28 Facts About Deng Zihui

Deng Zihui was a Chinese communist revolutionary and one of the most influential leaders of the People's Republic of China during the 1940s and 1950s.

Deng Zihui was one of the major military leaders of China during the Chinese Civil War along with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao.

Deng Zihui had a close relationship to Mao Zedong on issues related to agricultural reforms, however he was purged from all positions due to the Cultural Revolution.

Deng Zihui, a native of Fujian, was born on 17 August 1896 in Longyan and he came from a family of impoverished rural scholars.

In September 1923, Deng Zihui founded the Rock Sound newspaper which aimed to spread Marxist ideas.

Deng Zihui initially joined the Kuomintang and then, in December 1926, he joined the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1928, Deng Zihui began land reform experiments in Minxi.

Deng Zihui's efforts included a bottom-up method of policy development through consultation with locals and adopting their practical suggestions while reserving broader policy questions and expansion for Communist Party evaluation.

Deng Zihui organised many guerrilla strikes in his home province, Fujian.

Deng Zihui became a strong defender of peasant property rights, he started opposing the radical policies of forced agricultural collectivization pursued by Mao, especially after the Great Leap Forward.

Deng Zihui relied on extensive investigations into the rural economy to support legal protection of peasant property rights while advocating against policies involving extreme egalitarianism, by opposing policies such as excessive government grain requisitions, state monopoly of agricultural pricing and the frequent and rapid transfer of property ownership.

Deng Zihui's proposals inaugurated major agricultural reforms, such as the 'household contract system' concerning the country's food crisis.

Deng Zihui reminded to them that the 'responsibility system for contracting work and output' had been ratified by the CCP as early as 1957.

Deng Zihui stated that the 'farming responsibility system' could not be considered a form of individual farming.

However, on the following day, Mao defamed Deng Zihui, by describing him as an individual 'devoid of any intellectual predisposition in favour of the socialist revolution'.

Deng Zihui distributed an old document from the Rural Work Department in order to stigmatise Deng's change of position.

Shortly after, the Rural Work Department which Deng Zihui was in charge of, was accused by Mao of 'having done nothing useful for the past ten years' and dissolved.

Deng Zihui was persecuted by Lin Biao and Jiang Qing and purged from all positions during the Cultural Revolution.

Deng Zihui was posthumously rehabilitated and his reputation was restored.

Deng Zihui was born into a prosperous family and he was the second eldest out of eight children.

Deng Zihui's father was a businessman working in Ganzhou, while his mother was doing the housework.

Deng Zihui's mother died from an illness when he was only thirteen years old.

Deng Zihui taught her how to read and write, while explaining revolutionary concepts to her, which she slowly accepted.

Deng Zihui was imprisoned for two months and then she was let go under surveillance.

Deng Zihui was forced to divorce her, in order to not cause trouble for her and to protect her and the rest of his family against reprisals from the Kuomintang.

Deng Zihui met and married his second wife, Huang Xiuxiang, in late 1934.

In 1936, during the Chinese New Year, Deng Zihui remarried; this time with a woman named Chen Lan.

Deng Zihui joined the communist guerillas under the command of Deng Zihui after the Kuomintang killed her family in late 1934 where she served as a mimeographer, intelligence agent, needlewoman, sentry and cook.