Cai Wei Deeds Exhibition Hall

Cai Wei Deeds Exhibition Hall

The Cai Wei Deeds Exhibition Hall is a patriotic education base.

The Cai Wei Deeds Exhibition Hall is located in Jiaocheng District, Ningde, covering an area of 2.5 mu with a construction area of 1,300 square meters. It is a typical ancient dwelling of eastern Fujian featuring Ming and Qing architectural styles, consisting of the auxiliary building area of the Cai Family Ancestral Temple and the former residence of Cai Wei. In 2005, the former residence of Cai Wei was listed by the provincial Party committee and government as one of the four major former residences of famous red figures in Fujian Province. On July 1, 2008, the exhibition hall was officially established.

Above the ceremonial gate of the Cai Family Ancestral Temple hangs a vermillion plaque with gold inlay inscribed with “Cai Wei Deeds Exhibition Hall,” personally handwritten by Comrade - in January 2008. The plaque is 2.7 meters long and 0.35 meters wide. On both sides of the front facade of the ceremonial gate are hung plaques designating it as a patriotic education base at the provincial, municipal, and district levels.

Adjacent to the Cai Family Ancestral Temple is the former residence of Cai Wei, separated only by a wall. The main structure is divided into four sections: front, middle, rear, and the very back. It was built in the 28th year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (1848) by Cai Builuan, Cai Wei’s great-grandfather (a Qing Dynasty imperial scholar, later promoted to Tongfeng Doctoral Rank, and a candidate prefect), for his four sons.

Cai Wei Deeds Exhibition Hall

The two rooms at the front and back on the north side of the main hall of the former residence are where Cai Wei was born and where he and his wife Xue Pinxuan slept. These were also the places where Cai Wei lived during his childhood and adolescence, as well as when he returned home from his studies in Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai, and from his revolutionary activities. The bedroom is now largely preserved in its original condition.

Inside the former residence, a painting titled “The Life Journey of Cai Wei” displays the main revolutionary sites associated with him. He was born in 1907 in Ningde County, Fujian Province (now Jiaocheng District). From 1922 to 1925, he studied successively at Geshi Middle School in Fuzhou, Ningbo Middle School in Zhejiang Province, and Huiling English Specialized School in Shanghai. In the winter of 1926, he was introduced by the Fuzhou Local Committee of the CPC to return to Ningde to carry out Party activities. In 1927, he was arrested in Fuzhou. He was released on bail in August and went to Shanghai to seek out the CPC organization, using the alias “Cai Wei.” In the first half of 1931, Cai Wei attended the radio training class of the Special Branch of the CPC Central Committee in Shanghai, where he became proficient in radio technology. In November of the same year, he was dispatched by the CPC Central Committee to secretly enter the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area base along with comrades Song Kanfu and Wang Zigang. Thereafter, he became a “hidden sharp sword,” achieving remarkable feats time and again.

Hidden but Remarkable Military Achievements

In the exhibition hall, a sword with the inscription “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles” on its hilt is the museum’s treasured exhibit. Beside it is an old radio transmitter, the very weapon through which Cai Wei achieved his remarkable military feats.

From November 1931, when Cai Wei arrived at Xinji, Henan—the political and military center of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area—until his death in September 1936, he held successive positions as staff officer of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Sub-committee of the Central Military Commission, head of the Second Radio Station of the Fourth Red Army, and director of the Second Bureau of the General Headquarters of the Red Army. He demonstrated exceptional talent and achieved remarkable successes in radio communication technical reconnaissance, intelligence decryption, radio station maintenance, and personnel training, providing crucial intelligence support for the high-level decision-making and strategic deployment of the Fourth Red Army and even the entire Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Cai Wei’s outstanding contributions in radio communication technical decryption played an immeasurable role in the communication work of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area and the Red Army during the Sichuan-Shaanxi period, especially during the 25,000-li Long March, ensuring smooth communication for the main forces of the Red Army. In March 1935, the Second Radio Station of the Fourth Red Army, under Cai Wei’s responsibility, undertook the radio technical reconnaissance work for the entire army. In June of the same year, the First Red Army and the Fourth Red Army joined forces and marched northward. In an extremely harsh environment, due to the needs of the troops, Cai Wei, as a radio technical reconnaissance expert, crossed the grassland three times. He overcame all kinds of difficulties by every possible means to ensure the normal operation of the radio station; he worked tirelessly and devoted himself completely to decrypting the enemy’s radio communication codes, pointing the way for the successful northward march of the Central Red Army. He was hailed by generals such as Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao as the army’s “all-seeing eye” and “living bodhisattva.” After the victory of the Long March, Comrade Mao Zedong also spoke highly of the Second Bureau: “The Second Bureau, well done. With the Second Bureau, the Red Army’s Long March was like marching at night with a lantern. Without the Second Bureau, the victory of the Long March would have been unimaginable.”

Unfortunately, the harsh war environment and years of selfless work severely damaged Cai Wei’s health. At the end of August 1936, he contracted severe typhoid fever. On September 22, when the troops arrived at Zhuping Village, Min County, Gansu, the ruthless disease claimed the life of Cai Wei, who was only 29 years old.

Hero “Reappears,” Inspiring Reverence

Due to the special nature of underground revolutionary work and radio technical reconnaissance, Cai Wei’s true identity became an undecipherable “code” after his sacrifice. However, the republic did not forget him, and a heartfelt search lasting half a century ensued.

In the exhibition hall, a stone sword once owned by the Cai family—belonging to Shi Dakai—is the key to deciphering this “code.”

In 1984, the Party Central Committee decided to assign some veteran cadres to various provinces to carry out Party consolidation work. Song Kanfu, then a member of the Central Advisory Commission and Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, volunteered to come to Fujian upon hearing the news. Based on some of the background information Cai Wei had shared with him during his lifetime—including this ancestral sword of the Taiping Rebellion’s Wing King, Shi Dakai—Song inferred that Cai Wei was from Fujian. Song entrusted the important task of finding Cai Wei’s relatives to Xi Nan, then Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee. After several twists and turns, in March 1985, Cai Wei’s relatives were finally found in Ningde. In June of the same year, General Ma Wenbo personally led relevant personnel from the Third Department of the General Staff to Ningde to conduct on-site investigations and verifications. On November 4, the Fujian Provincial Government, in accordance with instructions from the General Office of the Central Committee and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, officially recognized Comrade Cai Wei as a revolutionary martyr.

On May 18, 1998, through the joint efforts of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the relevant departments of Fujian and Gansu provinces, the remains of Martyr Cai Wei were brought back to Jiaocheng, Ningde from Zhuping Village, Min County. When the martyr’s remains arrived in Jiaocheng, thousands of local residents paid solemn tribute and lined the streets to welcome them.

Currently, the second phase of the Cai Wei Deeds Exhibition Hall project has been fully completed, adding a red culture corridor, scene-based reliefs, central hall traditional Chinese paintings, a second exhibition room, updated exhibition board content, and improved forms of presentation for the exhibition boards and displays.

(By Wu Xutao and Yan Couwen / Photos)