Yao Jui-Chung : Long March- Shifted The Universe

DURATION: 2004-02-07 ~ 2004-03-06
OPENING: 2004-02-07 19:00-PM
VENUE: IT Park

The 25,000-li Long March, known for short as the Long March, was the strategic move of the main force of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army from their bases in the north and south of the Yangtze River to their base area in northern Shaanxi during the second civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists. The Long March lasted two years, from October 1934 to October 1936, and covered a distance of 25,000 li. It was not only a record of the bloody strife between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT), but it also changed the future of China. The CCP called it the “25,000-li Long March”, while the KMT called it the “25,000-li banishment”. Site of the Zunyi Conference in the city of Zunyi, Guizhou Province:The Zunyi Conference took place at No.80, Red Flag Road in the old town of Zunyi. The place was formerly known as Pipa Bridge. During the second civil war between the KMT and the CCP, due to the “left” opportunist line of Wang Ming of the CCP, the Red Army base area increasingly shrank and the Red Army was forced to embark on the Long March. At the start of the Long March, leaders such as Bo Gu were guilty of flightism in terms of military strategy, which caused huge losses to the Red Army. At this crucial moment, the CCP adopted Mao Zedong’s suggestion and abandoned its plan to march to Xiangxi. Instead, it decided to march to Guizhou Province, where the KMT presence was weak. In January 1935, they arrived in Zunyi, a strategic town in northern Guizhou Province. On January 1, 1935, the CCP held an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau (i.e. the Zunyi Conference) to solve immediate military problems. The meeting exposed and criticized the military mistakes of CCP leaders and passed a resolution to relieve Bo Gu and Li De of military supreme command. Mao Zedong was elected a member of the Political Bureau. Bo Gu’s work was taken over by Zhang Wentian, while Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai were in charge of the military. During the march, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Wang Jiaxiang formed a command unit. The Zunyi Conference ended the “left” opportunist line of Wang Ming and established a leadership headed by Mao Zedong. The meeting saved the CCP and the Red Army and was a turning point in the history of the CCP. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”. The Red Army Hill in the city of Zunyi, Guizhou Province :The cemetery of Red Army martyrs is situated on Xiaolong Hill in Zunyi. In the front of the cemetery is a monument built to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Zunyi Conference. The facade of the monument is inscribed with the eight golden characters for “Long Live the Red Army Revolutionary Martyrs” written by Deng Xiaoping in a vertical column. Behind the monument is the tomb of Deng Ping, chief of staff of the third regiment of the Red Army. The cemetery faces south and the coffin chamber is made of red sand and stone. A Five-Star Red Flag is flown in the middle of the top of the tomb. There is a gravestone in the front of the tomb inscribed with the characters for “Tomb of Comrade Deng Ping” written by Zhang Aiping in a horizontal row. On the upper walls of the left and right side chambers are the characters for “giving his best” and “until his last breath”, evoking a mood of solemnity. Other Red Army warriors are also buried at the cemetery in graves and cineraria. The cemetery is a sacred place of the revolution and stands for the Red Army that liberated China. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”. Site of the Red Army General Political Department in the city of Zunyi, Guizhou Province :The Red Army General Political Department was formerly set up in a catholic church in Willow Street in the old town of Zunyi. The church consists of a scripture hall and a school. The scripture hall lies in the north and is a Romanesque building. The church was built in 1866 during the Qing Dynasty. After the Zunyi Conference in January 1935, the Central Committee of the Party convened a meeting of the Red Army in the scripture hall. At the meeting, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhang Wentian talked about the spirit of the Zunyi Conference. Apart from boosting the morale of officers and men, the meeting also confirmed Mao’s line. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”. The Mao-tai Brewery in Guizhou Province :The town of Maotai 13 km west from the municipality of Renhuai in the south-western part of Guizhou Province is famous for its wine-making. The mao-tai spirit is named after its place of production and the town is also known as the “capital of the national spirit”. In front of Maotai is the Chishui River and behind it is the Hanpo Range. Thus, it has the ideal conditions for making wine. During the Long March, the Red Army crossed the Chishui River four times. It is said that the Red Army warriors cured their wounds and diarrhoea and refreshed themselves with mao-tai. Today, mao-tai is ranked as one of the three great distilled liquors alongside the French brandy and the British whisky. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”. Monument for the Red Army’s Four Crossings of the Chishui River :After the Zunyi conference, the Nationalist Army tried to outflank and surround the Red Army, while the Red Army used the strategy of feint moves to avoid head-on clashes with the Nationalist Army, and broke loose from its encirclement by crossing the Chishui River four times. In the small hours of January 29, the main body of the Red Army divided up into three corps and crossed the Chishui River from the west (first crossing). Between February 18 and 21, the Central Red Army crossed the Chishui River from the east from Taiping Ferry Crossing and Er Lang Beach (second crossing) and advanced into the Tongzi region. On March 16, the Red Army crossed the Chishui River from the west from the Maotai area (third crossing), moved into southern Sichuan and headed towards Gulin. On March 21, they crossed the Chishui River a fourth time from Er Lang Beach and Taiping Ferry Crossing. They swiftly crossed the Wujiang River in the south and advanced on Guiyang. The town of Maotai was the main point of crossing during three crossings made by the Central Red Army. The monument for the Red Army’s four crossings stands on top of the red sand fortress at the Maotai ferry crossing on the west bank of the Chishui River in Renhuai, Guizhou Province. The tower is 25 m tall to symbolize the 25,000 li Long March. The tower is made up of four overlapping and intertwining huge wave-shape columns, with a stainless steel ball at the top like the foam of breaking waves. The monument has an inscription of nine three-dimensional gilded characters for “Monument for the Red Army’s Four Crossings of the Chishui River” written by Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the Communist Party. