Chiang Tso-pin (1884-24 December 1942), a Hupeh military man and Peking government official who became the Chinese minister to Germany and Austria in 1928. From 1931 to 1936 he served as Chinese minister to Japan. Yingch'eng hsien in Hupeh province was the native place of Chiang Tso-pin. He received his early education in the traditional manner and at the age of 15 sui passed the official examination for the sheng-yuan degree. As part of the administrative reforms of Chang Chih-tung (ECCP, I, 27-32), the viceroy of the central Yangtze area, modern schools were established in Hupeh in 1902. Chiang enrolled in the Wen-p'u-t'ung Middle School in Wuchang at the same time as Sung Chiao-jen (q.v.). Military drill was included in the school's curriculum, and Chiang decided to follow a military career.

In the spring of 1905, he went to Japan and enrolled in the Seijo Gakko in Tokyo. When the T'ung-meng-hui was organized, Chiang joined that society and became acquainted with Chiang Tso-pin Sun Yat-sen and other republican revolutionaries. He continued his education and in 1907 enrolled in the fourth class, infantry section, of the Shikan Gakko [military academy]. After he was graduated in 1908, he returned to China. In October 1908, Chiang took the examinations at Peking for graduates of military schools. He placed second among the candidates and received the special chü-jen degree. He was appointed an instructor in the officers' training school at Paoting. In 1909 he was transferred to the military personnel division of the Board of War, where he prepared a Chinese translation of the Japanese Hohei soten [infantry drill regulations]. Chiang Tso-pin was a strong advocate of the then popular idea of strengthening China by reorganizing the military. Specifically, he proposed that officers trained in the traditional manner be replaced over a period of five years by graduates from modern military schools in China or abroad. The program was also to apply to the Peiyang Army created by Yuan Shih-k'ai. The proposal was adopted and put into effect. In 1911 Chiang was made chief of the military personnel division. By that time, the plan for the replacement of old cadres by new men had been partly realized.

After the Wuchang revolt, Yuan Shih-k'ai began to play the Manchus against the reformers for his own political advantage. Chiang engaged in some planning for military action in north China, aroused the suspicion of the government, and made his way with some comrades to the Wuhan area just as Yuan's forces were pressing on Hanyang.

Hanyang fell to the government forces on 27 November, and Chiang went to Kiukiang, where Ma YiA-pao had become the military governor, with Li Lieh-chun (q.v.) as his chief of staff. When Li Lieh-chun went east to bring order to the confused situation in Anhwei, Chiang became chief of staff in the Kiukiang headquarters.

In December 1911 Chiang Tso-pin, at the invitation of Huang Hsing and others, went to Shanghai to participate in organizing a regime to succeed the Wuchang military government. The provisional government headed by Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated at Nanking on 1 January 1912. On 4 January, Huang Hsing became minister of war, and on the same day Sun designated Chiang Tso-pin a lieutenant general and made him vice minister of war. Chiang submitted to Huang Hsing and Sun Yat-sen a three-point plan which stated that the revolutionary military forces must hold Nanking, Wuhan, and Peking to consolidate power. Huang and Sun approved the plan, and Chiang began to implement it at Nanking and Wuchang. In February 1912 the Manchu emperor abdicated. By agreement with Sun Yat-sen, Yuan Shih-k'ai succeeded to power in Peking as provisional president, and Sun Yat-sen and other officials of the Nanking regime resigned. Chiang was among those who resigned. In April, after complicated bargaining between northern and southern leaders had taken place, he went north to become vice minister of war in the T'ang Shao-yi cabinet. However, the minister of war was not Huang Hsing, who had been sympathetic to Chiang's "three-point" plan, but Tuan Ch'i-jui (q.v.), a Peiyang Army man. T'ang Shao-yi resigned as premier in June, as did the other T'ung-meng-hui men in the cabinet, with the exception of Chiang Tso-pin. Lu Cheng-hsiang succeeded to the premiership, and Chiang became minister of industry and commerce. However, that particular appointment was rejected by the Senate. Chiang continued to serve as vice minister of war. When Sung Chiao-jen reorganized the T'ungmeng-hui as the Kuomintang in August 1912, Chiang was not made a member.

When Yuan Shih-k'ai's monarchical movement took shape in the summer of 1915, Chiang left office on the plea of illness. He was placed under surveillance in the Western Hills, near Peking. In the spring of 1916, after growing national opposition had forced abandonment of the monarchical scheme, Yuan invited Chiang Tso-pin back to Peking and requested him to act as an intermediary in an effort to enlist the aid of Li Yuan-hung (q.v.). Chiang undertook the mission, but it proved fruitless. Tuan Ch'i-jui, who had become premier in April, replaced Chiang Tso-pin as vice minister of war with his own lieutenant, Hsu Shu-cheng (q.v.). Chiang then was elected to the College of Marshals, the customary sinecure of the period.

