Chapter 38 Party School under the Big Tree

The predecessor of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China was the Marxist School of Communism, which was established in March 1933. It was jointly run by the Central Bureau of the Soviet Area of ​​the Communist Party of China, the government, the Youth League, and the trade union. Ren Bishi was the principal.In April of the same year, Zhang Wentian also served as the principal, and Dong Biwu, chairman of the Central Workers and Peasants Supervision Committee, served as the vice president. In October 1934, the Red Army in the Central Soviet Area began the Long March. Most of the trainees were organized into a cadre regiment. Chen Geng served as the head of the cadre regiment, Song Renqiong served as political commissar, and Xu Teli and Cheng Fangwu served as political teachers.During the rest of the march and camp, the cadre regiment still insisted on taking political classes.

After the Long March, in November 1935, according to the needs of the development of the situation, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established the Central Party School in Wayaobao, with Dong Biwu as the principal.The number of students has grown to six or seven hundred. In June 1936, the Central Party School moved to Zhidan County, the school headquartered in Liuping Village, and the students lived scattered in nearby Baowagoumen, Renping, Balcony, Gaotai, and Wugoumen. In the kiln. At that time, there were seven or eight families living in Liuping Village. On the open platform, there was a huge Chinese locust tree and a big catalpa tree with colorful flowers in spring.On the south side of the big pagoda tree, there are two connected courtyards. The courtyards are composed of stone cave dwellings. The stones used are stone flakes from the river beach, which are cleverly built by craftsmen, like a fortress that can prevent bandits.These stone cave dwellings have gone through years of wind and rain. Although they are narrow, low and old, they still present the appearance of a big family with a practical business.

These stone flake kilns belonged to the Liu family, a local. When the Central Party School came to Liuping, the Liu family gave up most of the caves for the leaders and teachers of the party school to live in. The day after the party school moved to Liuping, a student meeting was held.The principal Dong Biwu and the academic director Cheng Fangwu gave speeches respectively, and organized the students into six classes: Classes 1, 2, and 3 are ordinary classes, and there are trade union classes, research classes, and advanced classes.Party school teachers include Bai Dongcai, Wu Wenlin, Li Yanglan, Li Jinyin, Ma Dingbang, Liao Zhigao, Ji Hanjie, etc.

During the more than four months of the Central Party School’s operation in Liuping Village, the trainees had two hours of military drills on the wide platform every morning, and sat around under the big locust tree to listen to the class after breakfast.There are four days of class every week, two days of discussion, and one day of rest.After the Central Party School restored the former Chinese Soviet Central Library here, students often went to the cave courtyard to borrow books, and the courtyard was often full of people, with murmurs of reading and discussions. Liuping is a very poor place, coupled with the trauma left by the war, it is extremely difficult for the party school to eat and live.However, the students' morale was high, they were full of enthusiasm, and eagerly devoted themselves to the study of revolutionary theoretical knowledge.The party school courses include philosophy, political economy, party building, Marxism-Leninism and knowledge of guerrilla warfare, and corresponding teaching and research sections have been established.Luo Mai, Cheng Fangwu, Wu Liangping, Zhang Yunyi and others taught courses such as "Party Construction", "History of Social Development", "Soviet Power", and "Guerrilla Warfare".At that time, students generally did not study for more than half a year.

Xu Xilin, a student at that time, recalled: At that time, life in the party school was difficult and there was no food.Indeed, due to the large number of people, the food supply was very tight, so the party school specially formed a food-carrying team to purchase food in the countryside.I eat millet and yams almost every day, and I often can’t get enough to eat. We mobilize everyone to dig wild vegetables in the mountains on Sundays to supplement the lack of vegetables on the big stove.After the liberation of Dingbian and Yanchi counties, the party school moved to Dingbian County at the foot of the Great Wall in October, and living and learning conditions improved slightly.

From November 1935, Mao Zedong focused on studying philosophy, read more than 10 kinds of philosophical works written by Soviet and Chinese scholars, and wrote the lecture notes of "Lecture Outline of Dialectical Materialism" on the basis of extensive reading.Other philosophy teachers are also students first when preparing lessons, like Mao Zedong who worked hard to study and then lectured to the students.The Central Party School at that time became the Chinese Communist Party’s “senior and intermediate school for cultivating practical party cadres and military political work cadres above the prefectural committee and regiment level with considerable independent working ability.”Four times, Mao Zedong went to Liuping under the big locust tree to give reports to the students of the Central Party School. The contents included "strategic issues in China's revolutionary war" and "anti-Japanese united front". Some of the students selected by the class.

In December 1936, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched the Xi'an Incident that shocked China and the world, and captured Chiang Kai-shek alive.In order to adapt to the new situation of the united front, the Party Central Committee transferred a group of party school cadres back to Zhidan, where the Central Committee is located, to listen to the reports of Chairman Mao, Zhang Wentian, Bo Gu and other central leaders.Wearing a white sheepskin jacket, Mao Zedong had long hair, his face looked a little thin, and he spoke forcefully, saying: "In the past we lived in the ravines, but now we are going to Yan'an. Everyone must learn to work in the city and open up a new situation in the War of Resistance." .”