The Plough flag () is a red banner with a white or yellow plough positioned in the center of it, widely used in the period of the

Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...

as the flag of the

Chinese Peasants' Association The Chinese National Peasants' Association (), otherwise known as the Chinese Peasants' Association (), was a peasant organization created in 1927 with the specific aim of transforming the peasantry via Socialism. It was led by the Chinese Commu ...

Symbolism

The plough symbolizes the peasants' leadership in rural areas, and the red color stands for the victory of the communist revolution. When it is depicted in works of art, it is generally shown in conjunction with

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

and/or armed peasants. An example of this can be found in an illustrated pamphlet titled "'This is fine' – In memory of the 44th anniversary of the publication of ' Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan"', published by the People's Press of Guangdong, where the illustrator uses the plough flag as a symbol of the peasant movement.

History

It is believed that

Peng Pai Peng Pai (; October 22, 1896 – August 30, 1929), training name at youth Peng Hanyu (), born in Haifeng, Guangdong Province, China, was a pioneerIn the Preface, the author called Peng Pai "the father of Chinese rural communism". of the Chinese ...

() was the first to use this flag in 1923, as the Chairman of the Peasants' Association of Hailufeng. During the period of first United Front, when the peasant movement in China was at its peak, the plough appeared in the flag and membership cards of the local peasant associations in several provinces. Another version of the flag, used by the left-wing of the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...

, combines the plough with the

Flag of the Republic of China A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

. After July 15, 1927, when the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

was made illegal in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city a ...

, the associations controlled by the communists stopped using the "

" version of the flag and instead began using a version with a completely red background. After the establishment of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, plough flags have been placed in several museums around the country (e.g. the museum of

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ...

) as well as being featured in paintings as the symbol of the peasant movement during the

Encirclement Campaigns Encirclement campaigns (), officially called in Chinese Communist historiography as the Agrarian Revolutionary War were the campaigns launched by forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government against forces of the Chinese Communist Party during th ...

. A Caicha Opera () titled "Ode to the Plough Flag" () was composed in Yangxin,

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The p ...

Compared to Starry Plough Flag

The Starry Plough Flag is a similar banner used by the

Irish Citizen Army The Irish Citizen Army (), or ICA, was a small paramilitary group of trained trade union volunteers from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) established in Dublin for the defence of workers' demonstrations from the Dublin M ...

, but with imagery of the Ursa Major constellation. However, there is no evidence that

borrowed from the Irish design.

Gallery

File:Republic of China flag defaced with Plough.png , Plough Flag used by the left wing of the

. File:Starry Plough flag (1914).svg, Starry Plough Flag

References

External links