history
He commanded the 新四军, the New Fourth Army, from 1937 until January 1941, when Nationalist troops ambushed its headquarters column in the 皖南事变 and took him prisoner. Freed in March 1946, he died in a plane crash a month later.
culture
In prison he wrote the poem 《囚歌》 "Prisoner's Song", taught in Chinese schools, which turns down the freedom offered through a hole "for dogs to crawl out of".
