ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is a pleasure and a shock to see how long and venerable is the list of teachers, colleagues,friends,and institutions with whom this project brought me into profitable association.The seed was planted as carly as my first undergraduate year at Harvard by John K.Fairbank's lectures;his guidance and stimulation from then on were a nurturing medium.As the study grew into a dissertation, it was stimulated by the fricndship and intellectual lucidity of Ezra F.Vogel and shaped by the supervision and suggestions of Benjamin I.Schwartz and Samuel P.Huntington. As an itinerant researcher,I was generously received by scholars and libra- rians.In Taiwan,Ho Lieh patiently shared his deep understanding of modern China.Chang P'eng-yuan bestowed the intellectual excitement of frequent discussions.Professor Kuo T'ing-i,then Director of the Institute of Modern History of the Academia Sinica,allowed access to his superb manuscript chrono- logy of republican China.I am also grateful to Kuo Cheng-chao,Liu Feng-han, Shen Yun-lung,and Wang Erh-min of the Institute;to Wu Chien-hsiung,who helped with the compilation of biographical material;and to the staff of the Kuomintang Party History Archives in Taichung,who made available impor- tant materials. In Japan,I worked mainly at the Toyo Bunko,where Professor Ichiko Chuzo was generous with advice and introductions.Yamamoto Masayuki taught me to read the Japanese of the Taisho era.Thanks also for research guidance to John T.Ma of the Hoover Institution,T.K.Tong of the East Asian Library of Columbia University,Eugene Wu of the Harvard-Yenching Library,and the staff of the Public Record Office in London.Valuable comments and criticisms on sections of the dissertation came from Ellen Frost,Charles W.Hayford,Roy Hofheinz,Jr.,John Houston,Carl F.Nathan,Evelyn Sakakida Rawski,Thomas G.Rawski,Robert H.Silin,Mi Chu Wiens,and Edwin A.Winckler