Group of Revolutionary Sites in Ciping

Group of Revolutionary Sites in Ciping

The Group of Revolutionary Sites in Ciping is a classic red tourism destination.

The Group of Revolutionary Sites in Ciping is located beside the picturesque Yicui Lake in Ciping Town, Jinggangshan City. In the past, this place was called Dianshang Village, and before the Ming Dynasty, it was known as Chaiping because many persimmon trees grew here, hence it was also called Shiping. During the Ming Dynasty, a "Number Three Scholar" (ranked third in the imperial examination) came from here, so it was also referred to as Shiping. After 1925, it was renamed "Ciping," and this name has been used ever since. During the Jinggangshan revolutionary struggle, Ciping served as the highest command center for the Party, government, and military of the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base. Important institutions such as the Front Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Jinggangshan, the headquarters of the Fourth Red Army, the Border Defense Committee of Hunan-Jiangxi, the Officers' Training Corps, the Ordnance Department, and the Public Sales Office were all located here. In January 1929, after the main forces of the Red Army withdrew from Jinggangshan, Ciping suffered extensive burning and killing, with nearly all houses burned down. Later, local residents returned to rebuild some of them. In the 1960s, the local government restored and rebuilt parts of it according to the original appearance.

Former Residence of Comrade Mao Zedong

The site is located at the foot of Dongshan Mountain in Ciping, in Dianshang Village. The house faces west and is built along an east-west axis. It is a wooden and earthen structure with a gable and hip roof, yellow earthen walls, and a tiled roof with small blue tiles. It has two stories, is 20.5 meters wide with four bays, and 19.2 meters deep with two bays, covering a construction area of 687.6 square meters. The landlord was Li Lichang and Li Chengsheng. Li Lichang once served as the chairman of the Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Government of Ciping Township during the Jinggangshan struggle and passed away in the early years after liberation. The landlord’s family originally ran a small grocery store. On October 27, 1927, after Mao Zedong led the troops of the Autumn Harvest Uprising to Ciping, Li Lichang offered half of the ground floor to the Front Committee and Mao Zedong to live in, while he himself lived in a row of unused rooms behind the house.

The Front Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Jinggangshan was located in the central hall of the house. On November 6, 1928, Comrades Mao Zedong, Yang Kaiming, and Tan Zhenlin presided over an expanded meeting of the Special Committee of the CCP’s Hunan-Jiangxi Border Region here. According to instructions from a letter sent by the Central Committee, the meeting re-established the Front Committee of the Jinggangshan Front, consisting of five members: Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Tan Zhenlin, Song Qiaosheng, and Mao Kewen. Mao Zedong was appointed secretary, directly under the leadership of the Central Committee, making it the highest Party leadership organ within the base. Thereafter, the Front Committee operated here, and Comrade Mao Zedong presided over multiple important meetings concerning the Party, government, and military, discussing and planning the work of the base.

In January 1929, the Front Committee of Jinggangshan held an expanded meeting here to discuss the route for the main forces of the Fourth Red Army to march into southern Jiangxi. Opinions were divided, with some advocating for the Jingzhu Mountain route, while others insisted on the more secluded Xiaoxingzhou route, believing it would be less likely to be discovered by the enemy. After analysis, the majority agreed that the troops should depart from Xiaoxingzhou, and Mao Zedong respected the democratic centralism principle and accepted everyone’s opinion. Ultimately, the meeting decided that the main forces of the Fourth Red Army would set out from Xiaoxingzhou and advance into southern Jiangxi and western Fujian.

The rear right room of the central hall was Mao Zedong’s bedroom and office. Here, Mao led the soldiers and civilians of Jinggangshan through difficult times. At the time, due to the tight economic blockade imposed by the enemy forces from Hunan and Jiangxi, the supply of provisions for the Red Army was extremely difficult, and material life was very harsh. Mao ate the same red rice and pumpkins as ordinary soldiers.

