In March 1941, the Kuomintang Government imprisoned 600 officials of the New Fourth Army who failed to break the siege in the Wannan Incident, including over 80 communists, anti-Japanese youth and patriots from five southeast provinces. The Kuomintang set up a large-scale concentration camp, Shangrao Concentration Camp, which extended to Maojialing, Qifengyan (where high officials were imprisoned), Zhoutian (for hard workers) and Licun (where the Kuomintang used soft tactics to win over its prisoners). Ye Ting, commander of the New Fourth Army, was once imprisoned at Qifengyan.

The Shangrao Concentration Camp was surrounded by high walls and wire netting, with densely distributed lookout posts and stern guards. A guard circle was set up within 30 li (15 km) of the camp. Imprisoned revolutionaries staged the famous Maojialing Uprising there on May 25, 1942. When Japanese invaders captured Shangrao in June that year, the camp was moved to Fujian Province. Revolutionaries held an uprising when they passed through Chishi Town of Fujian, known as the Chishi Uprising.

A martyr cemetery was built in Maojialing in 1955 with a monument for the martyrs. The monument was inscribed by Zhou Enlai, which reads: Eternal glory to the revolutionary martyrs. The cemetery was renovated in 1980 and a Revolutionary Martyr Memorial was also built that year.