The "Chinese National Liberation Vanguard" Around the Outbreak of the All-Nation War of Resistance

After the September 18 Incident [1]1 The September 18 Incident: Japan's invasion of Manchuria on September 18, 1931, marking the beginning of its full-scale aggression against China., the Japanese army's invasion of Northeast and North China deepened step by step. Entering 1935, the Japanese army repeatedly provoked incidents in Tianjin, Zhangjiakou, and other places, proposing the so-called "specialization of North China" in an attempt to split off North China under the guise of "autonomy." At that time, the ancient capital Beiping was on the front line of the Sino-Japanese confrontation, with young students being one of the most active anti-Japanese groups. In December 1935, under the organization of the CPC Beiping Municipal Committee and the Beiping Student National Salvation Federation of Universities and Middle Schools, the December 9 Movement [2]2 The December 9 Movement: A student-led protest on December 9, 1935, in Beiping against Japanese aggression and the Nationalist government's passivity. erupted. The "Chinese National Liberation Vanguard" [4]4 The Chinese National Liberation Vanguard (Minxiandui): A youth organization founded after the December 9 Movement, initially called the National Liberation Vanguard, later renamed the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard. It was a semi-military organization under the leadership of the CPC. was born in the flames of the December 9 Movement. Using it as a basic organizational form, the Chinese Communist Party gradually reversed the unfavorable situation in youth work after the failure of the Great Revolution [3]3 The failure of the Great Revolution: The collapse of the first Kuomintang-Communist united front in 1927, leading to a decade of civil war., fully brought into play the role of the youth as a new force and vanguard, and played an active role in promoting the growth and development of the Party organization and mobilizing the broad masses of youth to join the tide of the All-Nation War of Resistance.

九一八事变爆发后，日军对东北、华北的侵略步步加深。进入1935年，日军在天津、张家口等地接连制造多起事端，提出所谓的“华北特殊化”，企图以“自治”名义将华北分割出去。当时，古都北平位于中日对峙的战争前线，青年学生是最活跃的抗日群体之一。1935年12月，在中共北平市委与北平大中学校学生抗日救国联合会的组织下，一二九运动爆发。“中华民族解放先锋队”诞生于一二九运动的烽火中，中国共产党以其为基本组织形式，逐渐扭转大革命失败后青年工作的不利局面，充分发挥青年群体的生力军与先锋队作用，为推动党组织发展壮大、动员广大青年投身全民族抗战大潮发挥了积极作用。

I.

一

As the high tide of the December 9 Movement gradually receded, facing suppression and division by the Nanjing National Government and Beiping local authorities, in order to preserve the revolutionary flame, leaders of the CPC Beiping underground Party and the Beiping Student Union, such as Huang Jing, Jiang Nanxiang, and Yao Yilin, organized and planned the "Beiping-Tianjin Student Southbound Expanded Propaganda Corps" on the basis of students from Beiping and Tianjin, going deep into villages and towns to carry out propaganda activities and achieve a great union of students and peasants. In early January 1936, the propaganda corps set out from Beiping and Tianjin, marching on foot toward Gu'an and other places in Hebei. During the southward march, the First and Second Corps established the "National Liberation Vanguard," and the Third Corps established the "Chinese Youth National Salvation Vanguard Corps." In mid-to-late January, the propaganda corps was forced to return to Beiping due to obstruction by local military police. To preserve the fruits of struggle from the December 9 Movement, these two groups merged to form the "National Liberation Vanguard" (from 1937 called the "Chinese National Liberation Vanguard," hereafter "the Vanguard"). [4]4 The Chinese National Liberation Vanguard (Minxiandui): A youth organization founded after the December 9 Movement, initially called the National Liberation Vanguard, later renamed the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard. It was a semi-military organization under the leadership of the CPC.

