View source for He Long

{{Short description|Marshal of the People's Republic of China (1896–1969)}}
{{family name hatnote|[[He (surname)|He]]|lang=Chinese}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[Yuan shuai|Yuanshuai]]
| name                = He Long
| native_name         = {{nobold|贺龙}}
| native_name_lang    = zh-Hans-CN
| image               = He Long.jpg
| imagesize           = 
| caption             = Marshal He Long in 1955
| order2              = Member of [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]]
| term_start2         = October 1954
| term_end2           = 9 June 1969
| 1blankname2         = Chairman
| 1namedata2          = [[Mao Zedong]]
| order4              = [[Vice Premier of China]]
| premier4            = [[Zhou Enlai]]
| term_start4         = October 1954
| term_end4           = 9 June 1969
| birth_name          = {{lang|zh-Hant|賀龍}}
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1896|3|22|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Sangzhi]], [[Hunan]], [[Qing dynasty|Qing Empire]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1969|6|9|1896|3|22|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Beijing]], China
| party               = [[Chinese Communist Party]] (1926–1969)
| spouse              = 
| alma_mater          = 
| allegiance          = {{PRC}}
| nickname            = {{lang|zh-Hans|贺老总}} (''Hè lǎozǒng'', "Old Chief He") <br/> {{lang|zh-Hans|贺胡子}} (''Hè húzi'', "mustachio He")
| serviceyears        = {{flagicon image|Flag of China (1912–1928).svg}} [[Beiyang government|Republic of China]] (1914–1920)<br/> [[Image:Republic of China Army Flag.svg|22px]] [[National Revolutionary Army]] (1920–1927)<br />[[File:Flag of the Chinese Communist Party (Pre-1996).svg|25px]] [[Chinese Communist Party]] (1927–1969)
| rank                = [[Yuan shuai|Marshal of People's Republic of China]]
| commands            = * Division Commander of the [[Eighth Route Army]]
* [[Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission]]
| branch              = {{Army|China|1949}}
| battles             = * [[Northern Expedition]]
* [[Chinese Civil War]]
** [[Long March]]
**[[First encirclement campaign against the Honghu Soviet]]
**[[Third encirclement campaign against the Honghu Soviet]]
* [[Second Sino-Japanese War|Sino-Japanese War]]
** [[Hundred Regiments Offensive]]
| mawards             = [[File:Order of Bayi 1st Class.svg|25px]] [[Order of Bayi|Order of August the First]] (1st Class Medal) (1955)<br />[[File:Order of Independence and Freedom 1st Class.svg|25px]] [[Order of Independence and Freedom]] (1st Class Medal) (1955)<br />[[File:Order of Liberation 1st Class.svg|25px]] [[Order of Liberation (China)]] (1st Class Medal) (1955)
| occupation          = General, politician, writer
}}

'''He Long''' ({{zh |s = 贺龙 |t = 賀龍 |p = Hè Lóng }}; March 22, 1896 – June 9, 1969) was a [[Chinese Communist Party|Chinese Communist]] revolutionary and a [[Marshal of the People's Republic of China|Marshal]] of the [[People's Republic of China]]. He was from a poor rural family in Hunan, and his family was not able to provide him with any formal education. He began his revolutionary career after avenging the death of his uncle, when he fled to become an outlaw and attracted a small personal army around him. Later his forces joined the [[Kuomintang]], and he participated in the [[Northern Expedition]].

He rebelled against the Kuomintang after [[Chiang Kai-shek]] began [[Shanghai massacre|violently suppressing Communists]], when he planned and led the unsuccessful [[Nanchang Uprising]]. After escaping, he organized a soviet in rural [[Hunan]] (and later [[Guizhou]]), but was forced to abandon his bases when pressured by Chiang's [[Encirclement Campaigns]]. He joined the [[Long March]] in 1935, over a year after forces associated with [[Mao Zedong]] and [[Zhu De]] were forced to do so. He met with forces led by [[Zhang Guotao]], but he disagreed with Zhang about the strategy of the Red Army and led his forces to join and support Mao.

After settling and establishing a headquarters in [[Shaanxi]], He led guerrilla forces in [[Northwest China]] in both the [[Chinese Civil War]] and the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], and was generally successful in expanding areas of Communist control. He commanded a force of 170,000 troops forces by the end of 1945, when his force was placed under the command of [[Peng Dehuai]] and He became Peng's second-in-command. He was placed in control of [[Southwest China]] in the late 1940s, and spent most of the 1950s in the Southwest administering the region in both civilian and military roles.

