The *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily*’s Cultural Mobilization of Women during the Total War of Resistance

The vast majority of women were an important force in the total war of resistance. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the broad masses of women in the Jin-Cha-Ji anti-Japanese base area threw themselves into the war of resistance in various forms, making indelible historical contributions to the construction of the base area and the victory of the war of resistance. As the organ newspaper of the border region government, the *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily* fully played the role of the Party’s mouthpiece and instrument of public opinion during the total war of resistance, publishing more than 900 reports on women, comprehensively covering women’s work in the base area, and playing an important leading and mobilizing role in promoting women’s liberation in the base area and mobilizing the masses of women in the base area to actively devote themselves to the cause of the war of resistance.

广大妇女是全民族抗战事业的重要力量。晋察冀抗日根据地的广大妇女在中国共产党的领导下，以多种形式投身抗战，为根据地建设和抗战胜利作出了不可磨灭的历史贡献。《晋察冀日报》作为边区政府的机关报，在全民族抗战时期充分发挥党的喉舌及舆论工具作用，发表了900多篇妇女报道，全面报道了根据地妇女工作，为推动根据地妇女解放、动员根据地妇女群众积极投身抗战事业发挥了重要引领与动员作用。

Mobilization: The Ideological Enlightenment of Women’s Liberation

动员：妇女解放的思想启蒙

The Communist Party of China fully recognized the enormous potential and powerful strength of women in the war of resistance and attached great importance to the mobilization and organization of women’s groups. In July 1939, Mao Zedong clearly pointed out: “If China does not have the awakening of half of its women, China’s war of resistance will not be victorious.” (Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De on Women’s Liberation, People’s Publishing House, 1988, p. 44) [1]1 The “Ten-Point Program for Resisting Japan and Saving the Nation” was the CPC’s basic program for national mobilization during the War of Resistance against Japan, adopted in August 1937. Due to the shackles of feudal ethics and the deep-rooted influence of the small-peasant economy, rural women in the base areas were confined to the family, the vast majority were illiterate, and their participation in public affairs was very low. Therefore, to mobilize the broad masses of women in the Jin-Cha-Ji border region to participate in the war of resistance, it was first necessary to strengthen cultural education for women.

中国共产党充分认识到妇女在抗战中的巨大潜力和强大力量，非常重视妇女群体的动员和组织。1939年7月，毛泽东明确指出：“假如中国没有占半数的妇女的觉醒，中国抗战是不会胜利的。”（《毛泽东周恩来刘少奇朱德论妇女解放》，人民出版社1988年版，第44页）由于受到封建礼教禁锢以及小农经济根深蒂固的影响，根据地农村妇女局限于家庭之中，文盲占绝大多数，公共事业参与度很低。因此，动员广大晋察冀边区妇女参与抗战，首先就必须对妇女加强文化教育。

In 1939, the “Directive Letter from the Women’s Committee of the CPC Central Committee on the Guidelines and Tasks of the Current Women’s Movement” made clear arrangements regarding “the issue of education for the masses of women”: to mobilize women for the war of resistance and to achieve women’s liberation, it was necessary to raise their cultural level, political consciousness, and cultivate their work ability (Historical Materials on the Chinese Women’s Movement (1937–1945), China Women’s Publishing House, 1991, p. 142). In response to the Party’s call, the *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily*, through forms such as editorials, news reports, dispatches, commentaries, photography, and supplements, recorded and reported on women’s work in the base area. Starting from simple literacy, illiteracy eradication, and knowledge popularization, it then deepened into awakening women’s national consciousness and feelings for family and country, prompting them to recognize the close relationship between their own liberation and the salvation of the nation through the war of resistance and national liberation, guiding and encouraging women to actively and consciously join the ranks serving the war of resistance.

