The Peasant and Labor Party was formerly known as the Chinese Revolutionary Party founded in 1928 to oppose Chiang Kai-shek, and was renamed the Chinese Peasant and Labor Democratic Party in 1947. Similar to other parties, the Peasants and Workers Party supported the CCP and also took credit for the establishment of the CCP’s political system in terms of united front. However, during the anti-rightist movement in 1957, most of the members of the Peasant and Labor Party were branded as “rightists”, and their fates were not easy.
The End of the Ten Rightists of the Peasant Labor Party
The most famous ten rightists in the Peasant Labor Party were Han Zhao’e, Zhang Shenfu, Zhang Bojun, Huang Qixiang, Huang Xianeven, Li Shihao, Li Boqiu, Zhang Yunchuan, Deng Haoming, and Li Shuzhong. Among them, Zhang Bojun, who later became the vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Democratic League of China, has already been introduced in the previous chapter on senior officials of the League of China, and he is the number one “Great Rightist” who has not been “rehabilitated” by the Chinese Communist Party so far. Here are some of the others.
Han Zhaoye, who was the vice chairman of Shaanxi provincial government after the establishment of the CCP, was appointed by the CCP to set up the provincial preparatory committee of the Peasant Labor Party in 1957 to develop party members. Within a few months, he developed the party membership from a few dozens to 144. Later, due to the expansion of the anti-rightist movement, the main leaders and most members of the committee, including Han Zhaoye, were classified as rightists. During the Cultural Revolution, Han Zhaoye was persecuted again and passed away in 1970.
Zhang Shenfu, the elder brother of Zhang Dai Nian, a well-known professor of philosophy at Peking University, was introduced to the CCP by Zhou Enlai during his early years in France, and after his return to China, he served as deputy director of the political department of the Whampoa Military Academy of the Kuomintang. Later, he taught at Jinan University, Peking University and Tsinghua University. During the war, he participated in the founding of the Democratic League. In the fall of 1948, he was expelled from the League for publishing the article “Call for Peace”, which openly recognized the constitutional government of the Kuomintang and supported Chiang Kai-shek’s counter-insurgency policy. His wife, Liu Qingyang, also announced in the newspaper that she had divorced him.
After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhang Shenfu worked as a researcher in the Beijing Library, married a Manchu woman named Guan, and later joined the Peasant and Labor Party, and was labeled a rightist in 1957. He was “rehabilitated” only after the Cultural Revolution. In his later years, he was not involved in politics.
Huang Qixiang, who was a lieutenant general and a general in the Kuomintang Army, was the commander of the National Revolutionary Army Group and the deputy commander-in-chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Army during the War of Resistance. After the end of the war, he joined the Peasant Labor Party and served as secretary general and vice chairman. After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, he served as a member of the National Defense Commission, Minister of Justice of the Central and Southern Region, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an executive member of the Central Committee of the Peasant and Labor Party, and a vice chairman of the Peasant and Labor Party.
In 1957, he openly criticized the Soviet Union, saying that it lacked democracy and was a dictatorship, and was subsequently classified as a “rightist” and persecuted. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, he was attacked and persecuted again both mentally and physically, and at the end of August 1966, the Red Guards broke into his home, injured Huang and his wife and raided their home, and drove them to live in the dormitory of the Peasants and Workers Democratic Party. After that, Huang Qixiang was repeatedly criticized and forced to work. Huang died suddenly in 1970 after being tortured mentally and physically.
Huang Xianfan was a Chinese historian and ethnographer of the 20th century. During his lifetime, he was involved in a wide range of teaching and research, covering the general history of China, pre-Qin history, medieval history, history of social life, ethnology, etc. His “A Brief History of the Zhuang People” and a series of other pioneering research results on ethnic minorities have made him regarded as the founding father of Zhuang studies. He is a member of the Guangxi branch of the Peasants and Workers Party.
