… An Explanation of [The Term] Nien

Abstract

… "Nien" was the name by which the Nien Army and the broad masses in Nien Army areas referred to their organization. Judging from the fact that even today people in northern Anhwei still use the term nien, we can presume that the same name was used by the Nien Army and the local people of the time. In Chiang Tzu-hsiao's poem entitled "The Nien," there is a stanza which goes, "Their name is Nien."1 In Yu'-chü'n chi-lüeh [Annals of the Honan Army], it is recorded: "They call themselves Nien; they do not unite with each other."2 These clearly demonstrate that nien was a name that the Nien Army used for addressing themselves; it was definitely not a slanderous name given by the landlords. Today, in continuing to call them the "Nien Army" we certainly have not "committed an objectivist error" or "unconsciously followed the landlords in slandering the people's revolution."3