当一二九运动的高潮逐渐退去，面对南京国民政府与北平地方当局的镇压与分化，为了延续革命火种，中共北平地下党和北平学联领导人黄敬、蒋南翔、姚依林等人以平津学生为基础，组织筹划“平津学生南下扩大宣传团”，深入村镇开展宣传活动，实行学生和农民的大联合。1936年1月初，宣传团从平津两地启程，向河北固安等地徒步行进。南下过程中，第一、第二团成立了“民族解放先锋队”，第三团成立了“中国青年救亡先锋团”。1月中下旬，宣传团因地方军警阻拦被迫返回北平。为将一二九运动的斗争成果保存下来，这两个团体合并组成“民族解放先锋队”（1937年起称为“中华民族解放先锋队”，以下简称“民先队”）。

In February 1936, the Vanguard held its inaugural congress at Beiping Normal University, adopting a founding declaration, a program of struggle, and a work outline. The political stance of the Vanguard was very clear: to unite all people unwilling to be enslaved, form a united front for resistance and national salvation, and launch a national revolutionary war against Japan and traitors. Its organizational system had four levels: general corps, district corps, brigade, and squad. Initially there were only two local corps headquarters in Beiping and Tianjin, totaling about 300 people. The Beiping Vanguard acted as the general corps headquarters, with Ao Baifeng (Gao Jinming) as the first general commander.

1936年2月，民先队在北平师范大学召开成立大会，通过成立宣言、斗争纲领、工作纲要等。民先队的政治主张非常明确，即联合一切不愿作亡国奴的人民，组成抗日救亡的联合战线，发动抗日反汉奸的民族革命战争。其组织系统分为四级：总队、区队、大队、小队，最初只有北平、天津两个地方队部，总计约300人，由北平民先队代行总队部职责，第一任总队长为敖白枫（高锦明）。

The primary tasks facing the Vanguard after its founding were training, propaganda, and organizational development. Training was mainly military training. They recognized the imminence of armed resistance and attached great importance to members' study of military theory and military technical training. The "Work Outline of the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard" stated: "Only by answering the Japanese imperialists' war of aggression with a national revolutionary war can we regain our freedom. Therefore, military technology and theory are weapons we urgently need to grasp." Li Chang, who later served as general commander of the Vanguard, recalled: "From the day of its birth, the Vanguard emphasized launching an all-nation war of resistance and mastering military technology. The main force of the Vanguard was on the North China defense front. They deeply knew that only wielding a pen, not a gun, could not drive out Japanese imperialism and achieve national independence and liberation." To strengthen military training, the Vanguard General Corps Headquarters had an Armed Forces Department, and the Beiping Municipal Committee also hired military instructors specifically for the Vanguard. In the spring of 1936, the Tsinghua and Yenching brigades conducted several marches and guerrilla exercises in the Western Hills. Such exercises were also comprehensive collective activities aimed at organizing youth scattered across schools, standardizing members' "organized" life through unified wake-up, washing, eating, discussions, and singing, with a "paramilitary" character and obvious mobilizational effect. Each exercise led to the recruitment of a batch of Vanguard members. Wang Rumei (Huang Hua), a Vanguard member and student council president of Yenching University, once borrowed weapons from Northeastern University, including rifles, light machine guns, and hand grenades, and organized fellow students to conduct live-ammunition actual combat exercises.

民先队成立之后面临的首要任务是训练、宣传与发展组织。训练主要是军事训练，他们认识到武装抗战的迫近，十分重视队员的军事理论学习以及军事技术训练。《中华民族解放先锋队工作纲要》提出：“只有以民族的革命战争，来回答日本帝国主义者的侵略战，才能夺回我们的自由”，因此，“军事的技术与理论，也就是我们迫不及待需要把握的武器了”。曾担任民先队总队长的李昌回忆说：“民先队从其诞生之日起就强调发动全民族抗战和掌握军事技术。民先队的主力处在华北国防前线，他们深深知道，只拿笔杆子，不拿枪杆子，是不能赶走日本帝国主义、取得民族独立解放的。”为加强军事训练，民先总队部设有武装部，北平市委也专门为民先队聘请军事教官。1936年春季，清华、燕京两个大队数次在西山举行行军活动和游击演习。这类演习也是一种综合性集体活动，目的是将分散在各学校的青年组织起来，通过统一起床、洗漱、吃饭、讨论、歌唱等方式，规范队员的“组织化”生活，带有“准军事化”色彩，动员效果明显。每演习一次，就发展一批民先队员。民先队员、燕京大学学生会主席王汝梅（黄华）曾和燕大的民先队员从东北大学借来一批武器，包括步枪、轻机枪、手榴弹等，组织同学开展真刀真枪的实战演习。

In terms of theoretical study, the Vanguard mainly organized secret reading groups and social science research societies in some schools, circulated progressive books, and provided ideological and theoretical education to members through collective reading and discussion. The Vanguard General Corps Headquarters also published irregular newspapers such as National Liberation and Our Ranks.

