Unbound Read online

  Also by Dean King

  AUTHOR

  Skeletons on the Zahara

  Patrick O’Brian: A Life Revealed

  A Sea of Words

  Harbors and High Seas

  EDITOR

  Every Man Will Do His Duty: An Anthology of Firsthand Accounts from the Age of Nelson, 1793–1815

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2010 by Dean H. King

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

  www.twitter.com/littlebrown

  First eBook Edition: March 2010

  Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. Provo, Utah: #2737 (p. 10); #2627 (p. 27); #2638 (p. 32); #3260 (p. 38); #2254 (p. 41); #2768 (p. 51); #3979 (p. 52); #3982 (p. 52); #2647 (p. 105); #2649 (p. 271); #2264 (p. 271); #2265 (p. 293); #2753 (p. 294); #2635 (p. 323); #2642 (p. 323); #3237 (p. 323); #2634 (p. 323); #2629 (p. 324). Elly Zhen (p. 24). Xiao Yun (pp. 192, 329). Lawrence Gray (pp. 204, 257). Andy Smith (pp. 194, 210, 223, 231, 234, 241, 339).

  ISBN: 978-0-316-07217-5

  This book is dedicated to my third daughter, Willa (she has waited patiently), and many other females who have inspired me: Jessica, Betsey, Helen, Mary, Hazel, Grace, Nora, Amy, Liza, Sarah, Betsey, Liz, Anna, Ellie, Meg, Daphne, Daisy, Ann, Isabella, Olivia, Varena, Bonnie, Rachel, Frances, Hannah, Charlotte, Sally, Alix, Coco, Chloe, Priscilla, Jody, Mrs. Carver, and Mrs. McGrath.

  CONTENTS

  COPYRIGHT

  PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

  PRINCIPAL WOMEN OF THIS ACCOUNT OF THE LONG MARCH

  USEFUL TERMS

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  PART ONE: THE MARCH TO THE WEST

  chapter 1: A Flowering

  chapter 2: The Struggle

  chapter 3: The Chosen

  chapter 4: Leaving Jiangxi

  chapter 5: No Tears

  chapter 6: Into Hunan and Guangdong

  chapter 7: Xiang River Debacle

  PART TWO: CROSSING SOUTHERN CHINA

  chapter 8: Thundergod Cliff

  chapter 9: Into Guizhou

  chapter 10: Love, Power, and Revolution in Zunyi

  chapter 11: Little Devils

  chapter 12: A New Year

  chapter 13: Where the Han Are Unwelcome

  chapter 14: Dead Child

  PART THREE: NORTH THROUGH SICHUAN

  chapter 15: Two Raging Rivers

  chapter 16: Hitting the Roof

  chapter 17: A Meeting of Armies

  chapter 18: Through the Tibetan Snowies

  chapter 19: Beyond the Snowies

  chapter 20: The Caodi

  PART FOUR: HOME STRETCH

  chapter 21: Life After Death

  chapter 22: A Five-Hundred-Mile Sprint

  chapter 23: The Fourth Army Hunkers Down

  chapter 24: A Union of Forces

  chapter 25: In the Throat

  chapter 26: The Destruction of the West Route Army

  chapter 27: Prisoners of the Ma

  Epilogue

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  NOTES

  INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED FOR THIS BOOK

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

  I have used the pinyin (literally “spell, sound”) system of transliterating most of the Chinese words and names in this book. Under this system, developed by the People’s Republic of China in 1958 and the most commonly used today, the old Mao Tse-tung is now Mao Zedong (although I have kept the more familiar Chiang Kaishek and Sun Yatsen from the Wade-Giles system).

