Martyr Dai Anlan’s Tomb

Martyr Dai Anlan’s Tomb

Martyr Dai Anlan’s Tomb is a cultural tourism attraction.

Dai Anlan, originally named Dai Yandong and also known as Dai Bingyang, joined the National Revolutionary Army in 1924. Witnessing his homeland in peril, he changed his name to “Anlan” (meaning “calm the waves”) to express his lofty aspiration to “quell the wild storms on the plains and hold back the surging tides.” In 1925, Dai Anlan entered the Whampoa Military Academy. At the age of 35, he became the commander of the 200th Division, which was the first and only mechanized division in the Chinese army at the time.

In March 1942, Dai Anlan led his troops into Burma to fight against the Japanese invaders. During the Battle of Toungoo, he wrote a farewell letter, vowing to defend the isolated city to the death. He announced that if the division commander died, the deputy would take over; if the deputy died, the chief of staff would take over; if a regimental commander died, a battalion commander would replace him, and so on down the ranks. In battle, General Dai personally manned a machine gun and led the 200th Division—comprising just 9,000 soldiers—to hold off over 20,000 Japanese troops for 12 days, inflicting the first major defeat on the Japanese forces since their southern invasion.

On May 18, while leading his troops in a rapid advance through the mountainous region of northern Burma, they were suddenly ambushed by a large Japanese force. During the fierce battle, Dai Anlan was severely wounded by a bullet to the chest and abdomen. He succumbed to infection from his wounds on May 26 at the age of 38. In his final moments, he asked his soldiers to lift his head toward the north, facing the motherland, and he cried out, “Long live the motherland!”

On April 1, 1943, the Nationalist Government held a state funeral for General Dai Anlan at Xiangshan Temple in Quanzhou, Guangxi. After the liberation, Dai Anlan was posthumously recognized as a revolutionary martyr by the Central People’s Government, and his remains were relocated and reburied in Zheshan Park in Wuhu City. In 1979, the tomb site was renovated, and a stone stele was erected. The left stele bears elegiac poems, inscriptions, and couplets dedicated to the general by figures such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, and Deng Yingchao. The right stele contains a biography of the general’s life, and the central stele is inscribed with “Martyr Dai Anlan’s Tomb” by Wang Kunlun. The tomb area is lush with trees, and the pines and cypresses remain evergreen. Visitors come to pay their respects all year round. The thriving greenery and enduring evergreens seem to echo that General Dai’s spirit remains undimmed and his heroism lives on.