For Stuart Redden, we should be most impressed by Stuart Redden in the article "Farewell, Stuart Redden". As the last ambassador to China during the Kuomintang's rule over the mainland, his departure meant the failure of the US policy toward China, and Stuart Layden gave us the impression of such a lewd old man who was gray and slippery and left China with his tail between his legs.
However, on November 17, 2008, nearly 60 years after Stuart Leiden left China, people finally buried his ashes in Anxian Garden in the mid-levels of Hangzhou according to his wishes, and also counted the old man's last wishes.
In fact, according to Stuart's words, "as a Chinese, I am even more an American", so as an American, what kind of experience did Stuart Leiden have in China, and what kind of encounters did he have that made him so concerned about this land in China?
Stuart was born in Hangzhou, China, on June 24, 1876, with his missionary father, Stewart.
In order to thank the matchmaker John Redden Wilson, Stuart's father named his son John Redden, and the surname was only taken from the first two words of the father Stewart, Stu, just in the Chinese family name and Situ this surname, so the child has a Chinese and Western name, Situ Redden.
After coming to China in 1868, Stewart had been engaged in missionary activities for a long time, and in addition to spreading Christianity among the poor and the countryside, he was also interested in setting up schools. Stewart had opened a boys' school, but the mission decided that Stewart's job should be to preach rather than educate, so it closed the school he had opened. But Stuart's mother, Mary, opened China's second girls' school, where girls were not allowed to tie their feet or arrange marriages, which were very progressive at the time.
Mary served as principal for many years, and during her tenure, the number and influence of the school continued to expand, and later the school was incorporated into the famous Christian Union Girls' School in Hangzhou.
Stuart Redden grew up under the influence of his father's missionary work and his mother's school, and his education at home was Westernized and orientalized outside, and the language Stuart Leiden first learned was Hangzhou dialect.
In 1887, the Stewarts had been preaching in China for 13 years, and according to the rules of the mission, they were entitled to a one-year sabbatical period to return to the United States, and the 11-year-old Stuart Redden returned to the United States for the first time with his parents.
Due to his long life in China, Stuart Washiden was still very uncomfortable when he first returned to the United States, and even spoke English fluently, but later with Stuart's efforts, he quickly adapted to the local language environment in the United States.
A year later, Stuart's parents returned to China with his two younger brothers, Stuart Redden and his eldest brother David stayed in Alabama's aunt's house, after which Stuart Redden began to enter the school, when he was a child, Stuart Redden was also a bully, he was admitted to Pantos School, the most famous private high school in the United States, after graduating from high school, he was admitted to Hampton Sydney College, the best university in the United States at the time, after studying at Hampton Sydney College for 3 years, he studied theology again, ranking first among the students in the same period He became the most influential person among the young students at that time.
After the Spanish-American War in 1898, there was a frenzy of expansion in the United States, and at this time, Stuart Layden, as a young representative of the Christian reformers, also had the idea of going overseas to preach.
In 1904, as Stuart And his friend Lacey Moffitt were preparing to go on a missionary trip to China, they met the Irene sisters, an American girl who grew up in Louisiana, Stuart Redden liked his sister Irene, and his friend Moffitt fell in love with his sister Kate.
The two married at the same time in New Orleans on November 17, 1904, after which Stuart Redden took Irene from the United States to China until Irene's death in 1926.
In 1905, the Qing Dynasty implemented the New Deal, in which the imperial examination was abolished and replaced by a new type of education and a new type of school, which also inspired the enthusiasm of missionaries to establish a church college, and the American Presbyterian Church in China established the Joint Education Committee in China and appointed Stuart Layden as the secretary of the committee, which coincided with his desire to establish education.
After that, Stuart Leiden served as the trustee of Hangzhou Zhijiang University, and during his tenure as the trustee, he moved the school to the Liuhe Pagoda New Campus on the banks of the Qiantang River, built many teaching buildings and libraries that combined Chinese and Western styles, greatly improved the teaching environment, and made Jiang university one of the most famous Christian universities in China at that time, which is the predecessor of the River College of Zhejiang University.
In 1908, the American Christian North and South Presbyterian Church founded the Jinling Theological Seminary in Nanjing, and Stuart Leiden came to Nanjing to teach, in order to facilitate Chinese students to learn the Greek New Testament Bible, Stuart Leiden wrote the "New Testament Greek Primer" and "Greek-English-Chinese Dictionary" in addition to teaching, which were used as textbooks for Jinling Theological Seminary.
