| 瞿秋白 Qu Qiubai |
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|---|---|
| 1st (de facto) General Secretary of the Communist Party of China | |
| In office 1927–1928 |
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| Preceded by | Chen Duxiu |
| Succeeded by | Xiang Zhongfa |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 January 1899 Changzhou, Jiangsu, Qing Dynasty |
| Died | 18 June 1935 (aged 36) |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Political party | Chinese Communist Party |
Qu Qiubai (Chinese: 瞿秋白; pinyin: Qū Qiūbái; Wade–Giles: Ch'ü Ch'iu-pai) (January 29, 1899 – June 18, 1935) was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China. He was a leader of the Communist Party of China in the late 1920s.[1]
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Qu was born in the southeast corner of Changzhou city, Jiangsu province, China. His family lived in a building named TianXianLou, and the building was in a lane named QingGuo. Qu's father, Qu Shiwei, was born in a downfallen family which used to be powerful and glorious. Qu Shiwei was good at painting, fencing, and medical knowledge, but he wasn't interested in other things, particularly politics and business. Qu's mother, Kim Xuan, the daughter of elite government officials, was skilled in poetry. Qu had five brothers and one sister, and he was the eldest one. When Qu was young, his family lived in his uncle's house, on the support from their relatives. Though Qu’s father took a job as teacher, he was unable to gain enough money to support his family because he became an opium addict afterwards.[2] In 1915, Qu’s mother, overcame by her life's mounting difficulties and debts, committed suicide.[3]
In 1916, Qu went to Hankou and entered Wuchang Foreign Language School to learn English on his cousin’s support. In the spring of 1917, Qu went to Beijing to apply for a job, but didn’t pass the general civil service examination. Without enough money to pay for a regular university tuition, therefore, Qu enrolled in the newly established Russian Language Institute of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (俄文专修馆), as it was tuition-free. The institute also offered a stipend and held the promise of job upon graduation. With a reluctant participant in revolutionary discourse, Qu was radicalized by his experience in the May 4th Movement.[4]
Qu worked hard in the language institute, studying both French and Russian. Besides, he learned about Buddhist and classical Chinese in spare time. Early contact with revolutionary circles occurred when he participated in discussions about Marxist analysis hosted by Li Dazhao, head librarian at Beijing University. Mao Zedong was also present at these meetings. Qu later took a job as a journalist for a Beijing newspaper and was stationed in Moscow. Qu was one of the first Chinese to report from Moscow about life in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution.
In January, 1923, Qu accepted the invitation from Chen Duxiu, leader of the Communist Party of China at that time, and come back from Russia. After returning, Qu was responsible for the propaganda work of Communist Party of China. He became acting Chairman of the Chinese Politburo in 1927 after the fall of Chen Duxiu, and the de facto leader of the party. He organized actions such as the Guangzhou Uprising of December 11, 1927.[5] In April, 1928, Qu went to Moscow once again and worked as a delegate of Chinese Communist Party for two years. In 1930, after dismissed from the representative of Chinese Communist Party, Qu returned to China and soon was dismissed from the central leadership due to an intense argument on which means should be chosen to carry on the revolution. After that, Qu worked both as a writer and a translator in Shanghai, fought along with Mao Dun and Lu Xun and forged a profound friendship with leaders of left-wing cultural movement.
In 1934, situation had become more and more dangerous, Qu couldn't stay at Shanghai any more, so he went to the Central Revolutionary Base, Ruijing in Jiangxi province. When Red Army decided to begin the famous Long March, Qu stayed in the south to lead bush fighting. Arrested in Changting in 1934, Qu was put into a prison in Kuomintang a year later. During arrest, Qu suffered from torture by the KMT government, the KMT government also adopted various means to induce him to capitulate, but Qu still persisted in his belief, he refused. In June 18, it was the day of his execution, Qu walked calmly toward the execution place, Zhongshan Park, Changting, singing "The Internationale", the "Red Army Song", shouted "Long live the Chinese Communist Party", "Long live communism" and other slogans. After Reaching Luohanling, a small hill in Zhongshan Park, Qu choosed a grass to sit down, smiled and nodded to the executioner, said: "very good here!". Qu was shot to death when he was only 36 years old.[6][7]
During arrest, Qu wrote a book named "Superfluous words" to express his political thinking and hard mentality experience from literati to revolutionist. The book became a great controversy after Qu’s death.
Qu was heavily criticised as a "renegade" during the Cultural Revolution. However, the Central Committee absolved him in 1980 and today he is held in very high regard by the Party. A Qu Qiubai museum operates in his native town of Changzhou. Tsi-an Hsia (Chinese: 夏濟安, Chinese: 夏济安) writes in The Gate of Darkness: Studies on the Leftist Literary Movement in China (published 1968) describing Qu as "the tenderhearted Communist". Qu and a Russian counterpart, V.S. Kolokolov, were responsible for the early development of the Sin Wenz system of Mandarin romanization.[8] Qu also created the official Chinese translation of The Internationale, used as the anthem of the Communist Party of China.[9] Qu was one of Chinese excellent intellectuals who were baptized by the May 4th Movement,and one of early Communist Party members that established the spirits. Generally speaking, Qu was an early leader of Chinese Communist Party as well as an emotional poet.
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