Li Yuan-hung's succession to the presidency after Yuan's death in June 1916 favored the advancement of Chiang's political career. Chiang acted as Li's official representative at memorial services for Yuan Shih-k'ai held at Changte, Honan. In July, Li appointed Chiang deputy chief of general staff. In that position of little power Chiang maneuvered against Tuan to strengthen Li Yuan-hung's power. He came to be regarded by Tuan as one of "the four villains of the Presidential office." In July 1917 Chang Hsün attempted a restoration of the monarchy. Chiang Tso-pin helped Li Yuan-hung to find refuge in the Legation Quarter at Peking. Chang Hsün put Chiang under house arrest. After the restoration attempt failed, Chiang was released ; he left Peking and arrived in Shanghai in July.

In September 1917 Chiang left Shanghai for the United States. He remained there until November 1918. Then he went to France and visited battlefields. After traveling in the Balkans and Turkey, he returned to China in February 1919.

In 1921 Chiang Tso-pin was involved in a drive against the power of Wang Chan-yuan, a Peiyang general who had dominated Hupeh province since 1913. Chiang Tso-pin, Ho Ch'eng-chun (q.v.), Hsia Tou-yin, K'ung Keng, and other Hupeh men enlisted the support of the Hunan leaders Chao Heng-t'i and Lu Tip'ing and, aided by the Wuchang garrison forces, succeeded in ousting Wang Chan-yuan. Chiang Tso-pin had already been nominated provincial commissioner of Hupeh. However, Wu P'ei-fu (q.v.) blocked the Hunan-Hupeh effort in August and named his own subordinates to control Hupeh and the central Yangtze. The Hupeh party dispersed, and Chiang Tso-pin went to Canton and became chief counselor in Sun Yat-sen's headquarters.

When the revolt of Ch'en Chiung-ming (q.v.) took place in June 1922, Chiang escaped capture and, on orders from Sun, proceeded to Shanghai to meet with Lu Yung-hsiang, the governor of Chekiang, and others, to plan countermoves against the Chihli forces with whom Ch'en was collaborating. Li Yuan-hung had resumed the presidency in Peking on 1 June, and Chiang now resumed contact with his former chief.

After Sun Yat-sen arrived in Shanghai in August 1922, Chiang and others of the southern group went to Mukden to seek Chang Tso-lin's cooperation. Subsequently, after the expulsion of Ch'en Chiung-ming from Canton and the return of Sun Yat-sen to Kwangtung in February 1923, Chiang went back to Canton. At Sun's direction, he continued to maintain liaison with Lu Yung-hsiang.

Although Lu was thrust from the political stage in the wars of that autumn, in north China Chang Tso-lin, Tuan Ch'i-jui, and Feng Yü"hsiang overthrew the Chihli faction. The victors invited Sun Yat-sen to discuss national problems, and Sun departed for the north in November traveling by way of Japan. Chiang Tso-pin preceded Sun to north China and awaited his arrival at Tientsin to give him counsel on negotiations with Tuan Ch'i-jui. Sun's mission failed, but the true dimensions of his defeat were veiled by his death of cancer at Peking in March 1925. Instead of returning to Canton, Chiang remained in Peking for six months "watching developments." Then, in the winter of 1925, he went to Honan province and contacted Yueh Wei-chun, the governor and a commander in Feng Yu-hsiang's Kuominchun. Feng was now in opposition to Tuan Ch'i-jui. The coordinated move by Feng and Kuo Sung-ling against Chang Tso-lin began in November 1925. After the Kuominchun had been forced out of Chihli into Inner Mongolia, Chiang Tso-pin, after visiting Fang Peng-jen, the governor of Kiangsi, at Nanchang, returned to Canton, where the Nationalists, with the aid and advice of the Comintern, were preparing to begin the long-awaited Northern Expedition. In July 1926, Chiang Tso-pin was appointed pacification commissioner of Hupeh, in anticipation of the services that he as a Hupeh man might be able to render the Nationalist cause. On 1 1 August, Chiang Kai-shek held a council of war at Changsha, and Chiang Tso-pin was sent to Mukden to persuade Chang Tso-lin to act against Wu P'ei-fu.

