What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
As the saying goes, "one fence three piles, one good man three gangs". If a person wants to succeed, it is certainly not enough to rely on himself, and he must have a powerful assistant around him, especially for people who do great things, such as Chiang Kai-shek. After Sun Yat-sen's death, two of the most powerful members of the Kuomintang were Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin, both of whom wanted to inherit Sun Yat-sen's mantle, but the core power of the Kuomintang fell into the hands of Chiang Kai-shek. Although there are reasons for Chiang Kai-shek's personal efforts, it is also inseparable from the powerful think tanks around him.
During Chiang Kai-shek's rule over the Kuomintang, he was surrounded by four major think tanks, namely his brother Dai Jitao and Chen Bray, known as the "Literary Guts"; and the famous Kuomintang theorists Tao Xisheng and Qin Xiaoyi. So, what happened to chiang kai-shek's four think tanks?
First, Dai Jitao
Dai Jitao was born in 1891 in Sichuan, but his ancestral home is Huzhou, Zhejiang. In his early years, Dai Jitao went to Japan to study at the Zhenwu Academy in Tokyo. During his studies at the Zhenwu Academy, Dai Jitao met Chiang Kai-shek, who was also from Zhejiang, and the two were like-minded and fellow countrymen, and soon after they became allies.
After returning from Japan, Dai Jitao joined the League and began to serve Sun Yat-sen. After Sun Yat-sen's death, Dai Jitao, as a kuomintang elder, began to support his allied brother Chiang Kai-shek to ascend to the throne. In 1927, after Chiang Kai-shek established a separate National Government in Nanjing, Dai Jitao became the president of the examination institute of Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing National Government, and since then, he has been loyally assisting Chiang Kai-shek and is known as Chiang Kai-shek's most loyal think tank.
However, in the War of Liberation, as the Kuomintang soldiers were defeated, Dai Jitao also began to have a grudge with Chiang Kai-shek, and he himself suffered from severe mental weakness, and could only rely on sleeping pills to sleep in peacetime. In February 1949, Dai Jitao, feeling cornered by the Kuomintang, was so energized that he could not sleep after taking a large amount of sleeping pills, and his family almost choked when he found out. In the end, Chiang Kai-shek, a loyal think tank, did not follow Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan and committed suicide on February 11, 1949, at the age of 58.
Second, Chen Bray
Chen Bray is the most famous of Chiang Kai-shek's four think tanks, and he is also known as "the leader's literary guts and the president's think tank." Chen Brei was born in 1890 in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, and is a fellow countryman with Chiang Kai-shek. At the same time, Chen Bray is also a rather talented person, who used to be a journalist in Shanghai in the early years, and used "Bray" as a pen name to publish comments on the shortcomings of needlework, which was famous all over the world.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek established a separate National Government in Nanjing, and on the recommendation of others, he invited Chen Brei to serve as his secretary. Since then, Chen Brei has become the most reliable think tank around Chiang Kai-shek, he is quick-witted, known as the "royal pen pole", all the cumbersome official documents, as long as Chen Brei's collation, immediately become clear.
However, in the process of following Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Bray gradually felt that he could not make up his own mind, and he even felt that his soul was at the mercy of others. In 1948, especially after the liaoshen campaign, the Kuomintang soldiers were defeated, Chen Brei found that his ideals and reality were gradually drifting away, and the desperate Chen Brei finally committed suicide in November 1948 at the age of 58.
Third, Tao Xisheng
Born in 1899, Tao Xisheng was a well-known talent since childhood, studied in the law department of Peking University, and has been engaged in legal work since graduation, and has served as a professor of law at Peking University. Unlike others, Tao Xisheng once went astray for a while. In 1937, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Tao Xisheng followed Wang Jingwei and served as the head of the propaganda department of the Wang puppet government. In layman's terms, Tao Xisheng was once a big traitor.
Fortunately, Tao Xisheng was lost. In 1940, Tao Xisheng fled from Nanjing to Hong Kong and exposed Wang Jingwei's traitorous treaty in the Ta Kung Pao, which shocked the whole country for a time. The contents of the secret treaty exposed by Tao Xisheng made Japan's ambition to invade China clearly revealed, and this move also strengthened the determination of our people to resist Japan.
In 1941, Tao Xisheng became Chiang Kai-shek's attendant secretary, and after that, he served as the chief writer of the Central Daily, becoming a think tank around Chiang Kai-shek. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Tao Xisheng was appointed deputy director of the Propaganda Department. In 1949, Tao Xisheng fled to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek, and after arriving in Taiwan, Tao Xisheng served as the "National Policy Adviser of the Presidential Office".
However, after arriving in Taiwan, Tao Xisheng was not reused by Chiang Kai-shek, and he only served as a "member of the appraisal committee" and "consultant" and other fictitious positions. In 1988, Tao Xisheng died of illness in Taiwan at the age of 89.
Fourth, Qin Xiaoyi
Qin Xiaoyi was born in 1921, a native of Hunan, who has read a lot of books since childhood and has systematically studied law. Unlike the previous three think tanks, Qin Xiaoyi only gained the reuse of Chiang Kai-shek after he arrived in Taiwan. In 1949, with the defeat of the Kuomintang, Qin Xiaoyi fled to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek, and after fleeing to Taiwan, Qin Xiaoyi was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the "Secretary of the Presidential Office" and officially became the most important think tank around Chiang Kai-shek.
After arriving in Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek trusted Qin Xiaoyi very much, and Qin Xiaoyi was also grateful to Chiang Kai-shek for his kindness, and successively served as "deputy secretary general of the Kuomintang" and "deputy head of the cultural propaganda group" and other important positions, and was also responsible for drafting Chiang Kai-shek's will. Qin Xiaoyi served as a squire secretary for more than twenty years and was the most reliable think tank after Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Taiwan.
In her later years, Qin Xiaoyi became a professor at National Taiwan University, and in 1983 became the "president of the Palace Museum" in Taiwan. Qin Xiaoyi retired in 2000, and he has been living in Taipei ever since, when he died of illness in 2007 at the age of 86.