Researchers seldom check or even do not check the reliability of the historical data

There are lots of historical data about the history of the Northern Warlords. Besides the archives left by themselves, the reports and comments of the Northern Warlords published by the journals and newspapers at that time and the memories of the relevant parties, there are also lots of works on the history of the Northern Warlords written by different people in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the History of the Zhili-Anhui War (Shanghai Peace Press) edited by Zhang Yilin, Historical Romance of Wu Peifu's Crusade against the Rebels (Shanghai Minqiang Bookstore) edited by Wuxia Qinhe Xianguan and proofread by Nandu Tianlu Jiuzhu, Laijiang Zhuowu’s The True Stories of Wu Peifu (Shanghai Central Editorial Office of National History) and Biography of Wu Peifu edited by Guangwen Editorial Office (Shanghai World Publishing House) and China's Washington - Political History of Wu Peifu (Shanghai Minqiang Bookstore). These works are all recorded by the people of that time or even the parties involved in these events, which are important materials for the current study of the history of the Northern Warlords. But because of the differences in the editor’s identity and status, the historical facts they recorded are not the same in terms of details, choice of accounting and even the attitude toward the same people or event, for example, Historical Romance of Wu Peifu's Crusade against the Rebels aimed to endorse Wu Peifu, and The True Stories of Wu Peifu also had many flattering words about Wu Peifu. China’s Washington - Political History of Wu Peifu made clear its extremely flattering stance toward Wu Peifu through its title, whereas some works written by people with Pro-Anhui Warlord orientation held totally the opposite attitude and position. Therefore, for the researchers of the Northern Warlords history, it is a good thing to have rich historical data, but they also must undertake the complicated and difficult task of verifying these data. If we do not check the reliability and objectivity of these data which are different from each other in terms of positions and understandings and just take what we need, it would be impossible for us to provide readers with objective and impartial works on the real history of the Northern Warlords.

Although there are lots of works on the history of the Northern Warlords, most of them are just modifications to previous works. Except for some new concepts of the new times, there is no difference in the historical materials used by these works. I will give two typical examples: one is about Wu Peifu and the other one is about Feng Yuxiang. Some scholar published a mediocre paper entitled “Wu Peifu - a Warlord Who is More Likely to Be the Ruler of China” (the 1st issue of the History of World, 2010), which did not verify any historical data, or make a comprehensive study on Wu Peifu’s life, but only put all sorts of supportive materials together in the light of his presupposition. However, some other scholar published his impression of this paper on the same issue saying that this paper had made him have a comprehensive, complete, and objective impression about Wu Peifu and his life for the first time. Since the 1960s, works on Feng Yuxiang have been published constantly, and there have appeared more than ten kinds of Feng’s biographies. Most of these biographies did not differentiate and analyze the historical data they used, but directly adopted the accounts by Feng Yuxiang in his memoirs like My Life, so there were always some accounts which were different from or even contrary to the historical facts. It is thus clear that many scholars working on the history of the Northern Warlords do not have a consciousness of verifying the materials they are using. Of course, there are some exceptions. For example, in his monograph entitled The First Half of Feng Yuxiang’s Life - Comment on Feng Yuxiang’s Autobiography “My Life" (People’s Publishing House, 2009), Liu Jingzhong discriminated and verified

History of the Northern Warlords 133 some of Feng Yuxiang’s unfounded words, which provided a foundation for further discussion. In this regard, Liu Jingzhong’s book is a rare attempt on the historical philology in the field of the Northern Warlords history.