In Uruguay, southeastern South America, there lives a Chinese named Xiao Zisheng, who came here in 1952 to work in Uruguay as an educator.
In 1955, a chinese literary and art delegation visited Uruguay, the head of the delegation was a Hunan native, and before leaving, Chairman Mao instructed the head of the group: "There is a Chinese in Uruguay named Xiao Zisheng, who is my friend. ”
Xiao Zisheng and Chairman Mao and the regimental commander were all fellow countrymen, but after the regimental commander arrived in Uruguay, he asked to see Xiao Zisheng as a fellow countryman, but the other side refused.
Xiao Zisheng
Until 1976, Xiao Zisheng never contacted anyone on the mainland. On September 9 of that year, the great leader Chairman Mao passed away. Two months later, Xiao Zisheng, who lived in a foreign country, also died.
Xiao Zisheng died in the same year as Chairman Mao. Coincidentally, Xiao Zisheng's date of birth was only 8 months later than Chairman Mao's.
So who is this Xiao Zisheng, who was once invited by Chairman Mao? What kind of relationship did he have with Chairman Mao?
Xiao Zisheng, born in August 1894 in Xiangyun County, Hunan Province, to a scholarly family, his father Xiao Yueying once studied abroad and returned to China to engage in education, and his younger brother Xiao San was a famous poet.
Xiao Zisheng's father taught at Dongshan Higher Primary School in Xiangxiang, so he followed his father to primary school very early, and later he went to Hunan First Normal School to study. When Xiao Zisheng was in elementary school, the compositions he wrote were transmitted by the whole school, and when he arrived at the First Normal School in Hunan, the poems he wrote were often exhibited in the school.
Mao Zedong (2 rows, 3rd from left)
At that time, Chairman Mao's teacher and father-in-law, Mr. Yang Changji, particularly appreciated Xiao Zisheng's literary style, and he copied down the sentences of The Police in Xiao Zisheng's composition for tasting. Mr. Yang Changji has three proud protégés, one is Mao Zedong, one is Cai Hesen, and the other is Xiao Zisheng, who is known as the "Three Friends of Xiangjiang".
Mao Zedong met Xiao Zisheng when he was in the Dongshan Elementary School, and although Xiao Zisheng was 8 months younger than Mao Zedong, he went to school three times earlier than Mao Zedong.
Mao Zedong and Xiao Zisheng's younger brother Xiao San were classmates, and the relationship between the two was very good, so Mao Zedong met Xiao Zisheng when he was in elementary school.
Mao Zedong once borrowed a copy of "The Biography of World Hero Haojie" from Xiao San, and Mao Zedong was particularly fascinated by it, and when he returned the book to Xiao San after reading the book, he said: "It took Washington eight years to establish the United States, and we must also be prepared for long-term struggle." ”
Xiao San
In 1913, Mao Zedong went to the Hunan Provincial Fourth Normal School, which was later merged into the First Division, and Xiao Zisheng was studying in the First Division at that time.
Xiao Zisheng's poetry is excellent, Mao Zedong's literary style is not bad, and these two people can be described as sympathetic to each other. Mao Zedong once wrote a particularly weighty article called "The Power of the Heart", yang Changji read it, greatly appreciated, Mr. Yang excitedly gave this article 5 points in addition to the full score.
Mao Zedong's article was widely circulated in the school as usual, and Xiao Zisheng of course saw Mao Zedong's article, and both people admired each other's talents, and they also increased a mutual understanding and a deeper friendship.
Although Xiao and Mao are not in the same grade, let alone in the same class, the two people have similar interests, so even in the short class, the two people may get together, they talk about the curriculum, the big talk about life, talk about society, and even talk about the topic of transforming the world.
Yang Changji
The back hill of the first division is called Myo Gaofeng, and it is possible to climb this hill in a few minutes from the campus. Miao Gaofeng also often becomes a good place for two good friends to discuss ancient and modern times. Once, when the two were talking about the current situation on the mountain, Mao Zedong said: "Kang Youwei's reform of the law has become outdated, and although Sun Yat-sen has taken the right path in carrying out the revolution, it is a pity that he does not have military power in his hands." ”
Xiao Zisheng also said: "Yuan Shikai is a criminal, and his officers are just his puppets. ”
Both were very disappointed with reality, and they agreed that China needed a new kind of power to change the dark status quo of the time.
Xiao Zisheng and Mao Zedong were both proud protégés of Yang Changji, while Xiao and Mao also revered their mentors, and Mr. Yang was a teacher for the younger generation in both learning and self-cultivation.
