The Nanchang Uprising
The Nanchang Uprising was an armed revolt launched by the Chinese Communist Party in Nanchang, Jiangxi, after the collapse of the first KMT–CCP united front. Early on 1 August 1927 a Front Committee headed by Zhou Enlai led some 20,000 troops under He Long, Ye Ting, Zhu De and Liu Bocheng in an uprising that took the city in about five hours. The insurgents then marched south towards Guangdong, suffering heavy losses from heat, hunger and desertion, and were defeated around Chaozhou and Shantou at the end of September; a remnant under Zhu De fought on and joined Mao Zedong at Jinggangshan in 1928. Before the uprising Zhang Guotao had relayed the Comintern's reservations; afterwards the CCP leadership both hailed it as "the most glorious page" and disciplined the Front Committee. From 1933, 1 August was marked as Red Army Day, later the Army Day of the People's Liberation Army.
Background: The Collapse of the First United Front
On 12 April 1927 Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists in Shanghai; on 15 July the Wuhan Nationalist government led by Wang Jingwei also announced its break with the Communists, ending the first KMT–CCP united front. The CCP's provisional standing committee, reorganised on 12 July, sent Li Lisan, Deng Zhongxia and others to Jiujiang. They found that Zhang Fakui, commander of the Second Front Army with whom the Communists had hoped to return to Guangdong, had swung behind Wang Jingwei, and Li Lisan proposed an independent armed uprising in Nanchang. The Second Front Army had grown out of Zhang Fakui's 4th Army during the Northern Expedition; among its units, the 24th Division of the 11th Army under Ye Ting, the 20th Army under He Long and two regiments of the 4th Army's 25th Division were forces the CCP controlled or could win over.
On 27 July Zhou Enlai arrived in Nanchang and a Front Committee was formed with him as secretary. On the eve of the uprising Zhang Guotao, a member of the CCP standing committee, arrived from Hankou with the Comintern's view: "If the uprising has a sure prospect of success it may go ahead; otherwise not. Zhang Fakui's agreement should be obtained; otherwise not." Zhou Enlai, Li Lisan and others insisted on going ahead, and Zhang Guotao finally deferred to the majority. According to People's Daily Online's party-history channel, the forces at the CCP's disposal totalled more than 20,000 men.
The Uprising
At 2 a.m. on 1 August the uprising began under the leadership of Zhou Enlai, He Long, Ye Ting, Zhu De and Liu Bocheng, with its headquarters at the Jiangxi Grand Hotel. According to People's Daily Online, after about five hours of fighting the insurgents controlled Nanchang, wiping out more than 3,000 defenders and capturing over 5,000 firearms. That afternoon the 73rd and 75th Regiments of the 25th Division at Mahuiling joined the uprising under Nie Rongzhen and Zhou Shidi.
The insurgents kept the designation "Second Front Army of the National Revolutionary Army", with He Long as acting commander-in-chief, Ye Ting as acting front commander, Liu Bocheng as chief of staff, Guo Moruo as director of the political department and Zhu De as deputy commander of the 9th Army. Politically they rallied support in the name of a "Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang", claiming to be "heirs to the orthodox KMT" while opposing both the Nanjing and Wuhan Nationalist governments; according to Li Lisan's report, after some argument Zhang Fakui was still listed on the committee's presidium.
The Southern March and Defeat
In early August the insurgents left Nanchang and marched south through eastern Jiangxi towards the East River region of Guangdong. It was high summer and supplies ran out. Li Lisan wrote that after only three days' march "nearly 4,000 soldiers had deserted or died of illness"; the 10th Division, which had been counted among the insurgent forces, broke away at Jinxian and left for Zhejiang. On the way the insurgents won two battles at Ruijin and Huichang, routing the main force of Qian Dajun at Huichang, then entered Guangdong via Changting and Shanghang, taking Chaozhou and Shantou in late September.
