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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
While Mao Zedong might still be China's most famous communist, only scholars of the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have heard of Wang Jiaxiang and even they have never studied his career in detail. But recent Chinese publications show that there were very few CCP leaders who had such a tremendous impact on the Chinese communist movement in general and Mao Zedong's career in particular. This article will show that Wang not only supported Mao during the power struggles of the 1930s and helped convince Stalin that Mao should be acknowledged as the CCP's leader, but that Wang also played a decisive role in establishing Mao Zedong-Thought as the Party's guiding ideology. The release of numerous Party documents in the last five years also throws some light upon the relations and conflicts between Mao Zedong and other CCP leaders such as Wang Ming, Zhou Enlai, Zhang Guotao and Liu Shaoqi in the decade between the Long March and the Seventh Party Congress of 1945.
Abbreviations used in notes: DT (Dangshi Tongxun), DY (Dangshi Yanjiu), WHY (Wenxian He Yanjiu), ZDZ (Zhonggong Dangshi Ziliao), ZHZX (Zunyi Huiyi Ziliao Xuanbian, Guiyang, 1985).
1 The lack of research on Wang Jiaxiang is demonstrated by the fact that his entries in two biographical dictionaries fail to mention some of the most important events in his career and also contain a large number of inaccuracies, such as wrong years given for his birth, Party entry, election to the Central Committee, his serious injury during an air raid, his second trip to Moscow, his return to China, his reelection to the Central Committee, etc.; see: Boorman, Howard L. (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of Republican China (New York, 1967–1971), vol. IV, 365–6;Google ScholarKlein, Donald W., Clark, Anne B., Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Communism 1921–65 (Cambridge (Mass.), 1971), 895–900.Google Scholar There does not seem to have been much research in the last fifteen years, as Wang's name is not mentioned at all in the two articles in the recently published vol. 13 of the Cambridge History of China (Cambridge, 1986), which cover the period discussed in this paper; see: Lyman Van Slyke, ‘The Chinese Communist movement during the Sino-Japanese War 1937–1945’, and Stuart Schram, ‘Mao Tse-tung's thought to 1949’.Google Scholar
2 For an acount of Wang's youth and studies in Moscow, see: Zehao, Xu, Huizhen, Dai, ‘Wang Jiaxiang de qingshaonian shidai’, Anhui Shida Xuebao (Zhexue shehuikexue ban). 1984/4, 73–81.Google Scholar
3 Wu Xiuquan tongzhi huiyilu (1), ZDZ 1 (1982), 130–1.Google Scholar
4 Ibid.; Wang translated some of Lenin's works into Chinese, see, for example: 1905 zhi 1907 nian Eguo gemingzhong Shehuiminzhudang de tudi zhenggang (Moscow, 1929).Google Scholar
5 See Yueh, Sheng, Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow and the Chinese Revolution (Lawrence, 1971), 215–18.Google Scholar
6 Derong, Zheng, Rongdi, He, ‘Gongchanguoji yu Dang de liujie sizhong quanhui’, Dangshi ziliao tongxun 1983 xuanbianben, (Beijing, 1985), 199ff;Google ScholarWeihan, Li, Huiyi yu yanjiu (Beijing, 1986), 321ff.Google Scholar
7 Zhengzhixueyuan zhonggong dangshi jiaoyanshi, Zhongguo Gongchandang liushi nian dashi jianjie (Beijing, 1985), 137.Google Scholar
8 Ibid., 144ff. The unofficial head of the CCP was Qin Bangxian, who had been appointed by Wang Ming, before his departure to Moscow in October 1931.
