"Without the Communist Party, there would be no New China, and without the Communist Party there would be no New China." The Communist Party works hard for the nation, the Communist Party is bent on saving China, he points out the road to the liberation of the people, he leads China to the light..." This song "Without the Communist Party, There Is No New China" was born in Tangshang Village, Xiayunling Township, Fangshan, Beijing, and has been singing in the land of China since the 1940s, inspiring generations of Chinese. July 1 is the centenary of the Communist Party of China, and on this grand and festive anniversary, let us look back on the years of burning passion with passionate songs.
(1) The iron-blooded boy is determined to publicize the anti-Japanese salvation
The songwriter of "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" is called Cao Mars. He was born in 1924 to a peasant family in Pingshan County, Hebei Province. His elementary school teacher was a Member of the Communist Party, so Cao Mars was influenced by progressive ideas from an early age.
In 1937, Cao Mars was admitted to Baoding Middle School. In that year, the "July 7 Incident" broke out, and the iron hooves of Japanese imperialism trampled on the North China Plain, and Cao Mars's path to study was forced to be interrupted. In the face of national difficulties, 13-year-old Cao Mars, like thousands of Chinese, is determined to resist Japan and save the country, and resolutely does not want to be a slave to the country. After dropping out of school and returning home, Cao Mars served as the director of the village's Youth Salvation Congress. In the same year, he was transferred to the propaganda team of the Pingshan County Anti-Japanese Youth Federation as an actor and served as the leader of the music team.
The mass drama club is rehearsing.
After the national War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression began, songs such as "On the Taihang Mountain," "March of the Great Knife," and "Go to the Enemy's Rear" were widely sung in the Jin-Cha-Ji anti-Japanese base area. Cao Mars used his musical expertise to teach everyone to read and sing music. At that time, Cao Mars could not compose music, but he began to paint the scoop according to the gourd, learned to fill in new words with old songs, and tried to change the minor key of folk songs to anti-Japanese songs.
In April 1938, Cao Mars and some patriotic youth established the Iron-Blooded Drama Society (the predecessor of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region Anti-Japanese National Salvation Federation Mass Drama Society) to publicize the anti-Japanese resistance and inspire people's hearts. The Iron Blood Drama Society, which means "iron will and blood", is an anti-Japanese literary and art group born and raised in Pingshan, mainly using folk songs to fill in new words for singing, and publicizing the idea of anti-Japanese salvation.
Cao Mars
At that time, the Iron Blood Drama Society publicized the party's anti-Japanese policy through performances, mobilizing the masses to have grain to pay for food, money to pay, and people to support the War of Resistance. Because there are no actresses in the drama club, the young Cao Mars plays the heroine, and the performance is realistic and moving, which is deeply loved and welcomed by the masses. The footprints of the Iron Blood Drama Society remained in the ravines, and the song of anti-Japanese salvation fluttered in one village after another. Inspired by the song, "the mother told her son to fight in the East, and the wife sent the lang to the battlefield", and the wave of joining the army was higher than the wave.
(2) Gloriously join the Party and fight with songs
Cao Mars was originally named Cao Zhi. At the end of 1938, the Iron Blood Drama Society rose to a fever of name change. Several comrades-in-arms felt that their names were not in harmony with the fierce War of Resistance Against Japan, and they changed their names one after another, such as Wang Bloodbo, Zhang Bloodxin, Duan Bloodfu, and so on. Affected by this boom, Cao Zhi also wanted to change his name. What's better to change it to? He thought: His name should be called "fire", called "Mars", which means "the spark of the stars can burn the plains". Since then, the name Cao Mars has been called away.
Cao Mars (first from right) performs in a concert with his comrades-in-arms.
With the continuous expansion of the influence of the Iron Blood Drama Society, the members of the drama club were constantly sent by the party organization to the Literature and Art Department of North China Union University to study, and Cao Mars was one of them. He cherished this hard-won opportunity and studied from Wang Xin, Zhang Fei, Lü Ji, Lu Su and many other predecessors, and eagerly studied the works of composers such as Nie Er and Xian Xinghai. After 8 months of systematic study, Cao Mars drew nourishment from a large number of excellent revolutionary songs in China, and at the same time was greatly shocked and inspired, and the creative passion of using songs to fight was increasing day by day.
After studying in the Literature and Art Department of North China Union University, Cao Mars held the determination to create for the War of Resistance and for the people, and continued to participate in the literary and artistic performances of the War of Resistance, creating while practicing. In 1943, the 19-year-old Cao Mars was already the leader of the music group of the Mass Drama Society of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region Anti-Japanese National Salvation Federation. In order to oppose the "sweeping", the mass drama society was reduced to zero, and Cao Mars and his comrades-in-arms often went deep into the masses to carry out literary and artistic activities to publicize the party's anti-Japanese ideas.
On September 24, 1994, the first page of beijing daily reported that the memorial inscription monument of the song "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" was completed.
