The Hunanese who rose “with two kitchen knives”, commander of the Nanchang Uprising and the Second Front Army
Born to a poor peasant family in Sangzhi, Hunan, he left the legend of rising “with two kitchen knives”, commanded the Nanchang Uprising in 1927, and led the Second Front Army on the Long March.
From a poor family in western Hunan, he led local armed bands, rose to command a Nationalist army corps, and joined the party days after commanding the Nanchang Uprising of 1 August 1927. He built a base on the Hunan–Hubei border, led the Second Front Army on the Long March and the 120th Division in the war with Japan. After 1949 he was one of the ten marshals, chairman of the state sports commission and a vice-chairman of the Military Commission. Attacked by Lin Biao and Kang Sheng in the Cultural Revolution, he was confined and died in 1969 after being denied treatment; he was rehabilitated in 1974.
Also known as: Ho Lung
Activities and affiliations
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1926–1927
Republic of China state institutionsCommander, 20th Army, National Revolutionary Army
Military command -
1926–1969
Military command
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1927–1949
Chinese Communist revolutionary forces (before 1949)Commander, Red 2nd Front Army; 120th Division, Eighth Route Army
Military command -
1949–1954
People’s Republic of China state institutionsCommander, Southwest Military Region
Military command -
1952–1966
People’s Republic of China state institutionsVice-Premier; Chairman of the State Sports Commission
Government and administration -
People’s Republic of China state institutionsMarshalMain
Military command
Career Timeline
- 1916Killed the tax collector who had killed his uncle and raised an armed band (the "two kitchen knives" legend)
- 1926.07–1927Joined the National Revolutionary Army; commanded the 1st Division, 9th Corps, then the 20th Army in the Northern Expedition
- 1927.08Commander-in-chief of the Nanchang Uprising; joined the CCP around this time
- 1930–1933Built the Honghu soviet on the Hunan–Hubei border; commander of the Red 2nd Army Group
- 1936–1937Commander of the Red Second Front Army
- 1937.08–1945Commander of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army and of the Shaan-Gan-Ning–Jin-Sui Joint Defence Army
- 1945.10–1949Commander of the Northwest Military Region; deputy to Peng Dehuai's Northwest Field Army
- 1949.10–1954Third secretary of the Southwest Bureau and commander of the Southwest Military Region; led the Chengdu campaign
- 1952.11–1966Chairman of the State Physical Culture and Sports Commission
- 1954–1966Vice-Premier of the State Council
- 1955Marshal of the People’s Republic of China
- 1959–1966Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission; from 1960 head of the National Defence Industry Commission
- 1969.06.09Died in detention during the Cultural Revolution
Related historical events
- 1924–1927The first united front, the Northern Expedition and the catastrophe of 1927Commander of the Nanchang UprisingCommanded the rising of 1 August 1927 and joined the party days later.
- 1927–1936From Jinggangshan to Yan’an: the soviet bases and the Long MarchCommander of the Second Front ArmyMarched from the Hunan–Hubei base to join at Huining in 1936.
- 1937–1945The war with Japan and the second united frontCommander of the Eighth Route Army’s 120th DivisionHe expanded bases in north China and clashed with Nationalist-aligned militia.
- 1945–1949The Chinese Civil WarCommander in the First Field ArmyWith Peng Dehuai he liberated Xi’an and the northwest in 1949.
- 1966–1976The Cultural RevolutionMarshal who died under persecutionConfined after attacks by Lin Biao and Kang Sheng; died in 1969.
Defense industry leadership and the early-1960s quality rectification
In November 1959, after the Minister of the First Machine Building Industry, Zhao Erlu, reported shortcomings in defense industry quality to a Standing Committee meeting of the Central Military Commission, He Long proposed restructuring the system and setting up a commission under the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission. On 5 January 1960 the Central Committee approved the creation of the National Defense Industry Commission and appointed him its director; Nie Rongzhen, Li Fuchun, Bo Yibo, Luo Ruiqing and Xiao Jinguang were among its members. The Commission was a body for studying and planning defense industry work, not an administrative agency, and had its own office to handle routine business.
He Long imposed a strict secrecy rule barring publication of defense industry secrets, applying it to himself as well, so his period of leadership there long remained little known. He set about rectifying quality control in armaments production and, with colleagues, spent a year touring the country's key military plants.
The defects found were mostly in construction quality. At an aircraft plant near Chengdu and at the Chengdu aero-engine plant, bricks and a large pane of glass fell out of the shoddy buildings; He Long rebuked the staff over the danger such plants posed to workers. At the Standing Committee meeting of 10 May 1960, it was decided to state explicitly the principle of "quality first, increasing quantity on the basis of guaranteed quality" for all defense industry production and to oppose the erroneous view that counted only output value and neglected quality. He Long reported to the Central Committee, which approved the principle on 1 July.
A three-level conference of the defense industry system, drawing over 400 cadres from ministries, bureaus and factories, met in Beijing from late November 1960 to 7 January 1961, with an exhibition of 1,309 rejected military products on display. He Long opened with self-criticism; the conference adopted seventeen guidelines for defense industry construction and decided on a quality rectification drive. Treated as an important turning point in the history of the PRC's defense industry, it is credited with correcting the excesses of the Great Leap Forward and raising weapons quality.