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Abstract
Zhao Erfeng (1845–1911), the Qing governor-general of Sichuan province in 1911, died immediately after the successful revolutionary uprising in Chengdu. This article examines three biographical narratives of Zhao produced during the 1910s. The three different portraits of Zhao in the biographies—Zhao as racial traitor, loyal martyr, and modernizer—reveal radically different ways in which the Qing–Republican transition was understood in the early Republic. Focused on the two major issues associated with Zhao, the Qing incorporation of the Sino-Tibetan frontier and the railway-protection movement in Sichuan, the following discussion utilizes Zhao's biographies as windows on the unsettled definitions of the 1911 Revolution, revealing how Chinese negotiated the issues of nation, territory, and modernity at the birth of a modern state.
Acknowledgments
I thank the editor and two Twentieth-Century China reviewers for their constructive feedback and suggestions. I am also grateful to Steve Miles, Ma Zhao, Tobie Meyer-Fong, Elliot Sperling, Robert Eno, Lynn Struve, and Klaus Mühlhahn, who have given me excellent support and advice for the production of this paper.
Notes on Contributor
Joohee Suh is a PhD candidate in History at Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently working on her dissertation, “The Afterlife of Corpses: The Fear of Animated Dead Bodies (jiangshi) and the Qing Culture of the Macabre.”
Notes
1 Joseph Esherick, “1911: A Review,” Modern China 2 (1976): 181.
2 Mary Rankin, “State and Society in Early Republican Politics, 1912–18,” China Quarterly 150 (1997): 260–81.
3 Kristin Stapleton, Civilizing Chengdu: Chinese Urban Reform, 1895–1937 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2000); Rebecca Karl, Staging the World: Chinese Nationalism at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002); Tze-Ki Hon and Robert Culp, eds., The Politics of Historical Production in Late Qing and Republican China (Leiden: Brill, 2007); Robert Culp, Articulating Citizenship: Civic Education and Student Politics in Southeastern China, 1912–1940 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007); Jing Tsu, Failure, Nationalism, and Literature: The Making of Modern Chinese Identity, 1895–1937 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005).
4 Yü Ying-Shih, “Changing Conceptions of National History in Twentieth-Century China,” in Erik Lönnroth, Karl Molin, and Ragnar Björk, eds., Conceptions of National History: Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 78 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1994), 170.
5 Yü, “Changing Conceptions,” 156–9.
6 Madeleine Dong, “Creating Academic Qing History,” in Brian Moloughney and Peter Gue Zarrow, eds., Transforming History: The Making of a Modern Academic Discipline in Twentieth-Century China (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2011), 210–22.
7 Chow Tse-tsung, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964), 338–55.
8 Brian Moloughney, “From Biographic History to Historical Biography: A Transformation in Chinese Historical Writing,” East Asian History 4 (1992): 13–22. On traditional biographical writing, see D. C. Twitchett, “Chinese Biographical Writing,” in W. G. Beasley and E. G. Pulleyblank, eds., Historians of China and Japan (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), 95–114.
9 Joan Judge, “Blended Wish Images: Chinese and Western Exemplary Women at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” Nan nü 6 (2004): 104; see also Harriet Zurndorfer, “How to Write a Woman's Life into and out of History: Wang Zhaoyuan (1763–1851) and Biographical Study in Republican China,” in Marjorie Dryburgh and Sarah Dauncey, eds., Writing Lives in China, 1600–2010: Histories of the Elusive Self (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 90–3, and Hu Ying, “Gender and Modern Martyrology,” in Joan Judge and Hu Ying, eds., Beyond Exemplar Tales: Women's Biography in Chinese History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 121–36.
10 Zhao Wenying was killed in Shandong by the Taiping armies. His biography is included in the Draft History of the Qing. See Zhao Erxun, Qingshi gao (Draft history of the Qing) (Hong Kong: Xianggang wenxue yanjiushuo, 1960), 1526.
11 For the use of this term in the Qing, see John Herman, “Empire in the Southwest: Early Qing Reforms to the Native Chieftain System,” Journal of Asian Studies 56 (1997): 49.