In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out in China, the revolutionary party headed by Sun Yat-sen established the Republic of China government in Nanjing, at this time the Associated Press specially hired Situ Leiden as a special reporter, Situ Leiden as a special correspondent, often met with Sun Yat-sen, frequently attended various social activities, and got to know some political leaders of the time.
Stuart Leiden believed that the Xinhai Revolution was China's Civil War, and he was full of enthusiasm and sent what he saw and heard back to the United States, and the people in the United States also began to understand the Chinese revolution and the Chinese country through Stuart Leiden's introduction.
In 1913, Stuart's father, Stewart, died of illness at the age of 73, and with great grief, Stuart Laideng buried his father, who had been a missionary in China for 46 years, in the Jiulisong Cemetery on the shore of Hangzhou's West Lake.
He spent 10 years teaching at Jinling Theological Seminary, during which time Stuart Leiden's life was relatively peaceful, and in 1918 Stuart Leiden suddenly received a telegram from the Beijing Hui Literature Society, inviting him to Beijing to organize the establishment of a new university, later Yenching University.
So in early 1919, the 42-year-old Stuart Leiden left Nanjing, where he had lived for 11 years, to Beiping to organize Yenching University, the predecessor of Yenching University was formed by the merger of Beijing Huiwen University and North China Union College, these two church schools were originally very small, in 1900 by the Boxer Rebellion burned to the ground, and later the idea of merger.
After situ Leiden came to Yenching University, he became the president, and soon the famous "May Fourth Movement" broke out, in which Stuart Leiden encouraged his students to actively participate in the movement, in Situ Leiden's view, the patriotic behavior of students is worthy of affirmation and encouragement, and only by pursuing the truth can they be free.
When it first started running the school, the conditions of Yenching University were very difficult, with less than 100 students and only 5 teachers, and the funds were often not settled, and later Stuart Leiden said in his memoirs that the school had no cash at all.
In order to raise funds, Stuart Had to travel around to collect donations for Yenching University, for which he ran 10 times in a row just to the United States. In order to raise funds, he commissioned many parties, used various rallies to give speeches, and sometimes even had to play cards with rich women and chat. Sometimes Stuart Leiden also said with emotion, sometimes I see beggars on the streets of Beijing, in fact, I am not much different from them.
Through Stuart's unremitting efforts, he has established extensive contacts with all walks of life in the United States, making Yenching University more and more popular in the United States, and one donation after another has been continuously remitted to the account of Yenching University.
At that time, the donations to Stuart Layden were Harry Luce, the father of Henry Luce, the founder of Time Magazine, the Rockefeller family, and the Hall Fund. Over a 10-year period, Stuart Redden raised more than $2.5 million in donations for Yenching University, providing sufficient financial support for the operation of the school.
In addition to going to the United States to raise funds, Stuart Leiden also had to persuade Chinese politicians to donate money to Yenching University, for which Situ Leiden also had extensive contact with many celebrities in China at that time, including warlords such as Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui, as well as Kuomintang military and political leaders such as Chiang Kai-shek, Song Ziwen, Kong Xiangxi, and Chen Lifu.
In the process of dealing with Chinese politicians, Fu Jingbo helped him the most. Fu Jingbo was a Manchurian Zhenghong banner man, and after coming into contact with Situ Leiden in 1918, he was impressed by Situ Leiden's personal charm and transferred from Peking University to Yenching University, where he studied and helped Situ Leiden work, and later Fu Jingbo became Situ Leiden's personal secretary and assistant.
Fu Jingbo was born in a family of officials and eunuchs, and his grandfather had served as an inspector in the Qing court, so Fu Jingbo was born to inherit the family's political genes, had certain political talents, and was born familiar with the psychology of the officialdom, which helped Situ Leiden a lot.
Just as Stuart's Yanda career was booming, the two most important people in his life, his mother and wife Irene, died one after another.
Stuart's mother, Mary, lived in China for 50 years and worked as a long educator, dying in 1925, and by 1926, his wife, Irene, had also died in China. For a long time, Irene has been at home with her husband and children, silently supporting Stuart Redden, who also has deep feelings for her and has not remarried after her death.
Stuart's parents and wife were buried in China, which is perhaps why he later wanted to bury himself in China.
As a church university, Yenching University was originally registered in New York, usa, the power of the school is basically in the hands of the New York Church Trust, under the instruction of Stuart Layden, Yenching University has twice applied to China for registration, in order to comply with the trend of China's recovery of educational rights, in order to achieve this time, Stuart Layden also personally returned to the United States, persuaded the Trust Department to delegate power to the school, and later Yenching University was registered in China, and accepted the management of the Chinese government.
