Dong Biwu (; 5 March 1886 – 2 April 1975) was a Chinese communist revolutionary and politician, who served as acting Chairman of the People's Republic of China between 1972 and 1975. Early life Dong Biwu was born in Huanggang, Hubei to a landlord family, and received a classical education. In 1911 he joined the Tongmenghui, and participated in the Wuchang Uprising. He then went to Japan in 1913 to study law at Nihon University. While there, he joined Sun Yat-sen's newly formed Chinese Revolutionary Party, later to become the Kuomintang. In 1915, he returned to China, organizing resistance against the Yuan Shikai regime in his native Hubei, which landed him in prison for six months. Upon his release, he returned to Japan to complete his law studies. Between 1919 and 1920, he lived in Shanghai, where he was first exposed to Marxism through a group of Communist intellectuals centered around Li Hanjun. Returning to Hubei, he set up a local Communist apparatus, and in 1921, he attended the 1st National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, representing Wuhan along with Chen Tanqiu. Incidentally, Dong was the only other person than Mao Zedong to be present at both the founding congress of the party and the proclamation ceremony of the People's Republic of China twenty-eight years later. Revolutionary period Throughout the first half of the 1920s, Dong remained a member of both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party; however, with the tensions between the two parties increasing, he eventually chose to side with the Communists in the summer of 1927. After the Nanchang Uprising, he was forced into hiding, first seeking refuge in Kyoto for eight months, and then making his way to the Soviet Union. There, he attended the International Lenin School and the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University between 1928 and 1931. Upon his return to China in 1932, he became active in the Jiangxi Soviet, where he served as Political Director of the Red Army Academy and President of the Party School. During this time, Dong sided with Mao Zedong over Li Lisan in the two men's struggle for party leadership. He then took part in the Long March, and upon the arrival in Yan'an, he resumed his school leadership duties. In this period, Dong came to be known as one of the Five Elders of Yan'an (), along with Lin Boqu, Xu Teli, Wu Yuzhang, and Xie