Word war during Patrick Hurley’s 1944 mission to China

ABSTRACT

This article explores the disparities that exist between the original English versions and the translated Chinese versions of Patrick Hurley’s ‘Five-Point Proposal’ and argues that by studying additional primary sources, these differences can reveal insights into the political manoeuvring of both parties on the verge of the Cold War and their efforts to mould their own historical accounts. By analysing all available versions of the proposal, the article examines two primary sets of textual discrepancies and their potential implications for interpreting the motives of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The analysis emphasises the importance of taking into account the translation process and the translators’ contributions to creating these disparities.

KEYWORDS:

• Patrick Hurley
• Five-Point Proposal
• Kuomintang
• Chinese Communist Party
• translation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The KMT, the CCP and members of the US delegation used different terms to refer to Hurley’s proposal, and with multiple rounds of modifications, each party’s naming of it became increasingly diverse. To avoid ambiguity, this article uses ‘Hurley’s Five-Point Proposal’ to denote this document, with an appropriate suffix to specify further which version of it is being discussed.

² Hurley’s 1944 mission has been discussed in several influential academic works, including Yang Kuisong, Guomindang de ‘liangong’ yu ‘fangong’ [Kuomintang: unity with communists and anti-communism] (Guilin: Guangxi Shifandaxue chubanshe, 2016); Niu Jun, Cong Heerli dao Maxieer: Meiguo tiaochu guogong maodun shimo [From Hurley to Marshall: American mediation of the KMT-CCP contradictions] (Beijing: Dongfang chubanshe, 2009); Tao Wenzhao, Zhongmei guanxi shi [A history of Sino-US relations] (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 2016); and Lü Xun, Da qiju zhong de guogong guanxi [Butterfly and dragonfly: from the Civil War to the Cold War, 1944–1950] (Beijing: Shehuikexue wenxian chubanshe, 2015).

³ The three English versions are: (I) the original Five-Point Proposal proposed by Hurley himself; (II) the proposal modified by the KMT; (III) the proposal modified by the CCP and signed by Hurley and Mao Zedong. This article uses (I), (II) and (III) to represent these three English versions.

⁴ Four of the five Chinese versions are: (a) the KMT’s translation of (II); (b) the CCP’s translation of (II); (c) the CCP’s translation of (III); and (d) the KMT’s translation of (III). Meanwhile, the KMT kept a translated copy of the proposal modified by the CCP without Hurley’s signature, but the content of this copy was basically the same as the one that had Hurley’s signature. This article uses (e) to denote the last Chinese version of the proposal.

⁵ Patrick J. Hurley, ‘Draft by Major General Patrick J. Hurley’, in Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, China, Volume VI, ed. E. Ralph Perkins (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1967), 659.

⁶ Patrick J. Hurley, ‘Revised Draft by Chinese Government Representative’, in Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, China, Volume VI, ed. E. Ralph Perkins, (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1967), 666.

⁷ See, for example, Niu, Cong heerli dao maxieer, 52; and Yang, Guomindang de ‘liangong’ yu ‘fangong’, 591.

⁸ For the text of (a), see ‘Meiguo Heerli jiangjun xiecheng Jiang weiyuanzhang youguan guogongxieyi zhi Jibentiaojian jianyi’ [U.S. General Hurley presents Generalissimo Chiang’s proposal for the basic terms of the Nationalist-Communist agreement], 7 November 1944, in Qin Xiaoyi, ed., Zhonghua minguo zhongyao shiliao chubian-dui ri kangzhan shiqi (di wu bian)(si) [Initial compilation of important historical materials of the Republic of China: The period of resistance against Japan (Part V) (IV)] (Taipei: Zhongguo guomindang zhongyang weiyuanhui dangshi weiyuanhui, 1985), 289. For the text of (b), see ‘Heerli dailai zhi wutiao’ [Five points brought by Hurley], 28 October 1944, in Zhongyang dang’anguan (Central Archives of the Chinese Communist Party), ed., Zhonggong zhongyang wenjian xuanji (di shisi ce) [Selected documents of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, vol. 14] (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 1992), 395–6.

⁹ ‘Guogong Wudianxieyi Caoan yuanjian’ [The agreement between the KMT and the CCP (original copy)], 10 November 1944, in Jia Qinhan, ed., Zhongmei guanxi zhuanzhe:Heerli shihua [Turning the tide in Sino-American relations: Hurley’s mission to China] (Shanghai: Shanghai yuandong chubanshe, 2017), 44.

¹⁰ For the text of (c), see ‘Yan’an xieding cao’an: Zhongguo guomin zhengfu, Zhongguo guomindang yu Zhongguo gongchandang xieding’ [Draft of the Yan’an Agreement between the Chinese National Government, the Chinese Nationalist Party, and the Chinese Communist Party], 10 November 1944, in Zhongyang dang’anguan, ed., Zhonggong zhongyang wenjian xuanji (di shisi ce), 393–4. For the text of (d), see ‘Waijiaobu chaocheng Jiang weiyuanzhang guanyu Heerli jiangjun songlai guogong xieding’an yiwen’ [The Ministry of Foreign Affairs copies Generalissimo Chiang the translation of the KMT-CCP agreement sent by General Hurley], 10 November 1944, in Qin, ed., Zhonghua minguo zhongyao shiliao chubian-dui ri kangzhan shiqi (di wu bian)(si), 291. For the text of (e), see ‘Zhonggong Mao Zedong tijiao Heerli jiangjun zhi guogong hezuo tiaojian’ [Terms of KMT-CCP cooperation submitted by CCP’s Mao Zedong to General Hurley], 10 November 1944, in Qin, ed., Zhonghua minguo zhongyao shiliao chubian-dui ri kangzhan shiqi (di wu bian)(si), 293.

¹¹ Niu, Cong heerli dao maxieer, 52; and Tao, Zhongmei guanxi shi, 257.

¹² ‘Heerli Yan’an zhixing baogao’ [Report on Hurley’s trip to Yan’an], 8 November 1944, in Jia, ed., Zhongmei guanxi zhuanzhe, 31.

¹³ For translators’ influence in politics, see Henrietta Harrison, The Perils of Interpreting: The Extraordinary Lives of Two Translators between Qing China and the British Empire (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2021).