When I said that I was a graduate of the Kuomintang's Central Mili-
tary Academy, generally known as Whampoa, he lost no time in telling
me that so were both his parents. Mrs. Jing in particular holds the rare
distinction of having been with the Women's Detachment in Wuhun. It
must be noted that throughout the history of the academy it issued no
more than 200 diplomas to female cadets, all from the Class of 1927. I
then added that my father, Huang Zhenbai, was a member of the Allied
Association, the revolutionary group organized by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in
the pre-Republican era that was the forerunner of the Kuomintang. Mr.
Jing responded that so was his grandfather.

With our revolutionary genealogy spelled out and laid down,
reminiscence inevitably led to nostalgia. It seemed that we, like our
forefathers before us, had grossly underestimated the length and
breadth and complexity of a business called revolution. But looking
back, how enchanting it was. With a full head of thick hair shining
under the morning sun and regardless of what political indoctrina-
tion was in one's head, one could indulge in thinking that world
affairs could be reshaped to his liking with just a little exertion on
his part. A little more effort is all it takes! Decades later, the effort
and exertion have given way to misery and nightmare, and our simple
naïveté has been transformed into a labyrinth of confusion. Few of us,
even the most undaunted, could have come out of it unperturbed, if
still unscathed.

Yet 1987 is not another year of disillusionment. All indications are
that the longest revolution in the world has come to a fruitful conclu-
sion. China is now experiencing a genuine reign of peace, for the first
time in her modern history. Time has assuaged the agony that came
with war and upheaval. Foes of the past can now regard one another
with not only sympathy but also admiration because they begin to see
the long-term rationality of history, which has superseded revolution-
ary rhetoric of all kinds, and is by itself larger than the worlds of Mao
and Chiang combined. It is in the same spirit that I, a non-Marxist
historian and a naturalized citizen of the United States, can feel com-
fortable speaking before an assembly of scholars coming from all parts
of China.

For me there is no better assurance of a settlement than a rendez-
vous I had with former friends of my youthful years. In 1938 I worked
for a tabloid in Changsha called the War of Resistance. Its editor-

-xviii-