Constitutional Convention” to Enact a “Hunan
Constitution” in Order to Build a “New Hunan”
(October 5–6,1920)
Proposed by: Long Jiangong, Yang Jisun, Zhang Shen’an, Wang Yiseng, Cheng Sen,
Cheng Yizhong, Kuang Rixiu, Zhu Jianfan, Tao Yi, Ma Xuchang, Luo Jiaoduo, Wei
Junming, Liu Yujie, Mao Zedong, Wu Dayou, Guo Kaidi, He Shuheng, Wang Zongxun,
Peng Huang, Tang Yaozhang, Li Xichun, et al., a total of 377 persons (too many to
be listed).
We are convinced that now is the time to launch a Hunan people’s “self-government
movement.” The present offers an extremely good opportunity, an opportunity such as
occurs once in a thousand years. If we let this opportunity pass, it will be very difficult
subsequently to find such an opportunity again.
The question of “whether or not Hunan should be self-governing” is by now no
longer subject to dispute. Today the proposition that “Hunan should be selfgoverning”
would probably be approved by each and every Hunanese save those who are wholly
without conscience. Thus, “whether or not Hunan should be self-governing” is no longer
a question, and the only question is, “How can Hunan self-government be realized?”
As regards the drafting of a basic law for Hunan self-government, during the past
month some people have been suggesting that it be done by the provincial government.
Others have proposed that the law be drafted by the provincial assembly, and still others that the provincial government and the provincial assembly draft it jointly. Some

have advocated that it be drafted by the provincial government and the provincial
assembly, together with the provincial Council on Education, the provincial Agricultural Association, the provincial Labor Union, the provincial Chamber of Commerce,
the Hunan Law Association, the Hunan United Students’ Association, the Hunan Journalists’ Federation, and so on. Some have suggested that ideas devised by individuals
and put forward in drafts should be combined, with the endorsement of others, to form
a kind of draft proposal by several people.
We do not agree with any of the above several proposals, for the following reasons:
1. The basic law for Hunan self-government will be the Hunan constitution. To propose at this time a constitution for Hunan is to refuse to recognize the Provisional
Constitution of the Republic of China188 and the various laws and ordinances deriving from the Provisional Constitution. The provincial government, the provincial assembly, the provincial Council on Education, the provincial Agricultural
Association, the provincial Labor Union, the provincial Chamber of Commerce,
the Hunan Law Association, and so on, are all organs established in accordance
with the former Provisional Constitution or other laws and ordinances; they “may
have” only the power to oppose the Hunan constitution, they “may not have” the
power to propose or draft a Hunan constitution. Furthermore, they “should” only
use their power to oppose a Hunan constitution, but “should not” use their power
to propose or draft a Hunan constitution. It is for this reason that the first four
proposals listed above will not stand up theoretically.
2. That individuals should formulate views and put forward drafts is in itself a
very good idea, which would avoid the difficulties of the first four proposals, and
is also based on the strongest grounds. Nevertheless, we cannot agree with it.
First, the times at present are not such as will allow us to sit down for a relaxed
discussion. If one individual put forward his ideas in a draft, 30 million people
could put forward as many as 30 million drafts, and by the time the waters had
cleared, who knows when a Hunan constitution would emerge? Who knows when
we could build a new Hunan? Second, at present the people’s level is extremely
low, and in the past there have been no strong people’s organizations or parties.
Consequently, even if a draft were proposed by the people, if there were a discrepancy between the ideas of the people and the ideas of the present government,
what power would the people have to stand up against the government?
3. The above five proposals speak only of producing a draft, and are wholly unconcerned with what comes before and after the draft. This is truly laughable. We
are convinced that the first step is to launch the initiative; the second step is
to compose a draft, and also to adopt it and promulgate it; the third step is to
put it into practice. Formally speaking, these three steps are systematically and
coherently related. In reality, they are three separate items, and should certainly
not be mixed up. Of the above five suggestions, apart from the one for drafts
proposed by individuals, which is fairly reasonable, the four remaining ones are
all unclear about procedural relations. On what grounds can it be said that a
draft is supposed to appear suddenly when there has been no attempt to find a
basis for launching the initiative? We feel that in times as urgent as these, there
are two points which must not be neglected: (1) in theory, it must be convincing,
and (2) in practice it must be carried out. We are persuaded that the first four
suggestions are not theoretically convincing, and that the last suggestion cannot
in reality be carried out. Thus we do not endorse any of them.
What, then, do we propose? Our proposal is:
“That the Hunan revolutionary government convene a Hunan People’s Constitutional Convention, and enact a Hunan Constitution, in order to build a New Hunan.”
We feel that this proposal is both theoretically convincing and feasible in practice.
Let us now explain this in detail below:
1. The Hunan Revolutionary Government
The present government of Hunan, organized and led by Mr. Tan Yankai, is actually a revolutionary government, as explained below: (1) Mr. Tan’s action in leading
troops to overthrow Zhang Jingyao, the official appointed by the Northern government, was quite obviously a revolutionary action directed against Zhang Jingyao and
the Northern government. (2) Mr. Tan has issued a circular telegram proclaiming that
this expulsion of Zhang was an act of self-determination on the part of the Hunanese,
having nothing to do with the overall situation in the Southwest, and the head and
commander in chief of the Southwest government, Mr. Cen Chunxuan, sent a telegram
to the Northern government informing them that the Southwest had in no way ordered
Tan Yankai’s attack on Zhang Jingyao. This expulsion of Zhang was purely a matter of
Hunanese self-determination. It is true that before expelling Zhang Mr. Tan did indeed
have a relationship of subordination with the Southwest government, but since the day
on which he set out to expel Zhang, any such relationship has been broken off, and he
has been acting entirely in accordance with his own free will. Thus, his actions have
been entirely revolutionary actions. (3) On September 13, at his general headquarters,
Mr. Tan convened a Hunan self-government conference, thus carrying out an even
more manifestly revolutionary act. Disregarding the Southwest government, Mr. Tan
used a revolutionary army to overthrow the official appointed by the North, proceeded
to establish a revolutionary government in Changsha, and then convened, within the
revolutionary government, a self-government conference forbidden by the Provisional
Constitution. In itself, this was right and proper, but if it had not been the act of a

