Dong Biwu

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Lore & Background

Dong Biwu was one of the officials standing on Tiananmen Gate's balcony on October 1, 1949, as Mao Zedong read the proclamation establishing the People's Republic of China. In the original version of Dong Xiwen's painting *The Founding of the Nation*, Dong Biwu is positioned in the second row of leaders to Mao's left. Zhou Enlai was furthest left in the second row, and beside him were Dong Biwu, two men whose identities are uncertain, and furthest right, Guo Moruo. Lin Boqu was furthest left in the third row. The painting, completed in 1953, was later revised multiple times: Gao Gang was removed in 1954, Liu Shaoqi in 1967, and a replica was painted in 1972 to accommodate further deletions. In 1979, the replica was modified to include the purged individuals who had been rehabilitated. Both canvases are in the National Museum of China in Beijing.

Reader's Guide

Dong Biwu was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party, having attended its inaugural congress in 1921 as a representative from Wuhan. He was the only other person besides Mao Zedong present at both that founding meeting and the 1949 proclamation of the People's Republic of China. Born into a landlord family in Hubei, he received a classical education and studied law in Japan, where he joined Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary party. After returning to China, he was imprisoned for six months for organizing resistance against the Yuan Shikai regime. Exposure to Marxism in Shanghai led him to establish a Communist apparatus in Hubei. During the revolutionary period, he initially held dual membership in the Kuomintang and Communist Party before siding with the Communists in 1927. Following the Nanchang Uprising, he fled to the Soviet Union, studying at the International Lenin School and Moscow Sun Yat-sen University. Back in China, he served as Political Director of the Red Army Academy and President of the Party School in the Jiangxi Soviet, where he supported Mao against Li Lisan. He participated in the Long March and later became known as one of the Five Elders of Yan'an. During the war with Japan, he acted as a liaison with the Nationalist government, and in 1945 he was the sole Communist representative on the Chinese delegation to the founding session of the United Nations in San Francisco, afterward traveling the United States to build international support. After the founding of the People's Republic, he served as Director of the Finance and Economic Committee and later as President of the Supreme People's Court. He led a diplomatic delegation to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1958. In 1959, he was named Vice President of China, a post he held until his death. He defended Peng Dehuai at the Lushan Conference yet remained in Mao’s favor, and he rose in prominence during the Cultural Revolution, taking over ceremonial duties from the purged Liu Shaoqi. He served as Acting President of China from 1972 to 1975. His official obituary described him as a founder of the Communist Party, a great Marxist, an outstanding proletarian revolutionary, a founding father of the People's Republic, and a founder of China’s socialist legal system.

Did You Know?

• Dong Biwu is depicted in the second row of Dong Xiwen's 1953 oil painting *The Founding of the Nation*, which shows the October 1, 1949 proclamation ceremony at Tiananmen Square.
• In the painting, Zhou Enlai is furthest left in the second row, and beside him are Dong Biwu, two men whose identities are uncertain, and furthest right, Guo Moruo.
• The painting was repeatedly revised: Gao Gang was removed in 1954, Liu Shaoqi in 1967, and a replica was painted in 1972 to accommodate further deletions.
• In 1979, the replica was modified to include purged individuals who had been rehabilitated.
• Both the original and replica canvases are in the National Museum of China in Beijing.