Martyrs' Tomb and Memorial Monument of Wu Dunren

Martyrs' Tomb and Memorial Monument of Wu Dunren

The Martyrs' Tomb and Memorial Monument of Wu Dunren are a cultural heritage site protected by Quangang District and a classic red tourism attraction.

The Martyrs' Tomb and Memorial Monument of Wu Dunren are located in Linjiao Village, Tuling Town, Quangang District, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province.

Wu Dunren was born in 1906 in Linjiao Village, Tuling. In the autumn of 1921, he was admitted to the Normal Department of Jimei School, where he actively participated in anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary movements both on and off campus. In February 1926, he joined the "Jimei Alumni Homecoming Propaganda Team," composed of several progressive students and led by Communist Party members Wang Dezhang and Wu Guozhen. The team traveled to Hui’an County’s urban areas as well as mountainous regions including Shan Yao, Ba Tou, Da Qian Huang, Ge Shan, and Tuling to conduct anti-imperialist and anti-feudal propaganda. In October, following directives from the Xiamen Special Branch of the CPC, the Xiamen Communist Youth League Executive Committee, and the Xiamen University Party Branch, he returned to Hui’an with Wang Dezhang, Ke Lianding, Wu Guozhen, and others to prepare for welcoming the National Revolutionary Army’s liberation of Hui’an. On November 25, when the Northern Expeditionary Army entered Hui’an City, he and his comrades held a victory celebration attended by both soldiers and civilians. They organized speeches, performances, and civilized plays to oppose corrupt officials, local tyrants, evil gentry, and feudal secret societies, while also launching a movement to reduce rents and debts.

In December 1926, he joined the Communist Party of China, becoming a member of the first Hui’an Party Branch—the Hui’an Branch. In 1927, when the Provisional County Committee of the CPC in Hui’an was established, he served as the head of the Student Branch. During this period of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, he worked as an organizational officer for the Provisional County Party Department of the Kuomintang in Hui’an, which was established with the assistance of the Communists. He also served as an executive committee member of the County Federation, in charge of the Propaganda Division. Furthermore, in the name of the County Student Federation, along with eight other comrades including Su Keming, he formed a Grain Tax Supervision Committee within the county government offices to oversee the collection of taxes from peasants, earning widespread support from the farming community.

After the “April 12 Counterrevolutionary Coup” in April 1927, he moved to the rural areas of Tuling in northern Hui’an, where he worked as a teacher at Dingxin Primary School. Using his teaching position as cover, he continued to carry out peasant movement activities. In late April, he reconnected with Communist Party members Shi Cengnong and Xu Caiying, who had been dispatched by the CPC Southern Fujian Committee to work in Hui’an. Together, they organized and developed a “Mutual Aid Group” in Tuling, with 60 members. Using members of the Mutual Aid Group as the core, they founded political training classes and night schools for peasants, spreading revolutionary ideas to farmers and uniting the impoverished rural population. On July 14, the Tuling Peasants’ Association and Peasants’ Self-Defense Army were officially established. Over 1,000 association members and students attended the founding assembly held at Linjiaopu, where speeches were given by Shi Cengnong and Wu Dunren. In August 1927, the Hui’an Special Branch of the CPC was established in Tuling, and he was appointed Secretary of the Linjiao Branch. The peasant movement in Tuling expanded to 13 base villages in the border region of Jinjiang, Hui’an, and Xianyou counties, within the Sanping Mountain area. The movement included over 1,200 association members and more than 500 peasants in the self-defense army, including a standing force of 21. Under the Party’s leadership, the association and self-defense army launched vigorous anti-tax struggles. They successfully repelled three attacks by tax collection forces led by the “Land Tax Bureau Chiefs” of Hui’an and Quanzhou, as well as by the suppressive troops of the Lin Shouguo Marine Corps. On December 1, nearly 1,000 members of the Tuling Peasants’ Self-Defense Army were organized into two battalions and 13 companies, and renamed the Hui’an Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army. On January 16, over 300 soldiers from the Marine Corps’ Yang Xianqiu Battalion infiltrated the western mountainous region of Tuling from Yuanzhuang in Xianyou, attempting to destroy the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army. Upon learning of this, Wu Dunren, along with Wu Guozhen, Chen Dongshui, and others, deployed the Revolutionary Army to ambush the enemy in the mountain valley of Sizhou Village. After more than two hours of fierce fighting, they achieved a great victory, killing over 30 enemies, capturing more than 70, and seizing over 200 weapons, thus crushing the enemy’s encirclement.

