Monument to the Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province in Daming County

Monument to the Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province in Daming County

The Monument to the Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province in Daming County is a patriotic education base.

The Monument to the Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province in Daming County is located within the campus of Hebei Daming Normal School at No. 43, Jinfu Street (Yucailu), Daming Town, Daming County. The building covers an area of 4,221 square meters, with a protected area spanning over 60,000 square meters. It is designated as a provincial-level patriotic education base.

The Memorial Hall of the Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province was built in 1983 and is located at No. 43, Yucailu, Daming Fu, a historic and cultural city in Hebei Province. The site coordinates are: 114.5° east longitude, 36° north latitude. The site covers an area of 4,221 square meters and includes the “Memorial Hall of the Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province,” the memorial courtyard for revolutionary educator Mr. Xie Taichen, a statue of the revolutionary educator Comrade Xie Taichen, and 16 inscriptions from provincial and ministerial-level leaders including Bo Yibo and Song Renqiong, former Vice Premier of the State Council and Deputy Director of the Central Advisory Commission. In April 2001, the CPC Handan Municipal Committee and the Handan Municipal People’s Government designated the “Memorial Hall of the Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province” as a municipal-level patriotic education base. In August 2009, the CPC Committee and the People’s Government designated it as a provincial-level patriotic education base.

The Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province was established in 1923, founded its Communist Party branch in 1926, and by the spring of 1927, all four members of the school leadership team, headed by Principal Xie Taichen, had joined the Chinese Communist Party. From late 1929 to early 1930, over 200 out of the school's 300 faculty, staff, and students became CCP members, Communist Youth League members, or members of the “Anti-Imperialist Alliance.” Revolutionary forces accounted for more than two-thirds of the entire school population. It was referred to as the “Communist stronghold” by Tianjin’s Yishi Bao newspaper under the Kuomintang; hailed as an “underground Party school” by the Communists; and praised by proletarian revolutionary Bo Yibo as “a cradle of revolution in southern Zhili.”

The Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province trained a large number of revolutionary talents for the Party, the Republic, and the anti-Japanese war, liberation war, and new democratic revolution led by the Party. Among them, 41 individuals, including Wang Congwu and Ping Jiesan, became provincial or ministerial-level leaders of the Republic; 5 individuals, including Pei Zhigeng and Tie Ying, became senior generals in the People’s Liberation Army; over 140 individuals, including Han Youzhen and Si Zhenya, held departmental or bureau-level leadership positions; dozens, including Feng Zheng and Zhao Jibin, became professional revolutionaries; dozens, including Wang Zhenhua, Wang Yeqiu, and Tian Xinpu, became renowned scholars, professors, and artists; and over 40 individuals, including Xie Yunshan and Zhang Hengyu, sacrificed heroically during the Anti-Japanese War and the Liberation War, becoming celebrated martyrs.

The Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province enjoyed widespread fame and exerted significant influence across 28 counties in southern Zhili, northern Henan, and western Shandong. In May 1945, military and political leaders of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region—including Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, Bo Yibo, and Song Renqiong—visited the former site of the Seventh Normal School. After hearing a report on the school’s revolutionary history and paying tribute to the memorial monument of Mr. Xie Taichen, they remarked, “Xie Taichen was a revolutionary educator, and the Seventh Normal School was a school of revolution.”

Over the past five years, the Memorial Hall of the Seventh Provincial Normal School of Zhili Province has received over 150,000 visitors, including central and provincial/ministerial-level leaders, alumni from various generations, leaders from surrounding cities and counties, professionals from all walks of life, and young students. It has played a significant role as a patriotic education base and has become a renowned patriotic education destination.