Octagonal Building

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As this building had an octagonal clearstory at the top, the local people often called it Octagonal Building. During the struggle on Mount Jinggangshan, Mao Zedong once lived and worked here to lead the great struggle in the juncture.

Meanwhile, the two glary works”Why Could the Red Political Power Exist?”and”The Struggle on Mount Jinggangshan”were written and completed by Mao Zedong in the building.

On the basis of the Chinese national conditions, Mao Zedong combined Marxism-Leninism with Chinese practices, changed the heart of the revolution from cities to countrysides and established the first revolutionary base in Mount Jinggangshan.

However, in the semi-feudal and semi-colonial country, the problem how to overthrow the reactionary rules with power and set up the people’s democratic power hadn’t been solved in the whole Party yet. Even a large number of leading cadres had gone deep into countryside to launch the struggle, they felt it indefinite mentally. In addition, after the establishment of the base area, with the influence and interference of the”Left”adventurism, the base area had suffered from two defeats in March and in August separately. The enemy’s frequent military suppressions and rigorous economic blockages resulted in the area’s great difficulties. Therefore, the question “How Long Could the Flag Be Lifted?”was raised. In order to clarify the developing law of Chinese revolution in theory, eliminate the disturbance from “Left”or”Right” thinking and guide the Party and the people to victory, Mao Zedong made deep investigations and wrote the above two works.

In the two works, Mao Zedong concluded the experiences of Jinggangshan’s struggles, analyzed the nature, impetus and tasks of Chinese revolution, put forward the thinking of the worker-peasant armed separatism, described five requirements of the red political power’s existence and development, answered the question, and strengthened the confidence in victory. Therefore,a solid foundation was established for building a revolutionary road of encircling the urban areas from the rural areas to capture power with armed forces.

In those days, the Red Army men lived very hard. Mao Zedong used to work late at night. With the cold weather, Mao Zedong would take on the blanket to keepoff the cold. As oil was in short supply, Mao Zedong used only one wick to work at night, instead of three wicks as stipulated.

This building was preserved in those days.There exist the slogans written by the Red Army men on the walls，and the exhibits such as the bedstead，the table，the ink stone，the oil lamp，the tea table and wing chair are the originals used by Mao Zedong and his wife He Zizhen.

In March 1961，the Octagonal Building was issued by the State Council to be one of the key cultural relics under the state protection.