Did the battle of Luding (泸定桥之战) happen?



Was the battle of Luding (泸定桥之战) in May 1935 a great communist victory against tremendous odds, or a minor skirmish exaggerated by the Chinese Communist Party for propaganda purposes?  




Evaluation of Sources:  
The sources evaluated are biographies of the renowned CCP leader, Mao Tsetung. These are selected due to the stark contrast of the biographies. Snow's Red Star Over China contains his personal account of the Long March, hence he not only utilised other sources but gathered firsthand understanding of the march. Written 60 years after the Long March, Chang's and Halliday's biography relied on a variety of primary and secondary sources. Whilst Snow valued the power of Mao, Chang's and Halliday's biography is a juxtaposition and portrays an anti-Mao perspective, possibly based on Chang's prejudice against Mao for personal reasons. Due to their portrayal of Mao, Chang's and Halliday's biography is banned in China. On the other hand, Snow's work has been revised by Chinese authorities and remains a renowned source from Western and Chinese perspectives. The biographies explore the event of the Luding Battle and its significance to the CCP, however they have contradictory narratives. Hence both narratives will be evaluated and compared to establish an understanding of how the narrative of the battle can change so drastically over time.  

Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Great Britain, 2005.  

In the biography of Mao, Chang and Halliday cast a perspective on several episodes of Mao's life that demolish established conceptions about him. Although the authors seemingly evaluate different perspectives according to the list of sources, only a small section of the book addresses the myth of the Luding Battle, where only one perspective is argued for. Chang and Halliday claimed to have interviewed witnesses who were present on the day of the battle, making them primary sources. Research for the book was first conducted in 1995, sixty years after the Luding incident, plenty of time for the witnesses' memories to be altered, especially with age. Chang and Halliday never specify anything about the witnesses, how they were affiliated with the incident, simply asking if anything happened on the day of the supposed incident. The purpose of the book is to eradicate the celebrated narrative of Mao and define him as the cause of death of 70 million people, more than any other 20th-century leader. The anti-Mao perspective is fuelled by a personal cause and causes it to misinterpret sources, hence they lose the cool-headedness that is required for biographers and historians. Hence it hinders some transparency in the sources that Chang and Halliday utilised for their arguments in the Luding Battle.  

Red Star Over China by Edgar Snow, United States of America, 1937.  

Although it is a journalistic scoop, Snow's book has become one of the most prominent pieces that followed the Chinese communist revolution during the late 1920s until the 1930s. The book is valuable for the investigation as Snow himself walked alongside the Red's Long March, one of Mao's most favourable moments. Hence not only is the Chinese perspective perceived in the book but also Snow's journalistic stance on the Long March. In the account of the CCP, the most valuable section of the book is the interview with Mao Tsetung, particularly when he narrates the account of the Luding Battle, which Snow defined as the single most critical event of the Long March. However, it has been proven that Snow's work had to be revised by authorities of the Chinese Communist Party. This implies that it is possible that some of the information might have been amended and aligns with the Chinese communist perspective that the authorities wanted to spread. The purpose of the book was to establish an understanding of the Chinese Communist Party to Western regions, as before Snow, little information was shared. Because the Chinese Communist Party was not widely known, some may argue that the sympathetic portrayal of them was slightly naive.  

