Five Races Under One Union

This article is about the political principle of the Republic of China. For the similarly-named principle adopted by Manchukuo, see Five Races Under One Union (Manchukuo).

Five Races Under One Union
The center flag is the Five-Colored Flag of the Republic of China. Underneath the three flags is the message: "Long live the union" (共和萬歲).
Chinese	五族共和
Literal meaning	five-race republic
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin wǔzú gònghé Wade–Giles wǔ-tsú kùng-hé Yale Romanization wǔdzú gùnghé IPA [ùtsǔ kʊ̂ŋxɤ̌] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization ngh juhk guhng wòh Jyutping ng5 zuk6 gung6 wo4 IPA [ŋ̬̍ tsʊ̀k kʊ̀ŋ wɔ̏ː] Southern Min Hokkien POJ gō͘ cho̍k kiōng-hô

Five Races Under One Union^[a] was one of the major principles upon which the Republic of China was founded following the 1911 Revolution.^[5][6][7][8] Its central tenet was the harmonious existence under one nation of what were considered the five major ethnic groups in China: the Han, the Manchu, the Mongols, the Hui (Muslims), and the Tibetans.^[9]

Republic of China

"Five-Colored Flag" (五色旗; Wǔsèqí)
Use	Civil and state flag
Proportion	5:8
Adopted	10 January 1912
Relinquished	29 December 1928
Design	Five horizontal bands of red, yellow, blue, white and black.

Description

This principle emphasized harmony between what were considered the five major ethnic groups in China, as represented by the colored stripes of the Five-Colored Flag of the Republic: the Han (red); the Manchus (yellow); the Mongols (blue); the Hui or Muslims (white); and the Tibetans (black).^[10]

The term "Hui" (回) here refers to all Muslims (回民, a.k.a. 穆斯林) in China as a whole regardless of ethnicity,^[11] including Chinese-speaking Muslims, Turkic-speaking Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyzs and Tatars, Mongolic-speaking Dongxiangs and Bonans, and Iranic-speaking Pamiris, etc. The term "Muslim Territory" (回疆; Huíjiāng) was an older name for Xinjiang during the Qing dynasty.^[12] It was only after the establishment of the People's Republic of China that the term "Hui" started to refer specifically to Chinese-speaking Muslims.^[13][14]

Color scheme	Red	Yellow	Blue	White	Black
Pantone	2347 C	7548 C	307 C	White Color	Black Color
CMYK	0-88-92-13	0-22-100-0	99-37-0-38	0-0-0-0	0-0-0-100
HEX	#DF1B12	#FFC600	#02639D	#FFFFFF	#000000
RGB	223-27-18	255-198-0	2-99-157	255-255-255	0-0-0
Chinese ethnic group represented	Han	Manchus	Mongols	Muslims	Tibetans

History

See also: The Five Primary Colors and Vietnamese five-color flags

Records from the Sui dynasty show a system of military banners using the five colors to represent the Five Elements: red for fire, yellow for earth, blue for wood, white for metal, and black for water. The Tang dynasty inherited this system, and has arranged the colors in a united flag according to the above order of the elements, for military use. During the Liao and Song periods, paintings depict the Khitan people using the same flag design. During the reign of the Mongol Yuan dynasty the five colors began to symbolize ethnicities (五色四夷) in a multi-ethnic state. In later historical periods, this "flag of the five united elements" was altered and re-adapted for military and official uses. A Qing-era painting depicting the victory of the Banners over the Muslim Du Wenxiu rebellion in Yunnan, includes a Qing military flag with the five elements arranged in the order of yellow, white, black, green and red.^{[citation needed]}

Painting of the Qing army facing the Panthay Rebellion in Yunnan. The Qing military used a five-color flag.

After the Wuchang uprising, the Qing dynasty was replaced by the Republic of China. On 1 January 1912, during the Republic of China presidential inauguration, Sun Yat-sen mentioned the idea "Five Race Under One Union." He claims that the people are the core of a nation, and that uniting Han, Manchus, Mongols, Hui, and Tibetans as a country is to unite them all as one people.

Prior to the adoption of the five-colored flag by the Republic, several different flags were promoted by the revolutionaries. For example, the military units of Wuchang wanted a 9-star flag featuring a taijitu, while Sun Yat-sen preferred the Blue Sky and White Sun flag to honor Lu Haodong.^[10]

The Nanjing Road following the Shanghai Uprising, with the Five Races Under One Union flags used by the revolutionaries on display

Despite the uprisings targeting a Manchu-dominated regime, Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren and Huang Xing unanimously advocated racial integration, which was symbolized by the five-color flag.^[15] They promoted a view of the non-Han ethnicities as also being Chinese, despite their being a relatively small percentage of the population.^[16] However, while Sun Yat-sen advocated for racial integration, he believes that the five-color flag, despite claiming the five race as equal, arranges the color from top to bottom, suggesting hierarchy.

The "five ethnic groups under one union" flag was no longer used after the Northern Expedition ended in 1928.

A variation of this flag was adopted by Yuan Shikai's empire and the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. In Manchukuo, a similar slogan was used, but the five races it represented were the Yamato (red), Han (blue), Mongols (white), Koreans (black) and Manchus (yellow). Some of its own variations also made the yellow more prominent, rather than display each color equally.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the flag was used by several Japanese puppet governments, including the Provisional Government of the Republic of China in the northern part of the country and the Reformed Government of the Republic of China in Central China.

