The Xufanting Memorial Hall in Yuanping

The Xufanting Memorial Hall in Yuanping

The Xufanting Memorial Hall is located in the southwest corner of Fan Ting Middle School campus in Yuanping City. It was originally built in 1952 in Guoxian County and relocated to its current site in 1993 when the school moved. The memorial hall consists of three exhibition rooms, covering an area of 2.65 mu with a construction area of 364 square meters. It faces south and is designed as a traditional Ming and Qing-style courtyard complex, serene, elegant, and rich in vintage charm.

The memorial hall comprises four exhibition rooms—central, eastern, western, and southern. These rooms display a large collection of photographs, documents, newspapers, and other materials that illustrate the heroic life of General Xufanting, as well as letters, inscriptions, elegiac couplets, and condolence telegrams sent to him by great proletarian revolutionaries such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Ren Bishi, Deng Xiaoping, and Ye Jianying. There are also calligraphy works and paintings created spontaneously by visiting leaders and celebrities. It is a provincial-level patriotic education base.

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After the September 18th Incident in 1931, Xufanting deeply felt the severity of the national crisis and called for resistance against Japan while opposing appeasement. However, Chiang Kai-shek's government stubbornly adhered to the policy of “pacifying the domestic front before resisting foreign aggression” and refused to heed his advice. In the autumn of 1935, Xufanting went to Nanjing as an old member of the Nationalist Party and a representative of the northwest region to attend the Fifth National Congress of the Kuomintang. After arriving, he sought out many influential figures to advocate for the war effort, but all he encountered were scenes of revelry and self-seeking ambition. As the congress drew to a close, there was still no mention of resisting Japan and saving the nation, which filled him with utter despair. He lamented, “A true man sheds blood, not tears. Only with our hot blood can we wash these scum out of the ranks of humanity!” On December 26, Xufanting stood for a long time in front of the main hall of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing. Reflecting on how his hopeful plea for unity in resisting Japan had come to nothing, he couldn’t help but recite his own poem: “Visiting the mausoleum, my heart is heavy; mourning at the tomb, I have no tears. Bowing before the Premier’s resting place, every inch of my heart breaks. To die in battle is honorable for a general, but to live in shame is the worst. To serve the enemy with a smiling face—what value is there in mere survival?” After bowing three times before the tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, he unbuttoned his shirt, drew a short sword, and stabbed himself in the abdomen. Xufanting’s brave act was a powerful exposure and protest against Chiang Kai-shek’s non-resistance policy, and it inspired the anti-Japanese fervor of the entire nation. “Baring my chest, I go or stay as I must; what does a man seek in this world? Fearing the people’s spirit might be crushed, I offer my body for freedom.” This poem was written at that time.

This passionate and patriotic general was a sincere friend of the Chinese Communist Party and applied to join the Party on his deathbed. After his passing, Mao Zedong personally composed his elegiac couplet: “For national liberation, for class emancipation, your cause was nearing success—why did you pass away so soon? With the breadth of rivers and clouds in your heart, and the integrity of pines and cypresses in your character, your exemplary presence is suddenly lost, leaving all in sorrow!”

Xufanting, whose given name was Peimou, courtesy name Yixing, and alias Surén, was born on November 27, 1893, into a middle-peasant family in Xishe Village, Guoxian County (now Yuanping City), Shanxi Province.

In his childhood, Xufanting attended a private school and later went to the Hongdao Town Two-Level Primary School established by his kinsman Xuxifeng. In 1909, he enrolled in the Taiyuan Army Primary School. That same year, he joined the Tongmenghui (Chinese Revolutionary Alliance), which was organized and led by Sun Yat-sen. On October 10, 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, and responses quickly spread across the country. His kinsman Xuxifeng secretly organized the Xindaoning Public Corps in the Guoxian area and invited Xufanting to take part in the uprising... More details about Xufanting ++