Biography in English

Ch'ien Ta-chün (26 July 1893-), military officer, organized and trained many units of the National Revolutionary Army. He was an official of the Whampoa Military Academy and dean of the Wuhan branch of the Central Military Academy. He was an aide to Chiang Kai-shek and later chief of his bodyguard. In 1942-43 he served as political vice minister of war and in 1945-46 he was the mayor of Shanghai. In Taiwan he devoted himself to promoting athletics.

K'unshan hsien in Kiangsu province was the birthplace of Ch'ien Ta-chün, the youngest of five brothers. His native place was Wuhsien, Kiangsu. When he was four sui, his father, Ch'ien Tzu-mei, moved the family to Soochow. At the age of six, Ch'ien Ta-chün began to study under the guidance of Ch'ien Sung-yao, his eldest brother, and by the time he was ten he had read all the basic classical texts required in the traditional curriculum. He then attended a series of primary schools.

When Ch'ien Ta-chün was 15, his father died, leaving the family in straitened financial circumstances. Ch'ien went to Shanghai to live with his older brother Ch'ien Ch'i-wen, who wanted him to go into business. Because he was not interested in a commercial career, Ch'ien Ta-chün returned to Soochow. The last educational institution he had attended before going to Shanghai, the Changchow Primary School, supported his application to take the examinations for the Kiangsu Military Primary School. He passed the examinations, and in 1909 he enrolled in the school's fourth class. The school suspended classes when the 1911 revolution broke out, and Ch'ien Ta-chün went to Shanghai to join a students cadet corps. When Niu Yung-chien (q.v.) founded a military cadres school at Sungkiang, Ch'ien enrolled. He was graduated six months later and was given command of a squad of bodyguards. The Kiangsu Military Primary School resumed classes, and Ch'ien returned to it for supplementary training. He was graduated in 1912, and he returned to the Sungkiang Army to serve as a platoon commander.

In the so-called second revolution of 1913, Ch'ien participated in the attacks on Lunghua and on the Shanghai arsenal. After being defeated, the Sungkiang Army retreated to Kiating and disbanded. At the suggestion of Niu Yung-chien, Ch'ien went to Japan. There he made the acquaintance of Sun Yat-sen and attended lectures sponsored by Sun's group in Ch'ien Ta-chün Omori. After Japan occupied Tsingtao in 1914, indignant young Chinese in Japan began to return home tojoin the army. Ch'ien was among them. He enrolled in the Second Military Preparatory School at Wuchang.

In 1915 when Yuan Shih-k'ai launched his plan to become monarch, the various military schools undertook searches for revolutionaries. Ch'ien came under the suspicion of Wang Chan-yuan, the tutuh [military governor] of Hupeh, and he left secretly for Shanghai. Niu Yung-chien, at nearby Sungkiang, then was attempting to rally his former followers. Ch'ien worked as a Japanese-language translator on the Shanghai Shih-shih hsin-pao [China Times], but then, before a month had passed, joined Niu and traveled between Shanghai and neighboring areas to help organize and train Niu's new army. After Yuan Shih-k'ai died in June 1916 and Li Yuan-hung became president, Ch'ien Ta-chun returned to school at Wuchang. He was graduated in December 1916 and was enrolled in the alternate corps of the Paoting Military Academy. In April 1917 he was sent to Japan for further study. He was admitted to the artillery course of the twelfth class for Chinese students at the Shikan Gakko [military academy]. Ch'ien was graduated in June 1919, and he returned to China in early 1920. He was sent to Paoting, where he served first as branch column commander and then as column commander. The academy suspended operations when the Chihli-Anhwei war broke out in July. In October, plans were made at Peking for a resumption of the academy's work, and Ch'ien was a member of the preparatory committee. He thought that the Peiyang warlords did not consider Paoting important, and he apparently aroused suspicion again because of his political affiliations. He resigned his position as head of the artillery column of the ninth class in the summer of 1921 and went to Canton.

