On the night of November 12, 1948, Chen Bray, who was already exhausted by this time, left his last words to the aide-de-camp: "Let me be quiet." Immediately after, he wrote a series of suicide notes, took a large number of sleeping pills, and never woke up the next day!
In the end, he left behind 11 words of last words: "Meaningless life, what is the use of leaving", abandoning the world.
Chen Brei, born in 1890 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, was originally named Chen Xunen, zi yanhe, pen name Bray, Wei Lei.
In 1911, Chen Brei graduated from Zhejiang Higher School, and in the same year worked as a reporter for tianduo bao in Shanghai, and began to write reviews under the pen name of "Bray". In 1920, Chen Bray rushed to Shanghai, first compiling the Merriam-Webster University Dictionary at the Commercial Press, and later serving as the editor-in-chief of the Commercial Daily.
After more than ten years of polishing, Chen Bray can be called a living pen holder, with quick thinking and brilliant pen. Later, he was favored by Chiang Kai-shek and recruited into his subordinates, serving as the director of the second department of the attendant room, and was specially responsible for writing various official documents and proclamations, becoming Chiang Kai-shek's "chief secretary" and "literary boldness".
If chiang kai-shek cannot do without Chen Cheng in "martial arts," that is, the so-called "Zhongzheng cannot be without words and words for a day," then in terms of "civil rule," it is inseparable from Chen Brei, that is, the so-called "Zhongzheng cannot be without a mine in a day."
Chen Cheng and Chen Brei, this Wu Yiwen, who were also fellow countrymen, became Chiang Kai-shek's right and left arms.
Of course, this is not added by the author at will, in Zhang Zhizhong's later memoirs, there are two sections dedicated to these two people, and the title is even more amazing - "A Warrior - Chen Cheng" and "A Literati - Chen Bray". Therefore, it can be seen how high the status of these two people is in Jiang's heart!
But Chen Brei is a man of letters after all, and his life can never be separated from a "wen" character, he "lived because of the text", and later "died because of the text".
As for the cause of Chen Bray's death, some people believe that this is his "corpse advice" to old Chiang. But it's not!
With the continuous victory of our army, the Kuomintang army has become like a grasshopper in the autumn, coupled with its internal corruption, the Chiang kai-shek government at this time is already full of crises and the people's hearts are scattered. At this critical moment, Chen Brei once gave advice to old Jiang: "Hurry up and clean up people's hearts, there is only this opportunity." ”
However, it turned out that Jiang did not listen. On the contrary, in late October 1948, the kuomintang authorities asked him to write an article entitled "Total War." However, in the face of the military rout in the front and the change in the minds of the people in the rear, at this time, he had no way to write.
Most importantly, at this time, Chen Bray was already described as withered and unable to write any "Total War", so some scholars also suspected that this difficult article had become the last straw that overwhelmed him. All in all, Chen Bray's death is not a "corpse advice" to Chiang Kai-shek.
So, what is the reason?
According to the research of relevant scholars, the root cause of Chen Bray's suicide is typical of severe depression. We can find the answer to this point in some books and articles written by Chen Brei before his death.
In Chen Bray's article, there are many words about "neurasthenia" and "mental strength", and these are the prominent symptoms of severe depression.
One of the most typical is that he often feels that "all thoughts are gray" and "suicide" thoughts appear repeatedly in his mind. For example, in one of his articles titled "The Eleventh Miscellaneous Notes of November", he wrote that he had the idea of "abandoning himself and abandoning himself", and "I don't know how many times it has been moved, and whenever my heart is in pain, I often have the idea of 'ending my life'".
Not only that, but in many of the following miscellaneous notes and articles, a similar phenomenon has appeared.
In addition, there is severe insomnia, and it is impossible to fall asleep when it is turned over and over. In fact, Chen Bray has been suffering from insomnia for many years, and every time he has insomnia, he must rely on sleeping pills to fall asleep.
In this regard, its funeral committee has reported that:
"Mr. Bray suffers from neurasthenia, so that he often suffers from insomnia, and he must take three sleeping pills every night to fall asleep, and sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, take a few more tablets, and then he can sleep slightly."
In addition to these manifestations, there are many more, such as stomach discomfort, can not eat; procrastination and exhaustion, fear of socialization and so on. And these symptoms happen to be the manifestations of depression.
Depression is generally related to factors such as genes, temperament, and external stress. Those social elites with high knowledge and high levels happen to be the high incidence of depression. For those perfectionists who are extremely responsible and sensitive and thoughtful, they are extremely prone to depression.
But fundamentally, depression itself is a psychological disease, not an incurable disease, as long as it is combined with the correct medical treatment, the right medicine, can be completely recovered.
However, due to various factors such as the times, Chen Bray could not receive these treatments, so he finally left regretfully.
So we can finally briefly sum up that the reason why Chen Bray committed suicide was not to give Chiang Kai-shek any "corpse advice", but because he suffered from severe depression, coupled with the layers of external pressure, which finally made him overwhelmed, and he could only choose to end his life by suicide.