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On the hillside east of Xujiawa in Xinxian County, Henan, there is the tomb of a founding general, which is extremely special among the founding generals and marshals, because the general Xu Shiyou buried here is not cremated, but buried.
In 1985, General Xu Shiyou died in Nanjing, and Deng Xiaoping made three demands for Xu Shiyou's funeral:
- There will be no memorial service
- Do not publish in the newspaper
- No tombstones
But the strange thing is that when we go to the tomb of General Xu Shiyou again, we can still see a marble stele recording Xu Shiyou's name, according to the introduction, this stone stele was erected a year after the death of General Xu Shiyou.
So why did General Xu Shiyou not obey the proposal when all the generals chose cremation, and resolutely chose to bury the earth? And who ultimately made this stone tablet in front of his grave?
Tomb of General Xu Shiyou
Shaolin learns martial arts
Xu Shiyou was born in 1905 in Xinxian County, Henan Province, and he was mischievous from an early age, often angering his mother.
However, her mother has always had a strong tolerance and patience for Xu Shiyou, which also makes Xu Shiyou very attached to her mother.
The Xu family is very poor, just the most ordinary and low-level peasant household, there are 7 children in the family, Xu Shiyou ranks third.
When Xu Shiyou was 8 years old, he passed by a wandering monk in his village, and although few peasants at that time believed in Buddhism, because of their location in Henan, everyone had a more or less good feeling for the monks.
Xu Shiyou
Xu Shiyou and a group of friends naturally also have some understanding of the monk, coupled with the extraordinary kung fu of this monk's fists and feet, just take the bucket on his head, he swept Xu Shiyou and his friends to sit on the ground, and the children were naturally extremely curious about this mysterious monk.
Under their questioning, the monk told the children that he was born in the Shaolin Temple, and he was also a child of a poor family, and that he went to the Shaolin Temple because the Shaolin Temple provided food and accommodation for the young monks.
The monk's depiction of Shaolin Temple life made Xu Shiyou very moved, especially when he heard that the Shaolin Temple could eat enough, which was simply a great thing.
Shaolin Temple
He hurriedly dragged the monk, hoping that the other party would take him to the Shaolin Temple to learn martial arts.
The monk was also a little surprised by the child's positive attitude, but he was a monk and not a bandit, so he could not abduct Xu Shiyou and leave directly. So he followed Xu Shiyou to the Xu family and asked for the opinions of the Xu family and his wife, seeing that Le was not willing to send the child to Shaolin.
Xu Mu is an honest farmer, she does not care about many issues, but they are very practical.
"Does a child have to become a monk when he goes to Shaolin to learn martial arts?"
The monk smiled and shook his head: "To shave a monk depends on the Fa, and to learn martial arts is not necessarily to become a monk." ”
"Then my son may have eaten enough in the temple?"
The monk nodded seriously, "Yes, you can eat enough grains." ”
"My son may be able to read."
The monk nodded again, "Yes, but it is just a confession of the Buddhist scriptures." ”
All three questions were answered satisfactorily, and Mother Xu did not hesitate any longer, nodding her head and letting the monk take her son away.
Children who stay with themselves may not be able to survive, and now that they are sent to Shaolin, it is naturally a good thing to be able to learn martial arts, eat enough and read.
Xu Shiyou teaches martial arts
In this way, 8-year-old Xu Shiyou followed the monk all the way to Shaolin and began his eight-year martial arts career. It is also these eight years of life that Xu Shiyou has been physically strong and courageous since he was a child, laying a good foundation for his revolutionary career in the future.
In fact, General Xu Shiyou had already shaved his head, but eventually left the Shaolin Temple, and this result was also because of General Xu Shiyou's mother.
In the eighth year of Xu Shiyou's martial arts studies, his sister came to the Shaolin Temple to see him, and his sister secretly told him that his mother had recently been seriously ill and was likely to be unable to survive, which made Xu Shiyou, who had not seen his mother for eight years, feel anxious in his heart.
