From the moment he betrayed the people, in fact, the fate of Chiang Kai-shek's defeat was already doomed, and Chiang Kai-shek, who did not cherish peace, finally lost taiwan in 1949 and spent the last 26 years The President of the Republic of China of his life there.
Weng Yuan was a personal butler who served in the Chiang family for 43 years, taking care of Chiang Kai-shek's daily life, he found some life fragments from memory, and unveiled the details and habits of Chiang Kai-shek's life in his later years. Listen to what his butler has to say.
The habit of not moving: getting up early, drinking boiled water and praying religiously
Shilin official residence is Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Song Meiling lived in their later years, in the era of Chiang Kai-shek's defeat in Taiwan, it can be called one of the most mysterious buildings in Taipei, Chiang Kai-shek this person is more exquisite, the location chosen for his residence should be in line with feng shui, Shilin official residence is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the landform is like a pocket array, it is said that it can hide wind and water, gather the wind and clouds. Chiang Kai-shek has the habit of getting up early every day, getting up on time around 5 o'clock in the morning, the first thing to get up is to take a small flashlight, and then drive the weak light into the bathroom to wash, not for anything else to worry about waking up Soong Meiling, just like we now have some husband and wife living habits are not uniform, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Meiling's living habits have a great difference, Chiang Kai-shek got up this time, Soong Meiling has just fallen asleep.
But half an hour before Chiang Kai-shek got up, the attendants of the Shilin official residence had carefully prepared and started a busy day, the first thing they had to make sure was to boil boiling water, Chiang Kai-shek especially liked to drink boiling boiling water, which was well known around him, Chiang Kai-shek's temperature requirements for boiling water were very special, after boiling the water, it naturally cooled to about 60 degrees, and when Chiang Kai-shek got up, the temperature of boiling water dropped to 30 to 40 degrees, in addition, it was also necessary to use the thermos cup to hold boiling boiled water. Chiang Kai-shek first drank warm water at 30 to 40 degrees, and then drank boiled water from a thermos cup. Chiang Kai-shek believes that the temperature of warm water is close to the temperature of the human body, drinking this water is conducive to health, and taking turns drinking at intervals is also a therapy, so the service personnel around Chiang Kai-shek help to keep 2 kinds of water with different temperatures in thermos cups, and send them up at intervals.
In the morning of the old man's life, there are still some things that are exercise, after the exercise, Chiang Kai-shek's main task in the morning is to pray, he sang praises on the balcony and recited the Bible, after doing this, he returned to the study, began to sit and pray, talking about this, but also from Chiang Kai-shek's pursuit of Soong Mei-ling, when Chiang Kai-shek knew Soong Mei-ling through Sun Yat-sen, he also wanted to find Soong Ching-ling as a matchmaker and was rejected, and then kept writing love letters to Soong Mei-ling, and later through the help of Soong Misty-ling and Soong Ziwen, After several twists and turns, song Meiling's heart was finally printed. But Soong Mei-ling put forward a condition, that is, to make Chiang Kai-shek believe in Christ to become a Christian, from the time of marriage, he kept his promise, often prayed with Soong Mei-ling, and in his later years, he still had a portrait of Jesus hanging in his room.
Unique food hobbies: eating snacks, drinking chicken soup, whole pickles and having lunch with madame
Chiang Kai-shek's daily breakfast is relatively simple, may be the sake of southerners, coupled with the old age of bad teeth (there are also rumors that Chiang Kai-shek ate ice when he was a child and broke his teeth), basically some noodle snacks plus some fruits, although his breakfast looks very simple, but he has many requirements, such as must be special snacks from all over the world, such as tianjin twist flowers, Shanghai City God Temple soup buns, Chiang Kai-shek's personal chef every day to find ways to change the way, to make Chiang Kai-shek happy.
Drinking chicken soup is also a big hobby of Chiang Kai-shek, both in line with the principle of "hydrotherapy", but also to take care of their own teeth, one of the dishes is more likely to eat, that is, chicken sauce taro, this dish is Chiang Kai-shek's hometown dish, taro taste soft, plus chicken soup cooking, is considered to be the most delicious. The hobby of eating pickles was with Chiang Kai-shek's life, when he was a child, his family was not very rich, eating some pickles such as sauce melons, pickled bamboo shoots and green shoots, and later became a small habit of life.
