Formerly President of Judicial Yuan
October 10th is now a national holiday; it was on this day 40 years ago that the Republic of China came into being.
However, before the inauguration of the Republic, Dr. Sun Yat-sen had labored for 16 years for the nation's salvation through revolution. During this period, numerous martyrs gave away their lives and many uprisings were started by their followers against the Manchu rulers. It was their toil and blood that finally brought about the success. The Republic was not built in a day.
There are some people who tend to think that the success of the October 10th Revolution at Wuchang was due to rebellion among Manchu troops. That is wrong. The phenomenal success should be ascribed to the elaborate preparations made by the revolutionaries. The following serves a good example. When Jui Tseng, Manchu Viceroy for Hunan and Hupei, was defeated and retreated to Hankow, he asked a certain foreign gunboat, then anchored in the Yangtze River, to intervene by force. That foreign gunboat was about to comply with the Manchu official’s request, but its commanding officer read in the Republic Gazette a statement issued by Dr. Sun Yat-sen as Commander-in-Chief or the Military Government of the Chinese Republic. He immediately called off the attempted intervention, and declared his neutrality. But in fact, Dr. Sun was still abroad at the time. His statement was prepared by his comrades at home without his knowledge.
Later, the Provisional Senate in Nanking fixed October 10th (the 19th Day of the 8th Moon in the Lunar Calendar for 1911) was the Independence Day of the Chinese Republic. Every year on this day there is celebration in our beloved country and among overseas Chinese all over the world. In this article I am going to relate how our people celebrated the first anniversary of the Double Tenth.
1. In Peiping
Dr. Sun Yat-sen had abdicated the Presidency in favor of General Yuan Shih-kai, who kept his office in Peiping. He never liked the Kuomintang and therefore he was not enthusiastic about the Double Tenth celebration. He did nothing more than what he had to do in connection with this grand occasion.
The people in Peiping, having been under an imperial rule for nearly a thousand years, were also very slow to understand the meaning or the new Festival. Then the press came out to explain it was the birthday of the new nation. As in a republic the citizens were masters of the country so, it said, it was their common birthday, which had taken the place of the birthday of the Emperor.
This plain explanation was spread far and wide and before long the whole city was elated to a mood of great festivity. It was a clear day. At dawn Chao Ping-chun, the Premier, on behalf of the President, led members of his cabinet and chiefs of the departments to inaugurate the celebration meeting by the Chunghwa (China) Gate, which had been called the Taching (Great Manchu) Gate. Thousands of people took part in the ceremony and millions of firecrackers went to the air. It was significant that the slab of stone on which the three Chinese characters of Chung Hwa Gate were inscribed was the same as was used in the Ming Dynasty and was taken down by the Manchu when they overthrew the earlier Chinese rule.
Meanwhile, a review of the Republican troops was held on the East Sze Pai Lou Street, and a memorial service in honor of the martyrs, at the Temple of Heaven. Later a tea reception was given at the Hui Jen Palace, which was attended by more than 700 guests including senators, cabinet members, foreign diplomats, provincial representatives, minority leaders, Mongolian an? Tibetan living buddhas, and the local gentry of Peiping and Tientsin. Theatres, athletic fields and other entertainment centres were all packed with people.
Of the many speaking platforms temporarily erected for the occasion, the main one was in the Industry Bureau at Liu Li Chang, where Sung Chiao-jen, Pai Yu-heng, Tien Hsiang, Chow Chen-lin, Yeh Chuan, Chiang Lu-wu, Chang Pei-chueh, Yao Yu-ping and Cheng Shih-tao spoke respectively on the pre-Republic revolutionary activities of the Tung Men Hui (predecessor of the Kuomintang) as a whole and those in North China, at Chennankwan and Fangchen in Kwangsi, in Hunan, in Yunnan, at Wuchang, in Szechuan, in Canton, and also on the martyrdom of Hsu Hsi-lin and Miss Chiu Chin.
2. In Wuchang
Wuchang is the place where the October 10th Revolution was started. At that time, General Li Yuan-hung, Vice President of the Republic, was concurrently Governor of Hupeh of which Wuchang is the capital. Considering that the glory of a general is made possible only at the expense of thousands of soldiers' lives, he ordered that special attention should be paid to the wounded ones. Tsai Ping-chung, Superintendent of the Wounded Soldiers Hospital, was told to arrange a parade of over 200 disabled inmates dressed in silk garments of the royal color of yellow, on which were written their names and brief accounts of their heroic deeds. They were carried in brightly decorated sedan-chairs and slowly proceeded behind a brass and a column of boy scouts. General Li himself, riding on a horse, led the procession. After the wounded soldiers, there were representatives of all civic bodies, in horse-carriages or rickshaw. Nearly the whole city turned out to sec the colorful parade. Firecrackers were exploding throughout the day.
Later, General Li returned to the military training ground for review of the troops. After that, the whole procession went to the Martyrs Temple (a royal property under the Manchus) by the Purple Sun Lake for a memorial service. Back in his office, General Li threw a dinner party to hundreds of official and civilian guests. There were lantern parades in the evening in both Wuchang and Hankow, the Central China metropolis on the other side of the Yangtze. Rejoicings also went on throughout the night on the boats and ships in the Yangtze and Han Rivers, which meet at Hankow.