理论学习方面，民先队主要通过在一些学校秘密组织读书会、社会科学研究会等方式，流通一些进步书籍，通过集体阅读、讨论等方式，对队员进行思想理论教育。民先总队部还先后办有《民族解放》《我们的队伍》等不定期刊发的机关报。

The summer of 1936 was a critical period for the Vanguard's development. The General Corps Headquarters issued a special "Summer Work Outline," arranging various tasks in detail, including political theory study, military training; establishing singing groups, drama troupes, hiking teams, travel groups, and investigation teams; holding discussions on camping, marching, mountain climbing, and guerrilla tactics exercises; and learning special skills such as driving and telegraphy. In July of that year, the Vanguard General Corps Headquarters held two consecutive summer camps near the Temple of the Reclining Buddha in the Western Hills of Beiping, each lasting seven days, with main content including political theory study, paramilitary training, and cultural performances. Participants were mainly from Beiping's major universities, most of whom were Vanguard members or CPC student party members. The camps were run on a paramilitary basis, with the main goal of tempering members through collective life. The camp schedule was very full: after waking up, mountain climbing replaced morning exercises; after breakfast, lectures were given by well-known scholars such as Yang Xiufeng, Zhang Shenfu, Huang Songling, and Shi Fuliang on current affairs and politics, analyzing the war situation; General Commander and military instructor Bai Yihua gave lectures on military theory and strategy. In the afternoon, military training was conducted, dividing into "friendly" and "enemy" sides to carry out different types of military exercises such as guerrilla warfare, ambushes, attacks and defenses, and encounters. In the evening, campers held political theory discussion meetings, rehearsed plays about resistance and national salvation, and also printed the March Daily.

1936年暑假是民先队发展的一个关键时期，总队部专门发布《暑期工作大纲》，对各项工作做出详细安排，包括政治理论学习，开展军事训练；成立歌咏团、话剧团、远足队、旅行团、调查团等；举行露营、行军、爬山、游击战术演习座谈会等；学习特种技能，如开汽车、打电报。当年7月，民先总队部在北平西山卧佛寺附近连续举办两期夏令营，每期7天，主要内容包括政治理论学习、准军事训练以及文艺联欢等，参加者主要来自北平各大高校，大部分是民先队员或中共学生党员。夏令营实行准军事化管理，主要目标是让队员接受集体生活的锤炼。营内生活安排非常充实，晨起后多以爬山代替早操，早餐后是演讲会，知名学者如杨秀峰、张申府、黄松龄、施复亮等讲授时事政治，分析抗战形势，总队长兼军事教官白乙化讲述军事理论、军事战略等问题。下午主要进行军事训练，分敌我双方，开展游击战、伏击战、攻防战、遭遇战等不同类型的军事演习，晚上营员们举行政治理论讨论会，排演抗战救亡戏剧，同时还印发《行军日报》等。

The Vanguard General Corps Headquarters also required members to take advantage of the summer holiday to return to their hometowns and develop Vanguard detachments in various places. Members who stayed in Beiping also had to use various social connections to conduct propaganda for national salvation and expand the organization's scale. Returning members established Vanguard organizations locally either directly or through correspondence. Before the autumn semester began, Vanguard branch headquarters were set up in Shanghai, Wuhan, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Jinan, Tangshan, and other places, and even Paris and Tokyo had "Vanguard" members. Some youth national salvation groups from other places also came to Beiping requesting to establish contact with the Vanguard General Corps Headquarters.

民先总队部还要求队员利用暑假回乡时机到各地发展民先分队。留在北平的队员也要利用各种社会关系进行救亡宣传，扩大队伍规模。返乡队员或直接或通过通信方式在当地建立民先组织。秋季开学前，上海、武汉、西安、广州、南京、成都、济南、唐山等地相继成立民先队分部，甚至巴黎、东京也出现了“民先”队员。一些外埠青年救亡团体也来到北平，请求与民先总队部建立联系。

II.

