1. Dong, Chen, “Comrade Deng Xiaoping and the establishment of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region – Visiting Comrade Rong Zihe” in Yang, Guoyu and Chen, Feiqin (eds.), Ershiba nian jian – xubian (During 28 Years – The Sequel) (Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1990), p. 23.Google Scholar During the Sino-Japanese War the CCP often sub-divided counties into new administrative counties, thereby increasing the number compared to the situation both before and after. Hongyun, Wei and Zhiyuan, Zou in Huabei Kang Ri genjudi shi (A History of Base Areas in North China during the War of Resistance to Japan) (Beijing: Dangan chubanshe, 1990), p. 342Google Scholar, quote a figure of 159 counties. However, their estimates include an unrealistically large number for the constituent Hebei-Shandong-Henan base area.

2. Bo Yibo, Vice-Chairman of the border region government, reported in Belden, Jack, China Shakes the World (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973), p. 79. See alsoGoogle ScholarStrong, Anna Louise, Tomorrow's China (New York: Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy, 1948), p. 71.Google Scholar

3. Kangzhan yilai xuanji (Selected Documents from the War of Resistance), 2 Vols., 1944; Yijiusisan nian Taihangdang de wenjian xuanji (Collection of Documents on the Taihang Party in 1943), 1944; Yijiusiwu nian Taihangdang de wenjian xuanji (Collection of Documents on the Taihang Party in 1945), 1946; Taihang dangshiliao jicun (Collection of Materials on the History of the Party in Taihang), Vols. I and II, 1944 and 1945; Taihang gefenqu dang de wenjian xuanji (Selection of Documents on the Party in Each District of the Taihang Region), 4 vols. (1938–39, 1940–41, 1942, 1943), 1944; Taihangdang liunianlai wenjian xuanji bubian (Supplement to Collection of Documents on the Taihang Party during the Last Six Years), 1944; Taihangqu linianlai zhongyao jingji jianshe huiyi jueyi huiji: Taihangqu yinhang gongshang gongzuo cankao ziliao (Collection of Past Important Decisions on Economic Reconstruction from the Taihang Region: Reference Materials on Bank and Commerce Work in the Taihang Region), 4 vols., Jinan yinhang gongshang guanli zongju, 1946; Banianlai Riben faxisi cuican Taihangqu renmin de gaishu (Outline of Japanese Fascist Destruction against the People of the Taihang Region during Eight Years), Zhongguo jiefangqu jiuji weiyuanhui JinJiLuYu fenhui, Taihang banshichu, 1946; Banian Kong Ri Zhanzheng zhong bianqu renmin sunshi zhuangkuang ji jiuji gongzuo shang de liangge zhongyao wenjian (Two Important Documents on Loss and Relief in the JinJiLuYu Border Region during Eight Years of Anti-Japanese War), 1946. For further preparation for historical research before 1949, see Youru, Tian “Research on the history of the Taihang Region base areas” in Dangshi tongxun (Bulletin of Party History), No. 353 (No. 7, 1987), p. 39.Google Scholar The 1957 publication was Qi Wu, Yige geming genjudi de chengzheng: Kang Ri Zhanzheng he jiefang zhanzheng shiqi de JinJiLuYu bianqu gaikuang (The Development of a Revolutionary Base Area: An Outline of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region in the Periods of Struggle Against Japan and of Liberation) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe).

