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At the end of the Long March, the surviving remnants of the Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army
reached the desolate and desperately poor area of Yan'an, Shaanxi
Province. In what was to become known as the Yan'an Period (1935-1947),
most of the policies of the CCP that had been started in the Jiangxi
Soviet were further refined and many others were first tried out. Here,
the lingering influence of the Soviet Union in the fields of
organization, politics and strategy, was replaced by a specific Chinese
interpretation of how things were to be done. It was from here that the
image of an upright and patriotic CCP spread to become a feasible
alternative for the increasingly corrupt and inept Guomindang. In
Yan'an, Mao Zedong's personal rule within the Party was consolidated; Mao Zedong Thought
was formulated; the Mao cult was started; policies were set that were to guide literature and
arts until the present day; rectification movements were employed to
maintain discipline; friendships were formed, and antagonisms emerged
that would be fought out during the Cultural Revolution; and the "mass
line" ("from the masses, for the masses") was developed. It would all
contribute to the formation of a myth that even today remains powerful
among Party leaders.
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During the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Side, who was immortalized in Mao's famous "Serve the People",
one of the "Three Constantly Read Articles", came to personify the Yan'an spirit.
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During the period of revolutionary networking (串联，chuanlian,
1966-1967), intended for the Red Guards to exchange revolutionary
experiences, Yan'an was turned into a place of pilgrimage. The same
happened with Jinggangshan, Ruijin, Shaoshan (Mao's birthplace),
Luding and Zunyi.
Sources:
David Apter & Tony Saich, Revolutionary Discourse in Mao's Republic (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1994)
Mark Selden, The Yenan Way in Revolutionary China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1971)
Edgar Snow, Red Star over China (Grove Press 1973)
s.r.landsberger@let.leidenuniv.nl
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