二

The Vanguard was established with the participation of CPC Beiping underground party members and Communist Youth League members and accepted the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. The Beiping Municipal Committee set up a Party Group [6]6 Party Group (Dangtuan): A CPC faction within an organization to ensure Party leadership. within the Vanguard, with Huang Jing as its head. All levels of the Vanguard organization not only accepted the leadership of higher-level organizations but also had to accept the leadership of the Party organization at the same level; the election of cadres above the squad level was carried out under the leadership of the Party branch. Our Party identified activists within the Vanguard and, after investigation, developed them into Party members. In the Kuomintang-controlled areas [5]5 Kuomintang-controlled areas (Guotongqu): Regions under the rule of the Nationalist government, where the CPC operated underground. at that time, the Vanguard could not show its close connection with the Chinese Communist Party, so it always publicly claimed to be a non-party, non-sectarian anti-Japanese national salvation group, downplaying its partisan color.

民先队是在中共北平地下党员、共青团员的参与下组织建立的，接受中国共产党的领导。北平市委在民先队内部设有党团，黄敬担任党团负责人。民先队各级组织除了接受上级组织领导外，也要接受同级党组织的领导，分队以上干部的选举在党支部领导下进行。我们党在民先队内部物色积极分子，经考察后发展入党。在当时的国统区，民先队不能表明和中国共产党的紧密联系，因此，他们一直对外宣称自身是无党无派的抗日救国团体，淡化政党色彩。

Entering the second half of 1936, the Vanguard organization had expanded from Beiping and Tianjin to more than ten provinces across the country. This development prompted our Party to seriously consider its role orientation, work model, and development direction. At that time, the Communist Youth League suffered repeated destruction in the Kuomintang-controlled areas, with a significant reduction in membership. After its establishment, the Vanguard largely assumed the functions of the Youth League. To this end, in August 1936, the Central Secretariat instructed the Northern Bureau [7]7 Northern Bureau: The CPC Central Committee's regional bureau for northern China, established in the 1930s. to make the League organizations as "youthful and popular" as possible, and to adopt "names like the National Liberation Vanguard in order to gain open or semi-open existence, so as to absorb the broad masses influenced by all strata and parties" (Directive Letter from the Central Secretariat to the Northern Bureau and Hebei Provincial Party Committee). At the same time, Zhang Wentian, who was in charge of central work, wrote to Liu Shaoqi, secretary of the Northern Bureau: "We must now use all kinds of open names to organize the youth masses. The National Liberation Vanguard in Beiping is in fact a group of this nature" (Letter to Liu Shaoqi, Collected Works of Zhang Wentian, Vol. 2). Comrades Liu Shaoqi and others then organized relevant work, and soon the Northern Bureau issued the "Decision on the Youth League," requiring that a group of youth organizations represented by the Vanguard should widely participate in the national liberation movement, and that young party members should actively join youth groups and gain leadership positions to play a role. The Northern Bureau's plan also provided a basic reference for the Central Committee, and soon the "Decision on Youth Work" was formed, making clear that Party organizations at all levels should use the Vanguard as a carrier to actively penetrate into youth groups of all strata, thereby realizing the great task of national liberation.

进入1936年下半年，民先队组织已经从平津拓展至全国十几个省份，这种发展态势促使我们党开始郑重考虑其角色定位、工作模式与发展方向。当时中共的青年团在国统区遭受多次破坏，团员大量减少，民先队成立后在很大程度上承担起青年团的职能。为此，1936年8月，中央书记处指示北方局，要求团组织尽可能实现“青年化、群众化”，“用民族解放先锋队之类的名字，以取得公开或半公开的存在，以便吸收各阶层各党派所影响下的广大群众”（《中央书记处给北方局及河北省委的指示信》）。同时，主持中央工作的张闻天致信北方局书记刘少奇：“我们现在要用各种各样的公开的名称组织青年群众。北平的民族解放先锋队之类，实际上就是这类性质的组织。”（《给刘少奇的信》，《张闻天文集》第2卷）刘少奇等同志遂组织开展相关工作，不久后北方局便出台《关于青年团的决定》，要求以民先队为代表的一批青年团体应该广泛参与民族解放运动，青年党员应积极加入青年团体，并取得领导地位进而发挥作用。北方局的方案也为中央提供了基础参照，不久后便形成《关于青年工作的决定》，明确中共各级组织要以民先队为载体，积极渗透到各阶层的青年群体之中，从而实现民族解放的伟大任务。