9 Jingtang, Yan, ‘Zhongyang Junwei yange gaikuang’, DY 1983/2, 54.Google Scholar
10 Wang Jiaxiang seems to have been Mao's only supporter at the Ningdu Conference, see: yanjiushi, Zhonggong Zhongyang wenxian, Zhu De Nianpu (Beijing, 1986), 112;Google ScholarYongjun, Wang, Jiangao, Liu (ed.), Zhongguo xiandaishi renwuzhuan (Chengdu, 1986), 68.Google Scholar
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12 According to Zhang Wentian, Qin Bangxian's decision to make Zhang chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Central Government, was an attempt to squeeze him out of the Central Committee and Mao out of the Central Government; see ‘Cong Fujian Shibian dao Zunyi Huiyi’, WHY, 1985/1, 13.Google Scholar
13 Recent Western articles on the Zunyi Conference are based on: Zhiguang, Li, Youshan, Lu (ed.), ‘Guanyu Zunyi zhengzhiju kuoda huiyi ruogan qingkuang de diaocha baogao’, ZDZ 6 (1983, not 1982 as given by B. Yang (see below), p. 243, n. 32), 16–35;Google Scholar a shorter version—without the names of the editors—appeared in Zunyi Huiyi wenxian (Beijing, 1985), 123–37;Google ScholarYang, Benjamin, ‘The Zunyi Conference as One Step in Mao's Rise to Power: A Survey of Historical Studies of the Chinese Communist Party’, China Quarterly 106 (06 1986), 235–71;CrossRefGoogle ScholarKampen, Thomas, ‘The Zunyi Conference and the Rise of Mao Zedong’, Internationales Asienforum, 3–4/86, 347–60;Google Scholar see also, Salisbury, Harrison E., ‘The Long March’ (New York, 1985).Google Scholar
14 Weihan, Li, ‘Huiyi’, 349ff.Google Scholar
15 Ibid., 350–1.
16 See ‘Zunyi Huiyi qianhou Zhonggong Zhongyang youguan zhanlüe fangzhen de qige wenjian’, WHY, 1985/1, 20.Google Scholar
17 Ibid., 20–1.
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21 Zhiguang, Li, Youshan, Lu, ‘Guanyu Zunyi’, 17–19;Google Scholar there is no reason to believe that the conference lasted to 18 January as B. Yang argues; unfortunately he does not give any sources for this claim nor for his ‘Table 4; The Proceedings of the Zunyi Conference’, see ‘The Zunyi Conference’,246–7.Google Scholar While B. Yang argues that the date on the ‘Zunyi Resolution’—8 January 1935—is a misprint for 18 January, it is much more likely—considering that the resolution was drafted some time after the conference—that the date is a misprint for 8 February, as Chinese authors have recently claimed, see, Rongxian, Wang, ‘Guanyu Zunyi Huiyi jueyi dinggao shijian de kaozheng’, ZHZX, 222–7.Google Scholar
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23 See Zhongli, Zhu, ‘“Guanjian yi piao” de youlai’, ZHZX, 216–19.Google Scholar
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26 Fang, Percy Jucheng, Fang, Lucy Guinong J., Zhou Enlai—A Profile (Beijing, 1986), 120;Google Scholar Otto Braun himself later also confirmed Wang Jiaxiang's support for Mao Zedong before and during the Zunyi Conference, see A Comintern Agent in China 1932–1939 (London, 1982), 70ff.Google Scholar
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28 Different authors have claimed that Mao became chairman of the Politburo, the Central Committee or the Military Affairs Committee: Jerome, Ch'en, ‘Resolutions of the Tsunyi Conference’, China Quarterly 40 (12 1969), 36;Google ScholarBartke, Wolfgang, Who's who in the People's Republic of China (Armonk, 1981), 582;Google ScholarGuillermaz, Jacques, A History of the Chinese Communist Party, 1921–1949 (London, 1981), 255;Google ScholarHarrison, James Pinckney, The Long March to Power (London, 1973), 246.Google Scholar
29 Zhiguang, Li, Youshan, Lu, ‘Guanyu Zunyi’, 25;Google ScholarYun, Chen, ‘(Yi) Zunyi zhengzhiju kuoda huiyi’, ZHZX, 245.Google Scholar