When he was released in 1957, he responded positively to the call of the CPC and spoke his mind freely. As a result, during the anti-rightist movement, he “stirred up the relationship between the Party and the masses”, sang a double act with the two Huangs (Huang Shaohong and Huang Xianfan), opposed the “unified purchase and sale”, “frequently went to the grassroots to call on the peasants and the masses to rise up and attack the Party “, “asserting himself as a ‘minister of the Imperial Household’, treating local party leaders as ‘earth emperors’, and equating the socialist system with feudal despotism” etc. He was branded as the top rightist in Chinese history and Zhuang, and suffered persecution for 20 years. During the Cultural Revolution, he was not only raided and criticized, but also beaten twice by the Red Guards and kicked unconscious, but he survived the Cultural Revolution and passed away in 1982.
Li Shihao, who joined the Kuomintang in his early years but worked with Liu Shaoqi, Wu Yuzhang, Fang Zhimin and other CCP members in the workers’ movement, was influenced by them and always adhered to the leftist position of the Kuomintang. in 1931, he joined the Provisional Action Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, the predecessor of the Peasant Labor Party, and followed Deng Yanda in his anti-Chiang activities. Later, the committee cooperated with the Chinese Communist Party and adopted “anti-Japanese, alliance with the Communist Party and anti-Chiang” as its general policy, and Li Shihao was elected as a member of the Central Provisional Executive Committee. During the war, he also joined the Democratic League and the Jiu San Society in Shanghai and actively carried out united war work for the CPC. After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, he was appointed by the Central Committee of the Peasant and Labor Party to go to Zhejiang Province, where he served as the chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Peasant and Labor Party, as well as the deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry of Zhejiang Province.
During the anti-rightist period, Li Shihao was accused of implementing Zhang Bojun’s “Great Development Line” and was branded as a rightist. He was persecuted again during the Cultural Revolution and passed away in 1972.
Li Boqiu graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy in his early years and joined the National Revolutionary Army, accompanying them on the Eastern and Northern Expeditions. In 1945, the Southeast General Branch of the Chinese Democratic League was established, and Li was elected as a member and chairman of the organizing committee. In 1947, he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Peasants and Workers Party and Minister of Propaganda. After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, he became a member of the Central Committee of Finance and Economics, Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce, member of the Central Committee of the Farmer-Labor Party, member of the Executive Board and Deputy Secretary General, because of his outstanding achievements in the united front.
In 1957, Li Boqiu was classified as a rightist. During the Cultural Revolution, he was also subjected to home raids, criticism and severe beatings, and passed away in 1986.
Zhang Yunchuan, one of the founders of the Peasant and Labor Party, was a left-leaning radical in his early years and engaged in anti-Chiang activities; in 1930, he joined the Provisional Action Committee of the Chinese Nationalist Party, the predecessor of the Peasant and Labor Party, and began his cooperation with and united war work for the Chinese Communist Party. He was also a member of the Central Committee and Standing Committee of the renamed Peasant Labor Party, and participated in the work of instigating the defection of Fu Zuoyi, the KMT general in charge of the highest defense of Beiping. After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, he served as a counsellor in the Counselor’s Office of the State Council and a member of the Bills Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
In 1957, during the period of the Great Explosion, Zhang Yunchuan was branded as a rightist for speaking some so-called “anti-Party and anti-socialist” truths, and was criticized and had all his posts revoked. His children were also implicated and could not go to university. His son went to Xinjiang, his eldest daughter went to Beidahuang, and his youngest daughter went to Liaoning. Anxious and distressed, Zhang Yunchuan soon got liver cancer and died in 1965, before the Cultural Revolution.
However, his death did not stop the persecution of his family by the Chinese Communist Party. When the Cultural Revolution broke out, Zhang Yunchuan’s home was raided, his wife and mother-in-law were repatriated to their original home in Henan, and his daughter Zhang Xun, who had gone to the Great Northern Wilderness, was besieged by large-print posters and disqualified from even working as an elementary school teacher and sent back to the company for labor and reform.
Another person who had contributed his life for the CCP was almost driven to extinction by the CCP.
