Once the Hunan Self-Government Constitution has been promulgated, the official
Hunan assembly and Hunan government, as well as seventy-five xian assemblies and
xian governments, and the smallest district organs of self-rule at the town and village
level, will be created in accordance with the constitution. With this, the construction
of a new Hunan will be complete.


This is the end of our proposal. We have made it because this is indeed a matter
of the widest implications. Since the expulsion of Zhang, things have been put off, the
falling leaves warn of winter, and the time grows late. There is talk of self-government
every day, but day after day nothing gets done. The government vacillates and is at
a loss; the masses are anxious but silent. If, having driven out Zhang, we still cannot
establish self-government, then Zhang’s expulsion will have been entirely in vain! Since
we have some views on the subject, it is certainly our duty to put them forward for
everyone’s consideration. But this is simply a proposal “to convene a constitutional convention.” As for the questions of how we should afterward go about convening it, how
the constitution should be enacted, and how, once it has been enacted, construction
should be carried out, these are all extremely serious questions. Unless many dedicated
people devote all their efforts to a real movement, [these stages] can certainly not be
carried to completion. We feel that today the people of Hunan, following the “movement to expel Zhang,” should all arise in an extremely broad and universal “movement
for Hunan self-government.” Hunanese have always had a good deal of courage; the
expulsion of Zhang, the expulsion of Fu, and the expulsion of Tang are the most recent evidence of this. Henceforth, the Hunanese people should change their negative
and destructive spirit and come focus their attention on positive construction. We
also feel that this time, proposals for Hunanese self-government should advocate “full
self-government” and not “semi-self-government.” We definitely should not concern
ourselves with the center,192 or with the various provinces. The Hunanese people know
only that there is a Hunan on this earth, and that within Hunan, there must be self-government. They must definitely not allow their courage to be deflated by worrying
about what lies ahead or what comes afterward, or discard “complete self-government”
for that half-hearted “semi-self-government.” The Hunan people must fight for freedom,
with no pity for those who would dare to obstruct Hunanese self-rule.


Appeal to the 300,000 Citizens193 of Changsha in
Favor of Self-Rule for Hunan (October 7,1920)
Self-rule for Hunan is the single most important matter at present, a matter of life
and death, of honor and disgrace for the Hunan people. I urge the Hunan people, I urge
192 I.e., with the central government.
193 Shimin, literally “townspeople,” appears to be used here as the conscious equivalent of the original
meaning of “citizens” as burghers or “city dwellers.” Compare the last paragraph of this article with the
article of October 10, 1920, “Petition for the Hunan Self-Government Movement.”