12 Wu Fengpei, Zhao Erfeng Chuanbian zoudu (Zhao Erfeng's memorials on the matters in the Sichuan border) (Chengdu: Sichuan minzu chubanshe, 1984); Sichuansheng minzu yanjiusuo (Institute of nationalities of Sichuan province), Qingmo Chuandian bianwu dang'an shiliao (Court materials pertaining to frontier matters in the Sichuan border region in the late Qing) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1989); Elliot Sperling, “The Chinese Venture in K'am, 1904–1911, and the Role of Chao Erh-feng,” Tibet Journal 1 (1975): 10–36; S. A. M. Adshead, Province and Politics in Late Imperial China: Viceregal Government in Szechwan, 1898–1911 (London: Curzon Press, 1984); Xiuyu Wang, China's Last Imperial Frontier: Late Qing Expansion in Sichuan's Tibetan Borderlands (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011).
13 Guoshiguan shiliaochu (The department of historical materials in the bureau of Qing history), Xinhai nian Sichuan baolu yundong shiliao huibian (Compilation of historical materials on the railway protection movement in Sichuan in 1911) (Taipei: Guoshiguan, 1981), 354–911; Ichiko Chūzō, “The Railway Protection Movement in Szechuan in 1911,” Memoirs of the Toyo Bunko 14 (1955): 47–69; Stapleton, Civilizing Chengdu, 150–80.
14 “Report on Chengdu-Sichuan military government's arresting and executing Zhao Erfeng,” (Chengdu Sichuan jun zhengfu busha Zhao Erfeng tonggao) in Dai Zhili, ed., Sichuan baolu yundong shiliao (Historical materials on the Sichuan railway protection movement) (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1959), 516.
15 This point illustrates Pamela Crossley's claim that the Chinese who worked for the Qing, i.e., the Chinese-martial bannermen, were perceived as racial traitors in the nationalist discourse of the late Qing. Pamela Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 337.
16 “A commendation for the Chengdu-Sichuan military government's arrest and execution of Zhao Erfeng” (Chengdu Sichuan jun zhengfu busha Zhao Erfeng jiangzhuang), in Sichuan baolu yundong shiliao, 517.
17 Dong, “Creating Academic Qing History,” 210–11.
18 Lu Baoxuan, Manqing baishi (The petty history of the Manchu Qing) (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1970), 19–20.
19 Lu, Manqing, 19.
20 Cao Rong, “Gesheng dulishi biecai” (Selected records of the history of independence of each province), in Manqing, 421–2.
21 Hanshi shi, “Manqing xingwang shi” (The history of rise and fall of the Manchu Qing), in Manqing, 148. For the late Qing nationalist discourse of colonialism and imperialism, see Karl, Staging the World, 83–115.
22 Karl, Staging the World, 123. Shen Sung-ch'iao, “Discourse of guomin (‘the citizen’) in late Qing China, 1895–1911,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 7 (2006): 4–8.
23 Laoli, Nucai xiaoshi (The concise history of slaves) (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1970), 301.
24 See “Mujianga,” “Qiying,” and “Qishan” for the Opium War, “Chonghou” for the Sino-Russian negotiation at Yili, and “Yulu,” “Ronglu,” and “Zengqi” for the Boxer uprising. Laoli, Nucai, 311–17, 321–32, 334–6, 339–41.
25 Laoli, Nucai, 337.
26 Laoli, Nucai, 336.
27 Tsu, Failure, Nationalism, and Literature, 32–97. Peter Zarrow, “Historical Trauma: Anti-Manchuism and Memories of Atrocity in Late Qing China,” History and Memory 61 (2004): 67–107. For historical accounts on Zhang Xianzhong, see Robert Entenmann, “Migration and Settlement in Sichuan, 1644–1796″ (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1982), 24–6.
28 Guo Moruo, “Fanzheng qianhou” (Before and after the uprising), in Chen Xulu, ed., Xinhai geming (The 1911 Revolution), vol. 4 (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1959), 450. Anatoly Lunacharski was a Marxist theorist whose ideas were introduced to China in the 1930s by Lu Xun. Paul Pickowicz, “Lu Xun through the Eyes of Qu Qiu-Bai: New Perspectives on Chinese,” Modern China 2 (1976): 334.
