Shu T’ung

1906

Tung-hsiang, China

In any event, he was serving in the Kiangsi Soviet by 1931, at which time he was head of the Propaganda Section of the Political Department, under the First Army Corps' Second Division. Later in that same year he was serving as the acting director of the Political Department of this same division. He advanced by 1932 to become chief secretary of the First Army Corps Political Department and then made the Long March (1934-35) as head of the Propaganda Department of the same Political Department. The First Army Corps was at that time subordinate to the First Front Army commanded by Chu Te and Mao Tse-tung. During the Long March Shu T'ung took part in several of the heroic feats that have now become almost legendary. In the early summer of 1935, as Mao’s troops moved north across remote eastern portions of former Sikang province, they were forced to cross the Ta-tu River at Lu-ting over a perilously narrow bridge spanning the river gorge. The capture and crossing of this bridge are among the epics of the Long March. Led by Lin Piao, commander of the First Army Corps, the Red soldiers were successful in a surprise maneuver in which the Fourth Regiment, to which Shu belonged, played an important part. When the crossing of the Ta-tu was accomplished, Mao’s army proceeded on for its rendezvous with the Fourth Front Red Army, led by Chang Kuo- t’ao and Hsu Hsiang-ch’ien, which was then in western Szechwan. The route of this army after it was driven from the Oyiiwan Soviet in the border area of Hupeh, Honan, and Anhwei provinces is described in the biographies of Chang and Hsu. Although the full account is not available, Shu apparently acted briefly as a liaison official between the Mao and Chang armies and perhaps effected their subsequent meeting. Shu took charge of a seven-man vanguard dispatched by Mao across the Chia-chin Mountain on the boundary of Sikang and Szechwan to meet with Chang in Szechwan. Mao and Chang finally met in Mao-kung, west Szechwan, in mid-June. The whereabouts of Shu after the Long March are not clear, but apparently he continued to serve as a political officer with the Red Armies. By 1939 he was known to be the director of the Political Department of the Shansi-Chahar-Hopeh (Chin-Ch'i-Chi) Border Region Military District, then commanded by Nieh Jung-chen. In the same year he was also identified as a member of the Chin-Ch'i-Chi Border Region Government, originally formed in 1938 (see under Sung Shao- wen). It appears that in the 1939 period Shu was operating around the western Hopeh portion of the border region. Apparently he had some association with Norman Bethune, a Canadian surgeon who ran a hospital for the Communists in western Hopeh until his death in November 1939. The Communists erected a statue to Bethune and Shu was one of those who wrote an inscription for it. The Chin-Ch'i-Chi Border Region was divided into three sub-districts, the western portion was known as the Pci-yueh Sub-district. By 1943 Shu was the director of the Organization Department of the Party Committee for the Pei-yueh Sub-district. In 1946, as a consequence of the cease-fire agreement worked out by U.S. Special Envoy George C. Marshall between the Nationalists and the Communists, a series of field teams were established to supervise the truce. Shu was assigned to the team that operated out of Tsinan, the capital of Shantung. When the truce broke down completely later in 1946, he was assigned to theNew Fourth Army, and in 1946-47 he headed the Political Department for both the New Fourth Army and the Shantung Military District. As did many men of the New Fourth Army, Shu remained in east China after the Communist victory over the Nationalists in 1949. From 1949 to about 1952 he served as the director of the Political Department for both the East China Military Region and its armed force, known as the Third Field Army and commanded by Ch’en. Also, from 1949 to about 1951 he headed the East China People’s Revolutionary University, located in Soochow (Su-chou), not far west of Shanghai. However, like most east China officials of prominence, Shu was stationed in Shanghai, the capital of the East China region and it is unlikely that he devoted much time to this school. In Shanghai, Shu directed the municipal Party Propaganda Department from 1949 to 1953, and he also headed the Propaganda Department for the entire East China Party Bureau (encompassing the five provinces of Kiangsu, Chekiang, Anhwei, Fukien, and Shantung) from 1949 to 1954. During the 1953-54 period he was elevated to the Standing Committee of the East China Party Bureau. In 1954-55, the regional divisions within the government, military, and Party were all abolished. Because virtually all Shu's positions were at this level, he had to be reassigned. By 1955 it was evident that he had become the senior official in Shantung, China's second most populous province. His initial assignment in Shantung came in when he was selected as a deputy from that province to the First NPC (1954-1959), he was re-elected from Shantung to the Second NPC (1959-1964). Far more important, however, was his assignment in early January 1955 as the provincial Party first secretary, replacing the very important leader K'ang Sheng, who had been the undisputed head of the province for several years. A month later he was elected a member of the provincial (governmental) Peopled Council. Shu’s work in east China and Shantung was rewarded at the Eighth National Party Congress in September 1956. He served on the congress Credentials Committee, and at the end of the meetings was elected a full member of the Party Central Committee. Shu was one of only 33 persons newly elected to full membership on the Party Central Committee, the remainder of the 97 having served on the Seventh Central Committee elected in 1945. By the late summer of 1959, Shu was given another assignment in Shantung, which added to his already impressive array of critical positions in that province. He was made the political commissar of the Tsinan Military Region and at approximately the same time became the first secretary of the Party Committee for the region (which controls the province of Shantung). In the wake of the falterings of the Great Leap Forward (initiated in 1958), Shantung Governor Chao Chien-min came under serious attacks and was ultimately removed from his post. At a session of the Shantung Provincial People's Congress in Ocober-November 1958, T’an Ch’i-lung (a Party secretary in Shantung) led the attack on Chao. This was followed by an even more severe attack in January 1959 by Shu at a session of the Shantung Party Congress. Shu repeated many of T'an's charges and added a host of others. Most important was one that indirectly linked Chao with Hsiang Ming (see under Chao Chien-min), Hsiang had been the Party second secretary in Shantung in the early 1950's. When Kao Kang and Jao Shu'shih were formally ousted in 1955, Hsiang was identified as a member of their aanti- Party” group in the most sensational purge in the Chinese Communist movement since the late 1930's.

