[Photo from tylyhy.cn]

The Revolutionary Memorial Hall of the former Shanxi Provincial Guomin Normal School, abbreviated to ‘Guoshi Memorial Hall’, is located at No 245 Wuyi North Road, Taiyuan. It is the only revolutionary site being completely preserved in Taiyuan. The memorial hall was opened to the public on September 18, 1991.

The School was initially established in June 1919. Founded by Yan Xishan, it was built with the purpose of training teachers for primary schools across Shanxi province. It was composed of three parts - the school itself, a stadium and a farm. The campus occupied an area of 200,000 square meters, with a total of more than 290 classrooms, offices, dormitories and internship workshops. It provided such courses as Chinese, mathematics, history, military training and an internship workshop. It was the best and largest secondary specialized school in Taiyuan at the time. The school had a western style gate (restored), an auditorium (destroyed), a two-storey building with hanging Shan round ridge roof and a corridor under the front eave on its axis and on both sides of the axis there were the library, students’ dormitories and internship workshops. Facing south, the architecture was square and on a large scale, combining Chinese and western styles. Unfortunately some of the buildings no longer exist now.

Shanxi Provincial Guomin Normal School has a glorious revolutionary history. It served as one of the most famous bases for the Communist Party of China in Shanxi during the first and second civil war and the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

In the spring of 1924, students from the school, including Liang Qichang, Wei Sigong and Ji Xiuchuan, secretly established the first socialism youth league branch in the school and founded peripheral organizations for the CPC and the youth league. More than ten social groups that were mainly made up of communists and youth league members, including the “Youth Society”, “Youth Wallpaper Society” and “Guo Wu Debate”, became bases for the CPC to introduce revolution and links to contact the young people. They initiated the first students’ movement that were targeted at “overthrowing the director general, driving away the discipline class adviser, establishing the students’ union and joining in the provincial students’ federation”.

In 1926, the party organization in Shanxi re-launched a party branch in the school with Comrade Bo Yibo as the secretary. They developed more than 220 party members and youth league members and transferred a large group of students for the Huangpu Military Academy. The older generation of proletarian revolutionaries like Xu Xiangqian, Bo Yibo, Cheng Zihua and Wang Shiying, as well as many other comrades who had taken important positions, all received enlightened education on Marxism and Leninism in the school before walking on the road of revolution.

From 1928 to the summer of 1936, the provincial party organizations moved to the rural areas, but the revolutionary activities in Shanxi Provincial Guomin Normal School was still continuing in secret. They were spreading the revolutionary sparks through many outer-ring parties and youth league organizations such as “September 18” Reading Party, “Shanxi Freemason”, “Social Science Federation” and “Friends of Red Army”.

The core members of these organizations were mainly communists and youth league members and as many as several hundred communists, youth league and progressive young people joined in these organizations. In 1934, under the direct organization and leadership of Li Xuefeng, secretary of the party and youth league of “Shanxi Freemason”, and Liu Yaofu, in charge of “Shanxi Friends of the Red Army”, an unprecedented struggle was launched against a unified examination in schools above secondary level across Taiyuan and they also established “Taiyuan Secondary School Newly Graduated Students Association”, calling on all students across the city to join in parades and petition.

Through the struggle, Shanxi Provincial Guomin Normal School developed a large group of party and youth league members and a big group of progressive youth to join the outer-ring academic organizations of the party league. By the time Yan Xishan noticed that the school was like an inextinguishable fire, he decided not to enroll any new students starting the second half of 1934. On December 9, 1939, a students’ patriotic anti-Japanese movement broke out in Beiping (today’s Beijing), colleges and middle schools in Taiyuan gathered in the auditorium of the school and established “Taiyuan Students Anti-Japanese and Save the Nation Federation”. Soon, Communist Duan Ruozong and student leader Qiao Zenglu were murdered by the reactionary authority for “beating an officer and police and publicizing communism”. Then the school was closed by the authority in 1936 and the history of the school was brought to an end.

From 1937 to November 1939, the school was used by the CPC Work Committee of Shanxi Province (open) and Shanxi Sacrifice and Save-China Alliance as their offices. SSSCA made great contributions to the mobilization of the masses, organization of the masses, training of the cadres, establishing military forces and strengthening the construction of the Anti-Japanese base, as well as the promotion of the anti-Japanese National United Front and developing Shanxi’s anti-Japanese situation.

The CPC Central Committee Northern Bureau gave positive comments on what SSSCA did and pointed out that “SSSCA not only played a leading role in Shanxi’s mass movement, but also went to the government and the army to start political structure reforms and found a new army. In addition, it played a major role in promoting Shanxi’s progress and developing a united front, insisting on anti-Japanese actions in Shanxi and Northern China.” From 1936 to the autumn of 1937, under the direct leadership of the CPC Work Committee of Shanxi Province (open), SSSCA organized “Military and Political Training Class” and “People Training and Cadre Coaching Group” in the school. The Battlefield General Mobilization Military Department organized the “Guerrilla Cadres Training Group” in the school and enrolled students from the progressive and educated young people from 20 or so provinces and cities as well as from overseas Chinese.

This move trained more than 4000 military and political cadres for the CPC and was reputed as the “Huangpu Military Academy of the Great Revolution Period”. Comrade Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Xu Xiangqian, Peng Dehuai, Yang Shuangkun, Cheng Zihua, and Zhou Xiaozhou even visited the site and provided guidance. Some of them made reports to SSSCA cadres and students of the “Military and Political Training Class”. In August 1937, the CPC established “Military and Political Training Class”, “People Training and Cadre Coaching Group” and “National Guard Officer Training Corps”. Some of the students from these groups later became backbones for the Anti-Japanese military force – Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Dare-to-Die Corps, which laid the foundation for the establishment of the new army and expanded the anti-Japanese military force. The well-known heroine Li Lin was just one of the students of the “Military and Political Training Class”.

Shanxi Guomin Normal School has a glorious history. It is a cradle for Shanxi revolutionary movement and it trained a generation of proletarian revolutionaries for the Shanxi and Chinese revolution. Xu Xiangqian, Bo Yibo, Cheng Zihua, Wang Shiying, and Li Xuefeng were just some of the outstanding ones. More importantly, the school was like a seeder, spreading thousands of revolutionary seeds across the Taihang mountain area, the riverside of the Fenhe River and across China.

To carry forward the CPC and the Chinese army’s glorious revolutionary tradition and establish a good socialism education base, Shanxi provincial government and Taiyuan government allocated funds for the repairing and protection of Guomin Normal School. The restored memorial hall at the school occupies 6600 sq m (less than 1/20 of the original size). Apart from collectively and representively presenting the original outlook of the school, a screen wall introducing the revolutionary history of the school, an affiliated eastern display corridor, western exhibit hall and reception room have been added to form a complete tour route for visitors. The pictures, charts, photos and relics exhibited in the hall carry rich content. The 12 sections of exhibits including “Shanxi Provincial Guomin Normal School Original Site Model”, “SSSCA Exhibition”, “Exhibition on the Battle History of Shanxi Anti-Enemy Dare-to-Die Corps” and “CPC Taiyuan Struggling History” and the supplementary exhibitions shown in the office building and the east library demonstrate the glorious revolutionary history of the school in different periods, representing the revolutionary activities of the school in different angles.

Address: No. 480, Wuyi Road, Taiyuan

TEL: 0351-3071923