Notes From the Field | Phil Wetjen, Valley Forge and Yan'an: Common Roots in Revolution
At first glance, there does not appear to be a great deal in common between the histories of the US and the Peoples Republic of China. However, based on my residence in the US and frequent travels to the PRC, I have identified one common element.
American students often grow up learning about the Continental Army’s winter at Valley Forge as an integral moment in the history of the American revolution. Similarly, students in China learn about the years the Chinese Communist Party leadership resided in Yan’an, Shaanxi province.
As American students learn from history textbooks, Valley Forge was the winter encampment for the Continental army in 1777-1778. Although no battle took place there, it was a pivotal moment for the American revolutionary cause. The army prevailed through the hardship of the long winter months, and by the spring had managed to rebuild itself into a fighting force that would eventually prove to be a better match for the British.
And as Chinese students learn, Yan’an was where the Long March ended in 1936. Mao Zedong triumphantly led the year-long journey of the First Front Army in a long arc from southern China to Shaanxi province, in the process enduring significant hardships, including – as the story emphasizes – crossing eighteen mountain ranges and twenty-four rivers.
In both cases, the armies were exhausted and largely in tatters when they arrived at their respective destinations. But it was precisely their perseverance through such dire situations that cemented these histories into the national narratives of both countries, while making their leaders national heroes.
For the American Continental Army, the situation looked especially bleak. After experiencing multiple defeats across southeast Pennsylvania, American officials had retreated to Lancaster, and then further west to York in an attempt to provide continuity of government as the British occupied the national capital, Philadelphia. Washington’s troops engaged the British army in late October in Germantown and as late as December 8th in Whitemarsh. Following the battle, the British withdrew back into the safety of fortifications surrounding Philadelphia and General Washington issued orders for the army to make its way to Valley Forge to establish winter quarters.
Washington’s Lieutenants had identified Valley Forge as a potential winter camp in late October 1777, after it had become clear the British would probably not be forced out of Philadelphia. Approximately twenty miles outside the capital, Valley Forge commanded high ground overlooking the area known as the Great Valley and was protected from the rear by the Schuylkill River. Valley Forge’s location was certainly defendable and could assist in portraying an image that Washington’s army was keeping the British bottled up in Philadelphia. But the fact is, by December 19th the exhausted army could not have proceeded any further.
Likewise, for the Chinese Communist Party in 1935, the First Front Army had endured fatigue, desertions, food shortages, and attacks by both Nationalist forces and local warlords by the time they arrived in the Yellow River Plateau area. This area is known as the “Loess Plateau,” with loess referring to the dusty soil, yellow colored and continually blown up by the unceasing wind. This wind had sculpted the landscape of the plateau into an unending series of carved ravines, through which the occasional oxcart trail meandered. The army had been following these trails through loess country for three weeks before arriving at their destination. To the core cadre of the First Front Army, natives of the lush and verdant valleys of southern China who had travelled the entire long arc across the huge country, Shaanxi must have felt like they had suddenly found themselves among the craters of the moon.
This journey north is legendary in the history of the Chinese Communist Party and is reverently referred to as “The Long March”. Although originally characterized as a retreat or withdrawal, as the troops neared Shaanxi province the first references to “The Long March” surfaced. Besides the aforementioned eighteen mountain ranges and twenty-four rivers, the First Army had engaged in a series of maneuvers conducted in the style of a very effective guerilla war. Military historians often cite the fact that one of the most difficult campaigns to execute is an effective retreat under constant threat from the enemy.
That Mao Zedong was able to lead the First Army through this year-long ordeal is presented as a testament to his leadership and was the single greatest contributor to his growing stature in the CCP. Other, and more senior leaders of the CCP had disagreed on a strategy and direction for the retreat north. But Mao’s logic had prevailed at every crisis point. Mao may not have been in command at the outset of the march, but by the time the First Army had arrived in Shaanxi, Mao was firmly in charge.
Similarly, Valley Forge is central to narratives of George Washington’s role as “father” of the American Revolution. Immediately upon arrival in Valley Forge Washington’s office corps began looking for local housing for Washington himself and the senior members of his staff. As the Valley Forge National Historical Park tells visitors, Washington had made it clear he would reside in his tent until all continental soldiers had been adequately housed. A standard design for a log hut was drafted with twelve soldiers per hut. Given the approximate 11,000 soldiers, plus various support personnel, it’s estimated that at least 1,300 of the structures were built. Since the soldiers enlisted by the particular state they came from, the huts were located in various state-oriented neighborhoods around the 3500-acre encampment. Only when all the shelters were completed did Washington move into the home of Isaac Potts, for which he paid rent for the duration of the encampment. Replicas of these huts are a central feature in the Historical Park today.
