Shaanbei Public School

Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937, the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee decided in late July 1937 to establish Shaanbei Public School to train a large number of cadres for the wartime administration and mobilization effort during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In August, Cheng Fangwu was appointed president and Party secretary of the school. The institution operated under a system in which the president was responsible to the Party leadership and was directly administered by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee.

History

Following the outbreak of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937, the Chinese Communist Party decided to establish the Shaanbei Public School (陕北公学, abbreviated as Shangong) in Yan'an to train cadres for the Anti-Japanese War. The campus was located outside the East Gate of Yan'an.

In August 1937, the school's leadership was formed. Cheng Fangwu served as Party secretary and president, Shao Shiping as dean of academic affairs, Zhou Chunquan as director of the Student Affairs Committee (Political Department), and Yuan Fuqing as director of general affairs. Classes began on 1 September 1937, and the official opening ceremony was held on 1 November 1937. In March 1938, Li Weihan was appointed vice president of the school. The institution operated both regular classes, typically lasting three to four months, and advanced research classes with a one-year curriculum.

As enrollment expanded, the school established a branch campus in Kanhua Palace (看花宫), Xunyi County, Shaanxi, in May 1938. Cheng Fangwu remained in Yan'an to oversee the main campus, while Li Weihan was assigned as president of the branch campus. The branch officially opened on 7 July 1938, marking the first anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Beginning in July 1938, in order to free facilities for the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University (抗日军政大学, commonly known as Kangda), the main campus of Shaanbei Public School relocated to an area outside the North Gate of Yan'an. In January 1939, the Yan'an campus moved again to Kanhua Palace and merged with the branch campus.

On 1 January 1939, Li Weihan left the school to become deputy director of the Central Cadre Education Department. During the same month, nearly one thousand teachers and students led by Zhou Chunquan moved to Changzhi, Shanxi, to establish the First Branch of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, with He Changgong serving as president and Zhou as vice president. Another group of nearly one thousand teachers and students led by Shao Shiping moved to Lingshou County, Hebei, to establish the Second Branch, headed by Chen Bojun with Shao serving as vice president.

In June 1939, the Communist Party leadership decided to merge Shaanbei Public School with the Lu Xun Academy of Arts, the Anwu Fortress Wartime Youth Training Class (安吴堡战时青年训练班), and the Yan'an Workers' School to form the North China United University. The newly established institution was dispatched to operate in areas behind Japanese lines. In that winter, the school was re-established in Yan'an in response to continued demand for wartime cadre training. Recruitment resumed, and classes restarted in early December at the former campus site outside the North Gate.

At the end of August 1941, Shaanbei Public School was merged with the China Women's University and the Zedong Youth Cadre School (泽东青年干部学校) to establish Yan'an University. Wu Yuzhang was appointed president and Zhao Yimin vice president. The new university was located on the southern bank of the Yan River at the former campus of China Women's University.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Shaanbei Public School became one of the Chinese Communist Party's most influential cadre-training institutions and was often regarded alongside the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University as a leading revolutionary educational institution.