Original title: "Self-denial" and "Cursing": How should Chiang Kai-shek's diary be read?
I would like to talk about the situation of Chiang Kai-shek's diary, many readers know that Chiang Kai-shek has the habit of keeping a diary, and his diary began in 1915 and lasted until 1972, for a total of 57 years. The 57-year diary lost 4 years, and now it is the 53-year diary that is preserved. Judging from the preserved diaries, Chiang Kai-shek wrote with a brush and wrote it every day. When he was hospitalized, he had to write a sentence that he could not remember because of illness, and could not write a diary. In his later years, Chiang Kai-shek suffered from hand muscular atrophy and his hands were shaking, and in this case he had to write about hand shaking and could not remember. Chiang Kai-shek, despite his shortcomings of one kind or another, has one advantage that I call perseverance. Many people keep diaries, but like Chiang Kai-shek, they have been writing diaries continuously, every day for 57 years. Why did Chiang Kai-shek keep a diary? One is to study Zeng Guofan, who keeps a diary every day, so Chiang Kai-shek also keeps a diary every day. Why keep a diary? One is for the sake of personal moral cultivation, Chiang Kai-shek set himself the goal, he wants to be a model of the Republic of China. Therefore, the first goal of Jiang Ji's diary was to carry out personal moral cultivation. The second purpose is to document work instructions. The third self-reflection summarizes experience.
Our older friends here may remember that during the Cultural Revolution, Lin Biao once proposed to fight for private criticism and repair, and to break out a revolution in the depths of his soul. I think Chiang Kai-shek's diary, he used the diary to fight for personal gain, to fight with himself, but there is no problem of criticism. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek's diary is actually a self-reflective diary, every week Chiang Kai-shek has to write this week's reflection diary, every month Chiang Kai-shek has to write this month's reflection diary, and at the end of the year, Chiang Kai-shek will write a few thousand words or even tens of thousands of words of reflection diary for this year. So his third purpose is self-reflection and summing up experience.
The second reason is the needs of the revolution, Chiang Kai-shek's revolutionary guide is Chen Qimei, he introduced Chiang Kai-shek to meet Sun Yat-sen, so I say that Chen Qimei is a guide for Chiang Kai-shek to participate in the revolution. In 1916, Chen Qimei was assassinated by Yuan Shikai, and Chiang Kai-shek was very sad. Since then, Chiang Kai-shek has made up his mind to improve his moral cultivation, improve his character, and aspire to do learning to continue the revolutionary cause, so he has since changed from evil to good, determined to cultivate himself, and meditated and reflected every day to meet the requirements of Confucianism.
When Chiang Kai-shek was young, because of his poor tutoring, he made friends, to be honest, he made foxes and dogs, so his life was more debauched. But from 1916 onwards, in order to inherit Chen Qimei's revolutionary cause, he was determined to get rid of those bad problems, and he kept a diary in order to change his bad faults and become a revolutionary.
Chiang Kai-shek's diary can now be seen, so since 2006, the Hoover Archives in the United States have published Chiang Kai-shek's diary to the world in four batches, and every foreigner can read it with a passport, and every Chinese can read it with a passport of the People's Republic of China. Originally, the diary had been ready for publication two years earlier, but then there was a conflict among the descendants of the Jiang family, so the publication plan was stopped. But I'm sure in a few years the diary will still be published and everyone will have a chance to see it.
Some readers may ask about Chiang Kai-shek's diary, how authentic is it? If Chiang Kai-shek had told lies in his diary, we would not have been deceived. For example, on May 8, 1919, when Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Hong Kong, he said, "See the color and remember it once", that is, I saw a girl, this girl is very beautiful, and she got excited. Remembered once. Chiang Kai-shek has a girlfriend Jiemei, she wants to marry Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek said, "Don't forget Jiemei", if I don't forget the girl Jiemei, what do I want to do, what do I want to do. "Want to set up a product first to quit color" Today I have a full of evil hearts, but fortunately I have not fallen, saying "see the heart of Shu" that is, beautiful girls, this psychology "meets the heart of yan is not right" is a beautiful girl, when I met a beautiful girl, I had an unrighteous thought once, so these are all records of Chiang Kai-shek's self-struggle and private struggle.