Deng Haoming, who also joined the Provisional Action Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang in the early days to assist the CCP in its united war effort, served as a counsellor in the Central Government’s Council of Government Affairs after 1949, Director of the Nanjing Municipal Construction Bureau, Director of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Transportation, Chairman of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Peasants and Workers Party, and member of the Central Standing Committee.
During the anti-rightist movement in 1957, Deng Haoming was accused of working with the great rightist Zhang Bojun from the beginning, developing anti-communist elements to expand his “Deng family store” and provoking the medical and health sector to confront the government. As a result, he was branded as a rightist. He was also criticized during the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, he survived the Cultural Revolution and passed away in 1998.
In his early years, Li Shuzhong was influenced by Marxism and joined the anti-Chiang movement. After 1949, Li Shuzhong was elected as the chairman of the first committee of the Peasant Labor Democratic Party in Fujian Province, and later served as a member of the Standing Committee and Vice Chairman of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
In 1957, Li was branded as a rightist for his so-called “anti-party rhetoric” and withdrew from all his posts. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, he was sent to work in the rural areas of Jianning County in 1969, and died in May 1974.
Zhou Gucheng, a member of the Central Committee of the Peasant and Workers’ Party, was criticized
In addition to the above-mentioned “Ten Rightists”, the experience of Zhou Gucheng, a famous historian and professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, who was deeply appreciated by Mao Zedong, is also worth talking about.
According to the book “Mao in Shanghai” prepared by the Party History Research Office of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, Zhou Gucheng met Mao as early as 1921 when he was teaching at the First Normal School in Hunan Province, and they were colleagues. Later, under Mao’s influence, he joined the peasant movement initiated by the Chinese Communist Party and worked at the peasant seminar. Since then, he has been working against the Nationalist government and has also been blacklisted by the Nationalist Shanghai Police Command.
After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhou Gucheng, who was already teaching at Fudan University, became a member of the Standing Committee of the University Council and the Provost, as well as a member of the Central Committee of the Peasant Labor Party, while Mao became the top party leader of the Chinese Communist Party. The excited Zhou wrote a letter to Mao, and Mao wrote a letter back. Since then, the two met more often.
In 1956, during the period of the great sound and fury, Zhou Gucheng wrote an article entitled “Formal Logic and Dialectics” expressing his dissatisfaction with some Soviet writings on logic, which was appreciated by Mao. Mao also allowed him to continue his speech.
On May 1, 1961, Mao spent the holiday with people from all walks of life in Shanghai. In addition to Zhou Gucheng, there were also Chen Wangdao, Shen Tilan, Shen Kefei, Zhou Xinfang, Jin Zhonghua, Cao Diqiu and others in the same seat. When Zhou returned home late, he suddenly received a call from a reporter of the Liberation Daily, asking him to write a poem or a lyric about the meeting with Mao today. The first line of the poem was “I am so fortunate that I have been blessed with a spring breeze”.
After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Zhou Gucheng was pulled out as a reactionary academic authority and put into a “cattle shed”. His student Wu Huanzhang wrote about Zhou’s experiences during the Cultural Revolution: “At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Zhou was severely criticized as a reactionary academic authority. Once after he was criticized, he was allowed to take off the black plate hanging on his chest only after he walked out of the school. With the sign in his hand, he squeezed onto a tram in front of the school …….”
Later, because of his relationship with Mao, Zhou Gucheng did not suffer more severe persecution. However, like many families, Zhou Gucheng’s family was also implicated. His eldest daughter, who taught in a Beijing high school, was killed alive by the rebels because of her father, and another daughter was also persecuted to death. When Zhou’s mother died, the rebels did not allow him to wear the black veil.
Conclusion
Like other democratic parties, these people are not the only ones listed. There are also Huang Zhen, vice chairman of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Peasants and Workers Party and professor of Fujian Agricultural College; Xu Junhu, member of the Changsha Municipal Committee of the Peasants and Workers Party and Director of the Organization; Yun Yinglin, vice chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Peasants and Workers Party and deputy director of the Provincial Supervision Department. …… Can their experiences of being killed by the Chinese Communist Party make more people awake?
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