11 communists true to the cause

1. He Yeduo’s Oath Jinggangshan Revolution Museum curator: “Welcome to the museum. What we see here is a precious artifact. It is an oath written by a peasant on joining the Party, which he risked his life to protect. CCP was the abbreviation for the Chinese Communist Party.” The oath promises, “self-sacrifice, to uphold Party secrecy, to join in class struggle and revolution, to observe Party rules, and to never betray the Party.” On the edges is the man’s name and where and when he joins the Party: “He Yeduo, Beitian Village, January 25, 1931.” Though six characters are miswritten and the writing is blurred over time, all are sure to be moved by He Yeduo’s stalwart belief in the revolution and his unswerving loyalty to the Party. To find out more about the story behind this oath, our production team made a trip to He Yeduo’s hometown, in Beitian Village, Yongxin County, Jiangxi Province. Hearing of our arrival, He Yeduo’s grandson He Zuocai travelled more than 500 kilometers from Guangzhou especially to meet us. He Zuocai: “From 1927, when Chairman Mao led the Workers and Peasants Red Army to the Jinggang Mountains, to 1934, my grandfather worked in this oil mill.” At first an ordinary peasant, inspired by the raging revolutionary movements in the Jinggang Mountains, He Yeduo enters the fray. He transforms the oil mill into a secret Red Army meeting house and an underground communications hub for the collection and transmission of intelligence, transportation of the wounded, and the movement of salt and other necessaries. In 1931, 45-year-old He Yeduo is admitted into the Party by the Party organization in Yongxin County. On the evening of January 25, 1931, he takes out a ready-prepared red cloth, on which he carefully writes down his oath to the Party. He Yeduo is barely literate and miswrites 6 of the characters. What really shows his revolutionary faith is the fact that he writes down his name, and where and when he joined the Party. This is extremely dangerous under the white terror of the KMT reactionaries. If discovered, he would be killed, along with his friends and family.