世界日報
- Proclamation of the Headquarters of the Zhenwei Combined Third and Fourth Army Groups
- Notice from the Zhengyan Evening News
- Bound Volumes of the Shijie Ribao Supplement
This Sunday issue of Beijing's Shijie Ribao carried a proclamation from the combined 3rd and 4th Army Groups commanded by Zhang Xueliang and Han Linchun. It announced that their troops, quartered inside the capital as a temporary measure, would move elsewhere now that order was returning, and it invited residents harmed by soldiers to file complaints, promising punishment of offenders and secrecy for complainants. Beside it ran a launch notice for the Zhengyan Evening News, due out that same day and claiming twice the size of Beijing's other evening papers, and an advertisement for bound monthly volumes of the Shijie Ribao's own literary supplement, edited by the Peking University professor Liu Bannong.
This reading covers three items from the upper part of the page: the army proclamation, the Zhengyan Evening News notice and the supplement advertisement. The proclamation's transcription runs into the opening of the evening-paper notice and breaks off in an illegible stretch marked with [?]; a final line names a Palace-edition reprint whose details cannot be read. Small-type book lists, medicine advertisements printed upside down and parts of the telephone and railway notices are not transcribed. The background sources consulted do not name the founders of the Zhengyan Evening News.
Translation
Proclamation of the Headquarters of the Zhenwei Combined Third and Fourth Army Groups
Bingyin year, 9th month, 11th day. Sunday.
Proclamation of the Headquarters of the Zhenwei Combined Third and Fourth Army Groups
Whereas the stationing of this army inside the city was from the outset only a temporary expedient, and we are well aware that soldiers and civilians alike have found it inconvenient; now that order in the capital is gradually being restored and public security is no longer in doubt, we shall select suitable sites and move elsewhere without delay. We are concerned, however, that our inspections may not have been thorough, and it is hard to rule out that lawless soldiers may disregard law and discipline and harass the neighborhoods. Anyone who has suffered harm should, in accordance with this headquarters' two previous proclamations, set down in detail his or her name and address and the unit and names of the offending officers and men, and promptly lodge a complaint stating the facts, either in person or by letter delivered to headquarters. Once the facts are verified, the offenders will without fail be severely punished according to law. No one, however, may bring a false accusation out of a grudge. Should complainants fear that they will suffer for it afterwards, this headquarters will keep their names strictly secret and will never disclose them. We therefore once again earnestly proclaim this, so that all merchants and residents may be informed. Hereby proclaimed.
Year 15 of the Republic of China, October, the __ day. Army Group Commanders Zhang Xueliang, Han Linchun
Zhengyan Evening News: Notice of Scheduled Publication and Call for Contributions
This paper is scheduled to begin publication on October 17. It will appear daily as one large sheet, twice the size of any evening paper now published in Beijing, with well-informed news and abundant material. Retail price: six copper coins per copy; forty-five cents silver per month; four and a half silver dollars for a full year. This paper strives [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?]
Photographic reprint of the Palace edition: advance subscriptions on sale
Notice from the Zhengyan Evening News
Sunday
Zhengyan Evening News: Notice of Scheduled Publication and Call for Contributions
This paper is scheduled to begin publication on October 17. It will appear daily as one large sheet, twice the size of any evening paper now published in Beijing, with well-informed news and abundant material. Retail price: six copper coins per copy; forty-five cents silver per month; four and a half silver dollars for a full year. This paper strives for excellence. Besides engaging dedicated staff for news gathering and writing of every kind, it will pay generously, sparing no expense, for important news of all sorts, social news and short sketches. Should you favor us with a contribution, please send it directly to our office on Shanxi Street outside Xuanwu Gate. Pieces selected for publication will be generously rewarded; those not suitable will not be returned. Respectfully announced.
Bound Volumes of the Shijie Ribao Supplement
Shijie Ribao
Bound Volumes of the Shijie Ribao Supplement: Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three
The Shijie Ribao supplement is edited by Dr. Liu Bannong, professor at Peking University, and many of its contributors are likewise among the most accomplished scholars of the day. Each bound volume gathers a month's worth of the supplement into a single book, and both printing and binding are of the finest quality, entirely unlike the usual crude volumes made by binding up old newspapers. Each volume runs to about 120 pages and contains more than 150 pieces. Rich in content and giving equal weight to scholarship and entertainment, it is a book every young person should have at hand for reading outside class.
Context
Why Fengtian troops were quartered inside Beijing in 1926
The soldiers this proclamation promised to move out of the city had arrived during the Anti-Fengtian War. In January 1926 Zhang Zuolin launched an offensive, ordering his troops in Fengtian and Shandong to advance on Beijing and Tianjin against Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun. After Guo Songling's mutiny against Zhang Zuolin was suppressed, Han Linchun took over the 4th Front Army formerly led by Jiang Dengxuan and formed a joint command with the 3rd Front Army of Zhang Xueliang, the "Young Marshal" and son of Zhang Zuolin. That joint command is the "combined 3rd and 4th army groups" whose two commanders signed this notice. Zhang and Han fought the Guominjun hard at Changping in the Beijing area, and under Han's command defeated it in August. By mid-1926 Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian clique held the dominant stake in the Beiyang government in Beijing. The proclamation's claim that order in the capital was "gradually being restored" reflects this outcome, although it was the army's own statement. The southern threat was growing at the same time: the Kuomintang government in Guangzhou had launched the Northern Expedition in June 1926, so the Fengtian forces leaving the city interior remained on a war footing.
