Tang Shengzhi

Military Career Before Nanjing

Tang Shengzhi, courtesy name Mengxiao, was born on 12 October 1889 in Dong'an county, Hunan. He enrolled in the first infantry class of the Baoding Military Academy in 1912, graduating in 1914, and went on to serve in the National Protection War and the Constitutional Protection War of the early Republic. Originally aligned with the Hunan warlord Zhao Hengti, he was promoted to command Hunan's 4th Division after Zhao became provincial governor in 1921. From 1924 he became a devout Buddhist, taking the Buddhist name "Fazhi," and his troops became known as the "Buddhist Army" for their own devotion to the faith. On 2 June 1926 he formally brought his forces into the National Revolutionary Army as commander of its 8th Army, promptly recapturing Changsha, and served as Chairman of Hunan Provincial Government from 1926 to 1927. Over the following decade he commanded forces in several major engagements, was promoted to full General in 1935, and developed a reputation as a capable if temperamental commander. By 1937 he had temporarily retired from active command but remained a senior figure in the Nationalist military establishment.

The Defence of Nanjing

When Nanjing faced imminent Japanese assault in November 1937, most of Chiang Kai-shek's senior commanders advised abandoning the capital to preserve the army. Tang Shengzhi was one of the few who argued for a defence — volunteering to command it himself, and formally taking up the post of Garrison Commander on 20 November. Historians have debated his motivations: some credit him with genuine patriotism; others suggest he was positioning himself politically. Whatever his reasons, his defence was militarily inadequate. The garrison lacked prepared defensive positions, clear command structures, and a coherent plan for either holding or withdrawing.

The Withdrawal Order and Its Consequences

On the evening of 12 December 1937, with Japanese forces breaching the city walls, Tang Shengzhi issued a disorganised withdrawal order. No orderly evacuation plan existed. Soldiers desperate to escape stripped off their uniforms and melted into the civilian population — a flight that left vast numbers of men identifiable to Japanese troops as former combatants hiding among civilians. The chaotic collapse of the garrison is considered by historians to have significantly worsened the conditions that enabled the massacre: Japanese forces, encountering mass surrender and widespread desertion, responded with executions on a vast scale. Tang himself escaped by boat across the Yangtze. He was widely blamed for the disaster.

Later Life

After the fall of Nanjing, Tang Shengzhi resigned all his posts and returned to his hometown in Dong'an to establish a school, never again holding a significant military command. In 1949 he organised the Hunan People's Self-Salvation Committee in Hunan and served as its chairman; on 5 August he and more than a hundred other Hunan military and political figures, including Zhou Zhenlin, jointly issued a telegram responding to Cheng Qian and Chen Mingren's declaration four days earlier, joining the Hunan Peaceful Uprising. After the founding of the People's Republic, he served as a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the National Defense Committee, and Vice Chairman (Vice Governor) of the Hunan Provincial People's Government. Tang Shengzhi died in Changsha on 6 April 1970 of a recurrence of intestinal cancer, at the age of 81. His responsibility for the chaotic withdrawal that preceded the massacre remains one of the most debated questions in the historiography of the event.