"Mao Zedong Couplet Appreciation" No. 84: Saving the Patriotic Hero Yi Baisha

It was painted in October 1921 in Changsha, Hunan

The useless do not die, the useful die in anger, and I cry for the future of the Republic of China;

Last year's memorial to Yang Gong, this year's memorial to Yi Gong, his Nai Changsha after the entry!

Easy white sand

Yi Baisha was an early patriotic hero who hated the dark rule of Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang warlords, and in May 1921, he tried unsuccessfully to assassinate the main rulers of the Beiyang warlords at that time. So he took a sea ship to Guangzhou to meet Sun Yat-sen and asked to organize an army to carry out the Northern Expedition, but he did not succeed. Consciously having no way to serve the country, his ambitions were not rewarded, and in anger, he came to the hometown of Chen Baisha, the great Confucian of the Ming Dynasty, on the 5th night of the first 5th month of the lunar calendar, and the sea in Chen Village, Xinhui County, Guangzhou, and repaid the country with his death, at the age of 36.

At the turn of the summer and autumn of 1921, when mourning the patriotic hero Yi Baisha who died of national indignation in Changsha, Mao Zedong wrote this tragic and emotional link with tears.

This joint is from The Couplet, No. 2, 1987, p. 2: Tang Yicheng's "Three Couplets Written by Mao Zedong"; also found in the "China Youth Daily", December 2, 1993 " Character Color Photographs Supplement" supplement.

exegesis

1. [Yi Baisha] (1866-1921), a native of Changsha, Hunan. Originally named Yi Kun, the character Yue Village, later because of the admiration of Chen Baisha near the Baisha well in Changsha City, and because he also lived in the Baisha well, he called himself Baishazi. He once served as a teacher of history and Chinese language in Changsha County Normal School, Hunan First Normal School, and a professor at Nankai University in Tianjin and Fudan University in Shanghai.

2. [Useful people die of anger] This sentence refers to the darkness of society at that time, and many people of insight died in grief and indignation for the sake of the light and the future of the motherland.

3. [Yang Gong] refers to Yang Changji.

Appreciation

Although Yi Baisha was born in the Shomen family, he was intelligent and studious from an early age, and he had already completed the Five Classics and the Zizhi Tongjian at the age of 6. All the classmates and teachers praised his talent. At the age of 16, he began to serve as the principal of Yongsui Normal School, and his strict academic discipline and integrity were deeply admired by all the old gentlemen. Later, Bai Shazi went to Anhui Huaining Middle School to be the principal, and then served as the principal of the Teachers' Training Hall in Anhui Hunan Middle School. Although he was young, he was dignified in appearance, treated the students with sincerity, believed in his words, and led by example everywhere, and the students admired his knowledge and admired his style of life and life. He became friends with many old scholars.

After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Yi Baisha was extremely excited, lobbying everywhere and advising the generals in Anhui to support Wuchang. Therefore, Anhui is second only to Hunan, and it has also raised the banner of the Xinhai Revolution. At that time, Zhu Jiabao, the inspector of Anhui, had fled, and the new army and the patrol battalion and the foreign army were suspicious of each other, which often caused disputes. The people's security is left unattended, and robberies occur from time to time. Yi Baisha saw the situation and organized young students to serve as a youth army to maintain law and order in the township. At that time, the king commander of the patrol battalion, a robber by birth, in broad daylight, not only robbed the people's wealth, but also robbed some rich girls in the countryside. Yi Baisha reported the matter to the governor Sun Gong, who wanted to get rid of him when he summoned the commander-in-chief to a meeting. However, the subordinates of the Governor's Office were very afraid of the king's command, and no one dared to take the lead. Yi Baisha was the first to rush up and lead the youth army to attack Wang's commander. Commander Wang sensed it and wanted to escape, but his right thigh had been broken, and the youth army started to kill him, so the fathers and fellow villagers in Anhui clapped their hands and said quickly: "It is Yi Junjian who has made us have a stable life!" It can be seen that when Yi Baisha was in Anhui, he was a young man with both culture and martial arts, wisdom and courage.

In the second year of the Xinhai Revolution, Yuan Shikai hired assassins to assassinate Song Jiaoren in Shanghai and violated the Provisional Covenant Law. The southeastern provinces rose up to woo Yuan. At that time, Bai Wenwei succeeded Sun Dudu, and Bai Shazi returned to Hunan to persuade Tan Gong of Chaling to discuss a plan against the enemy. However, the opportunity was missed, and the rebel armies of Ning, Anhui, and Gansu were defeated one after another. Yuan Shikai began to arrest Yi Baisha, and Yi Baisha was forced to flee to Japan. In Japan, he and Zhang Xingyan founded the magazine "Jiayin", using what he had learned to impeach Yuan Shikai with articles, so that the people of the world would understand Yuan Shikai's heinous crimes, and the world would spit on him. Yuan Shikai was also deeply frightened, and repeatedly lured Yi Baisha with heavy gold profits, but Yi Baisha was not moved. After Yuan Shikai restored the imperial system, Cai Yi issued an anti-Yuan call to the world in Yunnan, and the southwest group responded, and Yuan Shikai returned to heaven after 83 days of dreaming of emperor. Yi Baisha returned from Japan and ran to the north and south, worried about the country and the people. During this period, he returned to Changsha several times, and was hired by Changsha County Normal School and Provincial First Normal School as a lecturer in literature and history, and later hired as a professor at Nankai University in Tianjin and Fudan University in Shanghai, all of whom soon resigned and sought another job.