He held a number of civilian and military positions after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. In 1955, his contributions to the victory of the Chinese Communist Party were recognized when he was named one of the [[Yuan Shuai|Ten Marshals]], and he served as China's [[Vice Premier of China|vice premier]]. He did not support Mao Zedong's attempts to purge Peng Dehuai in 1959 and attempted to rehabilitate Peng. After the [[Cultural Revolution]] was declared in 1966, he was one of the first leaders of the PLA to be purged. He died in 1969 when a glucose injection provided by his jailers complicated his untreated diabetes.

==Biography==

===Early life===
[[File:He Long in traditional Tujia attire.jpg|thumb|left|150px|He Long in his youth]]
[[File:He Long1.jpg|thumb|left|200px|He in 1925.]]

He Long was a member of the [[Tujia people|Tujia]] ethnic group.<ref>Winchester 1</ref> Born in the [[Sangzhi]], [[Hunan]], he and his siblings, including [[He Ying (revolutionary)|He Ying]], grew up in a poor peasant household, despite his father being a minor [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] military officer.<ref name="Lew 11">Lew 11</ref> His father was a member of the [[Gelaohui]] (Elder Brother Society), a secret society dating back to the early Qing dynasty. A cowherd during his youth, he received no formal education.<ref name="WH28">Whitson & Huang 28</ref> When He was 20 he killed a local government tax assessor who had killed his uncle for defaulting on his taxes.<ref name="L49">Leung 49</ref> He then fled and became an outlaw, giving rise to the legend that he began his revolutionary career with just two kitchen knives.<ref name="WH28" /> After beginning his life as an outlaw he gained a reputation as a "[[Robin Hood]]-like figure". His signature weapon was a butcher knife.<ref name="Lew 11"/>

Around 1918 He raised a volunteer revolutionary army that was aligned with a local Hunan warlord,<ref name="L49" /> and in 1920, his personal army joined the [[National Revolutionary Army]].<ref name="CW162">''China at War'' 162</ref> In 1923 He was promoted to command the Nationalist Twentieth Army. In 1925 He ran a school for training Kuomintang soldiers. While running this school, He became close with some of his students who were also [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) members.<ref name="L49" /> During the 1926 [[Northern Expedition]], He commanded the 1st Division, 9th Corps of the National Revolutionary Army.<ref name="WH34">Whitson & Huang 34</ref> He served under [[Zhang Fakui]] during the Northern Expedition.<ref name="L49" />

In late 1926 He joined the CCP.<ref name="CW162" /> In 1927, after the collapse of [[Wang Jingwei]]'s leftist Kuomintang government in [[Wuhan]] and Chiang Kai-shek's [[Shanghai massacre of 1927|suppression of communists]], He left the Kuomintang and joined the Communists, commanding the 20th Corps, 1st Column of the Red Army.<ref name="L49" /> 

The uprising was held in an Anglican Church. [http://en.81-china.com/product/330.html] Christian influences Chinese Culture, Hong Xiuquan. 

[https://academic.oup.com/hong-kong-scholarship-online/book/21433]

He and [[Zhu De]] planned and led the main force of the [[Nanchang Uprising]] in 1927. In the Nanchang Uprising He and Zhu led a combined force of 24,000 men and attempted to seize the city of [[Nanchang]], but they were not able to secure it against the inevitable Kuomintang attempt to retake the city. The campaign suffered from logistical difficulties, and the communists suffered 50% casualties in the two months of fighting. Most of He's soldiers who survived surrendered, deserted, and/or rejoined the KMT. Only 2,000 survivors eventually returned to fight for the Communists in 1928, when Zhu reformed his forces in Hunan.<ref>''China at War'' 147</ref>

After his forces were defeated, He fled to [[Lufeng, Guangdong]]. He spent some time in [[Hong Kong]], but was later sent by the CCP to [[Shanghai]], then to Wuhan.<ref name="L49" /> [[Chiang Kai-shek]] continuously tried to persuade him rejoin the [[Kuomintang]], but failed.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

===Communist guerrilla===
[[File:He Long in NRA uniform.jpg|thumb|He Long in the [[National Revolutionary Army]] (1939)]]
After the failure of the Nanchang Uprising, He turned down an offer by the CCP Central Committee to study in Russia and returned to Hunan, where he raised a new force in 1930.<ref name="WH34" /> His force controlled a broad area of the countryside in the Hunan-Hubei border region, around the area of [[Hong Lake|Lake Hong]], and organized this area into a rural soviet. In mid-1932 Kuomintang forces targeted He's soviet as part of the [[Fourth Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet|Fourth Encirclement Campaign]]. He's forces abandoned their bases, moved southwest, and established a new base in northeast [[Guizhou]] in mid-1933.<ref name="L4950">Leung 49-50</ref>

