1. DBQ: Relationship between Chinese peasants and communist party
Historical background: Japan invaded China in 1937 and occupied large parts of it until Japan’s defeat in the Second World War in In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China

2. July 1, 1921 - Communist Party of China founded in Shanghai.
Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek(Republic) launches attacks on Communist strongholds in Shanghai, killing hundreds of activists, after party launches a failed uprising. The party retreats, going underground and decamping to the countryside.
Mao Zedong begins ascent to power during the Long March, a series of retreats by the Red Army to evade Chiang's pursuing Nationalist forces.
Japan expands occupation of northeast China, the Nationalists join fragile "united front" with Communists to defend against the common threat. At the end of World War Two, the Nationalist-Communist civil war resumes.
Oct 1, Mao Zedong proclaims the establishment of the People's Republic of China( Communist China). Chiang Kai-shek and the defeated nationalists flee to Taiwan( formerly Formosa) by late in year.
Contextualization ch 22

3. Groupings
1. Communist Party main force in fighting the Japanese. Docs 3, 4, 5
2. Overthrow landlords. Docs 1, 2, 6, 8, 9
3. New Rights given to peasants. Doc 6, 7, 8,

4. Doc 1-Peasants will rise like a mighty storm and break the chains of imperialists, corrupt officials, local tyrants, and evil landowners into their graves.
Doc 2-Young peasant attracted to communism due to the fact that the peasants are going to schools, have radios, no mortgages to landlords, fight traitors and Japan.
Doc 3- Japanese Army administrative officer complaining how difficult it is to find the difference between Communists and peasants.
Doc 4- Communist report on how the Japanese have stolen Chinese property, attacked villages, killed civilians, and killed farmed animals.
Doc 5- Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on how the party needs to help peasants improve their living conditions and enhance their enthusiasm in fighting the Japanese because peasants represent the basic strength of the Communist party.
Doc 6-William Hinton comments on the transfer of land from the rich landlords to the peasants after the Communist Revolution and how the peasants were owed this due to the years of abuse by the landlords.
Doc 7- The new Marriage Law of China states that there is no more supremacy of man over woman, but based on free choice of partners, monogamy, and equal rights for both sexes.
Doc 8- Agrarian Reform Law states no more feudal exploitation by the landlord, peasant ownership, landlords lands and possessions will be confiscated, and this will pave the way for Chinese industrialization.
Doc 9-Photograph of Chinese peasants in a struggle meeting as part of the land reform process.
Document Break-down

5. One way in which peasants and the Communist Party had a positive relationship was that the Communists helped the peasants overthrow their landlords and redistribute land back to the poor. Document 1 is a written report by Mao Zedong on the peasant movement in China in In this report Mao discusses how the peasants will overthrow those who have exploited their labor and land. This report is evidence that Communism gave peasants the strength to demand their rights to the land from the landlords. Document 6 is the recollection of William Hinton in Hinton explains the process of land and property restoration from the landlords to the peasants. This recollection is evidence that the Communist Party continues to correct the abuses of the peasants by the landlords. Document 8 is an excerpt of the Agrarian Reform Law of China. The articles state the abolishment of feudalism and the rise of peasant land ownership. This law is evidence of the Communist Party’s agenda to improve the life of peasants by redistributing land and property. Document 9 is a photograph of a Chinese peasants struggle meeting. In this meeting a peasant woman chastises her landlord in a step of the land reform process. This photograph is evidence that Communism switched the roles of peasants and landlords and gave peasants a new sense of power. In Document 2 Edgar Snow, a U.S. journalist recounts a conversation between a teenaged peasant and his grandfather regarding the benefits of communism. The teenaged peasant’s point of view regarding the benefits of communism is one of great enthusiasm because of all the benefits that the Communist Party has given the peasants. The teenager’s viewpoint is reliable because he has lived both with and without the Communist Party’s influence and he knows what life was like under the rule of the corrupt landlords.
Body Paragraph

6. Only asks for two groupings
Sample Thesis Statement #1:
“The Chinese Communist Party soon came into power after chasing the Kuomintang and its anti-communist policies into Taiwan; with the growth of the party’s power, the peasant class experienced major influence. Chinese peasants and the Chinese Communist Party between circa 1925 and circa 1950 had a relationship where the party fostered the state of the people, igniting a sense of nationalism in the peasants, advocating social equality, and fostering anti-Japanese feelings.”
Sample Thesis Statement #2:
“The relationship between Chinese peasants and Chinese Communist Party between 1925 and 1950 has been generally good. The Communist Party has sparked new life into the peasants’ class, improving their way of life and making equal rights for the women as well. All of these benefits will surely help them in the time to come and into modern times.”
Only asks for two groupings

7. Source: Mao Zedong, rising leader of the Chinese Communist Party, written report on the peasant movement in central China, 1927.
The present upsurge of the peasant movement is a colossal event. In a very short time, in China’s central, southern, and northern provinces, several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty storm, like a hurricane, a force so swift and violent that no power, however great, will be able to hold it back. They will smash all the chains that bind them and rush forward along the road to liberation. They will sweep all the imperialists, warlords, corrupt officials, local tyrants, and evil landowners into their graves
Inciting nationalism?