1939年，《中共中央妇委关于目前妇女运动的方针和任务的指示信》就“妇女大众的教育问题”做出明确部署：要动员妇女抗战，要达到妇女解放，必须提高她们的文化水准、政治觉悟和培养她们的工作能力（《中国妇女运动历史资料（1937—1945）》，中国妇女出版社1991年版，第142页）。为响应党的号召，《晋察冀日报》通过社论、消息、通讯、评论、摄影以及副刊等形式，记录、报道根据地妇女工作，从简单的识字扫盲及知识普及起步，进而深入到唤醒妇女的民族意识、家国情怀，促使她们认识到自身解放与抗战救国、民族解放的密切关系，引导并鼓动妇女积极、自觉地投身于为抗战服务的队伍。

On July 22, 1940, the *Anti-Enemy Daily* (renamed the *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily* in November 1940) published an editorial, “The Success of the Fourth Representative Conference of the Border Region Women’s National Salvation Association,” pointing out that the women’s movement work “has been consolidated in the continuous struggles against mopping-up operations and against capitulation, raising the cultural and political level of the broad masses of women, and inspiring the broad masses of women to participate in the war and in political affairs, especially their high enthusiasm for participating in production.” [2]2 “Mopping-up operations” (反扫荡) refers to the Japanese military’s large-scale, systematic campaigns to destroy anti-Japanese base areas, and the CPC-led forces’ counter-campaigns against them. On March 2, 1943, the *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily* republished the “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Current Guidelines for Women’s Work in the Anti-Japanese Base Areas,” drafted by the Central Women’s Committee and personally reviewed and revised by Mao Zedong, which stated: war, production, and education were the three major tasks of the base areas at that time; mobilizing the broad masses of rural women to actively participate in production, raising women’s political status and cultural level, and improving their lives were the path to achieving liberation. On March 7, 1943, the *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily* published an editorial, “A New Understanding of Women’s Work in the Border Region,” pointing out: “The central issue of current women’s work is that women’s liberation must be subordinate to national liberation, and the struggle for women’s own interests must be coordinated and unified with the national anti-Japanese struggle.” These reports and articles played an important role in public opinion mobilization for mobilizing women for the war of resistance and promoting women’s liberation.

1940年7月22日，《抗敌报》（1940年11月更名为《晋察冀日报》）发表社论《边区妇救会四次代表大会的成功》，指出妇运工作“在不断的反扫荡与反投降的斗争中巩固起来了，提高了广大妇女的文化政治水平，启发了广大妇女参战参政，尤其是参加生产的高度热忱”。1943年3月2日，《晋察冀日报》转发毛泽东亲自审改的中央妇委会起草的《中共中央关于各抗日根据地目前妇女工作方针的决定》，指出：战争、生产、教育是根据地当前的三大要务，动员广大农村妇女积极参加生产，提高妇女的政治地位、文化水平、改善生活，以达到解放的道路。1943年3月7日，《晋察冀日报》发表社论《边区妇女工作的新认识》，指出：“当前妇女工作的中心问题是妇女解放必须服从民族解放，妇女本身利益的斗争，必须与民族抗日斗争配合、统一起来。”这些报道、文章对动员妇女抗战、推动妇女解放发挥了重要舆论动员作用。

Literacy: The Basic Link in Knowledge Popularization

识字：知识普及的基础环节

In January 1938, the Military, Political, and People’s Representative Conference of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region, in accordance with the spirit of the “Ten-Point Program for Resisting Japan and Saving the Nation” that “an anti-Japanese education policy must be implemented,” passed the “Resolution on Culture and Education.” This resolution stipulated the work guidelines and tasks for culture and education in the border region, proposing: “Expand mass education, establish various types of supplementary schools, literacy classes, and night schools for workers, peasants, and women; create libraries, newspaper reading rooms, and lecture centers; organize propaganda teams, drama troupes, and clubs to conduct propaganda in the vast countryside.” (A Record of Major Events in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region, Vol. 1, Hebei University Press, 2022, p. 72) On December 29, 1938, the *Anti-Enemy Daily* published an editorial pointing out that anti-Japanese cultural work must be strengthened, “striding boldly into the midst of the broad masses, facing the broad masses, and launching a popular cultural movement.”

