Chinese Journal of Sociology

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CCP’s Local Leader, Organizational Form and Rural Society in the 1920s, Illustrated by Zeng Tianyu and Jiangxi Wan’an Rebellion

  

  1. Author 1: YING Xing, School of Sociology, China University of Political Science and Law；Author 2: LI Xia, School of Political Science and Public Administration, China University of Political Science and Law
  • Online:2014-09-20 Published:2014-09-20

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Abstract: The CCP transplanted the democratic centralism of the Soviet Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) as its own organizational system at its founding days. This system underwent difficult adjustments during the process of Chinese revolution. After the August 7th Meeting in 1927, the CCP started organizing rebellions in rural areas, which incurred severe challenges to  its organizational principles and capabilities. The particularity of armed rebellion made the relationship more complex between local party who organize the rebellion and the upper level of party, as well as between the leader of the local party and the party system. Jiangxi Wan’an rebellion was one of the rebellions organized by the CCP after the August 7th Meeting. Zeng Tianyu, head of the Wan’an rebellion, represented a certain type of local leaders of the CCP in early times. Moreover, the conflicts in the CCP organizational system exposed in the organizing of Wan’an rebellion were also typical in the period of the Agrarian Revolution War. Employing documents, data of organizations, memoirs, chorographies and journals in the field of CCP history, social history and the history of Republic of China, this paper investigates Zeng Tianyu’s life history and ethos, the background and process of Wan’an rebellion, and the effort and failure of the upper level of party which attempted to strengthen the CCP organization in Wan’an. This paper uncovered three kinds of tension in the organization of early CCP. They are (1) tension between the authority of the officials and personal factors, (2) tension between the effectiveness of organizational discipline and the autonomy of local leaders, and (3) tension between the revolution organizing and traditional resources and local interests. These tensions reviewed above can also explain a series of CCP’s organizational events which happened at the same period.

Key words: Zeng Tianyu , Jiangxi Wan’an rebellion , rural society, organizational form