Untitled

Revolutionary Women and Women in the Revolution: The Chinese Communist Party and
Women in the War of Resistance to Japan, 1937-1945

Author(s): David S. G. Goodman
Source: The China Quarterly, No. 164, (Dec., 2000), pp. 915-942
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the School of Oriental and African
Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/655920
Accessed: 19/07/2008 13:55
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the
scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that
promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
http://www.jstor.org
Revolutionary Women and Women in the
Revolution: The Chinese Communist Party
and Women in the War of Resistance to
Japan, 1937-1945*
David S. G. Goodman
On a late winter's day in 1989 a grey-haired, round woman of about 80

in a padded jacket and a black beanie moved across 1st May Square in
the centre of Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province. She was presenting
awards to the PLA's most recent young "model soldiers" - recruits who
had just finished top of their class in basic training. This was Balu mama
- the "Mother of the Eighth Route Army," Bao Lianzi. Now the retired
head of a clinic, 50 years earlier she had been part of a women's support
group for soldiers during the War of Resistance to Japan, in her native
Wuxiang.' At that time, Wuxiang, together with Liaoxian and Licheng
counties in South-east Shanxi, and Shexian in Northern Henan,2 was the
core of the Taihang Base Area,3 itself the centre of the Shanxi-Hebei-
Shandong-Henan Border Region and one of the major base areas behind
Japanese lines. It supported the field headquartersof the Eighth Route
Army under Peng Dehuai; the offices of the North China Bureau under
Yang Shangkun; and Deng Xiaoping, eyes and ears for Mao Zedong on
the front line.4
Bringing Bao Lianzi out of retirement so publicly in late 1989 was
designed to make a statement about the revolution and the present. The
Beijing demonstrations of May and June were echoed in Taiyuan, with
occupation by students of 1st May Square, although a violent outcome
had been avoided largely through the actions of a not-unsympathetic
* An earlier version of this article was delivered at the conference on Women in Twentieth
Century China organized by Dr Lily Lee at the University of Sydney during late April 2000.
It has benefited greatly from discussions with Jing Wang, Mark Selden and Sue Wiles, as well
as the comments of anonymous referees. Research was supportedby the Australian Research
Council, and would have not been possible without the assistance provided by Professor Tian
Youru of the Modem Shanxi History Research Institute. It is based on interviews with
survivors of and participants in the Taihang Base Area, as well as the documentary sources
cited in the notes. The opinions articulated and the views expressed are those of the author
alone, unless explicitly indicated.
1. Report of an interview detailing with part of her life and work may be found in Li
Zhikuan and Song Ruzhen, "Balu mama" ("Mother of the Eighth Route Army"), in
Zhonggong Wuxiang xianwei xuanchuanbu and Zhonggong Wuxiang xianwei dangshi
bangongshi (ed.), Wuxiangfenghuo (The Flames of Warin Wuxiang)(Licheng: Licheng CCP
Committee, 1985), Vol.l, p. 535.
2. Though now somewhat confusingly Shexian is in South-west Hebei. Boundaries were
adjusted after the end of the War of Resistance to Japan in 1945.
3. The Taihang Base Area, particularlyin the form of the base area committee of the CCP,
went through a number of different name changes during 1937-45. For the sake of
convenience and clarity all will be referredto by the name that applied at the end of the war:
the Taihang Base Area.
4. David S.G. Goodman "JinJiLuYuin the Sino-Japanese War: the borderregion and the
border region government," The China Quarterly, No. 140 (December 1994), p. 1007.
? The China Quarterly, 2000
916 The China Quarterly
provincial leadership which persuaded the demonstrators to withdraw.5

All the same, the presentation of awards to model soldiers by Bao Lianzi
provided a message of continuity and stability; emphasized the positive
contributionof the the military as the keystone of Chinese patriotism;and
stressed the close relationship between Shanxi and the Chinese Commu-
nist Party (CCP).
The appellation "Motherof the Eighth Route Army" was not new, but
it certainly did not date back to the War of Resistance itself. The CCP's
retrieval of its own history during the 1980s once again highlighted the
wartime experience of the Taihang Base Area, which largely for political
reasons had remained somewhat concealed during the previous 20 years.6
Although the Taihang Base Area had contemporaneously prepared its
own history, its reconstruction became a major project for Shanxi within
the Seventh Five-Year Plan.7 In that process "Mother of the Eight Route
Army" was first applied to Wuxiang, because of the large number of
recruits it produced, and then later when further personification was
required, to Bao Lianzi.8
The high profile afforded Bao Lianzi was far from typical of the way
the role of women in the North China base areas of the War of Resistance
was usually reported. In the CCP's account, these areas were socially
conservative and only began modernization with the start of war and its
own arrival from 1937. Women became emancipated through their
participationin production and were more concerned with this immediate
goal than with demands for political equality.9 As a result, women have
made only a limited appearancein the CCP's history of the North China
base areas, even in the 1980s revival, and then always in a support role
to male CCP activists. Within Shanxi, Bao Lianzi is almost the only
5. Shanxi sheng shizhi yanjiuyuan(ed.), Zhongguo gongchandang Shanxi lishi dashijisu

(1976.10-1992.12) (CCP Historical Record of Events in Shanxi, October 1976-December
1992) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1995), pp. 298-99.
6. The activities of the Taihang Base Area had been more publicly celebrated than most
other base areas outside Yan'an between 1949 and the mid-1960s. However, its reputation
was always sidelined by Mao Zedong's vision of CCP history, and became completely
submerged from 1965 until the late 1980s. On the historiography of the North China base
areas, see Feng Chongyi and David S.G. Goodman "Explaining revolution," in Feng Chongyi
and David S.G. Goodman (eds.), North China at War: The Social Ecology of Revolution,
1937-1945 (Latham:Rowman & Littlefield, 2000). Probably the two best known publications
about the Taihang Base Area from the 1950s and 1960s are: Qi Wu, Yige geming genjudi de
chengzhang: KangRi zhanzheng he jiefang zhanzheng shiqi de JinJiLuYuBianqu gaikuang
(The Transformation of a Revolutionary Base Area: An Outline of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shan-
dong-Henan BorderRegion during the Warof Resistance and the Warof Liberation) (Beijing:
Renmin chubanshe, 1957); and Taihang renjia (Taihang People) (Beijing: Zhongguo
qingnian chubanshe, 1964).
7. Tian Youru "Taihang kangRi genjudi shi yanjiu songshu" ("Research on the history
of the Taihang Anti-Japanese Base Area"), Dangshi tongxun (Newsletter on Party History),
No. 353 (No.7, 1987), p. 39.
8. Zhonggong Wuxiang xianwei xuanchuanbuandZhonggong Wuxiang xianwei dangshi
yanjiushi (ed.), KangRi zhanzheng zhongde Wuxiang (Wuxiang in the Anti-Japanese War)
(Zhonggong Wuxiang, 1985), p. 3.
9. See, for example: Taihang geming genjudishi zongbian weihui (ed.), Qunzhong
yundong (The Mass Movement) Taihang geming genjudi shiliao congshu No.7 (Taiyuan:
Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1989), especially pp. 409-471.
Revolutionary Women 917
woman currently rated as a "revolutionary hero" from the War of