Shaolin warrior monk
Originally, Xu Shiyou planned to take a few days off, but the Shaolin Temple had the rules of the Shaolin Temple, and the monks who had not been shaved for so many years went back directly like this, so the master in the temple refused his leave and gave him another way: to fight out.
This is a long-standing rule of the Shaolin Temple, these martial monks want to leave the temple, they must withstand the siege of other monks in the temple, all the way out of the door, before they can get out of Shaolin.
Seeing that the situation on his mother's side was critical, Xu Shiyou chose this path without saying a word, and the brothers were not ambiguous at all, and when they heard that he had chosen to fight out of the temple, the swords, guns, sticks, fists and feet of kung fu were all taken out to greet him.
Even the masters in the temple were merciless, and a hundred or so martial monks in the whole temple shot at Xu Shiyou, and Xu Shiyou could only fight and retreat as much as possible and run to the gate of the temple.
Fortunately, Xu Shiyou's diligent study and hard training over the past eight years were not in vain, and he withstood the pressure and suffered countless sticks on his body, which made him come out of the temple dangerously and dangerously. The master in the temple was very satisfied with Xu Shiyou, and he sent the disciple to the door, touched Xu Shiyou's bald head, and took out eight oceans and told him to go down the mountain.
In this way, Xu Shiyou broke away from the Shaolin Temple that had nurtured him for eight years and returned to his hometown. And take good care of the mother until the mother is out of danger.
But in China at this time, the actual rulers of the countryside were the gentry and landlords, who squeezed the peasants a lot and looked like they were on the top.
Xu Shiyou has been studying martial arts for many years, and he is in his youth, and he especially despises the landlords in his hometown, and in a quarrel with the landlord's son, he kicked the other party's heart socket and kicked people to death.
Xu Shiyou had no choice but to leave his hometown to join the army to save his family, and it was because of this accident that he created Xu Shiyou, who would become famous in the battlefield in the future.
Xu Shiyou and his wife
The beginning of the revolution
At first, the fledgling Xu Shiyou joined the National Revolutionary Army of the Northern Expedition with the current, and he was only a teenager at the time, and he did not have much concept of such a thing as "revolution".
His hometown has not been interfered with by too many Japanese troops, so his purpose of joining the army is very simple, one is to eat enough, the other is to get ahead.
Perhaps because he has been practicing martial arts for many years, Xu Shiyou, who fights on the battlefield, highlights the word "dare", he can brave the rain of bullets and bullets to rush forward, and he has a good martial art, who sees such a person who is not afraid?
Because of this, he was quickly promoted from an ordinary creep to a company commander and completed his idea of getting ahead.
At this time, during the first period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Xu Shiyou also came into contact with many fighters of our party, which made the young man for the first time fall into thinking about whether his choice to join the National Revolutionary Army was correct.
In the past few years, Xu Shiyou has seen the attitude of the army he is currently in, to the civilians: oppression.
Those peasant families who were like their own families could not see any happiness on their faces when the Kuomintang troops arrived, but could see deeper pain and numbness.
This made Xu Shiyou can't help but think of his parents and family members who are far away in his hometown, if there is such an army coming to his hometown, can he bear to treat his relatives like this?
The answer, of course, is no.
Xu Shiyou suddenly realized that the Kuomintang could not bring hope to the people, that they were no different from those squires and landlords, that they were just a group of warlords who could not see the sufferings of the world.
Only when the Communist Party is rooted in the people and everything is for the sake of ordinary people can it bring hope and future to the people.
Under such thinking, he chose to join the Communist Youth League of China in 1926, and a year later, he successfully joined the Communist Party of China, became a member of our party, and began his revolutionary career for decades.
After joining the Communist Party, although Xu Shiyou has grown from a hairy boy who only wants to eat enough to become a revolutionary fighter, his direct and impulsive personality has not changed at all.
Whether on the battlefield or in life, he has always been extremely brave. In so many years of service in the Red Army, he has participated in the death squad 7 times, and even if he has been promoted to commander and become the commander of the first army, he also dares to join the death squad and rush to the front line.
This is the only one in the Red Army, in the memories of the soldiers around him, Xu Shiyou has used the knife to slash and kill the enemy many times, and after a battle, he can kill more than a dozen enemies with the knife alone, and he is very brave.
