Former Site of Shangjie Lenin School

Former Site of Shangjie Lenin School

Lenin School was located in the ancestral hall of the Liu family at Shangcheng in Shangjie Village, Yangmen Township, Anfu County. In February 1931, following the victories of the First Front Red Army in capturing Ji’an and the 12th Red Army in taking Anfu County, the Hunan-Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet Government established the first school in the Anfu Soviet Area—Lenin School. At that time, the school had six classes with over 200 students, 11 full-time teachers, and five part-time teachers. Liu Danzhi served as the principal, later succeeded by Liu Gao, with Vice Principal Liu Li (from Yantanzhou, Yantian, in the county). Most of the students were grassroots officers of the Red Army and local officials from the Soviet Area, along with some selected youths. Teachers and students maintained both a teacher-student relationship and that of revolutionary comrades, respecting each other and striving for mutual improvement. The curriculum included Chinese language, military training, arithmetic, social history, political knowledge, geography, natural science, singing, Chinese painting, and physical education. The school building covered an area of 884 square meters, consisting of 30 tiled houses (some of which were requisitioned from nearby civilian homes adjacent to the Liu family ancestral hall), relatively centralized. To the east of the school, a large lawn was used as a playground, and to the north of the playground, a dedicated Lenin Platform was built. Some desks and chairs were confiscated from landlords, while others were made by teachers and students themselves by chopping down trees in the mountains. Textbooks mainly consisted of educational outlines and military knowledge printed by the Provincial Committee, with most others self-authored by the teachers. A student assembly was formed, and the student union was divided into five departments: general affairs, education, propaganda, health, and music. In addition to academic study and military drills, Lenin School students helped families of martyrs and soldiers with fetching water and chopping firewood, stood guard for the troops, delivered messages, and participated in campaigns against local tyrants and spies. The Chinese language textbooks compiled in the revolutionary base areas at that time included “The Lenin School Song,” “The Reading Song,” and “The Young Pioneers’ Song.” Training involved weapons such as spears, pistols, broadswords, long sticks, and homemade guns. Original items within the school, such as teachers’ beds, blackboards, desks and chairs, murals on classroom walls, revolutionary slogans on pillars, and the Lenin School plaque, have all been well preserved. Veteran Red Army soldiers who studied here, including Liu Jiyuan, Liu Qingchang, Liu Hefeng, and Liu Guoxian, still have vivid memories of the school’s conditions at the time.

In December 1933, due to the Kuomintang’s fierce encirclement and suppression campaigns, the school was forced to disband. Although the school buildings were protected through the efforts of many members of the Liu family, they still suffered severe damage—nearby structures such as the Yidong Ancestral Hall, Qiyuan Public Hall, and three civilian houses were burned down. In June 1993, the Anfu County People’s Government listed it as part of the second batch of cultural relics protection units. In 2009, the county cultural relics office invested tens of thousands of yuan to renovate the school.

Shangjie Village: In December 2012, Shangjie Village was included in the first batch of China’s Traditional Villages list. With a long history and dense population, the village has 1,620 residents across 446 households. Nestled against mountains and near water—“facing the Chenhe River in front and backed by the Golden Lotus Mountain”—it is hailed as “a millennium-old village at the foot of the Luoxiao Mountains.” From 1930 to 1933, it successively served as the seat of the government of the 11th District of the Northwest Special Zone of the Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet Area and the government of the 1st District of Anfu County, Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet Area. The provincial-level cultural relic protection unit “Lenin Primary School,” originally the Liu family ancestral hall Jing’ai Hall (built in the Song Dynasty, renovated in the Ming Dynasty, with a history of over 6… More details about Shangjie Village++

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units