Ch'ien then joined the Kwangtung Army as a staff officer, with rank of major, in the 1st Division commanded by Li Chi-shen (q.v.). Ch'ien participated in various campaigns in south China and in Kiangsi, and in 1923 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1924 Ch'ien became a member of the committee charged with organizing the Whampoa Military Academy. On 12 May he was sent to Whampoa as a weapons instructor; at the beginning of November he became acting chief instructor. On 9 November he was made the director of the newly created staff office. In January 1925 Chiang Kai-shek, commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy, led two training regiments on the first eastern expedition against Ch'en Chiung-ming, and Ch'ien Ta-chün served as chief of staff on that campaign. On 15 February he was designated acting commander of the 2nd Training Regiment, and in March and April he participated in actions at Mienhu and Hsingning. Late in April he was ordered back to Whampoa to organize the 3rd Training Regiment, and he became commanding officer of that unit. In June he participated in the action in the Canton area which succeeded in eliminating the Yunnan and Kwangsi commanders Yang Hsi-min and Lu Chen-huan as a threat. For a time, probably during Chiang Kai-shek's absence in the field, he acted as head of the Whampoa Military Academy.

At the time of the second eastern expedition in October 1925, Ch'ien Ta-chün commanded the 3rd Training Regiment and, under the direction of Ho Ying-ch'in, took up garrison duty at Poklo. After the capture of Waichow, Ch'en Chiung-ming's base, Ch'ien led the attack on Haifeng and Lufeng on 22 October and helped to consolidate the Canton regime's control over the East River area of Kwangtung. On 20 December he became deputy commander of Ho Ying-ch'in's 1st Division.

On 1 January 1926 Ch'ien Ta-chün succeeded Ho as commander of the 1st Division. A month later, he exchanged commands with Wang Po-ling and became commanding general of the 20th Division. When the Northern Expedition began in July 1926, Ch'ien was designated garrison commander of the Canton area. When Chiang Kai-shek launched his drive against the Communists at Shanghai in April 1927, Ch'ien followed suit at Canton, declaring martial law on 16 April and arresting suspected Communists. He was also assigned to consolidate the security of northern Kwangtung, and he went to Kukong and Kanhsien to disband and reorganize troops that had shown themselves to be unreliable. After the Nanchang insurrection in August 1927, the Communist leaders Ho Lung and Yeh T'ing retreated to southeastern Kiangsi. Ch'ien Ta-chün fought a hard battle in an unsuccessful attempt to block them. Ch'ien's forces then were transferred to Meihsien, where he attempted to destroy the Communist troops led by Chu Teh. By mid- October, the East River area of Kwangtung had been secured. Ch'ien's troops were reorganized as the Thirty-second Army, and in December 1927 he helped to suppress the rebellious forces of Chang Fa-k'uei and Huang Ch'i-hsiang in the Canton sector.

Ch'ien then went north by way of Fukien and Chekiang. On 1 April 1928 he received command of the Shanghai-Woosung garrison and assumed responsibility for security in that critical area. He also became a member of the Kiangsu provincial government. In July 1928 he established an academy at Shanghai to train security officers and secret police, the first of its kind in China. After the Northern Expedition ended, the Thirty-second Army and the 21st Division were reorganized as the 3rd Division, stationed at Soochow, with Ch'ien as commanding general. He also served as Kiangnan banditsuppression commander and as a member of the Military Affairs Commission.

Early in 1929 Ch'ien became general counselor in the headquarters of the Armed Forces at Nanking. That spring he accompanied Chiang Kai-shek in the punitive expedition against the Kiangsi forces in the central Yangtze region, and, after the capture of Wuhan, he took over the army officers school that had been operated by Li Tsung-jen's Fourth Group Army and reorganized it as the Wuhan branch of the Central Military Academy. Ch'ien became dean of the branch.

In 1930 Ch'ien was appointed to organize and train the 3rd Division. That division's 1st Brigade participated in the battle of the central plain of that year. After the war against the northern coalition, the 3rd Division was renamed the 14th Division, with Ch'ien continuing as commander. In November, Ch'ien, in the company of Ch'en Ch'eng and others, went to Japan to observe the autumn military maneuvers.

In January 1931 Ch'en Ch'eng, then the commander of the Eighteenth Army, took command of the 14th Division. Ch'ien continued to serve as dean of the Wuhan branch of the Central Military Academy and took command of the 89th Division. In 1931 he was elected an alternate member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.

