张学良口述历史 (唐德刚)

This book carries great promise, if not responsibilities. Alas, it did not deliver on either. It was not that the author did a bad job, it was a project that failed because the object of the book, Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang (张学良) did not understand the nature of oral history and was therefore uncooperative. In the end, the author published the verbatim interview scripts, responsibly allowing future scholars access to the raw data for their own analysis and hopefully be able to come to an informed conclusion about Zhang, his life and times.

Zhang was an important person. His life was a colourful one, not only was he intimately involved in the many important events in the modern history of China (for example the Manchurian Incident), he was the co-mastermind of the Xi'an Incident (the other was Yang Hucheng 杨虎城). Much controversy still surrounds the event, with China (mainland) and Taiwan having different narratives about the incident and interpretations of the man's motivation and therefore his attitudes.What better way then to hear from the man himself?

It was with this expectation that I started the book. But what I read in the preface dampened my enthusiasm considerably. This book that was supposed to answer questions would not. If you watch the video of the interview, you would understand why. Zhang, in his old age, was no unlike many others; he has the tendency to boast about his achievements and his extra-marital affairs, he suffers from lapses in memory, and at times kept repeating the same thing over and over again. What I find most amusing are the occasions when he would say "I can't tell you who this person is", and almost as sure as the sun will rise, he would follow his next sentence with the name of the person whom he could not tell.

Yet despite its failure to live up to its expectations, the book is not without value. He did help to clarify a few things if only through one's own analysis. For example, when he told the author that there were people who asked him why he bothered to come to Wang's help after a failed attempt at Wang's life (pg. 236), the reader could immediately tell that many preferred Wang dead. He was also the best person to give insights into the workings of the Northeastern Army (奉军) and also some of the personalities (pg. 362). But personally, I think the most valuable part of the book is the epilogue provided by the author. This is a good piece of analytical work that is persuasively argued and engagingly written. This book would have been worth the read just for that part.

Like the author, my impression of the Young Marshal was deeply discounted after reading the book and watching the video mentioned above. He had a colourful life that is only available to people who were born in his times. He was involved in some of the most defining events of modern Chinese history. Yet as an old man, he was like many others, and his failure to maintain respectability during these interviews washes off the mystic that has accompanied him throughout his life, even and especially in detention. Perhaps like what the author said, if not for the  Xi'an Incident, Zhang Xueliang is nothing.

PS. The book came with a few pictures of Zhang and also his calligraphy. I wonder why he wrote his own name in simplified Chinese. I cannot explain that.

百年家族-张学良 （李翠莲）

This is yet another book on the Young Marshal, Zhang Xueliang, this time written by a Chinese scholar (as compared to Taiwanese). Although most of the book is on the Young Marshal, the first quarter of it is on his father, Zhang Zhuolin. The inclusion of the elder Zhang is useful, for it gives the reader the background of the Young Marshals' life, his upbringing and in particular how his father has influenced the direction of his life.

Any book on Zhang Xueliang would not miss the Xi'an Incident, and to a lesser extent, the Manchurian Incident, this book is no exception. However, the author took a broader view of Zhang's life and so did not give a disproporationate amount of attention to just these two incidents. Instead, she focused on the various important events that took place throughout his life, including his more than half century of internment and more importantly, the different people that are important in his life: his father, his first wife Yu Fengzhi, his second wife Edith Zhao, his siblings and most all, Chiang.

Although there was no chapter dedicated to Chiang, he was mentioned throughout the book and invariably in a bad light. All decisions made cast him as a devious, selfish and crafty leader, unworthy of a loyal and somewhat naive Zhang. As a book published in China shortly after the Cultural Revolution, it is not surprising that the author took on such a position and tone. Unfortunately this makes the book come across as biased and may lead the reader to devalue it as a resource. Zhang made several decisions that could be interpreted in different ways, and he was vague about them in later life in various interviews. But while the author made him look patriotic and compassionate throughout, sometimes even naive against the indespicable Chiang, one must remember that Zhang is not incapable of duplicity. For example, how does one interpret his back-channel and eventually direct communications with the Communist while serving as the deputy to Chiang who had overall command of the KMT army? How does one look at Zhang's hedging of bets during the Central Plains War (中原大战) as he twiddled his thumbs and decalred that he would support Chiang if Chiang could take Jinan (济南) (pg 185)?

Having said that, this book is actually packed with good facts and information, especially with regards to the dates and events. This shows good research which unfortunately is weakened by an overly anti-Chiang interpretation on the author's part.

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张学良与中国 (松本一男/林敏生）

Coming on the heels of another book on Zhang Xueliang (张学良), 张学良与日本， is this book. This is a rather short book of about 250 pages. The first quarter of the book was on Zhang's early life, and therefore has much to do with his father, the warlord Zhang Zuolin (张作霖). Zhang Xueliang came to prominence after his father was murdered by the Japanese and partly motivated by that, he decided to 'change flag' (易帜), that is, to change to the Nationalists' flag in a show of subjugation to them. After he lost his empire to the Japanese in the Manchurian Incident, he became increasingly opposed to Jiang's policy of 'Resisting Foreign Aggression after Stabilizing the Country' (先安内，后攘外), which culminated in the Xi'an Incident (西安事变) resulting in Zhang's five-decade house arrest.

