Tso Ch'uan (1906-3 June 1942), Chinese Communist who was deputy chief of staff of the

Eighth Route Army from 1937 until his death in 1942.

A native of Liling, Hunan, Tso Ch'uan was born into a family of landowners. While a middle-school student in his native province, he was influenced by the nationalistic ideas engendered by the May Fourth Movement of 1919. In 1923, at the age of 17, he went to Kwangtung, where he enrolled at the Hunan Cadets School and became a member of the Kuomintang. He there entered the Whampoa Military Academy as a member of its first class and came to know such Communist officials at the academy as Chou En-lai and Nieh Jung-chen (qq.v.). After graduation, Tso became a battalion commander in the Kuomintang forces under Chiang Kai-shek.

By mid- 1926 Tso Ch'uan had joined the Chinese Communist party. After qualifying in examinations at Canton, he went to Moscow to attend the Communist University for Toilers of the East. He remained in the Soviet Union for about four years, transferring to the Frunze Military Academy in 1928. One of his fellow students at the academy was Liu Po-ch'eng (q.v.).

Upon returning to China in 1930, Tso Ch'uan went to the central soviet area in Kiangsi. He served as an instructor at the Red Army Academy and later as deputy to Liu Po-ch'eng, who then was chief of staff of the Communist general military headquarters at Juichin. After Lin Piao (q.v.) became commander of the First Army Group of the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army, Tso became his chief of staff. Tso held that position throughout the Long March of 1934-35. After the arrival of the Communist forces in Shensi, Tso became acting commander of the First Army Group when Lin was named head of Anti-Japanese Military and Political University.

When the Chinese Communist military units were reorganized after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937, Tso Ch'uan became deputy chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army. Because Yeh Chien-ying (q.v.), the chief of staff, was frequently absent from north China, Tso often worked as senior staff officer under Chu Teh and P'eng Te-huai (qq.v.). From the time the Eighth Route Army began its push against the Japanese in Shansi in 1937 until his death five years later, Tso Ch'uan was in the field with the Chinese Communist forces. For a time in 1938, when Chu Teh and P'eng Te-huai were at Yenan for meetings of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party, he assumed complete responsibility for Eighth Route Army operations in north China.

Tso Ch'uan was killed in action on 3 June 1942 in a battle with Japanese units along the Ch'ingchang River. Tso Ch'uan wrote several articles on military subjects and translated Combat Rules and Regulations of the Soviet Red Army.  A precise and conscientious professional soldier, he did not participate in the formulation of major political policies in the Chinese Communist party.