During the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, why did the chairman reject Zhang Wentian's proposal to elect him as general secretary of the Central Committee?

Group photo of the members of the Presidium of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1938

The Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee elected the first Secretariat of the Central Committee in the history of the Communist Party of China

The Secretariat of the Central Committee is an important part of the central leadership system. The title of the Secretariat of the Central Committee is derived from the CPSU. In 1905, the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee was established, and at this time it was still a relatively low-specification purely technical organ. In March 1920, according to the decision of the Ninth Congress of the Communist Party of Russia (Brazzaville), the Secretariat of the Central Committee became an independent and important organ of a leading nature of the Central Committee. The term "Secretariat" appeared very early in the CCP literature, and in a report to the Comintern by the CCP, it was stated that "three comrades were elected to form the Secretariat." At this time, the so-called "Secretariat" was not really established, but the actual establishment was the "Central Bureau". The reason for the emergence of the title of "Secretariat" may be that the CCP tried to correspond its own leading organs with the leadership system of the Russian Communist Party (Brazzaville) at the beginning of the founding of the party.

At the beginning of the founding of the CPC, because there were relatively few party members and local organizations, from the first to the fourth cpc congress, the central organs were relatively simple, and the Secretariat of the Central Committee was not established. After the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the revolutionary situation in the whole country developed rapidly. By April 1927, the number of CCP members had reached more than 57,000. Compared with the time of the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the number of party members has increased by 60 times in two years. In May 1927, when the Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was convened, it was decided to formally establish the Politburo of the Central Committee and the Standing Committee of the Politburo for the first time. The Constitution of the Communist Party of China, as amended after the Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, stipulates that the Central Committee "organizes the Politburo of the Central Committee to guide all political work throughout the country ... The Politburo of the Central Committee pushed a number of people to organize the Central Standing Committee to handle the daily affairs of the Party." This institutional setup is based on the Party Constitution of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (Brazzaville) in December 1925 that "the Central Committee is established: The Politburo – responsible for political work; Organization Bureau - the general leader responsible for organizational work; Secretariat - responsible for the day-to-day organizational and executive work" provisions. At the same time, it also draws on the experience of the composition of the central organs of the Kuomintang during the period of the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation. The Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China actually merged the Organization Bureau and the Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee into the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, which is responsible for handling the daily work of the Party Central Committee. In July 1928, the Party Constitution adopted by the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China stipulated: "The Central Committee shall elect the Politburo from among its own members to guide the Party's political work during the period before and after the plenary session of the Central Committee, and to elect the Standing Committee to carry out its daily work." At this time, there is still no provision for the establishment of the Secretariat of the Central Committee.

When the Central Red Army left the Central Soviet Region during the Long March, it accidentally picked out the burden of loading documents, resulting in the minutes of the meetings of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the report to the Communist International and other materials remaining in the Central Soviet Region. Later, due to the cruel war environment, the data were destroyed. Regarding the establishment of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, experts have verified that it should have been established from the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province in January 1934. On December 5, 1933, Bogu, the provisional head of the Central Committee, mentioned in his telegram to the Comintern and to the comintern's reply to the telegram on December 12 of the same year that he would set up a secretariat at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

In January 1934, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Ruijin, the Central Soviet District, at which the Politburo of the Central Committee was re-elected. The plenum elected the first Secretariat of the Central Committee in the history of the CPC (in fact, it is the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee), and elected Bogu to preside over the work and take overall responsibility. The members of the Secretariat elected by the Plenary are available in various versions. According to the "Dictionary of the Successive Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China" (compiled by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Party History Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, and the CPC Party History Publishing House, 2004 edition), seven people, including Qin Bangxian (Bogu), Zhang Wentian (Luo Fu), Zhou Enlai, Xiang Ying, Chen Shaoyu (Wang Ming, in the Soviet Union), Zhang Guotao (in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Region), and Chen Yun.

The Secretariat established by the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has functions and powers equivalent to that of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, which was produced at the Fifth and Sixth National Congresses of the Communist Party of China. At that time, the Secretariat of the Central Committee and the Politburo Standing Committee were usually used in a mixture, and their members were sometimes called secretaries and sometimes members of the Standing Committee. For example, the Zunyi Conference co-opted Mao Zedong as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, or Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. It is generally believed that the Secretariat of the Central Committee at that time was in fact the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee.

On June 16, 1936, the Secretariat of the Central Committee in northern Shaanxi sent a telegram to the CPC delegation to the Comintern, saying that "at present, the central centralized organization, the Politburo: Luofu, Enlai, Bogu, Zedong, Deng Fa, Kaifeng, Jiaxiang, Zhongzhou (Zhang Hao, Lin Yuying), and Dehuai." Standing Committee members: Luo Fu (secretary), Enlai, Bogu and Zedong" At this time, among the members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee (Secretary of the Secretariat), Chen Yun was sent to the Soviet Union during the Long March, Wang Ming was already in the Soviet Union, Zhang Guotao accompanied the Red Fourth Front Army on the long march, and Xiang Ying stayed in the Central Soviet Region. In early December of the same year, Zhang Guotao, Zhu De, Ren Bishi and others arrived at Bao'an to meet with the CPC Central Committee. After that, the members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee (Secretariat) in Yan'an included Zhang Wentian, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhang Guotao, and Bogu, and Zhang Wentian took overall responsibility and presided over the work of the Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee.

Zhang Wentian proposed that Comrade Mao Zedong should be "elected as the general secretary of the Central Committee"

In November 1937, Wang Ming, the cpc's representative to the Comintern, and Chen Yun, the CPC's representative to Xinjiang, were dispatched by the Comintern to arrive in Yan'an by chance.