One day, Cao Mars received bad news from his hometown: during a "sweep" by the Japanese Kou, all the men in the village, including the infants, were killed; his father and cousin died tragically under the butcher knives of the Japanese army in this massacre. Before that, he also witnessed the scene of the massacre of the Hebei Fupingye Factory made by the Japanese Kou: more than a thousand villagers in the village were all shot by the Japanese army with machine guns on the wheat field! The baby in its mother's arms dodged machine gun bullets, but not the bayonets of the Japanese soldiers... Later, Cao Mars, who entered the village with the Eighth Route Army, saw the tragic situation left behind, and like many soldiers, he couldn't help but cry out loud. Cao Mars felt that if he did not join the Eighth Route Army, he would end up dying under the butcher's knife of the invaders, just like his father.
"Without the Communist Party, there would be no Cao Mars!" In the spring of 1943, he honorably joined the Communist Party of China.
(3) Create new songs to refute the Fallacy of the Kuomintang
In the autumn of 1943, Cao Mars and his comrades-in-arms came to Tangshang Village in the Anti-Japanese Base Area of Pingxi. Tangshang Village is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and there is a Zhongtang Temple at the foot of the mountain at the west end of the village, sitting north and facing south, which is the primary school in the village, and Cao Mars and his comrades-in-arms camp in the east house of the Zhongtang Temple. On weekdays, while writing anti-Japanese slogans, he organized the village literary and art propaganda team to sing and rehearse plays, while engaging in creation.
"Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" songwriting place.
In that year, the defense of Stalingrad was victorious, the Allies also launched a counter-offensive against the Japanese army in the Pacific, the world anti-fascist war made significant progress, and the situation in China's War of Resistance Against Japan improved. However, at this time, Chiang Kai-shek, who was in a corner of the southwest of An'an, began to sabotage the anti-Japanese national united front, and he instructed Tao Xisheng to publish "The Fate of China", which declared that "without the Kuomintang, that is, without China, China's destiny is completely pinned on the Kuomintang." At the same time, he slandered the Cpc as a "new-style feudalism" and "organized force and divided the localities," and that the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, and the guerrillas behind enemy lines "roamed without attacking" and were "warlords in disguise," and threatened to abolish the Communist Party of China and the anti-Japanese democratic forces in an ultimatum-style tone. All this made Cao Mars feel extremely indignant in his heart, and also aroused his strong desire to create, that is, to refute and counter the fallacies of the Kuomintang through literary and artistic works.
The autumn night in the mountains is getting cooler, the comrades are asleep, and Cao Mars sits on the clay kang in his clothes, concentrating on creating under the horse lamp. Gazing at the beating flames, Cao Mars remembered his days in the drama club, felt the warmth of living in the revolutionary ranks, and also thought of the vivid facts that the broad masses of the people in the anti-Japanese base areas overcame all kinds of difficulties under the leadership of the Communist Party to persist in the War of Resistance and engaged in democratic elections, rent reductions and interest rate reductions, and large-scale production in the border areas. At this moment, Cao Mars was full of excitement and wrote a sonorous and powerful sentence on the paper: "Without the Communist Party, there would be no China." "The title of the new song is here! The theme of the new song is also available!
Manuscript by Cao Mars
In the next few days, Cao Mars sat on the edge of the kang as soon as he had time, humming and writing and painting at the same time, and his creative passion poured out from the end of the pen like a fountain: "Without the Communist Party, there would be no China, and without the Communist Party, there would be no China." The Communist Party works hard for the nation, and the Communist Party is bent on saving China... He persisted in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression for more than six years, he improved the people's lives, he built base areas behind enemy lines, and he practiced democracy with many benefits..." After repeated revisions, the song "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No China" was born.
Speaking of this past, Cao Mars once recalled: "I wrote this song with emotion. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the broad masses of the people in the anti-Japanese base areas overcame many difficulties to persist in the War of Resistance, engaged in democratic construction, and made the people the masters of their own affairs. Carry out land reform to develop production and improve the people's lives... These living facts are what I have seen with my own eyes, and I have personally experienced the people's enthusiasm for the War of Resistance and their deep affection for the party. How could there be a situation without the Communist Party that would have persisted in resisting the War of Resistance to Victory? How could there be today without the Communist Party? ”
(4) Catchy and catchy circulated in the base area
When creating, Cao Mars made careful arrangements for the structure of the song, writing a single section composed of 10 musical sentences, the rhythm of each two sentences is basically the same, constituting a symmetrical echo relationship; the beginning and end of the song echo, forming a coherent development, well-structured unity, the first and second lyrics are emphasized, the tone is smooth and earnest. From the third sentence onwards, a series of comparative sentences have made layered arrangements in tune, rhythm and syntax, from calm narration to short stacked sentences in the form of cannons, the emotions are more and more excited, as if pulling a finger to list the facts, giving people a sense of grandeur and indisputable, pushing the song to the melodic climax. The last two sentences are a reproduction of the first two sentences, which are more firm and powerful.
At that time, the children of the Tangshang Village Children's Group were singing.
