THE ZUNYI CONFERENCE & A LOVE POEM BY MAO
At the end of the article you’ll find the hyperlink for an excellent movie re-creating a foundational moment of the Chinese history, of the Chinese Revolution & of the heroic Long March 长 征 Chang2 Zheng1, starting from Jiangxi province in October 1934 and ending in Yan’an, Shaanxi province in October 1935.
The Zunyi Conference 尊 义 会 议 Zun1 Yi4 Hui4 Yi4 happened in the city of the same name from January 15 to January 17, 1935 in Guizhou province, immediately to the northwest of Guangxi province where is precisely situated Guilin City having hosted the meeting between Sergey Lavrov and Wang Yi at the end of March 2021.
This episode was meaningful because the CPC (The Communist Party of China) was then still more or less micro-managed by the Soviets through the petit-bourgeois intellectuals called precisely the 28 Bolsheviks (Wang Ming, etc). Bo Gu aka Qin Bangxian (1907-1946) & Otto Braun (1900-1974), who were the Comintern agents micro-managing the CPC at the time, were invited by Mao Zedong to tone down and to be fair, they had enough common sense, also the much needed mind overture and they quite understood the message from Mao but not without some internal struggles.
The CPC was founded in July, 1921 in Shanghai by Chen Duxiu (1879-1942) & Li Dazhao (1889-1927). The 27 years old Mao Zedong was invited as a co-founder because he worked as an assistant librarian at the University of Beijing and Li Dazhao was the Head Librarian there since 1918. Chen Duxiu was the editor-in-chief of the radical political magazine called New Youth (新 青 年 ： Xin1 Qing1 Nian2) he created in 1915. Li Dazhao was a prominent contributor to the magazine. The publication lasted till 1926. Chen Duxiu was the first Secretary General of the CPC from 1921 to 1927.
This pivotal meeting of the CPC (Communist Party of China) in Zunyi (Guizhou province) involved a power struggle between Otto Braun aka Li De 李 德 Li3 De2 (1900-1974) plus Bo Gu 博 古 Bo2 Gu3 aka Qin Bangxian 秦 邦 憲 Qin2 Bang1 Xian4 (1907-1946), a leading member of the so-called 28 Bolsheviks trained by the Soviet Union on one side and the opposition led by Mao Zedong 毛 泽 东 Mao2 Ze2 Dong1 (1893-1976) on the other side.
Otto Braun will leave China in 1939, never to return but he still kept himself informed on Chinese affairs until his death in 1974.
Qin Bangxiang aka Bo Gu died in an an airplane crash during a military mission along with other prominent members of the CPC in 1946.
Mao left the Zunyi Conference victorious, in position to take over the military command. He became the leader of the Communist Party of China. The Zunyi Conference (Jan 15 to 17, 1935) was completely unacknowledged until the 1950s and no detailed desciptions of the Zunyi Conference were available until the fiftieth anniversary in 1985.
Mao’s elevation to the leadership of the CPC meant the Chinese people’s role has been recognized as being at the core center of the Chinese Revolution. The hundreds of million of Chinese peasants given dignity and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) truly a people’s liberation army and not an empty name.
Had the 28 Bolsheviks and their puppet masters won,China would have been macro-managed & micro-managed by foreign powers.
Perfidious Albion sent in the 1920s the infamous Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) as a brainwashing agent but too late; the Great Helmsman has already been mentally inoculated against foreign pathogenic influences and his soul uplifted by his teacher and spiritual mentor Yang Changji 杨 昌 济 Yang2 Chang1 Ji4 (1871-1920).
Yang Changji taught at Hunan First Normal University (a college training future teachers), where he exerted considerable influence on Mao and other young people at the time.. He was considered one of the leading philosophers of his generation before his early death in 1920.
When Yang Changji was offered a teaching position at Beijing University (Beida), Mao went with him and was offered a post of assistant librarian at Beida. The pay was modest, Mao was looked down by the children of the bourgeoisie at Beida because of his insignificant position, his provincial look and his thick Hunanese accent but Beijing was truly dazzling and a new world opened for the young peasant from Hunan.