After Wang Ming returned to China, most of the members of the Politburo of the Central Committee gathered in Yan'an. In order to listen to the instructions of the Comintern and to summarize the work of the Party, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China convened a meeting of the Politburo (the "December Conference") from December 9 to 14. At this meeting, due to the resistance of Mao Zedong and others, Wang Ming's erroneous opinions did not form a resolution of the meeting.

At its December meeting, the Politburo decided to set up a preparatory committee for the Seventh Party Congress, with 25 members, with Mao Zedong as chairman and Wang Ming as secretary.

At this meeting of the Politburo, in accordance with the provisions of the Party Constitution of the Sixth CPC National Congress, the Standing Committee of the Politburo was set up under the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee as the leading organ for "daily work" during the intersessional period of the Politburo. At the same time, however, there is a Secretariat of the Central Committee under the Politburo of the Central Committee, whose members are members of the Central Standing Committee. The meeting agreed that the central authorities should exercise collective leadership. On April 1, 1938, Zhang Wentian also explained this in the Xinhua Daily by publishing the "Zhang Wentian (Luofu) Notice", which stated that "the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has a secretariat organized by several comrades, but it does not matter to the general secretary." At the same time, there is a division of labour within the Registry. Taking the division of labor made by the Secretariat of the Central Committee at that time on the daily correspondence with telegrams as an example, it was clear that "the party's jiaoluo (甫), the army's handover to Mao, the united front handover to the king (Ming), and the king's handover when he is away."

At this time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China regarded the Secretariat of the Central Committee and the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee as "two signboards of a set of people and horses", and the names were still often mixed. Since then, there have been both the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and the Secretariat of the Central Committee, with coexistence of institutions and overlapping personnel. However, this two-in-one institution is still "different from inside and outside" in form, and it is shown from the revised "Zhang Wentian Chronology (Part I)" (CPC Party History Publishing House, 2010 edition) that the Politburo Standing Committee of the Central Committee conducts meetings and decisions, and most of the external releases are in the name of the Secretariat of the Central Committee. This mixed use of titles by the Secretariat and the Standing Committee continued until the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in November 1938.

In August 1938, Wang Jiaxiang, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, returned to Yan'an from the Soviet Union and joined the Secretariat of the Central Committee. At a meeting of the Politburo in September, Wang Jiaxiang, as the CCP's representative to the Comintern, conveyed the comintern leader's instruction that the leading organs of the CPC Central Committee should be headed by Mao Zedong, and Wang Ming's power was significantly weakened. From September 29 to November 6, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Yan'an. The plenum made the "Decision on the Rules and Discipline of the Work of the Central Committee", which became the first resolution in the history of the Party to clearly stipulate the nature, tasks, powers and discipline of the Central Committee, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and the Secretariat of the Central Committee.

This "Decision" is the work rules and disciplinary requirements of the Central Committee, especially the Politburo and the Secretariat, formulated after the three "Organic Laws of the Central Executive Committees" of the CPC. The "Decision" proposes to replace the "Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee" stipulated in the Constitution of the Sixth CPC National Congress with the "Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee." The provisions on the "Secretariat of the Central Committee" mainly include: (1) "The task of the Secretariat of the Central Committee is to handle the daily work of the organizational and executive nature of the Central Committee, and is responsible for convening meetings of the Politburo, preparing the issues to be discussed at the Politburo meetings, and making work reports to the Politburo." (2) "The Secretariat of the Central Committee shall fully implement the resolutions of the Politburo, but during the period before and after the meeting of the Politburo, if a new major emergency occurs and is unable to convene a politburo meeting immediately, it may make a new decision and may issue a manifesto, resolution and telegram in the name of the Central Committee, but shall afterwards submit it to the Politburo meeting for approval and retrospective recognition." (3) "The Secretariat shall meet at least once a week to collectively solve the daily work of the Central Committee and to deal with the answers to the questions of the Party Committees. When the Secretariat meets, all members of the Politburo at the place where the Central Committee is located may attend." (4) "The work of the Central Bureaus under the leadership of the Secretaries and members of the Politburo shall be reported frequently to the Secretariat on the work of the Central Bureaus and the Central Bureaus. The handling and replies to important questions of the Central Ministries and the appointment or dispatch of important personnel of the Ministries shall be subject to the approval of the Secretariat."

During the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, Zhang Wentian sincerely proposed to Mao Zedong that Comrade Mao Zedong should be "elected as general secretary of the Central Committee." However, at that time, Mao Zedong, after comprehensive consideration, did not advocate raising this issue. After the meeting, Zhang Wentian began to "take the initiative to give way to The Sages" and gradually transferred the work to Mao Zedong, and the place where the Politburo of the Central Committee held the meeting was also moved from the cave where he lived to Mao Zedong's residence in Yangjialing. After the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, Zhang Wentian was mainly engaged in the work of propaganda and education of the party. At that time, some meetings of the Central Committee were still chaired by Zhang Wentian. However, documents and telegrams issued by the central government are mostly ranked first by Mao Zedong. It can be said that at this time, the main leadership work of the Party Central Committee had actually shifted to Mao Zedong' side.

On May 30, 1940, Wang Ming delivered a speech entitled "Study mao zedong" at the opening ceremony of the "Zedong Youth Cadre School" in Yan'an, praising Mao Zedong as "the core of the unity of the whole party" and "a recognized leader." Although Zhang Wentian was still the formal leader of the CPC Central Committee at that time, Mao Zedong had become the core of the leadership of the whole party that even Wang Ming had to admit.

——Excerpt from The Fifth Issue of Party History Wenyuan, 2015

Author: Water New Camp

Editor: Jiang Chuting