Mao was extremely busy with military duties during the day and had to work in the evenings as well. He Zizhen often accompanied him late into the night, transcribing documents and clipping newspapers. At the time, there was a regulation regarding the use of lamp oil at night: each office could use only one oil lamp with three wicks, and each company’s night watch could keep one lamp but only with one wick. By this rule, Mao, being the Party representative of the Fourth Red Army, Secretary of the Military Commission of the Fourth Red Army, Secretary of the Special Committee of the CCP’s Hunan-Jiangxi Border Region, and Secretary of the Front Committee of Jinggangshan, could have used a lamp with three wicks. However, to save oil, he insisted on using a lamp with only one wick every evening. Under this dim light, Mao drafted the important work “Struggle in Jinggangshan,” in which he summarized the experiences of the struggle in Jinggangshan, expounded the brilliant concept of “armed agrarian revolution,” and pointed out the correct direction for the Chinese revolution.

One of Mao Zedong’s most important possessions during the Jinggangshan struggle was this carrying pole with baskets, used to hold his writing materials, books, and newspapers. At the time, a soldier named Long Kaifu was mainly responsible for collecting newspapers and documents for Commissar Mao and carried the baskets with the army. As the revolution progressed, Long Kaifu also grew and was later awarded the rank of Major General after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. He once joked, “The Chairman’s writings were not only written by him but also carried out by me!”

The room to the right of the bedroom was the dining room for Mao Zedong and the Red Army soldiers. Zhu De and Chen Yi sometimes ate here as well. At the time, the material life of the Red Army was very harsh—“from the army commander to the cook, everyone except for grain rations ate meals costing five cents,” often subsisting on coarse red rice and pumpkin soup lacking oil and salt, and sometimes even relying on wild vegetables to stave off hunger. “Red rice, pumpkin soup, autumn eggplant, delicious taste, every meal eaten clean”—a folk song circulating in Jinggangshan at the time truly reflected the hard life of the Red Army.

At the time, Mao was very busy with work and often only came to the dining room after being called several times. When Zhu De first arrived in Ciping, Wang Zuo, the “host” of Jinggangshan, prepared some good dishes out of love and respect for the army commander to entertain him. Zhu De combined these dishes with the pumpkin soup that the soldiers were eating and shared the meal with everyone, telling them it was called the “Unity Dish.”

The stone path in front of the house was a main street in Ciping at the time, and the pavilion nearby provided a resting place for passersby. Mao often sat under the pavilion, talking heart-to-heart with local people, conducting social surveys, and learning about conditions in Jinggangshan.

On January 14, 1929, after Comrades Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Chen Yi led the main forces of the Fourth Red Army to southern Jiangxi, the Kuomintang forces of Hunan and Jiangxi temporarily occupied Jinggangshan and implemented a scorched-earth policy of “stones must be chopped, grass must be burned, and people must be replaced.” Most of the houses on Jinggangshan were burned down, and the former site of the Front Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Jinggangshan was also destroyed. In 1961, the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Museum restored the site to its original appearance.

On March 4, 1961, the State Council designated this site as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Address: Ciping Town, Jinggangshan City

Type: Celebrity Former Residence Memorial Hall

Ticket Information:

No ticket required. Included in the general admission ticket for the Jinggangshan Scenic Area

Ciping Town: Ciping Subdistrict is located in the central scenic area of Ciping in the Jinggangshan Scenic Area, Jinggangshan City, Jiangxi Province. The jurisdiction covers an area of approximately 3.8 square kilometers, with 6,036 households and a total population of 20,098 people (according to data from the Sixth National Population Census, including 14,459 permanent residents). The area includes four community neighborhood committees. Administratively, it borders forest farms under the jurisdiction of the Jinggangshan Administration Bureau and the Jinggangshan Nature Reserve Management Bureau. To the west, it neighbors the Dajing Forest Farm; to the south, it is adjacent to the Zhusha Forest Farm; and to the northeast, it borders the Ciping Forest Farm.

The Ciping Subdistrict Party Working Committee and the Ciping Subdistrict Office are respectively the... (Ciping Town detailed information++)