8. Unsure? Look at source.. An American
Source: Conversation between a teenaged peasant and his grandfather, from an area controlled by Chinese Communists, recounted by Edgar Snow, United States journalist, 1936.
Grandfather, you call villagers joining the Poor People’s league, voting for Communists, having their sons join Communist armies or daughters enroll in schools crimes? These are patriotic acts! Did we have a free school before? Did we ever get news of the world before the Communists brought us radios? Who told us what the world was like? You say the cooperative has no cloth, but did we even have a cooperative before? How about your farm? Wasn’t there a big mortgage on it to landlord Wang? My sister starved to death three years ago, but haven’t we had plenty to eat since the Communists came? You say it’s bitter, but it isn’t bitter for us Young Communist Vanguards when we learn to use a rifle and fight traitors and Japan!
Unsure? Look at source.. An American

9. Source: Japanese Political Affairs Bureau for Occupied China, administrative office of the Japanese Army, report, 1941.
The Chinese Communist Red Army champions army-civilian integration and is continuously organizing local guerrilla units. As a consequence, it is extraordinarily difficult to separate the Communist bandits from the peasants in our efforts to destroy the Communists.
Winning!!!!!

10. Source: Chinese Communist report on Japanese military actions in North China villages, 1942.
In Japanese attacks on our villages, they killed 97 civilians, wounded 382, kidnapped 3, and raped 216 women. Japanese soldiers stole farm animals (734 oxen, 694 mules, 6 donkeys, 45 horses, 734 hogs, 6 goats, 106 ducks, 13,817 chickens); thousands of chairs and tables, kitchen pots and rice bowls, and stone grinders; thousands of peasants’ quilts and piles of clothing; over 6,000 bushels of grain; tons of straw; and 430,000 yuan.*
*yuan: Chinese currency
The enemy of my enemy…

11. Inspiring further nationalism
Source: Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, instructions to local party officials, 1942.
Recognize that peasants constitute the basic strength of the Anti-Japanese War. Accordingly it is the policy of the party to assist the peasant, reduce feudal exploitation by the landlords, support civil liberties, political rights, and economic rights of the peasants in order to improve their living conditions and enhance their enthusiasm for the Anti-Japanese War.
Inspiring further nationalism

12. Source: William Hinton, United States–born member of a Chinese Communist land reform task force in northern China, 1948.
The arming of the people for resistance against Japan had placed the peasants in a position to challenge the landlords and money lenders in the countryside, and not even the tremendous prestige of the Chinese Communist Party or the critical situation of the country and the world could prevent this challenge from breaking out in one form or another. This increasingly explosive force transferred land from the landowners to the peasants. Now peasants demanded not only the correction of abuses but also repayment of overcharges and restoration of lands and property seized in default of debts. When grievances were totaled up, the charges almost always amounted to more than most landowning families could pay, and everything they owned was transferred from the landlords to the peasants for distribution

13. Source: Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China, 1950.
The feudal marriage system based on arbitrary and compulsory arrangements and the supremacy of man over woman, and in disregard of the interest of the children, is abolished.
The new democratic marriage system, which is based on the free choice of partners, on monogamy, on equal rights for both sexes, and on the protection of the lawful interests of women and children, is put into effect.

14. Source: Agrarian Reform Law of the People’s Republic of China, 1950.
Article 1. The landownership system of feudal exploitation by the landlord class shall be abolished and the system of peasant landownership shall be introduced in order to set free the rural productive forces, develop agricultural production, and thus pave the way for new China’s industrialization.
Article 2. The land, draft animals, farm implements, and surplus grain of the landlords and their surplus houses in the countryside shall be confiscated.

15. Document 9
Source: Chinese peasants at a struggle meeting. In the center stands a peasant woman with her former landlord standing in front of her. Struggle meetings were organized by the Chinese Communist Party as part of the land reform process. Photo circa 1950.

16. Mao’s struggle to establish the People’s Republic of China would lead to his consolidation of Authority under the collectivization plans of land controlled by government, sending millions to these collectives from the cities to work, establishing 5 year plans (like Stalin) to industrialize rural China and engaging in a cultural revolution eschewing China’s cultural History for one of propaganda, totalitarianism and programs to catch China up “Great Leap Forward” which would come at tremendous expense to the Chinese population.
Synthesis

17. Addresses the question

18. Persuasive use of docs and POV