29 Stapleton, Civilizing Chengdu, 165. Liu Shilong, “Speech Activities and Social Mobilization: The Sichuan Railway Protection Movement of the Late Qing Dynasty,” Chinese Studies in Histories 46 (2012): 15. Deng's criticism of the railway nationalization policy for destroying constitutionalism, serving the interests of foreigners, and despoiling national capital can be found in Wei Yingtao, Sichuan Xinhai geming shiliao (Historical materials on the 1911 Revolution in Sichuan) (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1981), 212–13.
30 Laoli, Nucai, 338.
31 Laoli, Nucai, 338–9.
32 Zarrow, “Historical Trauma,” 88–93.
33 Cao Rong, “Gesheng duli shi,” 500.
34 Although cannibalism was not a state-sanctioned mode of punishment, the ritual consumption of a criminal's executed body was affirmed customarily when the crime was targeted “against the society” or equivalent to “an act of treason against the state.” Key Ray Chong, Cannibalism in China (Wakefield, NH: Longwood Academic, 1990), 163.
35 Min Ercheng, Beizhuanji bu (Supplement to the biographies from epitaphs) (Taipei: Mingwen shuju, 1985), 321–3. It seems reasonable to see Wu as a “pragmatic conservatist,” following the footstep of his teacher, Wang Kaiyun. For Wang's attitude toward reform, see Joseph Esherick, Reform and Revolution in China: The 1911 Revolution in Hunan and Hubei (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), 41 and 68, and Stephen Platt, Provincial Patriots: The Hunanese and Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 91. On education reforms and the new school system after 1905, see Barry Keenan, Imperial China's Last Classical Academies: Social Changes in the Lower Yangzi, 1864–1911 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 125–40.
36 The 1936 edition published by Jinliang does not provide any information on the original publication date. According to his epitaph, Wu produced Martyrs during his stay in Shanghai. Min, Beizhuanji bu, 324.
37 Pamela Crossley, Orphaned Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), 203–4.
38 Michael Hill, Lin Shu, Inc.: Translation and the Making of Modern Chinese Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 189–90.
39 Wu Shengqing, “Contested Fengya: Classical-Style Poetry Clubs in Early Republican China,” in Kirk Denton and Michael Hockx, eds., Literary Societies of Republican China (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008), 24.
40 Zheng Xiaoxu, a loyalist who led the imperial restoration in Manchukuo in the 1930s, was a close associate of key members of the Chao Society. However, the political orientations of the members were hardly coherent. For example, Fan Zengxiang and Zhou Shumo served the Yuan Shikai government. Miao Quansun and Wu Shijian (Wu Qingchi's son) joined the compilation project of the Qing history. Zhu Xinghe, Xiandai Zhongguo de siwen gurou: Chaoshe yishe shiren qunti yanjiu (Literati kindred of modern China: a study of the literati community of the Chao Society and Yi Society) (Shanghai: Shanghai sanlian shudian, 2014), 132–209.
41 Tobie Meyer-Fong, What Remains: Coming to Terms with Civil War in 19th Century China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013), 135–202.
42 On personal efforts to commemorate the dead, see Meyer-Fong, What Remains, 175–201.
43 See Wang Xianqian's preface to Martyrs. Wu Qingchi, Xinhai xunnanji (Record of the 1911 martyrs) (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1981), 13.
44 Wu, Xinhai, 37.
45 Wu, Xinhai, 37.
46 Wu, Xinhai, 38.
47 Qi An, “Protecting the ‘Children’: Early Qing's Ethnic Policy towards Miao Frontier: A Historical Study of Multiethnic China,” Journal of Cambridge Studies 4 (2009): 27. Zhao Erfeng himself used the rhetoric of savage-like tyrannical monastic rule to rationalize the Sangpeling campaign. See Wang, China's Last Imperial Frontier, 124.
48 Wang, China's Last Imperial Frontier, 179–204.
49 Adshead, Province and Politics, 57–8. Wang, China's Last Imperial Frontier, 74.
50 The epitaph states: “When the eastern move of Russia was restrained by Japan, Russia turned south and coveted our northern territory. [The court] realized the old loose-rein policy was no longer effective. Attempting to rectify the situation, [the court] suggested that [Wu] take charge of this matter. [Wu] accepted the offer but officials in charge did not let it go through.” Min, Beizhuanji bu, 322. The “officials in charge” here are possibly those who were at the forefront of the hard-line policy in border defense, including Cheng Duchuan, Xu Shichang, and Zai Zhen: those who supported the provincialization of Manchuria from 1904 to 1906. Blaine Chiasson, “Late-Qing Adaptive Frontier Administrative Reform in Manchuria, 1900–1911,” in Dan Ben-Canaan, Frank Grüner, and Ines Prodöhl, eds., Entangled Histories: The Transcultural Past of Northeast China (New York: Springer, 2014), 169–71.