4. Van Slyke, Lyman, “The Chinese Communist movement during the Sino-Japanese War, 1937–15” in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 13, Republican China, 1912–1949, Part II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), ch. 12, p. 609CrossRefGoogle Scholar, mentions JinJiLuYu but briefly and largely en passant: this accurately summarizes the state of scholarship on the border region at the time. Johnson, Chalmers, Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962), p. 106Google Scholar; Harrison, J. P., The Long March to Power: A History of the CCP, 1921–1972 (New York: Praeger, 1972), p. 291.Google Scholar Harrison mentions JinJiLuYu and two base areas, Shanxi-Hebei-Henan and Hebei-Shandong-Henan. He then equates Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan with Hebei-Shandong-Henan rather than ShanxiHebei-Henan, which would have been more accurate though still misleading. According to some reviewers and other commentators, but not explicitly the author himself, Thaxton, Ralph, China Turned Rightside Up: Revolutionary Legitimacy in the Peasant World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983)Google Scholar, is concerned with the area of JinJiLuYu. See, for example, Yung-Fa, Chen, Making Revolution: The Communist Movement in Eastern and Central China, 1937–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), p. xviii.Google Scholar Thaxton's study, centring on Linxian in northern Henan, has an uncertain locus in both time and space. CCP influence in Linxian and the surrounding area was very limited until the end of the Sino-Japanese War. From 1937 to early 1940 this area supported large and growing numbers of Nationalist Party units, who increasingly came into conflict with the far less numerous CCP forces. In March 1940 the CCP officially withdrew from the area, though maintaining some underground activity, until late 1943.

5. For details, see Zhonggong Zuo Quan xianweiyuanhui and Zuo Quan xian renmin zhengfu (ed.), Balujun zongbu zai Matian (The Eighth Route Army in Matian) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1990), p. 451.

6. This relationship and the consequences for later politics is explored in greater detail in Goodman, David S. G., Deng Xiaoping and the Chinese Revolution (London: Routledge, 1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Seventeen of the 87 individuals who served in the Political Bureau in 1949–89, compared to 16 who were in or under units based in Yan'an at that time.

8. The 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army entered the area in late 1937 via Pingding, having marched north-east through Shanxi from the south-west along the line of the Xian-Shijiazhuang Railway. It was accompanied by the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division. Deng Xiaoping joined the 129th Division in January 1938, replacing Zhang Hao.

9. This judgment is based on the large proportion of contemporary documents in which (and occasions on which) Yang Shangkun is recorded as having participated in Taihang base area activities, most of which also record his participation on behalf of the CCP Central Committee's North China Bureau.

10. Amongst notable members of later military establishments were Li Da, Yang Baibing and Chen Zaidao. Later notable central civilian leaders included An Ziwen, Wang Renzhong, Huang Zhen, Rong Zihe, Duan Junyi, Teng Daiyun and Yang Xiufeng. The group of later ranking provincial leaders included Huang Oudong, Li Dazhang, Liu Jianxun, Pan Fusheng, Tao Lujia, Yan Hongyan, Zhang Guohua and Zhao Jianmin.

11. Ma Feng, also from JinJiLuYu, was a main popularizer of Liu Hulan's story. See his Nu yingxiong Liu Hulan (The Female Hero Liu Hulan) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1975). Hinton, William, Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1966).Google ScholarIsabel, and Crook, David, Revolution in a Chinese Village: Ten Mile Inn (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1959).Google Scholar

12. Xiyangxian Dazhaishe bianxiezu, “Dazhai matures through struggle,” in Lishi yanjiu (Historical Research), No. 1976, p. 108.

13. Most notably the series Taihang geming genjudi shi zongbian weihui (ed.), Taihang geming genjudi shiliao congshu (Republication of Historical Material on the Taihang Revolutionary Base Area) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe). Sponsored by Bo Yibo and Deng Xiaoping, and planned as early as March 1979 as the major research priority of the then embryo Shanxi Academy of Social Science, the introductory volume – Taihang geming genjudi shigao (Outline History of the Taihang Revolutionary Base Area) – appeared in 1987. Other recent important publications include: JinJiLuYu bianqu caizheng jingji shi bianjizu: Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan sheng dangan guan, Kang Ri Zhanzheng shiqi JinJiLuYu bianqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian (Historical Materials on JinJiLuYu Border Region Finance and Economics during the Period of the War of Resistance against Japan), 2 vols. (Beijing: Zhongguo caizheng jingji chubanshe, 1990)Google Scholar; and Danganguan, Shanxi, Taihang dangshi ziliao huibian (Collection of Taihang Party History Materials), 10 vols. (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1989–1994).Google Scholar

14. A fairly detailed history of this relationship is given in “The 129th Division and the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region,” in Jiefang ribao (Liberation Daily), 14–19 August 1944.

