Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen and Xiang Jingyu: The Big Family of Sanzeng Lane
Basic facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Place | No. 3, Sanzeng Lane, at the corner of Gongxing Road and Xiangshan Road (today Linshan Road), Zhabei |
| Time | July 1923 – June 1924 |
| Nature | the seat of the Central Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party (a secret office) |
| Chief residents | Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui; Cai Hesen and Xiang Jingyu; Luo Zhanglong (Chen Duxiu had a spare bed) |
| Cover | a "Guanjuan hang" signboard at the gate, and to the outside world one family of "the Wang brothers" |
| Fate | destroyed by Japanese shellfire in the January 28 Incident of 1932 |
For Sanzeng Lane as a place (the logic of its siting, the location of the site, the memorial hall), see Part Three · Sanzeng Lane and Huzhou Guild Hall. This piece is about the people who lived here.
A very "family" scene
Let us begin with a scene; it is the most important passage in this piece:
Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui, the household of Cai Hesen and Xiang Jingyu, and the household of Luo Zhanglong — a dozen-odd people in all — lived in Sanzeng Lane, and "the one big family" ate from the same big pot every day.
A dozen-odd people, one shikumen with two rooms upstairs and two down, coming back from work every day to eat from the same big pot.
And these were members of the very top level of the Chinese Communist Party at the time.
| Person | Position at the time | Where they stayed |
|---|---|---|
| Chen Duxiu | chairman of the Executive Committee of the CCP Central Committee (later called general secretary) | a spare bed |
| Mao Zedong | member of the Central Bureau, secretary of the Central Bureau | the front side-room downstairs |
| Yang Kaihui | Mao Zedong's wife | with him |
| Cai Hesen | member of the Central Bureau | the back side-room downstairs |
| Xiang Jingyu | Cai Hesen's wife, a leader of the women's movement | with him, and head of the household |
| Luo Zhanglong | member of the Central Bureau | upstairs |
| Wang Hebo | member of the Central Executive Committee (the man who rented the house) | a frequent visitor |
How they "played" a family
The nameplate: Guanjuan hang
A "Guanjuan hang" signboard hung at the gate.
Specifically, it helped people fill in foreign-language forms for customs duty.
"Guanjuan hang", as a line of business, looks thoroughly un-"revolutionary", and that is exactly what explained why strangers kept coming and going from this household and why there were always papers in foreign languages — the refinement of the cover lay precisely in its being inconspicuous.
The surname: the Wang brothers
The three households called themselves "the Wang brothers". Xiang Jingyu was "head of the household".
The three households spoke with different accents, and to the outside world went by "the Wang brothers".
A Hunanese, a Hunanese, a Hunanese — the accent was easily explained. (Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen and Xiang Jingyu were all Hunanese, and Luo Zhanglong was from Liuyang in Hunan.)
The strictest discipline
This is the most moving part of the Sanzeng Lane story.
These young revolutionaries agreed: no going to restaurants, no plays, no films, no having photographs taken outside, no strolling in the streets, and so on.
An example of how strictly it was kept:
when, for instance, someone came from Yang Kaihui's home town, Yang Kaihui went straight to the railway station, bought him a train ticket and sent him back, not even letting him in at the door.
"Not even letting him in at the door" — that detail is hard.
The strict discipline meant this hidden Central Bureau organ was never exposed, right up to the day it moved out.
Why they chose this "mixed neighbourhood"
Sanzeng Lane was chosen after Luo Zhanglong had gone and surveyed it. He devoted a chapter of his Records of the Chun Garden to recalling it:
"We decided to find a place here for our office because this spot belonged to Chinese territory, and around it were dozens of filature factories and some handicraft workshops. The residents were mostly Cantonese, and next people from north of the Yangtze. This place was neither a slum nor a gentleman's quarter; a mix of people from everywhere, its conditions were very favourable to our work — and so we settled on it."
"Neither a slum nor a gentleman's quarter" — the ideal ecological niche for a hiding place.
Add two further geographical advantages (according to the Shanghai CPPCC website):
- Zhabei had a railway station, so transport was good;
- and it was close to the concessions, so if anything went wrong it was easy to run into them.
"A mix of people from everywhere" was the cover; "right by the North Station + next to the concessions" was the line of retreat. This is the siting science of the hidden front.
What they did in Sanzeng Lane
Sanzeng Lane was not "a place to live" but the place where the Central Bureau of the CPC Central Committee worked.
One: issuing a great many central documents
During the time the Central Bureau organ was at No. 3 Sanzeng Lane, the central circulars and documents issued were numerous and wide-ranging in content, and played an important part in strengthening the revolutionary forces and guiding the first Kuomintang–Communist co-operation.
The specific span: from September 1923 to the first half of 1924, a great many central circulars and documents were issued from Sanzeng Lane.
Two: advancing Kuomintang–Communist co-operation
After the Central Bureau organ moved to Sanzeng Lane in Zhabei, Kuomintang–Communist co-operation in Shanghai unfolded rapidly. In the year and more at Sanzeng Lane the top leadership of the party centre drew up a series of central documents on promoting Kuomintang–Communist co-operation, furthering the party's own building, and strengthening the national revolutionary movement.
