Zhang Zongxun (; 7February 190814September 1998) was a general of the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Career

Zhang was born in

Weinan Weinan ( zh, s=渭南 , p=Wèinán) is a prefecture-level city in east-Guanzhong, central Shaanxi, Shaanxi province, northwest China. The city lies on the lower section of the Wei River confluence into the Yellow River, about east of the provinc ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

Province on 7 February 1908. He was enrolled in Whampoa Military Academy in 1926, and joined the

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) in the same year. Zhang was the head of the 12th army group of

Chinese Red Army The Chinese Red Army, formally the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army( zh, labels=no, t=中國工農紅軍) or just the Red Army( zh, labels=no, t=紅軍), was the military wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1928 to 1937. I ...

, the principal and Political commissar of the Red Army University in

Ruijin Ruijin () is a county-level city of Ganzhou in the mountains bordering Fujian Province in the south-eastern part of Jiangxi Province. Formerly a county, Ruijin became a county-level city on May 18, 1994. It was an early center of Chinese commu ...

, the chief of staff of the 4th army of the Red 4th army group, the chief of staff of Red Army University, and the head of the 1st bureau of central military commission. During the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

, he was the head of the 358 brigade, affiliated with the 120 division of the

Eighth Route Army The Eighth Route Army (), officially titled as the List of Army Groups of the National Revolutionary Army, 18th Group Army, was a Field army, group army nominally under the banner of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of Ch ...

. In 1945, he became the commander and political commissar of the Luliang military region. He later became the vice commander of the Northwest Field Army, vice commander of the First Field Army, and vice commander of the Northwest Military Region. 1949pengdehuai zhangzongxun

He participated in many famous battles and was regarded as one of the CCP's "Ten Anti-Japan Generals." In 1955, he was awarded the General (

Shang Jiang Jiang (Wade-Giles, formerly romanized chiang and usually translated general (rank), general) is a general officer rank used by China and Taiwan. It is also used as jang in North Korea, North and South Korea, shō in Japan, and tướng in Vietna ...

) rank. He was promoted to the deputy chief of staff of PLA, the director of the department of military academy, and the vice-director of the department of training superintendence. In 1971, he was appointed as the vice commander of

Jinan Military Region The Jinan Military Region was a PLA Military Region located in the east of the People's Republic of China, covering the Shandong and Henan Provinces, which also formed military districts. It appears that Yang Dezhi was one of the first comman ...

. In 1973, he was promoted to the director of the logistics department, until his retirement in 1978. He died on 14 September 1998 at the age of 90.

Family

Zhang Zongxun's son,

Zhang Youxia Zhang Youxia (; born July 1950) is a Chinese general in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and currently the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). Zhang previously served as Head of the CMC Equipment Development Department, ...

, is a veteran of the 1979

Sino-Vietnamese War The Sino-Vietnamese War (also known by other names) was a brief conflict that occurred in early 1979 between China and Vietnam. China launched an offensive ostensibly in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978, whi ...

, and is currently the first-ranked

Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission The Vice Chairmen of the Central Military Commission are deputies to the Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China), chairman of the Central Military Commission. Currently, Zhang Youxia is serving as vice chairman. According to militar ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Zongxun 1908 births 1998 deaths People from Weinan People's Liberation Army generals from Shaanxi National Revolutionary Army generals from Shaanxi Victims of the Cultural Revolution Alternates of the 7th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party