3. In Nanking
When Dr. Sun Yat-sen assumed the first presidency of the Republic of China, Nanking was the national capital. After he resigned, the central government was moved northward. Since then, business had suffered. However, in the eyes of the general public, Nanking remained the chief city of Southeast China. Its inhabitants, therefore, made ellaborate preparations for the celebration of the first anniversary of the Double Tenth. From the Chung Chen Street to Hwa Pai Lou lanterns of all colors and arcades of green leaves, with two gigantic ornamental arches at both ends, decorated all schools and shops. Shops dealing in pine and cedar twigs, paper flags and other decorating materials had their stock completely sold out.
There were two divisions of troops stationed in Nanking. Most of the officers and men of the 3rd Division were formerly under General Chao Po-hsien, who had been martyred for the cause of revolution, while the 8th Division was newly recruited by General Huang Hsin, then Resident General of Nanking. They showed the highest feelings for the revolution and prepared special bonfires which reproduced the scenes of Republican troops attacking Nanking: how they were shelling the Tien Pao Gate and capturing Manchu General Chang Hsun's "pigtail troops" by hundreds. Thousands of spectators cheered and we believe the spirit of revolution must right then be injected into the heart of everyone present.
4. In Canton
Canton was the source of the revolution. As according to the lunar calendar, the date of uprising at Wuchang was the 19th Day of the 8th moon of 1911, preparations were first made for the celebration only after the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on the15th Day of the 8th Moon. But on September 18, the Provincial Government of Kwangtung received a circular cable from the Central Government to the effect that the official date of celebration had been fixed on October 10th in the Western calendar which gave it extra time to make better preparations.
A big ornamental arcade was built near Suang Men Ti at the Tien Tze Wharf. All main streets were lined with fresh flowers. From the West Gate to the Hong Area, colorful lanterns shone at every corner throughout the night. The Military Governor himself wrote a pair of scrolls, had the characters arranged in flowers, and ordered that they be displayed at the gate of his office. The characters read: "Brandishing of the sharp sword cuts off a despotism of 4,000 years and hoisting of the righteous flag signals the creation of the republic of five races." The Tung Men Hui set up a decorated shed on the eastern bank of the Pearl River and made a huge large bon-fire. Thousands of citizens turned out to join the celebration and caused a serious congestion of street traffic.
5. In Hunan
Hunan is the province closest to Wuchang and Hankow. Even after the two cities were taken, but if Hunan had remained in the enemy's hand, success might still have been uncertain.
On the first anniversary of the Double Tenth, nearly 200,000 people it Changsha, capital of Hunan came out to celebrate the occasion, among whom over 10,000 were students, Businessmen made a great show of their wares.
The Military Governor made a speech at the celebration meeting recalling how Hunan helped in the uprising of Wuchang. He said that ten days after the revolutionaries opened fire against the Manchus, that was on the 1st Day of the Ninth Moon of 1911, General Chiao, then Military Governor of Hunan, sent a brigade of troops under the command of General Wang Lung-chung northward to fight side by side with the men under General Huang Hsin, then Supreme Commander of all revolutionary forces. They were given, he continued, the assignment of holding Hanyang, north of Wuchang and west of Hankow, and they did well for one month-enough time for other provinces to answer the call of the revolutionaries.
The Governor concluded his speech by urging the audience to work harder and to make China a great republic in East Asia.
6. In Shanghai
For the celebration of the first anniversary of the Double Tenth, a united preparatory committee was created in the Kuomintang Ministry of Communications at the Football Ground. At a session of the Committee, it was resolved that Shanghai was to be divided into five districts-Western Shanghai, Chapei, Nantao, Pootung and Foreign Concessions-to hold separate celebrations. Every district was against divided under the items of schools, commercial organizations, official departments and military establishments. Every person and organization was to show his or its best to mark the occasion.
Meanwhile, mass meetings were to be held in the New Theatre at Kiumowti in Nantao, in the Municipal Hall in Chapei, in the Athletic Ground at Lannitu in Pootung, in the Likungchi at Zikawei in Western Shanghai and in the Universal Students Union in the Foreign Concessions.
These elaborate preparations were completed in three days. On the Double Tenth, the general celebration was inaugurated in the New Theatre at Kiumowti, presided over by Chao Ching-chin. After the initial ceremony was over, Dr. Wu Ting-fang, veteran diplomat, addressed the gathering. He said that on this national day there were still barriers separating our fellow countrymen from one another. There were not only provincial boundaries, he added, but county boundaries. For example, he said, very few of the present would be able to understand him if he had spoken in his Cantonese dialect. He pointed out that the main handicap was the inadequate communication facilities, and that to remedy the situation would need popularization of education and construction of railways. He continued that only when good communication lines were established and the language barrier was lifted the country might become rich and powerful.
At the celebration meeting in the Universal Students’ Club, Dr. Sun Yat-sen himself, founder of the Republic, made a speech. He said the republic was born when he was still in the United States of America. He added that he received a confidential cable from General. Huang Hsin, but before he had time to open and read it he had learned from the press of the news that revolutionary forces had occupied Wuchang.
Although the Republic had come into being, Dr. Sun went on, it was still in the infant stage, and as infant, would instantly die if the milk supply was cut off. Comparing the audience to nurses, Dr. Sun urged them to bring it up to become a strong boy.
At noon, the preparatory committee gave a lunch party in honor of Dr. Sun, Dr. Wu and many other distinguished guests. There was a torch parade in the evening.
(Translated by Sampson Shen)