Published : 2025-10-22
On 22 October 1986, Ye Jianying (葉劍英), one of China's 10 great marshals, passed away in Beijing at the age of 90.
In an era of great change and at critical moments of the Chinese revolution, Ye Jianying remained loyal and steadfast when facing crises. Confronted with peril, he displayed keen insight, acted selflessly and fearlessly, and showed wit and decisiveness, turning the tide and making significant contributions to the revolutionary cause.
Early in his life, Ye Jianying worked in the leading bodies of the revolutionary camp, fully playing the important role of a revolutionary activist.
After Chen Jiongming (陳炯明) launched a coup in 1922, Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) was in peril in Guangzhou. Ye led his troops to fight heroically against the rebel army, ensuring Sun Yat-sen's safety.
In 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Wang Jingwei (汪精衛) betrayed the revolution, Ye Jianying risked his life to urgently inform He Long (賀龍), Ye Ting (葉挺) and others of Wang Jingwei's secret plot to annihilate their troops.
This enabled them to lead their forces out of Jiujiang in time, head for Nanchang, and successfully launch the "August 1st" Nanchang Uprising. Subsequently, Ye also participated in leading the Guangzhou Uprising.
During the Long March in 1935, the Red Army in a perilous situation due to Zhang Guotao (張國燾)'s splittism.
At this crucial moment, Ye resolutely defended the fundamental interests of the revolution, promptly reporting to Mao Zedong (毛澤東) the cabled order by Zhang Guotao which sought to harm the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which allowed the Red Army to swiftly escape the danger, continue marching north to resist the Japanese, and successfully arrive in northern Shaanxi.
In 1976, Zhou Enlai (周恩來), Zhu De (朱德) and Mao Zedong passed away one after another, and the Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique intensified its efforts to usurp the supreme leadership.
At this grave moment that concerned the future and destiny of the Party and the state, Ye Jianying once again came forward.
He, along with the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, took decisive measures to smash the "Gang of Four", ending the disaster of the Cultural Revolution and once again rendering indelible meritorious service to the Chinese revolutionary cause.
Ye Jianying was a famous "scholar-general" in China. He was rich in experience, profound in knowledge, accomplished in both literary and military arts, possessed both wisdom and courage, and had deep attainments in politics, military affairs and even literature.
His later years, especially after he passed the age of 70, were even more magnificent and splendid.
In his poem Thoughts at Eighty, he once wrote, "This old man delights in composing an ode to dusk; the setting sun illuminates the green mountains all around."
At the age of 81, he wrote again in another poem: "Of a hundred years, eight-tenths have been won; this old steed still has ten thousand li to travel."
These poetic lines of extraordinary spirit have now become widely circulated maxims.