revolutionary government, it would have been rejected as illegal and traitorous. Why
so? Would it not have been an illegal and traitorous act for a nonrevolutionary government to convene a self-government conference forbidden by the Provisional Constitution? (The Provisional Constitution does not stipulate that the provincial officials
can change the local organizations at will.)
For the above reasons, there is no longer any doubt that the present government of
Hunan is not the former so-called provincial government, but is indeed a revolutionary
government. Hitherto in Hunan, local individuals and organizations either have not
opposed this revolutionary government (that is, have not said that it should not have
made revolution and expelled Zhang), or on the contrary have supported the actions
of this revolutionary government, such as convening the Hunan self-government conference (since the general headquarters self-government conference, no one has raised
objections; what the papers have all without exception opposed is having the old provincial government or the old provincial assembly monopolize the “drafting”). Thus, the
position, both of individuals and of organizations, in terms of the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, and of all laws based on the Provisional Constitution,
has been utterly destroyed.
We have argued above in terms of theory. If we now speak in terms of reality, the
Hunanese people have all truly participated in this movement to expel Zhang. They
have not just passively “not raised objections” or “given their approval.” All those who,
each and every one, on his own initiative, have become members of the revolutionary
army, or thought to themselves that they wanted to propose a self-government bill,
have already unanimously proclaimed that they have cast off the former laws.
1. The Hunan People’s Constitutional Convention
This is a question of terminology. There are those who suggest “Hunan National
[guomin] Assembly” or “Hunan National Constitutional Convention,” but we feel that
until Hunan has decided and formally declared its establishment as a country, the use
of the term citizen [guomin]189 can be objected to on the grounds that either it can be
confused with “citizen of China,” or that it “has no basis.” There are those who propose a
“Hunan Self-Government Conference,” but in our opinion the self-government law that
Hunan needs now is similar to the American state constitutions or the constitutions of
the German states. China today is split into many fragments, and no one knows when
a constitution for the whole country will come into being. In fact, there will probably
first have to be separate constitutions for each province, and only then can there be
an overall constitution for the whole country. This is just like the route from division
to unity taken by
1. The Convening of the Hunan People’s Constitutional Convention by the Hunan
Revolutionary Government
In most cases, when revolutions arise in a country or locality (apart from the emergence under the old autocratic political system of new kings and emperors who decided
everything and did not allow the people to participate), a constitutional convention
has been convened by the revolutionary government. This has been true of the most
recent examples, such as that of the [Provisional] Constitutional Assembly (the National Council) convened in 1910 [szc]191 by the military government of the Republic of
China, the constitutional convention called in 1917 by the Russian Kerensky government, the All-Russian Congress of Workers’ and Peasants’ Soviets convened in 1918
by the Russian government of Lenin, and the German constitutional convention called
in 1919 by the Ebert government. The reason for this is that when the old government
has already fallen, and the old system has been basically overthrown, the revolutionary government becomes the only central power, so there is no institution other than
the revolutionary government that can convoke a constitutional convention. If you say
that it should be proposed by the people, the head of the revolutionary government
is one of the people. Since the leader of the revolutionary government, along with his
staff and all the other members of his party, have already become a great force, the
fact that it is they who convene the constitutional convention is really an inevitable
process that is not at all unreasonable. We feel that for Hunan today, in the presence
of this fleeting opportunity, the Hunan revolutionary government should convene a
people’s constitutional convention, and cut the Gordian knot. This will not lead to
further complications, but can in reality be done. We hope soon to see before us a
constitutional convention, so that Hunan self-government may soon be realized. Here
there is another point to which we should pay close attention, namely, the “method of
election” used in calling together “representatives to the people’s constitutional convention.” These methods for convening the convention are laid down in the name of the
Hunan revolutionary government, but in reality they must involve, at the very minimum, the residents of the provincial capital, and by custom (not by law), they must
take account of the views of various bodies such as the old provincial assembly, the
provincial Council on Education, the provincial Chamber of Commerce, the provincial
Agricultural Association, the provincial Labor Union, the United Students’ Association, the Teachers’ Federation, the Journalists’ Federation, the Law Association, and
German empire as carried out by Bismarck, and not of the Weimar Republic, which had barely come
into existence at the time of writing.
191 In fact, the Provisional National Council (linshi canyiyuan) met from January 1912 to April 1913
to frame the Provisional Constitution (linshi yuefa).

