FOREWORD:

Born at the dawn of the 20th century in Yiyang County, Jiangxi Province, China, Fang Zhimin grew up in a country wracked by upheaval. Indeed, Chinas very survival as a nation-state came into question. Large coastal cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong were dominated by Western commercial interests.

Even worse, the Japanese imperialists occupied Chinas Shandong Province and had expansionist designs on even larger tracts of Chinese territory. Little wonder, then, that revolutionary change fomented in the hearts and minds of many Chinese, leading to a spiritual awakening among animated young men, like Fang Zhimin. They committed themselves to finding a means by which their nation could be saved.

Fang Zhimins first encounter with Marxism occurred whilst he was attending a protestant school in Jiujiang City, Jiangxi in 1922. Shortly afterwards, in August, he joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League in Shanghai. Within two years, he became a committed member of the Communist Party of China (CPC). During the Great Revolution (1924-1927), Fang led peasant revolutionary movements in Jiangxi designed to protect the rights of the underprivileged and bring about radical change within Chinese society.

In 1927, after Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang (KMT) betrayed its Communist allies, Fang Zhimin, like many other ardent Communists, continued to facilitate peasant uprisings in his hometown in Northeast Jiangxi. He founded the Northeast Jiangxi Revolutionary Base Area, which expanded from Northeast Jiangxi to North Fujian, West Zhejiang and South Anhui (thus forming the Fujian-Zhejiang-(Anhui)-Jiangxi Revolutionary Base Area). It became one of the six earliest strategic base areas established by the CPC during the Agrarian Revolutionary War (1927-1937), and was called by Mao Zedong a Fang Zhimin-style base area.

After the September 18th Incident in 1931, the Japanese military forces seized power in Northeast China, and formed the puppet state of Manchuria. Thirsting to wipe out the CPC, Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the KMT government, mustered the armies to launch encirclement and suppression campaigns against all revolutionary base areas, while his government yielded to the Japanese invaders time and again.

In January 1933, the CPC again issued a declaration calling for an end to the civil war and a united effort to resist the Japanese invaders. In November 1934, to support the Long March of the main forces of the Central Red Army, Fang Zhimin was entrusted, at a critical moment, to command the 10th Red Army Group (the Northwards Anti-Japanese Vanguard) of the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army and continue the mission to confront the Japanese imperialists.

In January 1935, while en route, Fangs army was cut off by the KMT troops that outnumbered them ten-to-one. The KMT unit gained the upper hand and Fang was captured in the Huaiyu Mountains on 29 January, 1935. During his imprisonment, Fang was shown to the public by the KMT officers, who thought his humiliation would perfectly flaunt their victory. They attempted to persuade Fang to surrender, by offering him lucrative inducements, and to denounce communism and declare that the Communist Partys aim was to divide the Chinese nation. Fang flatly refused. To Fang Zhimin, his noble belief was more precious than his own life. From the first day of his commitment to the Communist Party, he devoted all his time, energy and possessions to his homeland and his Party.

From the day he was captured to the day of his execution six months later, Fang Zhimin had to overcome all manners of privations as well as a constant fear of torture and death. However, he remained determined to articulate an accurate record of his life as a revolutionary. Notable essays, such as The Puritan Life, A Brief Account of My Engagement in Revolutionary Struggle and many others consisting of over 130,000 words, came from these writings.

Another article, entitled Beloved China, laid bare Fangs patriotism and compassion for his dear China, and served as a powerful plea for all Chinese to rise against their oppressors, even at the cost of their lives. Indeed, Fang Zhimin saw it as the duty of all Chinese to struggle for the freedom and development of their motherland!

On 6 August, 1935, Fang Zhimin was secretly killed, at the age of 36.

Many of Fangs manuscripts were successfully smuggled out of prison by sympathisers from various social classes and published, which may seem quite odd from a contemporary standpoint. Among them were: a senior KMT officer who was then in jail, Hu Yimin; a clerk working in the jail, Gao Jiajun, and his girlfriend Cheng Quanzhao; wife of Sun Yat-sen, Soong Ching Ling; and a leading figure in modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun. All were involved in salvaging Fangs essays. Some of those manuscripts were delivered to the Comintern in Moscow. Soon afterwards, Some Words Before We Die was published by the Jiuguo Shibao (Salvation Times) newspaper in Paris in January of 1936. In 1940, at a critical juncture during Chinas war with the Japanese invaders, Beloved China was published in the concessions of Shanghai (as part of The Autobiography of Fang Zhimin) to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Fangs sacrifice. This inspired the Chinese people to continue resisting the invasion.

Fang Zhimin was one of the first Chinese Communist leaders to kick-start economic development in the revolutionary base areas. He instituted ingenious fiscal and monetary policies to combat KMT economic blockades. All his economic policies centred around alleviating financial pressure for local peasants while creating new opportunities, such as trade, for his revolutionary base area to help it prosper.

Sadly, Fang Zhimin did not live to see the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. One can only imagine how proud he would be of China if he had heard President Xi Jinping, in early 2021, announce that China had achieved its longstanding goal of eliminating absolute poverty. Fangs compositions, including Beloved China and The Puritan Life, which were born of his heart and soul, have remained ever present in Chinese textbooks. These works have moved numerous Chinese people of succeeding generations and Beloved China has invoked the notion of Fang Zhimin-style patriotism.

These scenes, which Fang Zhimin could never have imagined, are perhaps the finest gift for his life, ideals, and soul.

Xu Siyang

June 2021

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