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”. Xichang Satellite Station at Daliang Mountain, Sichuan : Built in the early 70s, the Xichang Satellite Station is one of the larger new spacecraft launch sites with state-of-the-art facilities currently open to the public in China. The headquarters of the Xichang Satellite Station is situated in the city of Xichang, while the launch site is in the mountain valley of Daliang Mountain about 60 km north-west of Xichang. The Satellite Station has such systems as test launch, command and control, tracking, communications, weather and technical service systems. With two launching positions and facilities such as a technical testing centre and a command centre, the launch site can launch various types of satellites. In October 1985, XSLC officially began to accept satellite-launching commissions. Since 1984, XSLC has launched 17 mainland and overseas communications satellites. The famous Long March-1 satellite was launched from this station. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”. Luding Bridge at the Dadu River in Luding County, Sichuan Province : Luding Bridge is situated over the Dadu River in the west of the county. It was begun in 1705 during the Qing Dynasty and completed in May the following year. The bridge consists of 13 iron chains, with nine at the bottom and four serving as rails. On May 25, 1935, the Red First Division and the Red First Regiment, the advance troops of the Red Army on the Long March, came to the Luding River. Under the command of Liu Bocheng, chief of staff of the Red Army, and Nie Rongzhen, political commissar of the Red First Regiment, the Red First Regiment started crossing the Dadu River, which was impossible to cross according to the Nationalist Army (Shi Dakai of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was wiped out by the Qing army here). After the Red First Regiment crossed the river, two other regiments of the Red First Division also made the crossing. The Nationalist troops led by Xue E soon caught up with them. The fourth regiment of the Red Second Division, under the command of regimental commander Huang Kaixiang and political commissar Yang Chengwu, sent 22 men led by the commander of the second company Liu Dazhu to take the chain bridge under enemy fire. Risking their lives, they entered the town of Luding. On May 29, 1935, the Red Army won the Battle of the Luding Bridge. As a result, the KMT failed to annihilate the remnant forces of the Chinese Communists here. Mao’s troops managed to move north and traverse the Daxue Shan Mountain. Subsequently, this led to the strengthening of the Communist position in Yan’an. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”. Mao Zedong’s Former Dwelling at Hailuo Ditch in Moxi, Sichuan : Moxi is a small town at the foot of the Gongga Mountain which is some 7,000 m above sea level. With rugged terrain, it is also the gate to the Hailuo Ditch National Glacier Park. After crossing the Dadu River, the Red Army came to Moxi, where Mao Zedong once again set up the Red Army command in a Catholic church to deliberate on the future move of the Red Army. He decided that the Red Army should traverse the Dajin Mountain to break through the Nationalist blockade. On June 12, 1935, having climbed over several snowy mountains, the advance troops of the Central Red Army joined the advance troops of the Red Fourth Front Army triumphantly on their way north. On October 19, 1935, the main force of the Red First Front Army reached the town of Wuqi in the Soviet Area between Shaanxi and Gansu. On October 22, the Central Committee of the CCP held an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau here to announce the triumphant conclusion of the Long March of the main force of the Red Army. In October 1936, the three main forces of the Red Army joined forces triumphantly in Huining, Gansu Province, marking the end of the historic Long March. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”. The Residue Jail in Chongqing : The Residue Jail was originally a private coal mine. But the quality of the coal was so poor that the mine was abandoned. Local people jokingly called it the “residue cave” (meaning it produced nothing but residues). Later, due to its location in a hidden part difficult to access, the head of KMT’s secret service Dai Li converted it into a prison. The White Palace Residence, a one-time guesthouse of the KMT’s Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, was also converted into a prison. The two prisons were meant for political prisoners such as Communists and their supporters. The KMT prison guards used both Chinese and American torture methods to torture Communist party members. The following punishments were listed: torture by hanging up and beating prisoners, the torture rack, torture by electric instrument, forcing prisoners to drink chili water and to carry a sedan with burning wood on their backs. From the later stage of the Sino-Japanese War to the retreat of the KMT, more than 300 people were incarcerated in these prisons. At 4 pm on November 27, 1949, under the sound of artillery of the Communists, the frightened KMT guards at Residue Jail started using machine guns for the “last clean-up”. They finished their task by shooting with pistols and setting fire to the place. Some 180 prisoners were shot, while 15 escaped from a hole in the outer wall of the prison. This incident is known as the November 27 Massacre in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”. The Liberation Stele in Chongqing : After the full outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the Nationalist Government moved its capital to Chongqing. In order to mobilize the people to fight the Japanese, a monument was built in the square in Duyou Street in Chongqing on December 30, 1941, called the “Spiritual Fortress”. The fortress was a blockhouse-like five-storeyed square wooden structure. It was 7.7 zhang high, as a symbol of the war of resistance which began on July 7, 1937. After the war was won, the mayor of Chongqing Zhang Dulun proposed and decided at the 336th municipal administration meeting of the municipal government to build a great stele at the site of the “Spiritual Fortress” to commemorate the victory over Japan. Chongqing was liberated on November 30, 1949. On the first National Day of Communist China on October 1, 1950, the Southwest Military and Political Committee decided to rebuild the stele, adding inscriptions written by Liu Bocheng, chairman of the Southwest Military and Political Committee. The stele was renamed the People’s Liberation Stele, popularly known as the Liberation Stele. The Liberation Stele has become the city centre of Chongqing, where major rallies and celebrations take place. It is not only a landmark of Chongqing, but also the only monument to commemorate the victory of the Chinese nation in the Sino-Japanese War. Yao Jui-chung was here to accomplish the feat of “shifting the universe”.