Moreover, General Xu Shiyou was extremely good at wine, even if he was going to fight, he had to drink a few sips before going to the battlefield, and to outsiders, he always looked more like the commander of the Red Army.
It is precisely because of his impulsive personality that Xu Shiyou has encountered a lot of criticism in his work.
Xu Shiyou and Mao Zedong
But fortunately, Chairman Mao, as the leader of the Red Army, attached great importance to Xu Shiyou, and he felt that although Xu Shiyou sometimes had a strong brain, he was loyal, spoke very straight but did not have a bad heart, and was a person who could be reused.
And Xu Shiyou did indeed live up to Chairman Mao's expectations and made many contributions to the new China.
The relationship between the two men was also good and good until the end of the war.
Although Xu Shiyou was straight, he could listen to Chairman Mao's words.
At a dinner party, Chairman Mao jokingly asked Xu Shiyou to change the word "Shi" in his name to the word "Shi", saying that in this way he could focus on the world instead of simply being an official and getting ahead.
No one expected that it was Chairman Mao's joke that made Xu Shiyou fall in his heart, and it wasn't long before he really changed his name from "Xu Shiyou" to "Xu Shiyou," and this incident also became a beautiful conversation between Chairman Mao and General Xu Shiyou.
After the founding of New China, Xu Shiyou still had great respect and love for Chairman Mao.
Having never read a book, under the influence and advice of Chairman Mao, he even picked up his original favorite "Dream of the Red Chamber" to study carefully, and read it more than five times in accordance with Chairman Mao's suggestions with great seriousness.
During his lifetime, he collected hundreds of medallions of Chairman Mao's head, which were finally left in his former residence and spelled together into a map of China!
Chairman Mao medals collected by General Xu Shiyou
Xu Shiyou's friendship with Chairman Mao was so deep that others could match it, but it was he who trusted Chairman Mao so much that he once again rejected Chairman Mao's proposal in 1956, and the reason for this choice was all for his mother.
Loyalty and filial piety are a dilemma
In Zhongnanhai, Beijing, in 1956, a "proposal" on cremation was handed over to major leaders. In this proposal, Chairman Mao proposed the promotion of cremation, starting with the upper echelons of our Party.
Everyone was very supportive of this matter and chose to sign, but one general finally chose to refuse, and this person was Xu Shiyou.
The reason why Xu Shiyou was reluctant to sign this "proposal" was simple, he wanted to be buried with his mother.
General Xu Shiyou had always felt guilty about his mother, and since the beginning of the revolution, he had returned home pitifully, and since that return home in 1932, Xu Shiyou had not seen his mother again for 20 years.
It wasn't until 1952 that he took a few days off to go home to see his mother.
Xu Shiyou, who returned home, saw a hunched old lady in shabby clothes at the door of the house, and the old lady was carrying a large bundle of firewood, and it was very difficult to walk.
Xu Shiyou could no longer suppress his tears, knelt down and hugged his mother, and the old man also recognized his son, while kissing his son's back, while tearing.
Xu Shiyou unloaded the firewood on his mother's shoulders, and after entering the house, he hugged his mother and cried for a long time before gradually calming down.
He looked at his mother's cotton shoes with her toes exposed, and then looked at her mother's messy, withered hair, and felt very sad in his heart, feeling that he was sorry for his mother's nurturing grace, and he had not been able to make his mother live a good life for so many years, and he had not been able to fulfill his filial piety around his mother.
And Xu Mu also saw that it was not easy for her son for so many years, and she also boiled water for her son and cooked for her son as before, hoping that her son would leave happily when he came back this time.
After this meeting, Xu Shiyou did not return home for another five years.
He had the heart to take care of his mother to his side, but his mother was old, the boat and car were inconvenient, and Xu Mu herself was not willing to leave the home where she had lived for decades, and in the end this matter did not come to fruition.
In 1957, Xu Shiyou had to go home again, and his mother was 78 years old at this time, and her physical condition was not very good. She was also very happy to see her son come back to see her, but she shed tears when she thought of her body and age.