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32 See ‘Zunyi Huiyi qianhou de sishiyifen junshi dianbao’, WHY, 1985/1, 40.Google Scholar
33 Zhiguang, Li, Youshan, Lu, ‘Guanyu Zunyi’, 28–30.Google Scholar
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35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Yaobang, Hu, ‘Shenqiede jinian Wang Jiaxiang tongzhi’, DT, 1984/8, 1–3;Google ScholarXiuquan, Wu, Wangshi Cangsang (Shanghai, 1986), 406.Google Scholar For a long time Western scholars—and, most recently, David M. Bachman—have argued that Chen Yun was sent to Moscow to report to the Comintern. Chen Yun and the Chinese Political System (Berkeley, 1985), 9–12.Google Scholar But it would have been a strange decision to select somebody who, as far as we know, did not speak Russian, had never been to Moscow and never had any direct contact with the Comintern, when several former students of Sun Yat-sen University were available. On the other hand Chen was born in the Shanghai area and had worked there for most of his life. According to Chen Yun the Politburo decided on 29 May 1935 at Ludingqiao to send Chen to Shanghai to resume Party work in the White Areas. ‘Chen Yun tongzhi tan Ludingqiao Huiyi’, ZDZ 16 (1985), 11.Google Scholar After working in Shanghai for some time he realized that because the whole Party organization was destroyed, he could not continue his work and it was then decided that Chen should bring some Party documents to Moscow. Kanru, Fei, ‘Zunyi Huiyi qingkuang shi shui xiang gongchan guoji baogao de?’, DY 1984/2, 16–17.Google Scholar
38 ‘Duzhe laihan’, DY 1984/4, 79.Google Scholar
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41 Ibid.
42 Yanxing, Cao, ‘Yijiusanqinian Yan'an Huiyi shuping’, DY 1985/6, 64–6.Google Scholar
43 Wuyuan, Shu, ‘Bo Wang Ming dui Yan'an Zhenfeng Yundong de wumie’, DY 1984/2, 74.Google Scholar
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45 Ibid., 150; The Party Centre in Yan'an was particularly upset about Wang Ming' independent statements and activities in Hankou, which were not coordinated with the Politburo.
46 Chuangun, Wu, Baohua, Ma (ed.), Gongchan Guoji he Zhongguo Geming guanxi dashi tiyao (1917.11–1943.7) (Hefei, 1985), 304–5.Google Scholar
47 Quoted in Xu Zehao, ‘WangJiaxiang dui liujie’, 36.Google Scholar
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50 Ibid., 29.
51 At the Sixth Plenum the Changjiang office in Hankou, which had been led by Wang Ming since December 1937, was dissolved.Google ScholarRunfang, Cao, Xianying, Pan, Zhongguo, 150–2; Wang Jiaxiang acted as secretary of the Plenum and also gave the closing address on 6 November 1938.Google ScholarZhongli, Zhu, Liming yu Wanxia (Beijing, 1986), 288–90;Google Scholar‘Wang Jiaxiang wengao’, 29.Google Scholar
52 Quoted in Xu Zehao, ‘Wang Jiaxiang dui liujie’, 39.Google Scholar
53 Moscow's support for Mao Zedong was not only expressed in secret messages to the CCP, but was also publicly stated through a photograph of Mao as the political and Zhu De as the military leader of the Chinese Communists, which was printed in Pravda on 6 July 1938.Google Scholar
54 Jianying, Wang (ed.), Zhongguo Gongchandang zuzhishi ziliao huibian (Beijing, 1983), 296.Google Scholar
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57 ‘“Balujun Junzheng zazhi” Fakanci’, Balujun Junzheng zazhi 1939/1, 1–6;Google Scholar repr. in: Mao Zedong zhexue sixiang ziliao xuanji, xia (Beijing, 1982), 71–4.Google Scholar
58 ‘Lun muqian zhanju yu dihou kangzhan de jige wenti’, Balujun junzheng zazhi, 1939/1, 7–22.Google Scholar
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60 ‘Zhongyang Zhengzhiju “Guanyu gonggu Dang de jueding”’, Gongchandangren, 1939/1, 11–13;Google Scholar repr. in: Zhongguo Renmin Daxue Zhonggong Dangshixi ziliaoshi, Zhonggong Dangshi jiaoxue cankao ziliao (7), (Beijing, 1980), 486–9.Google Scholar
