Recently, the Communist Party magazine “Seeking Truth” published a talk by Xi Jinping, in which a phrase quoted by Xi Jinping sparked external attention.
On May 15, the 10th issue of the Communist Party magazine Seeking Truth published Xi Jinping’s relevant talks in the past calendar year under the title of “Make good use of red resources, pass on red genes, and pass on the red rivers and mountains for generations to come. The reporter found that in Xi Jinping’s “speech during his research in Anhui Province from April 24 to 27, 2016,” Xi said, “An inch of mountain and river is an inch of blood, a shovelful of hot soil is a shovelful of soul. Looking back on the past beacon years, Jinzhai people with the spirit of fearless sacrifice, for the Chinese revolutionary cause to establish a history-making merit, we have to follow the footsteps of the revolutionary predecessors to continue to move forward, the red rivers and mountains for generations to come. “
However, Xi Jinping does not seem to know very well that the slogan he quoted here, “One inch of mountain and one inch of blood”, was a slogan proposed by Chiang Kai-shek. The original words of Chiang Kai-shek were “One inch of mountain and one inch of blood, 100,000 youths and 100,000 troops. The mountains and rivers here do not belong to the Chinese Communist Party, but to the government of the Republic of China. The blood in this case refers to the blood of the national army under Chiang Kai-shek’s leadership, which was spilled in the fight against the Japanese.
Photo: Chiang Kai-shek
According to Wikipedia, “In 1944, due to the critical situation in Yuxianggui, the National Government of the Republic of China adopted the plan of the American advisor Wei Demai to reorganize the army, and Chiang Zhongzheng proposed this slogan, and the National Government organized the Chinese Youth Army. The National Government of the Republic of China adopted the slogan of the American advisor Wei Demai to organize the Chinese Youth Army. To this end, the National Government set up a “Youth Training Directorate”, the then Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Luo Zhuoying as director, Huang Wei as deputy director, Wang Yishu (real name Jin Hong Yi) as Chief of Staff, Chiang Ching Kuo as Director of the Political Department. “
Admiral Luo Zhuoying
According to the article “The Youth Expeditionary Army of the National Southwest United University” by Wen Liming of the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on August 27, 1944, Chiang Kai-shek issued the call “One inch of mountain and one inch of blood, 100,000 youths and 100,000 troops” at the National Council of Government. In mid-October, a meeting was held in Chongqing to mobilize intellectual youths to join the army, and it was decided that 100,000 people would be recruited to form the Chinese Youth Expeditionary Army.
According to other information, on October 21, 1944, Chiang Kai-shek issued the slogan “One inch of mountain and river, one inch of blood, 100,000 youths, 100,000 troops” at the “Conference of Intellectual Youth for the Army”, which made the youths’ blood boil. This led to the formation of a fever of intellectual youths joining the army in many places.
Photo: Chiang Kai-shek wearing the uniform of the Youth Army and attending the inauguration ceremony of the Youth Army
By the end of 1944, more than 100,000 people had signed up for the Youth Army, which shows the enthusiasm of the intellectual youths to serve the country.
The slogan “One inch of mountain, one inch of river, one inch of blood” is a record of the history of countless intellectual youths in the Republic of China who, under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, gave up their pens to join the military in order to save the Chinese nation from danger. It has nothing to do with the so-called red resources, red genes and red rivers and mountains as Xi Jinping said.
Attachment.
Chiang Kai-shek’s “Letter to Intellectual Youth to Join the Army
— October 24, ROC 33 (Note: ROC 33 is 1944)
–Gist
I. The war of resistance has reached its final victory, and it is the most rare time for intellectual youths to serve the country, so I hope they will rise up and join the army.
Secondly, the revolution advocated by the father of the nation, the overthrow of the Manchu dictatorship, and the unification of the country were all great contributions of the youth to the military.
The Central Committee called on the intellectual youth to join the army, so that they could become a strong army and bring into full play the greatest combat effectiveness.