1938年1月，晋察冀边区军政民代表大会遵照《抗日救国十大纲领》中“必须实行抗日的教育政策”的精神，通过了《文化教育决议案》。该决议案规定了边区文化教育的工作方针和任务，提出：“扩大民众教育，建立工、农、妇女等各种补习学校、识字班、夜校等，创立图书馆、书报社、讲演所，组织宣讲团、剧社、俱乐部到广大乡村进行宣传。”（《晋察冀边区大事记述》上册，河北大学出版社2022年版，第72页）1938年12月29日，《抗敌报》发表社论指出，必须加强抗战文化工作，“大踏步走进广大底群众中去，面对广大底群众，开展通俗的文化运动”。

The *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily* published reports such as “Winter Schools and Women,” “On the Cultural Movement in the Border Region,” “On the Cultural and Educational Movement in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region,” and “The Cultural Life of Women in Fuping,” conducting propaganda and coverage on the cultural education work for women in the border region. The content covered education policy, various types of schools, teachers and the arrangement of study time, study methods and approaches, study content, textbook compilation, writing standards, as well as problems encountered in study and their solutions. Among these, literacy classes were the most basic and common form of study, including people’s schools, winter schools, night schools, afternoon schools, and illiteracy-eradication classes. On October 10, 1942, the *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily* published “The Cultural Life of Women in Fuping,” reporting that under the leadership of the anti-Japanese democratic government, Fuping established more than 100 people’s schools in 1940, unprecedentedly raising the backward cultural level of women, especially greatly inspiring young women: “There were many girls and young married women who endured hunger, and even the blows of stubborn parents, to flood into the people’s schools.” Women squeezed out time to study, gradually eliminating illiteracy, and many women trained themselves to be able to keep accounts and write letters. It can be seen that the people’s schools played a considerable role in promoting women’s cultural life and raising their cultural level. Among them, young women learned the most characters; their enthusiasm for learning was high, “they would rather spend the few cents they earned from their own labor to buy books, and in summer they would rather sacrifice their afternoon naps to go to school” (Wang Wei, “The Cultural Life of Women in Fuping”). On October 25, 1944, it published “The Border Region Anti-Japanese Women’s Department Directs Winter Work: Organize the Broad Masses of Women to Develop Sideline Occupations – Transform the Family and Strengthen Women’s Cultural Education,” clearly requiring that “this year’s winter school movement must be well developed, and production must be combined with study, especially for young women; strengthen women’s cultural education, requiring each young woman to recognize two to three hundred characters. Each young woman must make a specific plan.” After serious study, many women could master two characters a day, and after a few months could recognize three to five hundred characters, enabling them to write travel permits and read notes; after a year or two, they could read ordinary books and newspapers. Women also actively participated in school education, with study content including Party theory and policy, participation in political affairs and discussion of state affairs, resistance against Japan and national salvation, women’s liberation, and common knowledge of production and daily life. Through literacy education and knowledge popularization, women in the base areas quickly grew into an important force in all work of the border region, and many students from literacy classes were elected as cadres at various levels.

