The poet-marshal who led the New Fourth Army and the Third Field Army and succeeded Zhou Enlai as foreign minister
Wounded and besieged on Meiling in the winter of 1936, Chen Yi wrote three poems as his dying words, hiding them in his clothes: "I go to the Springs to muster my old troops, a hundred thousand banners to behead the King of Hell."
From Sichuan, he joined the party after work-study in France and with Zhu De led the remnants of the Nanchang Uprising to Jinggangshan. He stayed behind on the Long March to fight three years of guerrilla war in the south and became acting commander of the New Fourth Army after the 1941 incident. In the civil war he commanded the East China (Third) Field Army at Huaihai and took Shanghai, becoming its first mayor. A marshal in 1955 and foreign minister from 1958, he ran China’s Bandung-era diplomacy in Asia and Africa. Attacked in the “February Countercurrent” of 1967, he died of cancer in 1972; Mao attended the funeral.
Also known as: Ch’en Yi
Activities and affiliations
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1923–1972
Political and party leadership
- Member of the 8th CCP Politburo1956–
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1927–1949
Chinese Communist revolutionary forces (before 1949)Red Army, New Fourth Army and Third Field Army commander
Military command -
1949–1958
People’s Republic of China state institutionsMayor of Shanghai
Government and administration -
1954–1972
People’s Republic of China state institutionsVice Premier
Government and administration -
People’s Republic of China state institutionsMinister of Foreign AffairsMain
Diplomacy and international organization
Career Timeline
- 1919–1921Work-study in France; deported after protests against the French loan
- 1923Joined the Chinese Communist Party
- 1928–1929Helped lead the South Hunan Uprising; commanded the Red Fourth Army’s 12th Division and became Front Committee secretary
- 1934–1937Left in Jiangxi when wounded as the Long March began; three years of guerrilla war with Xiang Ying
- 1938–1941Commanded the New Fourth Army 1st Detachment, then its Jiangnan and Subei headquarters
- 1941–1945Acting commander of the New Fourth Army after the New Fourth Army incident
- 1947–1949Commander and political commissar of the East China Field Army; standing member of the Huaihai General Front Committee
- 1949Commander and political commissar of the Third Field Army in the Yangtze River Crossing campaign
- 1949–1958Mayor of Shanghai
- 1954–1972Vice Premier
- 1955Marshal of the People’s Republic of China
- 1956Elected to the CCP Politburo at the 8th Party Congress
- 1958–1972Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1967Denounced for the “February Countercurrent”; his Foreign Ministry duties suspended
Related historical events
- 1924–1927The first united front, the Northern Expedition and the catastrophe of 1927Nanchang veteran who led the survivors with Zhu DeAfter the defeat led about a thousand men with Zhu De to join Mao at Jinggangshan in 1928.
- 1927–1936From Jinggangshan to Yan’an: the soviet bases and the Long MarchSouthern guerrilla fighterHe stayed behind on the Long March to fight three years of guerrilla war in the south.
- 1937–1945The war with Japan and the second united frontActing commander of the New Fourth Army after the incidentRebuilt the New Fourth Army after its destruction in 1941.
- 1945–1949The Chinese Civil WarEast China Field Army commanderFought at Huaihai and took Shanghai.
- 1949Establishment of the People’s Republic of ChinaMayor of ShanghaiHe reported the crackdown on silver speculation to the centre and won its approval.
- 1966–1976The Cultural RevolutionForeign minister attacked in the “February Countercurrent”Criticised in 1967; died in 1972.
Mayor of Shanghai: Stabilizing the City's Currency and Markets
The Shanghai People's Government was established on 28 May 1949 with Chen Yi as its first mayor. Before entering the city he laid down the discipline that "the army does not enter private homes" (軍隊不入民宅), putting the takeover of urban administration and economic management ahead of military occupation. The city's problems, however, were larger than its capture.
Shanghai was awash in the already defunct gold yuan, while silver dollars, gold and foreign currency had become the de facto means of payment. On 28 May 1949 the Military Control Commission declared the Renminbi the only legal currency, banned the gold yuan after 5 June, and exchanged it at one Renminbi to 100,000 gold yuan. When carters and street peddlers were left with small-denomination notes, Vice-Mayor Zeng Shan appealed to Mayor Chen Yi, who relaxed the minimum denomination for exchange.
The central problem was silver. Between 1 and 10 June 1949 the black-market price of the silver dollar tripled, and at its height the Renminbi was rejected or only partially accepted in the wholesale market. At an East China Bureau meeting on 7 June with Deng Xiaoping, Liu Bocheng and Rao Shushi, Chen Yi decided to seal the Shanghai Securities Exchange, the centre of silver speculation; he reported the decision to the CCP Central Committee by telephone and Mao Zedong approved it twelve hours later. In the dawn operation of 10 June, 2,100 people were screened and 238 chief speculators detained. The next day the silver dollar fell from 2,000 to 1,200 to the Renminbi and rice prices dropped about a tenth.
Once currency speculation was checked, speculative capital moved into grain, cotton yarn and coal and drove prices up again: the campaign known as "two whites and one black" (rice, cotton yarn, coal). Here Chen Yi's political authority as mayor combined with the market interventions directed by Chen Yun, head of the Central Finance and Economic Commission, to calm prices. Shanghai's experience in the summer of 1949 showed that taking a city militarily and running its economy were distinct tasks.