introduction
On October 24, 2003, Soong Died at the age of 106 at her home in Manhattan, usa, and as the wife who accompanied Chiang Kai-shek for the longest time, her death has left many mysteries unsolved, including the mystery of her exact age.
After many years, by chance, her adjutant finally revealed her unknown age secret in an interview. The official record may not be accurate, but the real account is more true, and what is the secret of Song Meiling's age.
The first lady is a mystery of age
Now when we search on the Internet, we will find that the official record of Song Meiling's birth age is mostly March 1897, and there are also a few records that Song Meiling was born in 1898. However, most people are skeptical about both claims.
This is because during Chiang Kai-shek's lifetime, Soong Mei-ling's age was always classified as "top secret", and she herself never mentioned her age, nor did she want others to know her age.
Although the "Women's Federation" controlled by Song Meiling in Taiwan holds the "President's Birthday" event every year, she has never disclosed her age, which makes people more and more curious about Song Meiling's real age.
Coincidentally, during an interview with Chiang Kai-shek and Weng Yuan, Soong Mei-ling's aide-de-camp, Sanlian Weekly accidentally revealed the secret of Soong Mei-ling's true age.
Who is Weng Yuan? He was Chiang Kai-shek's personal aide-de-camp and was at the disposal of Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling.
In 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek went to the wilderness for the third time, Weng Yuan went with Chiang Kai-shek to Xikou and became Chiang Kai-shek's personal guard.
After several years of diligent work, in the 1960s, Weng Yuan was named by Chiang Kai-shek to enter the Internal Affairs Section of the Shilin Official Residence and became Chiang Kai-shek's personal aide-de-camp After Chiang Kai-shek's death, Weng Yuan succeeded Chiang Ching-kuo as Chiang Ching-kuo's personal aide-de-camp. After serving two generations of Jiang's family, Weng Yuan knew far more than people thought.
According to Weng Yuan, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling have a special painting in their home, which is two pigs in the abstract style, this painting has an allegory, and Weng Yuan's explanation for this is: "Because this painting is more abstract and difficult to understand, so people often ask about the meaning of this painting, I remember my wife explained to my friend, because she and Chiang Kai-shek are pigs, so they painted like this." ”
According to Weng Yuan's memory, Song Meiling personally said that he and Chiang Kai-shek were one round apart, then Chiang Kai-shek was born in 1887, Soong Meiling should have been born in 1899, a difference of 2 years from the current official record of 1897, as to why the official record is different from The actual age of Song Meiling, Weng Yuan also said that he did not understand.
The reason why people are so curious about Song Meiling's age is, on the one hand, because "top secrets" are easy to arouse people's curiosity.
On the other hand, because Song Meiling's health is not good, both family genetic diseases, but also suffered from cancer, major diseases and minor diseases continue, she can live a long life and spend her old age secrets, for many modern people, has a strong reference significance, so people are particularly curious about her age.
The body is weak and the disease is constantly aching
Song Meiling is the fourth child of the Song family, and when she was born, the family was already extremely wealthy. Of the three sisters, she was the youngest and therefore the most favored by her parents, but the favorable family conditions did not give her a healthy body.
Nettle is a family genetic disease of the Song family, the pain of this disease Song Meiling has been deeply experienced since childhood, whenever she is overly excited, many red lumps and rashes will appear on her body, such pain has long plagued Song Meiling.
After adulthood, the plague of illness always followed Song Meiling to make her miserable, especially the death of her mother, which made Song Meiling's body more and more weak.
On July 23, 1931, Song Meiling's mother, Ni Guizhen, died, and Song Meiling, who had always relied on her mother, was greatly hit mentally. Chiang Kai-shek even used the phrase "heart dead" to describe Soong Mei-ling's state at that time, so from the winter of 1932 to the spring of 1933, Soong Mei-ling was plagued by illness.
In October 1931, Soong Mei-ling accompanied Chiang Kai-shek to Shanghai to meet with the Representatives of the Cantonese Side, and the crisis of the situation and the blow of her mother's death overwhelmed Soong Mei-ling's body.
On the 29th, Song Meiling was admitted to a hospital in Shanghai due to illness, and Chiang Kai-shek was deeply distressed but unable to do anything about her long illness, and it was not until November 25 that Song Meiling was cured and discharged from the hospital.
Not long after being discharged from the hospital, Song Meiling fell ill again. On December 27, Song Meiling, who had only been discharged from the hospital for more than a month, fell ill again and was re-admitted to the hospital on January 3, 1932.
In the time that followed, she dragged her sick body around with Chiang Kai-shek, and her body, which had never been cured, became a heart disease of the whole family, so that on February 1, after the two people arrived in Kaifeng, Chiang Kai-shek immediately sent a telegram to Song Ziwen and Kong Xiangxi, specifically indicating that Song Meiling was in good health and should not be worried.
But in fact, Song Meiling's health has not been very good. Although she has always accompanied Chiang Kai-shek on travel, she is no longer accompanied by her whenever she arrives at a place, which shows that her physical condition is not healthy.