  Leaving aside an explanation of the four tones, here is a rough guide to pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese:

  consonants

  c: ts, as in hats

  q: ch, as in cheat

  x: sh, as in sheet

  z: ds, as in words

  zh: j as in jam

  other letters: similar to English

  vowels

  ai: “eye”

  an: “ahn”

  ang: “ahng”

  e after c/ch, s/sh, z/zh: “uh”

  ei: ay as in hay

  en: “uh”

  eng: ung as in hung

  i after c/ch, s/sh, z/zh: “uh”

  ia: “ya”

  ian: “yen”

  iang: “yeeahng”

  ie: “yeah”

  iu: “ooh”

  ian: “yen”

  ou: “oh”

  ua: “wa”

  uai: “why”

  uan: “won”

  uang: “oo-ang”

  ui: “way”

  uo: “wa”

  yan: “yen”

  yi: “ee”

  examples

  Cai Chang: “tsai chahng”

  Deng Liujin: “duhng layooh-jeein”

  Deng Yingchao: “duhng yehng-chow”

  He Zizhen: “huh dsuh-juhn”

  Jiangxi: “jeeahng-she”

  Jin Weiying: “jeein way-yehng”

  Kang Keqing: “kahng kuuh-cheng”

  Li Bozhao: “lee boah-jow”

  Li Jianzhen: “lee jyen-juhn”

  Liu Ying: “layooh yehng”

  Ma Yixiang: “mah ee-sheeahng”

  tongyangxi: “tohng-yahng-she”

  Wang Quanyuan: “wahng choowen-yoowen”

  Wang Xinlan: “wahng sheein-lahn”

  Wei Xiuying: “way sheeyo-yehng”

  Wu Zhonglian: “woo juhng-leean”

  xuanchuan: “shoowen-chwan”

  Zhang Qinqiu: “jahng cheein-choh”

  Zhou Shaolan: “joe sha-oh-lahn”

  PRINCIPAL WOMEN OF THIS ACCOUNT OF THE LONG MARCH

  The following cast of characters can be found in slightly abridged form on the detachable bookmark at the back of this book.

  A note about Chinese names: The first name, almost always one syllable, is the surname, and the second name is the given or chosen name. It was not unusual, especially among the revolutionaries, for a person to change his or her chosen name as an adult to reflect personal characteristics or aspirations.

  Note on the dates used here and throughout the book: Birth and other personal dates are often known only by the year, so age references, given here at the time of the Long March, are roughly accurate but could be off by a matter of months.

  Cai Chang, age 34. From a distinguished family of gentry heavily involved in revolutionary politics in Hunan province, Cai studied in France in 1919 and helped establish the French branch of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. She and her brother Cai Hesen were close friends of Mao Zedong’s. In 1923, she joined the Chinese Communist Party and married Li Fuchun. She was elected to the Central Committee in 1928. In Yanan, Cai served in the Central Committee organization. On the Long March, she was a favorite among the women for her humor and high spirits. In 1945, she was elected to the Central Committee and served as the only woman member. She was elected the first president of the All-China Democratic Women’s Federation in 1949 and held that position for thirty years. She was denounced in the Cultural Revolution, primarily for being the wife of Li Fuchun, but was later rehabilitated and elected vice-chair of the standing committee of the National People’s Assembly. 1

  Deng Yingchao, age 30. Born to an
impoverished family of gentry in Guangxi province, she was educated in Beijing and Tianjin. During the May Fourth Movement in 1919, she met Zhou Enlai, whom she married in 1925. She traveled with Zhou to Moscow in 1928 and served in a number of high-level positions first for the Nationalist Party before it split with the Communist Party and then for the Communists. During the Long March, she suffered from tuberculosis and had to be carried on a litter over much of the route. She was elected an alternate member of the Central Committee in 1945 and a member in 1949. She held many high-level positions until the Cultural Revolution. In 1978, she became a full member of the Politburo and until her death was considered one of the Eight Elders consulted by the Party leadership, a remarkable position of stature for a woman in China.

  He Zizhen, age 24. Born in Jiangxi province to a family of gentry, He joined the Youth League when she was fifteen and the Communist Party the following year. In 1928, at age eighteen, she met Mao Zedong on Jingangshan and is said to have saved him and Zhu De when they were trapped behind enemy lines. Riding a horse and wielding two pistols, she led enemy soldiers on a ten-mile chase that allowed the two to escape. She and Mao married that year but became increasingly estranged during the Long March. When it was over, he sent her to Russia and ended up divorcing her. She returned to China in 1948 and lived a largely secluded life in southern China.

