It is often said that it is often the last straw that crushes the camel. People often have to bear countless pressures when they live, no matter what kind of proud son of heaven, or Zhumen embroidery, the string that breaks in the end is always dark and silent, and once it bursts out, the road to death is often so painful and helpless.
There are many such figures in history, but it is a pity that such a Harvard talent who was born into a military family and received a good education in the West committed suicide at the age of twenty-two because he did not have money to graduate. His name was Du Zhiren, and he was the eldest son of the Kuomintang general Du Yuming, the Grand Duke of the Du family, and the brother-in-law of the famous scientist Yang Zhenning.
A well-funded talent
Mention Yang Zhenning, I think everyone will be more familiar with it, he is the most famous scientist in China, he and Li Zhengdao jointly proposed the "theory of non-conservation of the universe" and won the Nobel Prize in Physics, and he is the first person in China to win the Nobel Prize.
This scientist not only has extraordinary scientific achievements, but also his emotional life is quite exciting. In 2004, the 82-year-old Yang Zhenning married Weng Fan, a 28-year-old graduate student, and there was a worldwide uproar, and his late wife, Du Zhili, was also a student of his in the past.
Du Zhili's father, Du Yuming, was an excellent general who left a strong ink mark during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and fought against the elite main Japanese troops many times. As one of the few Westernized generals in the Kuomintang army, several of Du Yuming's sons and daughters mostly studied abroad and received advanced Western education.
In early 1949, at the end of the Battle of Huaihai, Du Yuming, the supreme commander of the Kuomintang Xu Beng Battlefield, was captured. His eldest son Du Zhiren fled the mainland with his mother Cao Xiuqing, and the family settled in Taipei, including the eldest daughter Du Zhili.
Du Zhili married the 28-year-old Yang Zhenning in Princeton in 1950, and the two Yang and Du families officially became one family. After marriage, Yang Zhenning began to contact his brother-in-law Du Zhiren and gave him a lot of guidance on learning.
Du Zhiren has been excellent in learning since he was a shogun, and he is the eldest son in the family, he has always embraced ideals, studied hard, even if he fell in the middle of the family road, he has not given up his studies, and he has ambitiously declared the highest school in the United States - Harvard.
Fortunately, the kung fu paid off, and with the guidance of his sister and brother-in-law in front, he quickly received an admission notice from Harvard University. At that moment, this glorious family finally ushered in good news for a long time, but another problem that followed made them difficult.
Unbearable weight
There is an ancient saying that there is a golden house in the book, and there is a yan ruyu in the book. Du Zhiren chose the path of studying well, it is not wrong, going to the United States to study is a good way, and there is a help from Yang Zhenning's family who settled in Princeton. In theory, this is much better than continuing to live in Taiwan and living a life of staggering in the cracks.
However, at that time, the Du family had no top pillar in the family, and they could not get half a penny at all, and even because they were not welcomed by the authorities, they only relied on receiving government security funds to survive. To go to Harvard University for further study, at least ten thousand US dollars in tuition fees for four years, on the Du family, where can they spend so much money for their children to study abroad.
Thinking like this, even when the eldest daughter Du Zhili, as a graduate of a famous school, was admitted to Wesleyan Women's College, but had to give up for economic reasons, and would choose an ordinary college to continue her studies, it was enough to glimpse the situation that this family was not optimistic.
Not to mention, now you have to pay ten thousand dollars, only as a tuition fee to touch Harvard's doorstep, in the face of this astronomical number, the Du family is disheartened. In 1953, when the political situation in Taiwan became more and more turbulent, Du Zhiren finally embarked on the road to study in the United States and entered the Harvard Academy in the expectation of his family.
Behind it, Yang Zhenning once instructed Du Zhiren, perhaps he could try to pay the tuition fee by applying for a bank loan, and when he successfully graduated and found a job, he could pay it back one by one. Think about it, how can an excellent student who graduated from Harvard be worried about not being able to find a good job?
As a result, Du Zhiren was rekindled in his confidence, and he sent letters to many banks at that time, and finally succeeded in borrowing from Taiwanese banks in installments. Mortgaged everything that can be mortgaged, he knows that debt to study is like a battle against the water, he looks forward to the future of successful study in four years, waiting for the dawn to shine again.
