Zhu De | |||||||||||
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朱德 | |||||||||||
 Marshal Zhu Dec. 1950s | |||||||||||
| 2ndChairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress | |||||||||||
| In office 28 April 1959 – 6 July 1976 | |||||||||||
| President | Liu Shaoqi None (Post abolished in 1975) | ||||||||||
| Preceded by | Liu Shaoqi | ||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Soong Ching-ling(acting) | ||||||||||
| 1stVice Chairman of the People's Republic of China | |||||||||||
| In office 27 September 1954 – 27 April 1959 | |||||||||||
| Chairman | Mao Zedong | ||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Soong Ching-ling andDong Biwu | ||||||||||
| Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party | |||||||||||
| In office 28 September 1956 – 1 August 1966 | |||||||||||
| Chairman | Mao Zedong | ||||||||||
| Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection | |||||||||||
| In office 9 November 1949 – 31 March 1955 | |||||||||||
| Preceded by | Li Weihan | ||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Dong Biwu | ||||||||||
| Commander-in-Chief of thePeople's Liberation Army | |||||||||||
| In office 28 November 1946 – 27 September 1954 | |||||||||||
| Preceded by | Post established | ||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Post abolished | ||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||
| Born | (1886-12-01)1 December 1886 Yilong County,Sichuan,Qing China | ||||||||||
| Died | 6 July 1976(1976-07-06) (aged 89) Beijing, China | ||||||||||
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party (1925–1976) | ||||||||||
| Spouses | |||||||||||
| Children |
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| Alma mater | Yunnan Military Academy | ||||||||||
| Nicknames |
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| Military service | |||||||||||
| Allegiance | |||||||||||
| Branch/service | |||||||||||
| Years of service | 1927–1976 | ||||||||||
| Rank | |||||||||||
| Battles/wars | |||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 朱德 | ||||||||||
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| Courtesy name: Yujie | |||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 朱玉阶 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 朱玉階 | ||||||||||
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Zhu De[a] (1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in theChinese Communist Party (CCP).
Zhu was born into poverty in 1886 inSichuan. He was adopted by a wealthy uncle at age nine and received a superior early education that led to his admission into a military academy. After graduating, he joined a rebel army and became awarlord. Afterward he joined the CCP. He commanded theEighth Route Army during theSecond Sino-Japanese War and theChinese Civil War. By the end of the civil war he was also a high-ranking party official.
Zhu is regarded as one of the principal founders of thePeople's Republic of China, and was a prominent political figure until dying in 1976. In 1955, he was ranked first among the tenmarshals. He was chairman of theStanding Committee of the National People's Congress from 1959 to 1976.
Zhu was born on 1 December 1886, to a poor tenant farmer's family inHung, a town inYilong County,Nanchong, a hilly and isolated part of northernSichuan province.[1] Of the 15 children born to the family only eight survived. His family relocated to Sichuan during the migration fromHunan province andGuangdong province.[2][3] His origins are often given asHakka, but Agnes Smedley's biography of him says his people came from Guangdong and speaks of Hakka as merely associates of his.[4] She also says that older generations of his family had spoken the "Kwangtung dialect" (which would be close to but probably different from modernCantonese) and that his generation also spokeSichuanese, a distinct regional variant ofSouthwestern Mandarin that is unintelligible to other speakers ofStandard Chinese (Mandarin).[5]
Despite his family's poverty, by pooling resources Zhu was chosen to be sent to a regional private school in 1892. At age nine he was adopted by his prosperous uncle, whose political influence allowed him to gain access to Yunnan Military Academy.[6] He enrolled in a Sichuan high school around 1907 and graduated in 1908. Subsequently, he returned to Yilong's primary school as a gym instructor. An advocate of modern science and political teaching rather than the strict classical education afforded by schools, he was dismissed from his post[3] and entered the Yunnan Military Academy inKunming.[7]: 151 There he joined theBeiyang Army and theTongmenghui secret political society (the forerunner of theKuomintang).[8]
At the Yunnan Military Academy in Kunming, he first metCai E (Tsai Ao).[9] He taught at the academy after his graduation in July 1911.[10] Siding with the revolutionary forces after theChinese Revolution, he joined Brig. Cai E in the October 1911 expeditionary force that marched on Qing forces in Sichuan. He served as a regimental commander in thecampaign to unseatYuan Shikai in 1915–16. When Cai became governor of Sichuan after Yuan's death in June 1916, Zhu was made a brigade commander.[11]
Following the death of his mentorCai E and of his first wife Xiao Jufang in 1916, Zhu developed a severeopium habit that afflicted him for several years until 1922, when he underwent treatment in Shanghai.[12] His troops continued to support him, and so he consolidated his forces to become awarlord. In 1920, after his troops were driven from Sichuan toward the Tibetan border, he returned toYunnan as a public security commissioner of the provincial government. Around this time he decided to leave China for study in Europe.[13] He first traveled to Shanghai, where he broke his opium habit and, according to historians of the Kuomintang, metSun Yat-sen. He attempted to join theChinese Communist Party in early 1922, but was rejected for being a warlord.[14]
