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Resolutions of the Tsunyi Conference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Jerome Ch'En
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Extract

Summing up the Campaign against the Enemy's 5th “Encirclement”* Resolutions of the Centre of the CCP Adopted by the Conference of the Politburo, Tsunyi, 8 January 1935 Having listened to Comrade X X's survey of the 5th “Encirclement” and Comrade X X X's supplementary report, the enlarged conference of the Politburo regards Comrade XX's survey as fundamentally incorrect.

Type
Article Commentary
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 40 , December 1969 , pp. 1 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1969

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References

* The Chinese is wei-chiao which means a “punitive encirclement campaign”; hence the use of quotation marks.

* Original emphases.

* Original emphases.

* This is referred to in the commentary as the Fukien Crisis.

* I-shu-ti (artistic).

* Original emphasis.

* It is permissible to pronounce pei (to prepare) as pi, thus driving home this ironic pun.

* Generals Chou Hun-yüan and Hsüeh Yüeh.

1 Hsü, Meng-ch'iu, the “official historian of the Long March,” told Nym Wales that nearly all the documents of the March had been lost. Helen Snow, Red Dust (Stanford, Calif., 1952), p. 76.Google Scholar

2 For instance, Ho, Kan-chih, A History of the Modern Chinese Revolution (Peking, 1960), Ch. VI, Sec. 6Google Scholar; Schram, S. R., Mao Tse-tung (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967), p. 181Google Scholar; and Ch'en, J., Mao and the Chinese Revolution (Oxford University Press Paperback, 1967), p. 188.Google Scholar

3 Liu, Po-ch'enget al., Hsing-huo-liao-yüan (A Single Spark Can Light a Prairie Fire) (Hong Kong, 1960), p. 30.Google Scholar

4 Hou Chih-tan was cashiered because of the losses. Hsüeh, Yüeh, Chiao-fei chih-shih (A true account of bandit suppression) (1937; Taipei 1962 ed.), Pt. 3, p. 9.Google Scholar

5 Hsing-huo liao-yüan, p. 47.Google Scholar

6 Chiao-fei chih-shih, Pt. 3, pp. 3 and 7.Google Scholar

7 Ibid. pp. 7 and 9 and Liu's memoirs in Hsing-huo liao-yüan, p. 5.

8 Prepared by the Cheng-fa Commune of the College of Politics and Law, No. 2, 1967 and translated in Survey of China Mainland Magazines (Hong Kong: U.S. Consulate General), No. 590.Google Scholar

9 Chugoku kyosanto-shih (Tokyo, 1961), Vol. IV, pp. 260–261.Google Scholar

10 See also Wang, Chien-min, Chung-kuo kung-ch'an-tang shih-kao (A Draft history of the CCP) (Taipei, 1965), Vol. II, p. 520Google Scholar and North, R., Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Elites (Stanford, 1952), p. 112.Google Scholar

11 Hatano, , Chugoko kyosanto-shih, Vol. IV, pp. 271–276.Google Scholar According to Kuo Hua-lun in an article “Tsunyi hui-i” (“The Tsunyi Conference”) which appeared in issue X, No. 7 of Fei-ch'ing yüeh-pao (Communist Affairs Monthly) (Taipei, 31 08 1967)Google Scholar, the participants in the Conference were as follows: Full and alternate members of the Politburo: Ch'in, Pang-hsien, Chang, Wen-t'ien, Chou En, lai, Ch'en, Yun, Chu, The, Ho, k'e-ch'uan (K'ai Feng, then political commissar of the 8th Army Corps) and Wang Chia-hsiang (who may have been absent owing to a serious abdominal injury).Google ScholarMembers of the Central Committee: Mao, Tse-tung, Liu, Shao-ch'i, Lo, Mai (Li Wei-han) and P'eng, Teh-huai.Google ScholarAlternate members of the C.C.: Li, Fu-ch'un, Yang, Shang-K'un, Wang, Shou-tao, Liu, Po-ch'eng, Lin, Piao, Nieh, Jung-chen, Teng, Fa and the German Otto Braun. This list is agreed by Wei k'e-wei in his article “Tsunyi hui-i chih li-shih chen-hsiang” (“The True History of the Tsunyi Conference”) in the same journal issue XI, No. 8 of 8 September 1968.Google Scholar

Neither Kuo nor Wei cite any documentary evidence, but Kuo mentions the name of his informant, Ch'en Jan, who, under the name of Kuo Ch'ien, served as a director of regional work teams in P'eng Teh-huai's 3rd Army Corps. Ch'en took part in the Long March but not the Conference.Google Scholar