This book was written by 松本一男, a Japanese born in Taiwan. However, when I first started, I wondered who translated the book, was it done faithfully to the original script or was it done by a Taiwanese or a Chinese who skewed the slant of the book towards their national stance on Zhang; the Chinese treat him as a national hero, the Taiwanese, a traitor. Some of the early parts suggested that the Chinese Communist Party might have a hand in it. There were instances when the author was highly critical of the Japanese (e.g., pg 41), in ways that only Chinese would do. Others, like the claim that growing up, Zhang did not even have the slightest affinity to the Japanese (pg. 43) also sounded a little too much like Chinese writing, there was also much criticism of Chiang Kai-shek throughout the book, written in a way contemporary Chinese would. Yet at the end of the book, the author's stance was a lot more unbiased, for example, his opinion that the Xi'an Incident saved the Communist Party from annihilation was not something many in China would admit to readily. Most of all however, is his description of the June Fourth Incident in China in 1989. This would never have made it into print had it been translated by a Chinese.

On the Xi'an Incident, there wasn't a lot written. How Zhang came to be in cahoots with Yang Hucheng (杨虎城) was totally ignored. But the author showed that the general political condition then made it hard for Zhang to hold the line on 先安内，后攘外. This book might be a little dated and so some facts were not firmly established when it was written. It could be for this reason that I found the author careful about being overly certain concerting events that are hard to authenticate. For example what was Zhang doing on the night of when the Manchurian Incident took place? Current accounts prefer to suggest that he was having a good time in the theatre. The author took the more tentative approach of suggesting that it was not conclusive and so two accounts were available. He was also less dramatic in describing Jiang's capture during the Xi'an Incident compared to this other account. On the other hand, what was glaringly inconsistent with common knowledge was his missing out on the fact that Chiang fell and hurt his back while trying to escape during the Xi'an Incident (pg. 176).

Overall though, I feel that the author has done a very commendable job in synthesising and presenting his facts. This can be seen from his triangulation of information with various sources when presenting the account of 'who did what' during the Xi'an Incident. More telling was his handling of the literature surrounding the execution of 杨宇霆 and 常蔭槐. The author commented about the conflicting accounts in the Chinese literature and their tendencies to sensationalise and he therefore decided only consulted overseas literature (pg 85). Another strength of the book was the detailed information on the different sects and warlords (pg. 91) and also the order of battle of Zhang's army.

What was surprising to me was what I thought would be the most boring part of the book turned out to be the most moving. This concerns Zhang's life in house-arrest over the five decades, how he turned from being hopeful of early release to join the fight against the Japanese to his gradual acceptance that it would not happened, yet sprinkled sporadically with unfulfilled hopes when old friends visited him promising to put in a good word for him in front of Chiang; the condition of his living quarters in the different places, where he sometimes could only spend a few months or even weeks because of the Nationalist Army's constant retreat from the Japanese; his general state of his physical and mental health and in the end, how his 'freedom statement' was dictated by the politics of Taiwan, right up to the third president.

This book speculates about Zhang Xueliang's nature and attributed his eventual sympathy with the students' cause in 1936 to the May Fourth Movement which he witnessed as a young man . It is easy for people to feel this way about Zhang for he clearly was more naive than he should be, one need only see his belief that Chiang would not treat him as he did. And from this, one can make a judgement on Chiang.

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西安兵变情恨 （王月曦、薛家柱）

The Xi'an Incident (西安事变) is an important and controversial one in Chinese history. Briefly, on 12 Dec 1936, Zhang Xueliang (张学良), the Young Marshal, incarcerated Chiang Kai-shek (蒋介石) in Xi'an in order to force Chiang to agree to stop his war against the Communists and to instead work with them to fight the Japanese. Chiang was eventually freed, but Zhang would spend the rest of his life under house-arrest, even after Chiang died in 1975.

This book was written in collaboration with 汪日章 (Wang Rizhang), who was the secretary of Chiang. It is however important to remember that Wang remained in China and together with the fact that the book was originally published in China, it is no surprise that the slant is hugely anti-Chiang, or pro-Zhang. But that aside, this book covers a lot of ground, including the run-up to the incident and the aftermath, much of the facts are also fairly accurate. The style of the authors is engaging and so the reader is treated to a thriller-like narrative of an event that still has some reverberation today.