Resistance, and certainly the most widely known during the 1990s.?1
This low profile afforded women extends to the literature published
outside China. Histories of the War of Resistance in North China, and of
its individual base areas, mention women but rarely, often only to
acknowledge the CCP's failure to meet its earlier commitments to gender
equality.1 Even with the substantial growth during the 1970s and 1980s
in studies of women in China there is remarkably little about women in
the North China base areas at that time. Apart from the pioneering studies
of women in Yan'an by Hua Chang-ming and Patricia Stranahan'2the
topic is usually considered within a much larger perspective of social
change that focuses on the role of women either in the 20th century, or
in relation to the CCP, or both. Ono Kazuko devotes a section to it in a
discussion of the transformation of rural women between 1927 and
1949.13Elisabeth Croll, Delia Davin and Judith Stacey examine women
in the North China base areas as part of their discussions of the pre-1949
liberated areas more generally.14 Kay Ann Johnson considers the changes
wrought by the War of Resistance together with those of the Civil War
of 1946-49.15
The various accounts of the relationship between women and the CCP
in the North China base areas during the war almost totally reflect the
CCP's assessment of the social environment, and to some extent reinforce
its explanation of women's mobilization. They commonly accept that the
countryside of the North China base areas was, and remains, even more
socially conservative on the issue of women's participationin public life
than other parts of the country,16 and that at least in part the CCP's
10. Liu Hulan is of course considerably and nationally betterknown. However, herheroism
was from the Civil War.
11. The most comprehensive account of this period is Lyman van Slyke "The Chinese
Communist Movement during the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-45," in The Cambridge History
of China, Vol. 13, Republican China, 1912-1949, Part II (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity
Press, 1986), ch. 12, p. 609. For an example of such comments in a recently-published study
of a specific base area, see: Pauline B Keating, Two Revolutions: Village Reconstruction and
the Cooperative Movement in Northern Shaanxi 1934-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1997), pp. 6-7.
12. Hua Chang-ming, La condition feminine et les communistes chinoises en action:
Yan'an, 1935-1946 (Paris:Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1981);
Patricia Stranahan, Yan'an Women and the Communist Party (Berkeley: University of
California, Institute of East Asian Studies, 1983).
13. Ono Kazuko, Chinese Womenin a Centuryof Revolution, 1850-1950 (edited by Joshua
A Fogel) (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989 (original publication, 1978), pp.
161-170.
14. Elisabeth Croll, Feminism and Socialism in China (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1978), pp. 185-222; Delia Davin, "Women in the liberated areas," in Marilyn B. Young (ed.),
Women in China (Michigan: University of Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies, 1973), pp.
73-87; Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1983), pp. 108-157.
15. Kay Ann Johnson, Women, the Family, and Peasant Revolution in China (Chicago:
Chicago University Press, 1983), pp. 63-83.
16. See, for example, and in addition to the already cited sources: Phyllis Andors, The
Unfinished Revolution of Chinese Women (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1983), pp. 23
ff; and Delia Davin, Woman-Work:Womenand the Party in Revolutionary China (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1976), pp. 32 ff.
mobilization of women during the war was not designed to lead to gender
equality but to increase "women's role in production to help support the
economy and the anti-Japanese effort."'7 At the same time they clearly
recognize that whilst contemporary commentators such as Agnes Smed-
ley and Nym Wales talked about "gender equality" and "women's
liberation,"'8the wider experiments that were permittedto some extent by
the CCP during the 1920s had long since been abandoned.19To para-
phrase Judith Stacey, whatever else transpired during the war the result
was that the former traditional patriarchy was replaced by a new patri-
archy that centred on the fraternity of the Red Army.20
All the same, these explanations are not totally convincing. They draw
overwhelmingly on Yan'an rather than the front-line base areas, where
conditions were almost necessarily different. Yan'an had been developed
as the central CCP base area because of its suitable social environment
and security, whereas the front-line base areas were not only considerably
larger and more socially varied, but also more subject to the vagaries of
war.21Their development, as well as the CCP's structuresof leadership,
was all very experimental, especially in the first few years of the war. It
was driven generally by young, inexperienced, middle-class (and male)
recruits from the North China cities. In most cases their first encounter
with rural China was when they joined the resistance to Japan at the
beginning of the war. The inevitable result was that the development of
organization and policies was highly localized, and influenced greatly by
local conditions.22
17. Johnson, Women,the Family, and Peasant Revolution, p. 65. See, also, more generally,
Davin "Women in the liberated areas," pp. 73-87; and Croll, Feminism and Socialism, pp.
202 ff.
18. Agnes Smedley, Battle Hymn of China (London: Gollancz, 1943), "The women take
a hand," pp. 190 ff; Helen Foster Snow (Nym Wales), The Chinese Communists: Sketches
and Autobiographies of the Old Guard (Westport, CN: Greenwood, 1972), Part 7 Women,
pp. 199-266.
19. Christina Kelley Gilmartin, Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women,
Communist Politics, and Mass Movements in the 1920s (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1995).
20. Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley University of
California Press, 1983), pp. 154-55.
21. Mark Selden, China in Revolution: The YenanWayRevisited (New York: M.E. Sharpe,
1995); Feng and Goodman, North China at War.
22. In the Taihang Base Area, for example, the original organizational genesis of its
civilian structureswas the Beiping-Wuhan Railway CCP Committee which sent 31 activists,
all male, to the region at the start of the war. They recruited several hundred other urban
intellectuals, including many teachers, and formed the backbone of the CCP's organization
to the end of the war. As Li Xuefeng, the ranking CCP secretary for the Taihang Base Area
for all but a couple of months of the war, pointed out: "Many leading cadres are urban
intellectuals. When they first came they knew little about the ruralareas and the peasants, and
nothing about peasants, peasant cadres or worker-peasant cadres." It was a heady mix:
"Whetherdeliberately or not, they hurtthe peasants and local cadres through their city views
and absolutist interpretations of Marxism." Reported verbatim, in Zhonggong Taihang
qudangwei, Taihang quwei diliuci zuzhihui jilu (Minutes of the Sixth Organizational
Conference of the Taihang Region Party Committee), February-March 1945, 8 March 1945,
8 March 1945, p. 67. For furtherinformation on the social composition of the Taihang CCP,
see David S.G. Goodman, Social and Political Change in Revolutionary China: The Taihang
Base Area in the War of Resistance to Japan, 1937-1945 (New York: Rowman & Littlefield,
2000, especially ch. 1, "Base area and border region."
A second problem is that where accounts of women in the North China

base areas do attempt to move beyond Yan'an the few sources they
access are drawn almost exclusively from the last half of the war rather
than its full eight years. In the front-line base areas political conditions
had changed dramatically in 1940. In the earlier part of the war the CCP
was not only less assertive but also not in many places the principal force
leading nationalist resistance. In late 1939 and early 1940 it moved to
take control of the front-line base areas and thereafter consolidated its
rule. Within that process, during 1942 it introduced a consistency across
the base areas in a number of a policy areas, including women's
mobilization, that had not existed earlier and which followed from wider
political developments within the movement as Mao Zedong centralized
his authority.23At the start of 1942 the CCP abandoned any attempt to
mobilize women behind appeals to emancipation and gender equality.
Later that year Peng Dehuai, speaking at a meeting of senior cadres from
the Taihang Base Area, warned that raising women's political conscious-
ness was generally permitted but that cadres should determinedly ensure
it take second place to economic mobilization, because of both war needs
and concerns about potential resentment from male peasants.24
There is potential for considerable misunderstanding in viewing the
history of women during the war only through the eyes of the CCP. An
argument that women were denied significant political participation by
the CCP during the war is not to say that women did not (or did) demand
greater political participationat that time. In the case of the Taihang Base
Area there is evidence to suggest that one important explanation for the
relative absence of women is that at the very least some women chal-
lenged the CCP and posed problems which it was unwilling or unable to
meet. Somewhat conversely, there is also evidence to suggest that other,
already organized, women were prepared to work very closely with the
CCP, thereby ensuring a high degree of women's participationin politics
generally in their locality. There is a need for a more women-centred
narrativeof the front-line base areas of the War of Resistance. However,
retrieving a women's history - or indeed that of any social group separate
from that of the CCP - is not easy. The sources for investigation are
necessarily dominated by the CCP and its archives, and increasingly so as
participants come to the ends of their lives. Contextualization becomes
even more important, especially in the absence of direct and detailed
sources of information, but this too brings other difficulties of balance in
explanation.
The experience of three adjacent counties at the heart of the Taihang
Base Area - Wuxiang, Licheng and Liaoxian - suggests that the expla-
nation of women's interactions with the revolutionary process is more
23. Frederick C, Teiwes and Warren Sun, "From a Leninist to a charismatic party: the
CCP's changing leadership, 1937-1945," in Tony Saich and Hans van de Ven (eds.), New
Perspectives on the Chinese CommunistRevolution (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1995), p. 339.
24. Peng Dehuai "Huabei genjudi gongzuo baogao" ("Reporton work in the North China
Base Areas"), March 1942, in Gongfei huoguo shiliao leibian (Collection of Historical
Materials on the Communist Bandits) (Taipei: Zhonghua minguo guoji guanxi yanjiusuo,
1961), Vol. 3, pp. 380-82.
complex than either CCP history or the various other accounts have so far
allowed. Even in the high mountains of this rural area it is clear that there
is a need to differentiate the processes of social change and the CCP's
revolution. Modernization had started well before 1937 and created not
only a socio-economic environment that made CCP mobilization readily
attractive in some places (notably Wuxiang) but also the conditions for
some women to become socially, economically and politically active.
Social conditions varied a great deal from county to county, as did the
subsequent relations that developed between the CCP and women. In
Wuxiang, where the CCP, very unusually for the Taihang Base Area, had
some native organizational tradition, women's participation largely fol-
lowed the later approved CCP script. They played almost no role in
politics, though they were active in social and economic support work to
the CCP, as Bao Lianzi's story bears witness. However, Wuxiang's
socio-economic environment - dominated by commercial tenancies, con-
siderable land concentration, absentee landlords and recent extreme rural
immiseration - was not only rare for the Taihang Base Area, it also seems
to have been rare generally for the North China front-line base areas.25
Equally as unusual socio-economic conditions, though in another
direction altogether, were to be found in Licheng. Here there was
substantially greater equality, as well as wealth, than could be found
elsewhere in the Taihang Base Area or than was normal for the North
China front-line base areas. One result was a well-educated and organized
group of young men and women who helped organize the county CCP at
the start of the war. However, local politics were fracturedby the CCP's
seizure of power in January 1940 which alienated much of that support,
particularlyits female and wealthier components. Thereafterthe CCP had
considerably less success in mobilizing the population. In particular the
desire for alternatives by women played a role in the development of a
rebellion against the CCP-led county government that severely shocked
the Communist movement.
More usual socio-economic conditions for both the Taihang Base Area
and the North China front-line were to be found in Liaoxian, renamed
Zuoquan in 1942 in memory of the CCP general Zuo Quan killed there
in that year. However, Liaoxian also differs from the more orthodox
account of women's participation in a North China base area: a local
women's organization that pre-dated the CCP had a considerable hand in
its formation and subsequent development. The Liaoxian Patriotic
Women's Association (not to be confused with the CCP Women's
Federation with which it much later merged) had been established as part
25. On socio-economic conditions in comparative perspective, see Tian Youru, "Shanxi

tudi zhidu gaige lishi gaiyao" ("Outline history of reform of the land system in Shanxi"),
Shanxi dangshi tongxun (Bulletin of Shanxi Party History), No. 2 (1993), p. 17; Philip C.C.
Huang "Ruralclass struggle in the Chinese revolution: representationaland objective realities
from the land reform to the Cultural Revolution," Modem China, Vol.21, No.1 (January
1995), p. 105; and Li Xiangqian "Kang Ri zhanzheng yu Zhongguo Xibei nongcun shehuide
biandong" ('The transformationof village society in North-west China during the War of
Resistance"), in Feng Chongyi and Gu Deman (eds.), Huabei Kang Ri genjudi yu shehui
shengtai (The Social Ecology of the North China Base Areas in the War of Resistance)
(Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 1998), p. 25.
Figure 1: Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region, 1945
/
n,,. S - .....
\Taiyuan>\ ^W^'fI HEBEIN
:ij
..l... * *
'Yuc Xlyang Zaphuang ^.
"
? Thalhiang j
S\ Heshun South Hebe
t Handan
'SHANXIi nAA .Shean
Licheng
,
/!Cixian
Changzhi i-
. Linxlan)Y
:rTa.yu.
** Jincheng l , ui J
Zhengzhou \ u,
- - -Base areas HENAN
Provincialboundary
.*....** Borderregion
-." Railway ANHUII
of the Shanxi Sacrifice League. With a solid organizational base among

teachers it helped found the county CCP, and remained influential
throughoutthe war. Women certainly participatedin the CCP's social and
economic campaigns in Liaoxian, but they also participatedin politics on
a scale that seems completely at odds with other accounts, achieving
numerical equality with men on the county committee of the CCP during
the second half of the war.
During 1942-45 the CCP certainly emphasized women's participation
in production as opposed to a wider general equality, and moved deci-
sively to shore up the patriarchy of its civilian and military forces.
However, this was not always the total explanation of either the roles of
women in the war, or even of the relationship between women and the
CCP. In some places, at some times, and under certain conditions women
did enjoy opportunities for greater participation in social and political
activities. There were both other revolutionary women, and women in the
revolution, whose stories are masked by later CCP interpretations,both of
the 1940s and of the 1980s.
The Taihang Base Area