For a variety of reasons, one of which may have been Chiang Tso-pin's mediation, Wu P'ei-fu and the Fengtien group were unable to coordinate a defense against the advancing Nationalists, and Wuchang fell to the Southern armies on 10 October 1926. The event marked the end of Wu P'ei-fu's effective power in Hupeh. Traveling by way of Korea and Japan, Chiang Tso-pin returned to the Nationalist side of the lines, ending his journey in Hankow. Chiang attended the Kuomintang meetings at Wuhan in December and January. In January 1927, he went to Nanchang to join Chiang Kai-shek. He was then assigned to go to Anking, where he succeeded in persuading his old friend Ch'en T'iao-yuan, the governor of Anhwei, to throw his support to the Nationalist side at the beginning of March. Ch'en was named commander of the Nationalist Thirtyseventh Army ; and Chiang Tso-pin, as the head of the Anhwei political affairs commission, began to organize a new provincial government. Chiang then went to Nanking, where he served as a member of the Government Council and of the Military Affairs Commission. He remained at Nanking during the negotiations that followed the .retirement of Chiang Kai-shek in August 1927. After an alliance of the Kwangsi generals and the conservative Western Hills faction of the Kuomintang had worked out a reconciliation with the Kuomintang group at Wuhan, Chiang Kai-shek returned to assume power in January 1928. Chiang Tso-pin, because of his experience and personal connections in north China, was named chairman of the War Areas Political Affairs Commission (chan-ti cheng-wu wei-yuan-hui), a new organization patterned on the National Government at Nanking and designed to coordinate administrative planning during the second stage of the Northern Expedition. He was also chairman of the newly established Shantung political affairs commission, and in that capacity he was involved in the Nationalist clash with the Japanese at Tsinan in May 1928 (see Ho Yao-tsu). When the Nationalist forces captured Peking early in June 1928, Chiang, as chairman of the War Areas Political Affairs Commission, was given the authority to consolidate administrative control over the city. In late June, however, the commission was dissolved, and its functions were taken over by the appropriate ministries of the National Government at Nanking. Chiang was named a member of the Peiping branch of the political council, but his authority was overshadowed by that of Feng YiA-hsiang, Pai Ch'ung-hsi, and Yen Hsi-shan. In August, he returned to Nanking and indicated to Chiang Kai-shek and to T'an Yen-k'ai (q.v.) that he would be willing to accept a foreign assignment. Chiang Kai-shek became Chairman of the new National Government at Nanking on 10 October 1928. Two days later, Chiang Tso-pin was named Chinese minister to Germany.

He left China that autumn to assume his new office in Berlin. In November, he also was named minister to Austria. Chiang reportedly advocated China's entering a tripartite alliance with Germany and the Soviet Union in anticipation of a Japanese advance against China. He informally discussed the matter of Sino-Soviet relations with the Soviet ambassador in Germany ; and, when he was at Geneva in March 1929 attending a meeting of the League of Nations Preparatory Commission for Disarmament, he exchanged views on the subject with the Soviet foreign minister, Maxim Litvinov. Chiang then forwarded to his government at Nanking a proposal made by Litvinov that China and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact, but he was instructed by Nanking that discussion of the matter should be temporarily postponed. The reason became apparent when the Nationalists attempted to seize the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria in July 1929. Chiang Tso-pin counseled moderation from his post in Berlin. The affair soon ended when Soviet military forces went into action in November; and the Khabarovsk Protocol of 22 December 1929 provided for restoration of the status quo ante in Manchuria.

Chiang Tso-pin was a delegate to the eleventh meeting of the League of Nations Assembly at Geneva in July 1930. In the spring of 1931, after he had spent more than two years in Germany, he requested home leave, with the provision that he be permitted to travel through the Soviet Union. His request was granted, and Chiang went to Moscow in April at Litvinov's invitation. He made an official tour of the Soviet capital and then visited the Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Soviet Central Asia. He returned to the Far East on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Chiang arrived at Nanking in July, where he urged that, in view of the growing tension in Sino-Japanese relations, negotiations be opened with the Japanese government to attempt to resolve outstanding problems. In August 1931 he was appointed minister to Japan. At the beginning of September he went to Peiping to discuss Manchurian defense plans with Chang Hsueh-liang (q.v.). After arriving at Mukden on 15 September, Chiang Tso-pin met with Japanese officials. The governor of Liaoning province informed him that Japanese behavior was becoming increasingly antagonistic. Chiang continued his journey to Japan by train. When he passed through Pyongyang in Korea on the morning of 19 September, he learned of the Japanese attack at Mukden the night before. Chiang Tso-pin's mission to Japan had been designed to prevent such developments. He hastened on to Tokyo and strove to retrieve the situation by opening negotiations with Shidehara Kijuro, the Japanese foreign minister, on the basis of Shidehara's professed policy of "harmonious diplomacy." He urged the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs at Nanking to attempt to settle the issue by direct Sino-Japanese negotiations rather than through the League of Nations, and he opposed the belief, then current in some Chinese circles, that the matter would be settled by a world war. Chiang held that such a war, regardless of the outcome, would not be to China's advantage.