Fourth, it is pointed out that unless the intellectual youth join the army, they will not be able to achieve their great ambition in life and obtain the final victory in the war.
Fifth, we hope that our compatriots all over the country will urge each other to volunteer to join the army as an honor and to accomplish this sacred common mission.
Young intellectuals of the nation.
In the past, the intellectuals in China have always been gentle and refined, emphasizing literature rather than martial arts, and being fond of leisure and hard work, which has led to today’s weak and decadent culture, thus causing the country’s weakness, suffering the ridicule of “the sick man of East Asia”, and calling for such an unprecedented foreign insult. Now we have gone through seven years of hard resistance war, and we have reached the final moment of victory or defeat. The coming year will be the year of our final victory, and it is also the year of our national prosperity and survival. If all the intellectuals in our country can rise up and join the army, carry forward and defend our country, we can completely transform the decadence of our society and cleanse the shame of our nation, not only can we win the war, but also can establish a permanent foundation for our country. Otherwise, if our intellectual youth still ignore the safety and security of the country, sitting on the blood sacrifice of the soldiers, and do not change their own habits of the past, and fear of life and death, and still to be a special part of society, then the tragedy of the death of the country, is inevitable, and the Chinese nation’s descendants, will not be able to recover. C.C.C. was deeply convinced that the future of the rise and fall of our country and the prosperity and decline of our nation rested entirely on the shoulders of the intellectual youth of our country; therefore, the Central Committee launched the intellectual youth movement, calling on my intellectual youth with aspirations and blood to rise up in unison and volunteer to join the army, to gather together in a group, under my personal command, to be my subordinates. For those young people who are determined to serve the country, who are willing to share my difficulties, honor and disgrace, and who come to be my subordinates, I will live and die with them, share their sufferings, treat them as my sons and daughters, and love them as my brothers and sisters; I will do my best and do my duty to lead you to complete the revolutionary resistance and realize the great cause of the Three People’s Principles. At the beginning of this movement, I would like to enumerate the main points to tell the intellectual youth of our country.
Looking back at the history of our revolution over the past fifty years, when the Founding Father advocated the revolution and called for the salvation of our country, our young aspirants at home and abroad sacrificed their studies and families to fight for our country under the leadership of the Founding Father, raising righteous soldiers, raising righteous flags, throwing their heads and spilling their blood, and sacrificing their lives for our country until the battle of Xinhai, when the Manchu dictatorship was finally overthrown and the Republic of China was established. In the thirteenth year of the Republic of China, the father of the nation founded the Whampoa Military Academy, where young people with aspirations from all over the country ventured to join and receive revolutionary military training, creating the basic force of the National Revolutionary Army, and after three years of struggle in the Eastern and Northern Expeditions, finally purged the warlord forces and unified the nation. These two great achievements can be said to be the opportunity for the intellectual youth to join the army; this is certainly a manifestation of the spirit of the intellectual youth to strive for the first and serve the country, and it can also explain the great contribution and importance of the intellectual youth to the revolutionary founding of the country.
Since the July 7 War, although some intellectual youths have joined the military or military-related work, and many young students have been enrolled in military schools for training, or have been drafted for service; and in the recent year, many young people in school and public education have volunteered to join the military; however, the fact is that intellectual youths’ enlistment in the military is not yet widespread in all sectors of the country, and because of the provisions of the military service law that defer the draft, the intellectual youths are not enthusiastic enough to volunteer. Therefore, the number of young intellectuals who volunteered was not enthusiastic enough. The current situation is far more urgent and important than the eve of the Xinhai Revolution and the Northern Expedition. To be worthy of the martyrs who died for the revolution in the past, and to be worthy of the soldiers and civilians who died for the war, we must realize that now is the only time for you to serve the country, to join the army enthusiastically, to pledge your life to the country, to carry forward the consistent spirit of our revolutionary youth, and to fulfill their responsibility as the vanguard of the people.