The Taihang Base Area emerged from various Anti-Japanese activities
in the southern part of the Taihang Mountain range, on the borders of
Shanxi, Hebei and Henan. Eighth Route Army troops had been led by Liu
Bocheng, from North Shaanxi, specifically to establish a CCP base area
here. In addition, there were pockets of CCP activists already in the area,
including railway workers and coal miners, as well as one or two
Anti-Japanese Resistance local governments formed as political order
broke down with the invasion of Hebei and Henan.
In the Shanxi districts of the Taihang Base Area, a crucial role in its
formation was played by the Sacrifice League (for National Salvation).
Established in 1936 by Yan Xishan, the warlord of Shanxi, through
alliance with the CCP, the Sacrifice League brought together a broad
coalition of resistance to Japanese aggression - including Yan Xishan's
followers, supporters of the Nationalist Party in the province, the CCP,
local elites, intellectuals and urban workers - and played a central role in
both provincial politics and the activities of base areas in the province
until 1940.26In particular, Yan appointed Bo Yibo and Rong Zihe, who
were both CCP members,27as directors, respectively, of the third and
fifth administrative districts in South-east Shanxi: the former included
Wuxiang and Liaoxian; the latter Licheng.
A major turning point in the development of the Taihang Base Area in
Shanxi came at the end of 1939 and beginning of 1940. Before that time,
the CCP did not control politics throughout the Taihang Base Area, and
26. Wang Shengbo, Ximenghui shi (History of the Sacrifice League) (Taiyuan: Shanxi
renmin chubanshe, 1987); and Donald G. Gillin, Warlord Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province,
1911-1949 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), pp. 231 ff.
27. Bo Yibo was the leader of the "Open"Shanxi ProvincialCommittee of the CCP, and had
made the arrangementswith Yan Xishan that led to the establishmentof the Sacrifice League.
indeed in many counties was very much a minor partner in the Anti-
Japanese resistance (Licheng and Liaoxian are notable examples) under
the umbrella of the Sacrifice League and the alliance with Yan Xishan.
The civil war of late 1939 and early 1940 between Yan Xishan and the
CCP led the CCP to seize power forcibly where it was not already in
command, leading to the unification and institutionalization of the base
area. By 1944 the Taihang Base Area had grown to have an estimated
population of 2.8 million people in its core areas and another 1.8 million
in its guerrilla districts, across 58 counties.
Wuxiang, Licheng and Liaoxian counties were at the heart of the
Taihang Base Area both physically and organizationally. The high moun-
tain area where the three counties meet in the north of Licheng, the east
of Wuxiang and the south of Liaoxian was one of the most secure parts
of any base area during the war, and consequently saw a concentration of
CCP offices and headquartersin and after 1940. There were no Japanese
or allied forces based here, and it was difficult for them to operate so far
from their usual lines of communication and supply. Japanese troops only
passed through the area to any serious effect a few times during the war,
though on one occasion in May 1942 a significant part of the base area's
civil organization was destroyed in Liaoxian along with a large number
of guerrilla activists, including the deputy chief-of-staff of the Eighth
Route Army, Zuo Quan.28
The CCP proved remarkably successful in mobilizing the local popu-
lation of these three counties during the war. By August 1941, the 39
counties in the Taihang Base Area had a total of 24,512 CCP members29;
almost a third of the total was to be found collectively in Wuxiang (16
per cent), Licheng (8.2 per cent) and Liaoxian (7.2 per cent.)30
During the war, Liaoxian became the administrativecentre of the entire
base area; Wuxiang was the area's radical heart in its pursuit of social
reform in terms of class; and Licheng provided resistance to reform. All
three were mountain counties, ranging in elevation from about 650 to
2,200 metres, with most habitation normally at or about 1,000 metres.
The majority of the population was engaged in agriculture. However, in
the two decades before the War of Resistance all three had been touched
by modernization in various ways. Liaoxian had become a considerable
commercial centre for coal and mountain goods, especially wool; Wuxi-
ang had seen the concentration and corporatization of agriculture, and
was a developing centre of rural industries, notably textiles and iron.
Licheng had next to no industry and, remarkablyfor Shanxi, no coal, but
was considerably wealthier. In additional contrast to Liaoxian and Wu-
28. Taihang geming genjudishi zongbian weihui (ed.), Taihang geming genjudi shigao
(Outline History of the Taihang Revolutionary Base Area) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin
chubanshe, 1987), pp. 134-36.
29. This figure excludes CCP members serving in the Eighth Route Army or offices of the
North China Bureau of the CCP based in the Taihang Base Area.
30. Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei, "Zuzhi gongzuo baogao" ("Report on organization
work"), 1 August 1941, in Shanxisheng danganguan (ed.), Taihang dangshi ziliao huibian
(Collection of Materials on the History of the Party in the Taihang Base Area) (Taiyuan:
Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1994), Vol. 4, 1941, p. 544-46.
Table 1: Liaoxian, Wuxiang and Licheng Counties, Shanxi, 1943,

Relative Size and Wealth
Population Number of Income Land

(year as natural per capita productivity
County indicated) villages (yuan) (dan per mu)
Liaoxian 71,936 (1935) 451 7.09 1.23

Wuxiang 141,200 (1936) 875 6.48 1.02
Licheng 77,955 (1935) 301 7.83 1.43
Sources:
Population: Zhongguo gongchandang Zuoquan xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Zhongguo
gongchandang Zuoquan xian jianshi 1937-1949 (A Brief History of the CCP in Zuoquan
County 1937-1949) Taihang geming genjudi shiliao congshu (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin
chubanshe, 1995), p.2; Wuxiangxian xianzhi bianji weiyuanhui bangongshi (ed.), Wuxiang
xianzhi (The Record of Wuxiang County) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1986), p.39;
Licheng xianzhi bianxi weiyuanhui (ed.), Licheng xianzhi (The Record of Licheng County)
(Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1994), p. 642. Villages: Zhonggong Shanxisheng Zuoquanxianwei
zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Zuoquan xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng
Zuoquan xian danganju (ed.), Zhongguo gongchandang Shanxisheng Zuoquan xian zuzhishi
ziliao 1937.10-1987.10 (Organizational History of the CCP in Zuoquan County, Shanxi,
1937-1987) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1992), p. 1; Zhonggong Shanxisheng
Wuxiang xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wuxiang xianwei dangshi yanjiushi,
Shanxisheng Wuxiangxian danganju(ed.), Zhongguo gongchandang Shanxisheng Wuxiang-
xian zuzhi shi ziliao 1933.8-1993.12 (Organizational History of the CCP in WuxiangCounty,
Shanxi, 1933-1993) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1994), p. 7; Zhonggong
Shanxisheng Licheng xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Licheng xianwei dangshi
yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Licheng xian danganju(ed.), Zhongguo gongchandang Shanxi sheng
Licheng xian zuzhishi ziliao 1937-1987 (Organizational History of Licheng County, Shanxi
Province CCP, 1937-1987) (Taiyuan:Shanxi renminchubanshe, 1993), p. 1. Income and land
productivity data for 1943: Taihangqu guomin caifu gaikuang (Outline of National Wealth
in the Taihang Region) 1944, in JinJiLuYu Bianqu caizheng jingji shi bianjizu and Shanxi,
Hebei, Shandong, Henan sheng danganguan(ed.), KangRizhanzheng shiqi JinJiLuYuBianqu
caizheng jingjishi ziliao xuanbian (Collection of Materials on the Economic and Financial
History of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region during the War of Resistance
to Japan) (Beijing: Caizheng jingji chubanshe, 1990), Vol.2, p. 1335.
xiang it had a small proportionof poor peasants and low concentration of

land-ownership, with high levels of education, having developed an
extensive system of modem schools. Indeed, education was by way of
being a major local industry.
At the same time, the impact of modernization should not be over-
stated, and certainly with respect to the position of women. Isabel and
David Crook undertook field research in a neighbouring county from late
1947. As they pointed out, even then the status of women "was low in
every class." They quote one woman's comments:
... the men used to talk about village affairs on the street, but we never dared take
part. And when someone came to the door and called out, "Is anyone at home?" we
women ourselves would answer, "No there's nobody home." Women didn't count as
human beings.31
31. Isabel and David Crook, Revolution in a Chinese Village: Ten Mile Inn (London:
Routledge, 1959), p. 7.
There were distinct differences in the socio-economic conditions of the

three counties. Table 1 provides an indication of the relative size and
wealth of each during the war. Reliable comparative data are not avail-
able on the size of the population. However, there are separately reported
data on the population of each county for different pre-war years, and
these are presented in Table 1, together with the number of natural
villages in each county. Data to indicate the relative wealth of each
county are even less reliable, both because of the war and because the
local economy in this part of the Taihang Mountains had been in a severe
depression since 1931. Some indication may be gained from income per
capita, and arable land productivity per mu at the end of 1943, when the
local economy was becoming stabilized. In general, Licheng was wealth-
ier than Liaoxian, which in turn was wealthier than Wuxiang. Land was
dramatically more productive in Licheng than in Wuxiang, though this
was somewhat offset by non-agriculturalincome. All the same, it would
seem likely that this and other differences - socio-political as well as
socio-economic - affected the course of mobilization, both generally and
with respect to women's participation.
Wuxiang: Women in Economic Production

The experience of women's mobilization in Wuxiang most closely
resembles the orthodox account presented in later histories. Women were
noticeable by their absence from political participation,either in the ranks
of the CCP or in the organizationof the Communist-runlocal governments.
On the other hand, considerable public emphasis was given at the time (as
well as later) to activities such as the women's support group that Bao
Lianzi had belonged to, or their mobilization for economic production.
In general, the CCP's experience in Wuxiang during the war was
far from typical for the Taihang region. First, unlike almost every-
where else, the CCP had been organized there before the war, and
secondly, the socio-economic structureof the county was different. These
two characteristics are not unrelated. There were far fewer landlords and
rich peasants here than elsewhere in the region. Moreover, Wuxiang's
landlords were far wealthier than their equivalents in other Taihang
counties. Table 2 presents comparative data on social categories and
land-holding for Wuxiang and the Taihang region as a whole. The
identification of landlords, and indeed all the CCP's social categories
rarely stand up to robust analysis. Landlords might rent out land but
remain poor, both absolutely and relatively. The designation of landlord
was politically determined, according to local conditions.32However, in
Wuxiang, 44 landlords owned half of all the agricultural land.33It also
had relatively few middle peasants (about one-fifth of households) and
32. Huang "Rural class struggle," p. 114.