61 ‘Wei Zhongguo Gongchandang de gonggu he jianqiang er douzheng’, Gongchandangren, 1939/1, 14ff.Google Scholar In September 1939 Wang also published ‘Guanyu Sanminzhuyi yu Gongchanzhuyi’, Jiefang no. 86 (1939);Google Scholar repr. in: Liu Dayilai—Dang nei mimi wenjian, shang (Beijing, 1981), 1061–7.Google Scholar In January 1940 he pulished ‘Zhongguo Gongchandang yu geming zhanzheng’, Balujun junzheng zazhi, 1940/1, which also appeared as a book in June 1940.Google Scholar
62 See Zehao, Xu, ‘Wang Jiaxiang dui Maozedongsixiang’, 40–6;Google ScholarZhongli, Zhu, Liming, 305–17.Google Scholar
63 Zhen, Wang et al. , ‘Huiyi’ Wang Ziye, ‘Cong yifen tigang xiangqi’, in Huiyi Wang Jiaxiang (Beijing, 1985), 133;Google ScholarJianying, Wang (ed.), Zhongguo, 383.Google Scholar
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65 See Jinqing, He, ‘Yan'an Zhengfengyundong dashiji’, ZDZ 8 (1983), 313.Google Scholar
66 ‘Zhonggong Zhongyang “Guanyu zengqiang dangxing de jueding”’, repr. in: Liu Da yilai, xia 241–2;Google Scholar this important resolution became the fourth of 18 (later 22) CCP documents (following two speeches by Mao of 1 and 8 Fabruary 1942 and a two-part explanation of these speeaches by Kang Sheng of 11 February/6 March 1942), which became compulsory reading according to the Propaganda Department resolution of 3 April 1942, see Zhengdun sanfeng—ershierge wenjian (Hong Kong, 1946), 51;Google Scholar it was mistakenly included in Takeuchi, Minoru (ed.) Mao Zedong ji bujuan (7) (Tokyo, 1985), 53–6,Google Scholar and has been translated by Compton, Boyd in ‘Mao's China: party reform documents, 1942–44’ (Seattle, 1952), 156–60.Google Scholar
67 Zedong, Mao, ‘Fandui zhuguanzhuyi he zongpaizhuyi’, WHY 1985/1, 4.Google Scholar The publication of Mao's important speech in 1985 throws some light on this first major meeting of the Rectification Movement, which has long been shrouded in mystery. Only a few years ago, Raymond F. Wylie still wrote: ‘Unfortunately, as James Harrison has point out (The Long March, 334), “virtually nothing” is known of this meeting of the enlarged Politburo. We do know, however, that the session was unusual importance.’ The Emergence of Maoism (Stanford, 1980), 166.Google ScholarIn the above-mentioned article in the Cambridge History of 1986, Lyman Van Slyke wrote (p. 687): ‘Unfortunately, none of the documents of this very significant meeting are presently available and little is known about it.’Google Scholar
68 Mao Zedong, ‘Fandui’, 5; section 15 of the speech says that the opinions of Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai, who were not in Yan'an in the early 1940s, should be sought. An interesting telegram from Mao Zedong and Wang Jiaxiang to Zhou Enlai of 21 February 1942, which provides significant information about the development of the Rectification Movement and Zhou's involvement in it, has recently been published: ‘…Last October (10 September to 22 October) the Politburo discussed the former line in detail and unanimouly considered the line of the Central Committee from the Fourth Plenum to “18 September” (1931) as basically correct, even though there were many principal errors. The Central Committee's line between “18 September” and the Zunyi Conference (altogether three years and four months) was wrong. The Central Committee's line since the Zunyi Conference was correct. A conclusion has already been written and we want to discuss it before the Seventh Congress with Zhou (Enlai) and with (Liu) Shaoqi and (Peng) Dehuai, when they return; it should then be