Under the influence of their mentors, in terms of governance, Xiao and Mao are compatible with hundreds of families and take the strengths of all families; in terms of cultivation, they can be honest and self-motivated. The two took the teacher as a model, and with the guidance of the teacher, their learning and morality improved day by day.
Mao Zedong particularly praised Xiao Zisheng and gave a high evaluation to Xiao Zisheng's progress in learning and morality: "The meaning of Mr. Yang's brother Guan Yang is grand and grand, and he thinks that he is out of reach, and Zisheng can be said to be able to obey the teacher's training, and he is enough to make a difference." ”
In 1915, Xiao Zisheng graduated from the First Division before Mao Zedong, and although the two were not together, they did not break contact. From 1915 to 1918, the two exchanged letters and ideas, and Mao Zedong wrote 13 letters to Xiao Zisheng alone.
In the letter, the two discussed the most is learning, especially on traditional culture, and both of them are very deeply researched. Xiao Zisheng once quoted a famous saying in the Analects: "A gentleman wants to be sensitive to words and sensitive to deeds." Mao Zedong wrote back: "Too much speech may be annoying, but this cannot be a reason for nonsense, just as it cannot be wasted because of choking." ”
In 1915, Mao Zedong, who was still studying in the First Division, actively participated in the anti-Yuan struggle, and he edited a book called "Mr. Tang Kangliangsan's Painful Words at the Time of the Situation", he knew that Xiao Zisheng wrote a good book, so he wrote a letter asking Xiao Zisheng to write the title of the book, and after Xiao Zisheng received the letter, he immediately wrote the title of the book and sent it to Mao Zedong.
Xiao Zisheng knew that Mao Zedong loved to read and often suffered from lack of money to buy books, and in 1916, Xiao Zisheng planned to give away 77 ancient books left by his ancestors to Mao Zedong free of charge.
Mao Zedong was very touched by Xiao Zisheng's generous gifts, but he considered that this was xiao Zisheng's ancestral legacy, there was no 200 silver dollars that could not be bought, Xiao Zisheng was not rich at that time, and there was no ten years or more to do it after reading these books, so Mao Zedong still politely declined Xiao Zisheng's good intentions.
Mao Zedong not only read a lot, but also very complex, he read both ancient books and popular books and periodicals at that time, Xiao Zisheng always tried to provide the books he needed, such as Yang Du's "Theory of Junxian National Salvation" and Zhang Shizhao's "Jiayin" magazine edited.
Young Mao Zedong
In 1917, Xiao Zisheng collected his notes and experiences from many years of reading into a book, named "Everything into One", asked Mao Zedong to write a preface to the book, Mao Zedong replied with great enthusiasm, and gave a high evaluation to the book, which had such a sentence: "Shelter the material of a thousand mountains and become a one, gather hundreds of sayings into a learning, take the essence of the macro, the roots are lush and prosperous, this is the same as the words of Mr. Zhiyi and the self-pleasing, distinguished." ”
What Xiao and Mao will never forget is that in the summer of 1917, they walked to Changsha, Ningxiang, Anhua, Yiyang, Yuanjiang and other five counties without a pen to do a social survey that lasted more than a month.
When he set off, Xiao Zisheng wrote a poem with a magnificent color: "The umbrella is packed with a shoulder, and the head has no crown and no money." Go to see the mountains and rivers for thousands of miles, how to rectify the battle of empty fists. ”
Xiao Zisheng (film and television drama image)
In this social survey, they inspected the rural economy of the five counties, learned about the lives of farmers, and also visited the scenic spots and monuments in various places.
But hiking is hard after all. Because the main object of their investigation is the countryside, so they trek through the mountains and rivers along the way, very arduous, during the day they brave the heat, the sun is scorching overhead, on foot, at night the earth is used as a bed, stones as pillows, blue sky as tents, bright moon as lights.
Because they are penniless, they mainly rely on the help of classmates and well-wishers along the way. In addition, they earned a little money by relying on their own talents, such as writing couplets for restaurants and tea houses and qianzhuang businesses along the way, and earning some polishing pens. Of course, Xiao Zisheng's writing is good, he is naturally the chief writer, and Mao Zedong is responsible for running errands and sending words to others.
During this investigation, they went deep into the rural areas of Hunan and learned a lot of knowledge that could not be learned from books, which laid a good foundation for their future revolution and career. And in a month of common life, they walked side by side, slept on their feet, and were in the same boat through thick and thin, and the friendship between the two was even deeper.
When they returned to Changsha after this trip, the two also took a special photo as a souvenir. Many friends learned of their legendary experience and praised them for being "penniless and worried about the world."
