为文明出征：第一次世界大战期间西线战场华工的故事（英）

中国与*次世界大战有什么关系？华工在*次世界大战中扮演了怎样的角色？徐国琦教授20多年来遍访世界各地档案，借助大量珍贵史料，以国际化的研究视野、从人类文明交流与进步的角度，为我们完整地还原了一战期间14万多华工背井离乡奔赴西线战场，拯救欧洲文明于水火的真实故事，并深刻剖析了华工参战对中华民族寻求新的国家认同和国际化的重要作用。

 

本书讲述*次世界大战期间，中国派出14万华工到西线为英、法军队服务，为协约国取得大战的胜利作出了重要贡献。主要内容：1．*次世界大战与中国；2．“以工代兵”战略的出笼和法国招工团；3．英国招工团；4．华工数字问题；5．华工在法国的生活；6．华工对*次世界大战的贡献；7．华工与中国寻求新的国家认同和国际化。

徐国琦，安徽枞阳人。南开大学历史系研究生毕业，1991年赴美留学，1999年获哈佛大学历史系博士学位。现为香港大学历史系教授。主要著作有“国际史”三部曲：《中国与大战：寻求新的国家认同和国际化》（剑桥大学出版社2005年英文版，上海三联书店2008年中文版）；《奥林匹克之梦：中国与体育，1895—2008》（英文，哈佛大学出版社2008年出版）；《西线战场陌生客：华工与次世界大战》（哈佛大学出版社2011年英文版，上海人民出版社2014年中文版《一战中的华工》）；目前正致力于“共享历史”三部曲的写作及研究：《中国人与美国人：一部共享的历史》（哈佛大学出版社2014年英文版，广西师大出版社拟出版中文版）；《亚洲与大战：一段共有的历史》（该书系英国牛津大学出版社约稿，已完稿，英文版应于2016年底出版）；《关于中国：一个共享的历史》（仍在研究中）。

PrefaceForeword / 2I. The “Great War” and Radical Changes in China / 13II. China’s Countermeasure: “Sending Laborers Instead ofSoldiers” / 35III. A Long Journey / 91IV. Strangers on the Western Front / 117V. Glory of Blood / 167VI. Teaching and Learning Promote Each Other: Chinese Eliteand Laborers Abroad of the ‘Great Generation’ / 199VII. Expedition for Civilization: Chinese Laborers’ Contributionand Role in History / 223VIII. Whereabouts of Chinese Labour Corps in World War I / 245Postscript / 276Annotations / 279Acknowledgement / 297

Since the early 1990s, I have been specially interested in the issues concerning the relationship between China, and Asia and the First World War. After reading relevant archives around the world and decades of hard work and thinking, I finally felt I knew enough to make my own contribution. From 2005, I launched a series of research results. In the same year, Cambridge University Press published an English hardcover edition of my China and the Great War (the English paperback edition was published in 2011). SDX Joint Publishing (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. included it into its “Library of Humanistic Classics” in 2008, and published a Chinese version. In 2011, Harvard University Press published my work Strangers on the Western Front: Chinese Workers in the Great War, whose Chinese version entitled Chinese Workers in the Great War was published by Shanghai People’s Publishing House in 2014. Upon the invitation of Oxford University Press in the summer of 2015, I completed the manuscript of Asia and the Great War: A Shared History. If everything goes well, this English version will appear at the end of 2016. As for this small book in your hands, it is a popular edition based on my English academic monographs on the First World War published over a 10-year period, thus containing the important results of my academic research. It is also a supplement to, and a revised version of, my book Chinese Laborers in France during the First World War printed by China Intercontinental Press in Beijing in 2007, with many chapters containing new contents. After over 20 years of research on the First World War, I intended to put it aside, and devote my energy to the systematic study of the subject – “What is China and Chineseness,” a long-cherished wish. However, China Intercontinental Press was anxious for me to revise Chinese Laborers in France during the First World War to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, so as to include new research results to it. It was hard to turn down such awarm-hearted offer, and, after some hesitation, I finally agreed. I was willing to spend valuable time writing this book also because the Chinese people still lack understanding of the First World War and the Chinese laborers who had a role in it. In my humble opinion, both are of extreme important significance for China and its people. China’s participation in the First World War also constitutes an important chapter in the history of world civilization. My book China and the Great War probes the long course of the Chinese people’s struggle for internationalization and new national identity from the perspective of World War I, and analyzes how the international community responded to China’s active participation in the reconstruction of international order and the Chinese nation’s self-renewal. In the lengthy interview with the magazine West Lake in 2009, I even stated: “Without the First World War, there would be no May 4th Movement.”  On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the First World War, the Chinese should have a soberer, objective understanding of the war. First of all, let’s review the history of the First World War. Under the Chinese calendar, 1914 was the Year of the Tiger, as well as being the third year of the Republic of China. This was when the “Great War” broke out (after another world war erupted over two decades later, the earlier conflict became known as the First World War).In the beginning, it was defined as a “civilized war” by the warring parties. There is such inscription carved on the Inter-Allied Victory Medal awarded to the soldiers after the war: “Fight for Human Civilization, 1914-1919.”  A Western scholar pointed out that, “The First World War didn’t only concern gains and losses on the battlefield or even economically. For the British people, it was a war defending the order of the British Empire.” Similarly, the Germans regarded it as the “Holy War of the German Nation.” Therefore, “for the Germans, it was a war for changing the world, while, for the British, it was a war defending the world order. The Germans fought for the future, the British for tradition.”   The famous American scholar Henry James wrote on August 5, 1914, “The outbreak of the First World War might plunge civilization into the abyss of blood and darkness, and will break our illusion that the world will become better.”  An American official also wrote shortly after the end of the war: “When the world war is truly recorded and the victory objectively evaluated, we will find that no country is worthy of the title of a civilized victor.”   Whatever one’s viewpoint, the First World War had far-reaching impact in human history, a cruel test of blood and fire to Western civilization. Moreover, in a wide sense, the First World War was far more important than the Second World War. This is not only because the latter was a continuation of the former; more importantly, until today, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of World War I, we still lack real understanding of its significance for China, with its influence and consequences still being debated. In fact, scarcely had an armistice been declared than a debate on the significance and impact of the war began in the East and West. German scholar Oswald Spengler declared that the First World War marked the decline of the West, which is well understood. Chinese political thinker Liang Qichao (1873-1929) said in his work Thoughts during European Travel written at the end of 1918 that the result of World War I showed the oriental spirit and civilization still had certain advantages. He remarked: “Europeans had a dream that science is omnipotent, but now they claim that they have been bankrupted due to science. This is a key reason for the recent change in thinking.” He even warned the Chinese people affectionately, “Our lovely youth! Stand at attention! Step forward! Several billion people on the opposite coast of the ocean are worrying about the bankruptcy of material civilization, and crying for help desperately. They are waiting for your enlightenment. Our three sages and many predecessors in paradise are eagerly expecting you to complete their undertakings and blessing you with their spirit.”   In his opinion, World War I almost destroyed human civilization, and the social Darwinism promoted in the West bears the blame. In addition to Liang Qichao, other Chinese like Liang Shuming and Gu Hongming were also major generals in the camp emphasizing the advantages of oriental civilization. There were so many Chinese and foreigners advocating the supremacy of oriental civilization that American philosopher John Dewey mentioned in his review of British philosopher Bertrand Russell’s book The Problem of China in 1923, “China tends to become an angel of light to show up the darkness of Western civilization……

