Word: chiangs
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...past decade China's most celebrated political prisoner has been Chang Hsueh-liang, better known as the "Young Marshal." Son of fabulous "Old Marshal" Chang Tso-lin, who drank tiger blood and warlorded it over Manchuria until his assassination in 1928, the Young Marshal kidnaped Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the fantastic Sian incident of 1936. Eventually he freed the Gissimo and surrendered himself, crying: "I, Hsueh-liang, am by nature rude and uncouth. . . . Blushing with shame, I receive from you . . . the punishment I deserve...
When Mo brought back the news of Chang's interest in history, Chiang was delighted. He asked Mo to find a famous scholar who would instruct the Young Marshal and recommend more books. Mo complied. Now Chang is reading The Modern History of China, History of Indo-China, History of Manchuria, and (as a reminder that even the most vigorous dynasties must have an end) The Sad Tales of the End of the Ming Dynasty...
Chungking observers believed that Chiang was willing to make further concessions if he could find the solution to one all-important question: if the Government and the Reds reached a new accord, what was to prevent the Reds from violating that too, creating another "changed situation" and demanding a still higher price for the peace China needs? Said a high Government official: "[The Communists] want us to agree to an unconditional truce, because this would legalize their attempt to overthrow the [military] agreement...
When the ruinous Jap air raid of May 4, 1939 flattened 25% of Chungking's downtown buildings, the Government had turned over the former Pa Hsien Middle School compound to the press. All the place ever had in its favor was its central location. Air-raid dugouts, Chiang Kai-shek's house and the Chinese Central News Agency were within half a mile...
Lionel ("Old Man") Pratt, the hostel's oldest veteran, had come to China when the Sino-Japanese war (1895) was still big news. The Government had made him secretary-adviser to Madame Chiang Kaishek. Whenever Old China Hand Pratt talked about "the war," newsmen often suspected that he meant the war of 50 years...