From 1923, she attended the Third Women's Normal School of Hunan Province in Hengyang. In August 1926, she entered Hunan Hengyang Peasant Movement Training Institute, and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October. From the spring of 1927, she served successively as a staff member of the Organization Department of the Hengyang Prefectural Committee, Secretary-General of the Chenzhou Central County Committee, and Secretary of the Office of the Party Committee of the Seventh Division of Chenzhou.[citation needed]
In April 1928, she followed the Red Army when they set up their base in the Jinggang Mountains during the beginning of the first phase of the Chinese Civil War. She served as Party Branch Secretary of the Rear General Hospital of the Fourth Red Army, Organization Section Officer of the Fourth Red Army, Head of the Civil Affairs Section of the Workers' and Peasants' Movement Committee of the Fourth Red Army, and Head of the Women's Group. During her tenure, she participated in the Battle of Huangyangjie. She married Xia Mingzhen in 1927 and Cai Xiemin in 1929. Both died in battle. Zeng later recalled that she was forced to marry Xia at the request of the Party, and that she was more of a comrade-in-arms with Cai. When He Zizhen, the third wife of Mao Zedong, was pregnant in 1929, Mao asked Zeng to take care of her.[1] From June 1930, she served successively as Secretary-General of the Xiamen and Fuzhou Central Municipal Committees, Minister of the Organization Department of the Southern Fujian Special Committee, a member of the Fu'an Central County Committee, Minister of the Organization Department of the Eastern Fujian Special Committee, and Secretary of the Fuxia (Fu'an and Xiapu) Central County Committee. She married Tao Zhu in the winter of 1932.[2][a]
In September 1937, she served as Secretary of the Women's Committee of the Provisional Hubei Provincial Committee. In October 1938, she served as Secretary of the Jingmen, Dangyang, and Yuan'an Central County Committee. In December 1939, she went to study at the Yan'an Marxist–Leninist Academy. In the autumn of 1940, she served as Secretary-General of the Central Women's Committee.[citation needed]
After the victory in the war against Japan, she served successively as a member of the Shenyang Municipal Committee of the CCP, Secretary of the Tiexi District Committee, member of the Liaoning-Jilin Provincial Committee, Deputy Secretary of the First and Fifth District Committees of the Liaoning-Jilin Provincial Committee, member of the Standing Committee of the Shenyang Municipal Committee and Minister of the Workers' Department, and Director of the preparatory office of the Shenyang Municipal Federation of Trade Unions and Women's Federation.[citation needed]
From May 1949, she served successively as in various posts in Wuhan and Guangzhou. She was also the first president of Guangzhou Institute of Technology, now part of Guangdong University of Technology, and the first president of Guangzhou Mechanical and Electrical Industry School, what later became Guangzhou Mechanical and Electrical Secondary Vocational School, and is now Guangzhou Mechanical and Electrical Senior Technical School, and Guangzhou Mechanical and Electrical Technician College;[4] both were founded in 1958.[citation needed]
On 21 June 1998, Zeng passed away in Beijing at the age of 87. In accordance with her last wishes, her family scattered her ashes on a quiet hillside next to the martyrs' cemetery of the Xiaojing Red Army Hospital in the Jinggang Mountains.[6]
Works
Her autobiography: 女英自述, Jiangxi People's Publishing House, November 1988 (About her combat life at the Red Army General Hospital in Jinggangshan and Dayu Ridge)
A Survivor of the Revolution — Zeng Zhi's Memoirs (Vols. 1 & 2): Guangdong People's Publishing House, July 1998.
Family
Zeng had three sons and one daughter. Her first three sons were given away to others to raise when they were infants.
Her first husband Xia Mingzhen (February 1907 – 22 March 1928) led an uprising in southern Hunan, formed the Independent Seventh Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, and established the Soviet Government of Chen County, Hunan. On 22 March 1928, he was beaten to death by a mob during the "Anti-Bai Incident".[citation needed]
On 7 November 1928, Zeng gave birth to a son in Dajing Village, Jinggang Mountains, named Cai Shihong. At the time of his birth, Zeng was married to Cai Xiemin. Tao Siliang, daughter of Zeng, believed that Shihong was the posthumous son of Xia.[7] Zeng entrusted him to Shi Libao,[citation needed] the deputy company commander of the 32nd Regiment of Wang Zuo's troops, who adopted and named him Shi Laifa. In January 1929, Zeng left the Jinggang Mountains with the main force of the Fourth Red Army. The child was left behind and mother and son lost contact. When Shi Laifa was 8 years old, his adoptive father and adoptive mother died. He was taken in by his maternal grandmother, only to beg for a living. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, his maternal grandmother passed away. Shi Laifa started a family by farming in Dajing Village. Later, Zeng found his whereabouts through Liu Xinlin, the deputy district head of the Jinggang Mountains (the deputy district head was from Dajing Village). In 1952, mother and son met in Guangzhou. In 1964, Shi Laifa changed his name to Cai Shihong, unaware of the existence of Xia Mingzhen,[8] and worked as a forest ranger in the Jinggang Mountains for decades.[9][10][11] His eldest son, Shi Jinlong, worked at the Jinggang Mountain Reclamation Plant.[12] His second son, Shi Caolong, worked as a security guard at the Jinggang Mountain Cadre Academy. Cai Shihong had a grandson, Cai Jun, and four granddaughters.[13][14]
Her second husband, Cai Xiemin (29 December 1901 – July 1934),[15] was arrested in April 1934 after being betrayed, and executed in Zhangzhou, Fujian.[citation needed]
Her son Tie Niu was born in November 1931. The Xiamen Central Committee decided to have him raised by a traditional Chinese medicine doctor surnamed Ye without Zeng's knowledge. Zeng obeyed the decision and handed over the baby herself.[16] The child died of smallpox after only 20 days.[17]
Her son Cai Chunhua was born in February 1933. He was given to a comrade's aunt 13 days after birth.[citation needed] After graduating from Xi'an Chemical Industry Technical School, Cai Chunhua was assigned to a factory in Liaoyang, Northeast China, to work as a technician in the manufacture of smokeless gunpowder. Later, he was assigned to the Environmental Protection Office of Lechang County, Guangdong Province, as an assistant engineer. His wife was Tong Hui.[18]
Tao Zhu (16 January 1908 – 30 November 1969) was her third husband.[citation needed]
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