51 Wu, Xinhai, 38–9.
52 Wu, Xinhai, 39–40.
53 Meyer-Fong, What Remains, 151–2.
54 Henrietta Harrison, “Martyrs and Militarism in Early Republican China,” Twentieth-Century China 23 (1998): 45.
55 Titles of some of Fei's publications are Xu Shichang, Duan Qirui, Cixi chuanxin lu (Record of court policies under the Cixi regency), and Minguo shinian guanliao fubai shi (History of corruption during the 10 years of the Republic). Judging by his publishing activities, Fei may fit into the category of “transitional intellectual.” See Tze-ki Hon and Robert Culp, “Introduction,” in Politics of Historical Production, 11–14.
56 For example, a lengthy biography of Wang Kaiyun appears as the first entry of Eminent People. Zheng Xiaoxu, a renowned loyalist, writes in his diary that “the author [of Eminent People] … as a follower of the deceased Wang Kaiyun, writes about Kaiyun quite favorably.” Zheng Xiaoxu, Zheng Xiaoxu riji (Diary of Zheng Xiaoxu) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1993), 1791.
57 For example, Wang maintained close contact with several members of the Chao Society. Timothy Weston, “The Formation and Positioning of the New Culture Community, 1913–1917,” Modern China 24 (1998): 255–84. For Wang Kaiyun's relationship with the Chao Society, see Zhu, Xiandai Zhongguo, 38–41.
58 Fei Xingjian, Duan Qirui (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1973), 1. Fei Xingjian, Xu Shichang (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1988), 1–3.
59 Fei Xingjian, Minguo shinian guanliao fubai shi (History of corruption during the 10 years of the Republic) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2007), 85–91.
60 Fei Xingjian, Jindai mingren xiaozhuan (Concise biographies of eminent people of modern times) (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1967), 315–16. Fei, Xu Shichang, 3.
61 For example, Liang Qichao produced zhuan-type biographies of the six victims of the 1898 reform movement along with biographical monographs of Li Hongzhang, Kang Youwei, and Wang Anshi. Moloughney, “From Biographic History,” 16–17.
62 The categories are scholars (rulin), recluses (yixing), imperial clan (qingui), officials (guanli), generals (jiangshi), the loyal (zhonglie), literati (wenyuan), medical practitioners (yishu), merchants (huozhi), militia (renxia), and revolutionaries (mindang).
63 The people whose lives spanned the same period but were still alive are included in Dangdai mingren xiaozhuan (Concise biographies of eminent people of current times).
64 See the introductions to the categories of “general,” “merchant,” and “revolutionary.” Fei, Jindai mingren, 324, 434, 467. For the meaning of jindai in general histories produced at the turn of the twentieth century, see Tze-ki Hon, “Educating the Citizens,” in Politics of Historical Production, 84–92.
65 Fei, Jindai mingren, 226.
66 Fei, Jindai mingren, 226.
67 Fei, Jindai mingren, 226.
68 The brief mention of local officials reveals Fei's considerable familiarity with internal power struggles in Chengdu. According to Peng Fen, one of the constitutionalists in Chengdu, Yang Jiashen, the salt-distribution commissioner, and Wang Yan, administrator of the military defense office, played a major role in instigating an aggressive stance toward the constitutionalist leaders of the railway protection movement. Zhou Shanpei, the provincial judge, is described as an opportunist. Zhou Shanpei in his own memoir attempted to clear himself of the charge of being the main culprit of the affairs of September 7. In the “Report of the Sichuan Railway Protection Comrades Association” published in Minli bao on November 28 (the day following the declaration of independence), Zhou Shanpei is included along with Zhao Erfeng and Wang Yan among the five “avaricious officials” who should be eliminated for the peace of Sichuan. Chen, Xinhai geming, 332, 428–9. Zhou Shanpei, Xinhai Sichuan shibian zhi wo (Myself in the Sichuan uprising of 1911) (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1976), 22–3.