At that time, folk music such as "Overlord Whip" was very popular in the Pingxi area, and "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No China" also borrowed from this musical form. After the work was written, the primary school students were first allowed to sing in the form of "Overlord Whip", and then sung by the village opera troupe, because the lyrics were simple, the rhythm was concise, and catchy, everyone quickly learned it and spread it in the surrounding villages.
On July 4, 2001, Beijing Daily reported on the 7th page that Tangshang Village, Xiayunling Township, Fangshan District, has become a new red tourism attraction.
At the end of October 1943, the Mass Drama Society returned to the special district, and it was the time when the special district held a study class for county-level cadres. A cadre in Laishui County took the song manuscript and mimeographed it for the first time and sang it in the county. Later, Cao Mars taught singing in a cadre study class held by more than 1,000 people in Yi County, Hebei Province. In this way, this song grew like wings, spreading from the localities to the troops, from the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region to other anti-Japanese base areas.
(5) Sing the will of the people and the people and the truth of the revolution
In the days of singing, the lyrics of "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No China" were revised many times. Like the lyrics in 1943, "Persisted in the War of Resistance for more than six years", by 1944, the masses changed it to "persisted in the War of Resistance for more than seven years", and by 1945, the masses changed it to "persisted in the War of Resistance for more than eight years". The most important modification is the addition of a "new" word to the original song title.
On June 27, 2006, the first page of the Beijing Daily reported that the memorial hall of "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" was built in the village of Tangshang.
There are many theories about when and why this "new" word was added.
One theory is that the prophet wrote in "Mao Zedong and His Secretary Tian Jiaying": One day in 1950, Mao Zedong raised this phrase when he heard his daughter Li Ne sing "Without the Communist Party, there would be no China" in Zhongnanhai. Because China has a history of thousands of years, there was China first, and then there was the Communist Party. Therefore, we should add the word "new" in front of "China", that is, "without the Communist Party, there would be no new China." This statement was affirmed by Li Ne himself.
Another theory comes from the Memoirs of Ye Zilong: One afternoon in 1950, mao zedong heard Ye Zilong's daughter Ye Yan singing this song while walking in the courtyard of Zhongnanhai, and Mao Zedong suggested adding a "new" word after inquiring about the situation. In 1994, Ye Yan also described this process in detail in an article published in the Beijing Evening News, "Chairman Mao's 'New' Words."
In 2011, 100 young party members and league members in Yongwai Subdistrict participated in the Youth Mutual Aid Day in Xiayunling Township, Fangshan District, and formed a "one help and one" mutual aid group with local young party members, league members and Young Pioneers. Tang Xiaojing/Photo
There is also a theory that the patriotic democrat Zhang Naiqi was the promoter of this change. Cao Mars said in his article "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China": "At that time, the 'new' word 'without New China' was written in response to Chiang Kai-shek's "Fate of China" that 'there would be no China without the Kuomintang'. On January 7, 1949, Zhang Naiqi was invited by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to secretly travel north from Hong Kong with Ye Shengtao and Mao Dun, together with democrats, to participate in the preparatory work for the New Political Consultative Conference, and arrived in the Northeast Liberated Area. During the visit, someone sang the song, and the lyrics at the beginning were 'Without the Communist Party, there would be no China'. Zhang Naiqi felt that this lyric was somewhat inappropriate, and proposed to add a 'new' word and change it to 'without the Communist Party, there would be no new China'. Zhang Naiqi said that because in historical chronology, there was China first, and then there was the Chinese Communist Party. His proposal was quickly reflected to the central authorities by the relevant departments. Soon, Zhang Naiqi met Mao Zedong in Beijing, and Mao Zedong said to him, 'Your opinion is very good, we have asked the author to change the lyrics.'" Cao Mars himself once said that on the eve of the People's Liberation Army's conquest of Tianjin in 1949, he received a notice from a higher authority and changed the lyrics, so there was "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China." Subsequently, this song sang all over the motherland and inside and outside the Great Wall, and became an immortal work that accompanied the history of the Communist Party of China.
Although there are different theories, people believe that the reason why a "new" word has been added to the title of the song is inseparable from Mao Zedong and other leading comrades of the Central Committee who asked about this matter, and from the popular will and will represented in this song. More importantly, this song sings the truth that without the Communist Party, there would be no new China. This is a summary of the great course of the Communist Party of China in modern China in saving the country, overthrowing the three great mountains, and establishing a new China.
In 2016, the launching ceremony of the Beijing Party History Publicity Month was held in Tangshang Village. Luo Honggang/Photo
Since its birth, "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" has been sung in the land of China. It accompanied the pace of the people's army's march, along with the clarion call for national liberation, with the cpc's leadership of the Chinese people to win victories in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, along with the acceleration of the pace of new China's construction, and with the Chinese people ushering in a new era of reform, opening up, prosperity, and strength. This song, which represents the will of the people and the truth of the revolution, will accompany the people of the Chinese and people to new victories under the leadership of the Communist Party of China!
Historical materials: "Beijing Red Herald", "Beijing Red Landmark", Beijing News Group Graphic Database
Co-produced: Beijing Daily, Beijing Municipal Party Committee Party History Research Office, Municipal Local History Office