What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
In China's modern history, Hunan Province is a place where talents are born, and countless politicians, military experts, and writers have been born, including the famous revolutionary educator Mr. Zhu Jianfan.
Zhu Jianfan, whose original name was Zhou Jiachun, was born in a family of officials and eunuchs in Changshaning Township, Hunan Province, his father Zhou Dawu was a famous general in the Xiang Army, who had served as a soldier under Zuo Zongtang, and was highly valued by the imperial court because of his bravery and resourcefulness in battle, and he was highly regarded by the imperial court, and held the posts of general soldier, viceroy of Sichuan, and viceroy of Gansu.
According to the "Genealogy of the Zhou Clan", the original surname of the Zhou clan was Zhu, and the ancestor was Zhu Jianjun, the son of Emperor Yingzong of Ming. During the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Ming, Zhu Jianjun was given the title of King of Ji, and his fief was in Changsha, Hunan, and after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, in order to avoid being pursued and killed by Qing soldiers, the queens of Ji added a "Ji" character to "冂", changed their surname to Zhou, and lived in seclusion in Changsha NingXiang. Passed down to the Zhou family, he is already the twenty-seventh grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang, the ming emperor.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Zhou Jiachun changed his surname to Zhu and named zhu Jianfan. Although born in a feudal bureaucratic family, Zhu Jianfan did not have the style of a clumsy child, was diligent and studious in his youth, studied in Japan, and befriended revolutionaries such as Huang Xing, and accepted the idea of democratic revolution.
After returning from studying in Japan, Zhu Jianfan worked as a teacher at his hometown normal school. Faced with the backward educational situation in China at that time and the idea of preferring sons to daughters, Zhu Jianfan began to advocate the establishment of girls' schools. As for Zhu Jianfan's practice of establishing a girls' school, the Qing government explicitly prohibited it and repeatedly closed down girls' schools.
But Zhu Jianfan did not give up, he opened the girls' school in his own garden, and sold the property to maintain the school's expenses, only for girls of the right age to study, the school was called "Zhounan Xuetang". In the following years, the size of the girls' school continued to expand, so Zhu Jianfan sold most of his family's houses and land, and all the money he received was subsidized to the school he opened.
Zhu Jianfan's act of concentrating on running schools for more than ten years and not hesitating to sell his wealth has won the praise of the broad masses of the people and patriotic compatriots. The Zhounan Academy also produced a number of outstanding female students, such as the famous revolutionary martyrs Xiang Jianyu and Yang Kaihui.
After the establishment of the Republic of China, he was appointed as the principal of Changsha First Women's Normal College, the principal of Changsha Normal School, and became a model for the educational circles in Hunan Province.
In the 1920s, he went to Beijing on behalf of the Hunan education community for a meeting, and Fan Yuanlian, then the premier of the state, valued his contribution to modern education and wanted to invite him to be the director of education, but he refused, in his view, education is the foundation of the rejuvenation of the country, and has nothing to do with fame and power.
In fact, Zhu Jianfan was concerned not only about education, but also about revolution. In 1923, when he heard that Mr. Sun Wen was preparing to launch a revolution in Guangzhou, he went to help prepare for the Northern Expedition. After the Northern Expedition, he returned to Hunan and served as the director and mayor of Changsha City Public Security Bureau.
In life, Zhu Jianfan was strict with himself, clean and self-righteous, and opposed the old feudal idea of male superiority and female inferiority and three wives and four concubines. At the age of 17, he married Wei Xiangruo, the daughter of Wei Guangtao, the governor of Liangjiang, and according to the official rules of the time, when they were married, the mother's family took all the daughters' servants as accompaniments to him as concubines, but they were all sent home by him, and there was only one wife in his life.
In this regard, he once said: "When I set up a women's school, what I want is equality between men and women, and women are liberated, so how can I marry three wives and four concubines again?" ”
As a famous educator in modern times, Zhu Jianfan had a unique vision in the education of his children and supported his children to participate in the revolution, especially in the communist revolution. With his support, his eldest son, daughter-in-law and third daughter all later joined the Communist Party and made outstanding contributions to the Chinese revolution.
The third daughter, Zhu Zhongzhi, graduated from Nanjing Jinling Girls' School, joined the Communist Youth League in 1926, and became a revolutionary cadre of our party. In 1926, in Wuhan, he met Xiao Jinguang, a young general who had just participated in the Northern Expedition, and the two fell in love at first sight, and after a period of interaction, they married each other. After the founding of New China, Xiao Jinguang was awarded the rank of Great General.
In addition to the third son-in-law, Zhu Jianfan also had a more powerful son-in-law, that is, Wang Jiaxiang, who was the director of the General Political Department of the Red Army. Zhu Zhongli is the youngest daughter of Zhu Jianfan, under the influence of her father, she joined the revolution at the age of 15, and after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, she came to Yan'an, the holy land of the revolution, and was cordially received by the chairman.
Speaking of his father, the chairman said sadly: "Your father is the pride of Hunan, but he died too early, otherwise he could have been our minister of education." ”
During his time in Yan'an, Zhu Zhongli met Wang Jiaxiang and eventually entered the palace of marriage.
In the history of the Chinese revolution, Wang Jiaxiang held a very high position; at the Zunyi Meeting of the Red Army, it was his "crucial vote" that the Chairman's correct thinking and policy could be implemented, and it can be said that he saved the Party and the Red Army at a critical juncture. After that, he formed a military command group with the chairman and three other people, and led the Red Army to victory in the Long March.
After the founding of New China, Wang Jiaxiang successively served as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, and died of illness in Beijing in 1974.