Although Yenching University was initially founded in the name of the church, Stuart Leiden followed a secular path of running a school, and he did not force students to believe in religion or to worship.
During Stuart's tenure as President of Yenching University, Yenching University was divided into four faculties, namely the Faculty of Letters, the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Religion, with a total of 22 departments and more than 100 majors.
Among them, the Department of Journalism and the Department of Sociology are the first among Chinese universities, and under the management of Stuart Layden, Yenching University is also a master for a time.
At that time, Yenching University had Zhou Zuoren, Zheng Zhenduo, Yu Pingbo, Gu Sui and others in the Department of Chinese Literature, Gu Jiegang in the Department of History, and Zhang Dongsun and other famous teachers in the Department of Philosophy.
Under the management of Stuart Redden, by the early 1930s, Yenching University was well-known at home and abroad in terms of scale and quality.
On June 4, 1928, the Japanese created the Huanggutun Incident, and Zhang Zuolin, the king of the northeast, was killed, and the situation in the northeast fell into a confusing situation for a while. At this time, the Government of Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing was striving for the submission of the young marshal Zhang Xueliang, and that summer, at the behest of Chiang Kai-shek, Situ Leiden and Fu Jingbo secretly came to Shenyang, because Zhang Zuolin Zhang Xueliang's father and son had donated 5,000 oceans to Yanda before, and Zhang's father and son had a very good impression of Situ Leiden, and Situ Leiden also had such a friendship with Zhang Xueliang. Through the communication of Stuart Redden, the Nanjing side quickly reached an agreement with Zhang Xueliang, which also led to the "Northeast Change" at the end of that year, and the Nanjing government completed the formal unification of the whole country, and also smashed the attempt of Japanese imperialism to occupy the northeast.
After the "9.18" incident, the anti-Japanese sentiment in China was high, and Stuart Leiden often participated in the anti-Japanese parades in China, encouraging students to join the anti-Japanese movement. Stuart Laiden organized more than 600 teachers and students to demonstrate in Haidian City House, and took the lead in shouting the slogan of "hitting Japanese imperialism", setting an example for the students.
In 1933, the Kuomintang government signed the "Tanggu Agreement" with the Japanese side, which was equivalent to recognizing Japan's occupation of northeast China and Rehe, and when the news came, the whole country was immediately indignant, and students from major schools in Beijing went on strike one after another, organized petition groups to go south, and went to Nanjing to petition, asking the Nationalist government to send troops to the northeast and recover the national territory.
At that time, many students of Yenching University also participated in the petition group going south, and the students who stayed in the school and the foreign professors had a fierce conflict over whether the school would open, the students prevented the foreign professors from starting the class, and the foreign professors believed that the students should focus on their studies.
At the time of the incident, Stuart Layden was raising money for the school in the United States, and immediately returned home after hearing the news. After returning to Yenching University, Stuart Leiden called a meeting of all teachers and students, and in the auditorium of the meeting site, crowded with students, Stuart Leiden was silent on the stage for three minutes, and then said: "If we don't go, it proves that our education is a failure." As soon as the words fell, they caused a full house of applause. In Stuart's view, education is not only to impart knowledge, but more importantly, to train students to be a person of integrity, a person who loves the motherland, and a person who is useful to society.
When Stuart Said This Sentence, his eyes were also moist, and the Chinese and foreign professors and students present were also moved.
The famous American writer Edgar Snow was a professor at Yenching University, and he did not understand Chinese when he went to Yan'an, and Huang Hua, a student of Yan'an University, who later went to Yan'an, accompanied him to Yan'an. Later, Snow published articles such as "Mao Zedong's Interview" and other articles, which were first published in the weekly magazine of Yenching University, and these articles later became the book "Red Star Shines on China".
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many universities in Peiping, such as Peking University and Tsinghua University, were successively relocated to the rear, while Situ Leiden did not relocate Yanda, but stayed in the enemy-occupied areas to continue teaching and continue to struggle against Japanese imperialism.
As a result, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yanda became the only school in the occupied areas that was not controlled by the Japanese authorities and the Wang puppet regime, and Yanda university also became a school that many aspiring young people aspired to.
According to Stuart's recollections, although Yanda was in the occupied areas during this period, he continued to be loyal to the cause of Chinese.