《晋察冀日报》发表《冬学与妇女》《论边区的文化运动》《论晋察冀边区的文化教育运动》《阜平妇女的文化生活》等报道，对边区妇女文化教育工作进行宣传报道。内容涵盖教育政策、各类学校、师资与学习时间安排、学习方式方法、学习内容、教材编写、文字规范，以及学习中遇到的问题及其解决方法等。其中，识字班是最基本、最普遍的学习方式，包括民校、冬学、夜校、午校、扫盲班等。1942年10月10日，《晋察冀日报》发表《阜平妇女的文化生活》，报道在抗日民主政府的领导下，1940年阜平创立了100多所民校，空前地提高了妇女落后的文化水平，特别是青年妇女得到了很大的启发，“那些忍着饥饿，甚而挨着顽固父母们打击涌入民校的姑娘媳妇们是很多的”。妇女们挤出时间学习，逐渐扫除了文盲，有不少妇女锻炼得能记账和写信了。可见民校对妇女文化生活的促进和文化水平的提高是起了相当作用的。其中识字最多的是青年妇女，她们学习热情高涨，“宁愿把自己劳动换来的几毛钱去买书，在夏天宁愿牺牲午睡去上学”（王巍：《阜平妇女的文化生活》）。1944年10月25日发表《边抗妇女部指示冬季工作 组织广大妇女开展副业——改造家庭加强妇女文化教育》，明确要求“今年的冬学运动必须很好开展，必须把生产与学习结合起来，特别是青妇，加强妇女文化教育，要求每个青妇要认到二百至三百个字。每一个青妇要做出具体计划”。经过认真学习，许多妇女每天能掌握两个字，几个月后便能识字三百至五百个，能够开具路条、阅读便条；一两年后，能够阅读一般的书籍和报刊。妇女也积极参加学校教育，学习内容包括党的理论与政策、参政议政、抗战救国、妇女解放、生产生活常识等。根据地妇女通过识字教育、知识普及，迅速成长为边区各项工作的重要力量，不少识字班学员当选为各级干部。

Winter Schools: Collective Study during the Agricultural Slack Season

冬学：农闲时间的集体学习

The winter school movement was a mass movement widely carried out by the Communist Party of China in the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines to educate the broad masses of rural people. Utilizing the agricultural slack season in winter, the government organized peasants to participate in study classes in literacy, political education, technical training, and other forms, in order to raise the cultural level, political consciousness, and social organizational capacity of the broad masses of peasants. The Jin-Cha-Ji base area extensively carried out the mass winter school movement, mobilizing women to actively participate in the construction of the border area and the cause of the war of resistance. The *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily* vigorously conducted propaganda and coverage on this, excellently completing the task of women’s education and mobilization in the winter school movement.

冬学运动是中国共产党在敌后抗日根据地广泛开展的一项教育广大农村群众的群众运动。利用冬季农闲时间，由政府组织农民参加识字、政治教育、技术培训等形式的学习班，以提升广大农民的文化水平、政治觉悟和社会组织能力。晋察冀根据地广泛开展群众性冬学运动，动员妇女积极投身边区建设及抗战事业。《晋察冀日报》大力予以宣传报道，出色地完成了冬学运动中的妇女教育与动员任务。

The years 1938 to 1939 were the initial stage of the winter school movement in the base area. The newspaper’s supplement published articles such as the folk rhyme “Going to Winter School.” In 1938, the editorial “Launch the Winter School Movement” proposed: “In the process of the war of resistance, utilizing every possible opportunity to conduct extensive and in-depth education for the vast masses who lack cultural and political life, in order to raise their cultural and political level, is one of the main tasks that cannot be ignored in today’s struggle to win the final victory of the war of resistance and complete the task of national construction.”

1938年至1939年是根据地冬学运动初创阶段。该报副刊发表了民谣《上冬学》等文章。1938年，社论《开展冬学运动》提出：“在抗战过程中，利用一切可能的机会，对千百万缺乏文化政治生活的广大群众进行广泛深入的教育，以提高他们文化的政治的水平，是今天争取抗战最后胜利的完成建国事业中所不可忽视的主要任务之一。”

