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On November 20, 1938, Mao Zedong and Jiang Qing got married in Yan’an. (Image source: Public domain)
During the Anti-Japanese War,Yan’angathered countless people from all over the countryyoung men and women,love and marriageIt was an inseparable topic at the time. In the intense work and study,coupleThey are rarely seen. Apart from “a letter every three days and a visit every seven days”, the only romantic thing the lovers do is weekend dances. In the square, under the oil lamp, men and women danced gracefully. Compared with the dance halls in Shanghai, although they are simple and simple, they are just as lively.weddingIt is even more “revolutionary”. There is no sedan chair or phoenix crown to welcome the bride. Some are simple and clear, just like a small gathering to entertain guests.
Cadre wedding in Yan’an: One bow to heaven and earth, two bows to parents and husband and wife are all free of charge
Shu Tong, a Long March cadre who later served as the first secretary of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee, married a young woman named Shi Lan. Peng Zhen, vice president of the Central Party School, married. The wedding banquet was “thick-faced steamed buns, fried potato slices with tomatoes, and boiled water as wine.” This is considered a comparison. Luxurious. Most weddings in Yan’an only offer peanuts.
When Mao Zedong and Jiang Qing got married on November 20, 1938, they only set up three tables outside the Fenghuang Mountain cave dwelling, stir-fried a few vegetables, and a bowl of rice. There was no wine or stools, and the guests all ate standing up. Mao Zedong didn’t come out, but Jiang Qing came out and walked around and said hello to everyone. The guests prepare their own meals and leave without saying goodbye.
For the wedding of Peng Dehuai and Pu Anxiu on October 10, 1939, Teng Daiyuan, the veteran political commissar of the Third Red Army Corps, used his monthly allowance of 5 yuan to have the cooking team stew a large pot of pork and bought a bunch of red dates and peanuts. entertain. The wedding was attended by friends of the bride and groom, and Li Fuchun took the initiative to be the officiant. Everyone was busy for a while and then left in time. Peng Dehuai was always dignified and no one dared to cause trouble in the wedding ceremony.
The wedding of Deng Xiaoping and Zhuo Lin was held in front of the cave dwelling where Mao Zedong lived in Yangjialing, Yan’an. Several of Deng Xiaoping’s old comrades put two tables together and said, “Today we are having a dinner. Let’s all come to the dinner!” At that time, they did not say they were going to get married. The leaders who were in Yan’an that day, except Zhou Enlai who was in the Soviet Union for treatment, Mao Zedong and Jiang Qing, Liu Shaoqi, Zhang Wentian and Liu Ying, Bo Gu, Li Fuchun and Cai Chang all came.
Li Fuchun said to Zhuo Lin: “We will have dinner today. Now I will make a cave for you. After dinner, you can go back together and we will be married.”
Weddings at that time were so simple, and there was no need to pay homage to heaven and earth, parents and husband.
A few days after their marriage, Zhuo Lin left Yan’an with Deng Xiaoping and came to the Taihang Mountains. The first time he saw Peng Dehuai, Peng Dehuai shouted loudly: “Oh, Deng Xiaoping, you are really good at finding a wife, just like a brother and sister.” Deng Xiaoping was not tall, and Zhuo Lin was a little shorter than him. The faces are all round, that’s why Peng Dehuai said so.
After all, the leadership status is different, and there will be a separate cave dwelling after the wedding. Ordinary newlyweds do not have a house, so they thought of a way to open more than a dozen cave dwellings as “youth dormitories”. Each cave dwelling had a bed, and they brought their own bedding. No meals were provided, and the fee was 50 cents a day. Every Saturday, the young couple came to stay for one night, carrying their quilts on their backs, and each went back to their unit the next day. People in Yan’an each have their own work units, not homes. The husband and wife work in their respective agencies and meet once a week. Even if husband and wife are in the same institution, each will receive their own treatment. At that time, the food in Yan’an was divided into small, medium and large stoves.
Yan’an cave dwelling. (Image source: Wuyouyuan/wiki/CC BY 3.0)
Yan’an Marriage and Love Highlights: Each has its own role and each has its own story
Yan’an was originally a remote place in Shaanxi. During the Anti-Japanese War, it became a “revolutionary holy place” and many young people from across the country flocked there. Where there are people, there is also love. There are many stories about marriage and love in Yan’an, such as free love, organizational distribution, third party intervention, falling in love with foreigners, and the “three Lius marrying three kings” in which three sisters marry three brothers. Each has its own role and story. For example, Dr. Wang Kangbo of Yan’an Heping Hospital gave birth to a child with Nurse Zhang. Dr. Wang refused to take responsibility, and Nurse Zhang committed suicide in the hospital. There are also some girls who grew up in a closed environment and rarely had contact with the opposite sex. After arriving in Yan’an, they fell into the arms of the first man who dared to hug her. There were frequent love affairs in Yan’an, and the marriage and divorce rates before the rectification movement were quite high.
Due to the lack of resources for women, fights between men over women naturally intensify. According to the latest information, Xiao Jun fell in love with Ding Ling, and later got engaged to young actress Wang Defen (the daughter of the county magistrate of Yuzhong) and moved to Yan’an. Probably Wang Defen fell in love with Xiao San again. Once, there was a meeting of the Border District Cultural Association. Xiao Jun, Xiao San, Ai Siqi, Wu Boxiao and other ten people attended the meeting. Xiao Jun took out a dagger from his boot and thrust it on the table: “Xiao San, I’m going to kill you!” Everyone was very scared and looked at each other. Ai Siqi persuaded and said: “Xiao Jun, if you have any opinions, you can say it, but you can’t be so barbaric.” Xiao Jun put away the dagger.
