Deng Zihui

Deng Zihui (; 17 August 1896 – 10 December 1972) was a Chinese communist revolutionary and one of the most influential leaders of the People's Republic of China during the 1940s and 1950s. He was one of the major military leaders of China during the Chinese Civil War along with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao.

Deng was one of the initiators of the Central Rural Work Development, which aimed to achieve agricultural growth. He had a close relationship with Mao on issues related to agricultural reforms, but he was purged from all his positions during the Cultural Revolution.

Biography Early life A group photo of prominent Chinese communist leaders. Deng Zihui can be seen in the middle of the photograph. Deng Zihui, a native of Fujian, was born on 17 August 1896 in the city of Longyan into a family of impoverished rural scholars. After attending secondary school in China, he decided to study in Japan, In September 1923, Deng founded the Rock Sound newspaper to spread Marxist ideas. Between 1917 and 1928 he briefly worked as a teacher, and then he began working as a salesman in his family's business. His efforts included a bottom-up method of policy development: leaders would consult with locals and adopt their practical suggestions while reserving broader policy questions and expansion for Communist Party evaluation. He dominated both the party's and the state's policies throughout the period 1953–1962 and he often came into conflict with Mao Zedong over agricultural issues. Beset with illness and bereft of official protection, Deng died from an accident on 10 December 1972 in Beijing. Because of his efforts to resist hasty collectivization and his pioneering advocacy of the responsibility system, Deng became a 'hero before his time' in recent historical reconstructions. In 1987, the 'Deng Zihui Memorial Hall' was built in Dongxiao. In 1954, Cao suffered from uterine cancer and died. Deng met and married his second wife, Huang Xiuxiang, in late 1934. Huang, was a native of Fujian and she lived very close to Deng Zihui's home. They had two children together (Deng Xiaolan and Deng Ruisheng ). Three days after the birth of their eldest child, Deng Huaisheng, they were forced to send him to a farmer's home in Huichang along with the son of Lin Boqu, due to the consequences of the civil war. Later on, Huang was wounded, captured and executed during the breakout of the Long March. In 1936, during the Chinese New Year, Deng remarried; this time with a woman named Chen Lan. Chen was born in 1913 but due to family poverty, she was sold to a mason's family as a child bride when she was only six years old. She joined the communist guerillas under the command of Deng Zihui after the Kuomintang killed her family in late 1934 where she served as a mimeographer, intelligence agent, needlewoman, sentry and cook. The couple had seven children together (incl. Deng Husheng and Deng Hansheng). Chen died in Beijing, in 2005, at the age of 92.