  Jin “Ah Jin” Weiying, age 30. From a progressive family in Zhejiang province, Jin attended primary school and teacher’s college. She started out as a teacher but, after moving to Shanghai, became active in the labor movement and joined the Chinese Communist Party at age twenty-two. She rose precipitously to a position on the executive committee of the Central Soviet in Jiangxi. She married Deng Xiaoping, who would one day succeed Mao as China’s top leader, but they were divorced before the Long March. Jin then married Li Weihan. When she reached Yanan, she worked for the Central Committee and the Anti-Japanese University. In 1938, ill and separated from her husband, she was sent to Russia, where she is believed to have been killed in a German bombing raid.

  Kang Keqing, age 23. The daughter of a fisherman and his wife, Kang was given away to a family with no children and raised in a village in western Jiangxi province. By the age of fourteen, she began working for the Communist underground. She met Zhu De on Jingangshan and married him in 1929. She joined the Communist Party when she was twenty. Despite her passion for military life, Kang was eventually channeled to women’s affairs. Though childless, she headed organizations dealing with children’s welfare and joined the executive committee of the All-China Women’s Federation, where she was elected deputy chair in 1957. Disgraced during the Cultural Revolution, she was raised to the Central Committee in 1977.

  Li Bozhao, age 23. From an impoverished intellectual-gentry family in the Sichuan province city of Chongqing, Li studied at a women’s teachers’ college that was also a hotbed of revolutionary activity and controversy. She joined the CYL at fourteen and was expelled from the college. At the age of fifteen, she traveled to Moscow via Shanghai and studied at the precursor to Sun Yatsen University. There she met Cai Chang and Zhou Enlai and, at the age of eighteen, married Yang Shangkun, future deputy director of the CCP Political Department. Back in China, Li taught and worked in propaganda. Moving to Jiangxi province, she edited a newspaper and directed and wrote for a theater troupe. During the Long March, her songs, dances, and living newspaper and theater acts were primary tools for entertaining and boosting troop morale and spreading the Red Party message to locals. After the march, Li had a flourishing career as a playwright, story writer, and novelist and wrote two operas, The Long March and Northward, about the epic journey she had experienced. Given her profession, it is not surprising that she was a primary target of the Cultural Revolution. Publicly disparaged and brutalized, Li was forced to clean the toilets of a six-story building. Branded a traitor in 1966, Yang Shangkun fared even worse, spending a dozen years in prison.

  Li Jianzhen, age 28. From a Guangdong peasant family, Li was sold by her mother for eight copper coins when she was an infant. She learned to read at the window of the village school when she dropped off the sons of her new family. Though of the merchant class, this family embraced the revolution, and Jianzhen joined the Communist Youth League in 1926. She lost her husband in 1930 and left an infant behind when the Party moved her to Fujian, where she met Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Yingchao, who transferred her to Jiangxi. As head of the Women’s Department, she supervised the making of food sacks, straw shoes, and clothing for the Red Army. Along with Wang Quanyuan, Li Guiying, and Deng Liujiun, she was one of the best singers among the Long March women, who were often asked to entertain. In 1938, Li and her second husband relocated to the southeast, where he was killed in 1943. In 1949, she was elected to the executive council of the All-China Women’s Federation. She eventually served as Guangdong’s Party secretary, a rare achievement for a woman.

  Liu “Little Sparrow” Ying, age 29. From Hunan gentry, Liu attended private school. At the age of twenty, she joined the Chinese Communist Party and quickly rose to head the Hunan Women’s Department. She may have had a baby by Lin Wei, a French-educated revolutionary, who was killed in 1927. Liu studied at the Central Workers’ University in Moscow. From 1932 to 1934, she worked with the Communist Youth League. During the Long March, she served as a political fighter, often traveling with her friend Cai Chang. In May 1935, she succeeded Deng Xiaoping as a secretary for the Central Committee and married Central Committee general secretary Zhang Wentian. From 1950 to 1954, Liu was in charge of Party affairs in Moscow while Zhang Wentian served as ambassador to the Soviet Union. In 1959, Zhang was branded a “rightist opportunist,” foreshadowing the couple’s six-year exile in Guangdong during the Cultural Revolution, which Zhang did not survive.