passed by the Seventh Congress and distributed within the Party (but not openly published).’Google Scholar‘Taolun guoqu luxian wenti zongzhi shi chengqian bihou zhibing jiuren’, WHY 1984/8, 1ff.Google Scholar This document not only shows that the first version of the ‘Resolution on Party History’ (see below), drafted by Wang and revised by Mao, had already been completed in Autumn 1941, it also indicates the difficult position of Zhou Enlai during the Rectification Movement: the above-mentioned years (1931–35) were just the time when Zhou reached the peak of his career and when he was probably the most powerful of the Party leaders. Even though the criticism was mainly directed at Wang Ming, Wang had been in Moscow at the time while Zhou was working together with the young and inexperienced Qin Bangxian, who had never been formally elected ‘general secretary’. While Zhou had been an important military and political leader before 1935, he afterwards concentrated on diplomatic activities (first with the Guomindang and later with foreign governments) and was no longer (allowed to be) directly involved in military or political decision-making. It is interesting to note that his ‘Selected Works’ do not—with the exception of some military telegrams of Spring 1933—contain any articles written between January 1931 (Fourth Plenum) and December 1936. Zhou Enlai Xuanji (shang) (Beijing, 1980).Google Scholar See also En, Huai, Zhou Zongli shengping dashiji (Chengdu, 1986), 131ff.Google Scholar
69 ‘Zhonggong Zhongyang “Guanyu gaoji xuexizu de jueding”’, WHY, 1984/9, 1ff.,Google ScholarHe Jinqing, ‘Yan'an’, 322–3.Google Scholar
70 ‘Zhi Zhongyang Yanjiuzu ji gaoji yanjiuzu’, Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji (Beijing, 1983), 189;Google ScholarYuzhi, Gong, ‘Tong Shilamu jiaoshou de tanhua’, WHY, 1984/8, 11.Google Scholar
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72 Shujichu, Zhonggong Zhongyang, Liu Da yilai—Dangnei mimi wenjian (Yan'an, 1941, repr, Beijing, 1952, 1981).Google Scholar
73 Xiuquan, Wu, Wangshi, 407;Google ScholarYan'an Zhengfenundong jishi (Beijing, 1982), 47–8.Google Scholar
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75 Ibid.
76 ‘Zhonggong Zhongyang “Guanyu tongyi Kang-Ri genjudi Dang de lingdao ji tiaozheng ge zuzhi jian guanxi de jueding”’ Zhengfeng wenxian (Dingzhengben) (Harbin, 1948), 115–23.Google Scholar This resolution has been mistakenly reprinted in Takeuchi, Minoru (ed.) Mao Zedong ji(8) (Tokyo, 1970–1972), 155–63,Google Scholar and has been discussed in S. Schram's article ‘Mao Tse-tung's thought to 1949’ 864–5; it has been inckuded in the revised versions (Dingzhengben) of the Rectification Documents and thus also translated in Compton, ‘Mao's China’, 161–75. R. Wylie made an interesting remark (considering that Wang wrote the resolution and not Mao): ‘In a Politburo resolution of September 1, 1942, for example (which Mao wrote himself), it was stated that the ideological education of cadres was to be carried out on the basis of “Central Committee resoutions and Comrade Mao Tse-tung's reports.” It would appear, then, that even though Mao was not averse to recommending the study of his own writings during cheng-feng, he still felt it necessary to acknowledge the collective leadership of the Central Committee.’ The Emergence, 193–4.Google Scholar See also, Runfang, Cao, Xianying, Pan, Zhongguo, 166–8.Google Scholar
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78 Zhi, Zhang, ‘Zai gei Wang Jiaxiang tongzhi zuo jingwei gongzuo de rizili’, Huiyi Wang Jiaxiang, 137–8.Google Scholar
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80 Zehao, Xu, ‘Wang Jiaxiang dui Maozedongsixiang’, 46.Google Scholar
