Lin Sen, a famous political figure during the Republic of China, followed Sun Yat-sen and persisted in the anti-Qing revolutionary struggle. After Sun Yat-sen's death, he joined the "Xishan Conference Faction" of the Kuomintang's right wing. After the establishment of the National Government in Nanjing, he assumed the post of chairman of the government as an elder of the Kuomintang, adopted a detached attitude, and practiced the rule of inaction, which well balanced the factional struggle within the Kuomintang, which was admired by Chiang Kai-shek and convinced all factions in the party. He was in a vacant position, had no power, and had no military background, but he worked for 12 years as chairman of the Nationalist government, which was a miracle during the Kuomintang period when factional struggles were complex.
Linsen
Lin Sen was born in March 1868 in Fenggang Village, Shanggan Township, Minhou County, Fujian Province, to peasant parents, who were inherited from an early age to his uncle Lin Daobing. When Lin Sen was three years old, he moved with his adoptive father to Fuzhou Cangqianshan Land Temple Street, and the family made a living by running a leather shop, which is equivalent to the current self-employed household, and the family environment is considered to be solid in the local area.
Lin Sen received a good basic education, successively studied in the American Church Primary School Peiyuan School, the American Church Eight-year School Fuzhou Yinghua College, not only good at Mandarin, but also good at English, with a strong sense of modern democratic politics.
Lin Sen's loyalty in love can be said to be a model for the world. When he was 22 years old, according to the "order of his parents and the words of the matchmaker", he married a woman surnamed Zheng in Fuzhou. After marriage, the two have sweet feelings and respect each other. Unfortunately, two years later, Zheng was seriously ill, and Lin Sen took a leave of absence to go home to take care of him, but due to ineffective medical treatment, he died in the winter of 1893.
The death of his wife hit Lin Sen hard, and he vowed not to marry again in his life to show his eternal remembrance of his beloved wife. He remained celibate all his life, and so did he when he was in a high position. According to media reports at the time, when Lin Sen was on a business trip, he carried a suitcase containing his wife's bones, and he never left where he went. This sounds a bit creepy and its authenticity cannot be verified, but it shows his love for his wife from one side.
From the perspective of human nature, there are too many people who indulge in the love of the two sexes, and there are too few people who remain celibate and do not marry for the sake of pure and noble love. In the society at that time, it was normal for a man to have three wives and four concubines, and Lin Sen, as a powerful person, was able to do this, which was indeed admirable!
Sun Yat-sen
In 1914, Lin Sen went to the Americas to preside over the party affairs of the American Branch of the Chinese Revolutionary Party, and one of his important tasks was to raise funds for the domestic anti-Yuan struggle. Lin Sen is a very dedicated person, he traveled from all walks of life, raised a large number of donations, and remitted 1.2 million yuan to the Tokyo Party Department alone. At that time, most of the revolutionary work was done out of personal volition and there was no salary support.
However, he is clear about public and private, honest and self-disciplined, not greedy and not occupied, resulting in no security in his personal life, and even basic food and housing are problems. In order to maintain his livelihood, he spent his spare time as a tutor, teaching overseas Chinese children to learn Chinese, and sometimes had to rely on the sale of yuhuashi to make money to subsidize his life.
After Sun Yat-sen learned of this matter, he once gave Lin Sen a one-time living allowance of 3,000 yuan to the American Branch. He has a huge amount of money in his hands, and in the absence of any supervision, he can do it without greed or possession, which is really precious.
During Lin Sen's tenure as chairman of the National Government in Nanjing, he was cautious and low-key in his work, pursued the "three noes" principle of not contending for power and seizing power, not acting as a threat, and not forming a party for personal gain; he adopted a detached attitude, practiced the rule of inaction, balanced coexistence with the strength of all sides, and skillfully avoided various contradictions and disputes.
He insisted on getting up early every day, and after washing his cough, he read the newspaper, rested for a while after breakfast, and went to work in the National Government. His main job was to receive state guests, attend ceremonies, pay tribute to subordinates on behalf of the highest authorities, symbolically sign various documents, and never take charge of affairs.