69 Fei, Jindai mingren, 227.
70 Fei, Dangdai mingren, 207–9. Fei, Minguo shinian, 90. For Zhao Erxun's compilation of Qingshi gao, see Chen Hsi-yuan, “Last Chapter Unfinished: The Making of the Official Qing History and the Crisis of Traditional Chinese Historiography,” Historiography East & West 2 (2004): 179–84.
71 Zhao, Qingshi gao, 1428. Cai Guanluo, Qingdai qibai mingren zhuan (Seven hundred eminent people of the Qing) (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1971), 1217. Xiao Yinshan, Qingdai tongshi (The general history of the Qing) (Taipei: Taiwan shangwu yinshuguan, 1962–1963), 2544–56. On Xiao's creation of Qingdai tongshi, see Dong, “Creating Academic Qing History,” 214–22. Aside from historiographies, Kenny Ng has examined the fictional account of the 1911 Revolution produced in the 1930s by a Sichuanese, Li Jieren. Ng vividly describes localistic and fragmentary memories of 1911 recorded in The Great Wave that diverged from the Communist “teleological historical discourse that viewed the revolution as a grand historical design predetermined by inexorable social changes.” Kenny Kwok-kwan Ng, The Lost Geopoetic Horizon of Li Jieren: The Crisis of Writing Chengdu in Revolutionary China (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 96–143. I am grateful to Kristin Stapleton for introducing this book to me.
72 Wei Yingtao, “Sichuan baolu yundong” (The railway protection movement in Sichuan), Xinhai geming wushinian jinian lunwenji (Anthology commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962), 473–95. For the Marxist interpretation of the 1911 Revolution, see Peter Zarrow, China in War and Revolution, 1859–1949 (New York: Routledge, 2005), 35–40.
73 For example, Wei Yingtao's 1981 monograph on the Sichuan railway protection movement did not alter much of his previous approach to Zhao, crediting him with causing the massacre and fueling the armed struggle in Chengdu. Wei Yingtao, Sichuan baolu yundong shi (The history of the railway protection movement in Sichuan) (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1981), 289–300. Other sources on Zhao published in this period include the following. “Zhao Erfeng,” in Liaoning daxue lishixi (History department of Liaoning University), ed., Zhongguo minzhu geming shiqi renwu jianjie (Brief introduction to the people in the age of democratic revolution in China) (Shenyang: Liaoning daxue lishixi hanshoubu, 1981), 329. “Zhao Erfeng – Tuhu mingde youlai” (Zhao Erfeng: the origin of his butcher nickname), in Zhongguo renmin zhengzhi xieshang huiyi sichuansheng Chengdushi weiyuanhui (Committee of Chengdu City in Sichuan Province, National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; hereafter CPPCC), ed., Sichuan wenshi ziliao xuanji (Selected collections of literary and historical sources of Sichuan), vol. 13 (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1981), 29–33. “Zhenya baolu yundong de yuanxiong Zhao Erfeng” (Zhao Erfeng, main culprit behind oppression of the railway protection movement), in CPPCC, ed., Chengdu wenshi ziliao xuanji (Selected collection of literary and historical sources of Chengdu) (Chengdu: Gaiwei yuanhui, 1981), 257–77. For scholarship on the Revolution from the PRC after the Cultural Revolution, see Edmund Fung, “Post-1949 Chinese Historiography on the 1911 Revolution,” Modern China 1978 (4): 206–11.
74 Wu, Zhao Erfeng, 508. Chen Yishi, “Zhao Erfeng yu Sichuan zangqu de gaitu guiliu” (Zhao Erfeng and the gaitu guiliu of the Sino-Tibetan border in Sichuan), Sichuan xueyuan xuebao (Journal of Sichuan University) 1981 (3): 81–5.
