perennial theme in Chinese history as much as the dynastic cycles that arguably are the exception to the rule – instead this thesis argues that constitutionalism stalled primarily due to external influences particularly the expansionist logic of militarism rather than any internal dynamics inherent in the constitution. While exploring legal factors including flaws in the text of the constitution document, which was unilaterally drafted, provided for a powerful Provincial Parliament and critically lacked institutional mechanisms for mediating between Changsha and Beijing, this thesis argues that on balance such factors were marginal in comparison with the overriding cause of “failure” of Hunan’s constitution which was the external invasion and forcible termination thereof by the KMT. Hunan’s constitutional movement emphatically did not seek independence. On the contrary, together with Zhejiang and Guangdong, it was part of a wider United Provinces Autonomy Movement, which at its height included 14 provinces in total covering over half of China’s land mass. The movement envisioned building a federal Republic in three phases: after individual provinces drafted and administered their own constitutions, they would form a confederation before holding a constitutional convention in Shanghai to draft a national constitution. While other provinces were beset by militarism, foreign intervention or factional infighting, Hunan was self-sufficient – with a landlocked, continental geography – and war-weary as the constant battleground between the North and the South. Under Governor General Zhao Hengti, who brandished the constitution as his legitimising shield, Hunan was able to extricate itself from civil turmoil for four years and pursue an impressive programme of economic development as local elites negotiated their power struggles through the medium of the constitution. In the end, it was Zhao’s disastrous intervention in neighbouring Hubei province in violation of the ‘Monroe Doctrine’ of non-interference that proved fatal for Hunan’s Constitution. The findings of this research show that although eventually Nationalism prevailed, China enjoyed a constitutional moment in the 1920s when even ‘warlords’ sought to cloak themselves in the legitimising robes of constitutionalism and in turn were partially fettered by the rules of the constitutions they promoted.