Rocks rolling downhill: The continuity and progress of the Chinese revolution in the twentieth century

Abstract

The 1911 Republican Revolution, the Nationalist Revolution, and the Communist Revolution were three interlinked phases in the progressive trajectory of the Chinese Revolution. Each left enough space to allow the next revolution to advance on the basis of the previous one. Much like rocks rolling down a high mountain, the Chinese Revolution gathered unstoppable momentum, increasing in speed and violence. The success of the previous revolution inspired the next one; the unaccomplished mission of the previous one was continued and realized by the next, with increased violence and higher revolutionary demands. All three revolutions successfully overthrew older regimes, yet none of the three were as successful at establishing new political institutions. The weaker revolutionary party, the Kuomintang during the Nationalist Revolution, had difficulty accomplishing the mission of nation building, while the stronger revolutionary party, the Chinese Communist Party, failed at political transformation after the revolution.

Keywords:

• 1911 Revolution
• Nationalist Revolution
• Communist Revolution
• counterrevolution
• Chinese Revolution

Notes

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56 Chen Xiqi, ed., Sun Zhongshan nianpu changbian [A Long Chronicle of Sun Yat-sen], vol. 1 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1991), 656.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Qisheng WANG

WANG Qisheng, Professor of History, Department of History at Peking University. Major research fields: History of the Republic of China, Party History of China. His publications include CCP-KMT Cooperation and the Nationalist Revolution (Nanjing: Jiangsu People’s Publishing House, 2006), Comrades, Control and Contention of the Kuomintang, 1924-1949 (Beijing: Sino-Culture Press, 2010), Revolution and Counterrevolution: The Politics of the Republic of China in the Vision of Social Culture (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2010).