For example, on July 29, 1932, the "Sketchbook" recorded Chiang Kai-shek's words: "Madame's illness has not yet been cured, and I am very worried." ”
On October 26, Chiang Kai-shek said: "My wife is sick, and I am very worried. At this time, Song Meiling was in her 40s, just over her prime, but she was repeatedly ill, and her physical condition was really worrying.
By 1942, Soong Mei-ling's physical condition was deteriorating, and Chiang Kai-shek wrote many times in his diary: "Madame is often sick due to weakness, and she has not been able to find the cause of the disease, and she is very worried."
"Madame is weak and nervous, and she is worried that she has stomach cancer." It is not difficult to see from Chiang Kai-shek's diary that Soong Mei-ling's health is very bad, and it has reached a worrying level. However, fortunately, although she is plagued by diseases, Song Meiling has never had a serious illness, but with the passage of time, Song Meiling began to face greater health problems.
In the winter of 1967, Song Meiling, who was nearly 70 years old, was diagnosed with breast disease, and after two surgeries to the United States, she finally removed all the lesions and eliminated cancer.
Diseases can be cured, but bumps on weekdays are inevitable injuries. In 1986, on her way back to Taiwan from the United States, Song Meiling unfortunately fell in Manhattan, which directly caused her to suffer severe injuries to her legs and kidneys, and for a long time, she could only walk in a wheelchair.
However, after returning to the United States in 1991, after careful maintenance and treatment, Song Meiling gradually recovered her mobility, and when the weather was good, she would go to the park for a walk, and her physical condition was greatly improved.
Many people in later generations are curious about Song Meiling's maintenance methods, in fact, it is nothing more than three major points: maintaining a happy mood, ensuring a light diet and seeking medical treatment in time.
Because emotional excitement can cause nettle, so Song Meiling learned to self-regulate emotions, and whenever she encounters a bad mood, she plays the piano to entertain herself; for health, Song Meiling's diet on weekdays is mostly light.
At the same time, the biggest difference between her and ordinary people is that she does not hide her illness and avoids medical treatment, and when she is sick, she seizes the time to heal, not affected by factors such as age and risk, which are the key factors for her longevity.
Despite proper maintenance, life is always appropriate, and has witnessed three centuries of changes, Song Meiling finally died in a foreign country, and the body was placed in the Fincliff Cemetery outside Hatsdale, West Chester County, New York, USA, such an arrangement is contrary to the inherent thinking of our countrymen to return to the roots of the fallen leaves, I don't know if Song Meiling regretted what he did in the past before his death, and wanted to return the leaves to the roots?
As a person today, looking back at Song Meiling's past, we will find that her life is full of self and desire.
Love runs and ends up in the world
The world's memory of Song Meiling is mostly limited to its elegant appearance and decent conversation, but it is not well understood for the inner Song Meiling.
In the book "Song Family Dynasty", Song Meiling was recorded as follows: "Song Meiling is the hegemon of the family... She is surrounded by vanity, she prides herself on her ability and ignores others, and her inner ways do not match her elegant and noble appearance..."
When she was a child, Song Meiling had already revealed her arrogance and vanity.
Since childhood, she has admired her eldest sister Song Xialing, and often carefully observes Song Xialing's behavior in her daily life, as if she wants to replace her at any time. At the age of 5, Song Meiling insisted on entering the "Maktier" school with Song Xialing, and an incident that happened after entering the school further solidified Song Meiling's vanity.
At that time, there was a dark corridor in the school, between the classroom and the dormitory, because there was no light, so many students did not dare to take this road, in order to show their boldness, but also in order to get the praise of the teacher, Song Meiling often walked alone on this road, the teacher also praised her bravery, which made her very proud in her heart, but only she herself knew that she was a dead duck with a hard mouth. The feeling of suffocation and fear brought by crossing the Yongdao has always accompanied Song Meiling, who often wakes up late at night, and finally after a nightmare, she can't resist the pain, leaves home, and has been taught by Mr. Private School ever since.
With the passage of time, the adult Song Meiling is no different from when she was a child, and vanity has always been rooted in her heart, and even affected her marriage.
On December 1, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling held a wedding in Shanghai. The combination of a high-ranking government official and a rich lady should have been a beautiful talk, but some people sang that it was "the combination of roses and scepters" and political marriages, for no other reason than because the wedding came unexpectedly.
As early as September 26, before the wedding, Chiang Kai-shek mentioned in an interview with the Zilinxi Bao: "Five years ago, I met Ms. Song in Premier Sun's apartment, and I fell in love with it at first sight and wanted to ask to marry Ms. Song as my wife, but Ms. Song was very indifferent at that time. ”
Although Chiang Kai-shek's words are expressing the joy that he is about to embrace the beauty of the return, it also reflects a question from the side, 5 years ago, the two have met, why can they be connected after 5 years?
The reason for this is that Chiang Kai-shek 5 years ago was not the best candidate in the eyes of Soong Mei-ling, while five years later Chiang Kai-shek was already the supreme leader of the Kuomintang and a "son-in-law riding the dragon" in the eyes of many people.
