Written: In 1980 or 1981.
Source: Peng Dehuai, Memoirs of a Chinese Marshal.
Translated by Zheng Longpu. Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1984; pages 13-17.
Transcription/HTML/Markup for marxists.org: August 2022.
This book brings myriads of thoughts to my mind.
There is a poem which says, “The mighty river flows to the east. Its waves have swept many a notable into oblivion.” But the merits and exploits of Comrade Peng Dehuai will never be blotted out no matter what the course of history.
A much beloved and outstanding strategist and statesman in China’s revolution, Peng Dehuai was a great Communist fighter and a hero of the Chinese nation.
Although he fell into obscurity after 1959, his memory with the passage of time is increasingly cherished. The Memoirs were written by Comrade Peng to state his case at a time when he was the victim of a great injustice. In the face of being accused of hair-raising crimes, he took up his pen and calmly wrote down the story of his life — a life in which he spared neither life nor limb to fight for the revolution. This integrity and uprightness displayed in times of adversity was typical of him. His outstanding military exploits and legendary career have added brilliance to our revolutionary history.
He was a man who struck terror into the hearts of the enemy. He was loyal to the Party and politically incorruptible. He led a simple life and maintained a down-to-earth style of work. These qualities which have won him our lasting respect also set an example for our future generations.
It goes without saying that he had his weaknesses, too. For example, being very strict and forthright, he at times gave way to rashness. But he was bold enough to admit his mistakes and correct them.
For scores of years, Comrade Peng Dehuai was a colleague of mine. We fought shoulder to shoulder for most of the time between 1932 and the years of the War of Liberation. Our work again brought us close together in the period between the founding of the Chinese People’s Republic and the beginning of the “Cultural Revolution”. We became intimate friends. When the editors of the Memoirs brought the manuscript to Guangzhou in the spring of 1981 and asked me to check them, I was only too glad to do it.
I witnessed many of the events referred to in the Memoirs. And to read this work — written as it is in the very style, half-classical and half-popular, that Peng Dehuai used to write his telegrams and letters during the war years — endeared me to his memory. It brings back his image in those stormy decades — his statue-like face set with dark, sparkling eyes imbued with a powerful and unyielding spirit.
Before joining the revolution, Peng Dehuai was a regimental commander in the warlords’ armed forces of Hunan Province. The Chinese revolution was at a low ebb in 1928, following the counter-revolutionary coup by Chiang Kai-shek. Opportunist cowards quit the revolution one after another. It was at this juncture that Comrade Peng risked his life to organize the famous Pingjiang Uprising during which he joined the revolution with courage and steadfastness.
When I first made his acquaintance in 1932, he gave me a moving account of the uprising. The attempt of the “Gang of Four” and Kang Sheng to negate this brilliant achievement of Comrade Peng Dehuai only serves to show how mean and paltry they were.
Under the great hardships of the old society, Peng Dehuai was a man who dared to seek out the truth in an effort to save China and her people. Educated by the Communist Party, he was tempered through the years to become a proletarian revolutionary. In intervals between battles, he could be found studying Lenin. He had great admiration for Comrade Mao Zedong.
Peng Dehuai liked to crack jokes with his men at ordinary times. But during battle he displayed an iron will. His frequent presence at the front inspired courage in the soldiers. At times his resoluteness and sternness made his men afraid of him, but they used to say, “We love him more than we fear him.”
During the fifth campaign against enemy “encirclement and suppression”, Peng Dehuai criticized Li De to his face for his faulty command, saying that his strategy and tactics were leading to the loss of the Soviet areas created with much effort, as “the prodigal son doesn’t feel sorry when he sells his father’s farmland.” These sharp remarks of his, which were made without taking into consideration his own personal interests, left a deep impression on comrades. Upright and outspoken, Peng Dehuai dared to air his views freely. A man of foresight and wisdom, he had an open heart.
At first glance, some of the facts stated in the Memoirs seem to be contradictory. This is, in fact, not so. For instance, Comrade Peng wrote that he was not a Party Central Committee member at the time the Red Army broke through enemy encirclement on its Long March in October 1934. In fact, because of the fierce fighting then raging, he had not been informed of his having been co-opted a Central Committee member at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Party’s Sixth Central Committee held in Ruijin in January 1934. As the Memoirs were written from memory when the author was completely cut off from the outside world, there may be inaccuracies in some specific details. Be¬ cause of the complicated historical situation, his views on certain questions may differ from the reminiscences of other comrades. Under the circumstances of the Cultural Revolution, it was only natural that he could not fully expound his views. In spite of all this, the Memoirs still provide precious historical data on the Chinese revolution.
The last time I saw Peng Dehuai was in October 1965 when Comrade Mao Zedong sent me to inform him that the Party Central Committee had assigned him the task of defence construction in the Southwest. Before departing, he called on me to say goodbye. We talked about the past and future, and were reluctant to part. Sadness overtakes me whenever I think of that parting moment.
The best way to keep the memory of Comrade Peng Dehuai alive is to learn from his example. I believe that the publication of these Memoirs will receive the wide public attention they deserve.