The Wuhan branch of the Central Military Academy was closed in the spring of 1932, and jts students were transferred to the Central Military Academy at Nanking. Ch'ien was relieved of command of the 89th Division and was given command of the Thirteenth Army. In June, he became the director of Chiang Kai-shek's Nanchang headquarters. In the spring of 1933, when the Chinese and the Japanese were fighting at the Great Wall, Ch'ien accompanied Chiang Kai-shek north and became the director of his Paoting headquarters. He established and directed a training office at Paoting to organize new military units. He also served on the Peiping branch of the Military Council, headed by Ho Ying-ch'in.

The Tangku Truce with the Japanese was signed on 31 May 1933, and the Paoting training office was abolished later in that year. The National Government was beginning another campaign against the Communists, and Ch'ien was transferred to be chief of staff of the Nationalist forces committed in the Honan-Hupeh- Anhwei area. Ch'ien acted for Chiang Kai-shek whenever Chiang was engaged elsewhere and strove to coordinate military and political efforts against the Communists. In February 1934 Chang Hsueh-liang was made deputy commander in chief for bandit-suppression, and his Manchurian troops were moved out of north China into the northwest. Chang thus came to hold dominant authority over Wuhan. Ch'ien offered his resignation, but it was refused. In January 1935, Chang Hsueh-liang was given the formal post of director of the Wuhan headquarters, and Ch'ien was made chief of staff there.

In the winter of 1935, after the Communist forces had fled to northwest China, the Nationalists disbanded their Wuhan headquarters. Ch'ien Ta-chün then became director of the first department of the Generalissimo's attendance office, with the concurrent position of chief of Chiang Kai-shek's bodyguard. In exercising his new security functions, Ch'ien became more closely associated with Tai Li (q.v.), the Nationalist secret service chief. At the Fifth National Congress of the Kuomintang, held in the spring of 1 935, Ch'ien was elected a member of the Central Executive Committee. In June 1936 Ch'en Chi-t'ang (q.v.), who held power in Kwangtung province in south China, began to oppose the authority of Chiang Kai-shek and the National Government at Nanking. Yü Han-mou (q.v.), commander of Ch'en Chi-t'ang's First Army, was stationed in southern Kiangsi. He seemed to have an equivocal attitude toward Ch'en. Chiang Kai-shek then instructed Ch'ien Ta-chun, who had been a fellow student of Yu Han-mou at Paoting and a fellow officer in the Kwangtung Army's 1st Division, to make contact with Yü. A sum of money reportedly changed hands, and Yü shifted his allegiance to Nanking in early July. By that time the Canton air force had defected to the Nationalists, and the back of the southern revolt had been broken. Ch'ien Ta-chün, accompanied by Yü Han-mou, then went to Canton to consolidate power in Kwangtung. When the Sian Incident took place in December 1936, Ch'ien Ta-chün was with Chiang Kai-shek at Sian. When the alarm was given, he ordered his bodyguards to resist the rebels. Ch'ien himself was wounded and taken prisoner. On the following day he met his former schoolmate Ho Chu-kuo, now the commander of a cavalry force under Chang Hsueh-liang. Ch'ien was detained in Ho Chu-kuo's quarters during the crisis. He and other captives were released on 27 December after Chiang Kai-shek had returned to Nanking. In February 1937 Ch'ien returned to his duties in Chiang Kai-shek's attendance office.

After the outbreak of the Si no-Japanese war in July 1937, Ch'ien accompanied Chiang Kaishek on official trips to various parts of China. When the National Government evacuated Nanking in December, Ch'ien went with Chiang to Wuhan. In February 1938, after the reorganization of the Aeronautical Affairs Commission, Ch'ien became its director. He held that position until 1940, by which time the National Government had moved to Chungking, and then relinquished it to Chou Chih-jou (q.v.). In the spring of 1941, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the establishment of a transport control bureau under the Military Affairs Commission at Chungking. Ho Ying-ch'in, the chief of general staff, was appointed to direct the new organ, and Ch'ien Ta-chün became its chief of staff. In December 1941 he flew to Rangoon to survey the situation and to supervise the emergency transport of supplies from Burma to Yunnan. In March 1942 Ch'ien Ta-chün became political vice minister of war and chief of staff. Although Ho Ying-ch'in was minister of war, the routine work of the ministry was supervised by Ch'ien and by Chang Ting-fan, the administrative vice minister.

