Peng Dehuai

Chinese general and Minister of National Defense who led the Hundred Regiments Offensive and was purged after the Lushan Conference.

Peng Dehuai was born on October 24, 1898, in Shixiang village, Xiangtan County, Hunan, with the birth name "Peng Dehua"^[1] The family dwelling was a thatched hut, and they cultivated roughly 1.5 acres of land while also running a bean curd shop.^[1][2]

Last updated 2026-09-30 from the source article.

Quick Facts

Office: 1st Minister of National Defense
Took office: September 28, 1954
Left office: September 17, 1959
Premier: Zhou Enlai
Successor: Lin Biao
Birth name: 彭清宗 (Péng Qīngzōng)
Born: 24 October 1898
Birthplace: Shixiang, Xiangtan County, Hunan, China

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

In 1916, Peng joined the army of a local Kuomintang-aligned warlord as a private second class soldier.^[3][4] From 1905 to 1907, Peng studied at a traditional Confucian school; in 1908 he entered a modern school but had to leave at age ten because his family's finances worsened.^[2] Peng's mother died in 1905; a severe drought then hit Hunan. After being pulled from school in 1908, Peng and his brothers begged for food, and from 1908 to 1910 he worked tending water buffaloes.^[2] Peng made another attempt to seize Changsha on September 1, but his forces sustained many casualties.^[5]

What the cited sources add

Political scientist Jürgen Domes wrote that Peng's social consciousness was awakened by his experience of impoverishment and disappointment with the Kuomintang.^[6] Domes observed that Kuomintang cadres with communist leanings were strong supporters of the party's platform, which demanded national sovereignty, an end to warlordism, a welfare state, and equal land distribution.^[6] More sophisticated communist theories and ideology seem to have had little influence on Peng's conversion.^[6]

References

Wikipedia, "Peng Dehuai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Peng Dehuai Chinese military leader", via Encyclopedia Britannica, October 20, 2023; Lew, "Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Civil War", Scarecrow Press, 2013, p. 173; Frankel, "The Cold War, 1945–1991: Leaders and other important figures in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, and the Third World", Gale Research, 1992, p. 267 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Peng Dehuai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Domes 10–11, 140 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Peng Dehuai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Domes 11–12 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Peng Dehuai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Domes 12 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Peng Dehuai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Domes 31–32 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Peng Dehuai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sandschneider, "Jürgen Domes (1932–2001)", The China Quarterly, December 2001, p. 998–1000; Domes 20–22 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Peng Dehuai (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.