People's History of Ideas Podcast

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Land Revolution and Communist Party Growth: The High Tide of the Jinggangshan Base Area (Summer 1928) Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

In the wake of their military victories in late Spring 1928, the Communists carried out a major land redistribution and a mass recruitment drive. There were some unforeseen complications.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Marcia Ristaino,China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928
Some names from this episode:
Wang Zuo, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Yuan Wencai, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong

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Beating Back Suppression Campaigns and Expanding the Jinggangshan Base Area (May to June 1928) Feb 03, 2022

Show notes

Mao Zedong and Zhu De learn warfare through warfare as they face continuing onslaughts from Guomindang forces.
Further reading/watching:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
China: A Century of Revolution documentary
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), “Experiences of the People’s War
and Some Important Questions”
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), “Advance in the Great Direction of Creating Base Areas!”
Mao Zedong, “Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War”
Name from this episode:
Sunzi [Sun Tzu], Ancient Chinese general

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The Jinggangshan Junction of Forces: Mao Zedong and Zhu De Unite (April to May 1928) Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

The unification of Mao Zedong’s and Zhu De’s forces. Some discussion of the problems involved in unifying the Communist armed forces.
Further reading:
Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De]
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Some names from this episode:
Zhu De, Communist military commander
Wang Zuo, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Ye Ting, Commander of the 4th Army during the Northern Expedition
Chen Yi, Leading Communist who served with Zhu De
Yuan Wencai, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Hu Shaohai, Communist from South Hunan
Lin Biao, Communist military officer

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The Wages of Revolution: Life Underground in Shanghai in the Late 1920s (Part 3) Jan 20, 2022

Show notes

Discussing pay for professional revolutionaries, the role of servants in the lives of Communist leaders, and the Comintern in Shanghai.
Further reading:
Patricia Stranahan, Underground: The Shanghai Communist Party and the Politics of Survival, 1927-1937
Elizabeth Perry, Shanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese Labor
Wang Fan-hsi [Wang Fanxi], Memoirs of a Chinese Revolutionary
Gavin McCrea,Mrs. Engels
Frederick Litten, “The Noulens Affair”
Anna Belogurova, “The Civic World of International Communism: Taiwanese communists and the Comintern (1921-1931)”
Onimaru Takeshi, “Shanghai Connection: The Construction and Collapse of the Comintern Network in East and Southeast Asia”
Jospehine Fowler, “From East to West and West to East: Ties of Solidarity in the Pan-Pacific Revolutionary Trade Union Movement, 1923-1934”
Josephine Fowler, Japanese and Chinese Immigrant Activists: Organizing in American and International Communist Movements, 1919–1933
Frederic Wakeman, Policing Shanghai, 1927-1937
Some names from this episode:
Liu Shaoqi, Leading Communist
He Baozhen, Communist cadre and wife of Liu Shaoqi
Li Dazhao, Co-founder of Chinese Communist Party
Qu Qiubai, Top Communist leader
Wang Fanxi, A member of the Central Committee Organization Bureau
Zhang Guotao, Leading Communist
Peng Shuzi, Leading Communist expelled in 1929

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Friendship, Compartmentalization, and Assassination Squads: Life Underground in Shanghai in the Late 1920s (Part 2) Jan 13, 2022

Show notes

How did the Communist Party try to protect itself in Shanghai? We discuss the compartmentalized party organization and the creation of the Special Services Division.
Further reading:
Patricia Stranahan, Underground: The Shanghai Communist Party and the Politics of Survival, 1927-1937
Timothy Cheek, “Making Maoism: Ideology and Organization in the Yan’an Rectification Movement, 1942-1944”
Mao Zedong, “Combat Liberalism”
Xuezhi Guo, China's Security State: Philosophy, Evolution, and Politics
Some names from this episode:
Qu Qiubai, Top Communist leader from mid-1927 to mid-1928
Wang Shiwei, Cadre expelled during Yan’an rectification campaign
Gu Shunzhang, Zhou Enlai’s deputy in the Special Services Division
He Zhihua, Zhu De’s former lover from Germany, who betrayed the Communist Party

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Life Underground in Shanghai in the Late 1920s (Part 1) Jan 06, 2022

