The Xi'an Incident was a turning-point event of momentous significance in China's contemporary history. The author was fortunate enough to participate in the process of the Incident and got to know quite a few inside things. First, the author wrote of episodes, section by section, from his own reminiscences, one section for one episode. Then, he collected materials and solicited opinions from those who had participated in the Incident, noting down things as he interviewed them. After Comrade Zhou Enlai, at the commemorative forum marking the 20'h anniversary of the Xi'an Incident, called on related comrades of various sides to write articles about the Incident, some more materials were received...
Table of Contents
Foreword of the Renewed Edition /1
Foreword /1
The Red Army's Victories in Southern Shaanxi and Northern Shaanxi /1
The Red 25th Army That Was Active in Southern Shaanxi /1
The Founding of the Red 15th Army Corps /6
The Northeast Army Violently Thrust Yan'an /8
The Laoshan Battle /11
The Yulingiao Battle /15
The Party Central, Chairman Mao and the Central Red Army Arriving in Northern Shaanxi and the Zhiluo Township Battle /17
Winning over Zhang XueHang for the Cause of United Resistance to Japan /25
Zhang Xueliang, Depressed, Sought for a Way out /25
Gao Fuyuan Courageously Conveyed Messages /34
The Visit to Luochuan /42
Liu Ding Appointed as Representative /48
The Yan'an Talks /54
Developing Low-Level United Front Work /63
Winning over Yang Hucheng for the Cause of United Resistance to Japan /67
Initial Moves /67
Yang Hucheng's Political Attitude and Situation /70
Initial Steps in Putting forward the Issue of Uniting with Communists to Resist Japan /75
Chairman Mao Himself Dispatched Wang Feng to Xi'an /81
Wang Shiying Secretly met with Yang Hucheng /90
Several Principles Agreed upon between the Two Sides and the Setting up of the Liaison tations /93
Wang Bingnan Returned from Abroad /98
The Policy of Compelling Chiang to Resist Japan and the shaping up of the Situation of "Three Entities in One Body" /101
Compelling Chiaug to Resist Japan and the May 5th Circular Telegram /101
Evolution of Relationships between Zhang and Yang /105
Shaping up of the "Three in One" Stance of United Resistance to Japan /117
Zhang and Yang's Preparatory Anti-Japanese Activities /123
The Wangqu Officers Training Corps /123
The Association of Anti-Japanese Comrades /127
The Students-Soldiers Squad /130
Coalescing with Power Groups of Various Localities /133
Support Given to the Anti-Japanese Masses Movement /139
The Influence and the Special Agents" Activities Of the Chiang Faction in Xi'an /144
The Influence of the Chiang Faction in Xi'an /144
The Event of 《the Survival Road》 /148
The Event of Besieging and Searching the Provincial Party Organ /153
Chiang Kai-shek Pressed Zhang and Yang to Continue"Communists-Annihilation" /163
Chiang Kai-shek's Resolve /163
Coming to Xi'an /166
The Wangqu Lecture of Instruetion /167
Dispositions for Large-Scale "Communists- Annihilation" /171
Zhang and Yang's Counter Measures /175
Eve of the Incident /177
Obliged to Mount the Liang Mountain /177
Secret Plotting and Disposition after the "Weeping Petition" /179
False Alarms /182
Indignant Waves of the Masses /187
Eve of a Violent Storm /188
The Capture of Chiang /193
The Capture of Chiang and the Circular Telegram /193
Chiang Kai-shek Was Accommodated at the Xincheng Building /199
Chiang Kai-shek Wrote His Testament and Summoned Shao and Yang /205
An Act at the Xijing Reception Center /207
Zhang and Yang's Military and Political Measures as well as Their Publicity Work among the Masses /214
Military and Political Measures /214
Publicity Work among the Masses /220
Domestic and Foreign Reverberations of the lncident /228
Differences in the midst of Nanjing /228
International Reverberations /231
General Trends of the Power Blocs in Various Localities /234
The CPC's Analysis of the Incident and Its Position /238
Nanjing" s Rescuing Operation and Xi'an's Decision /242
Song Meiling's Rescuing Operation /242
The Red Army Delegation's Role in Deciding the Policy /247
Zhang Xueliang's Stand and Yang Hucheng's Apprehensions /256
Negotiation undertaken and Release of Chiang /261
Negotiation between the Two Sides of Xi'an and Nanjing /261
Zhou Met with Chiang /267
Controversy over the Issue of Chiang's Release in the midst of Xi'an /269