33. Yang Wei "Taihangshan beiqude tudi wenti" ("Land issues in the northern part of
the Taihang Mountains"), May 1940, in Shanxisheng danganguan, Collection of Materials,
Vol. 3, 1940, p. 311.
Table 2: Households and Land Ownership by Social Category, Wuxiang

(1935) and the Taihang Region (1936), percentage
Households Land
Social category Wuxiang Taihang Wuxiang Taihang
Landlordsand 4.9 10.7 54.0 50.3

rich peasants
Middlepeasants 19.1 36.5 16.5 31.9
Poorpeasants 76.0 52.8 29.5 17.8
Sources:
Taihangqu shehui jingji diaocha (diyiji) (Social and Economic Survey of the
Taihang Region - First Collection) August 1944, in JinJiLuYu Bianqu caizheng
jingji shi bianjizu and Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan sheng danganguan (ed.),
Collection of Materials, Vol.2, p. 1349; Wuxiangxian xianzhi bianji weiyuanhui
bangongshi (ed.), The Record of Wuxiang County, p. 291.
a large proportion of poor peasants (about three-quartersof households).

As a result in each natural village there was often only a single land-
owner, and frequently the largest land-holdings belonged to absentee
landlords.34Typically in the Taihang region there were many middle
peasants, with just under half the population classified as poor peasants.35
By the start of the war the concentrationof land ownership had become
an issue in Wuxiang. There was a popular saying at the time that
Wuxiang's establishment contained "four very importantgentry families,
eight who are just a bit less important, and 72 who have to keep up
appearances."36The situation was largely a consequence of commercial-
ization over several decades, which had quickened with economic crisis
during the 1930s. In one village in the eastern part of the county during
1934-36, some 85 households, including three landlords, 11 rich peas-
ants, 39 middle peasants, 28 poor peasants, three farmhands and one
tenant farmer, all had their land and property sequestered by creditors,
and the land subsequently passed into the hands of a finance company.37
This peasant immiseration proved fertile ground for the CCP and its
Peasant Refusal League during the 1930s. The development of the CCP
in Wuxiang was led by Li Yisan, a native and a teacher who joined the
CCP in 1926 and had participatedin both the Nanchang and Guangzhou
Uprisings. The League organized peasants to oppose "landlords, rich
peasants and bureaucratic capitalists" and to refuse to pay their debts,
34. Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei "Guanyu Wuxiang gongzuode yijian" ("Opinions on

Wuxiang's Work"), July 1940, in Shanxisheng danganguan, Collection of Materials, Vol. 3,
1940, p. 509.
35. Tian Youru "Outline history of reform," p. 4.
36. There are different versions of this same intent. See, for example: Zhonggong
Shanxisheng Wuxiang xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Zhonggong Wuxiang jianshi (An
IntroductoryHistory to the CCP in Wuxiang) (Wuxiang: Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wuxiang
xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, 1990), p. 3.
37. Taihang geming genjudishi zongbian weihui (ed.), Tudi wenti (The Land Question)
Taihang geming genjudi shiliao congshu No. 5 (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1987),
pp. 86-88.
rents, grain and other taxes, and to resist conscription. It soon established
rural branches in about half the county, but in consequence earned Yan
Xishan's attention and ire, and was forcibly closed in early 1936.38
The early CCP organization in Wuxiang proved invaluable with the
start of war, and the establishment of the alliance between Yan Xishan
and the CCP. It bequeathed a core of fairly experienced, local cadres,
many of whom were peasants, as well as a rural network of political
mobilization that could be revived without too much difficulty. They
were soon joined by other former Wuxiang CCP members who had been
driven away in early 1936, and a group of about 30 students and teachers
who were to become the backbone of the county Party committee's cadre
force during the war.39 The initial organizational group consisted of 56
people, 29 of whom were teachers, and all of whom were male.40
The Wuxiang CCP was thus to some extent less experimental in its
development than other counties, and was demonstrably more successful
in achieving power quickly, winning open elections across the county in
May 1939. Women's mobilization was on the agenda from the beginning.
In October 1937 a recruitmentteam from the Eighth Route Army moved
through the eastern part of the county and raised two guerrilla groups of
approximately 300 soldiers each, and a smaller women's guerrilla battal-
ion. The guerrilla groups later grew to regiments, and this was the start
of a pattern of 14 main line regiments with their origins in Wuxiang, and
a total of 14,600 recruits from the county. The women's battalion soon
returned to the county and became part of the local militia.41
Although at the start of the war the CCP, both nationally and even in
the Taihang Base Area, was committed to a rhetoric of gender equality,
the Wuxiang CCP was more limited in its view of women's mobilization.
This continued throughout the war era, and through the organizations of
the Women's Federation concentrated on encouraging women to be good
wives and mothers, organizing them to support military and CCP activi-
ties, and developing their potential for economic production. There was
38. Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wuxiang xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wu-

xiang xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Wuxiangxian danganju (ed.), Zhongguo
gongchandang Shanxisheng Wuxiangxian zuzhi shi ziliao 1933.8-1993.12 (Organizational
History of the CCP in Wuxiang County, Shanxi, 1933-1993) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin
chubanshe, 1994), p. 16; Wu Sanyou "Huiyi zhongde nongmin kangzhaituan"("Recalling the
peasants refusal league"), in Zhonggong Wuxiang xianwei xuanchuanbu and Zhonggong
Wuxiang xianwei dangshi bangongshi, The Flames of War in Wuxiang,Vol. 1, p. 63; Gillin,
Warlord Yen Hsi-shan, p. 229.
39. Wang Yutang "Zhengdunhuifu Wuxiang dangzhuzhijianyi" ("A concise recollection
of the resumption and restoration of the CCP's organization in Wuxiang"), in Zhonggong
Wuxiang xianwei xuanchuanbuand Zhonggong Wuxiang xianwei dangshi bangongshi, The
Flames of War in Wuxiang, Vol. 1, p. 87.
40. Details from Lai Ruoyu's comments to Taihang Sixth Organizational Work
Conference, 1 March 1945, in Zhonggong Taihang qudangwei, Minutes of the Sixth
Organizational Conference, p. 30; and Wuxiangxian xianzhi bianji weiyuanhui bangongshi
(ed.), Wuxiangxianzhi (The Record of WuxiangCounty) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe,
1986), pp. 667-688.
41. Ibid. p. 303; Zeng Ke "Nu she ji shou" ("Women fighters"), in Shanxisheng
Wuxiangxian funu lianhehui (ed.), Wuxiang funu yundong shiliao xuanbian (Selected
Materials from the Women's Movement in Wuxiang) (Wuxiang, 1982), p. 130.
apparently no encouragement for them to participate in politics, and

whilst their mobilization for production was lauded, the emphasis in
social issues, particularlymarriage and the family, remained on the rights
of the male. Despite constant pressure from the Women's Federation, the
traditional practice whereby widows were forbidden to remarry was
repeatedly upheld. It was only under the pressure of food shortages and
with the support of the Peasant's Association that this finally changed in
1944, resulting in the marriage of 300 bachelors and widows. However,
the same logic - that a lower number of households should be generally
encouraged because they required less food - had also led a year earlier
to divorce being banned.42
The highly active Women's Federation was not slow to publicize as
role models the activities of Kang Keqing, Pu Anxiu and Liu Zhilan, the
wives of senior CCP cadres Zhu De, Peng Dehuai and Zuo Quan
respectively, all of whom lived in the county for long periods.43Without
so much publicity, it also organized and encouraged the work of Bao
Lianzi, her support group and others who followed her example. As
already noted, Wuxiang was a major recruiting source for the Eighth
Route Army. These support groups were essentially, in the words of one
report, "the substitute family" for the new recruits who came through,
many young and with no experience of the world outside their village, let
alone life as soldiers.44The role of women in support was also extended
to the CCP's political struggle, especially in the handling of land redistri-
bution cases. The Wuxiang CCP's standing orders provided for women to
attend the struggle meetings against land-owners "on the right-hand side
facing the stage, together with their children."45
Wuxiang CCP's most publicized successes in women's mobilization
were in economic production. In order to ensure food supplies, particu-
larly during the Great Production Campaign of 1943-44, women were not
only mobilized into work teams to help army men's families with their
production, they also formed their own "women's mutual aid teams."46
42. Taihang geming genjudishi zongbian weihui (ed.), Tudi wenti (The Land Question)
Taihang geming genjudi shiliao congshu No. 5 (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1987),
pp. 29-30; Taihang geming genjudishi zongbian weihui (ed.), Zhengquanjianshe (Political
Development) Taihang geming genjudi shiliao congshu No. 4 (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin
chubanshe, 1990), p. 58.
43. See, for example: "Kang Keqing and Liu Zhilan nushi fangwenji" ("Recordof the visit
by Kang Keqing and Liu Zhilan,"Xinhua ribao (Huabeiban) (New China Daily, North China
Edition), 7 March 1939. Xinhua ribao (Huabeiban) was the newspaper of the Taihang Base
Area and its organization later became Renmin ribao (People's Daily).
44. See, for example, articles from Xinhua ribao reprintedin Shanxisheng Wuxiangxian
funu lianhehui, Selected Materials from the Women's Movement: Li Zhikuan "Yingxiong
muqin"("Heroic mother"),p. 196; Zhang Fengru and Li Zhikuan"Geming mama Bao Lianzi"
("Revolutionary mother Bao Lianzi"), p. 205.
45. "Yijiusi'ernian kaizhan xiaozuxiaoxi douzhengde dianxing ziliao" ("Typical cases of
rentand interestreductionin 1942"), in Zhonggong Taihangqudangwei, Taihang dang shiliao
biancun (Collection of Historical Party Materials on Taihang) (Huabei: Xinhua shudian,
1944), Vol. 1, p. 397.
46. Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wuxiang xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Zhonggong Wuxiang
jianshi (An IntroductoryHistory to the CCP in Wuxiang)(Wuxiang: Zhonggong Shanxisheng
Wuxiang xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, 1990), pp. 158-160.
The most famous of these, started initially by Wang Haicheng, was