I have strong reservations about this list. The International faction would appear to be so weakly represented that it would have been foolish to agree to the Conference; Liu Shao-ch'i by all accounts did not take part in the Long March; if Mao was only an ordinary C.C. member, it is odd that he should have drafted the Resolutions and be elevated to Politburo rank coupled with the directorship of the Military Commission; and, finally, the possibility of Otto Braun, a foreigner, attending a Politburo meeting seems questionable.Google Scholar

12 Wang, Chien-min, Chung-kuo kung-ch'an-tang shih-kao, Vol. II, p. 267.Google Scholar This is one of the points disputed in the Red Guard paper quoted above. See also Boorman's, H. L. profile of Teng in The China Quarterly, No. 21, p. 114.Google Scholar

13 Wang Chi-Ch'eng, Hsing-huo liao-yüan, p. 48.Google Scholar

14 Kung, Ch'u, Wo yü hung-chün (The Red Army and I) (Hong Kong, 1954), pp. 270–271.Google Scholar

15 Yang was one of the 28 Bolsheviks (erh-shih-pa hsü).Google Scholar

16 Ku, Kuan-chiao, San-shih-nien lai ti Chung-kung (30 Years of the CCP) (Hong Kong, 1955), p. 78.Google Scholar

17 Mao's statement at a general report conference, 24 October 1966. See Jerome, Ch'en, Mao (Prentice-Hall, Great Lives Observed series: New York, 1969), p. 96.Google Scholar

18 In the same statement as quoted in the previous note, Mao says: “He [Chang Wen-t'ien] played a useful part (hao tso-yung) at Tsunyi.”Google Scholar See ibid., p. 95.

19 Hsiao, San, Ch'ang-cheng (The Long March)Google Scholar, quoted in Nashimoto, Yuhei, Shu Onral (Chou En-lai) (Keisoshobo: Tokyo, 1967), pp. 148–151.Google Scholar

20 Schram, , Mao Tse-tung, p. 166.Google Scholar

21 Wang, Chien-min, Chung-kuo kung-ch'an-tang shih-kao, Vol. II, p. 617.Google Scholar

22 See Tou-cheng (Struggle), No. 21 (12 08 1932)Google Scholar or Hsiao, Tso-liang, Power Relations within the Chinese Communist Movement, 1930–1934 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1961), pp. 217–218. Summaries of most of the documents quoted in this commentary can be found in Hsiao.Google Scholar

23 Tou-cheng, No. 21, pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

24 Hung-hsing, No. 15 (12 11 1933), pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

25 Adopted on 18 January 1934 and published in Tou-cheng, No. 47 (16 02 1934).Google Scholar

26 Ibid. p. 61 and also the editorial of the same paper, No. 48 (5 May 1934), p. 9.

27 See the editorial of Hung-hsing, No. 25 (21 01 1934). From the Tsunyi Resolutions, this editorial can now be attributed to Po Ku.Google Scholar

28 ibid. p. 1.

29 ibid.

30 ibid.

31 “Our Victories in the 5th Campaign—on the Protracted War,” Part I, Hung-hsing, No. 33 (18 03 1934), p. 2.Google Scholar

32 “Report at the National Political Work Conference,” Hung-hsing (18 02 1934), p. 4.Google Scholar

33 Tou-cheng, No. 46 (9 02 1934).Google Scholar

34 ibid. No. 21 (12 August 1933), p. 5 and Chou En-lai's article, ibid. No. 24 (29 August 1933).

35 Hung-hsing, No. 29 (18 02 1934), p. 4.Google Scholar

36 ibid. p. 4.

37 Chou, En-lai's article in Tou-cheng, No. 24 (29 08 1933), p. 20.Google Scholar

38 Chou's report at the National Political Work Conference, Hung-hsing, No. 29 (18 02 1934), p. 4Google Scholar and Hsüeh, , Chiao-fei chih shih, Pt. 1, pp. 8 and 9.Google Scholar

39 Wang, Chien-min, Chung-kuo kung ch'an-tang shih-kao, Vol. II, p. 623.Google Scholar

40 Speech at the National Political Work Conference, Hung-hsing, No. 28 (18 02 1934), p. 80.Google Scholar

41 Quoted in Wang Chia-hsiang's article in Tou-cheng, No. 28 (30 09 1933), p. 4.Google Scholar

42 ibid. p. 5.

43 “For land, for freedom, for the soviet regime, fight to the end!” Hung-hsing, No. 39 (29 04 1934), p. 1.Google Scholar

44 Main forces of the Red Army are given in Hatano, Chugoko kyosanto-shih, Vol. IV, pp. 217–218 and 444.Google Scholar

45 Hung-hsing, No. 19 (9 12 1933).Google Scholar

46 Hsüeh, , Chiao-fei chih-shih, Pt. 1, pp. 7 and 10.Google Scholar

47 ibid. pp. 10 and 13.

