CPC100: Yunnan essential to Zhu De’s revolutionary career

Since he set foot on Yunnan on 1909, Zhu De, one of the key founders of the Communist Party of China (CPC), visited the province seven times in succession, leaving behind revolutionary foot prints of glory. On the occasion of the CPC’s 100th anniversary, it’s necessary for Yunnan folks to remember Zhu’s experiences herein.

Zhu first went through military training at the Yunnan Military Academy, where he kicked off his revolutionary career. And then he participated in the Kunming Double Ninth Uprising in 1911 and the campaign to suppress bandits in south Yunnan.

During the events, Zhu De gained early experiences in military operation. However, he formed his own revolutionary thoughts and ideals when living in the No. 4 residency, which is located in the Honghua alley near the Green Lake in Kunming.

When Zhu De assumed the office of the head of Yunnan Police Department in 1921, he built up Jieyuan, the garden of purity, to show his dissatisfaction with the corruption of the then military government, while conveying his pursuit in self-discipline and revolutionary ideals.

In those stormy days, Zhu witnessed the tragic situation of military conflicts across China, and he realized that the old democratic revolution led by the bourgeoisie failed to resolve the difficulties faced by the Chinese nation. Instead, he saw rays of hope from the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the ensuing May 4th Movement in China. Zhu’s interrupted stays in Yunnan laid an ideological foundation for his spectacular revolutionary career in the 1930s and 1940s.

Source: Xinhua; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue