Zhu De or Chu Teh, 1886-1976, Chinese Communist soldier and leader. He was graduated (1911) from the Yunnan military academy and served in various positions with armies loyal to Sun Yat-sen. Stationed in Sichuan prov., he was a warlord from 1916 to 1920. In 1922 he went to Europe, where he met Zhou Enlai and joined the Chinese Communist party. He studied in Germany but was expelled (1925) for radical activities. He returned to China by way of the USSR, and in 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists from the Kuomintang, Zhu led an uprising in Nanchang and fled with troops to S Jiangxi prov. He joined forces there with Mao Zedong. When the Communist position became untenable, Zhu led (1934-35) his section of the Red Army on the long march to the northwest. In the Second Sino-Japanese War he was commander in chief of all Communist forces, a position he retained after the establishment (Sept., 1949) of the People's Republic of China in Beijing. In 1954, Zhu left his military position to serve (1954-59) as deputy chairman of the People's Republic of China. He was chairman of the National People's Congress (1959-67), Communist China's major legislative body, until denounced during the Cultural Revolution. He was restored to his posts in 1971 and died in 1976.

Zhū Dé (Wade-Giles: Chu Te, zi: Yùjiē 玉阶; December 1, 1886 – July 6, 1976) was a Chinese Communist military leader and statesman. He is regarded as the founder of the Chinese Red Army (the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army) and the tactician who engineered the revolution from which emerged the People's Republic of China.

Early life

Zhu De was born into a large and very poor farming family in Yilong County, a hilly and isolated section of northern Sichuan province. After a secondary education funded by his uncle, the only member of the family capable of doing so, and only after a family decision that he be the beneficiary of an education, Zhu felt obliged to enroll for the district examinations despite his dislike for the traditional Confucian education system. Zhu passed these examinations, to his surprise, and was awarded a xiucai degree.

Zhu hid these results from his family and traveled to Chengdu to study physical education. In 1904 he enrolled in a middle school and studied the Classics in preparation for the civil service exam. He then went to Chengdu to study physical education and in 1908 entered a secondary school. Shortly thereafter, he enrolled in the Yunnan Military Academy, where he was likely first exposed to the ideals of Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui (United League, predecessor to the Kuomintang [KMT, or Nationalist Party]), which he joined 1912. He also joined the Gelao Hui, or Elder Brother secret society.

At the Yunnan Military Academy in Kunming, he came under the influence of Cai E (Tsai Ao), and taught at the Academy after his graduation in July 1911 from the academy's first class. Zhu was with Brigader Cai in the October 1911 expeditionary force attacking Manchu (Qing Dynasty) forces in Sichuan, and in 1915-16 was a regimental commander in the campaign to unseat Yuan Shikai. When Cai became governor of Sichuan after Yuan's death in June 1916, Zhu was made a brigade commander.

Following the death of his mentor Cai E, and his own wife, Zhu fell into a depression and developed a strong opium habit, falling futher into a life of decadence and warlordism. In 1920, after his troops were driven from Sichuan toward the Tibet border, he returned to Yunnan as a public security commissioner of the provincial government. Around this time, his second wife and child were murdered by rival warlords, which may have contributed to his decision to leave China for study in Europe. He first travelled to Shanghai where he broke his opium habit and apparently met Dr Sun Yat-sen. He attempted to join the Chinese Communist Party in early 1922, but was rejected due to his former warlord ties.

In late 1922, Zhu went to Europe, studying at Göttingen University in Germany from 1922 to 1925 at which point he met Zhou Enlai and was expelled from the country by the government for his role in a number of student protests. Around this time, he joined the Communist Party. Zhou Enlai was one of his sponsors. In July 1925, he traveled to the Soviet Union to study military affairs. In July 1926, he returned to China and undertook to persude Sichuan warlord Yang Sen to support the Northern Expedition, but failed. Soon after, he was named head of a new military institute in Nanchang.

In 1927, following the collapse of the First United Front, Liu Bocheng and Zhou Enlai ordered Zhu to lead a force against the Nanchang Uprising. However, as he had helped to orchestrate this uprising, Zhu and his army defected from the Guomindang and fought against them. The uprising failed to gather the support of the local working class, however, and he was forced to flee Nanchang with his army. Under the fake name Wang Kai, Zhu managed to find shelter from a warlord Fan Shisheng for his remaining regiment. He eventually expanded his force.

Zhu's close affiliation with Mao Zedong began in 1928 when under the assistance of Chen Yi and Lin Biao, Zhu brought his army of 10,000 men to the Jinggang Mountains where Mao had formed a soviet in 1927. From these humble beginnings, Zhu built the Red Army into a skilled guerrilla force that consolidated and expanded the PLA areas of control.

Zhu was the military expert, and Mao was the political expert. They needed each other.

Zhu's bravery and skill in leading these men made him a figure of immense prestige. Locals credited him with supernatural abilities. During this time Mao and Zhu became so closely connected that to the local peasant farmers they were known collectively as "Zhu Mao".

In 1929 Zhu and Mao were forced to flee Jinggangshan to Ruijin to the East following Guomindang military pressure. Here they formed the Jiangxi Soviet which would eventually grow to cover some 30, 000 square kilometers and include some three million people. In 1931 Zhu was appointed leader of the Red Army in the Ruijin by the CCP leadership. Zhu successfully led a conventional military force against the Guomindang during the Fourth Counter Encirclement Campaign; however he was not able to do the same during the Fifth Counter Encirclement Campaign and reluctantly the CCP began to make preparations to flee the Jiangxi Soviet. Zhu helped to form the 1934 break out from the soviet that would begin the Long March.

During the Long March, Zhu De and Zhang Guotao commanded the "western column" of the Red Army, which barely survived the retreat through Sichuan Province.

In Yan'an, Zhu directed the reconstruction of the Red Army under the political guidance of Mao.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, he held the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army. In 1940 Zhu De devised and organized the Hundred Regiments Offensive without the support of Mao. This campaign was very successful but has since been attributed as the main provocation for the devastating Japanese Three Alls Policy.

After 1949, Zhu was named Commander-in-Chief of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He was also the Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party (1956-1966) and Vice-Chairman of the People's Republic of China (1954-1959). In 1950 Zhu De oversaw the PLA during the Korean War. In 1955, he was made a marshal.

In 1966, during the onset of the Cultural Revolution, Zhu De was dismissed from his position on the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. However, thanks to the support of Zhou Enlai he was not harmed or imprisoned. In 1971 Zhu was reinstated as the Chairman of the Standing Committee.

He continued to be a prominent and respected elder statesman until his death in July 1976.

See also

• Eighth Route Army
• History of the People's Republic of China (1949-1976)
• List of officers of the People's Liberation Army

Notes

References

The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh by Agnes Smedley, Monthy Review Press, New York and London 1956

External links

• Zhu De Biography From Spartacus Educational