It is important to emphasize the impact General Washington had on the troops. His leadership, more than anything else, forged the bonds that allowed the army to survive the winter intact and begin to come together as a fighting unit in the spring. Soldiers whose enlistment period was up during the winter months almost uniformly agreed to ‘re-up’ based on their personal loyalty to Washington.
For the army in Yan’an, the housing was in the form of caves, dug into the loess soil. One estimate puts the number of these caves at ten thousand. And like Valley Forge, replicas of the caves are present today in Yan’an.
But after the Chinese Communist Party achieved victory over the Nationalist forces in October of 1949 and moved its entire infrastructure to Beijing, Yan’an was left to return to its former position in Shaanxi prefectural life. When long time AP correspondent John Roderick returned to Yan’an after China opened up in 1981, he was struck by the lack of recognition of any aspect of the city’s pivotal role in 20th century Chinese history:
There were no crowds of tourists, no merely curious people milling about what should have been a popular shrine celebrating communism’s finest days. It was as though Mao and his comrades had never existed (John Roderick, Covering China [Chicago: Imprint Publications, 1993], 53).
In 2023 that lack of recognition has been completely reversed. Yan’an is one of several sites in China that have felt the effects of the wave of ‘Red Tourism’ that has become a trend for Chinese travelers since 2004, when the central government issued a plan to promote visits to historical sites in the country. On a spring weekend in Yan’an, the streets, historical sites and hotels are filled with families and tour groups systematically filing through each venue, with the caves as the most popular stopping point.
President Xi has visited Yan’an on several occasions. Despite being the first Chinese leader born after the 1949 victory over the Kuomintang, he regards himself as the “Keeper of the Revolution” and is very cognizant of the Yan’an spirit. Xi lived in Yan’an for seven years, from 1969 to 1975. During that time he resided in one of the cave dwellings and performed agricultural work that he regards as molding him for eventual CCP leadership. He returned for official state visits in February of 2015 and most recently last fall in late October 2022.
For the past twenty-three years I have lived in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, close to Valley Forge National Historical Park. On any summer weekend afternoon Valley Forge hosts a wide variety of visitors. A true multi-purpose park, it attracts all kinds of people, locals as well as visitors from far away. Many are chasing history, and for them, the replica huts are a focal point.
When I visit Gettysburg or other historical sites where battles took place, numbers and exact facts seem to matter. “How many men were lost in Pickett’s Charge”? “When and where were the soldiers and cannon placed on Cemetery Ridge”? But when visiting an encampment like Valley Forge or Yan’an, the numbers and exact facts seem of less importance. What emerges instead is a recognition of the spirit of the place. Not so much what happened there, but why the place itself matters. Both Yan’an and Valley Forge are cultural touchstones for the citizens of their countries. And that makes the need for exact numbers fade in importance.
For Valley Forge and Yan’an, the exact facts gently yield to the legend. Although the myth says (and paintings show) Valley Forge with layers of heavy snow, the facts indicate it was a normal southeast Pennsylvania winter. This means occasional snow but mostly cold and wet and miserable. And after now experiencing twenty-three of those winters, I can attest that Washington’s troops were quite sufficiently tested in their huts and on the parade ground.
And for the troops at Yan’an, did they cross eighteen mountain ranges and twenty-four rivers getting to Yan’an, or twenty-four mountain ranges and eighteen rivers? And did crossing the Chishui river four times count as four or one?
No, the facts don’t matter as much as the meaning of what took place in these two encampments – places that truly represent the birth of each of these modern nations and their leading national heroes. You wander among the sites, seeming to note the particular aspects of their history, but truly more interested in simply absorbing the overall atmosphere and ambience. You stroll the grounds, peak into the shelters and observe other visitors. You wonder, and try to guess, if any of those other visitors are also travelling back in time as you are.
What emerges instead is a recognition of the spirit of the place. Not what happened there, but why the place itself matters. Both Yan’an and Valley Forge are cultural touchstones for the citizens of their countries.
Here we have two countries sharing the common element of an encampment, rather than a battlefield, as a central part of their revolutionary history. Encampments where their respective armies, under charismatic leadership, endured difficult conditions as they forged bonds and formulated ideas that would eventually lead to the creation of two modern nations.
In this time of escalating tensions and rhetoric, citizens and leaders of both nations would benefit from further examination of the common elements in our history.
Phil Wetjen is an independent scholar, retired from a career in IT that allowed him to travel internationally to over twenty countries, including multiple visits/extended assignments in Japan, Germany, the UK and the People's Republic of China.
To cite this essay, please use the entry suggested below:
Phil Wetjen, “Valley Forge and Yan'an: Common Roots in Revolution,” criticalasianstudies.org Commentary Board, March 13, 2024; https://doi.org/10.52698/PQXT7662