The Westward Journey of Educated Youth to Yan’an during the War of Resistance

During the War of Resistance, educated youth, harboring a lofty zeal to resist Japan and save the nation, followed different routes, broke through layers of blockades and obstacles, and resolutely journeyed from all over the country to the revolutionary sacred site of Yan’an. The “westward journey” discussed in this article specifically refers to this symbolic journey of educated youth from all over the country to Yan’an in pursuit of light and progress.

抗战时期，知识青年怀着崇高的抗战救国热忱，循着不同路线，冲破重重封锁与阻碍，从全国各地义无反顾地奔赴革命圣地延安。本文所言之“西行”，特指一代知识青年从全国各地奔赴延安这一具有象征意义的追求光明、追求进步之旅。

Objective Constraints on Wartime Journeys to Yan’an

战时奔赴延安的客观制约因素

With the arrival of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in northern Shaanxi in 1935 under the leadership of the CPC, and the establishment of the Party Central Committee there in early 1937, the red revolution centered on Yan’an entered a new stage of development. After the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance, the CPC advocated a line of total resistance, and Yan’an became the dual hope for both the war effort and the revolution. Countless educated youth yearned to go to Yan’an to join the cause of resisting Japan and saving the nation. However, in terms of spatial distance, transportation conditions, and the environment along the way, there were many objective constraints on reaching Yan’an. In particular, the disruption of transportation caused by large swaths of the country being engulfed in war made the westward journey of educated youth fraught with danger and uncertainty.

随着1935年中共领导下的中国工农红军到达陕北，以及1937年初中共中央的进驻，以延安为中心的红色革命迎来了发展的新阶段。全面抗战爆发后，中国共产党倡导全面抗战路线，延安成为抗战和革命的双重希望所在。无数知识青年渴望奔赴延安投身抗战救国事业。但是，就空间距离、交通条件以及沿途环境而言，去往延安在客观上存在诸多制约因素，特别是大片国土被战火殃及所造成的交通阻断，使知识青年的西行之路充满了危险和不确定性。

Yan’an is nearly 400 kilometers from Xi’an, and thousands of kilometers from Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and other places. In the early period of the full-scale War of Resistance, educated youth from Beiping, Shanghai, and other places who traveled via the Longhai Railway to reach Yan’an actually covered more than 2,000 kilometers. One regular route to Yan’an during the war was to take a steamer south from Shanghai, arrive in Guangzhou, then pass through Vietnam to Kunming, and finally head north to Yan’an. This route was at least one-third longer than departing directly from Guangzhou, making it the longest route taken by educated youth heading to Yan’an. In addition, among the educated youth heading to Yan’an, there were also many overseas Chinese, whose travel distances were even more incalculable.

延安距离西安近400公里，与上海、广州、成都等地更是相隔千里之遥。全面抗战初期，北平、上海等地的知识青年经由陇海线到达延安，实际行程也有2000多公里。战时延安之行的一条常规路线是从上海乘海轮南下，到达广州后取道越南再转往昆明，最后北上到达延安。这一行程比从广州直接出发多了至少1/3的路程，堪称知识青年奔赴延安的最长路线。此外，在奔赴延安的知识青年中，还有不少海外华侨，他们的行进距离更是难以计数。

On this arduous journey, the modes of transportation available to educated youth were severely limited. The only means of travel young students could choose were trains, ships, and automobiles; the remaining distance had to be covered on foot. In practice, most educated youth alternated between these modes of transport. For example, Shi Lan in May 1938 took a small steamer to the Jian’ou dock on the upper reaches of the Min River, “disembarked, boarded a long-distance bus, crossed mountains and ridges, and arrived at Yushan, Jiangxi; from Yushan Station, he squeezed onto a westbound train on the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway and arrived in Changsha. In Changsha, he transferred to the Guangzhou-Hankou Railway train or a bus to reach Wuhan and find the Eighth Route Army Office.”

在这趟艰难的旅程中，知识青年所能搭乘的交通工具受到很大限制。青年学生能够选择的行进方式只有火车、轮船和汽车，剩下路程只能步行。在实际行程中，大多数知识青年都是这几种行进方式交替使用。如石澜于1938年5月乘小火轮到达闽江上游建瓯码头，“上岸后，搭上长途汽车，爬山越岭，到达江西玉山；从玉山站，挤上浙赣铁路西去的列车，到达长沙。在长沙转乘粤汉线列车或公共汽车，到达武汉找八路军办事处”。

