China is a country without religious affiliation, unlike Europeans and Americans who seek to ascend to heaven after death. Under the teachings of the Way of Confucius and Mencius, Chinese pay more attention to the "present world" and strive for the cause of merit. Chinese, although there is no judgment after death to decide whether you go to heaven or hell, the living will make an evaluation based on your life, which is called a coffin conclusion. After the death of many ministers, the emperor would give them a title, such as Wen Zhenggong or Wen Zhonggong, who was most wanted by the courtiers, and was highly praised for his life's achievements.
There is another famous saying in China, that people will die, and their words are also good, and they speculate "blackly" that many of the relief before death may not be to look down on everything in the face of life and death, but may just be a gesture made by the deceased in order to win the good name after death. So it's very interesting to compare a person's last words and testaments before his death with his life. With this kind of mentality, I wanted to go to the will made by Chiang Kai-shek before his death to read it, to spy on the inner world of this extremely important person in China's modern history, and the result was unexpected.
What was unexpected was not about the content of the will itself, but that Chiang Kai-shek had made too many wills in his lifetime, roughly counting, about ten copies.
Chiang Kai-shek's first recorded will appeared in 1920. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek threw himself into the revolution, and his status was not high, and he often had a depressed feeling of being excluded by villains. Logically, the revolutionary soldiers were in the midst of war and were selfless, but in this testament Chiang Kai-shek discussed the distribution of inheritance, and even he himself was very contradictory and self-condemning.
Today's letter to my uncle can be used as a will × × after death, and it is also a work for the sake of the (unclear word). Recently, I have consciously felt that death is my internal affair, and I will want to die for this (not a word is clear), but I still cannot forget my feelings for my family and sacrifice myself to the disease of society.
After that, once Chiang Kai-shek encountered a major event or when the pressure was too great, he would make a will in advance and arrange his own posthumous affairs.
For example, in 1922, Chiang Kai-shek was summoned by Sun Yat-sen, who was "distressed", to escort the Yongfeng ship in Guangzhou, and Chiang Kai-shek, whose future was uncertain, made a will in advance and entrusted his family to his friend Zhang Jingjiang.
At the time of the Xi'an Incident in 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was not sure whether his life could be saved, and in extremely dangerous circumstances, he made three wills modeled on Sun Yat-sen.
Most of these wills were established for state affairs, for the revolution in the early years, and in their later years for the smooth succession of his son Chiang Ching-kuo. One of them that particularly touched the author was the family will he made in 1934 after Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling returned to his hometown of Fenghua.
At the end of June 1934, Chiang Kai-shek and Song Meiling returned to their hometown of Fenghua Xikou to pay homage to the graves of their ancestors, meet with relatives and friends of the past, have a sense of glory and glory of the ancestors, and sigh of honor and disgrace in life and death, and on the afternoon of July 4, they bid farewell to their mother's tomb and went to Ningbo to take the Zhongshan ship to return to Nanjing. A will was made on the way as follows:
On this day, he mentioned family affairs with his wife in the ship and thought about how to deal with them after RuYu died. Covenant, use a will in lieu of will.
1. After Yu's death, he did not want to be buried in the state, but was willing to be buried with his beloved wife Meiling on the cross road of the west side of the Purple Mountain's Purple Xia Cave.
2. After Yu's death, the Wuling School and those who did not belong to the Fenghao House were all under the management of his beloved wife Mei Ling.
3. After Yu's death, both jingguo and Weiguo children must follow the lessons of their mother Meiling. Whoever recognizes Yu as his father can only recognize Yu's beloved wife Meiling as his mother, and there cannot be a second person as his mother.
Fourth, the capital of the peasant bank and the deposits of the public account are all state funds, which were originally used for the development of aviation, and after Yu's death, it would be better if they could still build the air force. Otherwise, when divided into one million yuan each of the three schools of the remnants, Wuling and Zhengyi, the rest should be incorporated into the central bank as a permanent fund for rural rejuvenation, and private families are not allowed to participate in interfering in their affairs.
This will can be fully regarded as Chiang Kai-shek's family will, which talks about how To Bury Chiang Kai-shek after his death and how to divide the property. However, in the author's opinion, there is only one center of this will, that is, to enhance The status of Song Meiling in the Chiang family, so as to avoid Song Meiling's desolation in the family after her death.
Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling have been childless since they got married, and Chiang Kai-shek's two sons, Chiang Ching-kuo and Chiang Wei-kuo, are not sons of Soong Mei-ling, of which Chiang Ching-kuo is Mao Fumei's biological son, and Chiang Wai-kuo was brought up by Chiang Kai-shek's concubine Sun Yecheng and had the grace of nurturing. In contrast, Song Meiling had neither fertility nor nurturing feelings for Chiang Ching-kuo and Chiang Wei-kuo.
In his will, Chiang Kai-shek vigorously affirmed Soong Mei-ling's status as a "right wife", not only leaving most of his inheritance to Soong Mei-ling, but also burying her with her, and even forcing Chiang Ching-kuo and Chiang Wai-kuo's brothers to recognize Soong Mei-ling as the "only mother" and not to recognize the second person as a mother.
The fact that Only Soong Mei-ling could be recognized as a mother was mentioned again in Chiang Kai-shek's family will after the Xi'an Incident in 1936.
Since I was born for the revolution, I should die for the revolution, and I hope that my two sons will be worthy of my sons. I have only Had Ms. Song my only wife in my life, and if you consider yourself my son, then Ms. Song is the only mother of my two sons. After I die, at all times, I must follow the orders of your mother, Ms. Song, to comfort my soul.
From this will, we can see how much Chiang Kai-shek loved Soong Mei-ling, not only took care of her before she died, but also did not tolerate letting her be wronged at home after death, leaving most of her property to her and not letting her be troubled materially, but also working hard to enhance her status in the family so that she could enjoy the joy of teasing her grandson.
In 1975, Chiang Kai-shek died, although there is another will, but it is all about the revolution and succession issues, no longer involving private property, so we do not know how Chiang Kai-shek's estate will eventually be distributed. However, judging from the will of 1934, the vast majority of Chiang Kai-shek's estate should still be inherited by Soong Mei-ling, but the amount of property is not large, otherwise Soong Mei-ling would not need to be assisted by the Kong family after he arrived in the United States.
But what is particularly touching is that the first article mentioned by Chiang Kai-shek in his will and testament was willing to be buried with Soong Meiling after death, but Soong Meiling refused. Before her death, Soong Mei-ling also made a will, saying that after her death, her first choice was to return to the Shanghai Soong Cemetery to be buried with Soong Ching-ling, and if not, she would be buried with Chiang Kai-shek. If Jiuquan knew that seeing his wife choose so much, he didn't know how Chiang Kai-shek should feel.