1. Yang Changji was very important to Mao Zedong
In 1913, at the age of 42, Yang Changji became the first normal teacher in Hunan. At that time, the Hunan First Division was famous far and wide, with a large number of talents, and groups of aspiring young people got ahead through here. But Yang Changji never found the kind of genius he hoped for, until the arrival of Mao Zedong.
On the first day of class for Mao Zedong's class, he asked the students, "Why do you study teacher training?" and the students' answers were wonderful, and Cai Hesen said, "I want to change the country through education." Yang Changji nodded, thinking that the answer was good, Xiao Zisheng said: "Of course, it is to make money, and I will become a teacher in the future." When it was Mao Zedong's turn to answer, he said, "I just want to try, there is no other reason." ”
Yang Changji's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said in surprise: "Try it, what have you tried?" Mao Zedong said: "I went to apply for the lawyer's exam, I took the doctor's exam, and I also became a soap school. Yang Changji asked: "What is a soap school?" Mao Zedong said: "I saw an enrollment brochure that foreigners think that Chinese do not pay attention to hygiene, and that learning to make soap Xi is beneficial to the country and the people, and I think it makes a lot of sense." Speaking of this, the classmates laughed, but Yang Changji was very optimistic about the student in front of him.
Yang Changji asked again: "What else have you tested?" Mao Zedong said: "I also served as a soldier for half a year, but I found that being a soldier can't change anything in this country, so I came here." At this time, Yang Changji was already impressed by the student in front of him, and even felt that he had found the person he expected.
Yang Changji had studied abroad, so he naturally knew that the revolution needed to keep trying and exploring, so in his "Dahuazhai Diary", Yang Changji truly recorded his views on Mao Zedong.
He wrote: "Mao Zedong, a student, said that the place where he lived was the border between Xiangtan and Xiangxiang, only separated by a mountain, where ethnic groups lived, many people engaged in farming, simple customs, and smoking and gambling were rare...... Mao Zedong worked as a farmer for two years, and he was a soldier for half a year when the Republic of China was anyway, and he also had an interesting resume. ”
From these words, it can be seen that Yang Changji at that time was already very important to Mao Zedong.
2. Yang Changji has been looking for the truth to save the country
Yang Changji word bosom, born in 1871, ancestral home in Changsha County Bancang Chong, according to the "Putang Yang Family Tree", he lived where the thirteenth ancestor Yang Shilun's great-grandfather moved to the Qing Taidu Bancang Chong during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, his ancestor Lu Zhai Gong is a famous Confucian, so Yang Changji is also a scholarly family.
After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, China was defeated, Yang Changji, who was studying in school, realized the fate of the country and resolutely joined the men's society organized by Tan Si and others.
In 1903, Yang Changji embarked on a journey to study in Japan, and he studied hard abroad and learned a lot Xi knowledge. In 1909, he entered the Philosophy Department of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, England, where he studied philosophy, ethics and education, and in July 1912, Yang Changji graduated with honors from the University of Aberdeen before deciding to return to China.
By the time he returned to China a year later, the Qing government had been overthrown and the Republic of China had been established. Someone once hired him to work in the Hunan Provincial Government, perhaps to work in the Department of Education, but he flatly refused, but he applied for the Hunan Normal Xi and successively served as a teacher in the provincial No. 4 Normal School, Hunan No. 1 Normal School and other schools.
In fact, Yang Changji's purpose is obvious, he is morally noble and knowledgeable, and he wants to teach what he has learned to good students and cultivate outstanding young people.
After teaching in Hunan for five years, he was most happy that Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, Xiao Zisheng, Xiang Jingyu and a group of aspiring young people came from his disciples. Especially Mao Zedong.
3. Mao Zedong's enlightenment
During Mao Zedong's study in Changsha, he was very good, and he and Cai Hesen and others organized many reading clubs to discuss the truth of national salvation. Yang Changji even demanded Mao Zedong with the principle of "not dying, seeking oneself, forging ahead, and persevering", which fully stimulated Mao Zedong's talent.
