Tan Pingshan
Tan Pingshan was a Chinese revolutionary socialist and an early member of the Chinese Communist Party from Gaoming, Guangdong. He was influential in the Tongmenghui and formed the Guangdong branch of the CCP with the help of Chen Duxiu. He later took part in the formation of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang.
Biography
Early years
Tan was born into a family of tailors. He was admitted to a premier school in Guangzhou in 1905. Upon graduation, he joined the budding Tongmenghui under the influence of Sun Yat-sen. He enrolled into Peking University's philosophy faculty in 1917 whilst participating in the May Fourth Movement. As a protest to the 21 demands he was part of the group of students who surged and set fire to the house of Minister of Transport Cao Rulin, subsequently being arrested for his actions.After the Founding of the Communist Party
In 1920 Tan went back to Guangdong to form a Marxist group. He was appointed as the Secretary of the CCP Guangdong branch upon the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. He participated the 3rd National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and was elected into the Central Committee. In the 4th and 5th Congress of the CCP, he was reappointed as a member of the Central Committee and also held membership in the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.In August 1927 he was one of the leaders that started the Nanchang Rebellion against the Nanjing Nationalist Government led by Chiang Kai-shek. During the course of the rebellion, he recruited He Long into the CCP. Tan went back to Shanghai after the failure of the rebellion. In an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in November, Zhang Guotao appealed to the Comintern for the removal of Tan from the party as he blamed the failure of the Nanchang Uprising due to his leftist-tendencies. Losing his CCP membership, he sought after Deng Yanda for assistance in setting up an alternative Marxist enclave but was to no avail.
Membership in the Kuomintang
Tan participated in the 1st National Congress of the Kuomintang in 1924 and was elected into the Standing Central Committee and appointed as a Minister in the Central Organization Department of Kuomintang. In March 1937 he was appointed as a member of the Wuhan National Government and retained his post as the Minister for Agriculture.At the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Tan returned to Wuhan seeking to help the Nationalist Party. Warmly received by Chiang Kai-shek, he restored his dormant membership in the KMT and was soon elected into the 1st to 4th National Political Council. In 1942, Tan married Sun Sunquan in Chongqing. In January 1948, he was in Hong Kong to participate in the founding of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang and served in the Central Standing Committee.