Mao met through Professor Yang Changji the founder of the literary magazine Xin Qing Nian (New Youth, 新 青 年 Xin1 Qing1 Nian2) Chen Duxiu 陈 独 秀 Chen2 Du2 Xiu4 (1879-1942), one of the 2 co-founders of the Communist Party of China in July 1921 (the other being Li Dazhao 李 大 钊 Li3 Da4 Zhao1 (1889-1927)
The young unknown Hunanese was thus co-opted to be part of this unique political event having happened in Shanghai during the summer of 1921 and the rest is history.
Mao married in 1920 Yang Kaihui 杨 开 慧 Yang2 Kai1 Hui4 (1901-1930), the daughter of Professor Yang Changj (1871-1920). She joined the CPC not long after. In 1930, she was tortured by her Kuo Min Tang jailers, hoping thus to make her renounce Mao & the CPC. She proclaimed loud and clear she will never sever her bonds with Mao & with the CPC. She was killed by them at the end of 1930 at 29 years old.
One of their sons, Mao Anying 毛 岸 英 Mao2 An1 Ying1 (1922-1950) fought and died during the Korean War (1950-1953) at 28 years old.
Here is a poem written by Mao years later as a tribute to his first wife, Yang Kaihui (1901-1930).
Note that the poplar in the poem is a symbolic reference to Yang Kaihui since Yang 杨 Yang2 means “poplar”. The willow is a symbolic reference to a friend named Liu 柳 Liu3 which means “willow”.
我 失 骄 杨 Wo3 Shi1 Jiao1 Yang2
君 失 柳 Jun1 Shi1 Liu2
杨 柳 轻 扬 Yang2 Liu3 Qing1 Yang2
直 上 重 霄 九 Zhi2 Shang4 Chong2 Xiao1 Jiu3
问 讯 吴 刚 Wen4 Xun4 Wu2 Yang1
何 所 有 He2 Suo3 You3
吴 刚 捧 出 Wu2 Gang1 P3ng3 Chu1
桂 花 酒 Gui4 Hua1 Jiu3
寂 寞 嫦 娥 Ji4 Mo4 Chang2 E4
舒 广 袖 Shu1 Guang3 Xiu4
万 里 长 空 且 Wan4 Li3 Chang2 Kong1 Qie3
为 忠 魂 舞 Wei4 Zhong1 Hun2 Wu3
忽 报 人 间 Hu1 Bao4 Ren2 Jian1
曾 伏 虎 Ceng2 Fu2 Hu3
泪 飞 顿 作 Lei4 Fei1 Dun4 Zuo4
倾 盆 雨 Qing1 Pen2 Yu3
English translation by Stuart Schram (1924-2012) :
I lost my proud poplar, and you your willow
Poplar and willow soar lightly to the heaven of heavens
Wu Kang, asked what he has to offer,
Presents them respectfully with cassia wine
The lonely goddess in the moon spreads her ample sleeves
To dance for these faithful souls in the endless sky
Of a sudden comes words of the tiger’s defeat on Earth
And they break into tears of torrential rain.
The tiger is obviously the symbol for tyranny and absence of justice. And the torrential tears are tears of joy.
With Mao Zedong (1893-1976) as leader of the CPC from 1935, the 1949 Chinese Revolution became truly the Chinese people’s endeavor.
● With Mao Zedong (1893-1976), The Great Helmsman, the Chinese people stood up.
● With Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997), The Little Helmsman, the Chinese people has become rich enough.
● With Xi Jinping (born on June 15, 1953), The Younger Helmsman, China has become powerful enough.
The Plan for the Development of China created a century ago by Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), the Father of the Chinese Republic, is being realized step by step and there is still plenty of work ahead.
In a nutshell, 富 强 (Fu4 Qiang2) Wealth & Power as tools for achieving Justice 义 (Yi4) on Earth.