At that time, many students in the school chose to go to the rear area, and even to Yan'an, Situ Leiden used all his connections, and even sent them out of the Japanese occupation area by car, and for some students who lacked entanglement, Situ Leiden also spared no effort to sponsor them. Whenever the students wanted to leave, he would always go to Linhuxuan to send them off, and encouraged his students, whether in Chongqing or Yan'an, to strengthen the unity of the Chinese people and resist Japan together.
During the Japanese occupation of North China, Stuart Layden waged an indomitable struggle with the Japanese authorities to protect the Campus of Yanda University. The Japanese took a tough attitude and forced Stuart Toriden to hire a Japanese professor, and after some thought, Stuart Layden hired Dr. Torii Ryuzo.
Dr. Torii Ryuzo is Japan's first-class archaeologist, he is very rigorous in his academic attitude, and his treatment of students is also very amiable, and he was quickly loved by students after coming to yanda to teach. Torii Ryuzo had always opposed militarism and often made statements against militarism, which made the Japanese military very dissatisfied, so it brutally suppressed him. Later, after the closure of Yanda, Torii also lost its job, and life became very poor, relying on the financial support of Yan University students, and the family barely survived.
Politically, Stuart Supported China's Reunification and Opposed Japan's Invasion of China, and in 1933, Stuart Wasleden was summoned by President Roosevelt, who learned about the situation in the Far East and promised to do more for China. In 1938, Stuart Sentin wrote to President Roosevelt recommending that the United States impose sanctions on Japan, and in November of the same year, he issued a proclamation calling on the U.S. government to stop trade with Japan. Eventually, the United States imposed a property freeze and trade embargo on Japan, of which Stuart Layden played a role.
In December 1941, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese occupation authorities closed Yanda and converted it into a sanatorium, and Stuart Layden was also arrested during this period, during which the Japanese gendarmes interrogated Stuart Layden for a long time, especially for the underground communication line leading to the anti-Japanese rear of the University of Yan University, Stuart Layden said that YanDa only gave some help, but Stuart Layden never revealed the specific situation to the Japanese, and even in the face of Japanese death threats, Stuart Layden was not afraid. After that, Stuart Layden was imprisoned by the Japanese for 3 years and 8 months.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yanda soon resumed normal operation. In April 1946, Stuart Leiden returned to Shanghai from the United States and stopped by to visit Chiang Kai-shek on the way back to Beiping.
Stuart's personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek was very good, as early as 1928, the two met, because they were born in Zhejiang, and the relationship between the two was further advanced. During the Xi'an Incident in 1936, Stuart Leiden publicly declared that he opposed Zhang Yangbing and demanded the immediate release of Chiang Kai-shek.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang-Communist Civil War could break out at any time, when the United States sent Marshall to China to mediate in the dispute between the two parties, but with little success, and later Marshall felt that he needed a competent person to serve as an ambassador to China to help his work, so Situ Redden, who had a good relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, became Marshall's best candidate.
On July 12, 1946, at the recommendation of Marshall and approved by the U.S. Senate, Truman formally appointed Stuart Layden as the U.S. Ambassador to China, completing his transformation from missionary to university president to ambassador to China, at the age of 70.
Throughout 1946, Stuart Wasleden was largely busy mediating disputes between the two parties, but could not avoid the outbreak of civil war.
After the outbreak of the civil war, Stuart Layden focused his energies on the constituent assembly held by the Kuomintang, although this constituent assembly was organized by the Kuomintang party, but in Stuart Redden's view, China also had the hope of embarking on the road to democracy through reform.
In 1948, the U.S. Congress passed the Aid to China Act, agreeing to provide China with $338 million worth of supplies and $125 million in additional loans, but this U.S. aid did not help the Nationalists gain an advantage in the Civil War. By the end of 1948, the Defeat of the Kuomintang on the mainland had been decided, and the Battle of Crossing the River was about to break out, but Stuart Layden insisted on staying in Nanjing and refused to move to Guangzhou with the Nationalist government.
On April 23, 1949, when the People's Liberation Army captured Nanjing, Stuart Layden knew that the Kuomintang had lost its rule over China, so Stuart Leiden began to draft a memorandum on the recognition of the Ccp, hoping that the United States and New China would establish new diplomatic relations.
However, due to the serious confrontation between China and the United States in terms of political systems and ideologies, Stuart Redden's idea ultimately failed to materialize.
As the U.S. government's ambassador to China, Stuart Redden could not deviate too far from the US China policy when implementing the policy, and with the defeat of the Kuomintang on the mainland, he eventually became a scapegoat for the failure of the US China policy.