Chinese Laborers and China’s Great StrategyIn my view, the fact of China sending laborers instead of soldiers is epoch-making. By doing so, China manifested its desire and capability to participate in international affairs. In 1918, the Far Eastern Review made a prediction on the Shandong peasants going Europe: “Undoubtedly, the Chinese laborers in Europe will produce far-reaching influence on world history, and may probably be the most important force in the history of European warfare. In the past, the Eastern world never provided such huge human resources for the West. The East launched countless fights against the West, forcing the latter to strike back. This, surely, influenced the way Westerners thought. The East had never fought shoulder to shoulder with us as we do, now, in European warfare.” A fairly unbiased British commander of the Chinese laborer battalion also admitted the Shandong group enjoyed a lofty position in WWI. The YMCA said in a report: “The bringing of the Orient into contact with Western civilization was one of the most remarkable phases of the world struggle.” According to the report, “The military purpose of bringing the Chinese to France was a crucial one to the Allies”…“It was to capitalize to the greatest degree the manpower made available to the Allied cause by the control of the sea and by the wide sympathy among all civilized peoples for the ?ght which the Allied nations were making.” The Eastern Miscellany translated an article from a foreign newspaper: “Chinese laborers going to Europe in WWI is really a miracle. Since the Orient and Occident were connected by roads, many Chinese laborers migrated only to subsist rather than get engaged in the war. If the latter comes into practice, it starts from today.”When it comes to their most important contribution, it can be seen in their efforts to save Occidental civilization, their entering into the international community with a new attitude, and their prominent role in helping the country seek new national identity. An article in the Chinese Students Monthly, published in 1918 in America, described these Chinese going to France as “messengers of the wider world,” and predicted that after, returning to China, they would become the most powerful and effective means to publicize European civilization. Hence, we have reason to conclude: “Sending laborers instead of soldiers” was the first attempt by China to demonstrate great courage, purpose and foresight to join the international community. It was a big event for a power in the East to contribute to saving Occidental civilization. More importantly, the 140,000 Chinese labors weren’t 140,000 replacement soldiers, but 140,000 messengers, indeed.The Chinese laborers made prominent contributions, first and above all, in giving the country an opportunity to join the war. Bai Jiao, in a long article entitled “Chinese Laborers in the World War,” borrowed Liang Rucheng’s words: “Working overseas is a brilliant scheme for diplomacy. After 1913, Liang Shiyi kept diplomacy in mind without highlighting it. When the European war broke out, countries joined in and formed alliances based on their respective locations and perceived benefit. Two years later, diplomatic envoys to China persuaded, indeed threatened, the Chinese authorities to fight. Amid turbulence, it was really hard to decide what to do. Besides, it was, for the better, not to make a sink-or-swim decision, because it was something related to the rise and fall of the Chinese nation and might embroil the country in misery. If China refused, it would not gain a single trophy. If China went to the battlefield overtly, its lack of vessels, necessary armament or funding would eventually weaken its combat effectiveness to zero, thus incurring blame by all. For this reason, Liang decided to stay neutral on the surface, but move secretly. Sending laborers instead of soldiers was a good choice. As for vessels, armament and funding, it was better to persuade other countries to offer this. Now the chance had come to steal profits from these places and share future fruits.” What he said was not absolutely correct. China volunteered to fight, rather than being pushed by the allies onto the battlefield. As a matter of fact, the loss of life among the Chinese laborers was the best excuse. Liang Qichao, the main driving force of Chinese belligerence, pointed out the Germans had attacked a merchant vessel carrying Chinese laborers, killing hundreds. “As a member of the international community, on the surface and with respect to liability, China shouldn’t ignore Germany’s contempt for neutral states. Otherwise, we would exclude ourselves from the international community.” He went on: “If China uses this excuse to join in, it will create a new era in the world.”In this sense, Chinese laborers not only made great contribution to the allies, but, more importantly, they also safeguarded State interests, playing a crucial role for China going to the battlefield.