Zhang Xueliang Escorted in Person Chiang Kai-shek /276
Chiang's Revenge and Xi'an's Counter Measures /279
Chiang Kai-shek Perfidiously Sought Revenge /279
The Spectacle of Zhang Xueliang's Detention /281
Military Pressure and Political Estrangement /291
Xi'an's Counter Measures /294
The Two Sides Reopened Negotiations /304
The First Fenghua Negotiation /304
The Second Fenghua Negotiation /313
The Tongguan Negotiation /319
Difference between the Peace and the War Options, and Internal Contradictions /323
Difference between the Peace and the War Options in the midst of Xi'an /323
Undermining and Interferences /327
Activities of the CPC Delegation /331
Intensification of Contradictions and Breakdown in the midst of Xi'an /335
Intensification of divergences between the War and the Peace Options /335
The Weinan Conference in Favor of War; the Supreme Conference in Favor of Peace /342
The "February 2nd" Incident /348
The Xi'an Incident and the Shaping up of the Anti-Japanese Situation /354
Entry of the Central Army into Xi'an /354
Deployment of the Northeast Army to East and Reorganization of the 17th Route Army, and Their Consequences /357
A Confidential Telegram regarding Reorganization of the Red Army /361
The Third Plenary of the Kuomintang and Its Initial Reforms /364
The Victorious Shaping up of the Anti-Japanese National United Front and the Situation of National Resistance to Japan /368
Sample Pages Preview
gram from Li Du in Shanghai, saying "the friend sought after'had been found. Zhang understood it to mean that the Communist Party connec- tions Li Du sought for on his behalf had been found. At the time, Zhang thought that the Comintern organization or the CPC Central still had their organs in Shanghai. Therefore, although he had got in contact with Li Kenong and established connections with the Party Central, yet he attached the same importance to the connections introduced by Li Du. Hence, he specially selected a confidant high staff officer Zhao Yi（赵毅） to go to Shanghai to meet the person.
As a matter of fact, the representative of the Comintern as well as the CPC Central had long since left Shanghai by then. Because the or- gans of the CPC in Shanghai were repeatedly sabotaged, the Party had sustained considerable losses. Only a small number of Party members hid underground to persist in struggle. At the time, Comrade Liu Ding（刘鼎） had come out from the Jiangxi Soviet District. He arrived at Shanghai, and was trying, through underground Party connections, to go to northern Shaanxi to find the Party Central. Coincidentally, the un- derground Party, at the request of Li Du, was looking for a suitable Par- ty member to contact Zhang Xueliang. Liu Ding was of elite intellectual background, had considerable struggle experience and was adequate in political theory. The underground Party considered him to be a very suitable person to fulfill this task. So it talked to him, requesting him to go first to Xi'an to contact Zhang Xueliang, and, subsequently, seek op- portunity to go to northern Shaanxi to find the Party Central. At first, Liu Ding felt not quite assured. Later, after some responsible persons of the Party had told him about Zhang Xueliang's changes in thoughts and his desire for progress, he accepted the mission.
Preface
"The Xi'an Incident" is a turning point in Chinese history. It en- ded ten years of civil war, promoted the shaping up of the anti-Japa- nese national united front, and laid the victorious basis for the defeat of Japanese imperialism and the realization of national liberation.
The participants of the Xi'an Incident, if alive, are mostly over a hundred years old. Our father（ In the following,《father》, is often used instead of《our father》.-translator's note）was a participant in person of the Xi'an Incident. If alive, he would be 110 years of age.
Father graduated from the Economic Faculty of Peking University in 1925. He harbored the aim of serving the country worthily. After graduation he went to Shantou, Guangdong, to participate in the Great Revolution. In 1927, dismayed over the reactionary policy of Chiang Kai - shek, he left Guangdong to join the Northwest Army. He won Yang Hucheng's confidence, and was assigned to important posts by Yang. In the spring of 1934, at the perilous epoch of Japanese invasion of China, father.
