Elegiac Couplet for Mr. Zhang Chong[1]

(November 1941)

The grand plan relied on your support—
within, uniting with the Communists; without, uniting with the Soviets.
You toiled tirelessly, rushing about,
seven years of diligent labor as if a single day.
This man alone grew worn and haggard,[2]
first stricken with fever, then with dysentery,
so gravely ill that you could not rise again.
Amidst a few cries of lament, a thousand autumns have already passed.

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[1] On August 11, 1941, during negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Kuomintang representative Zhang Chong passed away due to illness. On August 13, Mao Zedong sent a telegram of condolence to Zhang Chong’s family, which read: “Shocked to learn of the passing of Mr. Huainan, I am deeply grieved and hereby send this telegram of condolence.” On November 9 of the same year, a memorial service was held at the auditorium of the New Life Movement Service Center at Fuzichi in Chongqing. Mao Zedong, together with Wu Yuzhang, Chen Shaoyu, Deng Yingchao, and four other Communist Party senators, jointly sent this elegiac couplet. Zhang Chong (1902–1941), courtesy name Huainan, was a native of Yueqing, Zhejiang, and a member of the Kuomintang. In his early years, he specialized in Russian and visited the Soviet Union for study. He co-founded the Sino-Soviet Cultural Association with Feng Yuxiang and others, promoting Sun Yat-sen’s three great policies of alliance with the Soviet Union, alliance with the Communists, and support for peasants and workers. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he served as chief secretary of the Sixth Department of the General Headquarters and later as director of the Advisory Office of the Military Commission General Office. In March 1941, he concurrently served as deputy head of the Organization Department of the Kuomintang Central Committee. He died of illness in Chongqing on August 11, 1941.

[2] “This man” refers to the person in question. “Worn and haggard” describes a state of exhaustion and decline. “This man alone grew worn and haggard” is a phrase from Du Fu’s Tang dynasty poem “Dreaming of Li Bai, No. 2”: “Caps and carriages fill the capital’s splendor, / This man alone grows worn and haggard.” Here it refers to Zhang Chong’s illness brought on by overwork.