15. Bocheng, Liu “Entering the Taihang Mountains,” in Renmin ribao, 21 June 1962.Google Scholar

16. Shengwei, Jiyujin “Draft report to meeting on establishing the Taihang base area,” 20 March 1938, Taihang dangshi ziliao huibian, Vol. 1, p. 133Google Scholar; Weiyun, Zhang “Comrade Zhu Rui in North Henan and Tainan,” in Shanxi dangshi tongshi (Bulletin of Shanxi Party History), No. 1 (1986), p. 33.Google Scholar

17. Rui, Zhu “On the establishment of an anti-Japanese base area in Shanxi-Hebei-Henan,” 11 January 1939, in Kangzhan yilai xuanji, Vol. 1, p. 75Google Scholar; Bingkun, Zhang “Zhu Rui in Tainan,” in Weiwei Taihang (The Towering Taihang Mountains), No. 1 (1987), p. 8.Google Scholar

18. Taihang geming genjudi shigao, p. 68.

19. Snow, Edgar, Scorched Earth, Vol. 2 (London: Victor Gollancz, 1941), p. 245Google Scholar; Taihang geming genjudi shigao, p. 189; Li, Yong and Zhang, Zhongtian (eds.), Kang Ri minzu tongyi zhanxian dashiji (Diary of Events of the United Front of all Nationalities against Japan) (Beijing: Zhongguo jingji chubanshe, 1988), p. 260 ff.Google Scholar; Weihui, Taihang Geming Genjudi Shi Zongbian (ed.), Yubei zhandou (The Struggle for North Henan) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1988), especially p. 4Google Scholar, Wei Houyan, “The conditions in which the people of Linxian joined the army and fought,” p. 163, and Ming Hailong, “The Party's implementation of the United Front,” p. 242; and Rongsheng, Zhao, Huiyi Wei Lihuang xiansheng (Remembering Mr Wei Lihuang) (Beijing: Wenshi ziliao chubanshe, 1985), p. 210.Google Scholar

20. Kuo, Even Warren, who provides a list of such infringements of the United Front, only cites one minor skirmish between Nationalists and the CCP in this area at this time: in Analytical History of the Chinese Communist Party, Vol. 4 (Taipei: Institute of International Relations, 1970), p. 81.Google Scholar

21. In December 1991 this led to speculation in the Taipei journal Zhuanji wenxue (Biographical Literature) that Wei Lihuang himself was an “underground Communist.”

22. Belden, China Shakes the World, p. 110. For Yang's competing biographies, see for example, Donald W. Klein and Clark, Anne B., Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism 1921–1965 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), Vol. 2, p. 977Google Scholar; and Dong, He, Xiancai, Yang and Xunsheng, Wang, Zhongguo geming shi renwu cidian (Dictionary of Personalities in China's Revolutionary History) (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 1991), p. 298Google Scholar; as well as Yibo's, Bo memorial in Lingxiu, yuanshuai, zhanyou (Leaders, Marshalls, Comrades-in-arms) (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 1992) (2nd revised ed.)Google Scholar; Zhonggong, Hebei Shengwei Dangshi Ziliao Zhengji Bianshen Weiyuanhui and Taihang (Hebei Bufen) Shiliao Lianhe Zhengbian Bangongshi (ed.), Jixi minxunchu yu Jixi youjidui (West Hebei Militia Training Office and West Hebei Guerrilla Troop) (Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe, 1989), p. 10.Google Scholar

23. Shengwei, Jiyujin, “The present situation for the development of military affairs and our suggestions on the question of organising in XX Region” in Zhandou (Combat), No. 2, 26 November 1937Google Scholar; Liu Bocheng “Four fundamental tasks for anti-Japanese guerrilla troops,” 28 November 1937, in Weihui, Taihang Geming Genjudi Shi Zongbian, Difang wuzhuang douzheng (Local Armed Struggle) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1990), p. 125.Google Scholar

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25. Taihang geming genjudi shigao, p. 118.