Gallery

China

• 
  National flag, 1912–1928 (used again by the Provisional Government 1937–1940, Reformed Government 1938–1940)
• 
  Beiyang Army insignia, 1912–1928
• 
  National flag of the Empire of China, 1915–1916
• 
  Air force roundel, 1920–1921
• 
  Commander-in-chief flag of the Republic of China (Beiyang Government), 1927–1928
• 
  Reformed Government Army insignia, 1938–1940
• 
  One of the proposed national flags of the People's Republic of China, August 1949

Manchukuo

• 
  Manchuria Aviation Company roundel, 1931–1945
• 
  National flag of Manchukuo, 1932–1945
• 
  War ensign of Manchukuo, 1932–1945
• 
  Manchukuo Army insignia, 1932–1945
• 
  Manchukuo Air Force roundel, 1937–1945

Inner Mongolia ("four races")

• 
  Mongol Military Government banner, 1936–1939
• 
  South Chahar Autonomous Government banner, 1937–1939
• 
  North Shanxi Autonomous Government banner, 1937–1939
• 
  Flag of Mengjiang, 1939–1945

See also

• Buddhist flag
• Multiracialism
• Legacy of the Qing dynasty
• Zhonghua minzu

Notes

1. 五族共和 has also been translated into English as follows:
   • Five-race Republic
   • Five Nation[s] Under One Union^[1][2]
   • Five-nation Republic^[3][4]

References

1. Hui Wang, ed. (14 October 2014). China from Empire to Nation-State. Harvard University Press. p. 2014. Late Qing revolutionaries may have used anti-Manchu slogans in support of a Han nationalism, but the 1911 revolution resulted in a republican political structure of "Five Nations Under One Union" that exercised national self-determination in foreign affairs while, in the domestic realm, practiced equality among national/ethnic groups within its borders.
2. Zhaoguang Ge, ed. (26 March 2018). What Is China?: Territory, Ethnicity, Culture, and History. Harvard University Press. p. 10. These anti-Manchu revolutionaries were forced to compromise and to accept ideas about nation and ethnicity advocated by Liang Qichao (1873-1929) and Kang Youwei (1858-1927) and assent to the idea of "Five Nations under One Union" that was described in the imperial edict with which the final Qing emperor abdicated the throne.
3. Wang Gungwu, ed. (2013). Renewal: The Chinese State and the New Global History. Chinese University Press. p. 32. Han nationalists realized the territorial implications of the European definition of nation, they quickly turned around to speak about be- ing a "Five-nation Republic" (wuzu gonghe 五族共和).
4. Zhaodong Wang, ed. (21 March 2022). Sino-British Negotiations and the Search for a Post-War Settlement, 1942–1949: Treaties, Hong Kong, and Tibet. De Gruyter. p. 190. After the collapse of the Qing Empire in 1912, the doctrine of the five-nation re- public (wuzugonghe 五族共和) was introduced by the Republican government with the purpose of unifying the different ethnic groups.
5. Murray A. Rubinstein (1994). Murray A. Rubinstein (ed.). The Other Taiwan: 1945 to the present (illustrated ed.). M.E. Sharpe. p. 416. ISBN 1-56324-193-5. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
6. James A. Millward (2007). Eurasian crossroads: a history of Xinjiang (illustrated ed.). Columbia University Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-231-13924-3. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
7. Clyde, Paul Hibbert; Beers, Burton F. (1971). The Far East: a history of the Western impact and the Eastern response (1830–1970) (5, illustrated ed.). Prentice-Hall. p. 409. ISBN 9780133029765. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
8. Making of America Project (1949). Harper's magazine, Volume 198. Harper's Magazine Co. p. 104. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
9. Young, Louise (July 2017). "When fascism met empire in Japanese-occupied Manchuria". Journal of Global History. 12 (2). Cambridge University Press: 274–296. doi:10.1017/S1740022817000080. S2CID 164753522 – via CambridgeCore.
10. Fitzgerald, John (1998). Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the Nationalist Revolution. Stanford University Press. p. 180. ISBN 0-8047-3337-6.
11. "China's Islamic Heritage". 5 March 2006. The Nationalist government had recognised all Muslims as one of "the five peoples"—alongside the Manchus, Mongols, Tibetans and Han Chinese—that constituted the Republic of China
12. Suisheng Zhao (2004). A nation-state by construction: dynamics of modern Chinese nationalism (illustrated ed.). Stanford University Press. p. 171. ISBN 0-8047-5001-7. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
13. "中国民族". www.gov.cn. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
14. Lipman 1997, p. xxiii or Gladney 1996, pp. 18–20 Besides the Hui people, nine other officially recognized ethnic groups of PRC are considered predominantly Muslim. Those nine groups are defined mainly on linguistic grounds: namely, six groups speaking Turkic languages (Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Salars, Tatars, Uyghurs and Uzbeks), two Mongolic-speaking groups (Bonan and Dongxiang) and one Iranian-speaking group (Tajiks).
15. Hsiao-ting Lin. [2010] (2010). Modern China's ethnic frontiers: a journey to the west. Taylor & Francis publishing. ISBN 0-415-58264-4, ISBN 978-0-415-58264-3. pg 7.
16. Chow, Peter C. Y. [2008] (2008). The "one China" dilemma. Macmillan publishing. ISBN 1-4039-8394-1, ISBN 978-1-4039-8394-7. pg 31.

Sources

• Gladney, Dru C. (1996). Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic (2nd ed.). Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN 0-674-59497-5. (1st edition appeared in 1991)
• Lipman, Jonathan Neaman (1997). Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-029-597-644-0. Retrieved 17 August 2018.