Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/Wang T'ien-p'ei

General Wang Tien-p'ei

王天培学植之

General Wang Tien-p'ei was born at Kishui, Kiangsi province in 1888, but he has lived in Tienchu, Kweichow, most of his life, so he considers himself to be a Kweichow man. He began school life in Tienchu attending the Higher Primary School from which he went to the Ministry Primary School in Kweiyang and afterwards to the Military Middle School in Wuchang. After graduating at the Paoting (Chihli) Military Academy he was at Wuchang in 1911 at the time of the First Revolution and was for a time the commandant in charge of military operations in Hankow, Hanyang and Wuchang. He also commanded the forts at Feng Hwang Shan. In 1912 General Wang was appointed Chief of the Secret Service in the cities of Kuchow and Liping, Kweichow, for the purpose of exterminating brigands. It was not till 1914, however, that his real career began. The Central Army headquarters gave him a commission in the Kweichow Army where he first served as a candidate in the First Regiment, afterwards he rose by degrees in his regiment till he became a Major after the fighting in Western Kiangsi in 1915. In 1917 he was given charge of the Model Battalion in the Kweichow Army; and for his zeal in fighting for the Constitution he was made Colonel of the Second Regiment in 1918. For the next two or three years he was fighting in several places in Szechwan and Kweichow and was raised to the rank of Brigadier in 1921, while engaged in Kwangsi. In 1922 he returned to Kweichow and was given the command of the First Kweichow Division, which command he still holds. In 1923 he was given the additional rank of Commandant (under Yuan Tzu-ming) for the relief of Szechwan and pacification of Kweichow.