Shu T’ung

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Background

Shu T'ung was born in Tung-hsiang, located about 50 miles to the southeast of Nanchang, the Kiangsi capital.

Education

He graduated from the Kiangsi Provincial First Normal School in 1927 and in the same year joined the CCP. It is possible that his first association with the Party resulted from the Nanchang Uprising staged in August 1927.

Career

In any event, he was serving in the Kiangsi Soviet by 1931, at which time he was head of the Propaganda Section of the Political Department, under the First Army Corps' Second Division. Later in that same year he was serving as the acting director of the Political Department of this same division. He advanced by 1932 to become chief secretary of the First Army Corps Political Department and then made the Long March (1934-35) as head of the Propaganda Department of the same Political Department. The First Army Corps was at that time subordinate to the First Front Army commanded by Chu Te and Mao Tse-tung.

During the Long March Shu T'ung took part in several of the heroic feats that have now become almost legendary. In the early summer of 1935, as Mao’s troops moved north across remote eastern portions of former Sikang province, they were forced to cross the Ta-tu River at Lu-ting over a perilously narrow bridge spanning the river gorge. The capture and crossing of this bridge are among the epics of the Long March. Led by Lin Piao, commander of the First Army Corps, the Red soldiers were successful in a surprise maneuver in which the Fourth Regiment, to which Shu belonged, played an important part. When the crossing of the Ta-tu was accomplished, Mao’s army proceeded on for its rendezvous with the Fourth Front Red Army, led by Chang Kuo- t’ao and Hsu Hsiang-ch’ien, which was then in western Szechwan. The route of this army after it was driven from the Oyiiwan Soviet in the border area of Hupeh, Honan, and Anhwei provinces is described in the biographies of Chang and Hsu. Although the full account is not available, Shu apparently acted briefly as a liaison official between the Mao and Chang armies and perhaps effected their subsequent meeting. Shu took charge of a seven-man vanguard dispatched by Mao across the Chia-chin Mountain on the boundary of Sikang and Szechwan to meet with Chang in Szechwan. Mao and Chang finally met in Mao-kung, west Szechwan, in mid-June.

The whereabouts of Shu after the Long March are not clear, but apparently he continued to serve as a political officer with the Red Armies. By 1939 he was known to be the director of the Political Department of the Shansi-Chahar-Hopeh (Chin-Ch'i-Chi) Border Region Military District, then commanded by Nieh Jung-chen. In the same year he was also identified as a member of the Chin-Ch'i-Chi Border Region Government, originally formed in 1938 (see under Sung Shao- wen). It appears that in the 1939 period Shu was operating around the western Hopeh portion of the border region. Apparently he had some association with Norman Bethune, a Canadian surgeon who ran a hospital for the Communists in western Hopeh until his death in November 1939. The Communists erected a statue to Bethune and Shu was one of those who wrote an inscription for it. The Chin-Ch'i-Chi Border Region was divided into three sub-districts, the western portion was known as the Pci-yueh Sub-district. By 1943 Shu was the director of the Organization Department of the Party Committee for the Pei-yueh Sub-district.

In 1946, as a consequence of the cease-fire agreement worked out by U.S. Special Envoy George C. Marshall between the Nationalists and the Communists, a series of field teams were established to supervise the truce. Shu was assigned to the team that operated out of Tsinan, the capital of Shantung. When the truce broke down completely later in 1946, he was assigned to theNew Fourth Army, and in 1946-47 he headed the Political Department for both the New Fourth Army and the Shantung Military District.

