Nanchang First Normal School

This chapter explores the lattice-styled revolutionary network in Nanchang First Normal School, a key base for Jiangxi&s;s early Communist Party of China (CPC)/Communist Youth League (CYL) (1914–1927). Unlike Nanchang Second Middle School&s;s concentric network, it had crisscrossing lines forming key hubs. Normal School students came mostly from poor or well-off families. Despite the public funding for education, they often faced an uncertain future as low-paid teachers, which made them easily become revolutionaries, spreading urban ideas to rural. Backed by Kuomintang of China (KMT)-aligned principals (e.g., Cai Shufang), the school fostered a free atmosphere. Geographically, 66.67% of Party/CYL members came from the Poyang Lake Region/Ganjiang River Basin. This compact network laid foundations for the early communist organizations in Jiangxi.