81 Jiaxiang, Wang, ‘Zhongguo’, DT 1984/8, 5.Google Scholar
82 Ibid., 6.
83 Ibid., 8.
84 Ibid., 9.
85 Yaobang, Hu, ‘Shenqiede’, 2–3.Google Scholar
86 Renxue, Zhang, ‘”Maozedongsixiang” zhege gainian shi zenyang tichu he xingchengde’, Dangshi Wenhui 1987/2, 66;Google ScholarZehao, Xu, ‘Wang Jiaxiang dui Maozedongsixiang’, 46.Google Scholar
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89 The list of 18 Party dociments in the Propaganda Department resolution of 3 April 1942 (see above, n. 66) contained only one part (paragraphs two to five of chapter two) of Liu' speech on the training of CCP, while also containing texts by Kang Sheng and Chen Yun and at least one resolution drafted by Wang Jiaxiang. During the decisive stages of the Rectification Movement in 1941 and 1942, Liu Shaoqi, whose position in the Party hierarchy was below Wang', wan was not in Yan'an and only arrived before the Politburo meeting of 20 March 1943, where he became a member of the Secretariat. But this Secretariat, which'as the Secretariat after 1956—did not represent the top leadership, was dissolved on 21 May 1944, when the Seventh Plenum of the Sixth Central Committee began, Jianying, Wang (ed.) Zhongguo, 424, 479.Google Scholar
At this point it might be appropriate to comment on the following paragraph in R. Whlie's The Emergence, 205: ‘Most scholars agree that sometime during the Spring (of 1943) Mao Tse-tung was formally elected chairman of the CCP's Central Committee, and of the Political Bureau as well. This probably happened in late May, when the Central Committee met to discuss its reaction to the dissolution of the Comintern. At or about the same time, Liu Shao-ch'i, who was formerly cool to Mao, replaced Chang Went-t'ien on the five-man Central Committee Secretariat, simultaneously taking over his key position as secretary-general of the party.’
(1) Mao was elected chairman of the Polituburo and Secretariat on 20 March 1943, two months before the dissolution of the Comintern (15 May 1943), his election could thus not have been a reaction to the Comintern's dissolution, as Whylie claims. It is also extremely unlikely that his election was, as suggested by Wylie, related to the publication of Chiang Kaishek's ‘China's Destiny’ in the middle of March 1943.
(2) Mao was elected by the Politburo and not by the Central Committee and could thus not have become its chairman; this only happened at the First Plenum of Seventh Central Committee on 19 June 1945.
(3) The Secretariat had eight members before 20 March (see above) and three members from this date unitil its dissolution in 1944.
(4) Zhang Wentian had lost his position as ‘general secretary' (zongshuji) in December 1937, when this post was abolished (see above). Ren Bishi, who had always held a higher rank than Liu and also belonged to the 1943-Secretariat, held the position of secretary-general (mishuzhang) from 1941 (shortly after he had returned from Moscow, see above ) until his death in October 1950.
(5) Liu Shaoqi never became general secretay or secretary-general of the Central Committee or the Chinese Communist Party. Jianying, Wang, 376, 424–5, 481, 530, 601.Google Scholar
90 ‘Yan'an Zhengfeng zhong de Wang Ming’, DT 1984/7, 11.Google Scholar
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96 The Fourth Plenum of the Sixth Central Committee on 7 January 1931, see above.Google Scholar
97 Zhu De.Google Scholar
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