Elegiac Couplet for Wang Erzhuo[1]

(October 1928)

First I weep for Erzhuo, again I weep for Erzhuo, Erzhuo now is gone! Who will take up the heavy tasks he left behind?
In life for the class, in death for the class, what after the class? Only when victory is won shall it end!

[1] Wang Erzhuo (1901–1928), courtesy name Yunyan, was a native of Wangguanqiao Village, Shangxi Township, Shimen County, Hunan Province. He graduated in the first class of the Whampoa Military Academy. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1924. In 1927, he participated in the August 1 Nanchang Uprising, and later took part in the Southern Hunan Uprising. In April 1928, he joined forces with Mao Zedong at Jinggangshan, where the troops were reorganized into the Fourth Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army; he served as Chief of Staff and concurrently as Commander of the 28th Regiment of the Red Army. On August 25, 1928, while pursuing a traitor, he was shot and killed by the traitor Yuan Chongquan at Sishunxu, Chongyi County, Jiangxi Province. After Wang Erzhuo's sacrifice, Zhu De rushed to the scene at Sishunxu to mourn and grieve his comrade-in-arms. In early October, a memorial service was held at Longshi, Ninggang. Before the memorial service, Mao Zedong drafted this elegiac couplet at the Octagonal Tower in Maoping Village, Ninggang County, and Chen Yi wrote it out in calligraphy; it was hung on both sides of the meeting hall.


To improve medical conditions in the base area, in October 1928, according to a decision by the Hunan-Jiangxi Border Special Committee, a Red Army hospital was built at Xiaojing, northwest of Jinggangshan. The image shows the former site of the Xiaojing Red Army Hospital.

During the Jinggangshan period, a basket used by Mao Zedong to deliver meals to the wounded.