Chiang Ting-wen (1895-), Chekiang military officer, was an able field commander who served Chiang Ting-wen Chiang Kai-shek in the Northern Expedition and in the campaigns against the Communists in the 1930's. During the Sino-Japanese war he held such offices as director of the Generalissimo's Sian headquarters, governor of Shensi, and commander of the First War Area. He went into retirement after being defeated in Honan in 1944 during the so-called Ichi-go operation.

Born into a peasant family in Chuchi hsien, Chekiang province, Chiang Ting-wen received his early schooling in a local private school. In 1909 he enrolled in the hsien middle school. About this time he became an adherent of the anti-Manchu cause. After the Wuchang revolt in October 1911, Chiang left his studies and went to Hangchow, where he joined the students' corps. In 1912 he entered the Ta-t'ung Army School at Shaohsing, where anti-Manchu revolutionary activities had been carried on covertly by his fellow-provincial Hsu Hsi-lin. A year later, Chiang transferred to the Chekiang Military Academy. After being graduated in 1914, he was made a platoon commander in the guard force at the headquarters of the Chekiang tutuh, Chu Jui. He continued to serve as a junior officer in Chekiang until April 1916, when elements opposed to Yuan Shih-k'ai forced Chu Jui from power and declared the province independent of the authority of Peking. Chiang Ting-wen participated in this coup, which was headed by T'ung Pao-hsuan, the commander of the 1st Division. Then Chiang went to Shanghai. In May 1918 Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.), to further his campaign against the southern government, dispatched T'ung Pao-hsuan and his division to Fukien to support Li Hou-chi, the governor of that province, against the Kwangtung forces. Chiang Ting-wen went to Amoy and offered T'ung his services. His purpose was to subvert T'ung's troops. In November, Ch'en Chao-ying, a regimental commander of the Chekiang unit, defected to the Kwangtung side; Chiang later followed him to Kwangtung.

Nothing further is known of Chiang Tingwen's career until 1923, when he served Sun Yat-sen as a staff officer in his headquarters. In April 1924 Chiang was selected to serve as an instructor and as chief of a section of cadets at the Whampoa Military Academy. He was given the rank of first lieutenant. He was promoted to major in October and was appointed deputy commander of the 1st Battalion of the Whampoa Academy's newly organized model regiment.

Chiang participated in the action against the Canton Merchants Corps and then, in February 1925, in the first eastern expedition against Ch'en Chiung-ming (q.v.). After the 1st Battalion commander was wounded in an early action, Chiang was given command of the unit. He was severely wounded in the battle of Mienhu in March, but upon recovery some six months later he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was made deputy commander of the regiment. Shortly afterwards, he became the commander of the 5th Regiment, 2nd Division. When the second eastern expedition against Ch'en Chiung-ming was launched in October 1925, Chiang was charged with the garrisoning of Canton. In March 1926, when Chiang Kaishek suddenly imposed martial law and moved against Communists and Russian advisers at Canton, Chiang Ting-wen and his regiment participated in the action. Demands were made for the punishment of Chiang Tingwen, but Chiang Kai-shek supported his action and explained that he had been following orders.

When the Northern Expedition was launched in July 1926, Chiang's 5th Regiment served as a reserve unit. After opposition forces in western Hupeh defected to the Nationalists after the capture of Wuchang in October, he was made a member of the committee charged with reorganizing the surrendering units. He went to Shasi and Ichang to undertake that task. In January 1927, Chiang Ting-wen was promoted to major general and was assigned to command a regiment directly subordinate to the Nanchang headquarters of the Nationalists. That force, composed of troops from a variety of units, was unruly and potentially troublesome. Under Chiang Ting-wen's command, however, the regiment performed well in the hard battle of late August 1927 at Lungtan, near Nanking. In mid-August, after Chiang Kai-shek had retired and had left Nanking, his lieutenant Ho Ying-ch'in (q.v.), commanding the First Army, in a precautionary move against the Kwangsi group that dominated Nanking concentrated his forces in southern Kiangsu and eastern Chekiang. Chiang Ting-wen was made garrison commander of the coastal town of Ningpo. Then, on 22 September, he accompanied Chiang Kai-shek from Ningpo to Shanghai. Shortly afterward, he was given command of the 1st Division of the First Army, stationed at Hangchow. In October 1927 when Li Tsung-jen and Ch'eng Ch'ien drove westward from Nanking against T'ang Sheng-chih, Ho Ying-ch'in ordered Chiang's 1st Division to Nanking for garrison duty. After the advance of Feng Yühsiang's armies along the Lunghai rail line, however, the Northern Expedition was resumed. The advance in the direction of Shantung began in early November, and the 1st Division was ordered to move northward along the Tientsin-Pukow railway. Chiang Ting-wen participated in the capture of Pengpu and in the Nationalist victory at Hsuchow in December. In the military reorganization that followed Chiang Kai-shek's return to power in January 1928, Chiang Ting-wen became deputy commander of the First Army, retaining command of the 1st Division. When the Nationalists resumed their northward advance in April 1928, Chiang fought in the battles along the Tientsin- Pukow railway. The forces of the First Group Army, now commanded personally by Chiang Kai-shek, clashed with the Japanese at Tsinan, and Chiang Ting-wen was ordered to withdraw south to Yenhsien. In August, the Nationalist military establishment was reorganized ; Chiang Ting-wen became commander of the 9th Division.

