Ye Jianying
former Head of State of the People's Republic of China (1897-1986)
Ye Jianying (simplified Chinese: 叶剑英; traditional Chinese: 葉劍英; Wade-Giles:Yeh Chien-ying; 28 April 1897 – 22 October 1986) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary leader and politician, one of the Ten Marshals of the People's Republic of China. He was the top military leader in the 1976 coup that overthrew the Gang of Four and ended the Cultural Revolution, and was the key supporter of Deng Xiaoping in his power struggle with Hua Guofeng between 1978 and 1981, which ended in Hua fading into political obscurity. In his capacity as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Ye served as China's head of state from 1978 until 1983, being succeeded in that capacity by Li Xiannian with the restoration of the post of Chairman of the People's Republic of China by a new constitution.
Early life
Ye Yiwei (Chinese: 叶宜伟) was born into a wealthy Christian Hakka merchant family in Jiaying County (present-day Meixian District, Meizhou), Guangdong. His courtesy name was Cangbai (滄白). Several of Ye Jianying's siblings died in childhood from serious illnesses. In January 1912, Ye graduated at the top of his class from Sanbao Academy and was admitted to Wuben Middle School in Meixian. Later that year, Wuben was merged with three other schools and reorganized as a government-run institution. Dissatisfied with the conservative leadership of its new principal, Ye organized and led more than 100 students in withdrawing from the school, after which they transferred to Dongshan Academy in Meicheng.
Shortly afterwards, progressive intellectuals, local gentry, students' parents and patriotic overseas Chinese established Dongshan Middle School at the foot of Dongshan Hill, where Ye continued his education.
The public source identifies “Ye Jianying” as former Head of State of the People's Republic of China (1897-1986). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jianying, former and Head.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q504372. VIAF identifies the subject as 55529245. The Library of Congress control number is n83171302. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1897, 1986, 1976 and 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ye Jianying” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.