And more young men who cannot find the opposite sex have no choice but to practice asceticism. For veteran cadres, it is much easier to solve problems because of organized care.
In 1937, 22-year-old Long March female soldier Wang Dingguo was assigned to 54-year-old Xie Juezai. The organization told her that this was a sacred revolutionary task. Wang Dingguo agreed without hesitation: “I promise to complete the task!” She picked up her backpack and left. Got into the lady position. When Deng Xiaoping returned to Yan’an from the front, he fell in love with Zhuo Lin, a female college student in Peking, and asked the organization for help, and the problem was solved. Although Zhuo Lin thought he was short, she still agreed. The 19-year-old Zhu Ming also arranged to come forward and agreed to marry Lin Boqu, who was in his 50s.
If you fall in love without the approval of the organization, or even get pregnant out of wedlock, you will be criticized. Xia Sha, who went to Yan’an at the age of 14, fell in love with a colleague of the art troupe at the age of 17, became pregnant at the age of 18, and confessed to deputy political commissar Zhang Jichun. Zhang Jichun gave her the punishment of “indefinitely extending the preparatory period for party membership.” During the rectification and rescue movement, this incident made Xia Sha the target of intense criticism at the Anti-Japanese University Headquarters. She sincerely reviewed her “bourgeois life style” at the conference.
It is a great blessing to be cared for by an organization. Lin Liguo’s fiancée Zhang Ning and his father Zhang Fuhua joined the Red Army in 1929 and later served as director of the political department of a regiment in the Jiaodong Military Region. The female soldier company was out exercising early in the morning. Xu Shiyou, commander of the military region, asked Zhang Fuhua at the window: “Which one do you like?” Zhang pointed to a tall beauty and said: “I want that Ocean horse!” This woman is Zhang Ning’s mother. The Hou family in Wendeng County, Jiaodong is famous for its beauties within a radius of hundreds of miles. The next day, the organization came forward to talk to her and introduced Director Zhang to her, and everything was settled. On the night of the third day, the 17-year-old “Dayang Ma” entered Director Zhang’s house carrying a camping bag. With a table of peanuts, red dates and a bottle of local shochu, the wedding was completed.
In Yan’an, the functions of the organization have been highly strengthened. Feng Lanrui wanted to divorce her ex-husband, but the report was submitted in the spring of 1943 and was only approved in 1944. The 32-year-old regiment leader Gao Ziru applied to marry 29-year-old Bao Kan, but Peng Zhen refused. The reason was that the commander of the Eighth Route Army could not marry a non-party member. Only after Bao Kan joined the party three years later did he gain the conditions to marry his lover, but Gao Ziru Already died in combat in 1946.
Marriage requires organizational approval, which sometimes leads to tragedy. Han Zhixin, the telegraph operator of “People’s Daily”, was criticized for “covering the landlord” and “accepting bribes” because he was in love with the landlord’s daughter. Han Zhixin was very nervous and committed suicide with a rifle that night.
Organizational approval is a green light on another occasion. The two Soviet liaison officers and the leader of the Japanese Communist Party, Nosaka Sanzo, were allowed to have temporary wives upon approval, and such wives would not be taken away when they returned to the country. When the two Soviets returned home, the temporary wives’ mission ended, and their temporary husbands each left them a sum of money. Neither of these ladies understand Russian, and I really don’t know how they live as a couple.
During the Jiangxi period, the organization also found a “temporary wife” Xiao Yuehua for Li De sent by the Communist International.
At that time, due to the war, many cadres already had wives in their hometowns. After joining the revolution, they remarried and had children. This phenomenon of one man and two wives is very common.
Xie Juezai commented on this, “The original wives are blocked and cannot gather together, and they cannot be blamed for bigamy. Once they meet, as long as they themselves do not have conflicts, why should others meddle in their own business. If one of them must be separated, one of them will lose their place.” The best way That is, the people will not complain and the officials will not investigate.
But no matter what, marriage and love are physiological needs. No matter how difficult the conditions are or how imbalanced the male-female ratio is, it will spread vigorously like weeds. This is not a problem. The problem is that men and women will always get pregnant and have children if they are intimate. Giving birth to a child is the most troublesome thing for couples in Yan’an. High-ranking cadres are taken care of by waiters or sent to nurseries. It is difficult for children of ordinary cadres to enjoy this kind of treatment. “If a lesbian is pregnant, those who are more sensible will have an abortion.”
The young couple Li Rui and Fan Yuanzhen had many arguments and hurt feelings because of their growing bellies and the cries of their child’s birth. In July 1947, Fan Yuanzhen said in a letter home: “I can’t do anything. I hold (the child) all day long, and my heart is on fire. After thinking about it, I just want to strangle him to death. I have reached the point where I have no fun in taking him. to the point.”
The couple got married and separated due to different revolutionary interests. After the Lushan Conference in 1959, Li Rui was severely criticized, expelled from the party, and revoked from all positions. Fan Yuanzhen did not miss the old relationship and chose to divorce again. Soon, Fan Yuanzhen went to see Zhou Enlai and his wife. During the meal, Chen Yi said: “Why should an old couple divorce?” Zhou Enlai said sternly: “Well, this is a big deal!” Fan was relieved by Zhou Enlai’s understanding.
(This article has been slightly edited. The original title is: Love and Marriage in Yan’an.)
Editor in charge: Yi Tian
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