On the commemorative bookmark of the Longhua Martyrs Cemetery in Shanghai, the following sentence is printed: "Our party has grown out of the long-term hardship and hardship of the revolutionary struggle and has become strong. ”
This resonant phrase was uttered by Chen Yannian in 1926 and is now often used to admonish and motivate people.
Chen Duxiu, who appeared in junior high school history textbooks, believes that everyone is familiar with it, but even under the aura of his father, the brilliance of his eldest son Chen Yannian is still not inferior.
Juvenile self-improvement
In 1898, a baby was born in the old residence of Nanshuiguan in Huaining, Anhui Province, and he was Chen Yannian. Strange to say, growing up in a scholarly family, influenced by pen and ink, Chen Yannian has dark skin and burly figure since he was a child, not like a scholar but more like a martial artist, so everyone in his family ridiculed him as a "black-faced martial artist".
Although he doesn't look like a scholar, Chen Yannian loves to read. Xu is because of his excellent genes, Chen Yannian has a smart mind and strong memory since he was a child. Not only that, but he is also very diligent and studious, and reads a book in his hand every day.
At that time, the family was poor and did not have much books, but fortunately, there was a respected person in the township, who had a very rich collection of books at home, so Chen Yannian often went to visit and borrow books.
When Chen Yan was young, his father Chen Duxiu was busy with the revolution, so he spent little time at home and neglected to spend time with his children. However, this does not hinder Chen Yannian's growth, thanks to books, Chen Yannian is not ignorant, he is eager to go outside and see the wider world.
In 1915, this year was a turning point in Chen Yannian's life, and Chen Duxiu took Chen Yannian to Shanghai after learning about Chen Yannian's pursuit. After that, Chen Yannian came into contact with more and more comprehensive new ideas, which laid the foundation for him to propagate Marxist ideas and join the Communist Party of China in the future.
When he first arrived in Shanghai, Chen Yannian lived with Chen Duxiu, but soon he decided to be self-reliant and not rely on his father's strength. At that time, Chen Yannian lived in the publishing office of the magazine "New Youth", where he worked outside during the day and went to school at night, working and studying part-time to support himself.
Chen Yannian first studied French at Tongji University, and later went to Fudan University. However, Chen Yannian soon discovered that at that time, China was already in a state of national strength and national crisis, there were warlords who oppressed the people, and there were strong enemies outside, which could be said to be suffering from the enemy, and if he wanted to serve the country and save China from fire and water, he must go abroad to learn new ideas and new technologies.
So in December 1919, Chen Yannian left his motherland and went to France to study, hoping to find a way to save the country and the people abroad.
Because the idea of "anarchism" spread earlier, and Chen Yannian was still young and could not correctly distinguish the difference between truth and fallacy, so during his study in France, Chen Yannian joined the "After-Work Society" in order to show his ambitions, and in order to promote the idea of "anarchism" to the people, Chen Yannian also edited the magazine "After-Job".
At that time, there were many people with lofty ideals among the students studying in France, and they set up various clubs to discuss academics, and the students led by Zhao Shiyan and Zhou Enlai actively propagated Marxist theory in various clubs.
Strange to say, Chen Yannian is a silent and introverted person on weekdays, with few words and quiet words, but whenever there is ambiguity in the discussion of a problem, he immediately seems to be a different person, not only witty and passionate, but even in order to argue with others to reach a result, he will not be relentless until his face is red.
Chen Yannian's explanation for this is: "We should not tolerate the slightest sloppiness on the issue of principle, we should be on par with Lenin, and when arguing on the issue of principle, we should be like a lion, and we should express our hearts directly and never perfunctory." It can be seen that Chen Yannian is a meticulous and sincere person.
Seek the way to save the country
It's a good time to talk about ideals and the future with like-minded people, but the good times don't last long, and the peaceful days usher in a storm.
During his stay in France, Chen Yannian experienced three major struggles: the "228" study movement, the struggle to return to the Sino-French University in Lyon, and the assassination of Chen Zheng, the Chinese minister to France, by Li Heling. Among them, the struggle between the Sino-French University in Lyon had the most far-reaching impact on Chen Yannian.
On September 24, 1921, the Franco-Chinese University of Lyon suddenly announced that only students with a diploma could continue their studies at the university, and the university required every student to bring enough living expenses and pass the entrance exam.
The Franco-Chinese University of Lyon does not require a diploma exam, and the sudden announcement of the university has undoubtedly pushed the students into a corner. In the face of the students' protests, the university did not repent and even colluded with the French government to suppress the students, which ended with the forced deportation of 104 protesting students back to their home countries.