photographed (still a relatively rarity at that time) and much-publicized.
It became so successful that it rapidly had to face the dilemma of whether
men should be allowed to join.47
However, in many ways an even greater impact was achieved with the
development of the textile industry, in which the Women's Federation
took a leading role. The CCP used local technical knowledge to develop
cotton and hemp production, based almost completely on women's
labour. Much of the raw product was grown through women's work
teams, with almost all the spinning and further processing out-sourced to
co-operatives of women working at home.48
Women's participation in politics was virtually non-existent in Wuxi-
ang. During the war 102 individuals served in leadership positions within
the two county CCP committees (divided between east and west for
strategic reasons in July 1940). Of these, only three were women and only
one of those was a native of Wuxiang.49The other two were veteran CCP
organizers from the former Jiangxi Soviet who had been sent to the
county during 1940 by the Taihang Base Area CCP Committee, because
of political and organizational problems in a number of local branches.50
Remarkably there were even fewer women in leadership positions
within the CCP-led local governments. Of the 97 people in the two
county governments during the war, or in their immediately subordinate
organizations, none was a woman. From 1940 this aspect of the Wuxiang
CCP's practice was in defiance of a requirement for each local govern-
ment in the Taihang Base Area to ensure the election of at least one
woman to a position of leadership.5"However, the low number of women
is partly explained by the low number who were members of the CCP. In
1938 and 1939 there were only about 100 in a total county membership
of just under 6,000.52
There is no evidence in Wuxiang of dissent by women to either their
social or political treatment in the later stages of the war. However,
47. Ma Guishu, "Wuxiang dashengchanzhong lingdao yu qongzhong jiehede jingyan"

("The experience of unity between masses and leadership in Wuxiang during the Great
Production Campaign"),in Wuxiangxian xianzhi bianji weiyuanhui bangongshi, The Record
of Wuxiang County, pp. 870 ff.
48. Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wuxiang xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, An IntroductoryHistory
to the CCP in Wuxiang, pp. 140-43. See, for example: Li Yunsheng "Fangzhi yingxiong Shi
Liuxian" ("Weaving hero Shi Liuxian"), in Zhonggong Wuxiang xianwei xuanchuanbu and
Zhonggong Wuxiang xianwei dangshi bangongshi, The Flames of War in Wuxiang, Vol. 2,
p. 520.
49. Information on leadership is taken from Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wuxiang xianwei
zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wuxiang xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng
Wuxiangxian danganju, Organizational History of the CCP in Wuxiang County, pp. 28-88.
50. Wen Jianping (JianPing), "Wuxiang shiyanxian shouci huodong fenzi dongyuan dahui
zongjie" ("Summary of the Conference of Advanced Activists in Mobilization in Wuxiang
Experimental County"), 25 April 1940, in Shanxisheng danganguan, Collection of Materials,
Vol.34, 1940, esp. p. 266.
51. Li Xuefeng, Li Xuefeng huiyilu: Taihang shinian (The Memoirs of Li Xuefeng: Ten
Years in the Taihang Mountains (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe, 1998), p. 113.
52. Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wuxiang xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wu-
xiang xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Wuxiangxian danganju, Organizational
History of the CCP in Wuxiang County, p. 90.
during 1939-40, when there was considerable uncertainty about the

CCP's strategy in the Taihang region and when many counties, including
Wuxiang, saw radical land reform, objections were raised by women
within the CCP's membership. According to the county CCP secretary,
there had been problems with "young women from higher class back-
grounds" at that time.53There are no further details available as to their
cause of complaint, though it seems likely that it was related to the
difference between the CCP's rhetoric, which had probably raised their
expectations, and its practice, which was somewhat different. Although in
Wuxiang the CCP had the organizational capacity to deal with this
problem, in Licheng it was to prove more of a challenge to local
government.
Licheng: Women, Class and Rebellion

Women hardly feature at all in the histories of the CCP in Licheng,
from either the 1940s or the 1980s. In part this is because there were very
few women involved in the Licheng CCP's activities after 1940. How-
ever, the likeliest explanation is the fracturednature of local politics that
resulted from the CCP's seizure of power in that year. This effectively
alienated the former members of the Sacrifice League, the local elite and
intellectuals, including a large number of women, who then participated
in organized resistance to the CCP. The Licheng CCP's ability to
mobilize the population for social reform was repeatedly slowed during
the second stage of the war, and it was unable to match the achievements
in women's mobilization of other counties such as Wuxiang.
Licheng was unusual as a Taihang county during the war because the
Japanese presence was minimal. There were attacks on the county,
especially on the Taihang Base Area's major munitions factory in the
north, but Licheng's distance from main lines of communication meant
no occupying forces were permanently stationed there. Apart from
topo-graphy, Licheng's advantage for the CCP lay in its wealth, based on
high agricultural productivity, mainly grain and sheep. The county was
a net exporter, and in 1933 for example, there was a 44 per cent trade
surplus.54 Licheng was and remains the richest county per capita in
the Taihang Mountain range.55 Moreover, wealth was more evenly
distributed than in most parts of the Taihang region. There was a low
concentration of land-holdings, very few landlords, far fewer poor
peasants and a larger proportion of middle peasants than in other
Taihang counties.
53. Wen Jianping (Jian Ping), "Summary of the Conference of Advanced Activists,"
p. 272.
54. The Shanxi Province Ten Year Plan prepared for Yan Xishan, and quoted in
Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei Licheng kaochatuan, Li Gua Dao shijian diaocha baogao
(Report of the Investigation into the Sixth Trigram Movement Incident), April 1942, p. 3.
55. "Licheng xian" ("Licheng county"), in Xu Guosheng and Chen Ninghua (eds.), Shanxi
xian qujingjifazhan shilue (Historical Outline of the Economic Development of Counties and
Regions in Shanxi) (Taiyuan: Shanxi jingji chubanshe, 1992), p. 231.
Licheng's wealth had not led to either industrial or commercial devel-

opment, possibly because of the distances and difficulties involved in
reaching external markets. Instead, during the 1920s and 1930s money
had been invested in education. By 1934, some 60 per cent of the eligible
year cohorts were attending primary school in the county.56At least one
school, the First High School in the county town, had more than 1,000
students in 1937, and there were 187 established primary schools.57Some
1,600 teachers were employed in the county, and studying to become a
teacher in Changzhi, Taiyuan and Beiping was a well-established career
path.
In 1928 a number of students who were back in Licheng for the Spring
Festival, and several teachers, formed the Licheng Returned Students
Federation. It was led by a group who were later to be active in the
Anti-Japanese movement at the start of the war, and included Yang
Jiaopu, the female deputy head of the First High School. It rapidly
became politically active, against the more conservative members of the
local elite,58 and in 1937 established the local branch of the Sacrifice
League. In mid-1937 it also took the lead in establishing the Licheng
CCP with the First High School playing a central organizational role.
Until the end of 1939 the Sacrifice League, with the former members of
the Returned Students Federation at its core, led the Anti-Japanese
Resistance activities in Licheng, and formed the county government.
However, in January 1940 - at the height of the civil war that had
developed between Yan Xishan and the CCP - the Licheng CCP turned
on both the Sacrifice League and its own original social constituency. It
moved decisively to replace the Sacrifice League-led government, and
completely closed its local organization. It replaced most of the leading
positions, including several of the founders of the Sacrifice League in
Licheng, who were all dismissed. In the process, the Licheng CCP also
dramatically restructured itself. The essence of both changes was that
with the exception of just over a dozen people who had originated with
the Returned Students Federation, all its teachers and students who had
joined the Sacrifice League, established the resistance government and
later joined the CCP, as well as almost all other intellectuals, were
excluded from politics. As a result, there was a dramatic decrease in the
membership of the Licheng CCP - from 2,206 to 802.59
The CCP's seizure of power and expulsion of so many intellectuals
56. Licheng xianzhi bianxi weiyuanhui (ed.), Licheng xianzhi (The Record of Licheng
County) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1994), p. 499.
57. Ibid. p. 501; Li Bu'an (ed.), Licheng zhilue (Licheng Chronicle) (Beijing: Renwen
chubanshe, 1993), pp. 477 and 485.
58. Liu Huan "Licheng jiandang chuqide yidian qingkuang" ("A view of the early
establishment of the Party in Licheng"), 4 January 1987, in Taihang geming genjudishi
zongbian weihui (ed.), Dang dejianshe (Party Development) Taihang geming genjudi shiliao
congshu No. 2 (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1989), pp. 644 ff.
59. Zhonggong Shanxisheng Licheng xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Licheng
xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Licheng xian danganju (ed.), Zhongguo gongchan-
dang Shanxi sheng Licheng xian zuzhishi ziliao 1937-1987 (Organizational History of
Licheng County, Shanxi Province CCP, 1937-1987) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe,
1993), p. 56.
seriously alienated support from a number of social groups. It also drew

