The Spirit of Kangda: An Immortal Monument Passed Down Through 90 Years — Written on the 90th Anniversary of the Founding of Kangda
The Spirit of Kangda: An Immortal Monument Passed Down Through 90 Years — Written on the 90th Anniversary of the Founding of Kangda
■ China Military Network Reporter Huang Gaixia
In the early summer of 2026, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the founding of Kangda, this reporter came to a simple and solemn traditional-style building on North Erdao Street in Yan'an. Gray brick walls paired with vermilion gates, plain and steady upturned eaves, and above the lintel, engraved characters: Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. On the walls on either side, the eight-character school motto was written in proper form — "Unity, Tension, Seriousness, Liveliness" (团结、紧张、严肃、活泼) — white background with red characters, striking and clear. The ground in front was clean and open, blue-brick stone steps spread quietly, and standing there, the weight of the years of war and fire came rushing forward, as if one could hear the resounding echo of the Kangda students' ideals of saving the nation.
Former Site of the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. Photo by Xiao Yang
Looking Back: A Cave-Dwelling University Born in the Midst of National Peril
Inside the Kangda Memorial Hall, a set of black-and-white photographs left a lasting impression.
The young people in the photographs were seated inside cave dwellings (窑洞). A few stones propped up a wooden plank — that was the desk. The light was very dim, but their expressions were legible — a kind of concentration, even carrying a touch of the vitality particular to young people.
The display cases held objects from that era: command flags, wooden rifles, hand grenades, and several works of Marxist-Leninist theory printed on rough, yellowed paper. The guide said that students used birch bark as paper, boiled pot-bottom soot mixed with water for ink, and strung wild peach pits together as an abacus. The blackboard was a wall plastered with lime mud; chalk was pieces of limestone picked up from the ground.
Display of artifacts at the Kangda Memorial Hall. Photo by Xiao Yang
In October 1935, the Central Red Army had just completed the Long March and arrived in northern Shaanxi. What kind of journey was that? Crossing snow mountains, traversing grasslands — more than 86,000 people set out, fewer than 8,000 arrived. Those who walked alive to northern Shaanxi were ragged and emaciated, their bodies bearing the various wounds and illnesses left by gunshot injuries, frostbite, and starvation.
It was precisely this group of people who, just eight months after arriving in northern Shaanxi, founded a university to train military and political cadres.
On June 1, 1936, the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Red Army University, abbreviated "Hongda" (红大), held the opening ceremony for its first cohort of students at Wayaobu in northern Shaanxi. In mid-January 1937, Hongda relocated with the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission to Yan'an and was renamed the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, abbreviated "Kangda" (抗大).
A set of figures recorded in the memorial hall: the first class of Kangda's first cohort had 40 students in total; excluding two foreign students, 38 were cadres at the division or regiment level and above, with an average age of 27 and an average of three scars per person. Some had left the snow mountains and grasslands less than half a year before, their frostbitten toes not yet healed, and had already taken their seats in the cave-dwelling classroom.
Image of Kangda students at work. Photo by Xiao Yang
On display in the exhibition hall was a yellowed student diary, its edges already worn and torn, the handwriting uneven, yet every character carried immense weight, recording the arduous journey they had traveled from the snow mountains and grasslands, through enemy-blockaded areas behind the lines, and into Kangda upon arriving in northern Shaanxi.
American journalist Edgar Snow described Kangda in Red Star Over China as follows: "With cave dwellings as classrooms, stones and bricks as desks and chairs, lime-plastered walls as blackboards, and school buildings completely impervious to bombing, this 'institution of higher learning' is probably the only one of its kind in the entire world." Comrade Mao Zedong said with humor: "Living the life of the Stone Age, studying the most advanced contemporary science — Marxism-Leninism." This was a burning conviction.
Standing before the old photographs in the Kangda Memorial Hall, I suddenly understood. The most precious wealth of the Long March was not guns and supplies, but a force of unwavering faith — people who, in the most desperate of circumstances, held firm in their convictions and persevered through every setback.
Kangda operated for more than nine years, cultivating over 100,000 military and political cadres of both virtue and ability. Behind these figures were batch after batch of young people who walked from cave dwellings to the battlefield. Some of them came back; some remained on the battlefield forever. But the spirit of Kangda was ultimately proven to be an indestructible truth.
Across Time: Different Eras, the Same Choice
The vivid faces in the photographs on the second-floor exhibition hall were deeply moving: there were female students in qipao, intellectuals wearing round-framed glasses, dark-skinned farmers, and several overseas Chinese youth. They came from different places and wore different clothes, but the look in their eyes in the photographs was the same — a steadiness that belongs to those who know where they are going.
In one photograph, a young man had fine, clear features. The guide said his name was Kong Mai, an overseas Chinese from Indonesia, nineteen years old. In 1938, as Japanese forces invaded China, he bought a boat ticket home without telling his parents. When the ship reached Hong Kong, Kong Mai entrusted someone to bring his mother a photograph, on the back of which he wrote his vow to dedicate himself to China's war of resistance. He traveled north alone, making his way through several months of hardship to reach Yan'an. After graduating from Kangda, he participated in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation, and worked on the foreign press and cultural front of New China. In him we see the journey of outstanding young people from across the country who rushed to Kangda to study, fight, and grow.
