He was born into a large farming family in Yilong county, a hilly and isolated section of northern
Sichuan province. After a secondary education funded by his Uncle, Zhu felt obliged to enroll for the district examinations (despite his dislike for the traditional Confucian education system). Zhu passed these examinations, to his surprise and was awarded a xiucai degree. Zhu hid these results from his family and traveled to
Chengdu to study physical education. He became a PE teacher for a short time before joining the army. In 1904 Zhu De acted upon his anti Manchu, republican sentiments and joined the
Tongmenghui. In 1908, he entered the Yunnan Military Academy in
Kunming. After his graduation, he taught in the academy. Zhu joined the rebellion that overthrew the
Qing dynasty in 1911. He participated in military campaigns with armies of the
Yunnan warlords and commanded units along the
Laos and
Vietnam borders in the early years of the
Chinese Republic. In 1916, following the death of Zhu De's mentor
Cai E, he developed a strong opium habit and fell into a life of decadence and warlordism. However, due to Zhu's love of reading and exposure to communism he decided to abandon his warlord lifestyle, recovering from his addiction to opium in 1920 in
Shanghai. Zhu also attempted to join the
Chinese Communist Party in early 1922, but was rejected due to his former warlord ties.
Zhu De began to read about
Marxism and
Leninism in
Shanghai. In the mid-1920s, he went to
Europe, studying at
Göttingen University in Germany from 1922 to 1925 at which point he was expelled from the country by the government for his role in a number of student protests. Around this time, he joined the
Communist Party. Zhou Enlai was one of his sponsors. In
July 1925, he traveled to the
Soviet Union to study military affairs. In
1926, he returned to
China and took control of a military force in the
Kuomintang under the
First United Front.
In 1927, following the collapse of the First United Front, Zhu De was ordered to lead a force against the
Nanchang Uprising. However, as he had helped to orchestrate this uprising, Zhu and his army defected from the GMD and fought against the Nationalist forces. Unfortunately for Zhu, the uprising failed to gather the support of the local working class and he was forced to flee
Nanchang with his army. Under the fake name Wang Kai, Zhu managed to find shelter from a warlord Fan Shisheng for his remaining regiment and he eventually expanded his force.
Zhu's close affiliation with
Mao Zedong began in 1928 when under the assistance of
Chen Yi and
Lin Biao, Zhu brought his army of 10,000 men to the
Jinggang Mountains where Mao had formed a soviet in 1927. From these humble beginnings, Mao and Zhu built the
Red Army into a skilled
guerrilla force that consolidated and expanded their areas of control. Zhu's bravery and skill in leading these men made him a figure of immense prestige. Locals credited him with supernatural abilities. During this time Mao and Zhu became so closely connected that to the local peasant farmers they were known collectively as "Zhu Mao". In 1929 Zhu and Mao were forced to flee
Jinggangshan to
Ruijin to the East following Guomindang military pressure. Here, they formed the
Jiangxi Soviet which would eventually grow to cover some 30, 000 square kilometers and include some three million people. In 1931 Zhu was appointed leader of the Red Army in the
Ruijin Congress by the CCP leadership. Zhu successfully led a conventional military force against the Guomindang during the
Fourth Counter Encirclement Campaign, however he was not able to do the same during the
Fifth Counter Encirclement Campaign and reluctantly the CCP began to make preparations to flee the
Jiangxi Soviet. Zhu helped to form the 1934 break out from the soviet that would begin the
Long March.
During the
Long March, Zhu De and
Zhang Guotao commanded the "western column" of the Red Army, which barely survived the retreat through
Sichuan Province. In
Yan'an, Zhu directed the reconstruction of the Red Army under the political guidance of Mao. During the
Second Sino-Japanese War and the
Chinese Civil War, he held the position of
Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army. In 1940 Zhu De devised and organized the
Hundred Regiments Offensive without the support of Mao; this campaign was very successful but has since been attributed as the reason for the devastating Japanese
Three Alls Policy.
After
1949, Zhu was named Commander-in-Chief of the
People's Liberation Army (PLA). He was also the Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party (1956-1966) and Vice-Chairman of the People's Republic of China (1954-1959). In 1950 Zhu De oversaw the PLA during the
Korean War. In 1955, he was made a marshal. In 1966 Zhu De was dismissed from his position in the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress, however, thanks to the support of
Zhou Enlai he was not killed or imprisoned. In 1971 Zhu was reinstated as the Chairman of the Standing Committee. He continued to be a prominent and respected elder statesman until his death in July 1976.
rss feed