In 1944 Ch'en Ch'eng succeeded Ho Yingch'in as minister of war. Since Ch'ien Ta-chün had headed a branch column at the Paoting Military Academy while Ch'en Ch'eng had been only a student, he was technically senior to Ch'en. Accordingly, Ch'ien was transferred to the Generalissimo's attendance office, where he again became head of the first department. He was closely associated with Ch'en Kuo-fu and Ch'en Pu-lei (q.v.), who also held key positions in Chiang Kai-shek's entourage, and with Yeh Ch'u-ts'ang (q.v.), then the vice president of the Legislative Yuan. Ch'ien Ta-chün also directed the investigation and statistics bureau of the Military Affairs Commission, which was responsible for security measures against the Communists.

At the time of the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Ch'ien became the first postwar mayor of Shanghai, with the concurrent position of commander in chief of the Shanghai- Woosung garrison. In the company of General Stratemeyer, chief of the Far Eastern Command of the United States Air Force, Ch'ien flew into Shanghai on 9 September 1945 to assume his new duties. The task of establishing effective military and political control over China's largest city proved to be arduous. In May 1946 Ch'ien was replaced by K. C. Wu (Wu Kuochen, q.v.). Ch'ien went to his home at Soochow, where he occupied himself with the affairs of his native district. In April 1946 he was elected to membership in the Wuhsien assembly. He later became speaker of that body. In 1947 he was elected a delegate, representing Shanghai, to the National Assembly. The Nationalist military position deteriorated in the face of Communist advances during 1948, and Ch'ien was named to membership on the Strategy Advisory Commission. In 1949 he became deputy commanding general for the southwest China region. The National Government retreated to Taiwan in December 1949, and in 1950 Ch'ien joined his veteran Kuomintang associates in Taiwan. Ch'ien was prominent in the promotion of athletics and became chairman of the soccer association of the Taiwan provincial athletic federation. In 1 953, at the Second Asian Games, held in Manila, the Chinese soccer team won the championship. In 1957 Ch'ien became a member of the supervisory committee of the Chinese National Athletic Federation. In 1958 he accompanied the Chinese soccer team from Taiwan to the Third Asian Games, held in Tokyo, where the team again won the championship. Ch'ien supervised the Chinese team from Taiwan that went to Chile in 1959 to participate in the international competition in basketball; his team won fifth place. Ch'ien also accompanied the Chinese basketball team from Taiwan to the Seventeenth Olympic Games, held at Rome in 1960.