From 1939 to 1941 the winter-study movement grew and developed continuously; the newspaper published more than ten reports on the winter-study movement each year. The 1939 editorial “Launch the Winter-Study Movement, Enhance the Strength of the War of Resistance” called for: “Organize the broad masses of male and female compatriots in the border region onto the educational front of the War of Resistance, and turn the winter-study movement into a broad mass movement, making it one of the current urgent central tasks.” The newspaper’s article “Summary Abstract of the CPC Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region Party Committee on the Border Region Winter-Study Movement” (16 May 1940) pointed out that from 1939 to 1940 the winter-study movement in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region achieved “great results,” arousing the masses’ initiative, consciousness, and creativity. Study methods were flexible and adaptable: for example, the base areas adopted collective study, while guerrilla zones adopted dispersed, individual, and small-scale collective study. Various winter-study systems were created, including the family transmission system, the little-teacher and literacy-vanguard system, and a system combining study stations with inspection tours; collective classes, dispersed residence, disguised winter-study, and rotating classes (in guerrilla zones) were combined; winter-study evening parties, entertainment evenings, and winter-study assemblies were held; work teams, shock brigades, and speech teams were established; and winter-study newspapers were founded. On the basis of the winter-study movement, rich cultural education for the border region’s people was carried out, such as afternoon half-day schools, night schools, children’s classes, singing troupes, and national-salvation rooms. From 1942 to 1943, in the difficult environment of the Japanese army’s brutal “great mopping-up” campaigns [3]3 “Great mopping-up” campaigns (大扫荡): Large-scale, brutal counterinsurgency operations launched by the Japanese Imperial Army against Communist-controlled base areas in North China, especially from 1941 to 1943, aimed at destroying the CPC’s military and administrative infrastructure through encirclement, massacre, and economic blockade. against the base areas, the *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily* still published 15 reports on the winter-study movement, including typical reports on women such as “Rong Guanxiu’s Winter Study,” “A White-Haired Old Woman in Fuping Leans on a Cane to Attend Winter Study,” and “Woman Qi Ruiting Becomes a Newspaper-Reading Group Leader.”

1939年至1941年冬学运动不断发展壮大，该报每年发表10多篇关于冬学运动的报道。1939年社论《开展冬学运动 提高抗战力量》号召：“组织广大的边区男女同胞到抗战的教育战线上，把冬学运动造成一个广泛的群众运动，也就成为当前紧急的中心工作之一。”该报《中国共产党晋察冀边区党委关于边区冬学运动总结摘要》（1940年5月16日）一文指出，1939年至1940年，晋察冀边区冬学运动获得“伟大的成绩”，激发了群众的积极性、自觉性和创造性。学习方式机动灵活，如根据地采取集体学习，游击区采取分散的、个别的、小规模的集体学习。创造了各种冬学制度，包括家庭传习制、小先生及识字先锋员制，建立学习站与巡视制的配合制度，集体上课、分散居住、伪装冬学、轮回上课（游击区）相结合，举行冬学晚会、娱乐晚会、冬学大会，建立工作队、突击队、演讲队，创办冬学报纸。在冬学运动基础上开展了边区人民丰富的文化教育，如午后半日学校、夜学、子弟班、歌咏队、救亡室等。1942年至1943年，在日军对根据地发动残酷“大扫荡”的艰难环境中，《晋察冀日报》仍发表冬学报道15篇，其中包括妇女典型报道《戎冠秀冬学》《阜平白发老太太拄着拐棍上冬学》《妇女齐瑞亭当了读报小组长》等。

The work of women’s cultural mobilization in the Jin-Cha-Ji base area, represented by the *Jin-Cha-Ji Daily*, liberated the broad masses of women from the oppression of the feudal system, the fetters of Confucian ritual, and the constraints of the small-peasant economy, initially establishing women’s modern consciousness of independence and autonomy. Through cultural education, women in the base areas attained a certain level of literacy, established a consciousness of family and nation and a national consciousness, and understood the Party’s line and policies, thereby making an important contribution to the construction of various undertakings in the base areas and to the ultimate victory of the War of Resistance against Japan.

以《晋察冀日报》为代表的晋察冀根据地妇女文化动员工作，将广大妇女群众从封建制度、礼教束缚及小农经济禁锢的压迫下解放出来，初步树立起妇女独立自主的现代意识。通过文化教育，根据地妇女具备了一定的文化水平，树立了家国意识及民族意识，理解了党的路线与政策，从而为根据地各项事业的建设、为抗日战争的最终胜利作出了重要贡献。

(Author: Tian Jianping, Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Hebei University)

（作者：田建平，系河北大学新闻传播学院教授）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