By the end of 1936, the Vanguard had established "national salvation organizations from big cities to remote villages." In Beiping alone, it had grown from 300 to more than 2,300 members, and the conditions for establishing a nationwide Vanguard organization were increasingly mature. On February 6, 1937, the Vanguard General Corps Headquarters held its first National Congress in Beiping, with 24 representatives from 18 local corps headquarters, representing about 6,000 Vanguard members nationwide. The congress decided to prefix the name with "Chinese," establishing the "Chinese National Liberation Vanguard." The "Organizational Law of the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard" stipulated that the organization was a "popular national salvation vanguard group" and a "semi-military force practicing a high degree of democratic centralism."

截至1936年底，民先队已经建立了“从通都大邑到僻野穷乡的救亡组织”，仅北平一地就由300人发展到2300余人，成立全国性民先组织的条件日益成熟。1937年2月6日，民先总队在北平召开第一次全国代表大会，18个地方队部的24名代表出席，代表当时全国约6000名民先队员。大会决定在“民族解放先锋队”前面冠以“中华”二字，成立“中华民族解放先锋队”。《中华民族解放先锋队组织法》规定，该组织是一个“民众救亡的先锋团体”，一个“实行高度民主集中制的半军事性质的队伍”。

III.

三

On the day after the Japanese army engineered the Marco Polo Bridge Incident [9]9 Marco Polo Bridge Incident (Lugouqiao Incident): The clash on July 7, 1937, near Beiping, which triggered the full-scale Sino-Japanese War. in July 1937, the Vanguard keenly realized: "The significance of this conflict is very great. The Japanese side is obviously manufacturing a small conflict and then expanding it into a major incident, occupying Beiping and Tianjin, occupying the north. In 1937, we have another 'September 18'!" It therefore called on all members to immediately carry out a general mobilization, "responding with the greatest bravery and the greatest composure, without panic, without timidity, without relaxing for any smallest moment, without giving up any smallest opportunity, and in the face of great calamity to set an example of a true national vanguard" (Emergency Notice of General Mobilization of the National Liberation Vanguard). At the end of July, Beiping and Tianjin fell, and the General Corps Headquarters issued a notice to all members: "Go to the front line! Go to the army! Go to military schools! Go to aviation schools!" (The Vanguard of National Liberation in the Past Three Years). In September, the General Corps Headquarters moved from Beiping to Taiyuan, and after Taiyuan fell, it withdrew to Linfen, and then to Xi'an.

1937年7月，日军制造卢沟桥事变后的第二天，民先队即敏锐意识到：“这次冲突的意义是非常重大的。日方显系制造小冲突再把它扩大成为大事变，占领平津，占领北方。在一九三七年的今天，再来一个‘九一八’！”因此号召全体队员立即实行总动员，“必须以最大的勇敢和最大的沉着来应战，勿慌张，勿畏怯，勿放松任何最小的时间，勿放弃任何最小的机会，在大难当前要做出一个真正国民先锋队的模范”（《民族解放先锋队紧急通告总动员》）。7月底平津沦陷，总队部向全体队员发出通知：“到前线去，到军队中去，到军事学校去，到航空学校去！”（《三年来的民先队》）9月，总队部从北平转移至太原，太原失陷后撤至临汾，继而又撤至西安。