Why the commanders invited complaints against their own soldiers
The proclamation's offer to punish offenders and to keep complainants' names secret addressed a discipline problem the Fengtian command already knew. According to Han Linchun's biography, during the Changping fighting the army of the Fengtian commander Wu Junsheng pillaged parts of the surrounding area, and Han and Zhang Xueliang removed Wu and the officers involved. The proclamation itself mentions two earlier notices on the same subject, so by mid-October the headquarters had repeatedly faced complaints about soldiers' conduct in the city; the page gives no figures on how many complaints were filed or how many soldiers were punished. Moving troops out of the city interior did not end the Fengtian military presence in the capital. A month later, in November 1926, Zhang Zuolin formed the National Pacification Army after the Fengtian victory, and its leaders, Zhang Xueliang among the regular participants, made decisions in conferences at its headquarters in Beijing.
Liu Bannong and the Shijie Ribao literary supplement
The "Dr. Liu Bannong" named as editor was a poet, essayist and linguist who had been part of Peking University's new-literature circle for nearly a decade. In the summer of 1917 he began teaching in the university's preparatory department at Cai Yuanpei's invitation and joined the editorial board of New Youth. He then studied first in London and, from the following summer, at the University of Paris, and in 1925 returned to China after earning a French state doctorate in letters. That autumn he became a professor in Peking University's Chinese department and a supervisor at its institute of national studies, and he wrote for Yusi and the Shijie Ribao. The advertisement's stress on "Dr." and "Peking University professor" thus presented credentials only a year old. In 1926 Liu also published two poetry collections, Wafouji and Yangbianji, so the bound supplement was marketed in the same year that both collections appeared.
The Shijie Ribao's publisher and Beijing's evening-paper market
The Shijie Ribao belonged to a small press group built by Cheng Shewo, who graduated from Peking University in 1921 with a major in Chinese literature. After graduating he founded the World Evening News, the World Daily (Shijie Ribao) and World Illustrated. The publisher of this page therefore also ran an evening paper of his own in the same Beijing market that the Zhengyan Evening News claimed to outdo with a sheet "twice the size" of its rivals. On this page the Shijie Ribao carried the newcomer's launch notice, with its prices and call for paid contributions, next to an advertisement for its own literary supplement. Cheng's ambitions soon reached beyond Beijing: in 1927 he returned to Nanjing and founded Min Sheng Bao.
Original
鎭威第三四方面聯合軍團司令部佈告
丙寅年九月十一日星期日鎮威第三四方面聯合軍團司令部佈告照得本軍駐守城內原屬一時權宜之計深知軍民均感不便目下京師秩序逐漸恢復治安無虞自當採擇相當地點即行遷移他處惟誠恐查察未周難免有不逞軍人罔遵法紀擾害閭閻倘有被害之人應遵照本部前兩次佈告計明詳細姓名住址及肇事官兵隊屬姓名即時據情或具函投轅控告一經查實定即依法嚴懲但亦不得挾嫌誣控告發人姓名如恐事後受累本部當爲嚴守秘密決不宣佈用再剴切曉諭凡我商民人等其各週知此佈中華民國十五年十月日軍團長張學良韓麟春正言晚報定期出版徵求稿件啟事本報定期十月十七日出版日出一大張較比北京現有各晚報加大一倍消息靈通材料豐富零售每份銅元六枚每月大洋四角五分全年大洋四元五角本報力 [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] 殿本影印發售預約
正言晚報啟事
星期日正言晚報定期出版徵求稿件啟事本報定期十月十七日出版日出一大張較比北京現有各晚報加大一倍消息靈通材料豐富零售每份銅元六枚每月大洋四角五分全年大洋四元五角本報力求精美除聘定專員擔任新聞探訪及各種文字外并不吝重酬徵求各種重要消息社會新聞及短篇小品文字倘荷惠稿希逕寄宣外山西街本社如經選載酬贈從豐不合鄙不檢還此啟
世界日報副刊合訂本
世界日報世界日報副刊合訂本第一卷第二卷第三卷世界日報副刊， 爲北大教授劉半農博士主編， 担任撰述者， 亦多一時績學之士， 合訂本乃彙集一月所載， 裝爲一冊， 印刷裝潢， 均極精美， 與尋常以舊報裝訂， 形式粗劣者， 完全不同， 每冊約一百二十頁， 作品在一百五十種以上， 內容豐富， 講學與趣味并重， 青年課餘， 所當人手一編也。