Shidehara left the Japanese foreign office at the beginning of December 1931 and was succeeded by Inukai Ki. Chiang then returned to China for consultation with his government. Before returning to his post, he was elected to membership on the Central Supervisory Committee of the Kuomintang. Fighting between the Chinese and Japanese began at Shanghai in January 1932. Inukai was assassinated in May, and the actions of the Kwantung Army became more unbridled still. Despite Chiang's official protests, Japan recognized its political creation, Manchoukuo, in September 1932.

Although he was recalled to Nanking for a long period of consultation in 1933, Chiang continued to serve as Chinese minister to Japan. After Wang Ch'ung-hui (q.v.), on his way to his post as judge of the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague, stopped off in Tokyo in February 1935 for conversations with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirota Koki, the National Government took steps to eliminate possible causes of friction with Japan. In May the two countries raised their respective diplomatic missions to embassy status. In June 1935, Chiang Tso-pin presented his credentials to the Japanese emperor as the first Chinese ambassador to Japan. In the autumn of that year, Chiang and Hirota exchanged proposals from their governments for settlement of Sino-Japanese differences. The two sides could not agree, however, because China demanded in effect a restoration of the status quo ante 18 September 1931. When Chiang returned to Nanking in October to attend Kuomintang meetings, he was unable to report any substantial success for Chinese policy. It was anticipated in both China and Japan that Chiang would become foreign minister at Nanking. In early December, however, Chang Ch'ün (q.v.) received that post, and Chiang was named minister of interior. Early in 1936 he was succeeded as ambassador to Japan by Hsu Shih-ying (q.v.), and he returned to Nanking. Chiang then traveled to various parts of China to supervise the institution of local administrative reforms. In early December 1936, he arrived at Sian, coincident with a visit by Chiang Kai-shek. When the Sian Incident took place, Chiang Tso-pin was detained there with Chiang Kai-shek and other Kuomintang officials. Chiang Tso-pin and the others held with Chiang Kai-shek were released at the end of the month. The shift in Chinese policy that followed the Sian Incident led to the outbreak of the Sino- Japanese war in the summer of 1937. Chiang Tso-pin was appointed governor of Anhwei province in November, after the removal of the National Government from Nanking. After the fall of Nanking in December 1937, he moved his provincial government from Anking to Liuan. Large Chinese forces moved into the area in preparation for the approaching battle at Hsuchow, and Li Tsung-jen, who was in overall command of these forces, was appointed Anhwei provincial governor in January. Chiang Tso-pin relinquished the governorship on 25 January 1938 and went to Chungking. In the winter of 1940, Chiang Tso-pin was named head of the administrative section of the newly established commission for the examination of party and government work. Although he had developed high blood pressure, he continued to perform the duties of that post. After participating in the official ceremonies of New Year's Day 1942, however, he became ill and asked to be relieved of his official responsibilities. He died at Chungking on 24 December 1942. Chiang Tso-pin wrote a book about his first trip to Europe and the United States. He also wrote Chiang Yü-yen hsien-sheng tzu-chuan [autobiography of Chiang Tso-pin], which was published at Chungking in 1945.

Chiang married Chang Shu-chia, the sister of Chang Mo-chun (q.v.) in 1912. She died in 1938. Chiang Tso-pin was survived by seven sons. Chiang Shuo-min (191 3-), a mathematician who obtained his doctorate at Gottingen, became a professor at Nankai University, Southwest Associated University, and National Normal University in Peking. Chiang Shuoying (1914-), an army officer, served in Taiwan after 1950. Chiang Shuo-hao (Charles S. H. Tsiang, 191 7-) served as senior technical officer of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Montreal, Canada. Chiang Shuo-chieh (S. C. Tsiang, 191 8-), an economist who obtained his doctorate from the University of London, became a professor of economics at Peking University and at the University of Rochester in the United States; he was also elected to membership in the Academia Sinica. Chiang Shuo-chih (Gabriel S. T. Tsiang, 1920-) became a mathematical analyst at the Boeing Aircraft Company, Seattle, Washington. Chiang Shuop'ing (1923-) was chief public relations officer of the Executive Yuan in Taipei. The youngest son, Chiang Shuo-chien (1923-) became a lecturer in chemical engineering at Tsinghua University in Peking.

Chiang Tso-pin and his wife also had five daughters. The eldest, Chiang Shou-te, married Li Te-yin, a professor at National Central University, and later lived in Shanghai. Chiang Shuo-chen, the second daughter, married Chen Yu-why (Ch'eng Yu-huai), professor of mathematics at the University of Massachusetts and academician of the Academia Sinica. The third daughter, Chiang Shuo-mei, died in 1950. Chiang Shuo-an, the fourth daughter, became a doctor of medicine; both she and her husband, also a doctor, lived and practiced in Mukden. Chiang Shuo-neng, the fifth daughter, was adopted as a baby by Shao Yuan-ch'ung (q.v.) and Chang Mo-chun. She married Wang Chenchou, general manager of the Cooperative Bank in Taipei.