Vice-premier for agriculture who led the “February Countercurrent”
From You County in Hunan, he joined the Communist Party in 1926 and helped Mao build the Jinggangshan base in 1927. Left behind at the Long March, he led guerrilla war in southwestern Fujian, then commanded the New Fourth Army’s 6th Division and, as deputy political commissar of the East China Field Army, fought with Su Yu in central Jiangsu and at Jinan. In 1954 he became deputy secretary-general of the Central Committee and vice-premier in charge of agriculture, and joined the Politburo in 1958. At a meeting in February 1967 he called the Cultural Revolution Group “reactionary” and was denounced as the centre of the “February Countercurrent”. Restored in 1973, he died in Beijing in 1983.
Also known as: T'an Chen-lin
Activities and affiliations
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1926–1983
Political and party leadership
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1928–1949
Chinese Communist revolutionary forces (before 1949)Deputy political commissar, East China Field Army
Military command -
1954–1967
People’s Republic of China state institutionsVice-premier (agriculture)Main
Agriculture and land policy
Career Timeline
- 1926Joined the Communist Party
- 1927Chairman of the Chaling workers’ and peasants’ government; Jinggangshan base
- 1934–1937Guerrilla war in southwestern Fujian
- 1941Commander and commissar, New Fourth Army 6th Division
- 1946Central Jiangsu campaign; deputy commissar of the East China Field Army
- 1948Battle of Jinan
- 1952Chairman of the Jiangsu people’s government
- 1954Deputy secretary-general of the Central Committee; vice-premier
- 1967Denounced for the “February Countercurrent”