Fang Chih-min (1900-6 July 1935), Communist organizer in Kiangsi. He founded the northeast Kiangsi soviet and headed the Red Army's Anti-Japanese Vanguard Unit. He was captured and executed in 1935 by the Nationalists. Born into a peasant family. Fang Chih-min received his early education in the Chinese classics in his native village of lyang, Kiangsi. When he was about 15, he went to Nanchang, the provincial capital of Kiangsi, where he attended a modern higher primary school. After studying at the Nanchang Technical School, from which he was expelled for radical activities in 1920, he spent a brief period at a Christian educational institution at Kiukiang, only to be expelled again because of his anti- Christian views. At the end of 1920 he went to Shanghai, where he came into contact with the Chinese Communist youth movement. Official Communist sources state that Fang Chih-min did not join the Chinese Communist party until 1923, but it is probable that he was an active participant in the movement in 1921-22. Because he was convinced that he should devote himself completely to the cause of radical revolution in China, Fang severed relations with his family.
After returning to Kiangsi in 1922, Fang began organizational work among the youth of his native province. He established the New Culture Bookstore (Wen-hua shu-chü), edited and published a periodical, and set up the Liming Middle School. Together with Chao Hsing-nung, he organized the Kiangsi Socialist (later Communist) Youth Corps. In 1924 Fang, on Communist party orders, organized peasant associations in the areas around lyang, Nanchang, and Kiukiang and incited the peasants to resist rent and tax collections. His work in the villages reportedly aided the advance of Northern Expedition units into Kiangsi. During this period, Fang Chih-min also headed the peasant department in the Kiangsi provincial organization of the Kuomintang. In September 1926 he convened a provincial congress of peasant delegates. In the spring of 1927 he went to a conference on peasant work at Wuhan, where he met Mao Tse-tung and P'eng P'ai.
Fang Chih-min married Miao Min on 12 April 1927. Three days after the wedding, he reportedly had to flee in disguise to avoid arrest. Fang then joined Ho Lung and Yeh T'ing (qq. v.) in the uprising at Nanchang. The new Communist party leadership, after its emergency meeting of 7 August 1927, ordered Fang Chih-min to return to Kiangsi. Working again in the lyang area, he revived the peasant associations and led the peasants to resist rent and tax collections. In cooperation with Shao Shih-p'ing, he organized guerrilla forces in northeastern Kiangsi, despite continuous pressure from Nationalist military units. During this difficult period in 1927, Fang developed tuberculosis.
In 1928 the Sixth National Congress of the Chinese Communist party, meeting at Moscow, elected Fang in absentia to the party's Central Committee. In late 1928 and early 1929 Fang expanded his base of operations in Kiangsi. After a rendezvous with Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh (q.v.) in the southern part of the province. Fang founded the northeast Kiangsi soviet, also known as the Hsin River area soviet, in September 1929. Fang's guerrilla units became the Tenth Army of the Chinese Red Army in 1930. Two years later, these forces were able to expand their territorial base to include adjacent areas of Fukien and Chekiang. At the First All-China Congress of Soviets, held at Juichin, Kiangsi, in November 1931, Fang was elected to the central executive council of the central soviet government. He was reelected to this body at the Second All-China Congress of Soviets, held in January 1934.
Military pressure from Nationalist units on the Communist areas of Kiangsi increased, and in July 1934 the Chinese Communist party ordered Fang Chih-min to push northward toward the Yangtze. He was appointed commander of the Red Army's Anti-Japanese 'anguard Unit, with Hsün Huai-chou as deputy commander and Su Yu as chief of staff. In September 1934 this unit was halted in southern Anhwei by Nationalist forces, and Hsün Huaichou was killed in- action. By January 1935 Nationalist units had completely encircled Fang's forces. He had lost contact with the central Soviet regime at Juichin and was not aware that the main body of the Communist forces had left Kiangsi and had begun the Long March in October 1934. With the apparent intention of returning to the Kiangsi base. Fang led his troops in an unsuccessful attempt to break through the Nationalist blockade. Fang was captured and was imprisoned at Nanchang for several months. He was executed on 6 July 1935.
Fang wrote two essays in prison. "Simple Life" described his experiences with the Nationalist soldiers and affirmed his devotion to Communism and the Communist party; "Lovely Is China" presented China as an oppressed mother, trampled by the imperialists and unable to feed her children, and praised the immense potential power of a China freed from the "age-old yoke of feudalist and imperialist oppression." These essays, together with letters addressed to Lu Hsün, Soong Ch'ing-ling, and the Chinese Communist party, were smuggled out from the prison in Nanchang and delivered to Lu Hsün in Shanghai for safekeeping. Not until April 1936 did the Chinese Communist party gain possession of Fang's essays, his only known writings, which then were published under the title Fang Chih-min tzu-chuan. After the Communist accession to national power, these essays were published in Peking in 1952 under the title Lovely is China. Miao Min wrote an account of Fang's career. Fang Chih-min, Revolutionary Fighter, which was published in Peking in 1962.
Fang's contributions to the Chinese Communist movement were noted by Mao Tsetung in an open letter of 5 January 1930 which later was published as "A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire." Mao pointed to Fang Chih-min, Chu Teh, and himself as the three Communist leaders who had followed political policies that were "undoubtedly correct" and stated that Fang's accomplishments were worthy of emulation.
