Research On The Divine Soldiers Organization In The Boundaries Among Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan And Guizhou (1920-1953)

There were many sectarian militants in Republican China. They were considered as the peasant revolutionary organizations from the angle of view revolution, the superstitious organizations from the angle of view modernization, and the schools of secret societies of the Ming and Qing dynasties from the angle of view religious sect. The sectarian militants were defined from "the other"(revolution, modernization and secret societies of the Ming and Qing dynasties) in these perspectives. The internal perspective of local society was neglected. In this paper, it was attempted to take Divine Soldiers for an example, and had a rethink from internal perspective of local society.Divine Soldiers was a local military organization which was active in the Boundaries Among Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou from 1920 to 1953.It consisted of a combination of many sectarian militants. It had close connection with phoenix hall, big sword society, Red Light society,Tong Shan association and folk religion. The inhabitant had joined these organizations and protested against higher taxes during the Late Qing period. Compared with White Lotus society, these organizations were more popular. The inhabitant continued to protest and established Divine Soldiers during the 1920s. Divine Soldiers, inhabitant and alien had more contact with each other in the early 1930s. And then the name of "Divine Soldiers" formed.Divine Soldiers was made up of altars. The size of altar was non-standard. The altars were mutually independent. They expanded the horizontal ties by geographic relation, village fair and social relationships. The leader of altar was in charge of business in the name of God. Based on its function, the organization was administrated by civilian personnel and military personnel. The civilian personnel was in charge of their religion and theurgy, while the military personnel took the responsibility in war. The leading members control ordinary members by military management. The ordinary members must obey orders unless the magic was out of order. In a word, Divine Soldiers was depended on the horizontal ties outsider while it was depended on the centralization insider. In the light of the principle of combining the army with the people, Divine Soldiers urgently mobilized to control the situation quickly in wartime.To Divine Soldiers, foreign devil did ill during the period of the Republic of China. Many people met with the catastrophe because of moral bankruptcy. And then Heaven sent Divine Soldiers the magic by Gods. Divine Soldiers acted as the savior. They believed the magic could be efficacious by worship and discipline. There were different rituals to participate, to assemble and to fight in Divine Soldiers. Members of Divine Soldiers could be familiar with the magic by means of rituals. Thus it could be seen that Divine Soldiers unified religious and military. In the magic of Divine Soldiers, to be bulletproof was the best known. The opponent dealt with the magic in different ways. The Divine Soldiers was born in the movement in 1920 which the inhabitant expelled Jingguo Army in western Hubei. The Divine Soldiers became important local political forces in the movement. Followed by the rapid expansion, the Divine Soldiers decided taxation, arbitration and religious activities by themselves, and replaced the government functions since 1912. The Divine Soldiers, the local government, military and local militia, not only conflicted but also co-operated one another. They together affected the order of the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou.After 1927, CPC expanded to western Hubei, and established interactive relationship with the Divine Soldiers. At first, some local Party members got support from Divine Soldiers. However, they had trouble with the Divine Soldiers factions at the same time. Hereafter, some local Party members who joined the Divine Soldiers became the "Divine Soldiers-Party member". He Long merged the Red Army and the Divine Soldiers into the "Red Divine Soldiers" in 1928. The organization which was highly centralized was only obedient to He Long. After He Long leaving, CPC tried to bring Divine Soldiers under Party organization control. The cooperation between Red Army and Divine Soldiers fell apart in a series of disputes. He Long tried to cooperate with the Divine Soldiers in eastern Guizhou in 1933.But the cooperation came to an abrupt stop. In Chuan-Shan Revolutionary Base Area, the situation was different. The Four Red Front and Shanxi Provincial Committee of the CPC refused to cooperate with Divine Soldiers. The Sichuan warlord cooperated with Divine Soldiers in resisting CPC.Since 1930s, Nanking National Government began to stringently control at the grass-roots level. However, it didn’t work because of bureaucracy and inadequate resources. Divine Soldiers not only contended with National Government for tax in pubic, they recruited the government officials who were disgraced. The movement of objecting food taxes in Baxiba country occurred in 1937. The government couldn’t deal with it. Hubei Province Government and army groups removed from Wuhan to Enshi for guarding the provisional capital Chongqing in 1938, when the anti-Japanese war was escalated. At that time, the wheels of government began to turn. The government strengthened the rural community control by the militarized administration. Divine Soldiers was suppressed at the grass-roots level and began to fall apart. The border region of Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou was liberated in 1949. The Government of New China not only put down the Divine Soldiers rebellions, but also strengthened the local community control by Movement of Suppression of the Anti-Revolutionary in 1951. By 1953, the Government of New China rebuilt the new social order. The social order built by Divine Soldiers came to an end at last.