In fact, for Stuart Redden, it was indeed handy to let him run the school, and in the three years of being an ambassador, Stuart Redden was also exhausted by politics, and on August 2, 1949, the 74-year-old Stuart Redden and his assistant Fu Jingbo and others left Nanjing and returned to the United States.
Shortly after Stuart Layden left China, the United States published the "White Paper on U.S.-China Relations" on August 5, and the US government published this white paper, which Stuart Did not know in advance, and in the white paper, a large number of secret documents sent to the United States during Stuart's tenure as ambassador were mentioned, such as persuading Chiang Kai-shek to retire.
After Stuart Redden returned to the United States, he was also very unpopular, Truman did not receive him, and the US authorities forbade Stuart Layden to accept any interviews and forbade Stuart Todden to publicly express any opinions, which was equivalent to giving him a gag order.
This is also because during his tenure as ambassador to China, he made some inappropriate remarks, such as Stuart Redden once published a "Letter to the Chinese people" to evaluate China's internal affairs, and such a manuscript can easily arouse the disgust of all parties.
Stuart Redden also admitted that serving as ambassador to China was the most wrong choice in his life, and after returning to the United States for 4 months, Stuart Redden suffered a stroke and lost his voice, and he spent more than 10 years in a wheelchair.
After stepping down as ambassador to China in 1952, Stuart Layden devoted most of his energy to writing his memoirs, most of which were completed in China, and when he returned to the United States, due to a stroke, the next three chapters were ghostwritten by his friend Hornbeck.
In Stuart's memoirs, there are many contradictions: with regard to the Kuomintang, he unabashedly expressed his contempt for the corruption and incompetence of the Kuomintang government, but also expressed his appreciation and affirmation of Chiang Kai-shek; for the Communist Party, he affirmed the strict discipline of the officers and men of the Communist Party and expressed his consistent stand against communism.
But regardless of which side he leaned toward, he was clearly opposed to "two Chinas," and he advised the U.S. government not to consider accepting the Kuomintang regime in Taiwan, but to accept the communist regime on the mainland.
In his memoirs, Stuart Saidon said that there would be no stable situation unless China became independent and powerful, and furthermore, Stuart Believed that China could become a great force in a new world order based on reason, justice, and international goodwill.
Although Stuart Laiden raised millions of dollars in donations for Yenching University, he himself has maintained a simple life as a missionary, his salary at Yenching University was not high, he has been supporting teachers and students in difficulty, and three years of ambassadorship to China have not left much savings, so Stuart Leiden returned to the United States in 1949 with almost no belongings.
After returning to the United States, due to his long-term life in China, he had no pension and no real estate, and later his house in Washington was purchased by Fu Jingbo with $30,000 in savings, and Stuart Layden spent the last days of his life here.
In his later years, Situ Leiden was carefully cared for by Fu Jingbo's family, although there was no blood relationship, but in Fu Jingbo's family, Situ Leiden felt full of affection.
In Stuart's memoirs, he said that his friendship with Fu Jingbo lasted more than 40 years and then developed into a relationship of complete trust, which proves that even between different races, there can indeed be idyllic friendships.
In the last years of his life, he was haunted by China, where his parents and his wife, Irene, haunted him. So in 1955, Stuart Laiden made a will, and after his death, asked Fu Jingbo to bury his ashes next to his wife's cemetery.
On September 19, 1962, Stuart Layden died of a heart attack at Washington Hospital at the age of 86.
When the bad news came out, yenching University alumni around the world expressed heavy condolences to their old president, and Fu Jingbo, who had accompanied Situ Leiden for many years, also expressed his infinite sorrow for his mentor with the traditional Chinese union.
After Stuart's death, Fu Jingbo placed Stuart's urn in his bedroom and prayed often, and he always regarded his soul's desire to return to China as the most important thing in his life until 1988, when he died in Washington at the age of 88 with his unfulfilled wish.
Although Stuart's contemporaries had all died, the Fu family regarded Stuart's last wishes as a major event in the family.
The fulfillment of Situ Leiden's last wish was completed by Fu Jingbo's son Fu Luren. Fu Luren, the only son of Fu Jingbo, served in the U.S. military as a young man, and because of his outstanding performance in the military, he also became the first American general of Chinese descent and had a certain influence.
After Fu Luren retired from the army, he used his influence, through many contacts, with the permission of the Zhejiang side, and finally placed Situ Leiden's ashes in Hangzhou, and also counted the old man's last wishes.