Zhu Of (Chinese: 朱德, Pinyin: Zhū Dé) (December 1st 1886 - July 6th 1976) was a military commander communist Chinese and statesman. He is regarded as the founder of the Chinese Red Army (the ancestor of the popular Armée with release) and the tactician who prepared the revolution whose the Popular republic of China emerged.

He was born in a country big family from the county from Yilong, a section isolated and undulating of the north of the province of the Sichuan. After a secondary education financed by its clan, Zhu Of settled with Chengdu to study physical education before joining the army. In 1908, it entered to the military academy of Yunnan to Kunming. After obtaining its diploma, he taught with the academy. Zhu joined the rebellion which reversed the dynasty Qing in 1911. It took part in military campaigns with the armies of the lords of the war of the Yunnan and ordered units along the borders of the Laos and the Vietnam in the first years of the Republic of China. At that time, Zhu Of became depend on opium, but it succeeds in getting rid of its dependence in 1922 in a hospital of Shanghai.

Zhu Of began its education of the Marxisme and the Léninisme to Shanghai. In the middle of the years 1920, it went in Europe, to study with the Université of Göttingen in Germany of 1922 to 1925. At that time it joined the Chinese Communist party. Zhou Enlai recruited this lord of war in Berlin and was one of its godfathers. After its return in China, Zhu was used in a regiment of the army of the Guomindang of Sun Yat-SEN and as chief of safety as Nanchang. After two arrests for revolutionary activity, it was exiled. In July 1925 it went in Soviet Union to study the military businesses. In 1926 it returned to China.

The proximity of Zhu with Mao Zedong started after the revolutionary rising missed of 1927, when the two men were obliged to flee in the mountains of the Jinggang. Mao and Zhu built the Red Army in a force with Guérilla which was consolidated and progressed in the controlled zones. The bravery and the skill of Zhu in the command of its men gave him an immense prestige.

During the Long walk, Zhu Of and Zhang Guotao ordered the " column of the ouest" Red Army which survived with sorrow the retirement through the province of the Sichuan. To Yan' year, Zhu directed the rebuilding of the Red Army under the Directorate of Political Affairs of Mao. During the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the Chinese Civil war, he was commander-in-chief of the Red Army. After 1949, Zhu was named commander-in-chief of the popular Armée with release. He was also vice-president of the Communist party. In 1955, it was named marshal. It continued to be a statesman of foreground until its in July 1976 death, date on which he was the president of the Standing Committee of the Popular national assembly (RPC) (since 1975).