At the end of September the main force was defeated near Tangkeng by Nationalist troops about three times its strength, and Chaozhou and Shantou were lost; the remnants of the 20th Army were disarmed by Chen Jitang's forces, and only some 900 men of the 24th Division could be regrouped by the time it reached Jiazi harbour. The 25th Division, left behind at Sanheba, fought its way on under Zhu De and joined Mao Zedong's forces at Jinggangshan in April 1928.
Assessment and Commemoration
After the defeat, a CCP Central Committee circular of October 1927 called the Nanchang uprising "the most glorious page in the history of the Chinese revolution" while sharply criticising the Front Committee. In November an enlarged meeting of the Provisional Politburo adopted a Resolution on Political Discipline which held that the Front Committee had "continued the old opportunist policy" without a clear programme of agrarian revolution, "in practice carrying out a policy of 'the tiller shall not have his land'", and issued a warning to all its members; Zhang Guotao, who had "doubted and even opposed the uprising", was stripped of his alternate Politburo membership and other posts, and Tan Pingshan was expelled from the Party.
On 11 July 1933 the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic designated 1 August each year as the anniversary of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army; the date later became Army Day of the People's Liberation Army.
Narrative Comparison
| Source | Narrative |
|---|---|
| People's Daily Online party-history channel (2017); CCP Central Committee documents (1927) | Today's official accounts call the Nanchang Uprising "the first shot of armed resistance by Chinese Communists against the Kuomintang's bloody massacres, and the first shot in the Communists' independent leadership of revolutionary war, creation of a people's army and seizure of power by force". In 1927, after the defeat, the CCP Central Committee did call the uprising "the most glorious page in the history of the Chinese revolution", but held that the Front Committee had "continued the old opportunist policy", noted that people had called the insurgents "Chiang Kai-shek's third army", and issued a warning to all Front Committee members. |
| J. Guillermaz, The China Quarterly 11 (1962); C. Martin Wilbur, The China Quarterly 18 (1964) | The French officer and sinologist Guillermaz wrote that 1 August 1927 "marked the opening of a military phase which was to last more than twenty years and was to leave a deep mark on the Party and the present régime both in their outlook and their structure", and argued for "an accurate assessment" that would first place it in its political context. In a note he observed that who led the coup itself is "a controversial point", easily confused with the military organisation created the next day with Liu Bocheng as chief of staff. Columbia's C. Martin Wilbur translated accounts by Li Lisan, Zhang Guotao and Zhou Yiqun written within weeks of the defeat, all written within a few weeks of the defeat. |
| Li Lisan, "The Course and Lessons of the August First Revolution" (October 1927) | Li Lisan, one of the uprising's organisers, described the southern march in his report of October 1927: "There was no peasant movement along the route, and with the reactionaries' propaganda… the peasants fled at our approach. Food and water could not be bought; sometimes not even a bowl of gruel could be had all day. The men drank from ditches, so very many fell sick and died, and those collapsing by the roadside were endless." He also wrote that the leaders had kept "compromising with and placating" Zhang Fakui before and after the uprising, and that "allying with the KMT left and inheriting the orthodox KMT" had proved in practice "an opportunist illusion". |
Key Milestones
- Wuhan government breaks with the Communists
The Wuhan Nationalist government under Wang Jingwei breaks with the Communists, ending the first united front.
- Front Committee formed
Zhou Enlai arrives in Nanchang and becomes secretary of the Front Committee.
- Nanchang Uprising
The uprising begins at 2 a.m. and the insurgents take Nanchang; in the afternoon two regiments of the 25th Division join at Mahuiling.
- CCP circular on the defeat
Central Circular No. 13 calls the uprising "the most glorious page" while criticising the Front Committee.
- Resolution on Political Discipline
All Front Committee members are warned; Zhang Guotao loses his alternate Politburo seat and Tan Pingshan is expelled.
- 1 August designated Red Army Day
The Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic designates 1 August as the anniversary of the Red Army.
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