Chow Chih (14 February 1890 – 8 March 1953) was a general for Sun Yat-sen and a four-star general for Chiang Kai-shek during the Chinese Civil War and second Sino-Japanese War. He is also known as Chou Chih or Zhou Zhi in Mandarin. Chow Chih was a military strategist who led 100 battles in Canton (now Guangdong) and was introduced by Chiang Kai-shek at a 1942 anti-Japan planning conference as a soldier with great achievements in all the military arts.
Early life
Chow was born on 14 February 1890, in Stone River Village, Cuanshi Township in Kaiping county to his 17-year-old father Chow Tin Yuet and 19-year-old mother Chow Fang. Chow's father Tin Yuet was an early Chinese settler in Mississippi and was part of the Mississippi Delta Chinese. Tin Yuet regularly sent money home to his family and visited Canton. Chow's sister Run Ho was born a few years later and his brother Zhang Li was born in 1909. Tin Yuet owned and operated a grocery store in rural Hollandale, Mississippi.
Chow's first marriage at the age of 16 was to 18-year-old Ao Yin-Chiao (born 6 March 1888) from Canton and was arranged by his father Tin Yuet. A son named Chow Tso-Hsu was born on 16 April 1914 and was the only child born from Chow's first marriage.
Military career
Chow graduated from the first class of Whampoa Military Academy in Canton, the first class of Baoding Officers School and then graduated in the third class of Army University in Peking (Beijing). North China warlord Zhang Zuolin, nicknamed the "Tiger of Manchuria," tried to recruit Chow to join the Fengtian Army but Chow headed from Army University in Peking with his classmate Deng Yanda to join Sun Yat-sen's People's Revolutionary Army. Chow became a commander of a regiment for the People's Revolutionary Army and was then promoted to commander in chief, commander of the infantry, Office Director of the Ministry of Defense and played other significant roles for the Nationalist Party. He later returned to Whampoa as an instructor as the Lieutenant General in charge of the officers' research group and helped develop military talent including the head of the New First Army, Sun Liren and the Kuomintang commander-in-chief Liu Angi, according to Zhou Zhouhe and Zhou Songyao, two of Chow's former soldiers who wrote a short biography in Chinese entitled "General Zhou Zhi, Leader in the War of Resistance Against Japan."
Chiang noted that Chow had been in the first class of the Whampoa (now Huangpo) Military Academy, the first class of the Baoding Officers School and the third class of the Infantry University. Chow was then serving as the 12th group Nationalist Army general staff officer. "He (Chow) has brilliance in all things military and deserves respect as the supreme commander of the military world," Chiang told a joint meeting of key leaders of the Nationalists and Communists assembled in Nanye Heng Mountain. The meeting was also attended by Ho Ying-chin (He Yingquin in Mandarin) who was then chief of staff for the Nationalist Army and subsequently briefly served as prime minister of China, and Communist leaders Mao Tse-tung and Chow Enlai(Zhou Enlai in Mandarin). (source: A biography in Chinese on Chow Chih called "General Zhou Zhi, Leader in the War of Resistance Against Japan" by Zhou Zuozhe and Zhou Songyao, published in Hong Kong, date after 1985 unknown.)
During the Northern Expedition of 1926–28 led by Chiang Kai-shek, Chow commanded troops along with General Xue Yue. Xue's troops found themselves surrounded by warlord troops and sent a message to Chow for a rescue. Chow managed to save Xue and his troops. Xue, a fellow Whampoa graduate. Xue's military skills against the Japanese later earned him the nickname "the Patton of Asia" by U.S. General Claire Chennault.
Chow's second marriage to Guo Wanrong from Nanking in 1930 produced no children. On 1 May 1930, Chow's mother Chow Fang died at the age of 60. Condolences were written to Chow from many Nationalists and members of the military including Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen's son Sun Fo, Nationalist General Chang Hsueh-liang (Zhang Xueliang who was nicknamed Young Marshal and was a former warlord of Manchuria and Soong Tse-ven, a prominent businessman whose three brothers-in-law were Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek and financier H.H. Kung. General Chow married a third time in 1933 at the age of 43 to 16-year-old Guo Yi Choy who was the younger sister of Chow's second wife.