Yi Baisha had been traveling for eight years, and suddenly one day he returned from Shanghai with a bleak look, and because he did not want to live in the city, he lived in seclusion for a year. The following spring, he went to Shanghai again, but soon returned to Changsha, more depressed, and lived alone in the secluded area of Yuelu Mountain, where relatives were avoided. In the spring of 1921, Dr. Sun Yat-sen twice wrote to invite Yi Baisha to Guangdong, but he did not reply immediately. When I heard that the northern government had repeatedly deceived China and foreign countries with the idea of unifying China, I also heard that the government had killed countless teachers and students because of the student tide, and I was extremely indignant. One day, he suddenly said to his brother Yi Peiji: "It is tolerable, it is intolerable, and I will do an earth-shattering feat." "The family was worried that he was going to take the risk again, and they all monitored his whereabouts. So he said to his family: "I went to Guangdong to organize a new village, and I never asked about politics." After saying that, he left Changsha.

However, Yi Baisha's mood at this time was very distressed. The people were living in dire straits, the government was corrupt and incompetent, and there was no way to save the country himself, so he chose a next strategy, and he wanted to go to Beiping to assassinate the bureaucrats of the Beiyang warlords. He entered Beiping lightly, armed with a short gun, and wandered outside the Xinhua Gate every day, intending to assassinate the thief of the country, but did not get the opportunity. So he went to Guangzhou to pay respects to Sun Yat-sen, intending to organize an army to go to the north and kill the warlord rulers of Beiyang. At that time, Hu Hanmin and Zhang Puquan advised Yi Baisha: "You are suitable for serving the country with articles, and you should not take risks." Yi Baisha saw that his ideas could not be realized, so on the night of the Duanyang Festival, he took a small fire wheel to Chen Village, the hometown of Mr. Chen Baisha, the great Confucian of the Ming Dynasty, and committed suicide in the sea, in order to arouse the awakening of the people.

Yi Baisha's indignant death caused a great uproar among patriots in Guangdong and Hunan and at home. When Mao Zedong heard about this, he had just returned from Shanghai for the first party congress. He was good friends with Yi Baisha's brother Yi Peiji, who co-founded the Cultural Book Club and had close contacts, and later when mourning Yi Baisha, Mao Zedong angrily wrote this letter.

First, he worried about the future future of the Republic of China because "the useless people do not die, and the useful people died in anger"; then he worried about the progress of Hunan because of the death of Yang Changji last year and the suicide of Yi Baisha this year, showing Mao Zedong's patriotic heart of worrying about the world.

Uplink, using "useless people" and "useful people" as opposed, and "immortal" and "angry death" as opposed, lamenting the injustice of the world in contrast. At that time, the revolution was at a low ebb, and many heroes and heroes died in grief and indignation. Chen Tianhua (1875-1905) of Hunan, studied in Japan in 1903, participated in the organization of the Anti-Russian Volunteer Brigade and the Military national education association, and engaged in the anti-Qing revolutionary movement with Huang Xing and others. He wrote books such as "Turning Back" and "Alarm Clock" to propagate revolutionary ideas, which had a great impact. In 1905, he joined the Founding League, worked as a member of the Secretariat and as the editor of the Minbao Newspaper, and in December in Tokyo, he participated in the protest against the Japanese government's "Rules for Banning Korean Students Studying in Japan" in Tokyo. Another example is Yiyang Yao Hongye (1887-1906), a member of the League. He also resolutely returned to China because of his opposition to the "Rules for Banning Qing Korean Students Studying in Japan". Founded the Chinese Public School in Shanghai, accepted students who were forced to return from Japan, because of the embarrassing situation, feeling nostalgic for state affairs, sad and anxious, committed suicide by throwing themselves into the Huangpu River. In 1906, Chen Tianhua and Yao Hongye were buried together in Yuelu Mountain. In addition, Liu Daoyi, Yu Zhimo, Jiao Dafeng, Chen Zuoxin, and other backbone members of the League actively engaged in revolutionary activities, but they were all killed by feudal warlords and died of grief. Huang Xing, whose exploits have been recorded in history, died of illness on October 31, 1916. The legendary hero Cai Yi also died of illness on November 8, 1916... These Hunan heroes who had made outstanding contributions to the democratic revolution were all unfortunate, so the author issued a cry of "I cry for the future of the Republic of China". It is intended to awaken the people, defend the sovereignty of the country and the nation, and fight with the heroes who died in anger.

The lower link, with "last year" and "this year", "Yang Gong" and "Yi Gong" opposite, and undertake the upper link, expressed the infinite helplessness in the heart. In what direction should Hunan and the Chinese nation develop in the future? It shows Mao Zedong's inner bitterness and concern for the future of the country.

Quanlian adopts the rhetorical method of contrast and comparison, which reads like a huge wave of mountains and seas, making people frightened and shocked. In particular, the question of the last sentence makes people fall into a long period of deep thinking.