so on. They must also, at the very least, fulfill the following two conditions: (1) direct,
equal, and universal suffrage, and (2) one delegate to be selected from among every
50,000 persons.
1. The Adoption of a Hunan Constitution by the Hunan People’s Constitutional
Convention
This includes three steps: (1) drafting, (2) passing, and (3) promulgating. It is only
in this context that the recently much-disputed question of drafting can properly be
considered. We recognize only the right of the revolutionary government to convene a
constitutional convention. We definitely do not recognize it as having the right to draft
the constitution. The drafting of the constitution is, of course, the affair of the constitutional convention. The procedure is as follows. Once the delegates of the people from
the whole province have been brought together in the provincial capital by the Hunan
revolutionary government, they will constitute themselves into the convention. First,
they will appoint a suitable number of persons to put together a draft constitution
for Hunan. Next, they will adopt a resolution on the draft constitution, thus turning
it into a formal constitution. Then, in the name of all the delegates to the Hunan
constitutional convention, they will promulgate this final constitution.
Here there arises a question: after the constitution is enacted by the convention,
should it be presented to the people of the entire province to be ratified in a general
referendum, and only then be promulgated? Concerning this point, there are arguments
on both sides. The arguments to the effect that this “should be” done are: (1) That if it
is possible to get 30 million people to cast their individual votes expressing their opinion
for or against a Hunan constitution, this constitution will be more closely linked to
our 30 million people, and that will have great educational significance; and (2) that a
Hunan constitution which has been passed by the constitutional convention, and then
approved in a general referendum of all the people, will have very deep roots that cannot
easily be shaken by some unexpected maneuver to destroy it by the wild ambition of
someone from the central government or from other provinces or from our own province.
These are two highly important reasons with which we at first fundamentally agreed.
The reason we now take the position that this “should not be” done relates entirely to
practical questions. We feel that the Hunan constitution should be fully ratified and
promulgated within six months at the latest. If we were to have a general referendum,
this could scarcely be accomplished in eight or even ten months, and we are afraid
the opportunity might be lost. If everyone feels that delaying promulgation slightly is
not so important, that this opportunity will definitely not be lost, and that there is
no danger that the establishment of a self-government constitution could be basically
undermined and never carried out, then we would undoubtedly agree with holding a
general referendum of all the people.
1. Building a New Hunan

--- Notes

188 I.e., the so-called “New Constitution” (Xin yuefa) promulgated on May 1, 1914, by Yuan Shikai,
to replace that of 1912, following his repudiation of the “Temple of Heaven” draft. (See the note to Mao’s
letter of July 25,1916, to Xiao Zisheng.)


189 The Chinese expression guomin means literally “people of the country” and on its own is usually translated “citizen.” As an adjective, however, it commonly takes the meaning “national,” as in
Guomindang (Nationalist Party). Both renderings are used here, according to the context.


America and Germany.190 We believe that at present in Hunan, the use of the term
“constitution” is most appropriate, and the organ that is to give birth to the constitution
should be called the “Hunan People’s Constitutional Convention.”