Today we introduce Yang Zhangfu, an early party member.
Yang Zhangfu, formerly known as Yang Renrui, also known as Wen Lei'an, alias Lin Xiang, was born in 1894 in Beishan Township, Xiangshan County, Guangdong Province (now part of Beishan Village, Nanping Town, Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai), and was the uncle of Yang Zai'an and Yang Yin, and also Yang Yin's introduction to the party. Yang Zhangfu's father, Yang Xunzhi, married a wife and three concubines and gave birth to four sons and four daughters. Yang Zhangfu was born to Yuan's wife Wu and was the eldest of eight children. When Yang Zhangfu was young, he went to Fujian with his father to do business. Yang Xunzhi was employed by Yuji Tea House, but the tea house business failed and went out of business, and Yang Xunzhi returned to his hometown with his family, when Yang Zhangfu was 15 years old. He studied with his nephew Yang Zai'an at the Gongdu Academy in Qianshan and the Guangya Academy in Guangzhou, and the two had a very deep relationship with each other. In 1914, Yang Zhangfu and Yang Zaian went to Yokohama, Japan, in the midst of the boom of studying in Dongdu, and lived in the home of Kang Youwei's relatives. They have repeatedly asked relatives to introduce themselves to work, but they have not succeeded, and they have no money to enter school, and their lives are very difficult. Yang Zhangfu and Yang Zaian worked hard, reading in libraries and bookstores every day, studying Japanese assiduously, and making a living by translating and doing odd jobs. At the end of the same year, Yang Zhangfu learned that his father had returned to his hometown due to illness, and after his father's death, he set up a family school in Macau to support his family. Yang Zai'an, aware of Yang Zhangfu's plight, introduced him to Guangzhou Peizheng Middle School to teach, and later recommended him to serve as an editor at the Guangzhou Branch of the Cantonese-Han Railway (Yang Zaian was the editorial director at the time). In the summer of 1920, Chen Duxiu organized the first Communist Group in Shanghai, and then Li Dazhao established the Communist Party Group in Beijing. At the end of the same year, Chen Duxiu went south to Guangzhou and found Yang Zai'an and Yang Zhangfu, who lived in the Yang Family Ancestral Hall. Asked Yang Zhangfu to serve as the Cantonese interpreter for his speech. Under the impetus of Chen Duxiu, the Guangdong Communist Party Group was established in the spring of 1921, based on the Guangdong Qunbao newspaper, to carry out propaganda and education and organizational construction activities. The Yang Clan Ancestral Hall became the party's stronghold and contact center. In the spring of 1921, Yang Zhangfu and Yang Zai'an held a "Zhuyin Alphabet Workshop" in the ancestral hall to cover for revolutionary activities. The classroom teaches zhuyin letters, while the content of zhuyin is progressive articles and books. Under the influence of the May Fourth Movement and the inspiration of Yang Zai'an, Yang Zhangfu received a Marxist education and joined the Communist Party of China in the spring of 1922. In his legal capacity as the editor of the Railway Bureau, he and Yang Zaian went deep into the Guangsan, Guangjiu and Guangdong-Han railway workers to carry out propaganda and education activities to promote the development of the workers' movement in the Guangzhou railway system. In June 1923, Yang Zhangfu attended the Third National Congress of the Communist Party of China as an observer and participated in the work of the Congress. After the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists in 1924, he served as the editorial director of the Railway Bureau and led the party organization of the Railway Bureau. In 1927, after the "April 15" counter-revolutionary coup in Guangzhou, Yang Zhangfu fled to Macau. In accordance with the instructions of the party organization, he set up a liaison station in Macau to house the fleeing revolutionary comrades and was responsible for printing the Red Flag Weekly. After the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising, Yang Zhangfu moved to Hong Kong to insist on underground work. From 1929 to 1930, Yang Zhangfu assumed the pseudonym Wenlei'an and returned to Zhongshan Sanxiang Qiaotou School and Guishan School to teach. In August 1930, he went to Hong Kong, lost contact with the party organization, and worked as a tutor in the homes of wealthy people. On December 8, 1977, Yang Zhangfu died of illness in Hong Kong at the age of 83.