After this struggle, Chen Yannian thoroughly saw the hypocrisy of anarchist ideas hidden under beautiful rhetoric, and he made up his mind to break with the sanctimonious anarchists of Wu Zhihui.
In a letter to Chen Gongpei, he bluntly said that Chen Yannian was cute and smart, and he was a rare talent, and repeatedly asked Chen Gongpei to contact Chen Yannian and actively guide Chen Yannian.
With the help of Zhao Shiyan and Chen Gongpei, Chen Yannian gained an in-depth understanding of Marxist thought, after which his political beliefs changed radically, and finally he decided to join the Youth League. After joining the Youth League, in order to understand the essence of the Communist Party more intuitively, Chen Yannian participated in the inaugural meeting of the "Chinese Young Communist Party" in June 1922.
After becoming a member of the executive committee, in order to repay the trust of the organization, Chen Yannian worked harder. With his early editorial experience, Chen Yannian assisted Zhao Shiyan in editing and printing the magazine "Youth". In the winter of 1922, Chen Yannian became a member of the Communist Party of China.
In September 1924, Chen Yannian, who returned to Shanghai, lived with Zhou Enlai and others. Just like when he came to Shanghai to study, Chen Yannian still lived a simple life.
A burrow, a bedboard, a bamboo mat, a leather bag, a blanket, a quilt, this is Chen Yannian's bedroom, and even the shabby yellow leather bag is Chen Yannian's pillow.
In order to abide by the principle of "hard work", Chen Yannian also set the "six nos" principle for himself: "Don't wander, don't take pictures, don't watch plays, don't talk about clothing, don't go to restaurants, and don't talk about personal relationships."
The simple living habits make Chen Yannian have more energy to devote to work. In October 1924, Chen Yannian, who went to Guangzhou to attend the meeting of the Guangdong District of the Communist Youth League, organized and arranged the reorganization of the Guangdong District Executive Committee of the Communist Youth League as a special commissioner of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League.
In January 1925, Chen Yannian served as secretary of the presidium of the Guangdong Executive Committee.
In order to organize the drivers and let the scattered sand gather into a desert to set off a storm, Chen Yannian humbly learned to pull rickshaws from the drivers, communicate with the drivers, and experience the life of the drivers.
"The workers and peasants are the most oppressed class by capitalist imperialism and warlords, they are the most revolutionary class. This is the view expressed by Chen Yannian in his early article "The National Revolution and the Workers and Peasants Class", which shows that he trusted the workers and peasants from the beginning to the end.
In order to verify his views, Chen Yannian practiced it. He participated in activities with the workers, understood their difficulties, and guided the workers in their work.
After a period of investigation, Chen Yannian quickly grasped the basic situation of the coachmen, and after analyzing the dangers of class oppression to the coachmen, the coachmen quickly united to resist the oppression of imperialism and warlords, forming a force that would play a major role in the future Guangzhou Uprising.
Chen Yannian's actions strengthened the workers' and peasants' alliance and promoted the development of the workers' and peasants' movement. By March 1927, there were more than 9,000 party members in the Guangdong party organization, and the national cohesion, combat effectiveness and sense of unity were vividly reflected in this organization, and Chen Yannian was also awarded the title of "King of Guangzhou".
Chen Yannian not only attached great importance to the strength of the workers and peasants, but also established the Peasants', Women's and Youth Movement Committees to protect the interests of various groups.
In order to train military cadres to be able to take on great responsibilities, Chen Yannian and Zhou Enlai made a decision to select and send a group of party groups to study at the Whampoa Military Academy after discussion.
From 1924 to 1925, Chen Yannian first assisted Zhou Enlai in forming an ironclad convoy and appointed Xu Chengzhang as the captain, and later he established an independent regiment headed by Ye Ting, mastering the revolutionary armed forces as he wished.
On June 19, 1925, Chen Yannian also played an important role in the general strike of Guangdong and Hong Kong, which shocked the world. The strike lasted one year and four months, and during this long period of more than a year, through the unremitting struggle of the people, it effectively dealt a blow to the rule of British imperialism over Hong Kong's economy and ensured the financial security of Guangzhou.
Differences of opinion
Chen Yannian's achievements should be gratifying to Chen Duxiu, but he never expected that the father and son would have a disagreement in the end.
In January 1926, the struggle between the left and the right entered a white-hot stage, and in order to confront the rightists, Chen Yannian, Zhou Enlai and others agreed on a specific course of action: "expand the leftists, isolate the centrists, and strike at the rightists", and planned to hit the rightists hard at the "Second National Congress" of the Kuomintang. Unexpectedly, this policy was opposed by Chen Duxiu.