Three: the code name "Zhongying"
At that time, for secrecy and safety, the Central Bureau's ordinary letters bore only the code name "Zhongying" (a near-homophone of "Zhongyang", the centre), and documents formally issued took effect only when signed jointly by the chairman and the secretary.
"Zhongying" = "Zhongyang" (the centre). A homophone code name, used for a long time.
Four: reading a dozen newspapers a day
They also found time every day to read the Shen Bao, the Xinwen Bao, the China Weekly Review and a dozen or so other papers, to keep track of political developments across the country.
Five: meetings into the small hours
Chen Duxiu, Wang Hebo and others often came over, and together they would meet, discuss, draft documents and draw up resolutions, often working late into the night.
Mao Zedong's other work here
At Sanzeng Lane, besides his secretarial work for the Central Bureau of the CCP Central Committee, Mao Zedong had another role:
While doing the secretarial work of the Central Bureau, he also took on work for the Kuomintang's Shanghai Executive Department. In the Kuomintang's name he opened common people's schools and workers' night schools in places where workers were concentrated, such as Xiaoshadu, Yangshupu and Wusong, and actively led the workers' movement.
After Yang Kaihui came to Shanghai, she too often went to the workers' night school at Xiaoshadu to teach workers.
A young couple: one working at the Central Bureau, the other teaching at a night school.
June 1924: they moved out
Between June and July 1924, Mao Zedong, Yang Kaihui, Cai Hesen, Xiang Jingyu and Luo Zhanglong moved out one after another.
Because of the needs of his work, Mao Zedong moved to Jiaxiu Lane on Muiriming Road (today's Maoming North Road) in the concession.
From July 1923 to June 1924, No. 3 Sanzeng Lane was always the seat of the Central Bureau of the CCP Central Committee.
The reason for moving out was chiefly the shift in the focus of work as Kuomintang–Communist co-operation unfolded — Mao, Cai and the others took on posts on the Kuomintang side one after another, and needed to be nearer their places of work.
What became of this family
After Sanzeng Lane this "one big family" scattered, and each of their fates was heavy:
| Person | The road afterwards |
|---|---|
| Mao Zedong | led the Chinese revolution to victory and in 1949 became the principal founder of the People's Republic of China |
| Yang Kaihui | died in Changsha in 1930, aged only 29 |
| Cai Hesen | one of the important early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party; died in Guangzhou in 1931, aged only 36 |
| Xiang Jingyu | a pioneer and leader of the Chinese women's movement; died in Wuhan in 1928, aged only 33 |
| Luo Zhanglong | long engaged afterwards in teaching and research |
| Wang Hebo | died in Beijing in 1927 |
| Chen Duxiu | a principal early leader of the CCP; died of illness in 1942 |
Of the dozen-odd people in Sanzeng Lane, the great majority did not live to see the country they had struggled for.
(As for Xiang Jingyu and Cai Hesen, the Shanghai Party History website's "Red Faith Casts Shanghai" video series includes them among its 10 martyr figures.)
The end of Sanzeng Lane
In the January 28 Incident of 1932, the Japanese invaders' shellfire destroyed Sanzeng Lane.
The site is around 202–204, Xiangshan Estate, Linshan Road today.
How to look at them today
- the Historical Memorial Hall of the Central Bureau Organ after the Third Congress of the CCP (Jing'an District): in its display rooms it has reconstructed the bedroom of Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui in Sanzeng Lane, as well as a "Shanghai University" scene;
- the site: around 202–204, Xiangshan Estate, Linshan Road today (the original building no longer stands);
- a walking route: Sanzeng Lane (Gongxing Road × Linshan Road) → the Huzhou Guild Hall (155–163 Huiwen Road) → the former site of Shanghai University (Qingyun Lane, Qingyun Road) → the Baoshan Road Massacre commemorative point (220–300 Baoshan Road).
A closing line
What moves one most in the Sanzeng Lane story is not the prestige of the words "central organ", but the way it so resembled an ordinary household:
A dozen-odd people, one shikumen, one "Guanjuan hang" signboard, eating from the same big pot (in the everyday idiom of Zhabei, this was probably "one cooking range").
In the most domestic of ways, they did the least domestic of things. And that way was possible only in a place like Zhabei — a mixed neighbourhood, close to the station, next to the concessions, an old lane where no one could say for certain whose outfit you were.
The most famous red site in Zhabei is, precisely, the one that least resembles a "site".
Sources: the people and the details of daily life in Sanzeng Lane follow the Shanghai Party History website's "Sanzeng Lane's Finest Hour"; People's Daily's "The Early Central Leading Organs of the CCP in Shanghai"; the Shanghai CPPCC website's "Red Memories in Shikumen (II)"; the Shanghai Party History website's "A Study of the Historical Spaces of the CCP Central Organs in Shanghai in Their Early Period"; and The Paper's "Studying the 'Four Histories': 9 Important Places Here in Jing'an"; the recollections of Luo Zhanglong are quoted from Records of the Chun Garden. The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.