Display of overseas Chinese students at the Kangda Memorial Hall; Kong Mai is at lower left. Photo by Xiao Yang
With ninety years of time and space between them, the combat spirit of the Kangda students of that era brought a profound ideological awakening to those visiting the site in person, especially students born in the 1990s.
Two generations separated by ninety years, of similar age, in different uniforms, with different equipment, answering the same question that pierces through history: What is faith? Why do we fight?
The answer lies in the educational policy Comrade Mao Zedong formulated for Kangda: "A firm and correct political orientation, an industrious and plain working style, flexible and mobile strategy and tactics."
"First is to learn a political orientation. There can be many different political orientations; you must learn a correct political orientation — that is, the correct political orientation of fighting Japan, how to fight Japan, and why Japanese imperialism can certainly be defeated." In April 1938, Comrade Mao Zedong spoke at the opening ceremony of the third brigade of Kangda's fourth cohort, and he offered a vivid analogy: "Political orientation is like a person's head — only with a head can the other parts move."
Looking across ninety years of time. Those Kangda students who hung small blackboards on their packs and learned characters while on the march, and today's National Defense University students who deduce joint operational plans before war-gaming systems — their spiritual character is the same: they know why they are standing here and where they are going.
National Defense University students reaffirm their Party oath at a revolutionary historical site. Photo by Li Lun
They will surely grow into the backbone of the future battlefield. The echo of history is unceasing; the torch of mission is passed down from generation to generation. Just as Kangda in the Yan'an cave dwellings ninety years ago, what the National Defense University forges today are precisely those outstanding talents capable of shouldering heavy responsibilities and daring to fight and win. From Kangda to the National Defense University, across time and space, they carry forward the same great cause — gathering and tempering the finest torrent of youth, forging it into the most tenacious steel of victory within the military, and ultimately committing it to the front lines where the cause of strengthening the military needs it most — to temper the sword on the battlefield! To win decisive victory in the future!
Resonance: Passing Down the Spirit of Kangda in the New Era
Graduate students at the National Defense University were deeply moved at the Kangda Memorial Hall by the forebears among the Kangda students of that era, who upheld "a firm political orientation," heeded the Party, and followed the Party.
Ninety years on, the theme of the first lesson upon enrollment at today's National Defense University remains "a firm and correct political orientation." The Kangda students of that era studied in cave dwellings; today's National Defense University students study in smart classrooms, continuously reinforcing the consciousness of the military's soul — obeying the Party's command.
National Defense University students proceed to a teaching site. Photo by Li Lun
The "flexibility and mobility" of that era was the sixteen-character formula of guerrilla warfare — when the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy camps, we harass; when the enemy tires, we strike; when the enemy retreats, we pursue. Students went directly from cave dwellings to the battlefield, applying the tactics they had learned in ambushes, sabotage operations, and mine warfare.
Today, the subject of "being capable of fighting and winning battles" (能打仗、打胜仗) confronts the young officers and soldiers of the new era with equal severity. What they are working to solve is the mechanism for achieving victory on a complex, multi-dimensional battlefield within the modern joint operational system. In the war-gaming room of the National Defense University, the red-versus-blue confrontation situation on the large screen shifts in an instant. Students engage in fierce debate over the action sequencing of a critical coordination node. Behind what appears to be a heated, red-faced argument lies an extreme pursuit of every second of coordinated effectiveness in system-of-systems operations (体系作战), and an unyielding quest for the formula for victory on the future battlefield.
From studying ambush tactics in cave dwellings to researching joint operations in modern war-gaming rooms — the form of warfare has been turned upside down, but the path to victory runs in an unbroken line: however the battle is fought, that is how the troops are trained.
Ninety years have passed; the spiritual torch of Kangda has never been extinguished, passed on in relay along the new era's new journey. Every year, National Defense University students travel to this spiritual sacred land of Yan'an to conduct on-site instruction at the Kangda Memorial Hall and revolutionary historical sites, to comprehend the founding mission and original aspiration.
National Defense University students conduct on-site instruction in Yan'an.
The goal of completing the centenary of the founding of the military on schedule draws ever closer; the drums of war urge the march forward, and the mission is urgent.
Ninety years ago, our revolutionary forebears, in the Yan'an cave dwellings, in the Kangda classrooms, found the direction for saving the nation from extinction, rushed to the battlefield without hesitation, endured extraordinary hardship, and ultimately won victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Ninety years later, the revolutionary soldiers of the new era who are committed to the goal of strengthening the military follow in the footsteps of their revolutionary forebears, draw inspiration from the spirit of Kangda to press forward on the journey of striving to strengthen the military, advance with courage and resolve, and win great victories on the new journey.
(Xiao Yang and Li Lun provided assistance during the reporting and writing process.)
(Proofreading: Sheng Yu)