In October 1929, he worked with Chen Pingshan, a member of the Hui’an County Committee of the CPC, to revive and develop the Peasants’ Association, continuing the revolutionary struggle. In June 1930, he became the head of the Tuling District Committee. On July 6, under the leadership of the Hui’an County Committee of the CPC, he, along with Lan Feihe, Wu Guozhen, Chen Xinggui, Chen Dongshui, and others, mobilized nearly 1,000 peasants from Lukou, Tuling, Lingxi, and the “Eighteen Villages” including Sanzhu and Qianshao to jointly launch an armed struggle against the bandit Wang Hanmin (Chai Shui), who was attempting to collect tobacco seedling taxes. This “Anti-Tax and Anti-Bandit” campaign was victorious. In July, he was appointed as a member of the Hui’an County Committee of the CPC and accelerated preparations for an armed uprising.

On September 15, 1930, just as the armed uprising was about to take place, it was suddenly discovered that Wang Yunlong, a bandit leader from Lantian in western Hui’an, had brought a group of twenty to thirty men to the home of Zhang Shouqing, a local gentry figure in Tuling. Together with Chen Pingshan, Secretary of the Military Affairs Commission of the CPC Quanzhou Special Committee, Commander-in-Chief of the Hui’an Red Army, and Political Commissar and Commander of the First Regiment, Wu went to Zhang’s home to explain the Communist Party’s principles to the bandits, transforming resistance into support. To prevent any mishaps, he stayed behind at Zhang’s home to keep the bandits occupied. Chen Pingshan led over 500 soldiers of the First Regiment in an attack on the landlord-armed stronghold at Huifeng Station. Due to the prolonged inability to capture the position, the uprising failed.

After the failure of the Hui’an Uprising, the reactionary Kuomintang dispatched large numbers of militias to frantically “encircle and suppress” revolutionary forces. Despite the danger, he remained steadfast in his Party duties. Together with Chen Pingshan, Wu Guozhen, Chen Dongshui, and others, he reorganized the Tuling District Committee and quickly established Party branches and peasant associations in Tuling, Yiban, Zhangjiao, Chentian, and other areas. He vigorously developed guerrilla activity zones from Tuling to the Sanping Mountain region and continued the struggle against the tax and levy policies of the Kuomintang government. For a time, the area stretching 30 li from Fengting and Yuanzhuang in the north to Yiban in the south, and westward to Sanping, became an armed guerrilla “red zone.”

On December 26, 1930, Wu Dunren returned home in the evening after conducting activities outside. Around 8 p.m., as he lay on the bed in the downstairs bedroom reading, he was suddenly shot multiple times in the chest and shoulder by bandits who had been lying in wait outside the window, having been hired by local despotic landlords. He sacrificed his young life for the revolution at the age of only 24.

In December 2001, the People’s Government of Quangang District listed the Martyrs' Monument of Wu Dunren as a cultural heritage protection site.

Source: Luojiang District Party History Research Office

Tuling Town: Located in the southwestern part of Quangang District, Tuling Town borders Hui’an, Luojiang, and Xianyou counties. The town covers a total area of 157 square kilometers, accounting for half of the land area of Quangang District. It governs 21 administrative villages and 1 community, with a population of over 50,000. The Town Party Committee oversees 39 Party branches, including 2 rural Party general branches, 19 Party branches, 1 community Party branch, 17 directly affiliated units, and 1,524 Party members. The people of Tuling Town are known for their simple and honest folkways, and the area enjoys good public order and social stability. Tuling natives are spread across the country in business and government, including many with substantial influence... More detailed information about Tuling Town++