As for the total time and travel expenses required, according to a report in *Shen Bao* in early 1939: “The total travel expenses for the entire journey, from Shanghai to Xi’an, are approximately 260 yuan and 75 fen in national currency. From Xi’an to Lanzhou, it costs 26 yuan and 25 fen. The entire journey takes about 25 days.” As for “reaching Yan’an and Xunyi,” “after arriving in Xi’an, one can follow the Xi’an-Lanzhou Highway to Bin County, a distance of 148 kilometers, with a fare of 6 yuan and 7 jiao.” The time required ranged from a few days to several months. In August 1938, He Qifang, Ji Ling, and the couple Sha Ting set out from Chengdu for Yan’an, taking 18 days to cover 1,500 kilometers. In October, the artist Cai Ruohong and his wife Xia Lei set out from Shanghai and did not reach Yan’an until May 1939, a journey lasting seven months. The entire travel expenses had to be self-funded, which often left young students in the wartime situation financially strapped. For instance, Kang Zhuo, Gao Ge, and others, on the train from Hankou to Xi’an, “did not even dare to eat casually” because they had no money; some “sold their books, telescopes, and other items to cover travel expenses before leaving.”

至于全程耗时及所需旅费，据1939年初《申报》载：“全程所需旅费，由沪至西安，约需国币260元7角5分。西安至兰州需26元2角5分。全程所需时约25日。”至于“到延安及栒邑”，则“抵西安后，可循西兰公路至邠县，距离148公里，票价6元7角”。耗时少则数日，多则数月。1938年8月，何其芳、季陵和沙汀夫妇从成都出发向延安进发，耗时18天，跨越1500公里。10月，美术家蔡若虹、夏蕾夫妇从上海出发，直到1939年5月才到达延安，时间长达7个月之久。全程旅费需要自筹，常使战乱时局中的青年学生捉襟见肘。如康濯、高戈等人在从汉口去西安的火车上，因为没有钱，“饭都不敢随便吃”；有人“走时就变卖了他的书籍、望远镜等以充路费”。

Routes from Various Regions to Xi’an

从各地辗转到西安的行程路线

During the War of Resistance, for those traveling from North China, East China, South China, and other areas to Yan’an, Xi’an was a necessary stop. The section from Xi’an to Yan’an was roughly the same in terms of route and mode of travel. Therefore, it is appropriate to examine the journey from Xi’an to Yan’an separately. The author takes Shanghai, which is relatively far away, as the starting point to examine its route to Xi’an, which is highly representative. During the war, from Shanghai to Xi’an, there were broadly three routes, which can be summarized as “two horizontal and one vertical.”

抗战时期从华北、华东、华南等地去往延安，西安是必经之地。西安去往延安的路段，从路线和行进方式看都是大致相同的。因此，宜将西安到延安的路程另行考察。笔者以距离相对较远的上海为起点，考察其到西安的路线，很有代表性。战时从上海到西安，概括起来大致有“两横一纵”三条路线。

The first route was to take the train via the Longhai Railway to Xi’an. Before the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance and in its early period, those departing from Shanghai, Beiping, and other places mostly reached Yan’an via the Longhai Railway. As the Japanese army invaded Taiyuan and Xuzhou, the Longhai Railway became a battlefield, and the westward journey was severely obstructed. At the end of 1938, the cartoonist Hu Kao “left Hankou intending to go to Yan’an, but unfortunately, when he arrived in Zhengzhou, the Longhai Railway was in the midst of a great battle, so he detoured to Xuzhou. Xuzhou was besieged; he disguised himself as a peasant and slipped out of the enemy’s encirclement, escaping danger several times amidst gunfire, and was rescued by local guerrilla forces before finally arriving safely in Shanghai.” [1]1 The Longhai Railway was a major east-west rail line in China; during the war it became a contested area. Subsequently, Hu Kao went from Shanghai to Hong Kong and reached Yan’an via the third route.

第一条路线是乘火车经过陇海线，到达西安。在全面抗战爆发前及抗战初期，从上海、北平等地出发到达延安大多经由陇海线。随着日军对太原、徐州的侵略，陇海线沦为战场，西行之路严重受阻。1938年底，漫画家胡考“离开汉口想上延安去，不幸到郑州的时候，正值陇海路大战，他就折往徐州。徐州被围，他化装了农民溜出敌人的包围，几次三番在炮火中脱险，经当地的游击队的营救，方始安抵上海”。随后胡考从上海到香港，经第三条路线到达延安。

The second route was to travel by a combination of water and land via the Yangtze River, from east to west to Wuhan, and then from Wuhan to Xi’an. Around the time of the Battle of Shanghai and up to the eve of the fall of Nanjing, this route was the busiest. When the Japanese army began its attack on Shanghai, Fan Bo, a student at Mcllun Middle School in Shanghai, and two companions set out from Shanghai by steamer. To avoid Japanese bombing, the steamer sailed slowly; after two days of drifting, they reached Jiangyin, the narrowest point on the Yangtze River. At that time, the Kuomintang sank two large ships at Jiangyin to block the Yangtze River. To bypass the blockade, Fan Bo and his companions had to land at Nantong, trek for three or four days to reach the port, then take a ship to Wuhan, and from Wuhan take a train via Xinyang and Zhengzhou to Xi’an. With the Japanese occupation of Nanjing and the blockade of the Yangtze River route, this route was subsequently cut off.

