Abstract:
Song Ziwen played an important role in the settlement of the Xi’an Incident. When he came to Shaanxi for at the beginning of the Incident, he made his mind with firm confidence in promoting to settle the Incident peacefully. When he came again he tried his best to mediate among different parties and advanced the Incident for developing into a peaceful settlement with his excellent art of negotiation and realistic political style. After the calm of the critical period of the Incident, Song continued to try all means to rehabilitate the affairs in northwestern China to bring the Incident into a complete peaceful settlement. However, Song's contributions in the Incident were not made all by himself but with the critical help of Zhou Enlai, who was the actual weightiest figure in settling the Xi’an Incident. The historical roles of Zhou and Song in the settlement of the Incident were determined by some seemingly incidental but actually necessary elements.