48 Hung-hsing, No. 15 (12 11 1933)Google Scholar, Liu, Po-ch'eng's memoirs in the Hsing-huo liao-yüan, p. 3Google Scholar; and Wang, Chien-min, Chung-kuo kung ch'an-tang shih-kao, Vol. II, p. 611.Google Scholar

49 Chou, En-lai's report at the National Political Work Conference, Hung-hsing, No. 29 (18 02 1934), p. 4, and also No. 43 (20 May 1934), p. 4.Google Scholar

50 Hung-hsing, Nos. 21 (23 12 1933) and 22 (31 December 1933).Google Scholar

51 Wang, Chien-min, Chung-kuo kung ch'an-tang shih-kao, Vol. II, p. 623.Google Scholar

52 “Fight for the defence of Kuangch'ang!” Hung-hsing, No. 38 (24 04 1934), p. 1Google Scholar

53 Tou-cheng, No. 21 (12 08 1933), p. 5.Google Scholar

54 “Although Kunagch'ang has fallen, we must still crush the enemy!” Hung-hsing, No. 40 (5 05 1934).Google Scholar

55 “Survey of the Guerrilla Struggles along the North-western Front,” Hung-hsing, No. 48 (15 06 1934), pp. 5–8.Google Scholar

56 Editorial of Hung-hsing, No. 55 (25 07 1934), pp. 5–8.Google Scholar

57 ibid.

58 Red China, No. 288 (30 08 1934).Google Scholar

59 Hung-hsing, No. 62 (30 08 1934), p. 1.Google Scholar

60 Liu, Heng-yun, “Recall the Struggles of the 10th Red Army,” Chung-kuo kung-ch'ang-tang tsai Chiang-hsi ti-ch'ü ling-tao ke-ming tou-cheng ti li-shih tzu-liao (Historical Material of the Revolutionary Struggles in Kiangsi led by the CCP) (Kiangsi, 1958), Vol. I, pp. 256–261Google Scholar; Wang, Chien-min, Chung-kuo kung-ch'an-tang shih-kao, Vol. II, pp. 255–259Google Scholar; Red Dust, pp. 101 and 139Google Scholar; Miu, Ch'u-huang, “A Brief Account of the Long March of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Armies,” Li-shih yen-chiu (Historical Research) (Peking), No. 2 (1954), pp. 92–93.Google Scholar

61 See Hung-hsing, No. 52 (10 07 1934), p. 1.Google Scholar

62 ibid. No. 54 (20 July 1934), p. 1.

63 ibid. No. 47 (10 June 1934), p. 3.

64 ibid. No. 49 (20 June 1934), p. 2.

65 ibid. No. 49 (16 June 1934).

66 For a map of the soviet at this time, see ibid. No. 54 (20 July 1934), p. 2.

67 China Yearbook (Shanghai, 1934), p. 345.Google Scholar

68 Ts'ai T'ing-k'ai tzu-chuan (Ts'ai's autobiography) (n.p., 1946), Vol. I, p. 378.Google Scholar

69 ibid. Vol. II, p. 385.

70 For instance, Tou-cheng, Nos. 38 (12 12 1933) and 45 (2 February 1934).Google Scholar

71 P. 371.Google Scholar

72 Hsin-ssu-chün man-chi (Jottings on the New Fourth Army) (Shanghai, 1939 ed.), p. 185.Google Scholar

73 No. 48 (23 February 1934), p. 8.Google Scholar

74 Wang, Chien-min, Chung-kuo kung-ch'an-tang shih-kao, Vol. II, pp. 601–602Google Scholar. See also Dorrill, W. F., “The Fukien Rebellion and the CCP: A case of Maoist Revisionism,” The China Quarterly, No. 37 (01–03 1969), p. 35 and n. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

75 See Slyke, L. P. van, Enemies and Friends, the United Front in Chinese Communist History (Stanford, 1967), pp. 43–45, and Dorrill, “The Fukien Rebellion and the CCP,” loc. cit.Google Scholar

76 Liu, and Li, , see Hsing-huo liao-yüan, pp. 4 and 19 respectively and Miu's paper in the Li-shih yen-chiu, No. 2 (1954), p. 88.Google Scholar

77 Red Dust, p. 65.Google Scholar

78 “Fan wu-tz'u wei-chiao san-chi,” (“Snippets on the Campaign Against the 5th Encirclement”), in Chung-kuo kung-ch'ang-tang tsai Chiang-hsi ti-ch'ü ling-tao ke-ming tou-cheng ti li-shih tzu-liao, Vol. I, p. 169.Google Scholar

79 ibid.

80 Liu, loc. cit. pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

81 Miu's, paper in the Li-shih yen-chiu, No. 2 (1954), pp. 85–87.Google Scholar

82 ibid. pp. 87–88.