第二条路线是通过水陆并行的方式经长江，由东向西到达武汉，再从武汉前往西安。淞沪会战前后至南京沦陷前夕，这条路线最为繁忙。日军开始进攻上海时，在上海麦伦中学读书的帆波一行三人，乘轮船自上海出发。为躲避日军轰炸，轮船航行速度缓慢，经历了两天漂泊后，到达长江江面最窄的江阴。而此时，国民党在江阴凿沉两艘大船封锁长江，为绕过封锁线，帆波等人不得不在南通靠岸，经过三四天的跋涉才到达口岸，再乘船去武汉，然后由武汉乘火车，经信阳、郑州，折往西安。随着日军占领南京及对长江航线的封锁，这条路线随之中断。

The third route was to take a steamer south from Shanghai, arrive in Guangzhou or Kunming, and then head north to Xi’an. This was an alternative route after the first two routes were blocked. The “northward” part of this route was actually divided into two sub-routes, demarcated by the fall of Guangzhou. Before the fall of Guangzhou, educated youth could travel via the Guangzhou-Hankou Railway to Wuhan, and then from Wuhan take a train to Xi’an. Liu Keying, her sister, and Jin Sha, along with other left-wing youth, set out from Shanghai on March 8, 1938, and after a week of drifting at sea, arrived in Hong Kong, then transferred to the Eighth Route Army Office in Guangzhou. The Guangzhou office issued them a letter of introduction to go to Wuhan, where they transferred to a train for Xi’an.

第三条路线是从上海乘海轮南下，到达广州或昆明，再北上到达西安。这是前两条路线受阻以后的替代路线。这条路线的“北上”部分以广州沦陷为界，实际上分成了两条路线。广州沦陷之前，知识青年可经过粤汉铁路到达武汉，然后从武汉乘火车到达西安。刘克英姐妹和金沙等左翼青年，于1938年3月8日从上海出发，经过一周的海上漂泊，到达香港再转往八路军驻广州办事处，由广州办事处开具去武汉的介绍信，到武汉后转火车去西安。

After the fall of Guangzhou, the Guangzhou-Hankou Railway transport line was cut off. Liao Chengzhi, head of the Eighth Route Army Office in Hong Kong, sent Luo Lishi to set up a transit station in Haiphong, Vietnam, to handle transfer work. As mentioned above, Cai Ruohong and his wife Xia Lei, following Liao Chengzhi’s suggestion, traveled south from Shanghai to Hong Kong, passed through Vietnam, and then transferred via Kunming, Guiyang, and Chengdu to Xi’an, completing this long and arduous journey in seven months.

广州沦陷之后，粤汉铁路运输线中断，八路军驻香港办事处负责人廖承志派罗理实在越南海防设立转运站，负责转送工作。如上文中的蔡若虹、夏蕾夫妇接受廖承志的建议，从上海南下到香港，借道越南，再由越南转道昆明、贵阳、成都、西安，历时七个月，完成了这趟漫长而艰辛的旅程。

The Difficult Journey from Xi’an to Yan’an

从西安到延安的艰难旅程

After a long and exhausting journey, educated youth finally arrived in Xi’an, still nearly 400 kilometers from their destination, Yan’an. In the spring of 1938, Mao Zedong gave a speech to the Third Brigade of the Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese Military and Political University: “You have come to the Anti-Japanese University to study. There are three stages, three lessons to be learned: the journey from Xi’an to Yan’an, eight hundred li [2]2 800 li is approximately 400 kilometers. — this is the first lesson…” Mao Zedong regarded the journey from Xi’an to Yan’an as the first lesson of study at the Anti-Japanese University, highlighting the difficulty of this leg of the trip.

