Author: Lü Congmin has served successively in the Chinese Chargé d'affairs office in the United Kingdom, the European and American Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Embassy in Canada, and the Department of the United States department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has served as foreign affairs secretary of Premier Li Peng, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the State Council, deputy secretary general of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress, vice chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Tenth National People's Congress, vice chairman of the Chinese National Congress System Theory Research Association, executive member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, vice chairman of the Chinese side of the Sino-US parliamentary exchange mechanism, and chairman of the Chinese side of the Chinese Canadian Parliamentary Association.
The Xilin Gol Grassland in Inner Mongolia in autumn is endless. It's a beautiful sight that evokes endless reverie. With Ji Peiding as the leader, the grassland study tour with Jiang Enzhu and other veteran diplomats participated in an unforgettable and beautiful time. The trip to Inner Mongolia also gave us, the old comrades who had worked together for many years, a good opportunity to reminisce about the past and recount friendship.
In the evening of Xilin Gol, the breeze is refreshing. Ambassador Tang Mingxin and I walked in the sunset, and our minds returned to the scene of working together in the Foreign Ministry in the 1970s.
Tang Mingxin was born in the same year as me, he is in Shanghai, I am in Inner Mongolia. He went to school early, two years before me to work. We were colleagues in the Oceania Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was a senior translator in Spanish, working in Latin America, and I was an English officer in the North American Division. He experienced the world far more than I did. He has served as an interpreter for the first generation of central leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping, and Li Xiannian, and has extensive experience in everything from non-governmental and semi-official diplomacy to government diplomacy. And I went from government diplomacy to parliamentary diplomacy to people-to-people diplomacy. Our work trajectories are slightly different, but both are lifelong careers in "diplomacy". Comrade Ming Xin is one of the most experienced veteran diplomats. He gave me his "Rainbow Bridge Over the Pacific Ocean", which I read through with great enthusiasm, and I was deeply impressed by his colorful diplomatic life experience.
Its people have their own wonderful stories. If Chairman Mao Zedong had not asked for his name in November 1961 when he met with a delegation of the Caracas City Council in Hangzhou, Venezuela, I am afraid that he himself might not have fully grasped the profound meaning of it for many years to come. Ming Xin told me about the scene at that time:
After the conversation, Chairman Mao invited the guests to sit down for dinner. Since the conversation began at 3 p.m. and lasted for nearly three hours, after the guests sat down, Chairman Mao humorously said: "Is it time for us to collect the troops in this downpour?" So that the translation comrades can eat with peace of mind. ”
After eating for a while, Chairman Mao noticed Tang Mingxin, smiled, and said, "Some people say that my name is very good, but I don't know what your translator's surname is?" Hearing the chairman's question, Ming Xin immediately raised his head and said his name to the chairman. After hearing this, Chairman Mao pondered and asked, "How do you write these three words of Tang Mingxin?" Ming Xin wrote his name neatly on a piece of paper and handed it to Chairman Mao. After reading this, Chairman Mao said unhurriedly: "Ah, your name is also very good!" Who gave it? Your grandfather! Ming Xin replied that it was his father who caused it. Chairman Mao said, "Then your father's ancient literary background is not bad!" Your name has a deep meaning, so you have to appreciate it. ”
Chairman Mao finally looked at the note again and put it in his pocket. The name of an ordinary young translator that aroused the chairman's concern was something that Mingxin had never imagined and remembered for a lifetime.
As soon as he returned home after the reception work, Mingxin was impatient to tell his father Chairman Mao to ask about the origin of his name and asked what was going on. His father told him that the name came from the motto set by The founding monarch of the Shang Dynasty, King Tang, for his continuous progress, which was recorded in the famous sentence of the "University": "Tang's "Pan Ming" says: Gou Day New, Day By Day New, And New Day by Day. "Plates are bronze bathing utensils. Inscriptions are words engraved on vessels to praise merit or to affirm precepts. The warning words engraved by King Tang on the bronze plate said that if you can wash away the dirt on your body in one day and look new, then you should clean it every day and abandon the old map. Uninterrupted every day, always maintained, do every day new, every day new.
During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, bronzes were valuables owned by princes and nobles, symbolizing power and status. There are often written characters inside the utensils, called inscriptions, also known as "golden texts". (Image from the Internet)
Listening to his father's explanation, Ming Xin realized that the "Pan Ming" contained a certain encouragement to life and a noble desire to constantly purify and sublimate his soul. Fathers used it to place their fervent expectations. No wonder Chairman Mao said that the name is a good name, and we must deeply understand its meaning. Ming Xin said that looking back now, it is really impressive. He was profoundly inspired by Chairman Mao's questioning of his name, prompted him to think about life, and in turn inspired himself to set a goal that he would strive unremittingly for the rest of his life: to be new day by day, and to be new every day.
In diplomatic circles, Ming Xin is a recognized expert on Latin American issues. He is familiar with the evolution of Latin America's political economy and society. His knowledge of the Latin American language also made me envious. I love Latin American literature, which may have something to do with my major in foreign languages. When I came into contact with Ming, I found out that my knowledge about Latin America was pitiful. I talked to Ming Xin about the poems of the famous Chilean poet Neruda. When we chant the verse "Let peace belong to every dawn of the future, let peace belong to the bridge, let the wine, let peace belong to the poem that pursues me, and it rises in my blood", it is as if we hear the voice of this great poet crying out for peace.