83 Chiao-fei chih-shih, Map II, p. 4.Google Scholar

84 Red Dust, p. 65.Google Scholar

85 The defence lines were: (1) along the Anyüan, Hsinfeng and Kanchow highways in Kiangsi; (2) from Jenhua in Kwangtung to Juch'eng in south-east Hunan; (3) from Chuchow to Ch'üchiang along the Hankow-Canton Railway; and (4) along the high-ways parallel to the Hsiang. Miu's paper in the Li-shih yen-chiu, No. 2 (1954), p. 88Google Scholar and Chin, Fan, Tsai hun-chün ch'ang-cheng ti tao-lu shang (On the Route of the Red Army's Long March) (Peking, 1957), p. 45.Google Scholar

86 Hsüeh, , Chiao-fei chih-shih, Pt. 2, p. 3.Google Scholar

87 Garavente, A. (“The Long March,” The China Quarterly, No. 22, p. 104) says: “Somewhere around Hsinfeng the Communists divided their force into two sections.…”Google Scholar

88 Nym, Wales, Red Dust, p. 65.Google Scholar

89 Hsüeh, , Chiao-fei chih-shih, Pt. 2, p. 3. My italics.Google Scholar

90 No. 99, p. 14.Google Scholar

91 Woodhead, H. G. W., China Yearbook (Shanghai, 1935), p. 99Google Scholaret seq. There is no satisfactory source of information concerning this. Garavente's reference to Lien, Ch'en (Ts'ung tung-nan tao hsi-pei, 1938, p. 5; see “The Long March,” The China Quarterly, No. 22, p. 105) is no improvement.Google Scholar

92 Loc. cit. pp. 62–64.Google Scholar

93 Garavente, , “The Long March,” The China Quarterly, No. 22, p. 105.Google Scholar

94 Miu's, paper in the Liu-shih yen-chih, No. 2 (1954), p. 88.Google Scholar

95 ibid.

96 Liu, , Memoirs, p. 4.Google Scholar

97 Red Dust, p. 65.Google Scholar

98 For example, Sheng, Yu-li, Chung-kuo jen-min chieh-fang-chün san-shih-nien shih-hua (30 Years' History of the Chinese PLA) (Tientsin, 1959), p. 23.Google Scholar

99 Chou, has also been known as Wu Hao and Shao-shan, but never as Hua Fu. See his biography in H. L. Boorman, Biographical Dictionary of Republican China (Colombia, 1967), Vol. I.Google Scholar

100 Chou En-lai, China's Gray Eminence (New York: Doubleday, 1968), p. 112.Google Scholar

101 See Boorman, H. L., Biographical Dictionary of Republican China.Google Scholar

102 Chou remained on the Military Commission as its Deputy Chairman, but under Mao this sems to have become a titular post. See Snow, E., Red Star Over China (London: Gollancz, 1937), p. 413.Google Scholar

103 Snow, , Red Star over China, p. 110.Google Scholar

104 Chan-pao (Battle), a Red Guard newspaper of 24 02 1967Google Scholar, accuses Chu Teh of supporting Wang Ming's dogmatism and opposing Mao's correct line. “[He] adopted the principle of passive defence with the result that 90 per cent. of the strength of the Red Army was lost and that the Red Army was forced to take the Long March of 6,000 miles. At the Tsunyi Conference, Chu Teh persisted [with his defence] of the reactionary bourgeois military line.” See the Ming-pao Monthly, No. 18 (06 1967), p. 32.Google Scholar

105 Ho, , A History of the Modern Chinese Revolution.Google Scholar

106 See North's, R. interview with Chang Kuo-t'ao on 3 November 1950 which is to be found in North's introduction to Nym Wales, Red Dust, p. 14. Liu Ning, I-ko (1938), p. 12, also refers to Chang's view on setting up a soviet. No doubt Chang himself will say a good deal more as the instalments of his autobiography are drawing nearer to this subject.Google Scholar

107 Smedley, A., The Great Road (London: John Calder, 1958), pp. xi and 3.Google Scholar

108 Ch'en, Mao, pp. 93 and 96. This division into two lines occurred in either 1950 or 1954.Google Scholar

109 Mao, , Selected Works (Peking, 1956), Vol. III, pp. 177–220, especially pp. 186–194.Google Scholar

110 Ch'en, , Mao, p. 22.Google Scholar

111 This is based on Ting Wang's article on Yang Ch'eng-wu in the Ming-pao Monthly, No. 32 (08 1968), pp. 10Google Scholar and 15. Johnson, C. A. says that the leaders of the Chin-Chi-Lu-Yü were Yang Hsiu-feng and Hsü Hsiang-ch'ien. See Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power (Stanford, Calif., 1963), p. 108.Google Scholar