Second, remembering the situation of cursing people, everyone knows that Chiang Kai-shek likes to scold people, for example, he scolded Hu Hanmin, Hu Thief, did not know honesty, the bad guy in the bad egg, the extreme brazenness. Then Sun Ke was Sun Yat-sen's young master, Chiang Kai-shek scolded him in his diary, and the premier was betrayed by him, not only selling the party, but also betraying the country. It is said that he is mediocre, stupid, confused, arrogant, and unclear, and is a first-class figure of Ah Dou. Soong Ziwen was Chiang Kai-shek's brother-in-law, and Chiang Kai-shek scolded him for being cunning and arrogant, saying that he was the culprit. Kong Xiangxi was a relative of Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Kai-shek called him shameful. Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi of the Gui clan, and Chiang Kai-shek scolded them both shamelessly. There was also a person in charge of the air force in the Kuomintang, and the commander-in-chief of the air force was named Zhou Zhiroulong, and Chiang Kai-shek scolded him and said that shooting him 10 times was not enough.
In Chiang Kai-shek's diary, almost everyone, his colleagues, his friends, and his relatives scolded, only one person, Wu Zhihui, this person was a Kuomintang elder, chiang kai-shek did not scold. So Song Meiling scolded or not? Song Meiling also scolded, but the scolding was more clever and more hidden. For example, on May 27, 1972, Chiang Kai-shek's diary said that the zhongxing hotel was inspected, the hotel was in Yangmingshan, Chiang Kai-shek originally lived with Soong Meiling in the Shilin official residence, on this day Chiang Kai-shek moved to Yangmingshan, saying that recently my mental pain, why? Because women and villains are difficult to raise, "women and villains are difficult to raise" is Confucius's words, Chiang Kai-shek copied it in a place, saying that I live alone and cultivate myself, I stay alone, I cultivate myself. On June 12th, he also said "do not come near", one is a woman and the other is a villain who cannot get close. Who is the villain here referring to? The villain refers to Kong Xiangxi's son Kong Lingkan, who does the woman refer to? The woman refers to Song Meiling, so Chiang Kai-shek even scolded Song Meiling in his diary.
Everyone thinks that since he wrote about his private life, those unseemly selfish distractions, and scolded so many people, such a diary naturally cannot be made public. In my opinion, his diary has considerable authenticity and is relatively reliable. When I say this, I do not mean that his diary is not flawed or distorted. For example, in 1938, Wang Jingwei secretly ran from Chongqing to Hanoi, Hanoi in Vietnam, preparing to go from Hanoi to Hong Kong and Shanghai. After negotiating with the Japanese, Wang Jingwei lost confidence in the war and wanted to go to Hong Kong to negotiate with the Japanese as a traitor. At this time, a group of Dai Kasa's agents chased to Hanoi, climbed over the wall and entered the hospital in the middle of the night, and shot at the room where Wang Jingwei lived, but Wang Jingwei was very cunning, and the night before, Wang Jingwei and his secretary changed rooms. The Kuomintang agents swept through the room of Wang Jingwei's secretary, and Wang Jingwei moved the bedroom unharmed. Everyone thinks that Wang Jingwei is the elder of the Kuomintang and the second person in the vice president of the Kuomintang. To assassinate such a figure, without Chiang Kai-shek's orders, I think Dai Kasa ate the leopard's guts and he would not dare. So the assassination of Wang Jingwei must have been Chiang Kai-shek's idea, assassinating Wang Jingwei, killing Wang Jingwei, I think every one of our Chinese feels that it is right, because he wants to surrender to Japan. But how was Jiang's diary written? Such eight words, "stabbed Wang Jingwei without being stabbed", assassinated Wang Jingwei without stabbing, "unfortunate luck". When I read this diary, I was very strange, assassinating Wang Jingwei is a good thing, Wang Jingwei went to stab him and did not hit, this is a regrettable thing, but you see Chiang Kai-shek said that unfortunate luck, there is no stab actually think it is a good thing. Why did Chiang Kai-shek write this? I think Chiang Kai-shek wanted to create his own lofty moral image. Chiang Kai-shek did not approve of Wang Jingwei's surrender to Japan, so he gave Wang Jingwei an idea, and you went to Europe to cultivate. Get your passport ready, get your dollars ready, persuade Wang Jingwei, don't surrender to the Japanese, don't make contact with the Japanese, go to Europe. How could he suddenly send spies to assassinate Wang Jingwei? So he wanted to portray himself as a morally perfect man, and he wrote it on purpose.
When I studied Chiang Kai-shek, I came to the following two conclusions: If I study modern history and do not look at Chiang Kai-shek's diary, it would be a great loss, but I would be fooled if I believed everything after reading it.