75 Although Tibet has always been a part of China in the official position of the PRC, the Sino-Tibetan relationship was made a greater issue after the Lhasa revolt and the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959. After that, Chinese historiography gradually formulated a position that Tibet had been an integral part of China since the Yuan, not the Qing. In the 1980s, publications affirming this position began to pour out. Research on the social and cultural histories of Kham also began to flourish in the 1980s. After 2000, in particular, several research projects were launched centered in Sichuan-based universities and research institutes and backed up by large-scale research funding from the Chinese government. Elliot Sperling, “Tibet and China: The Interpretation of History since 1950,” China Perspectives 2009 (3): 25–37. Shi Shuo and Zou Libo, “Kangzang shi yanjiu zongshi” (An overview of studies on Tibet and Kham), Xizang daxue xuebao (Journal of Tibet University) 2011 (26): 67–72. Zhao Liuwen, “Jinshinian lai Xikang yanjiu zongshu” (An overview of studies on Kham produced over the past decade) Sichuan minzu xueyuan xuebao (Sichuan University journal for nationalities) 2013 (22): 11–17. Aside from minority issues, the growing attention on the history of the Qing territorial incorporation may also reflect recent trends to revisit Qing history in general. See Ma Zhao, “Writing History during a Prosperous Age: The New Qing History Project,” Late Imperial China 29 (2008): 120–45.
76 Ma Jinglin, Qingmo Sichuan zangqu gaitu guiliu kao (On the gaitu guiliu of the Tibetan border region in Sichuan in the late Qing) (Chengdu: Bashu shushi, 2002), 177, 180.
77 Qiu Yuanying, “Zhao Erfeng fadong Chengdu bingbian shuo zhiyi” (Doubts about the claim that Zhao Erfeng instigated the Chengdu military revolt), Huazhong shiyuan xuebao (Journal of Huazhong University) 1982 (5): 127–33. Ma Xuanwei, “Chengdu bingbian bushi Zhao Erfeng cedong de” (The Chengdu military revolt is not what Zhao Erfeng stirred up), Sichuan lishi yanjiu wenji (Collection of historical studies of Sichuan) (Chengdu: Sichuan sheng shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, 1986), 223–34. Feng Jing and Wan Hua, “Zaiping Xinhai geming zhongde Zhao Erfeng” (Re-assessing Zhao Erfeng in the 1911 Revolution), Sichuan shifan daxue xuebao (Journal of Sichuan Normal University) 1988 (5): 77–83. Jiang Song, “Xinhai nian Chengdu xue'an shishi kaoban” (Factual analysis of the Chengdu massacre in 1911), Chengdu daxue xuebao (Journal of Chengdu University) 1992 (3): 58–60. Recently, Liu Shilong went on to claim that, before the Chengdu massacre, Zhao was closer to the “savior” (fuxing) and the “sympathetic” (aimin) governor in the public narrative. Even during the massacre, which Zhao committed unwillingly following the court order, Zhao tried to minimize the use of violence. Liu Shilong, “Xinhai nian Zhao tuhu mingshi yunhan chutan” (A preliminary study on the implication of the title “Butcher Zhao” in 1911), Shehui kexue yanjiu (Studies of social science) 2 (2013): 150–60.
78 Wang Guo, “The ‘Revolution’ of 1911 Revisited: A Review of Contemporary Studies in China,” China Information 25 (2011): 258. See also Zarrow, China in War, 40.
79 James Leibold, “Xinhai Remembered: From Han Racial Revolution to Great Revival of the Chinese Nation,” Asian Ethnicity 15 (2014): 8.
80 Li Maoyu, “Lun Zhao Erfeng” (On Zhao Erfeng), Shehui kexue yanjiu 2002 (4): 124.
81 For the dissent rhetoric describing the Chinese state, see Elliot Sperling, “The Rhetoric of Dissent,” in Robert Barnett and Shirin Akiner, eds., Resistance and Reform in Tibet (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 278.
82 Tsering Woeser, “Guojia zhiyi zhe xuanyang de yingxiong” (The hero propagated by Nationalists), Invisible Tibet (blog), August 4, 2011, http://woeser.middle-way.net/2011/08/blog-post.html. An English translation is available at http://highpeakspureearth.com/2011/the-hero-propagated-by-nationalists-by-woeser/. For Woeser's life and experience under PRC rule in Tibet, see Robert Barnett's introduction to Woeser's book, Tsering Woeser and Lixiong Wang, Voices from Tibet: Selected Essays and Reportage (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2013), ix–xiv.