26. “Name list of martyrs in the war of resistance to Japan from the South Hebei Bank,” November 1947, in Kong Ri Zhanzheng shiqi JinJiLuYu bianqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian. Vol. 2, p. 993; and Taihang, Geming Genjudi Shi Zongbian Weihui (ed.), Dashijishu 1937–49 (Diary of Events 1937–49) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1991), p. 113.Google Scholar

27. Yibo, Bo “The Taiyue base area in the war Against Japan,” 3 July 1943, Jiefang ribaoGoogle Scholar is a basic source.

28. The CCP in Shanxi at this time had an Open Committee and the CCP Shanxi Province Work Committee. See Zhonggong, Shanxi Shengwei Dangshi Yanjiushi (ed.), Zhongguo gongchandang Shanxi lishi gangyao (Outline History of the CCP in Shanxi) (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe, 1991), p. 15.Google ScholarShengbo, Wang, Ximenghui shi (A History of the League for Self-sacrifice and National Salvation) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1987)Google Scholar; and “The league for self-sacrifice and national salvation and the Shanxi New Army in the war of resistance to Japan” in Renmin ribao, 16 and 20 September 1985.

29. Analytical History of the Chinese Communist Party, Vol. 4, p. 9.

30. Zhongguo gongchandang Shanxi lishi gangyao, p. 23.

31. Zhonggong, Shanxi Shengwei Dangshi Yanjiushi (ed.), Taiyue geming genjudi jishi (Record of the Taiyue Revolutionary base area) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1989).Google Scholar

32. Cited in Belden, China Shakes the World, p. 147.

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36. Qi Wu, Yige geming genjudi de chengzheng, p. 7; Xiaoping, Deng ‘The establishment of base areas and the mass movement,” 20 February 1943, Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping 1938–1965 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1992), p. 74 ff.Google Scholar

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38. Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping 1938–1965, p. 93, especially n. 70.

39. Zhenhua, Su, “What does the struggle of three villages in Southwest Shandong indicate?” 15 November 1942, JinJiLuYu genjudi shiliaoxuan (1941–1942), p. 363Google Scholar; “History and development of anti-Japanese base areas in the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region,” 1944, JinJiLuYu genjudi shiliaoxuan (1943–45), p. 492.

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44. “Yang Xiufeng discusses the organisation of the JinJiLuYu Border Region,” in Jiefang ribao, 26 July 1941.

45. “Summary of Taihang Region's Third Administrative Simplification,” 25 May 1944, Xinhua ribao (Northern edition).

46. Taihang geming genjudi shigao, p. 160.

47. Niutang, Wang, “Second meeting of the JinJiLuYu Border Region Provisional Assembly,” 30 September 1942, JinJiLuYu bianqu shiliao xuanbian, Vol. 2, p. 311Google Scholar; on the first meeting, see Dashijishu, p. 92.

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50. Xiaoping, Deng “Proposal to establish the Shanxi-Hebei-Henan Provisional Border Region Assembly,” 16 March 1941Google Scholar, in Xinhua ribao (North China edition), 21 March 1941.

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55. Xiaoping, Deng, “Report at Taihang Sub-bureau meeting of senior cadres,” 26 January 1943, in Zhandou (Combat), No. 15, 15 March 1943, p. 17.Google Scholar

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58. Kang Ri Zhanzheng shiqi JinjiLuYu bianqu caizheng jingji shi ziliao xuanbian, vol. 2, pp. 986 and 989.

59. “Decision of the JinJiLuYu Bureau of the CCP Central Committee on financial and economic work,” 10 October 1946, in Caizheng jingji jianshe, Vol. 1, p. 312.

60. Taihang geming genjudi shigao, p. 171; and Dashijishu, p. 142.

61. Zhengquan jianshe, p. 58.

62. Zihe, Rong “Report to the first Session First Border Region Assembly,” 8 March 1945Google Scholar and “Summary of disaster relief in the Taihang Region in 1942 and 1943,” 1 August 1994, in Caizheng jingi jianshe, Vol. 1, pp. 282 and 235.

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