a more definite line between the CCP and the local elite than was usual
in the Taihang Base Area, or indeed generally in the CCP's practice
during the War of Resistance.60The CCP's changed perspectives became
a major contributoryfactor in the development of armed opposition to the
resistance government in 1941, which succeeded in creating a coalition of
a number of alienated groups, including the politically dispossessed and
those who resisted the CCP's views on women's participation.
The Licheng Rebellion of 1941 is remarkablefor a number of different
reasons, not the least of which was that it occurred at all, and that the
major thrust of the CCP's response was to send work teams of investiga-
tors to live with its participants and develop a report through ethno-
graphic techniques.61 Its organizational base was the Sixth Trigram
Movement, a local religious sect led by Li Yongxiang, which developed
in Licheng during 1940-41 until it more than rivalled the local CCP in
size. Little is known about its religious dimensions, though it clearly
shared some common beliefs and organizational traits with the early 19th
century Eight Trigrams or White Lotus sects, notably its accessibility to
women.62 By 12 October 1941, when an armed attack was launched on
the offices of the Licheng county government, it had 3,321 members
compared to the county CCP's membership of 1,764.63Whilst there was
certainly a class base to the activities of the Sixth Trigram Movement, it
was also particularly attractive to women.
Table 3 provides comparative data on the social composition of the
Licheng CCP membership, the Sixth Trigram Movement membership,
and Licheng as a whole. In brief, the Sixth Trigram Movement was
formed from rich and middle peasants, the CCP from middle and poor
peasants. However, even clearer distinctions emerge from a comparison
of age structure and gender. As Table 3 indicates, the Sixth Trigram
Movement was not only more of a movement of the young, it was also
far more of a movement of women. The extent to which women joined
was really quite remarkable. By comparison less than 4 per cent of
members of the CCP in Licheng were women at that time. Even if
comparison is widened to include all CCP-led Anti-Japanese mass orga-
nizations in the county, the proportion of women was only 20 per cent,
and one of those organizations was the Women's Federation.
There were several religious organizations in Licheng, with mem-
60. Chen Yung-fa, Making Revolution: The CommunistMovement in Eastern and Central
China, 1937-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).
61. The reporton the incident was produced for the Taihang Base Area CCP as Zhonggong
JinJiYu qudangwei Licheng kaochatuan, Report of the Investigation into the Sixth Trigram
Movement Incident.
62. A fuller account of the Licheng Rebellion, including discussion of its religious aspects,
may be found in David S. G. Goodman "The Licheng Rebellion of 1941," Moder China,
Vol.23, No.2 (April 1997), p. 216. For discussion of its possible antecedents, see Susan
Naquin, Millenarian Rebellion in China: The Eight Trigrams Uprising of 1813 (Yale: Yale
University Press, 1976), especially pp. 38 ff.
xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Licheng xian danganju, Organizational History of
Licheng County, p. 56.
Table 3: Comparative Social Structure of CCP and Sixth Trigram

Movement, Licheng County, Shanxi, 1941, percentage
CCP Sixth Trigram Movement Licheng County
Gender
Male 96.6 53.0
Female 3.4 47.0
Social Category
Rich peasants and landlords 4.6 21.0 13.4
Middle peasants 49.2 53.0 57.3
Poor peasants 42.1 26.0 29.3
Others 4.1 - -
Age Category
Under 25 39.8 52.7
26-35 37.4 24.1 -
36-45 19.2 9.5
46-55 - 8.5
46-60 3.6 -
46-80 - 5.2
Sources:
Zhonggong Shanxisheng Licheng xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Licheng
xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Licheng xian danganju(ed.), Organizational History
of Licheng County, p. 56; Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei Licheng kaochatuan, Li Gua Dao
shijian diaocha baogao (Report of the Investigation into the Sixth Trigram Movement
Incident) April 1942, p. 8, p. 26; and Taihangqu shehui jingji diaocha (dierji) (Social and
Economic Survey of the Taihang Region - Second Collection) 1945, in JinJiLuYu Bianqu
caizheng jingji shi bianjizu and Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan sheng danganguan (ed.),
Collection of Materials, Vol.2, p. 1408.
bership of about 20 per cent of the total population.64Many had large

numbers of women members, but on the whole they were considerably
older and more likely to be from poor peasant backgrounds. Though the
Sixth TrigramMovement also had similar women members, the class and
age composition of its female membership reveals some significant
differences. Table 4 presents an analysis of the women members of the
Sixth Trigram Movement by age and social category.
These figures suggest that the Sixth Trigram Movement was not only
a movement of women to a degree not previously experienced in the
county, but also one that attracted young women from wealthier, more
privileged backgrounds. Just over one-fifth of the female membership of
the Sixth Trigram Movement - and hence more than a tenth of its total
membership - were young women from rich peasant backgrounds.
When the formal investigation of the Sixth Trigram Movement re-
ported it tried to impugn the sexual propriety of its members, especially
the women. The section considering the motivations of women
64. Li Bu'an (ed.), Licheng zhilue (Licheng Chronicle) (Beijing: Renwen chubanshe,
1993), p. 196.
Table 4: Women Members of the Sixth Trigram Movement, Licheng,

Shanxi, 1941, Age and Social Class, Percentage
Social category
Age category Poor peasant Middle peasant Rich peasant Total
Young 3 11 23 36
Middle-aged 6 17 17 40
Old 9 11 3 23
Total 18 39 43
Source:
ZhonggongJinJiYuqudangweiLichengkaochatuan,Reportof the Investigationintothe
SixthTrigramMovementIncident,p. 48.
members makes much of their concerns with "enjoying sex and finding
a good husband" as well as of what is described as the "preoccupation
with sex" of the younger women.65Such allegations are unlikely to have
been generally correct, and are more likely to be a function of gossip,
perhaps leading questions after the event or interviewees who were eager
to please their interviewers. The Sixth Trigram Movement was after all a
secret organization and so inherently a topic of speculation, especially
since half the membership being women was unusual enough in itself for
that time and place. Though there may have been a difference between
theory and practice, far from free love, the standing orders of the Sixth
Trigram Movement explicitly required sexual abstinence in order to
preserve energy, for women as well as men; there were even strictures
against loose sexual mores amongst members.
On the other hand, the Sixth Trigram Movement did deliberately
cultivate women's support, and their desire for greater freedom and even
to some extent for self-expression emerges clearly from the investigation
teams' interviews with former women participants. Whilst the former
members had little to say about political participationand gender equality
in that sense, they had plenty to say about the social roles of women
particularlyin marriage and the family. These concerns included protests
over arranged marriages, lack of choice in marriage, physical abuse in
marriage, the claustrophobic control of mothers-in-law within the family
home, and the inconveniences of living at home with one's parents.
The two most frequently cited goals of former women members of the
Sixth Trigram Movement were to have freedom of choice in marriage,
and the ability to move freely beyond the confines of either the parental
or the family home. "Going out" was of particular concern: of one Li
Naiting, for example, it was said that she had objected that "she was the
only child of her parents and (so) not allowed to go out for public
activities." The pressures for this kind of freedom were so intense that it
65. Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei Licheng kaochatuan, Report of the Investigation into
the Sixth Trigram Movement Incident, p. 59.
appears that some women even joined the Sixth Trigram Movement just
because the compulsory attendance at meetings presented an opportunity
to move around outside the home without the permission of parents,
husbands or mothers-in-law.
Unlike the CCP, the Sixth Trigram Movement actively recruited
women. It even accepted them as equal, if sometimes different, members.
Women were accepted as front-line line fighters, and the armed attack on
the county government offices included women as well as men, though
how many is not recorded.66Male members were formally called dazhong
and female members erzhong, and addressed as "brothers and sisters."
The near-equality of gender distribution in the membership as a whole
was reflected in its leadership. In addition, of the six superior ranks, the
top two were reserved for the senior male member and the senior female
member: Li Yongxiang and Li Lianfeng, the wife of Li Yongxiang's
brother Li Yonggui. Two senior women members were given responsi-
bility for looking after female members within the organization.
Once the dust had settled on the Sixth Trigram Movement the Licheng
CCP did make determined moves to redress its low level of female
participationby recruiting more women members. It doubled the number
in the county Party during 1942, and by 1945 they amounted to 10.3 per
cent of the membership.67For its part the Licheng Women's Federation
also attempted to address some of the issues raised by the women
participantsin the Sixth Trigram Movement, and encouraged attempts to
reform marriage practices and to increase women's participation rates in
politics.68
Liaoxian: Women in Politics

Liaoxian, in complete contrast to both Wuxiang and Licheng, not only
had an organized women's movement, but managed to maintain a rela-
tively successful reform agenda around women's mobilization. Particu-
larly in contrast to other parts of the Taihang Base Area, women's
participation in politics was relatively high, both in leadership positions
and generally. Moreover, even though here too the cause of women's
mobilization during the later part of the war was subordinatedto the goals
of economic production and military support, other programmes and
goals did not disappear completely from sight.
During the last five years of the war the southern part of Liaoxian (the
area of the CCP's greatest influence) became the location for so many
66. Ibid. includes details of interviews with three armed women participants,p. 67, p. 72,
p. 81.
xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Licheng xian danganju, Organizational History of
Licheng County, p. 56.
68. JinJiYu qu funu qiuguo lianhe zonghui "Guanyu 'Fandui maimaihun zhengqu
zizhuhun' de chubu zongjie" ("Preliminary summary on 'opposing the trade in brides and
striving to ensure freedom of choice in marriage' "), 31 August 1942, Taihang geming
genjudishi zongbian weihui (ed.), Qunzhongyundong (The Mass Movement), Taihang geming
genjudi shiliao congshu No. 7 (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1989), p. 419.
base area, border region and Eighth Route Army activities that it became
familiarly known to its inhabitantsas "Little Yan'an," in emulation of the
national CCP headquartersin North Shaanxi. This could be one expla-
nation for the different treatment of women's mobilization in Liaoxian,
compared to other parts of the Taihang Base Area where the CCP was
also organizationally strong, such as Wuxiang. Whilst leading cadres
could generally argue the need to maintain a healthy distance between the
rhetoric and practice of gender equality,69at the centre of the Taihang
Base Area words were more likely to be taken seriously. There may be
something to be said for such arguments, but the role of the Liaoxian
Patriotic Women's Association, a predecessor organization of the Liaox-
ian CCP, was at least as equally important.
During 1921-31 Liaoxian experienced an economic boom, followed by
a serious depression starting in 1931 which had a varied effect on
different parts of the county. The poorer northernpart had enjoyed much
less prosperity during the 1920s. There had been almost no change in
land use, and as a result traditional relations between landowners and
tenants remained for the most part in place under depression. In the
richer, southern portion of the county, the situation was more mixed. In
some villages landowners and tenant farmers had not over-extended
themselves in producing for markets beyond the county. However, in
other villages commercialization proved to be dangerous once the econ-
omy turned down, and led to a similar situation as in Wuxiang: a cycle
of rural immiseration, the concentration of land-holdings, and an increase
in absentee landlords. This was particularlythe case in the southern part
of Liaoxian, where the county government ended up in the middle of
1939, and at least partly explained the CCP's ability to develop such
strong local support there after 1940.70
With the economic prosperity of the 1920s the county town expanded
dramatically and became a considerable commercial centre for trade in
coal and sheep. Migrants were attractedin large numbers from Hebei and
Henan,71as were for the first time Protestant missionaries (the Catholic
church had already been established there for some time). The newly
established American Presbyterian Church unwittingly played a central
role in the development of the Chinese Communist movement in Liao-
xian. In 1923 it established a women's literacy class, and though it was
attended almost exclusively by young women from more privileged
backgrounds, a number went on to further education, and then to play a
central role in the organization of the Liaoxian Patriotic Women's
Association and later the CCP.72 One of these was Zhai Ying, whose
family had recently moved from Hebei. She studied English literature at
Shanxi University, where she joined the CCP, and subsequently met her
69. Johnson, Women, the Family, and Peasant Revolution, pp. 68-69.
70. Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei, Liaoxian diaocha baogao (Report of an Investigation
into Liaoxian), May 1942, pp. 27-33.
71. "Zuoquanxian" ("Zuoquancounty"), in Xu Guosheng and Chen Ninghua, Historical
Outline, p. 557.
72. Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei, Report of an Investigation into Liaoxian, pp. 19-20.
husband, Li Xuefeng. She returnedto her native Liaoxian as head of the