The Central Committee has decided to call for the first time 100,000 intellectual youths to join the army, so that they will have the opportunity to serve the country. The Central Committee has set up a National Steering Committee for the Enlistment of Intellectual Youth in the Military, and all local organs in each province, city, county, and school above the college level will set up an Enlistment Committee for the Enlistment of Intellectual Youth in the Military to plan and handle matters related to enlistment respectively. The central government has also selected excellent cadres to lead the army, so that the intellectual youths can gain practical benefits and become a strong army, and the shortcomings in the past general army training have been reviewed in detail and effectively reformed, so that all the shortcomings of the past recruitment and training can be completely removed. As for the treatment of the army, we will refer to the methods of the Indian Army and the Expeditionary Force, and in the future, after the army is formed, I will use this force to maximize its combat effectiveness. Other implementation methods are being actively pursued. I will be personally responsible for supervising this matter, and I will do my best to make thoughtful preparations so that the young intellectuals will be able to make the greatest contribution to the country after joining the army.
First, the young people are not in the military to create their great ambitions in life. I want to remind my country’s intellectual youth, you want to enrich themselves, exercise themselves, realize their life’s ambition, create their great career, and become a very talented person, it must be in the combat life to exercise to learn. The battlefield is the only school for us to create the foundation of our career. In the fire of artillery, we can improve our intelligence, courage and physical strength, and in the struggle of life and death, we can truly understand the meaning of life. Only our comrades and the people who live and die with us on the battlefield can give us much precious knowledge and practical learning, which we cannot learn in any ordinary school. When I was a young man, I was determined to join the army, and I have always considered it the happiest life in life and the noblest cause in the revolution. After you join the army, I will learn together with you in battle, educate you, and command you; so you must not hesitate to abandon your present studies because it is a pity, but know that after you join the army, you will get broader and more valuable knowledge and education in the battlefield. There are many great causes and noble personalities in the past and present, all of which have been honed through the life of a soldier under fire. We want to enrich ourselves, to train ourselves, to create the great cause of the revolutionary founding of the country, it is necessary to implement the military.
Secondly, if young people do not join the army, they will not be able to eh snow the shame of their country’s weakness. I would like to remind my country’s intellectual youth that all modern nationals of the world regard being a soldier as their sacred and honorable duty. In this World War, all the countries of the Allied Powers were completely mobilized, and all the people of the country, regardless of their professions and knowledge, were enthusiastically recruited for military service, and those who were not recruited regretted that they were not able to go to the front to defend their country. Because of the thorough mobilization, they have a real certainty of victory in battle. On the contrary, most of our young intellectuals still see the military as a daunting path, and are hesitant to look ahead. In this way, not only the quality of our troops cannot be improved, but also foreigners are surprised and contemptuous of our country’s observation that there is still such a special biased phenomenon, and our country’s status and honor are thus affected in the worst way, which is really a shame for our intellectual youth. Therefore, if I want to save the country and clear the shame, if I want to change the atmosphere and revive the nation, I must join the army first and automatically, so that I can be worthy of your generosity and ambition to help the country to know the shame and strengthen itself. It is important to know that now the nation’s military and people are watching our intellectual youth from the military can be implemented, and from the military is enthusiastic, to determine whether our intellectual youth are truly patriotic, whether the grasp of national duty; or just hope that others to the front line to fire, but they are in the rear to steal peace. If our young intellectuals can take the country as their top priority, and hold the determination to sacrifice for the country, and enlist in the army at a rate of one to another, then not only will our officers and soldiers on the front line hear the news and rejoice, increasing their courage to fight, but all walks of life will also feel new and encourage each other, taking it as a supreme honor to go to the front line to kill the enemy, and taking it as the greatest shame to avoid national duty during the war. This is necessary to reform the old society of the past, to establish a new culture of unity and service to the nation, to ensure the independence and freedom of our country, and to clear the shame of being the “sick man of East Asia. In the past, I pointed out the importance of “military first”, but now I am proposing the slogan “military first” as the basic understanding of the whole nation. This means that the status of our people should be the most noble, and the position of military service should be the most honorable. All the compatriots in the country should take the military as a model, and those who are of age should join the military enthusiastically, while those who are not of age or over age should respect the military, love the military, serve the military in the front line at all times, and serve the families of the military, so that the whole country has the concept of “military first”. And our intellectual youth should have the personality of a soldier, the cultivation of a soldier, the spirit of a soldier, enthusiastic to serve, to be a noble and most honorable and most respected national model soldier.
