 a form of venereal disease.
After graduation from a military academy in Japan, where he met Sun Yat-sen, Chiang become an enthusiastic supporter of the Chinese nationalist revolution, and joined the Tongmenghui (Sun’s organization).
Return to China
Chiang returned to China to participate in the Xinhai Revolution, which overthew the Qing Dynasty. He eventually became a trusted associate of Sun, who appointed him founding commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1918, when Chiang also joined the Nationalist Party (KMT). He succeeded Sun in 1925 as leader of the KMT upon Sun’s early death.
In 1926-1927 he unified much of the country, defeating warlords and breaking with the Communist Party, whose members he purged from the KMT.
In his personal life, Chiang fell in love with Soong Meiling, the daughter of wealthy businessman and former missionary Charlie Soong. There seems to have been a political deal worked out through the mediation of Meiling’s sister Ailing, wedding the Soong family wealth and connections to Chiang’s military and political assets.
When Chiang sought to marry Meiling, the strong Christian identity of the Soongs meant that their daughter could not be joined to a non-believer. Meiling’s mother asked Chiang whether he would become a Christian. He replied that he would not change his religion to marry Meiling, but he would read the Bible and pray for God to show him what he should do.
Permission was granted, but Methodist church law forbade a church wedding between a Christian and an unbaptized person. It was also doubted whether Chiang had been properly divorced from his first wife, and there were persistent rumors about Jennie, whom Chiang had sent off to America without divorcing. Chiang produced proof of his divorce and discounted the stories about Jennie. Bishop Z.T. Kuang went to the Songs’ house to pray for the couple and pronounce a blessing upon them after a lavish civil ceremony on December 1, 1927.Thenceforward, Chiang read his Bible daily (starting with the Old Testament), prayed pri