In 1934 [[Ren Bishi]] joined He in Guizhou with his own surviving forces after also being forced to abandon his soviet in another Encirclement Campaign. Ren and He merged forces, with He becoming the military commander and Ren becoming the commissar.<ref name="L50">Leung 50</ref> He joined the [[Long March]] in November 1935, over a year after forces led by Zhu De and [[Mao Zedong]] were forced to evacuate their own [[Jiangxi Soviet|soviet in Jiangxi]].<ref name="CW162" /> He's ability to resist the Kuomintang was partially due to his position on the periphery of Communist-controlled territory.<ref name="Lew 11"/> While on the Long March He's forces met Communist forces led by [[Zhang Guotao]] in June 1936, but both He and Ren disagreed with Zhang about the direction of the Long March, and He eventually led his forces into [[Shaanxi]] to join Mao Zedong by the end of 1936. In 1937 He settled his troops in northwestern Shaanxi and established a new headquarters there.<ref name="L50" /> Because the Second Army of the Chinese Red Army under He Long's command was one of the few Communist forces to arrive in Yan'an mostly intact, his force was able to assume the responsibility of protecting the new capital after their arrival.<ref name="Lew 11"/>

When the Red Army was reorganized into the [[Eighth Route Army]] in 1937, He was placed in command of the 120th Division.<ref name="CW162" /> From late 1938 to 1940 He fought both the Japanese army and Kuomintang-affiliated guerrillas in [[Hubei]].<ref name="L50" /> He's responsibilities increased during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], and in 1943 he was promoted to be the overall commander of Communist forces in [[Shanxi]], Shaanxi, [[Gansu]], [[Ningxia]], and [[Inner Mongolia]].<ref name="CW162" /> By the end of [[World War II]] He commanded a force of approximately 175,000 troops across northwestern China. He's most notable subordinates included [[Zhang Zongxun]], [[Xu Guangda]], and [[Peng Shaohui]].<ref name="D43">Domes 43</ref>

He was successful in expanding Communist base areas throughout the period of World War II. Part of He's success was due to the social confusion caused by Japan's [[Operation Ichi-Go|Ichi-Go offensive]] in the areas of China that Japanese operations effected. He was frequently able to expand Communist areas of operation by allying with local, independent guerrilla forces who were also fighting the Japanese. He's experience fighting the Kuomintang and the Japanese led him to question Mao's unconditional emphasis on the importance of ideological guerrilla warfare at the expense of conventional tactics and military organization.<ref name="CW163">''China at War'' 163</ref>

In October 1945, one month after the Japanese surrender, the command of He's forces was transferred to [[Peng Dehuai]], which operated as the "Northwest Field Army". He became Peng's second-in-command, but spent most of the rest of the [[Chinese Civil War]] in central CCP headquarters, in and around [[Yan'an]].<ref name="D43" /> After the Japanese surrender, in 1945, He was elected to the [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP Central Committee]], and his influence rose within both the military and the communist political system. Near the end of the Chinese Civil War He was promoted to command the [[First Field Army (China)|First Field Army]], which was active in [[Southwest China]].<ref name="CW163" /> After the Communists won the civil war in 1949, He spent most of the 1950s in both civilian and military roles in the southwest.<ref name="L50" />

[[File:Deng Xiaoping, He Long and Zhu De.jpg|thumb|He Long with [[Deng Xiaoping]] (left) and [[Zhu De]] (right) (1949)]]

===In the People's Republic===
[[File:Nie Rongzhen, He Long, Luo Ronghuan on Tian'anmen.jpg|thumb|He Long (center) with Marshals [[Nie Rongzhen]] (left) and [[Luo Ronghuan]] at [[Tiananmen]] (1959)]]
He's military accomplishments were recognized when he was promoted to being one of the [[Yuan Shuai|Ten Marshals]] in 1955,<ref name="CW163" /> and he served in a number of civilian positions. He was made [[Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China|Vice Premier]]. He headed the [[State General Administration of Sports|National Sports Commission]], and in that role facilitated sports exchanges with the Soviet Union and the eastern European countries.<ref name=":Minami">{{Cite book |last=Minami |first=Kazushi |title=People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=9781501774157 |location=Ithaca, NY}}</ref>{{Rp|page=139}} He was one of the most well-traveled members of the CCP elite, and led numerous delegations abroad, meeting with leaders of other Asian countries, the [[Soviet Union]], and [[East Germany]].<ref name="L4950" />

After Mao Zedong purged Peng Dehuai in 1959, Mao appointed He to the head of an office to investigate Peng's past and find reasons to criticize Peng. He accepted the position but was sympathetic to Peng, and stalled for over a year before submitting his report. Mao's prestige weakened when it became widely known that Mao's [[Great Leap Forward]] had been a disaster, and He eventually presented a report that was positive, and which attempted to vindicate Peng.<ref>Rice 185-186</ref> Peng was partially rehabilitated in 1965, but then purged again at the beginning of the [[Cultural Revolution]] 1966.<ref>Domes 116-117</ref> He was accused of a mutiny in Feb 1964, after a Soviet Union trip with Zhou Enlai. The Soviet were unhappy, with China direction. Cultural revolution followed soon after, to purged communist and rightist leanings in China.  