Investigation:  
According to Edgar Snow, the Battle of Luding was the single most crucial incident on the Long March. As the Long March anniversary is highly celebrated each year, it is vital to investigate the truth of the Luding Battle to determine whether it is a victory against tremendous odds or whether it was a minor achievement exaggerated by Chinese Communist leaders to aggrandize the power of the Chinese Communist Party. It is crucial to investigate this topic because there are no narratives in history that seem to align. All Western and Chinese experts seem to have a different narrative of the battle, hence the sources will be evaluated to see which perspective is valid. When the Chinese Red Army's regiments of the first and second division seized control of a docking point in the Dadu River, it was not fully contemplated that there might not be enough boats to transport the entire force and their resources. As the first attempt did not succeed, the commander of the second division's fourth regiment, Yang Chengwu (杨成武), decided to attempt crossing the Luding Bridge to further evade the Kuomintang forces; however, they were confronted with weaponry. The official CCP report claims that Red soldiers fought bravely and defeated their nationalistic enemies despite tremendous odds. Hence, it was labelled the most critical single incident of the Long March. This is evident as the efforts of the soldiers and the outcome of the battle are continuously celebrated generation after generation in China through various films, plays, and novels that are written today. Many CCP sources claim that the soldiers fought bravely against the nationalistic forces. However, due to some probing by other experts, suggestions arise that the battle occurred differently, hence the battle is coined as a legend. Due to the contradictory arguments of the battle, it is hard to determine which perspective is the truth. Hence, to evaluate the significance of the battle, it is vital that the circumstances and different arguments of the battle are investigated to analyse the validity of the different narratives. To understand the tremendous odds of the battle, it is important to understand the layout of the bridge and its state during the battle. In May 1935, it was reported that the river was in a tremendous torrent, its rock-strewn bed concealing fatal whirlpools that made swimming or wading across the Dadu River near impossible. For the first and second regiments' divisions to cross the river, they had to cross the Luding Bridge. The suspension bridge was over a hundred metres long and over three metres wide, held by thirteen iron chains. There were wooden planks across the chains to provide further stability and to make it easier for passengers to cross. According to Edgar Snow, who interviewed Mao in 1936 about the battle, half of the wooden flooring had been removed by the Kuomintang, and only the bare iron chains swung. At the end of the bridge, there was an enemy machine gun ready to shoot at any communists who dared to cross the bridge. Who would have thought that the Reds would insanely try to cross on the chains alone? But that was what they did. Despite the fact that the Kuomintang had the advantage of being at the other side of the river, ready to kill any of the soldiers who attempted to cross the river, they abandoned their weapons and attempted to cross the river whilst simultaneously throwing grenades at the machine gun. However, according to witnesses who were interviewed during the 1980s and 1990s by Jung Chang and Halliday, they stated that it is likely that none of the planking was removed by the Kuomintang forces but by the Communist's Red Army after the bridge was crossed. That way, it would create the illusion that they had to cross the river under excruciating circumstances. Some witnesses recalled that in that particular month, they do not recall any sounds that indicated heavy gunfire. Personally revisiting some families whose relatives were alive at the time provided journals with entries from May 1935 and did not suggest that there was a major conflict occurring during that period. Visiting various families who reside close to the Dadu River, it was difficult to gather information at this time, as the battle occurred more than eighty years ago, and many possible witnesses have perished. However, when interviewing the guides who share the tale of the great Dadu River and the legendary battle that occurred in 1935, they share the narrative that the battle was indeed a victory against tremendous odds. According to the bodyguard of Yang Chengwu, leader of the CCP division that fought against the KMT forces at the Luding Bridge, when questioned by his superior about the human loss at the Battle of Luding, he simply replied, None, except for my horse. This is a complete opposite of the claim from the official government that states that the soldiers fought bravely, and the three lives lost are remembered to be a part of the revolution, which can be read on the memorial next to the Luding Bridge. Even when former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski described the crossing as a great feat of arms, China's paramount leader, Deng Xiao-Ping, said, That's how it was presented in our propaganda, although in fact it was quite an easy military operation. Despite the Chinese official report claiming that a fierce battle occurred, which can be seen in different propaganda films that are still produced in contemporary society, there are Chinese sources that claim that the circumstances of the battle differ from what is shared by the government. Although the battle is given great significance by the government, there are Chinese battle experts who claim that the battle has no significance at all. Evaluating different Chinese and Western sources, there seems to be an understanding that the circumstances of the battle might be slightly exaggerated by the Chinese Communist Party to aggrandize the allusion of the Chinese Communist Party and their Long March. As Mao himself claims, No other country will ever have a Long March like ours, implying that the victory of the Long March (the victory at the Battle of Luding) cannot be achieved by others. However, although different experts agree that the circumstances are in fact exaggerated, there is not a narrative that aligns. Whilst some share the understanding that the circumstances are in fact exaggerated, they cannot agree on the outcome or the occurrence of the battle. Hence, this still continues to question what truly happened during the Luding Battle.  

Reflection:  
Going to the Dadu River, where the Luding Bridge is hanging, one can perceive by the multiple tours, information stands, and vast number of people how significant the battle was, which suggests that there should be information aplenty to access. However, researching an event that occurred over eighty years ago proved that information constantly changes, which makes it hard to determine which information is valid and which is not. Particularly when gathering primary sources, most of the individuals are not alive anymore, which made gathering witness statements impossible. Whilst some families claimed that their elders were witnesses, it was hard to believe that as there was no information on how the source could be authenticated. When evaluating the different perspectives, there does not seem to be an alignment on the information gathered on the Luding Battle, hence the solution was to research as much as possible and determine if any of the information is similar or not. Whilst there are Chinese sources that focus on the Luding Battle, the battle does not seem to carry that much significance to Western experts because, when researching books, there are not prominent books written about the Luding Battle. Rather, they were small subsections in a book that discussed the Chinese revolution or Mao's life. Whilst there was endless access to Western sources through libraries and the internet, Chinese sources were more difficult to extract. When wanting to access the archives in China, special permission has to be granted through writing a report on why one wants to study the topic and a letter of support provided by an individual of their school. Additionally, China is infamously known for filtering information strictly; information collected has to be approved by a supervisor on site, and if there were any sensitive information, it was asked to be withheld. This proves how filtered the information of the Luding Battle is to this day.  

Bibliography:  

 
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Members of the Liu Family. Personal Interview conducted by Wan Yi-Ping. July 2018. The Liu family claimed that they had an elder who recently passed away who was a witness of the Luding incident. They claimed that she had been interviewed by other authors and authorities; she claimed that she does not recall a major incident.  

Ning, Hai Qian, director. The Warriors: No Bridge Is Too Far. Performance by 李东学 and 远聂, August First Film Studio, 2016.  

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