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In late 1922 Zhu went toBerlin, along with his partner He Zhihua. He resided inGermany until 1925, studying at one point atGöttingen University.[15] Here he metZhou Enlai and was expelled from Germany for his role in a number of student protests.[16] Around this time he joined the Chinese Communist Party; Zhou Enlai was one of his sponsors (having sponsors being a condition of probationary membership, the stage before actual membership).[17] In July 1925, after being expelled from Germany, he traveled to theSoviet Union to study military affairs and Marxism at theCommunist University of the Toilers of the East. While in Moscow He Zhihua gave birth to his only daughter,Zhu Min. Zhu returned to China in July 1926 to unsuccessfully persuade Sichuan warlordYang Sen to support theNorthern Expedition.[15]
In 1927, following the collapse of theFirst United Front, Kuomintang authorities ordered Zhu to lead a force against Zhou Enlai andLiu Bocheng'sNanchang uprising.[15] Having helped orchestrate the uprising, Zhu and his army defected from the Kuomintang.[18] The uprising failed to gather support, however, and Zhu was forced to fleeNanchang with his army. Under the false name of Wang Kai, Zhu managed to find shelter for his remaining forces by joining warlordFan Shisheng.[19]
Zhu's close affiliation withMao Zedong began in 1928 when, with the help ofChen Yi andLin Biao, Zhu defected from Fan Shisheng's protection and marched his army of 10,000 men toJiangxi and theJinggang Mountains.[20] Here Mao had formed asoviet in 1927, and Zhu began building up his army into theRed Army, consolidating and expanding the Soviet areas of control.[21] The meeting, which happened on theLongjiang Bridge on 28 April 1928, was facilitated byMao Zetan, who was Mao's brother serving under Zhu.[22] He carried a letter to his brotherMao Zedong where Zhu stated, "We must unite forces and carry out a well-defined military and agrarian policy."[22] This development became a turning point, with the merged forces forming the "Fourth Red Army", with Zhu as Military Commander and Mao as Party representative.[23]
Zhu's leadership made him a figure of immense prestige; locals even credited him with supernatural abilities.[24] During this time Mao and Zhu became so closely associated that to the local villagers they were known collectively as "Zhu-Mao"[25][26] In 1929, Zhu De and Mao Zedong were forced to fleeJinggangshan toRuijin following military pressure fromChiang Kai-shek.[27] Here they formed theJiangxi Soviet.[citation needed] In 1931 Zhu was appointed leader of the Red Army inRuijin by the CCP leadership.[28] He successfully led a conventional military force against the Kuomintang in the lead-up to theFourth Counter Encirclement Campaign;[29] however, he was not able to do the same during theFifth Counter Encirclement Campaign and the CCP fled.[30] Zhu helped form the 1934 break-out that began theLong March.[31]
During the Long March Zhu and Zhou Enlai organized certain battles in tandem. There were few positive effects since the real power was in the hands ofBo Gu andOtto Braun. In theZunyi Conference, Zhu supported Mao Zedong's criticisms of Bo and Braun.[32] After the conference, Zhu cooperated with Mao and Zhou on military affairs. In July 1935 Zhu andLiu Bocheng were with the Fourth Red Army while Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai with the First Red Army.[33] When separation between the two divisions occurred, Zhu was forced byZhang Guotao, the leader of Fourth Red Army, to go south.[34] The Fourth Red Army barely survived the retreat through Sichuan Province. Arriving inYan'an, Zhu directed the reconstruction of the Red Army under the political guidance of Mao.[35]
During theSecond Sino-Japanese War and theChinese Civil War, he held the position ofCommander-in-Chief of the Red Army[36] and, in 1940, Zhu, alongside Peng Dehuai, devised and organized theHundred Regiments Offensive. Initially, Mao supported this offensive.[37] While a successful campaign, Mao later attributed it as the main provocation for the devastating JapaneseThree Alls policy later and used it to criticize Peng at the Lushan Conference.[38]
In 1949 Zhu was named Commander-in-Chief of thePeople's Liberation Army (PLA).[39] From November 1949 to May 1955, he served as the firstsecretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.[40] Zhu also served as the vice-chairman of the Communist Party (1956–1966) and vice-chairman of the People's Republic of China (1954–1959).[41] Zhu oversaw the PLA during theKorean War within his authority as Commander-in-Chief.[citation needed] In 1955, he was conferred the rank of marshal.[42] At theLushan Conference, he tried to protectPeng Dehuai, by giving some mild criticisms of Peng; rather than denouncing him, he merely gently reproved his targeted comrade, who was a target of Mao Zedong. Mao was not satisfied with Zhu De's behavior.[43] After the conference, Zhu was dismissed from vice chairmen of Central Military Commission, not in least part due to his loyalty for the fallen Peng.[36]
In April 1969, during the summit of theCultural Revolution, Zhu was dismissed from his position on thePolitburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and the activity of theNational People's Congress was halted.[44] In October 1969, Lin Biao issued a command named "Order Number One" that evacuated important martial figures to distant areas due to the tension between China and Soviet Union, and Zhu De was taken toGuangdong.[45][46] In 1973 Zhu was reinstated in the Politburo Standing Committee.[47]
He continued to work as a statesman until his death on 6 July 1976.[48] His passing came six months after the death of Zhou Enlai,[49] and just two months before the death of Mao Zedong.[50] Zhu was cremated three days later, and received a funeral days afterwards.[51][52]
Zhu De married four times, according to the unfinished biography written byAgnes Smedley. However, there is no evidence of his marrying the mother of his only daughter. His known relationships were with:
Cambodia
Royal Order of Cambodia (Grand Cross Medal) (1964)[61]
Indonesia
Star of the Republic of Indonesia (2nd Class Medal) (1961)[62]| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New title | Vice President of the People's Republic of China 1954–1959 | Succeeded by |
| Military offices | ||
| New title | Commander-in-Chief of thePeople's Liberation Army 1949–1954 | Succeeded by MarshalPeng Dehuai as Minister of National Defense |
TenMarshals of the People's Republic of China | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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