Du Chongyuan (1897-1943), a native of Gongzhuling, Jilin, studied in Japan and was a famous patriotic industrialist. He founded the Zhaoxin Ceramics Company, the first machine-made pottery factory in the mainland in Fengtian (now Shenyang), founded the weekly "Xinsheng" to publicize the anti-Japanese struggle and save the country with a clear-cut banner, and served as the dean of Xinjiang College (the predecessor of Xinjiang University), devoted himself to building Xinjiang into an anti-Japanese base area, and made great achievements in the fields of porcelain reform, press and publication, and education throughout his life, and made important contributions to the anti-Japanese salvation movement.
Industry saves the country and actively resists Japan
In 1916, after graduating from the Fengtian Provincial Normal High School, Du Chongyuan returned to his hometown to teach. At this time, Japanese imperialism put forward the "21 Demands" for the destruction of China to Yuan Shikai. This incident that shocked the whole country deeply pierced the patriotic heart of Du Chongyuan, who was only 19 years old. He believed that China's weakness was mainly due to the sluggish industry, so he was determined to contribute to the country to the best of his ability.
In 1917, Du Chong went to Japan and entered the Tokyo Higher Technical School to specialize in the pottery industry. In 1923, Du Chongyuan returned to China after graduation. With the idea of "saving the country through industry", he devoted all his efforts to developing the porcelain industry in the mainland and founded the Zhaoxin Ceramics Company in Fengtian. Du Chongyuan decided to set up a brick and tile factory in the first step, and then set up a porcelain factory in the second step. In 1924, he built a new wheel kiln that burned red bricks, thus breaking the Japanese monopoly on the brick industry in Mukden. In 1927, Du Chongyuan began to expand the plant and purchase equipment according to the requirements of porcelain production, and the whole project was completed in the spring of 1928. It was officially put into production in August 1928, and produced more than 300 pieces in 1929 and more than 600 pieces in 1930. "Replace the original Japanese goods, and the annual profits recovered can reach more than one million yuan." Du Chongyuan's ambition to serve the country has practical results, and he is very excited: we just want to "store practical things for the country and use our strength to defend against foreign countries".
After the September 18 Incident in 1931, the Japanese militarists regarded Du Chongyuan as an "anti-Japanese giant", and his porcelain industry was destroyed by Japanese fire. Du Chongyuan was forced to go into exile in Shanghai with his family, but he still did not give up the ideal of saving the country through industry. Later, at the invitation of Xiong Shihui, chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Government, he came to Jiangxi in 1934 to revitalize the declining Jingdezhen ceramic industry. Since then, Du Chongyuan has often traveled between Shanghai and Jiangxi, actively engaged in anti-Japanese rescue activities. In 1935, he founded the Jiujiang Everbright Porcelain Factory and served as the director of the Jiangxi Provincial Ceramics Administration, continuing to engage in the construction of the ceramic industry. During this period, he took the initiative to help the exiled students in his hometown in the northeast, and raised funds to fund the cause of resisting Japan and saving the country many times.
Use the pen as a sword to propagate anti-Japanese propaganda
During his stay in Shanghai, although it was difficult for industry to save the country, Du Chongyuan still actively participated in the general trend of propaganda against Japan and salvation by writing articles and running periodicals. While serving as the director general of the "China Domestic Products Production and Marketing Cooperation Association" and actively promoting the "development of domestic products industry for economic practical resistance against Japan," he also wrote articles for the weekly "Life" sponsored by Zou Taofen, exposing the crimes of Japanese imperialism in aggression against China.
From 1931 to 1932, Du Chongyuan traveled through eight provinces, visited more than 10 cities, and gave nearly 100 speeches. When he heard that the 19th Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army was fighting for the survival of the Chinese nation and was determined to "fight to the last and the last bullet," he was very excited, so he wrote a newsletter entitled "National Brilliance," highly praising the spirit of the "28 January" War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and calling for "the whole country to rise together and make an active struggle" in the war against Japan. Zou Taofen highly praised Du Chongyuan's patriotic spirit: "He ran in all directions for the idea of resisting Japan and saving the country...... It is precisely because he has practical experience and is not an article for the sake of making an article, that his works are particularly touching and profound, and the readers are particularly beneficial."
