The Guo Family Ancestral Temple — Former Site of the Red Fourth Army Front Committee Office and Zhu De’s Mass Rally

The Guo Family Ancestral Temple — Former Site of the Red Fourth Army Front Committee Office and Zhu De’s Mass Rally

The Guo Family Ancestral Temple — Former Site of the Red Fourth Army Front Committee Office and Zhu De’s Mass Rally is a classic red tourism destination, a patriotic education base, and a national defense education base.

The Guo Family Ancestral Temple is the former site of the Red Fourth Army Front Committee Office and where Zhu De held mass rallies. Also known as the Cenlou Dazong, it is located in Fuzhong Village, Hengkou Township, Yongchun County.

From August 22 to 28, 1929, Comrade Zhu De led more than 3,000 troops from the Second and Third Columns of the Red Fourth Army to station in Fuding Township, Yongchun County (including the present-day Fuzhong, Fulian, and Huanfeng villages), for rest and recuperation. The Front Committee Office was set up in the Guo Family Ancestral Temple. The Red Fourth Army held a mass rally at the temple, where Zhu De personally attended and delivered a speech standing on the stone steps in front of the temple gate. He called on the working masses to unite and follow the Communist Party in revolution, overthrow the local tyrants, distribute land, and establish a people's government of "great harmony."

Three rooms of the Guo Family Ancestral Temple were designated as a temporary printing office for the Red Fourth Army. Over 20 female soldiers stayed there, responsible for printing propaganda materials, writing slogans, posting notices, and spreading the Red Army’s principles and revolutionary truths. To this day, two Red Army slogans remain well-preserved on the temple walls: “The Kuomintang conspires with imperialism, the Communist Party overthrows imperialism” and “Cities are the graves of humanity, the countryside is our paradise.”

In December 1982, the Guo Family Ancestral Temple was listed among the first batch of Yongchun County Cultural Relics Protection Units. In December 1994, it was designated as a Yongchun County Patriotic Education Base. In 2001 and 2004, city, county, and township funds were allocated twice for major renovations of the temple, preserving its original appearance while protecting the Red Army slogans in glass frames. On the upper floor of the main hall of the ancestral temple, an exhibition room on Zhu De and the revolutionary history of the Red Fourth Army was set up. Display cases feature artifacts and photos such as the oil lamps and straw shoes used by Red Army soldiers, clothing, long gowns, and pens given to local residents, as well as IOUs written when borrowing items from the public. In August 2004, the Hengkou Township government erected a over three-meter-high cement statue of Comrade Zhu De inside the outer courtyard of the ancestral temple. In front of the temple is a well that was used by Red Army soldiers for water, affectionately referred to as the “Red Army Well,” which has also been renovated. In March 2005, the Fuding Revolutionary Sites were listed as one of the first five “Red Tourism Spots (Sites)” promoted by Quanzhou City. In September 2006, the Guo Family Ancestral Temple was designated as a Quanzhou Patriotic Education and National Defense Education Base. In August 2010, it was included in the second batch of Fujian Provincial Party History Education Bases.

The Guo Family Ancestral Temple was originally built in the first year of the Zhi Da era during the Yuan Dynasty (1308) and underwent two renovations during the Qing Dynasty. It is a two-courtyard structure with earthen walls and wooden frames, featuring a flush-gable roof and a post-and-lintel wooden construction system. It has four bays in width and is 15 meters deep. The local Fuzhong Primary School was once located here, though a separate teaching building has since been constructed nearby.

Source: Yongchun County Party History Research Office