Eulogy for Comrade Huang Gonglue'
(1931)
You died not in the Guangzhou Uprising. you died not in the Pingjiang Uprising,
but now you have unexpectedly sacrificed your life, how unbearable that the
great peng has fallen from the sky.
You achieved merit in the revolutionary war, you achieved merit in the guerrilla war, all your life long how bravely you fought, setting an example for
generations to come.
Our source for this couplet is Shici dailian, p. 165.
I. Huang Gonglue (189~1931). a native of Hunan, joined lhe Chinese Communist
~in 1927. He participated in the Guangzhou Uprising of December 1927, and in the
Pmgjiang Uprising of 1928. In Juac 1930, Huang's Sixth Army, which had already set up
a base area on the wcstcm bank of the Gan River, beame pert of the First Army Group
under the command of Zbu De and Mao Zedong. HUBIIS was killed in action on Scptember!S,I931.
2. The mythical bird called apeng(usually tmnslalcd as ”rocj appears in the opening
passage of chapter I of Zhwngzi (translated in Angus Graham, Chuang-tzu. 171e Sm!n
~~~~.c:r.:~')~~:!' h~;'~':'= :eme~u:'t:' ~ct.,o;~~=~
Chlllgsha" of July 1930, translated in Volume III oflhis edition. p. 460. Allhough lhat
~m
also conrained lines in praise of Hwmg Oongluc, the peng appears there as a symbol
or the CDemy ~s or Cbia!lg K.aishek and 1he Guomindang. Here it slands, on the
:onlrary, for a revolutionary hero. No doubl Mao perceived Ibis creature as a metaphor for
PGWcrful protean force which could be either good or evil dependins em the coruex1.