Lunch with his wife is also Chiang Kai-shek's "compulsory course" and good living habits, at noon will rush home from the office to eat, but he and Soong Meiling's eating habits and structure are different, Song Meiling likes to eat Western food, such as salads, beef and the like, once they made fun of each other, Chiang Kai-shek laughed at Song Meiling is a sheep reincarnation who likes to eat grass, and the wife jokes that he likes to eat pickles, but they have a common habit in their diet, that is, vegetarian food mainly controls meat, and then likes after-dinner fruits.
Leisure at home: reading newspapers, watching movies, raising dogs, keeping diaries
In short, the so-called "morning shift" is to write a diary and read newspapers, and Chiang Kai-shek reads all kinds of newspapers, including the main newspapers published in Taiwan, such as the Central Daily, China Times, International Times, and Lianhe Pao. When he heard interesting places, he would issue instructions, let the reading secretary make a mark with a pen, and read it to him after breakfast, eat breakfast, Chiang Kai-shek sat on the sofa, let the reading secretary read the previous marked news to him, about 20 minutes later, the car outside the house was ready, he changed his clothes, went to the presidential palace on time, when Chiang Kai-shek worked, he mostly listened, always talked less, did not express his position easily, often asked for the opinions of subordinates, which was different from before. A bit of a taste of soliciting opinions to improve the work style.
Chiang Kai-shek's night life is very simple, there is no dinner party and all kinds of mobilization we see in the TV series, but take time to accompany Song Meiling, Chiang Kai-shek's main activity is to accompany his wife to watch movies, these movies are usually new films imported by the state or some film companies in Taiwan, many movies have not been made public, can be seen in Chiang Kai-shek's Shilin official residence, his favorite Chinese films are Huangmei film and television drama and Yue opera, typical representatives are "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" and "Seven Fairies", He also enjoyed watching biographical films by famous foreign personalities, including "General Patton", which he often watched repeatedly. And he has a habit of hobby, that is, when the time to watch the film arrives, he will wave from his chair, signal to stop, when the projectionist gets the order, he will make a mark here, so that Chiang Kai-shek can watch next time, in the impression of the guards, Chiang Kai-shek generally watches a movie several times, which is closely related to his schedule.
Chiang Kai-shek likes to raise dogs, the first is that he likes it, the second is that family members love to raise dogs, dogs are an emotional carrier for communication, for example, after Chiang Kai-shek finishes eating at noon, he will give the dog dog dog food to feed him personally, and once when he walked with Song Meiling, they took the dog and joked with the dog, Song Meiling said you pretend to beat me, see if the dog can help me, when Chiang Kai-shek looks at the joke and raises his hand, the dog really stands in front of Song Meiling. Soong Mei-ling is very happy, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling have a very good relationship, looking at his wife happy, Chiang Kai-shek is naturally in a good mood, and there is also that Chiang Kai-shek's grandchildren also like to keep dogs, Chiang Kai-shek likes to walk dogs and play chess every time he is with his grandchildren, and Chiang Kai-shek in his later years especially likes to enjoy the joy of heaven with his family.
In the movie, Jiang Wen once ridiculed and performed the meme of writing a diary, Chiang Kai-shek's habit of writing a diary was maintained for more than 50 years, this habit began with his admiration and imitation of Zeng Guofan, Chiang Kai-shek greatly admired Zeng Guofan, everywhere to learn everything to imitate, after encountering a short period of setbacks that year, Chiang Kai-shek read Zeng Guofan's family books and masterpieces in Japan, instantly found the spiritual coordinates of his life mentor, and Chiang Kai-shek was good at reflecting and summarizing, recording in detail every major event, so that it was convenient to visualize later and pass on the ideas to his family. You may say that since he likes to sum up and reflect so much, why the mistakes he made have not been corrected in time, in fact, through writing a diary, he can see the psychological factors of Chiang Kai-shek's stubbornness and paranoia, so he often presents the image of a dictator, and it is precisely his paranoid failure to promote democracy and serve the people that led to the later defeat of Taiwan.