Neruda is in China
After Neruda's visit to China in 1951, he wrote a long poem called "The Winds of Asia", in which he wrote: "In this land of China's dense suffering, Mao Zedong stepped forward, and we finally saw that on people's shoulders, the dawn of dawn rose. These verses express Neruda's heartfelt blessings and deep friendship for the People's Republic of China, which is in ruins. I know very little about Neruda's poetry, but it is only a banmen axe, and Comrade Mingxin has a profound study of Neruda and his works, and his analysis has enabled me to not only know his words but also his meaning, and the poet's style is integrated into my heart.
Among the old diplomats, Tang Mingxin is a legendary one. From his graduation from the Diplomatic Academy in 1960 to his retirement from his post as ambassador to Uruguay in 1999, he traveled to most of the Latin American and Caribbean countries that have established diplomatic relations with our country. He said he went from one highland country (1980 in Colombia, 2600 meters above sea level), to another (Ecuador in 1988, 2800 meters above sea level) and to a higher altitude country (in 1993 to Bolivia, the capital La Paz was 3600 meters above sea level).
La Paz is known as the "grave of diplomats", and there have been incidents of diplomats unfortunately dying due to severe altitude sickness and ineffective rescue in china and other countries.
In May 1993, Ambassador Tang Mingxin presented his credentials to President Zamora (front row, center), and had a cordial conversation with him.
On his mission to Bolivia, Tang Mingxin was also afraid at first, but he was ordered to work in the "roof of the world" in the western hemisphere for three and a half years. He is China's longest-serving ambassador to the world's highest-altitude country, and it is indeed a legend that he has achieved safe "descent". Tang Mingxin understood in his heart that it was not enough to have the determination to "not be afraid of suffering and not afraid of death". In order not to fail in the mission and carry out work in a relatively good state, it is necessary to have a scientific attitude and find ways to overcome altitude sickness. To this end, he went to the former Academy of Military Medical Sciences to seek advice, and learned that the officers and men of the troops stationed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau had a good way to overcome altitude sickness, that is, to drink a cup of soup boiled with astragalus every day. So he went to Tongrentang to buy a large amount of astragalus ground into powder and brought it to the embassy, taking it for a long time, and the effect was good. After the promotion of this law in the museum, officials were basically no longer bothered and suffering from altitude sickness. When he left La Paz for Uruguay as ambassador, cardiopulmonary function returned to normal relatively quickly.
President Alexis Sanchez and his wife held a family banquet to send off Ambassador Tang Mingxin
A diplomat, especially a senior diplomat, must not only have a sense of home and country, but also have goodwill, sympathy and friendship with the people in the country where they are stationed and the region in which they are located, and understand with emotion the history of their struggle for survival, liberation and development. In November 1960, tang Mingxin, who had recently graduated from university, had the honor of attending the reception of Cuban leader Che Grava in Beijing, and has since studied the extraordinary life of the legendary Latin American revolutionary. While working in Bolivia, he traveled a long distance to the Palegrand region of Bolivia to find the place where Guevara fell, despite extraordinary hardships, and expressed his deep condolences and remembrance for this Latin American hero whom he had known and admired.
Simon Bolívar is a name closely related to the history of the liberation of Latin America. Born in Venezuela, he led the people of South America to the victorious liberation of present-day Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia during his 15-year campaign. During my visits to the Latin American countries in question, I saw many times the statue of Simon Bolívar and the crowds who went to pay their respects. However, it was Comrade Mingxin's introduction and poetry that gave me a real understanding of the historical status and merits of this Liberator of South America.
When Ming Xin visited Venezuela to pay respects to the bronze statue of Simon Bolívar, he returned to the station with unquenchable passion and wrote a poem in Spanish entitled "Andean Condor", which was published in Venezuela's "National Newspaper" to express his eternal thoughts about this great Latin American man. Ming Xin later translated it into Chinese:
Andean Condor
— In front of the bronze statue of Simon Bolívar the Liberator
In that endless sky,
Your sturdy figure is now in the haze.
In the dazzling sunshine,
You spread your wings and soar high in the air.
Let the wind blow,
You stand still on a cliff.
How much peace and danger are there in the world,
Shocks you with worry:
In the courtyard of the Wanguan family wealth,
The putrid smell of wine and flesh filled the air.
The sac is empty as a wash of the homeless poor,
Begging on the streets, this remnant was born in sorrow.
Your cry roars over majestic mountains and vast plains:
"Let the seeds of fire fall from heaven,
The dawn of justice will be born in the midst of a raging fire. ”
Your eager gaze,
As lightning strikes the desire for freedom:
"Open the door to goodness,
Crush all the dreams of fake freedom! ”
Through Boyaka, Caravovo to Ayacucho,
Your loud voice echoes in triumphal songs:
"Brothers and sisters join hands,
Under the banner of the United Banner, we will create a brilliant future! ”
Thinking about it, Mingxin was able to record so many true stories so clearly, and to write poems in praise of Simon Bolívar in two of his favorite words with passion because he had a heart that was always young and noble. The story happened in the past, but it is deeply remembered in his heart. The past stories told by Ming Xin still sound vivid today.
Comrade Mingxin wrote his diplomatic life with a "love" word. He likened the friendship between the Chinese and Latin American peoples to "a rainbow bridge flying over the Pacific Ocean", which implied vivid and profound meaning. Like Mingxin, I hope that this rainbow bridge will always be beautiful and fresh.
— END —
Article source | "Caprice, No. 23 Xijiaomin Lane"
Author | Lu Congmin Picture | Internet
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