Chen Yi was the founding marshal of the People's Republic of China, and during the revolutionary period, he was active in the south for a long time, serving as the commander of the New Fourth Army. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chen Yi served as the mayor of Shanghai and the minister of foreign affairs, and made great contributions to the construction and restoration of Shanghai's economy and the diplomatic cause of New China.
The person we are going to talk about today was also called Chen Yi, and later in order to avoid the same name as Marshal Chen Yi, he deliberately changed his name to Chen Yi. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chen Yi was not only awarded the rank of major general, but also served as director of the General Political Department and Culture Department, making tremendous contributions to the cultural work of the whole army. So, what is the story of Chen Yi?
Chen Yi was born in 1912, a native of Zunyi, Guizhou, born in a small landlord family, in his early years, he mainly studied in Zunyi, after graduating from middle school, Chen Yi went to Sichuan and was admitted to the School of Engineering of Sichuan University. In 1929, with the sponsorship of his grandmother, Chen Yi went to Shanghai and entered the Chinese University of Arts in Shanghai. It was also during this university that he began to participate in various patriotic movements, devoted himself to exploring the way to save the country and the people, and joined the Anti-Imperialist Grand League and the "Left League".
In 1931, after the outbreak of the 918 Incident, Chen Yi actively participated in the anti-Japanese struggle to save the country, and it was also this year that he strengthened his inner belief and joined our party. After joining the party, Chen Yi was mainly active in the north, criticizing the Kuomintang's policy of non-resistance with a large pen in his hand, and propagating our party's anti-Japanese ideology and salvation. During that time, the Kuomintang reactionaries persecuted progressives on a large scale, and Chen Yi was also persecuted, and was arrested in 1933 and sentenced to five years in prison.
In 1935, Chen Yi was rescued from prison by his father, and after being released from prison, Chen Yi first returned to Guizhou, and then went to Shanghai to serve as the editor of the "National Salvation Daily". After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Chen Yi first entered the Anti-Enemy Troupe, and after a period of time, he moved to Taihang Mountain, where he was active in the Taihang Base Area, and entered the cadre training class as an instructor to cultivate talents for the Anti-Japanese War.
After 1939, Chen Yi went to the base areas in southern Hebei and Shandong to continue to engage in propaganda work, during which he served as the editor-in-chief of the "Southern Hebei Daily" and the director of the "Luxi Daily", extensively reported on the arduous struggle in the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines, and did a lot of work to consolidate the anti-Japanese national united front, making positive contributions to the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
During the War of Liberation, Chen Yi first served as the head of the Propaganda Department of the East China Bureau, and later went to the Northeast and joined the Northeast Field Army to engage in propaganda and logistics work.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chen Yi served as director of the Department of Culture of the General Political Department and did a great deal of fruitful work for the construction and development of cultural work throughout the army. In 1955, at the age of 43, Chen Yi was awarded the rank of major general. Unfortunately, in 1958, the 46-year-old Chen Yi was mistreated and classified as a "rightist". After that, Chen Yi was sent to Heilongjiang to work for 21 years, during which he was subjected to various shocks and great physical and mental persecution, and it was not until 1979 that his reputation was restored.
After restoring his reputation, Chen Yi was transferred to Shanghai, where he served as deputy secretary of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee, director of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee, and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress. In his later years, Chen Yi lived mainly in Shanghai and died of illness in 2002 at the age of 90.
It is worth mentioning that before participating in the revolution, Chen Yi's name was Chen Yi, in 1946, he met Chen Yi for the first time, and after meeting, he expressed his idea of changing his name, Marshal Chen Yi thought it didn't matter, after all, there were many people with the same name and surname, and said, "We have a big Chen Yi in China, a small Chen Yi, and you can also do it." But Chen Yi thought that this was not good, and finally changed his original name.