the Second Historical Archives of China

	Brief Introduction of the Holdings of the SHAC
	The Second Historical Archives of China (SHAC) is one of three national-level archives, and was the first to be established after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of the State Archives Bureau. The other two are the Central Committee Archives of the CCP and the First Historical Archives of China. SHAC's responsibility is to conserve and process republican-era records and facilitate public access to them. The work of the Archives is carried out by the Archive Processing and Cataloguing Department, the Conservation Department, the Public Services Department, the Technical Department, the Computing Center, and the Compilation Department. The National Center for Cataloguing Republican Archives and the journal Republican Archives are also housed at the Archives. The mission of the SHAC is to collect, arrange, catalogue, preserve, compile, and facilitate the use of the holdings of the Archives. SHAC is equipped with microfilming, photocopying, and computer equipment. Various types of finding aids are available.
	The amount of original records of previous central governments and their subordinate organs during the 1912-1949 period held at the SHAC is vast. By the end of 2000, they consisted of approximately 1,800,000 files in more than 900 classes. They occupy more than 50,000 meters of shelving. Readers consulting its files will quickly find themselves drawn into the vast historical scenery of the entire Republican Period.
	The Revolution of 1911 brought an end to the imperial past and led to the establishment of a Republic. The Provisional Government of the Republic of China (The Nanjing Provisional Government) was established on the January 1912 in Nanjing. Dr. Sun Yatsen was elected as Provisional President. Although the number of records it created was small as it existed for no longer than three-month, they have been preserved and are extremely valuable. Among them are a few documents written or signed by Dr. Sun Yatsen himself. In 1917, Dr. Sun created the Military Government to Protect the Constitution in Guangzhou. On 2 March 1923 this was succeeded by the Generalissimo's Headquarter of the Army and Navy.
	Sun Yatsen died on 12 March 1925. Once the National Government of the Republic of China was formed on July 1---referred to by historian as the Guangzhou National Government---the HQ of the Generalissimo was dissolved. The Northern Expedition Army launched the Northern Expedition in July 1926. After it took Wuhan, the Guangzhou Government moved there. Historians call this Government the Wuhan National Government. A great many records were created by the southern governments from the Military Government to Protect the Constitution to the Wuhan Government, including authorizations, letters, and documents drafted by Sun Yatsen, documents of the first and second National Conferences of the KMT, as well as documents concerning the Northern Expedition and regarding cooperation between the CCP and the KMT.
	On 1 April 1912, following negotiations, Sun Yatsen offered the presidency to Yuan Shikai in Beijing. From then for 16 years long Beijing was controlled by warlords. After Yuan Shikai, Li Yuanhong, Duan Qirui, Xu Shichang, Feng Guozhang, and Cao Kun claimed the presidency one after another. With Zhang Zuolin's withdrawal from Beijing in June 1928 ended the Beiyang Government Period. The SHAC contains a significant quantity of records, that reflect the civil wars between the warlords and the great suffering of the people.
	The National Government of the KMT, formed by Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) in Nanjing, ruled China for 22 years from April 1927, until Liberation in 1949. It created a huge number of records and materials. Except for the part transferred to Taiwan before Liberation, the great majority stayed on the mainland. These materials are extremely rich, and reflect fully China's political, military, economic, diplomatic, and cultural affairs.
	After the outbreak of the September 18th Incident in 1931, the Japanese aggressors seized the Northeast. Afterwards the Japanese supported and established several puppet regimes in the areas they occupied. Japanese Puppet Governments such as the Wang Jingwei Government created a number of records. These were taken over by the KMT National Government after Japan surrendered in August 1945. These materials reflect the historical truth of the cruelty of the rule of the Japanese aggressors and the atrocities they perpetrated.
	The greatest part of the SHAC's holdings is made up of official documents. In addition there are photographs, medals, seals, currencies, postal stamps, trade marks, geographical handbooks, paintings, and calligraphy. They are not only useful for historical research and reference, but also for the verification of historical artifacts and art appreciation.
	After the SHAC opened its holdings to the public in 1980, nearly 300,000 users both from home and abroad, including from Taiwan, Hong Kong, the U.S.A., Japan, the U.K., France, the Netherlands, and Germany have used its facilities and consulted more than one million files. To make records easily accessible to the public, the SHAC has compiled and published more than 50 different compilations of primary sources. It also issues the journal Republican Archives to publish historical sources held at the archives. In these ways, the SHAC has contributed effectively and consistently to government activities, economic development, scholarly research, historical writing, international exchange, and patriotic education.