After the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, Vanguard members rushed to various anti-Japanese battlefields, merging into the worker-peasant masses, the Eighth Route Army, and the New Fourth Army [10]10 The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army: The main Communist-led military forces during the War of Resistance against Japan.. The members from Beiping and Tianjin mainly split into two parts. One part stayed in North China and joined local anti-Japanese guerrilla units; the other part scattered across the country, continuing to spread the anti-Japanese and national salvation flames of the December 9 Movement. In Hebei, Yang Xiufeng led a group of exiled students from Beiping, Tianjin, and Baoding to form an anti-Japanese guerrilla unit fighting in the Taihang Mountains; in Shanxi, there was the New Army and the Sacrifice League [11]11 Sacrifice League (Xisheng Tongmenghui): A united front organization in Shanxi led by Bo Yibo, serving as a cover for CPC activities. led by Bo Yibo, with Taiyuan becoming an important transit point for North China students heading to the anti-Japanese front; in Shandong, some southbound members and Jinan students formed the Shandong Column, which later joined forces with the Eighth Route Army's eastward advance, establishing the Northwestern Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area. Many Youth National Salvation Corps [12]12 Youth National Salvation Corps (Qingnian Jiuguo Tuan): A popular youth organization under CPC influence, later succeeded by Youth National Salvation Associations. and Anti-Japanese Vanguard groups in the south were also mostly led by Vanguard cadres. On April 1, 1938, the Vanguard headquarters held a National Provisional Congress in Xi'an, with over 30,000 registered members nationwide.

抗日战争全面爆发后，民先队队员们奔赴各抗日战场，汇入工农群众、八路军、新四军中。平津等地的队员主要分两部分。一部分留在华北，加入当地的抗日游击队；另一部分奔赴全国各地，将一二九运动的抗日救亡火种继续传递下去。在河北，杨秀峰率领一部分平津和保定流亡学生组成抗日游击队转战太行山；在山西，有薄一波领导的新军和牺牲同盟会，太原成为当时华北学生奔赴抗日前线的重要中转站；在山东，部分南下的队员和济南学生组成山东纵队，后来和八路军东进部队会合，建立鲁西北抗日根据地。南方的很多青年救国团、抗日先锋队也大多由民先队骨干主持。1938年4月1日，民先队总部在西安召开全国临时代表大会，各地登记的队员达到三万余人。

The emergence, development, and growth of the Vanguard were closely related to the process of Japan's invasion of China, the evolution of Kuomintang-Communist relations, and the overall direction of the war situation. As the War of Resistance gradually entered the stalemate phase, the youth movement led by the CPC gradually shifted from the Kuomintang-controlled areas to the anti-Japanese base areas. In November 1938, in accordance with the development of the situation, the Central Committee made the decision to abolish the Vanguard and fully develop local Youth National Salvation Associations, after which the Vanguard gradually withdrew from the historical stage.

民先队的产生、发展、壮大，与日本侵华进程、国共关系发展以及整个抗战局势的整体走向密切相关。随着抗日战争逐渐进入相持阶段，中共领导的青年运动逐渐从国统区转移到各抗日根据地。1938年11月，根据形势发展，中央作出取消民先队、全力发展各地青年救国会的决定，民先队逐渐退出历史舞台。

The Chinese National Liberation Vanguard was an important product of the December 9 Movement and also its continuation. Its establishment preserved the fruits of struggle gained in the December 9 Movement in a relatively fixed organizational form. It was both a new attempt by Beiping and Tianjin students to promote national salvation in North China and an adjustment and exploration in response to the looseness shown by earlier student movements. After the outbreak of the All-Nation War of Resistance, the members, having been tempered by the December 9 Movement, went deep into the anti-Japanese base areas to carry out armed struggle, truly realizing the transformation of their identity from "holding the pen" to "holding the gun," forging and tempering a high-quality cadre force, and providing fresh blood and talent support for the anti-Japanese struggle behind enemy lines and the development of the Party organization.

中华民族解放先锋队是一二九运动的重要产物，也是一二九运动的延续，其成立将一二九运动取得的斗争成果以一种相对固定的组织形式保留下来，既是平津学生推动华北救亡的新尝试，也是针对先前学生运动所表现出的松散性的调整与探索。全民族抗战爆发之后，经过一二九运动洗礼的队员们深入各抗日根据地开展武装斗争，真正实现了从“拿笔”到“拿枪”的身份转变，锻造与锤炼出一支高质量的干部队伍，为敌后抗战以及党组织的发展提供了新鲜血液与人才支撑。

(Author: Wang Jianwei, Professor at the School of History, Renmin University of China. This article is a phased result of the National Social Science Fund Key Project "Research on Leftist Culture in Beiping in the 1930s.")

（作者：王建伟，系中国人民大学历史学院教授，本文系国家社科基金重点项目“二十世纪三十年代北平左翼文化研究”的阶段性成果）

Online editor: Tongxin

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