Silhouettes of Mao Zedong and Xiao Zisheng
Faced with the situation of warlords fighting among warlords and the people's livelihood at that time, Xiao and Mao both realized the need to establish an organization and carry out an ideological revolution to fundamentally change the thinking of the Chinese people. They met to publish a notice to recruit friends and look for like-minded young friends within Changsha.
After a period of preparation, they contacted some aspiring young people and established the Xinmin Society in April 1918. The Society elected Xiao Zi as director general, Mao Zedong and Chen Shunong as officers, with a total of 20 basic members, and later grew to more than 80 people.
After the establishment of the Xinmin Society, one of the major things it did was to go to Beijing to organize aspiring young people to go to France for work-study. In 1918, Xiao Zisheng and Cai Hesen first went to Beijing, and at the recommendation of Mr. Yang Changji, they visited Cai Yuanpei and Li Shizeng, and with the help of Cai and Li celebrities, they actively collected expenses for travel to France and went through the relevant procedures.
Soon, Mao Zedong also came to Beijing, where he contacted Xiao Zisheng, Cai and Sen about going to France, and at the same time found a job as an assistant administrator in the Peking University Library. Xiao Zisheng was appointed as the secretary of the Chinese Law Education Association, which was responsible for handling matters related to young people from all over the world who went to France.
In 1919, Xiao Zisheng stepped on a ship to France as one of the first students to study law. After arriving in France, he was responsible for receiving students from China, receiving 20 batches of more than 2,000 people before and after.
After Xiao Zisheng and Cai Hesen went to France, they organized members of the Xinmin Society to participate in the study, and at the same time actively thought about and discussed various trends of thought in France. Mao Zedong, on the other hand, actively participated in the May Fourth Movement in China and edited the Magazine Of the Xiangjiang Review.
In France, students of the University of France developed their own ideas. Cai hesen accepted Marxism, while Xiao Zisheng accepted reformism and anarchism. At home, Mao Zedong, like Cai and Sen, became a Marxist.
In 1920, the members of the Xinmin Society who went to France held the "Mundani Conference" in The Mundalge, attended by more than 20 members, at which the issue of ways to transform China was discussed.
Group photo of the participants of the Montagny Conference
Cai Hesen and most of his members advocated the organization of the Communist Party and the establishment of proletarian power through armed struggle, thus achieving the goal of transforming China. Xiao Zisheng advocated a moderate revolution, that is, a revolution with education as a means, which is actually to transform China through reform.
After the meeting, both Cai and Sen and Xiao Zisheng wrote a letter to Mao Zedong in which they introduced the main contents of the Montarney Conference and expounded their respective views. Mao Zedong, of course, favored Cai hesen's ideas and opposed Xiao Zisheng's reformism.
In 1920, the Hunan autonomy movement failed, and Mao Zedong completely abandoned the last illusion of reformism, thus strengthening his faith in Marxism. In two letters to Cai and Sen, he criticized Xiao Zisheng's attempts to transform China through education, and also pointed out: "The current education is capitalist education, and such education cannot change the status quo in China. ”
Mao Zedong greatly appreciated Cai Hesen's views and advocated that a Russian-style revolution could truly save China.
In 1921, Xiao Zisheng returned to China and returned to Changsha, where xiao and Mao's two friends were reunited after a long absence, but after the two met, there was a fierce debate. Obviously, the root of the argument lies in the very different beliefs of the two men, one advocating reform and the other advocating revolution, and they have their own opinions, and neither can convince the other.
In the course of the argument, Mao Zedong was so excited that he even became angry, and he said to Xiao Zisheng: "Then you should continue to wear your robe and coat!" ”
This controversy became a watershed in the relationship between Xiao and Mao, and after 1926, Xiao Zisheng and Mao Zedong broke off contact.
As we all know, Mao Zedong later participated in the establishment of the Communist Party of China and led the party and the people to win revolutionary victories and establish new China through arduous struggles, realizing his dream of transforming China.
Xiao Zisheng once served in the National Government, and later Li Shi founded the China International Library in France, where he served as its director. In 1951, the library moved to Uruguay, and Xiao Zisheng moved with him the following year, and lived until his death.
Xiao Zisheng is a world wizard, but he has gone astray politically, resulting in his failure to use his talents. He had a deep friendship with Mao Zedong when he was young, but because of his different political views, the two confidants eventually became strangers.
Mao Zedong had given Xiao Zisheng the opportunity to return to China to use his expertise and serve the new China, but this man was too stubborn to reject Mao Zedong's invitation. It has to be lamented that there are times when choice is more important than effort.