Mao Zedong loved to read, and was good at thinking and summarizing, and Yang Changji was very optimistic.
In 1918, Yang Changji, who had fulfilled his promise to educate himself for five years, was invited by Mr. Cai Yuanpei to become a professor of ethics at Peking University, and his family moved to Beijing.
It just so happened that Mao Zedong ran into a problem, and most of the students at that time went to study abroad, but Mao Zedong hesitated. It stands to reason that following his classmates to study abroad is a national craze and a good thing, but Mao Zedong has his own opinions, so he told Yang Changji his thoughts.
Yang Changji was very moved, and he told Mao Zedong that studying abroad is a good thing, but foreign knowledge is just that, and someone should study the problems of their own country. Mao Zedong finally combined the advice of his teacher and stayed in China. Soon he was recommended by Yang Changji to work in the library of Peking University, a decision that also changed Mao Zedong's life.
Mao Zedong was not a Peking University student, but he used his time as a librarian to read a lot of books, and he seemed to have walked into the ocean of reading, reading all day and night, forgetting to sleep and eat, which got the attention of Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu.
Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, who also came back from studying abroad, like Yang Changji, both want to change the country, so seeing that this young man from Hunan loves reading so much and is so energetic, he is also cultivating him intentionally or unintentionally.
Therefore, Li Dazhao also asked Mao Zedong to make an exception to take courses with Hu Shi, Shao Piaoping and others, and also recommended him to read Marx's works, which laid the strongest foundation for Mao Zedong to become a staunch revolutionary in the future.
It was also during that time in Beijing that the relationship between Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui warmed up day by day. Yang Kaihui did not dislike Mao Zedong for being penniless, but liked Mao Zedong's erudition and talent, and liked his revolutionary will.
Beginning in 1919, Mao Zedong's revolutionary ideas had matured, but Yang Changji suddenly fell ill.
In the second half of 1919, Yang Changji had been recuperating in Xishan, Beijing, and he may have known that his condition was serious, he said: "Although I am not old, I am already middle-aged, but I am full of energy...... The spirit cannot die. At that time, Mao Zedong was secretly carrying out an expulsion campaign in Hunan, and his mother was also seriously ill, so Mao Zedong was very busy.
Knowing that Yang Changji was seriously ill, Mao Zedong went to Beijing for the second time and lived in Yang's house, during which Yang Changji told Mao Zedong a lot, and Mao Zedong remembered it all his life.
After the winter, Yang Changji's condition worsened, and he died in the German Hospital in Beijing on January 17, 1920, at the age of 49. In late January, Yang Kaihui's family returned south and buried Yang Changji in Changsha Bancang.
Before Yang Changji died, he was still at ease for the country, he not only entrusted Yang Kaihui to Mao Zedong, but also wrote a letter to his friend Zhang Shizhao, in which he said: I solemnly say that Jun, domestic talents, has a great future, and Jun does not say that he has saved the country, and he must first re-emphasize his two sons to save the country. The two sons are contemporary talents, and they are expected to be good!
He said that these two people are contemporary talents, and if we want to save the country, we must train these two people well. What he said, one is Cai Hesen, and the other is Mao Runzhi.
In Mao Zedong's mind, Yang Changji was both his mentor and his spiritual guide, and he will always remember it.
4. Live up to your teacher
Since becoming a student of Yang Changji, Mao Zedong has been helped a lot by Yang Changji, and he first published articles to "New Youth", he can be valued by Chen Duxiu, also because of Yang Changji's great influence.
In the winter of 1920, Mao Zedong took Yang Kaihui back to Changsha, and also held a simple wedding, becoming a revolutionary partner, and soon Yang Kaihui joined the Communist Party of China.