What I thought was missing was 杨虎城's (Yang Hucheng) role in the whole affair. It is well-known that he is the other party to the abduction of Chiang, and in fact, he and some of his family members were executed by Chiang because of that. But while the book gave much attention to how Zhang was slowly moved towards taking this drastic step, there was no mention of Yang's motivation. I am convinced that for one to take part in such a risky business, he must have gone through a process, which involves some soul-searching and doubts. Zhang would not be the only one to go through it, Yang would have as well. Instead the writers gave the impression that Yang suddenly appeared non-committal after Chiang was detained. This was not an accurate depiction of Yang. First of all, Yang never trusted Chiang, he had insisted on a signed undertaking by Chiang before he should be released, but Zhang did not push it in his negotiations with Soong Meiling. What was worse was the negotiation was done in English, which Yang did not speak (see 往事：杨虎城之子回忆 ). I would be angry in I were Yang.

The Xi'an Incident continues to be debated today, partly because of its significance, partly because Zhang himself appeared to give contradicting views and information on different occasions. All the parties involved are no longer around, but this is only the start of my exploration of this incident and this book has certainly helped in my quest.

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往事:杨虎城之子回忆 (杨拯民 )

I bought this book in the belief that it was a book on 杨虎城 (the collaborator of 张学良 in the Xi'an Incident - 西安事变), more specifically, a recollection of what happened during the Incident. But I was disappointed, it turned out to have only a small chapter on the Incident, and perhaps only about half the book was on 杨虎城 himself. Much of the rest of the book was on the author himself, the son of 杨虎城 and too much of it was on his adulation of the personalities in the Chinese Communist Party and his relationship with different people whom played bit roles in the greater scheme of history but must be mentioned given the Chinese's culture of 'giving face' (给面子). It was until the end of the book that I realised that while the book was written by 杨拯民, it was arranged by his wife after his death and only at the goading of his friends.

However, one does get some rewards making it through the book. For one thing, writing from the perspective of a common man, the reader gets a sense of general attitudes of the people in China in that tumultuous period. For example, if they were indignant towards the Japanese's invasion of China, they continued to want to live their lives as usual. Even the Marco Polo Bridge Incident did not rouse them to want to fight (pg 155), hoping on one hand that this might be the point when the Japanese could be chased out of China, but wishing on the other hand that the Incident would not precipitate a bigger war. This dilemma puts paid to the notion that Chinese were all patriotic.

Brief mentions were given to the Cultural Revolution that happened much later. It is obvious that the author and his wife both suffered greatly during that time. While they were spared of their lives, many of their friends were not. But the author was unwilling to talk more about it, giving only brief mentions of what happened in drips throughout the book and even absolving Mao for what happened - 人非圣贤，孰能无过。 Indeed.

What is more interesting to me was the almost complete lack of mention throughout the book about his or the Communist Party's fight with the Japanese. Yes, this is the autobiography of a single person, he might have been lucky to have escaped having to fight the Japanese. But he spent many years in Yan An (延安), the Communist base and then was posted to various places, yet in none of this was he required to face the Japanese, nor did he talked about anyone who he met who had. It makes one wonder about the scale of the Communists' involvement in fighting the Japanese.

Overall a rather disappointing book, and if you are trying to understand more about the Xi'an Incident, this is not a book that you need to read. But if you are interested in the somewhat ethnographic take on Chinese life, then this provides one view.

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张学良与日本 （臼井勝美/陈鹏仁）

This book was originally published in Japanese coming out of a documentary that NHK made about Zhang Xueliang (张学良), also known as the Young Marshal. Zhang was the son of Zhang Zhuolin (张作霖） the warlord from the northeastern provinces of China. His life was a fascinating one but he was most well-known for the Xi'an Incident (西安事变) where he and his associates abducted Chiang Kaishek and forced him to stop the pursuit of the Communists and instead work with them to fight the Japanese who at that time had occupied Manchuria and had declared it an "independent" country called Manchukuo.

As mentioned, this book was written from the materials and interviews made for the documentary on Zhang and reads exactly like that. While the author had access to Zhang, this book is not a collection of her interview with Zhang. In many places it was written almost like a script for a documentary and in other places the author filled it with materials from other sources. In fact there was surprisingly little from the actual interviews and the most disappointing of all, Zhang refused to divulge anything on what happened in the Xi'an Incident. And honestly, he  had kept his mouth tightly shut about the most important details of the negotiations between Zhou Enlai and Chiang Kaishek in the years after that.

However if one is looking for a source that is easy to read to get all the facts of Zhang's life, this book would be a good reference. It is not one that gives the reader an in-depth understanding of the events because it lacks the analyses of the various events and therefore ended up looking a little disjointed and lacking a central thesis. But to be fair, the author never meant for this book to be one of an analysis of Zhang or any events associated with him, it is simply a documentary turned into a book.

I know of Zhang in my earlier readings but did not find out more about him. If this book has done anything for me, it has piqued my interest in him and he being young in those tumultuous years actually lived long enough to entertain a few video-recorded interviews that are available on YouTube (they are in Chinese though). His history has been presented in almost opposite ways in China and Taiwan. With this book as a start I hope to find out more about him and come to my own assessment of him.

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