  Ma Yixiang, age 11. Ma came from a poor farming family that lived in the remote mountains of western Hunan. The youngest of four children, she was the only one to survive childhood. Even so, her parents had a hard time providing for her and sold her as a tongyangxi. Ma joined the Red Army to escape the abuse of her in-law family and was assigned to the Second Army Group.

  Wang Quanyuan, age 21. Born to a peasant family in Jiangxi province, Wang joined the Communist Youth League at age seventeen and the Chinese Communist Party four years later. During the Long March, she was assigned to the Fourth Army and found herself separated from her friends. Placed in charge of the Women’s Regiment, she crossed the Yellow River with the ill-fated West Route Army. She was enslaved by Ma Muslim horsemen, escaping after two years in captivity. Upon her return, the Communists rejected her because of her lengthy absence. She traveled back to Jiangxi but was still accused of being a traitor. More than four decades and several husbands later, she was accepted back into the Party and lived near Jinggangshan in Jiangxi until her death in 2009.

  Wang Xinlan, age 10. One of six daughters of a wealthy Sichuanese family, Wang grew up in a large house surrounded by fruit orchards and rose gardens. Her two brothers played soccer in the courtyard. Her father, the only person from their village to study at the Imperial College in the Qing Dynasty, valued education and hired a tutor to teach his daughters Chinese. He later sent them to the primary school, where Wang learned to read and write and received “revolutionary enlightenment.” Though wealthy, the family sided with the Communists and held secret organizational meetings on their estate.

  Wei “Shorty” Xiuying, age 22. From a peasant family in Ruijin, in Jiangxi, Shorty ran off with the Red Army in 1930 after men from her village encouraged her to escape the abuse of her adoptive family. She joined the Party in 1932. During the Long March she was a political fighter, who often filled in carrying the litters. Afterward, she worked in the Women’s Bureau, and after a stint of guerrilla fighting in Jiangzi-Guangdong, she studied at the Marx-Lenin School and the Party School in Yanan.

  Wu Zhonglian, age 26. From Hunan, Wu grew up poor but excelled in school, joined the Communist Party at the age of nineteen, and became activ
e in the underground. Finding her way to Jingangshan, she worked in the Communist Youth League. She moved to Ruijin, where she acted as a guerrilla fighter and taught at the Red Army School. Literate and capable, she served as a secretary of her Cadres unit on the Long March, each night scratching out sheaves of marching orders for the following day. After 1949, she and her second husband settled in Hangzhou with her son, who was born on the trail and went by the nickname Long March Wu. She became president of the Zhejiang People’s High Court and served on the executive committee of the All-China Women’s Federation. She was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution.

  Zhang Qinqiu, age 30. From Hangzhou province, Zhang Qinqiu moved to Shanghai to study at the age of eight and met Shen Zemin, the man who introduced her to the revolution. She became one of the first female Party members in 1924 and the following year married Shen and moved to Moscow, where they both studied at Sun Yatsen University. Later they moved to the Eyuwan Soviet base. During the Long March, Zhang briefly became head of the Fourth Army Political Department, the highest position held by any Communist woman during this period. She led the Fourth Army’s Women’s Independent Regiment, a combat force and the first of its kind. With the West Route Army, she gave birth to a baby on the Gobi Desert. In later years, she served as Deputy Minister of the Textile Industry. She was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution.

  Zhou “Young Orchid” Shaolan, age 17. Zhou left her life as a tongyangxi to join the revolution and become a nurse in the Twenty-fifth Army. Though young, she was bold and refused to be left behind when the army tried to send her and her fellow nurses home. She nursed General Xu Haidong after he suffered a serious head wound and eventually married him, changing her name to Zhou Dongping.

  USEFUL TERMS

  I have used some Chinese terms that have no corollary in English. These include: