The love between Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao is the envy of countless people, and the two have gone through 51 years hand in hand, living and dying together.
However, what is less known is that in fact, both of them were once "unmarried", and even full of disgust for marriage, why did they enter the palace of marriage hand in hand?
Zhou Enlai's idea of "non-marriageism" was formed during his studies in Japan, when he was just about 20 years old, and like the young people of that era, he had a natural rejection of traditional ideas, and he once wrote in his diary: "Get up in the morning and read 'New Youth', read it later, and approve of the extremes of so-called pai-hole, celibacy, literary revolution and so on." ”
Later, Zhou Enlai also wrote: "My letter to brother Nai today, about marriage in life, I said is the most distressing thing in life. ...... I think that in life, love is a thing, and husband and wife is another thing. Love is born of love, regardless of men and women, regardless of beauty and ugliness, where one side sends out love, that party can sense, this can be counted as love. As for husband and wife, it is purely for the organization of the family, the transmission of human relations, that there is this union. ”
After Zhou Enlai returned to China, he organized the creation of the "Enlightenment Society", with a total of 20 people, both men and women, and everyone did not talk about love, let alone marriage.
At that time, Deng Yingchao was also a member of the "Enlightenment Society", and he also agreed with this regulation, and later wrote: "I was holding a pessimistic and disgusting idea about marriage at that time, in that era, a woman got married, and her life was over, so when I was in school, I met the wedding palanquin on the road, and I felt that this woman was finished, and I did not consider the issue of marriage at that time." ”
So how did these two "unmarried" people change their minds?
The turning point of events came during Zhou Enlai's work-study period in France.
At that time, the communist movement was in full swing in European countries, and many heroes appeared, such as Liebknecht and Luxemburg, who had a great influence and became the idol of countless revolutionary youth.
On January 15, 1919, Liebknecht and Luxemburg were arrested by the reactionaries, and the two walked hand in hand to the guillotine and chanted revolutionary slogans, tragic and romantic, touching countless revolutionary youth, including Zhou Enlai.
It was also from this time that Zhou Enlai began to reflect on his "unmarried" thinking, feeling that it was also a very great thing to have a revolutionary partner who supported each other.
So Zhou Enlai bought a postcard with a photo of Liebknesi and wrote a sentence on the back: "I hope that the two of us will go to the guillotine together in the future, just like the two of them!" ”
Zhou Enlai then sent the postcard to Deng Yingchao in China.
In fact, during that time, Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao had been exchanging letters, but they were all about the revolution, and this time after Deng Yingchao received this different postcard, he did not care at first, and thought that Zhou Enlai was just encouraging her to dedicate himself to the revolution like Liebknecht and Luxemburg, and did not realize the true meaning of Zhou Enlai's writing of that sentence.
It was not until Zhou Enlai returned to China and continued to write to her to express his intentions, that Deng Yingchao gradually accepted his courtship, and the two finally married on August 8, 1925.
So, why did Zhou Enlai choose Deng Yingchao?
In fact, Zhou Enlai had a girlfriend during his time in France, named Zhang Ruoming, who was also a member of the "Enlightenment Society" at that time, with a handsome appearance and advanced thinking, and even Deng Yingchao said: "If Zhou Enlai gives up celibacy in the future and wants to get married, he and Zhang Ruoming are really a pair created in heaven." ”
However, during her time in France, Zhang Ruoming quit the organization because of some unfair treatment and anger, which made Zhou Enlai feel that she was not very determined in the revolutionary cause and was not suitable to be her revolutionary partner.
Many years later, Zhou Enlai once said to his niece Zhou Bingde: "What I believe in is Marxism, I vow to fight for the cause of the proletarian revolution all my life, and I will be prepared to sacrifice my life at all costs. Your seven mothers deserve this. Therefore, I took the initiative to make it clear with Zhang Ruoming, turned to your seven mothers to communicate frequently, and proposed marriage. ”
In 1988, on the 90th anniversary of Zhou Enlai's birth, Deng Yingchao also specifically recalled the love affair between the two, saying: "No one between us cares about whose appearance and whose personality are different, and struggle for the communist ideal, which is the most reliable cornerstone and guarantee of long-term love." I met you in Pingshui, not love at first sight, not love first, we are through unintentional development, the understanding of mutual correspondence between the two places, to intentional, tested marriage, and after decades of fighting, we have formed such a kind of comrade-in-arms, partner, love and life together. Dissolve our love among the people, dissolve among comrades, dissolve among friends, dissolve in the generation of young children. Therefore, our love life is not simple, not love for love's sake, our love is deep and eternal. ”
Deng Yingchao's words are actually an explanation of the love and marriage of the two for 51 years, if it is only obsessed with personal love, the spark of love will eventually be extinguished, only by attaching personal love to the revolution, dissolving in the people, and working together for a great goal, can we truly make love and marriage reach eternity!
Such a concept of love, in fact, in today's era is more of a reference significance, young people believe in the so-called "love first", the reality is that the divorce rate is getting higher and higher, in the end or the two do not have a common goal, only consider their own small world, and when the spark of love is extinguished, they can no longer find a reason to continue to go on.
(References: "Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao", "My Uncle Zhou Enlai", "Memoirs of Zhou Enlai's Defenders")