If vanity is an inherent attribute of Soong Mei-ling, then marrying Chiang Kai-shek and being at the center of the vortex of power has revealed her inner desire for politics. In many incidents, such as the Xi'an Incident and his speech to the United States, although there is no lack of soong Mei-ling's sincere feelings for Chiang Kai-shek, it is more the loyalty and dedication of Soong Mei-ling to the political group to which he belongs.
For their own interests, multi-party mediation
On December 12, 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was detained by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng in Xi'an, which is known as the "Xi'an Incident". When the incident happened suddenly, Kong Xiangxi, who received the news, ran to Song Meiling's official residence in a panic, and as soon as he entered the door, he directly shouted: "It's not good for Meiling, Chiang Kai-shek has an accident." ”
Song Meiling was not frightened by Kong Xiangxi's expression, but asked Kong Xiangxi not to worry, and slowly said that when she learned that Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng had launched an incident in Xi'an and detained Chiang Kai-shek, she finally collapsed on the sofa in panic.
The most urgent task at the moment was to save Chiang Kai-shek, the situation was critical, Soong Mei-ling did not mess with herself, she thought calmly, and realized that He Yingqin within the Kuomintang wanted to disregard Chiang Kai-shek's safety and solve the Xi'an Incident by force.
Without further ado, in order to ensure Chiang Kai-shek's safety, the next morning, Soong Mei-ling flew to Nanjing and stopped He Yingqin's plot in time.
In order to save Chiang Kai-shek's safe return, on December 4, Song Meiling asked Zhang Xueliang's former adviser Duan Na to go to Xi'an to test Zhang Xueliang's intentions, and finally learned of Chiang Kai-shek's news.
Later, under the patient propaganda of Zhou Enlai and others, Chiang Kai-shek accepted six conditions on December 24, and the Xi'an Incident was resolved peacefully.
The Xi'an Incident can be called the Waterloo of Chiang Kai-shek's political career, and after that, Chiang Kai-shek still did not abandon the idea of the Kuomintang's one-party dictatorship, and his eagerness to try and seek help from many sources was also in the arms of the United States.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the United States' foreign policy toward China has always adhered to the principle of "isolation", and although the United States is dissatisfied with Japan's behavior, it has never given substantial assistance to the mainland.
The United States wanted to cultivate a pro-American China, so they targeted the Nationalist government.
At the end of October 1942, U.S. Congressman Wilkee flew to Chongqing and told Mr. and Mrs. Song Meiling that if they wanted to get aid from the United States, they would affect the public opinion direction of the United States.
He advocated that Song Meiling should visit the United States and guide the American people through speeches, so as to gain American support. Song Meiling, who has a strong desire for politics, was very moved to hear Wilkie's proposal.
So on November 18, Song Meiling boarded a plane to the United States under the pretext of recuperation, and in February 1943, she began her own all-American diplomatic activities.
Song Meiling studied in the United States and has her own unique views on the personality characteristics of Americans.
She believes that in the eyes of Americans, both men and women, as long as you have real talent and practical learning, they will cheer and admire you, so she fully mobilizes her knowledge and skills in literature, history, psychology, speech, etc., and uses skillful and elegant English expression ability, Americanized conversation style and communication style to guide the mood of the American people to her desired goal.
The move worked, and Song Meiling's speech had a huge response in the United States, and the famous American "Time Magazine" pushed her as the cover character. Major newspapers such as the New York Times and congressional leaders gave Song Meiling a high evaluation, and even praised her as a world-famous female politician.
At that time, Song Meiling blew a "whirlwind of Song Meiling" in the United States, which greatly mobilized the emotions of the American people. Regarding the evil ways of the Japanese army exposed in her speech and the proposal that China and the United States should cooperate with each other, US parliamentarians and people asked the US government to accelerate aid to China and help China carry out the War of Resistance Against Japan, which made then President Roosevelt have to publicly state that he would speed up aid to China.
But whether it is to save Chiang Kai-shek from the Xi'an incident or to go to the United States to give a speech to seek American assistance, it is essentially Song Meiling's struggle again and again to revive the Kuomintang political clique.
In her speech, she repeatedly mentioned the ferocity of the Japanese army and the destruction of China, but she did not say anything about the Kuomintang's dragging influence on the War of Resistance Against Japan; she sought American support and obtained a large number of weapons, but turned a blind eye to the deficit of strategic resources between the Kong and Song families... Everything she did was to satisfy her desires.
After Chiang Kai-shek's death, Soong Mei-ling was full of joy that she would be the next president, but the reality was that her nomination was opposed by Zhang Baoshu, secretary general of the Kuomintang Central Committee, and her political dream was disillusioned, and she could only leave Taiwan and go to the United States.
epilogue
Time flies, so far, Song Meiling has been dead for 19 years, about her personality, the world has different opinions, but as the first lady, when the country is in crisis, do not concentrate on the United Nations people with lofty ideals to resist foreign enemies, but for their own interests and other countries to collude, no matter what kind of ink to depict the whitewash, can not hide the sinister intentions behind this.
Our present country and people's security have been bought with the blood of countless benevolent people in the past, and their tragedy and sacrifice deserve to be remembered and remembered by each of us, and in the same way, for those evil forces that try to divide our country, at any time, they are irrefutable and should be resisted and attacked.
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