county CCP's Organization Department in 1939, and by the end of the
war had become the senior CCP official in the county. Li Xuefeng had
already become, and remained for most of the war, the leading cadre of
the Taihang Base Area Committee of the CCP (and its predecessor
organizations).73
The early history of Anti-Japanese mobilization in Liaoxian belongs
not so much to the CCP as to the Sacrifice League, which had developed
a county organization well before the outbreak of war. It was established
in December 1936, and by February 1937 had 3,500 members, drawing
largely on students, teachers and graduates. Many of the teachers were
women, and in May 1937 the county committee of the Sacrifice League
established the Liaoxian Patriotic Women's Association. Its first meeting
attracted 100 people, almost all primary school teachers. The Patriotic
Women's Association grew steadily throughout the war, even after the
Sacrifice League itself closed, and came to work closely with the CCP.
By the beginning of 1943 it had 5,179 members, many of whom lived in
Japanese-occupied areas of the county, especially the former county
town, and so were necessarily working underground.74
From the outbreak of war until the end of 1939 the Sacrifice League
ran the county government, with increasing CCP involvement, but also
with much more support from the local organization of the Nationalist
Party, local notables and other organizations, including the Chamber of
Commerce. The Liaoxian Patriotic Women's Association played a central
role both in the development of government programmes and in the
organization and development of the Liaoxian CCP. The new county
government placed great emphasis on training in general and improving
literacy, especially for women. Under the leadership of the League's
women teachers the educational system was overhauled in the early part
of the war. The goal of universal primary education was taken seriously,
new primary schools were established all over the county and consider-
able efforts went into encouraging girls to attend. By 1939 there were 171
junior primary schools with a total enrolment of 7,054, and six senior
primary schools with 330 pupils.75
The CCP had absolutely no exposure in Liaoxian before the war, and
as a result was organized initially from within the local Sacrifice League.
Like the Sacrifice League it too was based largely on teachers at its
73. Li Xuefeng was promoted after the war to become secretary of the North China Bureau
of the CCP Central Committee, and then to the CCP Politburo at the start of the Cultural
Revolution. He was removed from office in disgrace along with Chen Boda in 1969. Zhai Ying
worked in the national Women's Federation after 1949. She died in July 1999.
74. Zhonggong Shanxisheng Zuoquan xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Zuo-
quan xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Zuoquan xian danganju (ed.), Zhongguo
gongchandang Shanxisheng Zuoquan xian zuzhishi ziliao 1937.10-1987.10 (Organizational
History of the CCP in Zuoquan County, Shanxi, 1937-1987) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin
75. Zhongguo gongchandang Zuoquan xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Zhongguo gongchan-
dang Zuoquan xian jianshi 1937-1949 (A Brief History of the CCP in Zuoquan County
1937-1949) Taihang geming genjudi shiliao congshu (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe,
1995), pp. 54-56.
inception, and included the headmasterof the Liaoxian First High School
and Wang Shanling, its senior mistress.76In early 1938, the Taihang Base
Area CCP Committee realized the organizational problems it faced in
Liaoxian and drafted in a number of experienced CCP cadres to assist.
They included two women, Chen Shunying and Jia Tingxiu, who were
originally from Fujian and had served in the Jiangxi Soviet. Chen was the
head of the county Party committee's Organization Department, and then
later became the senior cadre of the Liaoxian CCP; Jia was the first head
of the county Party committee's Propaganda Department. One of their
central tasks was to work with the women teachers of the Patriotic
Women's Association to establish a Peasant Training Institute. Its goal
was to harness the energy of the teachers and educated youth involved in
the county's resistance activities, as well as the students and graduates
from colleges and universities elsewhere in North China who had re-
turned home to Liaoxian with the start of the war, to prepare cadres for
mobilization activities. By the end of the year the programme had
managed to organize a CCP network across the county, and had recruited
240 new CCP members.77
This initial group of recruits became the core of the CCP's local
organization and set the tone for much of the local leadership throughout
the war. Largely through the involvement of the Patriotic Women's
Association, there was a sizeable group of women involved in the
establishment of the local CCP, and this remained a characteristic
throughout the war. About 10-12 per cent of the membership of the
Liaoxian CCP were women, where a more usual proportionwas less than
5 per cent elsewhere in the Taihang Base Area.78Even more unusually,
the leading cadre of the Liaoxian CCP was a women on no fewer than
four separate occasions during the war: Chen Shunying (twice,) Yang
Yunyu and Zhai Ying.79 During the course of the war, 19 of the 55
appointmentsto the Liaoxian CCP Committee were women. Moreover, in
the later period of the war, from 1941 to 1945, when elsewhere women's
participation in politics was clearly not on the CCP's agenda, half of all
the members of the Liaoxian county Party committee were women.80
During late 1939 and early 1940 Liaoxian experienced the same kind
76. Li Xiuren "Wo liaojiede Liaoxian (Zuoquan) Heshun dangde jianshe he fazhan"
("Comments on the establishment and development of the Party in Liaoxian (Zuoquan) and
Heshun"), in Taihang geming genjudishi zongbian weihui (ed.), Dang de jianshe (Party
Development), Taihang geming genjudi shiliao congshu No. 2 (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin
77. Zhang Shufan "Zai Zuoquan gongzuode huiyi" ("Memoir of work in Zuoquan"), in
Taihang geming genjudishi zongbian weihui, Party Development, p. 584; and Zhonggong
Shanxisheng Zuoquan xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Zuoquan xianwei dangshi
yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Zuoquan xian danganju, Organizational History of the CCP in
Zuoquan County, p. 13.
78. Ibid. after p. 95 and p. 122.
79. Zhonggong Shanxisheng Zuoquanxian dangshi yanjiushi (ed.), Zhonggong Zuoquan-
xian lishi dashijishu 1937.7-1949.9 (Historical Chronology of the CCP in Zuoquan County
1937-1949) (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1993), p. 211.
80. Ibid. p. 34; Zhonggong Shanxisheng Zuoquan xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong
Shanxisheng Zuoquan xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Zuoquan xian danganju,
Organizational History of the CCP in Zuoquan County, pp. 17-21.
of internal problems within the Anti-Japanese resistance that bedevilled

Licheng, but with somewhat less long-term adverse consequences. In
1939 the Japanese forces returned, captured the county town and split
Liaoxian into two: West Liaoxian, the northern and poorer part, became
a new separate county in the administrativesystem of the resistance. The
Sacrifice League government and most of the industry that could move
headed south. However, the tension rapidly mounted between the CCP
and other local power brokers, notably in the Chamber of Commerce. In
November, the Liaoxian CCP called for a radical land reform,81 Yan
Xishan sent troops to the county to deal with the situation, and the CCP
sent in several thousand troops under Nie Rongzhen to enforce its
control.82 Presumably "in order to encourage the others" the Liaoxian
CCP executed the leaders of the local Nationalist Party with whom it had
been co-operating, as well as other leading members within the Sacrifice
League, and at least one prominent leader of its own organization.83
Although the industry that had accompanied the government on its
mid-1939 move to the south of the county fled back to the north,84the
larger part of the Sacrifice League coalition held in its support for the new
CCP-led government. Notably this included the Patriotic Women's
Association. In return, it was able to continue its activities, where
elsewhere in the Taihang Base Area branches of the Women's Federation
were restructuredalong with those of the Peasant's, Worker's and Youth
Associations.85
It was certainly the case in Liaoxian, as elsewhere, that during 1942-45
the emphasis was on women's mobilization in economic production, and
support for the war effort and CCP activities. Local industries were
suffering labour shortages because of the numbers of men who had joined
the resistance military. One obvious solution was to encourage the
mobilization of women into the work force.86In addition, a new textile
81. The Liaoxian CCP's instructions exhorted the poor and the landless to implement "a
complete and utter land reform ... and to determinedly exterminate the landlords and rich
peasants." See "Liaoxian shiyanxiande dongyuan baogao" ("Report on mobilization in
Liaoxian experimental county"), October 1939, in Shanxisheng danganguan, Collection of
Materials, Vol. 2, 1939, p. 666.
82. Yu Yongbo (ed.),Nie Rongzhen zhuan (Biography ofNie Rongzhen) (Beijing: Dangdai
Zhongguo chubanshe, 1994), p. 264.
83. Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei, Liaoxian diaocha baogao (Report of an Investigation
into Liaoxian), May 1942, pp. 5-8.
84. Ibid. pp. 140-41.
85. Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei, "Guanyu jiaqiang qunzhong gongzuode jueding"
("Decision on strengthening mass work"), 15 February 1941, in Taihang geming genjudishi
zongbian weihui (ed.), Qunzhong yundong (The Mass Movement), Taihang geming genjudi
shiliao congshu No. 7 (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1989), p. 162.
86. Zuoquanxian gongshangke "Yijiusisinian shangbannian gongye yu shougongye
zongjie" ("Summary of heavy and handicraft industry in Zuoquan during the first half of
1944"), 2 July 1944, in JinJiLu Yu Bianqu caizheng jingji shi bianjizu and Shanxi, Hebei,
Shandong, Henan sheng danganguan (ed.), KangRi zhanzheng shiqi JinJiLuYu Bianqu
caizheng jingjishi ziliao xuanbian (Collection of Materials on the Economic and Financial
History of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Border Region during the War of Resistance
to Japan) (Beijing: Caizheng jingji chubanshe, 1990), Vol. 2, p. 268; Zhongguo
gongchandang Zuoquan xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, A Brief History of the CCP in Zuoquan
County, p. 243.
industry (modelled on Wuxiang) was developed which employed 2,467

