Former Site of the First Farmers' Bank of Chai Shanzhou Special District

Former Site of the First Farmers' Bank of Chai Shanzhou Special District

The former site of the First Farmers' Bank of Chai Shanzhou Special District is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit, a classic red tourism destination, and a patriotic education base.

The former site of the First Farmers' Bank of Chai Shanzhou Special District is located in Group 7, Jinhu Village, Sanzhang Township, Hengdong County, Hengyang City.

The site is a two-story brick-and-wood structure with a gable-and-hip roof covered in small blue tiles and featuring an inner courtyard. The original gate plaque bore the four large characters “Xia Bai Gong Ci” (Ancestral Hall of Xia Bai). The current lintel displays black characters on a white background reading “Former Site of the First Farmers' Bank of Chai Shanzhou Special District,” inscribed by General Yang Dezhi, former Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army of China.

The Chai Shanzhou Special District was an administrative region demarcated by the farmers' association during the Great Revolution. It covered nine villages in present-day Chai Shan and Jinhu, as well as part of Fu Jia Village in Sanzhang Township, Hengdong County, totaling over 900 households and more than 4,000 residents. In the spring of 1926, He Erkang, a special envoy of the Provincial Peasant Movement, established the Farmers' Association of the Chai Shanzhou Special District here. In April, in accordance with the political program spirit of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party stating that “the resolution of the peasant issue must be the main focus” and “a farmers' bank must be established,” the “Preparatory Committee of the First Farmers' Bank of Chai Shanzhou Special District” was formed. Wen Hainan, the chairman of the district farmers’ association, also served as the bank’s manager, while Xia Zhaomei, the vice-chairman, served as vice-manager and cashier. Operations commenced in October. The “Twelve Bank Regulations” were formulated, establishing the bank’s purpose as “upholding the proletariat, sustaining livelihoods, and supporting production.” The bank issued currency, provided loans, and established a farmers' consumer cooperative. Activities ceased in June 1927. Although the bank operated for just over a year, it holds pioneering significance in the history of the Chinese revolution. The *Economic Dictionary: Finance Volume* (Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House) states: “More than 30 banks were successively established in various revolutionary bases in China, but the First Farmers' Bank of Chai Shanzhou Special District, founded in October 1926 in Hengshan, Hunan, was the earliest.” *Investigation and Reflections on the Currency of the Hunan Farmers' Association* (Issue 1, 1989, *Financial Economy*, Hunan) notes: “The cloth currency issued by the First Farmers' Bank of Chai Shanzhou Special District is the earliest revolutionary currency discovered to date.” In 1992, the Hengdong County People's Government renovated the Xia Bai Ancestral Hall.

The former site of the First Farmers' Bank of Chai Shanzhou Special District was designated as a County-Level Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the Hengdong County People's Government in November 1993, as a Provincial-Level Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the Hunan Provincial People's Government in January 1996, and as a Hengyang Municipal Patriotic Education Base by the Hengyang Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department in May 2010.