Chiang's unit participated in the April 1929 campaign against the Kwangsi forces in the Wuhan area. He received command of the Second Army, retaining command of the 9th Division. Feng Yü-hsiang's forces in Honan threatened to revolt against the National Government, and Chiang led his forces to northern Hupeh to defend the Wuhan area. After a false start in May, the Feng forces in western Honan, under the leadership of Sung Che-yuan and Shih Yu-san, undertook a general offensive in October. The major fighting took place on the plains of Honan. In November, however, flank pressure was exerted by the rebel forces against northern Hupeh. Chiang Tingwen's men repulsed that attack. In December, T'ang Sheng-chih rebelled at Chengchow. Fighting broke out on the Hupeh-Honan border, and Chiang helped to suppress that revolt promptly.

In 1930 the National Government faced a major challenge from a coalition of forces led by Feng Yü-hsiang, Yen Hsi-shan, and Li Tsung-jen. The fighting began in May, and Chiang Ting-wen commanded an army of three divisions and one brigade which was deployed against Feng's forces on the Lunghai rail line. The fighting was fierce on that front, and the government position was threatened by the loss of Tsinan and by the occupation of Tsaohsien by Shih Yu-shan. Chiang was ordered to the Tsaohsien sector, and he defeated Shih Yu-san at Kaocheng.

Feng's army still held a strong position on the critical Lanfeng front. Chiang Kai-shek then organized an attacking force and put Chiang Ting-wen at its head. That force went into battle on 12 September 1930, but was unable to achieve its objectives. Chiang then was given command of the 9th column with the mission of advancing along the Peiping-Hankow rail line. He succeeded in cutting off Feng's forces from the rear on 30 September. Some of Feng's men surrendered, and others were disarmed. After the civil war ended in early October, Chiang Tingwen advanced to Loyang. He was made garrison commander of the western section of the Lunghai rail line.

In June 1931 Chiang was assigned to command the Fourth Army Group of the Bandit- Suppression Army and was transferred to Nanchang to participate in the third campaign against the Communists. His 9th Division captured Hsinkuo at the beginning of August. The National Government, apparently assuming that the Communist threat had been reduced substantially, then ordered Chiang to move against the opposition Kuomintang forces centered at Canton. However, the Communists attacked Chiang's troops in the mountainous defiles of Kiangsi, and Chiang's unit was saved only by the arrival of relief forces commanded by Ts'ai T'ing-k'ai. Although Japanese military invasion of Manchuria beginning in the autumn of 1931 brought a halt to the Nationalist anti- Communist campaign, Chiang Ting-wen was assigned to consolidate the Nationalist position in northeastern Kiangsi.

When fighting between Chinese and Japanese forces began at Shanghai in January 1932, Chiang was given command of the right-flank forces, composed of two armies, deployed in support of Ts'ai T'ing-k'ai's Nineteenth Route Army on the Shanghai-Hangchow front. After an armistice agreement was signed in May, Ts'ai T'ing-k'ai was sent to the south, and Chiang Ting-wen took over the defense of Shanghai. In June, however, he was moved to Pengpu and was given the concurrent appointment of garrison commander of the southern section of the Tientsin-Pukow railway. He then requested to be relieved of the position of commander of the 9th Division, a responsibility he had borne for four years. On his recommendation, Li Yen-nien was appointed to succeed him. Chiang remained in command of the Second Army. That winter, he and his army were transferred to Wuhan, and he was given the concurrent post of director of the water police bureau for the seven Yangtze River provinces.

In the spring of 1933, Chiang was made director of the Wuhan recruitment and training center. The fifth campaign against the Communists began that fall. In September Chiang was appointed commander of the Northern Route Bandit-Suppression Army, and he entered Kiangsi to fight the Communists. As the campaign developed, Ch'en Ming-shu and Ts'ai T'ing-k'ai in November raised the flag of revolt against Chiang Kai-shek in Fukien and set up a so-called people's government at Foochow. Chiang led nine divisions against the Fukien rebels, and the Foochow regime collapsed in less than two months. On Chiang's recommendation, the Nineteenth Route Army was reorganized as the Seventh Route Army, and the rebel officers and men thus were spared punishment.

