Tan Pingshan (; 28 September 1886 – 2 April 1956) was a Chinese

revolutionary socialist Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...

and an early member of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

(CCP) from

Gaoming Gaoming District, formerly romanized as Koming, is an urban district of Foshan, Guangdong, in the People's Republic of China. Gaoming is located west of downtown Foshan and had a population of 420,044 during the 2010 census. It covers an are ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

. He was influential in the

Tongmenghui The Tongmenghui of China (or T'ung-meng Hui, variously translated as Chinese United League, United League, Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, Chinese Alliance, United Allegiance Society, ) was a secret society and underground resistance movement ...

and formed the Guangdong branch of the CCP with the help of Chen Duxiu. He later took part in the formation of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang.

Biography

Early Years

Tan was born into a family of tailors. He was admitted to a premier school in Guangzhou in 1905. Upon graduation, he joined the budding

under the influence of Sun Yat-sen. He enrolled into Peking University's philosophy faculty in 1917 whilst participating in the

May Fourth Movement The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) to protest the Chines ...

. As a protest to the 21 demands he was part of the group of students who surged and set fire to the house of Minister of Transport

Cao Rulin Cao Rulin (; January 23, 1877 – August 1966, Midland, Michigan, United States) was Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Beiyang Government, and an important member of the pro-Japanese movement in the early 20th century. He was a Shanghai ...

, subsequently being arrested for his actions.

After the Founding of the Communist Party

In 1920 Tan went back to

to form a Marxist group. He was appointed as the Secretary of the CCP Guangdong branch upon the founding of the

in 1921. He participated the

3rd National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party The 3rd National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held in Guangzhou at 31 Xuguyuan Road between June 12 and June 20, 1923. It succeeded the 2nd National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and preceded the 4th National Congress of ...

and was elected into the Central Committee. In the 4th and 5th Congress of the CCP, he was reappointed as a member of the Central Committee and also held membership in the

Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, formally known as the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and known as the Central Bureau before 1927, is the decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ...

. In August 1927 he was one of the leaders that started the Nanchang Rebellion (albeit holding positions within the KMT) against the Nationalist Government led by Jiang Jieshi. During the course of the rebellion, he recruited

He Long He Long (; March 22, 1896 – June 9, 1969) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and one of the ten marshals of the People's Liberation Army. He was from a poor rural family in Hunan, and his family was not able to provide him with any formal ...

into the CCP. Tan went back to Shanghai after the failure of the rebellion. In an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in November,

Zhang Guotao Zhang Guotao (November 26, 1897 – December 3, 1979), or Chang Kuo-tao, was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and rival to Mao Zedong. During the 1920s he studied in the Soviet Union and became a key contact with the Comi ...

appealed to the Comintern for the removal of Tan from the party as he blamed the failure of the Nanchang Uprising due to his leftist-tendencies. Losing his CCP membership, he sought after Deng Yanda for assistance in setting up an alternative Marxist enclave but was to no avail.

Membership in the Kuomintang

Tan participated in the 1st National Congress of the Kuomintang (KMT) in 1924 and was elected into the Standing Central Committee and appointed as a Minister in the Central Organization Department of Kuomintang. In March 1937 he was appointed as a member of the Wuhan National Government and retained his post as the Minister for Agriculture. At the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Tan returned to Wuhan seeking to help the Nationalist Party. Warmly received by Jiang Jieshi, he restored his dormant membership in the KMT and was soon elected into the 1st to 4th National Political Council. In January 1948, he was in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

to participate in the founding of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang and served in the Central Standing Committee.

Return to the Communist Party

In 1949 September he participated in the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and was elected to the Presidium of the Standing Committee. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, he served as a member in the Central People's Government, the Government Affairs Council, the State Council's Supervision Commission and other staff positions. In 1954 September he was elected to Standing Committee of the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2,9 ...

. He died in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

on 2 April 1956.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Pingshan 1886 births 1956 deaths Members of the 3rd Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 4th Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 5th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party People from Foshan Members of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang National University of Peking alumni Expelled members of the Chinese Communist Party