知识青年经过长途奔波，历经千辛万苦终于到达西安，此时距离目的地延安还有将近400公里。1938年春，毛泽东到抗日军政大学第三大队发表演讲：“你们到抗大来学习，有三个阶段，要上三课：从西安到延安，八百里，这是第一课……”毛泽东将西安到延安的旅程当作抗大学习的第一课，道出了这段旅程的艰难。

There was no railway on the route from Xi’an to Yan’an; only one highway was barely passable. In early 1938, Chen Haozhong, who was introduced by Lin Boqu, then head of the Eighth Route Army Office in Xi’an, to study in Yan’an, recorded the transportation situation at the time: “From Xi’an to Yan’an, automobiles can pass, but now only military vehicles travel back and forth; passenger buses have not run for a long time. With no car available, one has to hire a mule cart… Unable to afford a private mule cart, one can only hitch a ride on a ‘wild chicken mule cart’ that picks up random passengers.” [3]3 “Wild chicken mule cart” (yeji luoche) was a colloquial term for an unlicensed, informal passenger mule cart. Even when one could occasionally catch a ride on an Eighth Route Army military vehicle or animal-drawn cart, obstacles such as wind, sand, rain, and snow were still encountered.

从西安到延安的路途不通火车，只有一条公路勉强可以通行。1938年初，经时任八路军驻西安办事处主任林伯渠介绍到延安上学的陈浩中记录了当时的交通情形：“从西安到延安，可通汽车，现在只有军用车来往，客车已很久没有开驶了。没有汽车可乘，只得雇骡车前往……独乘骡车雇不起，只好搭上随便拉客的‘野鸡骡车’。”即便偶尔有八路军的军车或畜力车可以搭乘，也会遭遇风沙雨雪等阻碍。

The condition of the vehicles and roads was even worse. Contemporaries described: “The terrain of northern Shaanxi is very strange: at first glance, it looks like a vast plain, but then it suddenly drops into a deep ravine dozens of zhang deep. [4]4 One zhang is approximately 3.33 meters. Our cars generally traveled along such ravines, sometimes with dangerous cliffs on both sides and only a single narrow path in between, making one’s heart race.” Especially in cold winter or rainy and snowy weather, the difficulty of travel greatly increased. Young students unaccustomed to long journeys “could only cover sixty or seventy li a day.” [5]5 60-70 li is approximately 30-35 kilometers. Due to the rugged mountain paths, occasionally with sheer cliffs, danger often struck unexpectedly.

车况、路况更是十分糟糕。时人描述：“陕北的地形非常奇怪：一看好像是广漠的平原一样，但是一下子又陷成几十丈的深谷。我们的车大概都沿着这样的深谷走，有时两面都是危崖，中间只有一线道路可通，令人心惊肉跳。”特别是寒冬、雨雪天气，会大大增加行进的难度。没走过长路的青年学生，“一天只能走六七十里”。由于山路崎岖，间有悬崖峭壁，危险常常不期而至。

Apart from carrying their own luggage or hiring mule carts for transport, educated youth traveling in groups could have their belongings shipped by small detachments organized by the Eighth Route Army: “Leave all your luggage behind and have it brought along when the carts pass. On the road, only bring the most essential items, packed into a small backpack. If you encounter difficulties along the way, seek help from the local people as much as possible.” Even so, they faced repeated trials on the journey, and since most of the luggage consisted of daily necessities, the separation of people from their belongings increased the difficulties of finding food and shelter along the route. The vast majority of educated youth walked the entire nearly 400 kilometers of dry land, a hardship far beyond what can be imagined today. The confidence and determination to break through blockades, endure all kinds of difficulties and hardships, and press forward courageously along this road became the most profound experience for the educated youth, and a vivid portrayal of the “first lesson at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University.” [6]6 The “Anti-Japanese Military and Political University” (Kangda) was the main military academy of the Chinese Communist Party during the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937–1945), located in Yan’an. Its “first lesson” often referred to the initial ideological and physical training that new recruits underwent.

知识青年随身携带的行李，除了自己背负、雇骡车拉运以外，对于结伴而行者，可以由八路军组织的小分队进行托运：“把行李通通留下待通车时托人带来。路上只需带一些最必需的东西，打成一个小背包。途中遇到困难，可尽量找百姓帮助。”即便如此，他们途中也会遇到重重考验，加之携带的行李大多是生活用品，人与行李的分离增加了途中食宿的困难。绝大部分知识青年徒步走完这近400公里的旱路，其艰难程度远超今日想象。这一路冲破封锁、经历种种艰难困苦而勇往直前的信心和决心，成为知识青年最深刻的体验，也是“抗大第一课”的生动写照。

The westward road was fraught with countless dangers, yet it could not stem the tide of educated youth rushing to Yan’an. This extraordinary journey attested to the powerful attraction of the revolutionary holy land, and even more so demonstrated the firm conviction of educated youth to put their ideals into practice for the sake of national salvation.

西行之路险阻万千，却阻挡不了知识青年奔赴延安的洪流。这趟非凡行程，印证了革命圣地的强大吸引力，更彰显了知识青年为救亡与理想而身体力行的坚定信念。

(The author is a professor at the School of History, Anhui Normal University)

（作者系安徽师范大学历史学院教授）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