In February 1934 Chiang Ting-wen took the field against the Communists in Kiangsi; he was made commander of the Eastern Route Bandit-Suppression Army, based at Lungyen. In that position, he commanded eleven divisions and three brigades. The strategy for that campaign called for the tight encirclement of the Communists in Kiangsi. In October, when their situation had become desperate, the Communist forces broke out of the encirclement and began their Long March. In the spring of 1935 Chiang was appointed director of the Fukien pacification bureau. He turned his attention to stabilizing the area, where local Communist guerrilla units were active.

Chiang's mother was due to celebrate her seventieth birthday on 4 December 1936, and Chiang obtained leave of absence to attend the celebration. He was in Chekiang on his way home when he received a message from Chiang Kai-shek directing him to report at Sian. Chiang Ting-wen hurried home, paid his respects to his mother, and on 8 December flew to Sian. A new campaign against the Communists was about to be launched, and Chiang was made commander of the vanguard of the Bandit-Suppression Army. He was ordered to proceed to Pingliang, Kansu. Since Chiang Ting-wen's relations with Chang Hsueh-liang (q.v.) reportedly were cordial, it was anticipated that the juxtaposition of their military positions would be useful.

On 12 December 1936, however, Chang Hsueh-liang and Yang Hu-ch'eng detained Chiang Kai-shek and other senior Nationalist military and political officials at Sian. When the complex political negotiations for the release of Chiang Kai-shek began, Chiang Ting-wen was selected to serve as intermediary with the Kuomintang authorities at Nanking. He left Sian by plane late on 17 December, arrived in Nanking the following day, and made his report. T. V. Soong then flew to Sian to begin the discussions that resulted in a peaceful settlement and in the release of Chiang Kai-shek on 25 December 1936.

When the Sino-Japanese war began in July 1937, Chiang Ting-wen was appointed director of Chiang Kai-shek's headquarters at Sian and was given the mission of consolidating defenses in that sector of the Yellow River valley. There his position abutted that of the Communists, who had established a new territorial base in northern Shensi and had united with the Nationalists in September 1937 against the common national enemy, Japan.

In April 1938, on the occasion of the traditional ceremony of offering sacrifices at the tomb of the Yellow Emperor in Shensi, Chiang Tingwen represented the National Government and served as host to the visiting Communist delegation. The senior Communist leader Chang Kuo-t'ao approached Chiang and requested his protection. Chiang Ting-wen granted the request and escorted Chang Kuo-t'ao to Sian. Chang Kuo-t'ao's defection and his subsequent reports intensified mutual suspicions between the Kuomintang and the Communists, and relations between the two sides began to deteriorate. As a result of this situation, the Nationalists moved to strengthen their military position in northwest China in an attempt to contain the Communists.

In June 1938 Chiang Ting-wen was appointed governor of Shensi and director of the Shensi provincial branch of the Kuomintang. In February 1939 he also was named commander of the Tenth War Area, which included Shensi province. In May 1941 he was replaced as governor of Shensi and named director of the Generalissimo's Sian office. The Yellow River defense line was then under heavy Japanese pressure. In October 1941 the Japanese crossed the river and captured Changchow, but they were later forced to abandon the city. In December, Chiang Ting-wen was named to command the First War Area and the Hopei-Chahar War Area, composed of territory then under Japanese control, with headquarters at Loyang. He attempted to utilize the T'aihang mountains in southeastern Shansi to reinforce the Yellow River defense line. Under Chiang's direction, P'ang Pinghsun, commanding the Twenty-fourth Group Army, held that position until April 1943, when he was captured. Chinese Nationalist forces continued to hold out in that area until September 1943, when they withdrew south of the Yellow River.

In April 1944 the Japanese launched a massive drive, the so-called Ichi-go operation, designed to cut China in two by attacking southward across the Yellow River into Honan. The forces commanded by Chiang Ting-wen and his deputy, T'ang En-po (q.v.), suffered a shattering defeat on the Honan plain. Japanese units advanced southward as far as Kwangsi. In July 1944 Chiang Ting-wen resigned his posts and retired to live in Chungking. At the end of the war he moved to Shanghai. Chiang took no active part in the civil war with the Communists which began in mid1946. In January 1947 he left China for a trip to the United States and Europe; he returned to Shanghai in February 1948. He attended the meeting of the National Assembly at Nanking at which Chiang Kai-shek was elected President of China. Chiang Ting-wen moved to Taiwan in March 1949, but held no active position there. When the National Government was removed from the mainland to Taiwan, Chiang was appointed a national policy adviser in the office of President Chiang Kai-shek.