Xia Minghan (; 1900 – 30 March 1928) was an early leader of the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution, social and political revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The revolution was led by the Chinese C ...

, revolution martyr, and a pioneer of

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP). He was arrested and executed by the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

(KMT) in 1928.

Early life

Xia was born in 1900, in

Zigui County Zigui County () is a county of western Hubei province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Yichang and encompasses the easternmost portion of the Yangtze River Gorges, including the Xiling Go ...

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

Province to Xia Shaofan (夏绍范) and Lu Yunfeng (陆云凤). He was born in a well-educated family, and his family had been government officials for generations. His father was an officer, but died when Xia was young. Xia joined in founding Xiangnan Student Union and served as the chief secretary, leading a student movement against feudalism and imperialism. In 1920, Xia led the Xiangnan Student Union to fight against General Zhang Jingyao. Xia was a pioneer of the Chinese Communist Party. He studied at the Hunan Self-Study University founded by Mao Zedong. In 1922, Xia was in charge of the Hunan Student Union, leading a strike of rickshaw drivers and a boycott of Japanese products. Xia participated in many other movements such as the Autumn Harvest Uprising. At the beginning of 1928, Xia was sent to work in Hubei as the commissioner of the CCP Hubei District Committee. On March 18, he was betrayed and arrested by the

in Wuhan. He was executed two days later.

Xia Minghan and Mao Zedong

In 1917, Xia attended the Third Provincial Public Industrial School in

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

province. With the help of He Suheng, he went to

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

, and became a student of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

in 1920. He was inducted into the CCP by Mao Zedong and He Shuheng In 1921. In 1927, he was Mao's secretary.

Revolutionary movement

Xia became a committeeman of the Hunan Branch of the CCP in 1924. In 1927, Xia was made a member of the newly formed Hunan Provincial Committee along with Mao Zedong. The committee's two main purposes were to decide who should own land and how the

Autumn Harvest Uprising The Autumn Harvest Uprising was an insurrection that took place in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces of China, on September 7, 1927, led by Mao Zedong, who established a short-lived Hunan Soviet. After initial success, the uprising was brutally ...

should take place, if at all. The committee met in August 1927. Xia's view on land ownership was that "all land must be confiscated and placed under state control." Xia thought the uprising should take place, but with the military and peasants. In the beginning of 1928, Xia was transferred to

to be the commissioner of the CCP Hubei District Committee. On 28 March 1928, he was arrested by the Kuomintang in

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

. He was killed by the KMT two days later.

Death

Early in 1928, Xia Minghan was transferred to Hubei Province, as a member of Hubei Provincial Committee of CCP, and worked with Guo Liang, the newly appointed secretary of Hubei Provincial Committee. Betrayed by a traitor, on March 18, Xia Minghan was arrested in Wuhan. Two days later, in the morning of March 20, he was escorted to the Wuhan-Yuji execution ground. He was survived by his wife, Zheng Jiajun () and his daughter, Xia Yun (). Before his execution, he wrote his last poem: Translation: Beheading is nothing to me, A true communist who'd be. Though you kill Xia Minghan today, Numerous will follow my way.

Legacy

On 10 September 2009, he was voted to be one of the 100 heroes who made significant contribution to the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xia, Minghan 1900 births 1928 deaths Chinese communists Communist poets 20th-century Chinese poets