Biography in Chinese

钱大钧
字:慕尹
钱大钧(1893.7.26—),军官,多次负责编训国民革命军的许多队伍。他是黄埔军校的教官、中央军校武汉分校教务长。他是蒋介石的助手,后来成了他的侍从室主任。1942—1943年任陆军部政务次长,1945—1946年任上海市长。他在台湾从事促进体育运动的工作。
钱大钧生在江苏昆山,兄弟五人,居幼。他原籍江苏无锡,四岁时,父亲钱自梅将家迁居苏州。六岁时,从长兄钱松尧读书,十岁,已熟习应科举试所需各典籍,后又进几所学校读书。
钱大钧十五岁时,父亲去世,家境困难,钱大钧去上海与兄钱季文(译音)同住,其兄促其从商,钱大钧无意于经商,乃回苏州。他在去上海前,曾在常州初等学校读书,获准投考苏州初级军事学校,经考试合格,1909年进入该校第四班。
初级军校在1911年革命爆发时停办,钱大钧去上海参加学生军。当时,钮永建在松江办了一所陆军干部学校,钱大钧进入该校。六个月后毕业,当了一名警卫队小队长。江苏初级军事学校复学,他回校补训,1912年毕业,回松江当一名排长。
1913年二次革命时,他参加了袭击龙华及上海兵工厂之役。失败后,松江军退到嘉定后解散。钱大钧由钮永建的建议去日本,认识了孙逸仙,并去听孙逸仙集团在大森组织的讲演会。1914年日本侵占青岛,留日中国学生愤而归国从军,钱大钧亦回国,进了武昌第二军事预备学校。
1915年,袁世凯准备称帝,各军事学校内搜寻革命分子。钱大钧因被湖北都督王占元怀疑而秘密去沪,那时,钮永建在上海附近的松江,打算重整他的旧部。钱大钧在上海《时事新报》担任日文翻译一个月后,就投向钮永建,来往于上海及临近地区,帮助钮永建组训新军。
1916年6月,袁世凯死去,黎元洪任总统,钱大钧回武昌军校,1916年12月毕业后进保定军校预备队,1917年4月,又被派去日本深造,进士官学校中国学生第十二班炮兵科。
1919年6月,钱大钧毕业,1920年初回国,派往保定军校,先任支队长,后升任分队长。7月,直皖战争爆发,保定军校停办,10月,北京拟恢复军校,钱大钧任筹委会委员。他认为北洋军阀不重视保定军校的工作。他的政治倾向又一次引起了别人对他的怀疑。1921年夏,他辞去九班炮队负责人之职,前往广州。
钱大钧投入粤军,在李烈钧的第一师当少校参谋。钱大钧在华南和江西多次参加战斗,1923年提升为中校。
1924年,钱大钧系筹建黄埔军校的委员会成员。5月12日,他到黄埔军校当兵器学教官,11月初,升为代理主任教官,11月9日担任新设立的参谋处的主任。
1925年1月,黄埔军校校长蒋介石率领两个教导团发动第一次东征讨伐陈炯明,钱大钧在此次战役中任参谋长。2月15日,任第二教导团代团长,3月、4月参加棉湖、兴宁战役。4月末,奉召回黄埔组建第三教导团,任指挥官,6月,在广州一带消灭杨希闵、刘震寰的滇桂军。蒋介石在前线时,钱大钧代行黄埔军校校长职务。
1925年10月二次东征,钱大钧在何应钦手下率第三教导团防卫博罗。攻占陈炯明的基点惠州后,10月22日,钱大钧率部攻打海丰和陆丰,以巩固广州政府在广东东江地区的控制。12月20日,他担任何应钦的第一师副师长。
1926年1月1日,钱大钧继何应钦任第一师师长。一个月后,又与王柏龄调换,任第二十师师长。1926年7月,北伐开始,钱大钧任广州地区卫戍司令。
1927年4月,蒋介石在上海发动反共高潮,钱大钧在广州效法,4月16日颁布军法,逮捕共产党嫌疑分子。他又受命巩固粤北,去曲江和赣县遣散改编不可信的部队。1927年8月,南昌起义后,共产党领袖贺龙、叶挺撤向赣东南,钱大钧经苦战未能堵阻,将部队调往梅县企图击溃朱德的共产党部队。10月中旬,东江地区已趋稳定,钱大钧部队改编为第三十二军,1927年12月,他协助平定了张发奎和黄琪翔在广州的兵变。
钱大钧经福建、浙江北上。1928年4月1日,任松沪警备司令,警卫这一要害地区,并任江苏省政府委员。1928年7月他在上海创办了中国的第一个训练治安人员和秘密警察的军校。北伐结束后,第三十二军以及第二十一师改编为第三师,驻守苏州,钱大钧任司令。他又担任了赣南剿匪司令和军事委员会委员。
1929年初,钱大钧任南京陆军总部总参事。是年春,他随同蒋介石征讨在长江中游地区的赣军,攻占武汉后,他把李宗仁第四集团军主办的军官学校改组为中央军校武汉分校,担任该校教育长。
