Jiang (rank)

Jiang (将) (Wade–Giles: chiang; traditional Chinese: 將) is the rank held by general officers in the military of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan. The People's Liberation Army uses three levels at present while Taiwan uses four, with the rank equivalent to the fourth being treated as a field officer rank in the PLA (i.e. senior colonel equivalent to brigadier general ). This difference is found in other militaries as well. For example. in the British Army a brigadier is considered a field officer {cn}, while the equivalent rank in the United States Army, brigadier general, is considered a general officer. The PLA uses the same rank names for all services, prefixed by hai jun (海军) ("naval force") or kong jun (空军) ("air force"). While the ROC does the same for enlisted ranks and company-grade officers, it has distinct names for the higher naval ranks. Because of the additional field officer rank in the PLA, ranks with the same Chinese name do not correspond to the same rank. A similar situation occurs in the militaries of North and South Korea with some ranks.

Under the rank system in place in the PLA in the era 1955-1965, there existed the rank of da jiang (大将) or Grand General. This rank was awarded to 10 of the veteran leaders of the PLA in 1955 and never conferred again. It was considered equivalent to the Soviet rank of генера́л а́рмии (general of the army) which is generally considered a five-star rank, although the insignia itself had only four. The decision to name the equivalent rank yi ji shang jiang when it was briefly re-established in 1988-1994 was likely due to a desire to keep the rank of da jiang an honorary one awarded after a war, much as general of the armies in the United States Army.

Insignia adopted in 1959. Rank names are given using Hanyu Pinyin and traditional Chinese characters.

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