In March of the same year, Chiang Kai-shek, a new rightist, staged the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" and suddenly launched an attack on the Communists, which caught the Communists by surprise. In the face of Chiang Kai-shek's provocation, Chen Yannian strongly supported Mao Zedong's proposal to confront Chiang Kai-shek head-on, but he did not expect to be strongly opposed by Chen Duxiu and Zhang Guotao.
Two months later, at the Second Plenary Session of the Second Central Committee of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek put forward the "Bill for Sorting Out Party Affairs", which aimed to split the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and expel the Communist Party members.
In the face of the Kuomintang's step-by-step pressing, the Communists who attended the meeting at that time were filled with righteous indignation, and the vast majority of people, including Chen Yannian, strongly opposed it, but Zhang Guotao took strong measures to force the Communists to accept.
At this point, the anti-communist intentions of the Kuomintang rightists have been clearly exposed, but the party Central Committee headed by Chen Duxiu is still stubborn and blindly evades contradictions. In the face of Chen Duxiu's erroneous proposition, Chen Yannian strongly resisted.
Chen Yannian, who resolutely refused to make concessions on the issue of principle, confronted his father at the meeting, and he still sharply pointed out that Chen Duxiu "does not trust the strength of the workers and peasants and does not dare to fight against the Kuomintang, and sooner or later the revolution will be ruined." ”
As a saying goes, because Chen Duxiu and others made three major concessions to the Kuomintang rightists one after another, the Great Revolution finally failed.
God is jealous of talent
With Chen Yannian's talent, he should have made more and greater achievements, but God was jealous of talent, and on June 26, 1927, Chen Yannian was arrested by the Kuomintang.
In order to rescue Chen Yannian, the organization found Wu Kaisheng and asked him to come forward as a lawyer. On the other hand, Chen Duxiu's friend Wang Mengzou found Hu Shi for help, and Hu Shi went to Wu Zhihui for help.
At that time, many forces mediated in it and ran to rescue Chen Yannian, but in the end, Chen Yannian's identity was unfortunately exposed.
When Wu Zhihui learned of Chen Yannian's identity, he immediately reported the news to Chiang Kai-shek, and even wrote a letter to Yang Hu, the commander of the garrison in Shanghai, to expose Chen Yannian's identity. After doing this, Wu Zhihui also reversed black and white in the newspaper, bluntly saying that Chen Yannian should be killed to prevent future troubles. Wu Zhihui's actions completely ruined Chen Yannian's life.
After learning Chen Yannian's identity, in order to pry out the secrets of the CCP organization from Chen Yannian's mouth, Yang Hu did everything to Chen Yannian, inflicting all kinds of torture on him, but Chen Yannian would rather die than give in, relying on his steely and tenacious will, gritted his teeth to resist, and resolutely did not reveal the slightest information about the Communist Party.
On the evening of July 4, 1927, Chen Yannian was escorted to the execution ground for execution. Before he died, the executioner ordered Chen Yannian to kneel, but Chen Yannian stood proudly, stood up to the sky and the earth with one backbone, and was determined to stand and die.
The executing soldier couldn't help Chen Yannian, so he had to use violence to forcibly press him, not wanting Chen Yannian to stand up tenaciously immediately after the soldier let go. In the end, Chen Yannian was pressed to the ground by the angry executioners, brutally killed with knives, and his body was thrown into the Huangpu River.
Chen Yannian, who was only 29 years old, was so generous in Shanghai.
Chen Yannian once said when he was a teenager: "Danger is both an intentional and internal matter, and people with lofty ideals ask for this opportunity to make a glorious sacrifice but cannot get it, what horror can there be." The words of the past foreshadowed the end of the present, perhaps this sentence is an ode composed by Chen Yannian for himself.
The weight of Mount Tai and the lightness of the feathers, Chen Yannian obviously belongs to the former. His deeds are remembered by many and illuminate their way forward.
Mao Zedong once lamented Chen Yannian and said: "In China, where talent is scarce, especially in the Communist Party, Chen Yannian is indeed a rare talent. This sentence undoubtedly affirms Chen Yannian's contribution in his life.
In September 2009, Chen Yannian was selected as one of the "100 Heroes Who Made Outstanding Contributions to the Founding of New China". This honor is well deserved, and I hope that no matter how long it has passed, everyone can remember his dedication and pride.
Chen Yannian's tomb is located in the Longhua Revolutionary Cemetery in Shanghai, hoping that there is a spring breeze, and informing him of the prosperity of China today, in order to comfort the heroic soul.