Show notes

The Communist Party Center remained underground in the dangerous city of Shanghai during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Further reading/watching:
Patricia Stranahan, Underground: The Shanghai Communist Party and the Politics of Survival, 1927-1937
China: A Century of Revolutiondocumentary
Josephine Fowler, Japanese and Chinese Immigrant Activists: Organizing in American and International Communist Movements, 1919–1933
Chang Kuo-t’ao [Zhang Guotao], The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party (2 volumes)
Wang Fan-hsi [Wang Fanxi], Memoirs of a Chinese Revolutionary
Christina Gilmartin, Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Communist Politics, and Mass Movements in the 1920s
Frederic Wakeman, Policing Shanghai, 1927-1937
Some names from this episode:
Deng Yingchao, Communist Party activist and wife of Zhou Enlai
Zhang Guotao, Leading Communist
Lin Zhuhan, Leading Communist
Li Weihan, Head of CCP Organizational Department
Gong Yinbing, CCP treasurer
He Shuheng, Communist cadre
Li Lisan, Leading Communist
Liu Shaoqi, Leading Communist
He Baozhen, Communist cadre and wife of Liu Shaoqi
Wang Yizhi, Communist cadre and widow of Zhang Tailei
Zhang Tailei, Leader of Guangzhou Commune
Chen Yannian, Chair of Jiangsu Provincial Committee for a very short time until his arrest
Chen Duxiu, Co-founder of Communist Party
Zhu De, Communist military leader
He Zhihua, Zhe De’s embittered lover from Germany
Qu Qiubai, Top Communist leader from mid-1927 to mid-1928
Wang Fanxi, Member of Organization bureau
Xu Baihao, Communist union leader

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Mao’s (Temporary) Expulsion from the Communist Party and the Collapse of the South Hunan Uprising (March and April 1928) Dec 19, 2021

Show notes

The Party Center puts the South Hunan Special Committee in charge of the Jinggangshan, and the contrast between the strategies advocated by Mao and the Party Center are put on vivid display.
Further reading:
Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De]
Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography,vol. 1: 1893-1949
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Some names from this episode:
Zhu De, Communist military commander
Li Weihan, member of politburo standing committee
Zhou Lu, head of the military branch of the Southern Hunan Special Committee
Wang Zuo, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Yuan Wencai, Bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong

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The Southern Hunan Uprising (Early 1928) Dec 14, 2021

Show notes

We look at the successful conquest of three cities (and one heart) by Zhu De during the course of the uprising he led in south Hunan at the beginning of 1928.
The link for my new course on academia.edu mentioned at the end of the episode:
www.academia.edu/learn/MatthewRothwell
Further reading:
Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De]
Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography,vol. 1: 1893-1949
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Christina Gilmartin, Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Communist Politics, and Mass Movements in the 1920s
Some names from this episode:
Zhu De, Communist military commander
Hu Shaohai, Communist from Yizhang
Fan Shisheng, Guomindang general and old friend of Zhu De
Xu Kexiang, Notorious Guomindang general known as the Peasant Butcherer
Tang Shengzhi, leader of Guomindang Left military forces
Chen Yi, Communist from a scholarly family and staff officer of Zhu De
Wu Ruolan, Married Zhu De in Leiyang
He Zizhen, Communist cadre known as the “Two-Gunned Girl General”
He Zhihua, Mother of Zhu De’s daughter
Luo Yinong, Communist leader killed after He Zhihua informed on him

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Studying Marxism and Getting Thrown in Jail: Zhu De in Germany (1922-1926) Nov 20, 2021

Show notes

Following Zhu De in Shanghai and Germany, finishing up our four-part detour through the early life of Zhu De.
Further reading:
Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De]
Some names from this episode:
Chen Duxiu, first general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
Zhou Enlai, organized branches of the Chinese Communist Party in Europe when he was a student there in the early 1920s, before returning to China to become a leading Communist
Sun Bingwen, Zhu De’s friend who traveled to Europe and joined the Communist Party with him
Li Dazhao, Co-founder of Chinese Communist Party

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Zhu De and The Army for the Defense of the Republic in Sichuan and Yunnan (1916-1922) Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

As the Army for the Defense of the Republic faces defections from the revolutionary nationalist cause as well as powerful warlord enemies, Zhu De rethinks the military vocation.
Further reading:
Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De]
Some names from this episode:
Cai E, Republican general and governor of Yunnan after the 1911-12 revolution
Yuan Shikai, leader of the Beiyang Army and dictator after the fall of the Qing
Xiong Kewu, Nationalist general turned warlord
Xiao Jufang, Zhu De’s first wife
Zhu Baozhu, Zhu De’s son (later took name Zhu Qi)
Chen Yuzhen, Zhu De’s second wife
Tang Jiyao, Opium growing Yunnan warlord
Lei Yongfei, Social bandit in control of part of Sikang province

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