Third, the young people are not from the military to obtain the final victory of the war. I would like to remind the intellectual youth of the country that for seven years, the foundation of the final victory has been laid due to the bloodshed of millions of soldiers at the front and the hard work of countless compatriots at the rear. Now when the war has developed to the final stage, whether the great humiliation of a hundred years can kill and snow, and whether the glory gained by the sacrifice and struggle of the whole country for more than seven years can be maintained, all depend on whether the final battle can be won in this year. At the beginning of this decisive battle between the enemy and us, we must know that modern warfare requires modern armies and modern soldiers, and during our active preparations for the final victory and counter-offensive, we especially need troops composed of highly knowledgeable and skilled soldiers. Our troops in general are not far behind in the spirit of sacrifice, patriotism, and hard work. What we need most in our general troops today is knowledge and technology. Therefore, this time we mobilize intellectual youths to join the army, not just to serve as officers or officers in the army, but to serve as soldiers in the battlefield, and to directly serve as pioneers for the people. It is necessary for our young intellectuals to join the army in large numbers in order to improve the knowledge level of our army, so that the use of sophisticated weapons and the training of new tactics can be used to maximum effect.
In addition, the intellectual youth have considerable knowledge and training, and have the ability to independently judge the enemy’s situation and respond to war, so it is not only easy to join the special forces for training, but also in the general forces, so that the soldiers with secondary education or above can increase by one division, which is the same as increasing the strength of ten divisions. Our country to be truly free and equal status, first of all, we need our army knowledge level can be equal with others, especially our soldiers’ knowledge level can be equal with others. After the Central Committee calls for our intellectual youth to join the army this time, we will continue to recruit and train in the future to fundamentally transform the quality of our troops. The young intellectuals must understand that your volunteering for the army is not only the most rare opportunity to serve the country, but also the most practical way to build a modern army in China. Therefore, you should pay attention to the significance of this initiative, realize the importance of your possible contribution to the country, and unite to answer this call from me.
Finally, I would like to tell my dear intellectual youths that victory and glory cannot be achieved by sitting on the sidelines, but by blood and head; freedom and independence cannot be obtained by relying on or being maintained by the Taiwanese authorities, but must be fought for by self-reliance and self-improvement. You have passionate and sincere feelings, you have abundant vitality, and you have noble and far-reaching ambitions and ideals, and now that the country needs you to participate in actual battles, you should rise up automatically to serve the country. To join the army to save the country is the only way for you to express your enthusiasm and vitality to realize your noble ideals and ambitions. I hope that you will follow the example of Ban Chao’s pen and learn from the army’s invitation to the front line, and open up your promising and magnificent life with the fighting spirit of a soldier in the midst of gunfire, and create your splendid and brilliant career with the fighting action of a soldier in the midst of the turbulent waves. We hope that our compatriots will urge each other, and that fathers will instruct their sons, brothers will encourage their brothers, wives will advise their husbands, friends will regulate each other, and teachers and students will encourage each other, so that they will take the honor of volunteering for the military and the shame of avoiding military service; we will restore the virtue of our nation to be martial, and transform the decadent atmosphere of our society, so that we can rectify our military and destroy the Japanese invaders. It is hoped that the scholars and educators of our nation and the sages who have the responsibility of leadership in the society will be the first to advocate and exhort, so that the whole country will respond to my call to join the army to save the country, to obtain the final victory in the war of resistance, and to accomplish our sacred common mission.
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