women workers, and another 432 women weavers engaged in domestic
out-work.87In agriculture, Liu Ailian became an instant role model for
the local CCP by organizing an all-women's mutual aid team.88Women
and young girls were organized into rural drama troupes, that took the
newly remodelled forms of song and dance around the county.89
At the same time, the momentum of the earlier years was also
maintained to some extent. As already noted, women's participationrate
in politics remained relatively high, even at the highest leadership levels
within the Liaoxian CCP. There had clearly been compromise between
the women activists from the earlier part of the war and the CCP.
Nevertheless, the senior women in the county CCP lost few chances to
make their points about the need for reform. For example, men who had
discriminated overly against women and been publicly exposed were sent
to work in all-women work teams during the 1943 Great Production
Campaign.90The reminders of the need for furtherreform even applied to
opportunities that arose within the decision-making process. On one
occasion, at a Taihang Base Area CCP discussion of Party branch
organization, the director of the county CCP committee Organization
Department in accepting the corruptionof the cadre force freely admitted
that
Cadres do enjoy more privileges. They can raise bank-loans,borrow grain from the
army,and beat theirwives. Cadreswho engage in these kinds of behaviourare mostly
capable and experienced cadres but they act this way because of social influences,
poor class status, and throughtheir own weaknesses.91
Moreover, the earlier attempts at social engineering in Liaoxian were
sustained particularly through the support of its women teachers. By the
end of the war every village had its own junior primary school with a
total enrolment of 11,000. In addition, the governments of both West
Liaoxian and Zuoquan (as Liaoxian had become in 1942) encouraged
part-time winter study and mass education programmes in which 31,825
people were participating by the start of 1945. These were particularly
targeted at women. According to one participant,they responded not only
by cutting their hair - a sure sign of rebellion before marriage- but also
by "demanding freedom of choice in marriage."92Already by the end of
87. Ibid.pp. 242-44.
88. Ibid. pp. 247-48; TaihangFuwei, "Funugongzuo chubu yanjiu"("Preliminary
researchon women'swork"),4 October1945,inTaihanggeminggenjudishizongbianweihui,
The Mass Movement, p. 434.
Zuoquanxianweidangshiyanjiushi,A BriefHistoryof the
89. Zhongguogongchandang
CCP in Zuoquan County, pp. 265-67.
90. Ibid.pp. 247-48.
91. Zhai Ying's comments at CCP Shanxi-Hebei-HenanRegional Committee,5
September 1943, in Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei, Guanyu zhibu jianshe yanjiu de jige
wenti (Several Questionsfrom Research into Development of Party Branches), 30 September
1943, Minutesof the CCP Shanxi-Hebei-Henan RegionalCommittee,5 September1943,
p. 54.
92. Li Zikang"Taihanglao jiefangqujiaoyugongzuohuiyi"("Remembering education
partsof the TaihangRegion"),in Taihanggeming genjudishi
work in the early-liberated
zongbianweihui (ed.), Wenhuashiye (CulturalAffairs),Taihanggeming genjudishiliao
congshuNo. 8 (Taiyuan:Shanxirenminchubanshe,1989),p. 475.
1941 there was some evidence that these various programmes were
having some influence: of the 2,211 village representatives elected in that
year, 21 per cent were women, as were just over 9 per cent of the village
leaders.93
Women in the War of Resistance

A note of caution before concluding: a study of three counties in
South-east Shanxi during the War of Resistance to Japan is necessarily
limited, particularly given the extent and nature of the available infor-
mation on women. The total population of Wuxiang, Licheng and Liao-
xian at this time was only about 300,000, and that figure greatly overstates
the numberswhose experience is reflected here, since it is based largely on
CCP sources. The numberof people under direct CCP influence during the
war varied. Before 1940, in Wuxiang the CCP was influential, but it was
considerably less central to politics in Licheng and Liaoxian. From 1940
on, in Wuxiang and Liaoxian the CCP's direction of government did not
extend to the whole territoryof the county until the very end of the war.
For most of the time beforehand in both those counties the CCP was
restricted to only part, and in each case was opposed by a Japanese-
supportedand supporting"puppet"local government. These comments are
not designed to minimize the importance of an examination of Wuxiang,
Licheng and Liaoxian, but rather to emphasize the need for still more
micro-political studies in other counties if the full spectrum of women's
experiences during the war is to be better understood. With the greater
access to sources of information that has accompanied reform, and
especially the opening of archives, a less CCP-directedand more "bottom-
up" perspective on social change becomes increasingly possible.
The history of the War of Resistance to Japan is presented as the
history of revolution, and specifically the revolution of the CCP, and its
triumph. The history of women's mobilization for economic production
and war support is very much part of that perspective. This was the
context in which Wuxiang produced the revolutionary models of Bao
Lianzi and Wang Haicheng; Liaoxian had Liu Ailian.
However, there are other histories, in particular in this case those of
women mobilized by the climate of social change in which they lived.
This was a climate for which the CCP was partly - particularly through
its call for gender equality and women's emancipation at the start of the
war - but only partly, responsible. For the most part these energized
women were young and from privileged backgrounds. This was not a
case of "We want the world and we want it now!" but it was the
consequence of an increasing awareness that women did not have to
accept the roles of their mothers or grandmothersin either society or the
family. Neither the CCP nor the war, either alone or in combination,
exclusively created the opportunities for women's participation - the
93. Zhonggong Shanxisheng Zuoquan xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng
Zuoquan xianwei dangshi yanjiushi, Shanxisheng Zuoquan xian danganju, Organizational
History of the CCP in Zuoquan County, p. 40.
trends had started well before 1937 - but they did act as furthercatalysts.
That is clearly not to say that the ways in which women attempted to
articulate their demands for reform were always acceptable to the CCP:
they were not, and as in Wuxiang and Licheng conflict resulted.
Necessarily the opportunities open to women both at the start of the
war and later varied with class and locality. Those from better-off
backgrounds were often educated, and particularly where they had been
away to study - in Changzhi, Taiyuan or even some cases Beiping or
Tianjin - would have been extremely frustratedwhen returning home to
find that they were no longer such free agents. Political activity would
then have seemed like a convenient vehicle to a number of ends, just as
it was when the young and privileged women of Licheng joined the
effective opposition to the CCP.
However, class is not a sufficient explanation of women's role in the
war. Certainly, the most celebrated cases of those mobilized by the CCP
to support the war effort are from poorer backgrounds. Though it would
seem likely on occasions that women from poorer backgrounds did come
into conflict with the CCP, not least over the latter's constant need for
military recruits, there is very little evidence of such friction. Certainly
too, the opposition to the CCP, mild (as in the case of Wuxiang) or
extreme (as in the case of Licheng), came from young women from richer
backgrounds. However, the case of Liaoxian suggests that women from
higher socio-economic strata were also able to influence and even work
closely with and within the CCP.
Local conditions were clearly important in determining the course of
women's participation in public life. In particular, circumstances sur-
rounding both the development of Anti-Japanese resistance activities and
the genesis of the local CCP organization appear crucial. In Wuxiang,
where the local CCP organization had a peasant background and organi-
zational strength, women were virtually excluded from political partici-
pation, but encouraged to mobilize in support of their men and the war
effort. In Licheng, women appear to have become alienated from the
CCP, and much of the momentum for popular mobilization of all kind
lost, when the local CCP turned its back on significant parts of local
society as well as its own original organizational strength. In Liaoxian,
the role of an organized women's movement, particularly through the
Patriotic Women's Association, in the development of the local CCP
ensured a high level of political participation, as well as more than a
lip-service appreciation of the need for sustained reform.

Untitled

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Untitled

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Revolutionary Women and Women in the Revolution: The Chinese Communist Party and

Women in the War of Resistance to Japan, 1937-1945

On a late winter's day in 1989 a grey-haired, round woman of about 80

provincial leadership which persuaded the demonstrators to withdraw.5

5. Shanxi sheng shizhi yanjiuyuan(ed.), Zhongguo gongchandang Shanxi lishi dashijisu

woman currently rated as a "revolutionary hero" from the War of

A second problem is that where accounts of women in the North China

25. On socio-economic conditions in comparative perspective, see Tian Youru, "Shanxi

- - -Base areas HENAN

of the Shanxi Sacrifice League. With a solid organizational base among

The Taihang Base Area

Table 1: Liaoxian, Wuxiang and Licheng Counties, Shanxi, 1943,

Population Number of Income Land

Liaoxian 71,936 (1935) 451 7.09 1.23

xiang it had a small proportionof poor peasants and low concentration of

There were distinct differences in the socio-economic conditions of the

Wuxiang: Women in Economic Production

32. Huang "Rural class struggle," p. 114.

Table 2: Households and Land Ownership by Social Category, Wuxiang

Landlordsand 4.9 10.7 54.0 50.3

a large proportion of poor peasants (about three-quartersof households).

34. Zhonggong JinJiYu qudangwei "Guanyu Wuxiang gongzuode yijian" ("Opinions on

38. Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wuxiang xianwei zuzhibu, Zhonggong Shanxisheng Wu-

apparently no encouragement for them to participate in politics, and

The most famous of these, started initially by Wang Haicheng, was

47. Ma Guishu, "Wuxiang dashengchanzhong lingdao yu qongzhong jiehede jingyan"

during 1939-40, when there was considerable uncertainty about the

Licheng: Women, Class and Rebellion

Licheng's wealth had not led to either industrial or commercial devel-

seriously alienated support from a number of social groups. It also drew

Table 3: Comparative Social Structure of CCP and Sixth Trigram

CCP Sixth Trigram Movement Licheng County

bership of about 20 per cent of the total population.64Many had large

Table 4: Women Members of the Sixth Trigram Movement, Licheng,

Liaoxian: Women in Politics

husband, Li Xuefeng. She returnedto her native Liaoxian as head of the

of internal problems within the Anti-Japanese resistance that bedevilled

industry (modelled on Wuxiang) was developed which employed 2,467

Women in the War of Resistance

You might also like