Cai Shaoqing

Cai Shaoqing (Chinese: 蔡少卿; 14 August 1933 – 30 November 2019) was a Chinese historian and professor at Nanjing University, considered a leading authority on the history of Chinese secret societies. He pioneered the research of Tiandihui and other secret societies using Qing dynasty archives and overturned the findings of earlier Republican-era scholars. He also studied the links between the Warlord Era and banditry during the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China. He received the Frederic Milton Thrasher Award for his research on Chinese secret societies.

Cai Shaoqing
Chinese	蔡少卿
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Cài Shǎoqīng IPA [tsʰâi ʂàu.tɕʰíŋ]

Cai Shaoqing
蔡少卿
Born	August 14, 1933 Hexing Township, Changshu, Jiangsu, Republic of China
Died	November 20, 2019 (aged 86) Nanjing, China
Nationality	Chinese
Occupation	Historian, professor
Awards	Frederic Milton Thrasher Award National University of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Outstanding Achievement Award
Academic background
Education	Nanjing Normal University, Peking University, Nanjing University
Influences	Shao Xunzheng
Academic work
Discipline	History of China
Sub-discipline	Historian of the Warlord Era, late Qing Dynasty, and early Republic of China
Institutions	Nanjing University
Notable students	Elizabeth J. Perry
Main interests	Chinese secret societies
Notable works	On the Origins of the Tiandihui (关于天地会的起源问题) (1964) Research on the History of the Party in Modern China (中国近代会党史研究) (1987) Chinese Secret Society (中国秘密社会) (1989) Bandits in the Republic of China (民国时期的土匪) (1993)

Biography

Cai was born on 14 August 1933 in Hexing Township, Changshu (now part of Zhangjiagang) in Jiangsu province of the Republic of China. After graduating from Danan High School of Changshu, be was hired by the school as a teacher. He entered the Department of History of Peking University in 1956, and upon graduation in 1960, he became a teaching assistant to historian Shao Xunzheng (邵循正) while continuing his graduate studies at Peking University.[1]

In 1973, Cai was transferred to the Department of History of Nanjing University, where he taught until retirement in 2003. There he advised more than 80 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, as well as over 70 international scholars[1] including Elizabeth J. Perry, who later dedicated her book Anyuan: Mining China's Revolutionary Tradition to Cai Shaoqing and Yu Jianrong.[2]

From 1980, Cai was invited to teach at over sixty universities and research institutes in more than ten countries. He was named an "Outstanding Graduate Student Advisor" by the government of Jiangsu province[1] and won the Frederic Milton Thrasher Award for his research on Chinese secret societies.[1][3]

Cai died on 30 November 2019 in Nanjing, aged 86.[1]

Contributions

Cai is recognized as a leading authority on the history of Chinese secret societies.[1][4] While still a young scholar, he published the article On the Origins of the Tiandihui (关于天地会的起源问题) in 1964. Using his research on Qing dynasty archives housed in Beijing, a previously neglected source for the topic, Cai advanced a vastly different interpretation of the origins of the Tiandihui (Heaven and Earth Society) and the importance of secret societies in Chinese history.[5] His work is considered to have opened a new chapter of scholarship in the field, but further research was hampered by the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). After the end of the period, Cai and his former student Qin Baoqi emerged as leaders in the field in China.[5] The work by Cai, Qin and others overturned the findings of earlier Republican-era scholars. They concluded that the Tiandihui was founded in 1761 and not in the early Qing dynasty, and that the roots of the Tiandihui and other secret societies lay in mutual aid and not national politics as previously thought.[5]

Together with Philip Billingsley, Cai pioneered research on the links between the Warlord Era and banditry during the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China. Rejecting the simplistic view that blamed the social disorder of the era on the moral bankruptcy of the warlords, they studied how population growth, government breakdown, military buildup and other factors contributed to banditry. Deserters from armies turned to banditry to make a living, and banditry in turn fuelled militarization as regional elites created militias to protect their localities.[6]

References

1. Yue, Huairang (2019-12-06). "著名历史学家蔡少卿逝世，长期致力于秘密结社和近代史研究". The Paper. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
2. Elizabeth J. Perry (Pei Yili) (2016-10-24). "我的老师蔡少卿，一位中国顶尖的社会史学家" [My teacher Cai Shaoqing, a top Chinese scholar of social history]. The Paper. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
3. Cai, Shaoqing (June 2002). "On the Overseas Chinese Secret Societies of Australia" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. 4: 30–45. ISSN 1174-8915.
4. "Far Eastern Affairs" (4–6). Institute for Far Eastern Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. 1991: 137. ISSN 0206-149X. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
5. Ownby, David; Heidhues, Mary (1993). "Secret Societies" Reconsidered: Perspectives on the Social History of Modern South China and Southeast Asia. M.E. Sharpe. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-7656-4116-8.
6. Wakeman, Frederic E.; Edmonds, Richard L. (2000). Reappraising Republican China. Oxford University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-19-829617-1.