There are also cute places when you are strict with your subordinates
Chiang Kai-shek, who had lost Taiwan, had been reflecting on the reasons for his defeat in the previous few years, and one of the things he had figured out was that political corruption and official inaction, so he spent great efforts to grasp the problem of the work style of officials in the years when he was "in power" in Taiwan, but whenever he found problems with his work attitude, he was directly dismissed, for example, Chiang Kai-shek once saw in the newspaper that there was a record in the newspaper that officials in one place did not go to work, but instead agreed to hide in their living dormitories and play mahjong. Chiang Kai-shek was grasping these problems of work style, and it just so happened that these people themselves bumped into the muzzle of the gun, so Chiang Kai-shek invited Huang Jie, the person in charge at the time, to come over, and scolded him and asked him to seriously solve these "black sheep" within the specified time, whether it was playing mahjong during work hours or doing anything, as long as he did not do things with a correct attitude.
From the above point of view, Chiang Kai-shek's habit of cursing has not changed, Chiang Kai-shek likes to scold subordinates and scold servants, which has a lot to do with Chiang Kai-shek's temper when he was young, and later because after he came to power, the problem of personality was not corrected, and even some of it was magnified, not only did he scold with his mouth and beat his hands, but after his mouth was addicted, he also liked to write into a diary, in the diary, Chiang Kai-shek also liked to lose his temper and scold people, but after arriving in Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek also began to examine himself, and the habit of cursing did not change. But the content and extent of the scolding have begun to control themselves, before the scolding of Niang Xipi, now it is.
Of course, Chiang Kai-shek also has a lovely place for his subordinates, the housekeeper Weng Yuan said in his recollection, he did not receive a salary in the "government", but Chiang Kai-shek himself paid him a salary, every New Year's Festival, Chiang Kai-shek would give him red envelopes, one of which was when other attendants told him that Chiang Kai-shek was looking for, Weng Yuan reported to Chiang Kai-shek, and as a result, Chiang Kai-shek took out coins from his wallet to give Weng Yuan a holiday benefit, which made Weng Yuan quite moved, and did not expect Chiang Kai-shek's heart to be so fine. Another time was when Chiang Kai-shek sent a red envelope to Weng Yuan, and as a result, he counted and found that there was one more coin, which should have been a good lottery head that should have conformed to the festival and asked for more and better, but he did not expect Chiang Kai-shek to withdraw one more coin. It can be seen from this that Chiang Kai-shek is still quite "principled", and in addition to his seriousness, he is also a little cute.
Away from home: extra nostalgia and homesickness
He fled to Taiwan, he missed his hometown very much, so a lot of materials were purchased through Hong Kong in the mainland, and many utensils in Taiwan's "palace" were brought from the mainland, including a set of tableware made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, which he cherished extraordinarily, once, a guard accidentally damaged the lid of his teacup, causing Chiang Kai-shek to lose his temper, giving him the same tea cup lid made in Taiwan, and after using it once or twice, he abandoned it. Everyone may think that Chiang Kai-shek is sentimental, and also think that it is too formal, but in fact, what he cares about is not the utensils, but the homesickness hidden deep in his heart. Another thing can also be seen in Chiang Kai-shek's homesickness, when he fled to Taiwan, he took away clothes made of silk made from Zhejiang and was reluctant to change them for many years. When the clothes were worn, they arranged for people to buy silk from their hometown in Hong Kong.
According to legend, Chiang Kai-shek once secretly returned to his hometown, and in the traditional Chinese concept, they all respect returning home in gold rather than leaving their hometown, and after a certain age, they always have to go home to honor their ancestors and sneak back to their hometown, of course, this is a rumor that has not been confirmed, and later, Chiang Kai-shek sent important people to return to the mainland to do things, and put forward the idea of returning to their hometown and relatives, and at that time they were also very happy and welcomed this arrangement. However, it is a pity that the international situation has changed again and again, contradictions within Taiwan have become increasingly prominent, Chiang Kai-shek has more and more worries, and coupled with the fact that his body is not as good as before, his wish to return to the mainland has never been realized, and it cannot be said that it is not the greatest regret.
Looking back, the declassified living habits of Chiang Kai-shek's housekeeper are particularly good, and it can also be analyzed that Chiang Kai-shek was an extremely self-disciplined person, and he had a very good family concept, cherished his family and loved his wife Soong Mei-ling, but because he turned his back on the people, the moral shining points on his personal body were no longer able to cover the general interests of the nation and the interests of the people. Following the wrong people on the wrong road and doing the wrong things, and all the things that follow have caused damage to the Chinese nation, the country, and the people, cannot be understood and forgiven.