"Miss Mei Ling likes French plane trees, so I planted plane trees all over Nanjing." The love story of Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling has been talked about for a long time, and the marriage between the Chiang family and the Soong family is undoubtedly the most romantic and successful political marriage in the history of the Republic of China.
But the beginning of this marriage was not smooth, before meeting Soong Meiling, Chiang Kai-shek had already married and had children, when he was fourteen years old, Chiang Kai-shek married Mao Fumei, who was five years older than him, under the arrangement of his family, and gave birth to his eldest son Chiang Ching-kuo after nine years of marriage.
As the closest person to Chiang Kai-shek, the relationship between Chiang Ching-kuo and Soong Mei-ling has always been very delicate. Later, Chiang Ching-kuo died of illness, and what was the reaction of his stepmother Song Meiling? What kind of state did the titular mother and son, who were twelve years apart, get along?
Jiang and Song were married
The three sisters of the Song family can be said to be the most dazzling sister flowers in Modern Chinese History, Song Xialing, Song Meiling, Song Qingling, these three women have created a song legend that no one can match.
People in the world say: "The three sisters of the Soong family, one loves power, one loves money, and one loves the country" and the "love of power" among them is Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Soong Mei-ling, who we are familiar with.
Soong Mei-ling's light was so dazzling that when we later mentioned Chiang Kai-shek's wife, we only thought of Soong Mei-ling. And Mao Fumei, the woman who hid in the depths of the years and gave birth to Chiang Kai-shek's eldest son, Chiang Ching-kuo, is rarely mentioned.
In 1927, chiang kai-shek, for the sake of his political future, decided to marry the 29-year-old Soong family's third lady, Soong Mei-ling, who was isolated in the struggle with Wang Jingwei, Li Zongren and other factions, so he set his sights on the powerful Song family, and with the help of Song Ziwen and Kong Xiangxi's relationship, he won the support of the United States.
Chiang Kai-shek thus abandoned his original wife, Mao Fumei, and his two concubines, Yao Yecheng and Chen Jieru, and in order to show his determination, Chiang Kai-shek published a newspaper announcing: "Yao Chen's second concubine, there is no contract. He broke off his relationship with the two, and then broke away from the conjugal relationship with Mao Fumei.
At that time, Chiang Ching-kuo had already understood things, and his father abandoned his mother because of Song Meiling, which doomed him to have a bad relationship with his stepmother.
But Chiang Ching-kuo is also well aware of the importance of Soong Mei-ling in the family and political arena, so he still maintains superficial respect and courtesy for Soong Mei-ling, and the marriage between Chiang and Song is the most eye-catching event in China's modern history, which is not only a combination of two people, but also a bundle of two families and two interest groups.
The relationship between Chiang Ching-kuo and Soong Mei-ling has always been delicate, sometimes close, sometimes distant, and between them, it is more like a cooperative relationship than a family relationship.
Chiang Ching-kuo died
In 1975, Chiang Kai-shek had reached the last moment of his life, and before leaving this world, he folded the hands of Chiang Ching-kuo and Soong Mei-ling together and instructed Chiang Ching-kuo: "Filial piety to the mother with the heart of filial piety." Chiang Ching-kuo's birth mother was killed by enemy planes when the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out.
After Chiang Kai-shek's death, Soong Mei-ling's nephew Kong Lingkan returned to Taiwan, and they wanted to support Soong Mei-ling as the president of the Kuomintang, but they were strongly opposed by Zhang Baoshu and others. The last to inherit this position was Chiang Ching-kuo, who single-handedly undertook the future of Taiwan's development.
Soong Mei Ling left Taiwan for the United States, this strong woman who stirred up the political storm, after chiang Kai-shek's death, chose to withdraw from the whirlpool of power struggle, although the two people often had letters and telephone exchanges, Chiang Ching-kuo also had great respect for Soong Mei Ling, but Song Mei Ling did not return to Taiwan for a long time, and lived in seclusion in the United States for 11 years.
On the one hand, she has no children of her own, and she is Chiang Ching-kuo's nominal mother, so she naturally loves and teaches Chiang Ching-kuo; on the other hand, she also wants to safeguard the interests of the Song clique, which inevitably dampens Chiang Ching-kuo's vigor, and she once clashed with Chiang Ching-kuo because of Kong Lingkan's affair.
Chiang Ching-kuo's attitude towards Song Meiling is also unclear, on the one hand, it is because of Song Meiling's appearance that his mother has become an abandoned woman, so he hates Song Meiling.
On the other hand, Soong Mei-ling's power and position can indeed consolidate Chiang Kai-shek's position, and after the death of his mother, his father became his only relative, which made him have to defend his father, and naturally he also had to respect Soong Mei-ling.
This complex of emotions intertwined the lives of Soong Mei-ling and Chiang Ching-kuo until 1988, when Chiang Ching-kuo collapsed in a hospital bed, an entanglement and complicated relationship that ended completely after Chiang Ching-kuo's death.
Cold-hearted stepmother
After succeeding to the throne, Chiang Ching-kuo treated Song Meiling not so much as filial piety to his mother as he was treating a precious vase, always cautious, caring, polite and respectful in public, in fact, Chiang Ching-kuo never gave Song Meiling any chance to grasp real power, and Song Meiling naturally saw Chiang Ching-kuo's mind, so he would go to the United States.
Later, Chiang Ching-kuo died, Song Meiling was the last to arrive, until more than 5 p.m. to Chiang Ching-kuo's residence, after arriving did not enter the door, nor did she have any sad expression, let alone shed tears, she just looked inside the door of Chiang Ching-kuo's bedroom, and then left.
After taking a look, Song Meiling went to the room of her daughter-in-law Jiang Fangliang, and half an hour later Song Meiling walked out of the room, surrounded by a large group of people, took a car to leave, and after handling everything, on September 21, 1991, the 93-year-old Song Meiling left Taiwan again for long-term recuperation in the United States.
On October 24, 2003, Song Meiling died in New York at the age of 105, and that flashy period ended because of her death, and the legend of the Song family of the Republic of China also ended because of her death.
brief summary:
They were mother and son in name, they were the closest people to Chiang Kai-shek, and in that era of rapid political turmoil, they had created too many legends, but they were not close, and their relationship intersected with politics, and for each other, perhaps they never had a true heart, and even if they did, they later disappeared in the political struggle. So much so that when Chiang Ching-kuo died, Song Meiling, as a stepmother, did not shed a single tear.