Three years passed quickly, with only the last year left, and his path to study was soon completed. During the summer vacation, he continued to eat and sleep at his sister Du Zhili, who was encouraged by the family's academic atmosphere, had a passion for learning, and was still writing manuscripts during the holidays.
However, at this time, Du Zhiren received bad news, and the Taiwan bank on the other side of the ocean interrupted his credit assistance and demanded that the more than 7,000 yuan of debt in the past three years be paid off as soon as possible.
This news was tantamount to a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and he was almost at the door, and he hurriedly sent a letter to Taiwan, begging his mother to find a way to help him, while explaining the situation to the Bank of Taiwan. The letter was earnest and pleading, and he made it clear that he only needed three thousand yuan to receive a diploma, and as long as he could successfully graduate, the loans would be repaid year by year.
The bank's attitude was resolute, and his mother Cao Xiuqing had no other choice but to cross the level overnight and write a report to Chiang Kai-shek on applying for a loan of three thousand yuan. After waiting hard for more than half a month, Chiang Kai-shek's approval order came down and agreed to borrow a thousand yuan and pay it in two batches. This means that Cao Xiuqing has come up with the last method, and can only give his son five hundred yuan temporarily, only one-sixth of the tuition fee owed.
The fact that Du Yuming was once captured in the Battle of Huaihai made Chiang Kai-shek still resentful, and even if he cared about his old feelings, he was unwilling to come up with more. Cao Xiuqing had no choice but to hurry up and send out the five hundred yuan check that she got first.
On the other hand, Du Zhiren originally wanted to find some work and find a way to raise tuition. However, this amount is really too big a gap, two weeks have passed, neither side has made effective progress, anxiety and these years of cold reception, suffering, in a short period of time to swallow this vigorous young man.
He recalled the good days of the past, the bitter days, those had all passed, but he had no face to face the kind of future that could not respond to expectations - he gave everything he could not support this family, he was Du's son.
That night, he had dinner with Yang Zhenning's family, and when he returned to his room, he closed the door tightly and did not come out for a long time. It was not until the next day, when there was no one else at the table at noon, that Du Zhiren rushed to the bedroom, broke through the door, and found that his brother, who had just turned twenty-two, had lost his life forever.
The backbone of the young talent is finally overwhelmed, forced to bend down under the trickery of fate, allowing all past efforts to turn into dust. Under the bed where he died, an empty pill bottle was found, and the sleeping pills inside were all taken, turning into a mask of pain, tightly covering the young man's face.
Fate makes people miserable
Some people want to ask, why didn't Yang Zhenning's family lend a helping hand at that time? Just let a talented young man die under their noses? This is not the case. At that time, Du Zhili and Yang Zhenning had many kind words of encouragement, and promised Du Zhiren to think of a good way for him, planning and running in many ways, but time passed bit by bit, and Du Zhili could not wait so long.
Since the couple married in the United States, they soon had children, but because of financial disparity, it was not until 1956, before the incident, that the two had the money to buy a house. This is also the biggest reason why the two of them could not fill the vacancy of Du Zhili's tuition fee for a while, and they had more than enough but not enough strength.
In addition, at that time, Yang Zhenning had not yet won the Nobel Prize, and his reputation had not been disseminated, and a large part of the income was used for research funds, and he could not take out more for a while.
In 1957, the year after his brother-in-law's death, Yang Zhenning was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. During the period when Yang Zhenning went to Sweden to receive the award and returned to the United States, Du Yuming's mother died in Taiwan. It can be said that Du Mu is a blessed person, and if Chiang Kai-shek's wish for her birthday in Shanghai is the light of Du Yuming, then Chiang Kai-shek's generous burial for her in Taipei is a blessing for Yang Zhenning.
The wind of the Du family is back. On the other hand, Du Yuming, as one of the first batch of amnesty war criminals, was pardoned by the mainland, and in 1961, he was appointed as the cultural and historical commissioner of the Literature and History Research Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The family slowly returned to the right track, and only Du Zhiren, who was played by fate, died in the best summer of youth.
Nowadays, people can explore and guess his tangled and painful mood at that time according to his situation; or take history as a mirror to remove his depression and unhappiness, as well as the pain of falling down fiercely, and say that if only he could cheer up until the next year.
However, people may not be so powerful, nor do they have the ability of uncertain prophets, yellow leaves do not fall green leaves, white-haired people send black-haired people, Du Zhiren's story is really lamentable.