1930年,钱大钧受命筹训第三师,该师第一旅参加了当年的中原大战,在阻击北方联军战役后,第三师改称第十四师,钱大钧继续任师长。11月,钱大钧和陈诚等人去日本参观日军秋操。
1931年1月,十八军军长陈诚兼任十四师师长。钱大钧继续任中央军校武汉分校教育长兼八十九师师长,1931年当选为国民党中央执行委员会候补委员。
1932年春,中央军校武汉分校停办,学员转入南京中央军校。钱大钧解除八十九师师长职务,另任第十三军军长。6月,任南昌行营主任。1933年春,中日军队在长城发生战事,钱随同蒋介石到华北,任保定行营主任。他在保定设立一个训练处,准备筹建新军。他还在何应钦的军事委员会北平分会任事。
1933年5月31日,中日塘沽协定签订,当年年底,保定训练处撤销。国民党军队又开始了另一次对共产党的征战,钱大钧任鄂豫皖区国民党部队参谋长。凡是蒋介石去另一处地方为反对共产党在军事和政治上进行协调活动,钱大钧总是协助蒋介石的活动。1934年2月,张学良任剿匪军副总司令,他的东北军从华北调往西北,张学良控制了武汉,钱大钧请辞未准。1935年1月,张学良任武汉行营主任,钱任参谋长。
1935年冬,共产党军向西北转移,国民党解散武汉行营。钱大钧任委员长侍从室第一厅主任,兼任蒋介石的卫队长。因为需要执行新的保卫任务,他和国民党秘密工作头目戴笠密切联系。1935年春,钱大钧在国民党第五次全国代表大会上当选为中央执行委员会委员。
1936年6月,广东省实力派陈济棠反对蒋介石和南京国民政府。陈济棠的第一军军长余汉谋驻兵赣南,态度暧昧。钱大钧和余汉谋是保定军校同学,又是粤军第一师的同事,所以蒋介石指令钱大钧与余汉谋接触,据说他用大量金钱收买,使余汉谋于7月初效忠南京,同时广州空军又倒向国民党,南方反叛的支柱趋于瓦解,钱大钧乃由余汉谋随同去广州以巩固在广东的权力。
1936年12月西安事变时,钱大钧和蒋介石一起在西安。钱大钧一闻警讯,下令其警卫部队抵抗事变发动者。钱大钧负伤被俘。第二天,他见到了他的同学、张学良的骑兵部队司令何柱国,他被拘留在何柱国的司令部里。在蒋介石回到南京后,12月27日,钱大钧等其他被俘人员才获得释放。1937年2月,钱大钧复任蒋介石侍从室主任。
1937年7月,中日战争爆发后,钱大钧随同蒋介石视察全国各地。12月,国民政府撤出南京,钱大钧随同蒋介石去武汉。1938年2月,航空委员会改组后,钱大钧任主任一直到1940年。1940年国民政府迁到重庆后,航空委员会由周至柔主持。
1941年春,蒋介石下令在军事委员会下组成运务处,由总参谋长何应钦任主任,钱大钧为参谋长。1941年12月,他飞往仰光视察,并监督从缅甸紧急输入物资到云南。1942年3月,钱大钧任陆军部政务次长兼参谋长。何应钦虽系陆军部长,但日常工作却由钱大钧和总务次长张定璠处理。
1944年,陈诚继何应钦任陆军部长,由于钱大钧在保定军校当支队长时,陈诚还是一名学员,所以钱大钧是陈的前辈。据此,钱大钧又调任总司令侍从室第一厅厅长,他与在蒋介石身边担任要职的陈果夫和陈布雷以及立法院副院长叶楚伧来往密切。钱大钧还主持军事委员会调查统计局,这是一个负责反对共产党的秘密特工机构。
1945年8月,日本投降,钱大钧任战后第一任上海市长、兼淞沪警备司令。1945年9月9日,他与美国空军远东司令斯特拉特迈耶一起飞到上海上任。在这个中国最大城市建立有效的军政控制,是一件很艰难的事。1946年5月,吴国桢继钱大钧任上海市长。
钱大钧回到老家苏州,热心乡梓工作,1946年4月,他当选为吴县参议会委员,以后担任议长。1947年他当选为出席国民大会的上海代表。1948年时,因共产党的进展,国民党的军事地位趋于恶化,钱大钧被提名为战略顾问委员会委员。1949年他担任西南战区副司令,1949年12月,国民政府撤退到台湾,1950年钱大钧也到达台湾与他那一批国民党元老在一起了。
钱大钧热心于推进体育工作,他是台湾省体育联合会足球协会主席。1953年,在马尼拉举行的第二届亚洲运动会时,中国足球队获冠军。1957年任中华全国体育联合会监委。1958年,他随中国足球队从台湾前往东京参加第三届亚洲运动会,中国足球队再度获冠军。1959年台湾派出中国球队参加在智利举行的国际篮球赛,获第五名,这个球队也是由他经管的。1960年他又率领中国篮球队从台湾前往罗马参加第七届奥运会。

All rights reserved@ENP-China