When Wang Jingwei became the chief executive, Wang was young and vigorous at this time, and he did not go to see the chairman of the state government after taking office, which was a serious act of disrespect. About three months later, Wang Jingwei did not know what the reason was, and informed the office again, ready to go to see Lin Sen, but Lin Sen deliberately avoided it.
The next day, Lin Sen personally went to the Executive Yuan to pay his respects, and explained that he had deliberately avoided it because he "did not dare to be a great gift to see". His low-key and humble approach made Wang Jingwei very embarrassed.
In his work, he has always insisted on actively cooperating, if Wang Jingwei has delays or omissions in the process of transferring official documents, he has taken the initiative to come to the door every time, taking the initiative to cooperate with the signature, avoiding many contradictions and disputes, and also handling the relationship between the "government and the court" well, and there is no "dispute between the government and the court" like in the early years of the Republic of China.
Hu Shi once lamented that Mr. Lin Zichao (Lin Sen Zichao) made the chairman of the state government "vacant", so that some people were so vain that some people actually had "no chairman in sight". But this is precisely the brilliance of Lin Sen, and it is his practice that has well reconciled the contradictions between the various factions such as Jiang, Wang, and Guangdong, and has been recognized by various factions, so he can be re-elected as the president of the state government for 12 years.
Some people may say that Lin Sen is a good old man, but at a critical moment in history, in major matters, he is not confused at all. After the Xi'an Incident, Lin Sen acted as chairman of the Central Political Conference, and he resolutely opposed the idea of an armed solution headed by He Yingqin, supported Soong Mei-ling's insistence on a peaceful settlement, and actively did a good job in appeasing various factions, winning more support for Chiang Kai-shek.
Therefore, when Chiang Kai-shek returned from Xi'an, the first thing he did when he got off the plane was to go around and shake hands with Lin Sen to thank him. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Lin Sen explicitly proposed to resist Japanese aggression by force at the joint meeting of the heads of state, government, and army. In fact, in the twenty-first year of Guangxu, when the Qing court ceded Taiwan to Japan, he joined the anti-Japanese army in Taiwan and resisted Japanese aggression by force, and since then, he has persisted in the anti-Japanese struggle for nearly 50 years.
After Wang Jingwei defected to the Japanese, he was going to ask Lin Sen to be the chairman of the puppet government, but Lin Sen resolutely opposed it and made a public speech in Chongqing, advocating a crusade against Wang Jingwei and advocating the expulsion of Wang Jingwei and other traitors from the party.
Lin Sen often wears a long robe and a horse coat, a long beard, a cane, a pair of glasses, a good manner, a steady demeanor, and calls himself Qingzhi old. He has "three good" and "three noes" in his life. The "three good" are good Buddhas, good antiques, and hospitality, and the "three noes" are no longer marrying, not treating private property, not killing, and eating vegetarian food. That's what he said and that's what he did.
He likes to paint, and has a certain attainment in figure landscape painting, especially good at painting orchids and bamboo. According to his status, if the painting is given away or left for sale later, the price must be expensive. But he never gave away his paintings easily, and very few people could get his paintings.
Lin Sen House
In 1939, Lin Sen decided to set up the "Lin Sen Scholarship" with his life savings and the "special fee" issued to him by the Nationalist government to fund students studying in Europe and the United States. He has no descendants and no money. In his later years, he donated money to build the Lushan Mountain Road, and set up many stone benches on both sides of the dao, on which were engraved the words "No one who has an aunt and wife is allowed to sit". What does this interesting text mean? Is it advocating courtesy to let the aunt sit, or is it something else? Worth a taste.
In May 1943, Lin Sen was injured in a car accident and died in August of the same year. On November 12, the National Government held a solemn state funeral ceremony for Lin Sen. The CCP spoke highly of Lin Sen for "leading the War of Resistance and contributing to the country," and Mao Zedong personally drafted a telegram of condolences. In order to commemorate such a highly respected chairman of the National Government, the Nationalist Government renamed a road in Shanghai to Linsen Road (now Huaihai Road) and renamed Minhou County in Fujian Province to Linsen County (later renamed Minhou County).
The strength of personality through time and space is timeless and admirable!