"Son, I'm 78 this year, and our mother and son will see each other less in the future."
Xu Shiyou's mother's words made Xu Shiyou feel very sad, but at this time, he was the vice minister of national defense and the commander of the Nanjing Military Region, with heavy responsibilities and extremely stressful work. It is not easy to go home this time, and there is no time to come back on weekdays.
Thinking about this, Xu Shiyou also hugged his mother and burst into tears, he knew that it might be difficult to see his mother again in the future.
Xu Shiyou's mother
Two years later, Xu's mother died of illness, and General Xu Shiyou, who did not have time to send his mother on the last journey, knelt in front of his mother's grave and wept bitterly, he always felt in his heart that he was not filial piety, but since the ancient loyalty, filial piety was a dilemma, for the sake of new China, for more dawn people, he had no choice.
It was also at this time that General Xu Shiyou made up his mind that when he was alive, he would be loyal to the country, so when he died, he would be buried with his mother and do filial piety for his mother.
The attachment and love for his mother, and the regret of not fulfilling his filial piety, were the reasons why General Xu Shiyou finally chose to refuse to sign Chairman Mao's "Cremation Proposal".
After everyone knew Xu Shiyou's thoughts, they all expressed their understanding of him, and he became the only general in New China who was not cremated and eventually buried.
The masses erect a monument
Just after New Year's Day in 1985, General Xu Shiyou, who was 80 years old, wrote to the Central Committee and once again asked for his burial after his death. Everyone did not dare to decide on this matter, and in many discussions there was no result, so it was temporarily shelved.
At this time, General Xu Shiyou was already seriously ill, and many times the whole person was not awake, as long as he was sober, he would ask the central government whether he agreed to be buried in the ground, but there was no reply for a long time.
It was not until October 26 of the same year that Wang Zhen came to the Nanjing Military Region and conveyed Deng Xiaoping's opinion to Xu Shiyou:
"Xu Shiyou, in his 60-year career as a horseman, has made great achievements in battle, died a hundred deaths, and is a special person with a special character, special experience, and special contribution. The special pass signed by Comrade Deng Xiaoping is a special special. ”
That is to say, Xu Shiyou's incident is only one example, and it can no longer be had.
Xu Shiyou and Deng Xiaoping
General Xu Shiyou, who waited for the approval of the central authorities, could no longer support himself after only five days, and finally died of illness in Nanjing.
After Xu Shiyou's death, the central government built a coffin for him according to his wishes, transported him to Xinxian County, Henan, where his hometown was buried, and the location of his grave was chosen next to his parents.
Regarding General Xu Shiyou's funeral, Deng Gong demanded that no memorial service be held, no tombstones should be erected, and no propaganda should be published in the newspaper.
The first is already the tradition of the founding generals, while the latter two are unwilling to publicize the burial of General Xu Shiyou too widely, after all, this matter is a special case, and the central government will no longer approve such a request, so the central government cannot make relevant statements, which makes people misunderstood.
Xu Shiyou's family
In the year after the death of General Xu Shiyou, many people came to visit and worship General Xu Shiyou's tomb. Everyone saw that there was no stone tablet in front of the tomb, felt that it was too simple and looked too miserable, and reported this idea.
Because of the will and ideas of the masses, it finally impressed the central government, and under the presidency of Wang Zhen, a stone stele was erected in front of the tomb of General Xu Shiyou in 1986.
The stele does not record his life or his exploits, but simply writes down seven big characters: Comrade Xu Shiyou's Tomb.
This great general who dedicated his life to the revolution finally returned to his hometown, returned to his most beloved mother, accompanied his mother forever after his death, and made up for the regret of his failure to fulfill his filial piety in his life.
It is precisely because we have so many soldiers like General Xu Shiyou who sacrificed for the country and gave up their lives and families that we have forged a great victory for the Communist Party and created a beautiful future that belongs to the Chinese.
Let us pay tribute to General Xu Shiyou and to these unwavering revolutionary fighters!
What are your views on General Xu Shiyou's final choice of burial to accompany his parents? Feel free to leave your comments in the comments section.