As did many men of the New Fourth Army, Shu remained in east China after the Communist victory over the Nationalists in 1949. From 1949 to about 1952 he served as the director of the Political Department for both the East China Military Region and its armed force, known as the Third Field Army and commanded by Ch’en.

Also, from 1949 to about 1951 he headed the East China People’s Revolutionary University, located in Soochow (Su-chou), not far west of Shanghai. However, like most east China officials of prominence, Shu was stationed in Shanghai, the capital of the East China region and it is unlikely that he devoted much time to this school. In Shanghai, Shu directed the municipal Party Propaganda Department from 1949 to 1953, and he also headed the Propaganda Department for the entire East China Party Bureau (encompassing the five provinces of Kiangsu, Chekiang, Anhwei, Fukien, and Shantung) from 1949 to 1954. During the 1953-54 period he was elevated to the Standing Committee of the East China Party Bureau.

In 1954-55, the regional divisions within the government, military, and Party were all abolished. Because virtually all Shu's positions were at this level, he had to be reassigned. By 1955 it was evident that he had become the senior official in Shantung, China's second most populous province. His initial assignment in Shantung came in when he was selected as a deputy from that province to the First NPC (1954-1959), he was re-elected from Shantung to the Second NPC (1959-1964). Far more important, however, was his assignment in early January 1955 as the provincial Party first secretary, replacing the very important leader K'ang Sheng, who had been the undisputed head of the province for several years. A month later he was elected a member of the provincial (governmental) Peopled Council.

Shu’s work in east China and Shantung was rewarded at the Eighth National Party Congress in September 1956. He served on the congress Credentials Committee, and at the end of the meetings was elected a full member of the Party Central Committee. Shu was one of only 33 persons newly elected to full membership on the Party Central Committee, the remainder of the 97 having served on the Seventh Central Committee elected in 1945.

By the late summer of 1959, Shu was given another assignment in Shantung, which added to his already impressive array of critical positions in that province. He was made the political commissar of the Tsinan Military Region and at approximately the same time became the first secretary of the Party Committee for the region (which controls the province of Shantung). In the wake of the falterings of the Great Leap Forward (initiated in 1958), Shantung Governor Chao Chien-min came under serious attacks and was ultimately removed from his post. At a session of the Shantung Provincial People's Congress in Ocober-November 1958, T’an Ch’i-lung (a Party secretary in Shantung) led the attack on Chao. This was followed by an even more severe attack in January 1959 by Shu at a session of the Shantung Party Congress. Shu repeated many of T'an's charges and added a host of others. Most important was one that indirectly linked Chao with Hsiang Ming (see under Chao Chien-min), Hsiang had been the Party second secretary in Shantung in the early 1950's. When Kao Kang and Jao Shu'shih were formally ousted in 1955, Hsiang was identified as a member of their aanti- Party” group in the most sensational purge in the Chinese Communist movement since the late 1930's.

Politics

If Shu had held only these military and Party posts he would easily have been one of the key east China officials, particularly in the propaganda field. In addition, however, he held a number of governmental positions in east China, as well as a long series of ad hoc posts during the early 1950’s. He was a member of the East China Military and Administrative Committee (EC- MAC) from January 1950 and continued to hold membership when the ECMAC was reorganized into the East China Administrative Committee (ECAC) in December 1952, a position held until the abolition of the ECAC in 1954. Under the ECMAC/ECAC he was also the chairman of the important'Culture and Education Committee. Almost all his ad hoc positions were in some way related to the educational-propaganda field. For example, he was named as chairman for a special committee to “readjust departments of institutions of higher learning in east China” in August 1952, and in the next month he was also appointed to chair a “study” committee for cadres in the various departments under the East China Party Bureau. Though Shu was not particularly active in the “people’s” organizations, he did serve as a vice-chairman of the East China branches of both the Si no-Soviet Friendship Association (from November 1951) and the China Peace Committee (from November 1952).

Shu's position as a secretary in Shensi must be viewed, in political terms, as a demotion. In the first place, the long gap in his career (1960-1963) suggests that he had got into some political difficulties in Shantung, possibly in the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward. Second, his position in Shensi as a Party secretary created the quite unusual situation of a full member of the Party Central Committee (Shu) being placed under an alternate member (Chang Te-shcng). Since Shu's transfer to Shensi, he has been frequently mentioned in the press media, for example, he attended the inauguration of the Sian Philosophy Society in February 1964 and took part in the 1964 May Day celebrations in Sian. He was also elected in 1964 as a Shensi deputy to the Third NPC, which opened in December 1964. (Shu had been a deputy from Shantung to the First and Second NPCs.) In addition, in January 1965 he was named to membership on the Preparatory Committee for the Second National Sports Meet, which was held in September 1965.

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Shu T’ung

Background

Education

Career

Politics

Born

Nationality

Ethnicity

Political Party

Education

1927

Career

1931

1932

1939

1943

1949 - 1951

1959