At that time, Mao Zedong founded a rural self-study university in Changsha, and Yang Kaihui not only helped Mao Zedong work, but also supported Mao Zedong's revolution. Every time Mao Zedong moved the peasants, he went out early and returned late, Yang Kaihui waited for him to come back, and also gave birth to Mao Anying, Mao Anqing, Mao Anlong.
After the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao Zedong resolutely went to Jinggangshan in combination with the situation at that time. Due to the enemy blockade, he lost contact with his wife, and Yang Kaihui could not get news of her husband, so she could only return to Itakura first and continue to do underground work.
In 1930, Yang Kaihui was arrested by the enemy, and finally the enemy brutally killed him at the age of 29. Later, when he learned of Yang Kaihui's sacrifice, Mao Zedong was heartbroken and said: Kaihui's death is not redeemable.
After that, Mao Zedong led the Red Army step by step, went through thousands of difficulties and dangers, and finally completed the Long March and other miracles, after the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, and finally established New China.
Mao Zedong was an all-round genius, he not only had great military talent, but also outstanding political talent, as well as leadership style. Of course, in the early days of the revolution, his thinking came from the guidance of his mentor.
First, Mao Zedong was good at integrating China's national conditions. During the Soviet period, several major battles of the Red Army led to mistakes due to the erroneous command of other leaders. The reason is that those high-achieving students who have returned from studying abroad blindly follow those so-called theories, without taking into account the actual situation in China. However, Mao Zedong used it very well, and he combined Marx's theory with the actual situation in China, and the effect was very obvious, and he led the team to Jinggangshan to preserve its strength, which is the best example.
Second, Mao Zedong was good at summing up experience. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao once said that all his military strategies, and even some major strategies, were summed up by experience, and he also said that he relied on summing up experience to eat. In fact, when he was young, he was good at doing investigations, interviews, and summaries. This seemingly ordinary Xi laid the foundation for Chairman Mao's future work. For example, every time I draft a message or compose a poem, I use my previous experience on paper to revise it constantly, and finally arrive at the most satisfactory result.
Third, Chairman Mao has always paid attention to physical exercise. During his study in Hunan, he was recommended by Yang Changji to publish "The Study of Physical Education", in which Mao Zedong said that only by focusing on physical fitness can we have revolutionary capital. Yang Changji is very satisfied with this and very supportive. So Mao Zedong cultivated this good Xi over the years, he not only liked to climb mountains, but also liked to swim, and even in his later years, his enthusiasm for physical exercise was only high. He told the staff that when he was studying in Hunan, he Xi used to take cold water baths, even in winter, and this kind of courage can be imagined.
Shaoshan gave birth to Mao Zedong, and the land of Huxiang is also the nourishment of Mao Zedong, and he will never forget the classmates who studied with him, as well as the comrades who revolutionized together, and the teachers who helped him, such as Yang Changji.
Yang Changji is not only his mentor, but also his father-in-law, and his bosom friend who knows him best.
It is said that in the place where Yang Changji lived in Tofuchi Hutong, Beijing, there is a jujube tree in the front yard, which bears a lot of jujubes every year, and this tree was planted by Yang Changji himself. In the 60s of the 20th century, the owner of the yard also sent the picked dates to Zhongnanhai for Chairman Mao to taste.
5. Postscript
Professor Yang Changji's life, seeking the truth, cultivating talents, and determined to save the country and the people, although he died young, but he cultivated batches of aspiring young people, especially the two people he said in his letter to Zhang Shizhao.
Cai Hesen was a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and the head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee, but unfortunately died for the revolution in 1931.
Mao Zedong is famous all over the world, relying on his outstanding talents to lead the soldiers all the way through obstacles, and finally established New China, becoming the greatest figure in China.
Mao Zedong did not live up to his mentor's instructions on the sickbed, and he never forgot his mentor.
At a conference in Yan'an, Mao Zedong once said affectionately: "I admire two teachers the most in my life, one is Mr. Xu and the other is Mr. Huaizhong." ”
Xu Lao refers to Xu Teli, and Yang Changji is the one in his arms.