[[Jiang Qing]] denounced He in December 1966 of being a "rightist" and of intra-CCP factionalism. Following Jiang's accusations He and his supporters were branded an anti-CCP element and quickly purged.<ref name="CIAII">''Central Intelligence Agency'' ii</ref> He's persecutors singled him out by labeling him the "biggest bandit".<ref name="CW163" /> He was the second highest-ranking member of the Military Affairs Commission at the time that he was purged, and the method in which he and those close to him were purged set the pattern for multiple later purges of the PLA leadership throughout the Cultural Revolution.<ref name="CIAII" />

After being purged, He was placed under indefinite house arrest for the last two and a half years of his life. He described the conditions of his imprisonment as a period of slow torture, in which his captors "intended to destroy my health so that they can murder me without spilling my blood". During the years that he was imprisoned, his captors restricted his access to water, cut off his house's heat during the winter, and refused him access to medicine to treat his diabetes.<ref>Chung 391</ref> He died in 1969 after being hospitalized for the severe malnutrition that he developed while under house arrest. He died soon after being admitted to hospital, after a glucose injection complicated his chronic diabetes.<ref>''The Cambridge History of China'' 213</ref>

He was posthumously partially rehabilitated by Mao in 1974, then fully rehabilitated after [[Deng Xiaoping]] came to power in the late 1970s.{{cn|date=April 2024}} A [[Helong Sports Center Stadium|stadium]] in [[Changsha]] was named after him in 1987.

==See also==
*[[List of officers of the People's Liberation Army]]
*[[Outline of the military history of the People's Republic of China]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|20em}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=XSZygE9_zBcC&pg=PA213 ''The Cambridge History of China'']. Vol 15: "The People's Republic". Part 2: "Revolutions". Eds. Roderick MacFarquhar & John K. Fairbank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1991. {{ISBN|0-521-24337-8}}.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120621005444/http://www.foia.cia.gov/CPE/POLO/polo-22.pdf "Intelligence Report: Mao's 'Cultural Revolution' III. The Purge of the P.L.A. and the Stardom of Madame Mao"]. ''Central Intelligence Agency''. June 1968. Retrieved May 27, 2012.
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=R7qNuIJJsNEC&pg=PA162 ''China at War: An Encyclopedia'']. Ed. Li Xiaobing. United States of America: ABC-CLIO. 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-59884-415-3}}. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
* Chung, Jang. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TYHPLULRAtAC&dq=peng+dehuai+head+tumor&pg=PA391 ''White Swans: Three Daughters of China''].  New York, NY: Touchstone. 2003. {{ISBN|0-7432-4698-5}}.
* Domes, Jurgen. [https://books.google.com/books?id=R8mXPSDeWf4C ''Peng Te-huai: The Man and the Image'']. London: C. Hurst & Company. 1985. {{ISBN|0-905838-99-8}}.
* Rice, Edward E. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ONWxWuI3udgC&pg=PA186 ''Mao's Way'']. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1974. {{ISBN|0-520-02623-3}}.
* Leung, Edward Pak-wah. [https://books.google.com/books?id=drHgAyJuO_IC&pg=PA49 ''Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War'']. United States of America: Scarecrow Press. 2002. {{ISBN|0-8108-4435-4}}.
* Lew, Christopher R. ''The Third Chinese Revolutionary War, 1945-1949: An Analysis of Communist Strategy and Leadership''. The USA and Canada: Routelage. 2009. {{ISBN|0-415-77730-5}}
* Whitson, William W., & Huang Chen-hsia. ''The Chinese High Command: A History of Communist Military Politics, 1927-71''. New York: Praeger Publishers. 1973.
* Winchester, Simon. [http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/travel/15wuling.html?em&ex=1184558400&en=a1499eb81b9cfa10&ei=5087%0A "China's Ancient Skyline"]. ''The New York Times''. July 5, 2007. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
{{refend}}

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{{Ten Marshals}}
{{1st State Council of China}}
{{2nd State Council of China}}
{{3rd State Council of China}}
{{8th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party}}
{{Vice Premiers of the People's Republic of China}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:He, Long}}
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:Marshals of the People's Republic of China]]
[[Category:Chinese Communist Party politicians from Hunan]]
[[Category:Politicians from Zhangjiajie]]
[[Category:Eighth Route Army generals]]
[[Category:Tax resisters]]
[[Category:People persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution]]
[[Category:People's Republic of China politicians from Hunan]]
[[Category:Members of the 7th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]]
[[Category:Members of the 8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]]
[[Category:Members of the 8th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party]]
[[Category:Tujia people]]