Dong Cunrui

Dong Cunrui the Chinese soldier and martyr (1929-1948) of the People's Liberation Army who died in the civil war while destroying an enemy blockhouse with an explosive charge, an act of self-sacrifice that made him one of the most celebrated heroes of the revolutionary army.

Childhood and Enlistment

Dong Cunrui was born on 8 October 1929 in Huailai county, Hebei province, into a poor peasant family. His childhood fell in the years of foreign invasion and civil conflict, and the hardship of the countryside and the troubles of the war shaped his early life. He received little schooling and worked on the land and at whatever labour he could find.

In 1945, at the age of sixteen, he joined the Eighth Route Army, the communist force that was then fighting the Japanese in north China. He served first as a rank-and-file soldier in the campaign against the Japanese and against the local collaborationist forces, and he was noted for his diligence and his willingness to take on difficult tasks.

After the surrender of Japan in 1945 the Eighth Route Army was reorganised and the civil war with the Nationalists resumed. Dong Cunrui's unit was incorporated into the East China Field Army, and he took part in the campaigns that the communists fought in Hebei and the surrounding provinces in the years of the renewed struggle.

The Soldier and his Unit

Dong Cunrui joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1947, and he served in a demolition section, the troops responsible for the dangerous work of destroying enemy fortifications with explosive charges. In a war in which the communists often attacked fortified positions with limited artillery, the demolition men carried much of the burden of the fighting, and their role was among the most dangerous in the army.

He was known in his unit for his courage and for the care he took with his comrades, and he took part in several actions in which he distinguished himself by his steadiness under fire. He was promoted to lead a demolition group, and he trained the younger soldiers in the exacting and perilous techniques of placing charges against walls and bunkers.

By 1948 the communists were on the offensive across north China, and the East China Field Army was engaged in a series of battles to take the towns and strongpoints that the Nationalists held along the lines of communication. Dong Cunrui, still only nineteen, was among the experienced demolition men on whom his unit depended.

The Battle of Longhua

In May 1948 Dong Cunrui's unit was ordered to attack the town of Longhua in Hebei, held by Nationalist troops and defended by a system of blockhouses and trenches. The capture of the town was part of a wider operation to clear the Nationalist forces from the region and to open the way for the communist advance.

The assault met with heavy fire from a fortified blockhouse that commanded the approaches and stopped the attacking troops. Repeated attempts to destroy it failed, and the attackers suffered serious losses. The advance of the unit was brought to a halt, and the success of the whole operation was in doubt.

Dong Cunrui, who had been assigned to a different task, took up an explosive charge and moved forward under fire toward the blockhouse. He reached the wall but found no place where the charge could be fixed to bring the structure down. According to the accounts of his comrades, he then pressed the charge against the wall with his own body and detonated it.

Death and the Act of Sacrifice

The explosion destroyed the blockhouse and opened the way for the communist troops to take the town. Dong Cunrui was killed instantly, at the age of nineteen, by the blast that he had himself set off. His sacrifice allowed his unit to complete the attack and to capture the position that had held them up.

The act, in which a young soldier used his own body as the means of placing a charge, was immediately recognised as an example of extraordinary devotion. His unit and his commanders reported the deed, and it became known throughout the army as a symbol of the spirit of self-sacrifice that the revolutionary forces sought to cultivate.

The story spread through the ranks and, after the founding of the People's Republic, through the whole country. It was told in schools, in the press and in the arts, and the phrase to press the charge with one's own body entered the language as a shorthand for the ultimate sacrifice in the service of a cause.

Commemoration and Legacy

Dong Cunrui was honoured after his death as a combat hero of the People's Liberation Army, and the unit in which he served was named for him. A monument was raised at Longhua to mark the place of his death, and his name was given to the town, to schools and to other institutions across the country.

His image as a boy soldier who gave his life for his comrades and his cause became one of the most familiar of the revolutionary heroes, celebrated in songs, films and textbooks. He is remembered as an example of the ideal of the selfless soldier, the ordinary man who rises to an extraordinary act at the decisive moment.

The memory of Dong Cunrui endures in the commemorative culture of the People's Liberation Army, where his act is studied as a model of courage and of dedication to duty. His short life, spent entirely in the years of war, and his death at nineteen have made him an emblem of the sacrifices by which the revolutionary state was founded.

See also

• Chinese Civil War
• People's Liberation Army
• East China Field Army
• Martyrs of the revolution