| In 1940 s,the national government and academic circles paid great attention to the issue of China’s borders.The authority of the national government had a weak influence on the border areas far away from temples.The border areas relied on neighboring powerful countries and embraced others.The intention of separation became more and more obvious.At the same time,Powerful enemy invasion with the national calamity.It has awakened the protection of national sovereignty by patriots from all walks of life.Elites from all walks of life follow the trend of the times and special circumstances,and have successively studied and explored China’s border issues.From 1941 to 1942,Lattimore participated in Chinese politics as Chiang Kai-shek’s personal political adviser.During this period,at the invitation of Chiang Kai-shek,Lattimore wrote three " Frontier Counseling Report"(respectively Xinjiang,Outer Mongolia,and the Northeast of China).As far as Lattimore is concerned,his ambition when he first went to China to return to the United States half a year later proves that Lattimore is not a competent personal political adviser in Chiang Kai-shek’s mind.Although these abridgements were not recognized by Chiang Kai-shek and his subordinates in the initial period,some of the frontier theories and suggestions of Lagrange did have an indelible influence on the national government’s practice of frontier integration.The main theme and content of this article are divided into four parts,with Xinjiang,Outer Mongolia,and Northeast China as the core research objects.The first part focuses on combining Lattimore’s own investigation and theory in China’s border areas,tracing the origin of Lattimore’s frontier theory,and comparing the similarities,differences and influences.The second part uses the domestic and international political situation in the 1940 s as a general background to analyze the background of the proposal of Lattimore’s frontier abbreviation,and discusses how the border abbreviation that came into being under the quiet change of the times witnessed the complicated and tense political ecology of the time.The third part combines Lattimore’s writings before 1941 and three Frontier Counseling Reports,analyzing the main content and themes of the abridged frontiers,especially the theory contained in Lattimore’s proposal to unify the frontiers.The fourth part is based on the content of the previous three parts,sorting out the legacy left by Lattimore for the National Government during his six-month consultant career and how to transform the frontier theory into political considerations.The research in this article proves that during the six-month period when Lattimore served as Chiang Kai-shek’s political adviser in 1941,Lattimore condensed his academic thinking into three frontier strategies in a limited time,and influenced the national government through his advisory status.The frontier governance measures,as a counselor’s report,three frontier abbreviations expressing Lattimore’s own political ambitions,and at the same time played a certain role in the national government’s process of unifying the frontiers.However,due to the gap between the national government’s high-level decision-making and the original purpose of hiring Lattimore,the Lattimore frontier abbreviation has limited impact on the national government’s frontier governance,which has a positive political legacy,such as helping the surrounding weak and small ethnic groups.The proposal of the Republic of China has a positive impact on enhancing China’s international status;there are also negative political legacy,such as rushing to get rid of the influence of the Soviet Union and hastily implemented the unification of Xinjiang,which caused the national government to fall into a dilemma.On the whole,Lattimore’s bleak experience in his career as a private political consultant and his practical application of his "frontier abbreviation" reflect the tension between "academic research" and "realistic application."... |
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