In December 1933, Life was unfortunately closed down by the Kuomintang reactionaries and could not be republished. In order to continue and expand the anti-Japanese propaganda, Du Chongyuan, through his social connections and special status as an industrialist, registered with the Shanghai Party Department of the Kuomintang and founded the weekly "Xinsheng", and served as the editor-in-chief and publisher himself. In February 1934, the weekly "Xinsheng" was launched, which clearly regarded "striving for the survival of the people" as the purpose of the magazine, advocating anti-Japanese resistance and opposing compromise. At that time, cultural celebrities such as Hu Yuzhi, Zou Taofen, Liu Xiang, and Bi Yuncheng were the main contributors of the magazine, and Du Chongyuan himself often wrote articles in the "Honesty" column, exposing the atrocities of the Japanese army and the surrender and traitorous crimes of the Kuomintang reactionaries.
In May 1935, the weekly "Xinsheng" published an article entitled "The Gossip Emperor," which was not malicious, but Japanese imperialism seized the opportunity to make unreasonable accusations of "insulting the emperor" and "hindering diplomatic relations." Under pressure from the Japanese side, in June 1935, the Kuomintang government closed down the weekly "Xinsheng", and Du Chongyuan was imprisoned for it. Although the "New Life" weekly did not exist for a long time, its highest circulation reached more than 100,000 copies, and it played an important role in public opinion propaganda for the anti-Japanese struggle and salvation.
Make Xinjiang University the "Second Kang University"
During his imprisonment, Du Chongyuan was cared for by Zhou Enlai and others, and had more contacts with underground CPC members, began to read some Marxist-Leninist works, gradually understood some basic principles of Marxism-Leninism and the principles of the Chinese revolution, realized that only the CPC could lead the Chinese people to truly resist Japan, and highly agreed with the CPC's propositions of "stopping the civil war and unanimously resisting Japan" and establishing an anti-Japanese national united front. In September 1936, Du Chongyuan was released from prison and immediately rushed to Xi'an to discuss the plan with Zhang Xueliang and others, which played an important role in Zhang Xueliang's change of thinking and the Xi'an Incident.
In October 1937, Du Chongyuan went to Xinjiang for the first time. After returning to Wuhan, he reported to Zhou Enlai about his trip to Xinjiang, and put forward the suggestion that he wanted to go to Xinjiang again, build Xinjiang into an anti-Japanese base area, train cadres, and prepare for a protracted war. With the consent and support of Zhou Enlai, in January 1939, Du Chongyuan settled in Xinjiang with the desire to "lay the last base for the motherland to resist the war". Sheng Shicai, the Xinjiang Frontier Governor, appointed Du Chongyuan as the president of Xinjiang College.
In order to solve the problem of insufficient teachers, Du Chongyuan hired Shen Yanbing, Sa Konglao and others to teach at the school, and invited Zhao Dan, Yu Cun and others to develop Xinjiang's cultural undertakings. At that time, there was a shortage of books in Xinjiang, so he wrote to Zou Taofen and said: "Xinjiang College, except for an old barracks, has nothing to grow, not to mention physics, chemistry, biological health equipment, and even the books for teaching are not complete, it is really a desert wasteland...... With the help of friends, Du Chongyuan bought three truckloads of books and brought them to Xinjiang College. Du Chongyuan also adjusted the teaching content of the college, adding courses such as the history of the Communist Party of Brazzaville and the anti-Japanese national united front, and stressed that teaching should adhere to the principle of integrating theory with practice. When he explained the course of the anti-Japanese national united front, he bitterly denounced the barbaric acts of Japanese imperialism in invading China, exposed the reactionary policy of Chiang Kai-shek of the Kuomintang who was passively resisting the war and actively opposing the communists, and called on the people of all nationalities in Xinjiang to unite and resist the war to the end.
During Du Chongyuan's tenure at Xinjiang College, it was a period of vitality and prosperity for Xinjiang College. He vigorously disseminated Marxist theory and scientific and cultural knowledge, always adhered to the anti-Japanese struggle, and cultivated a group of patriotic young people of all nationalities with progressive ideas and scientific and cultural knowledge, and thus won the respect of the people and young people of all nationalities in Xinjiang. At that time, people in the mainland called Xinjiang University "the second Kang University".
Du Chongyuan devoted himself to the cause of education in Xinjiang, propagating patriotic and progressive ideas, and won the love of the locals, but aroused the envy of the reactionary warlord Sheng Shicai. In 1940, Du Chongyuan was placed under house arrest. During this period, Zhou Enlai, Song Qingling and others tried to rescue, but Sheng Shicai insisted on going his own way, and finally secretly killed Du Chongyuan in September 1943.
In December 1949, the Declaration on the Closing of the Chinese People's Salvation Congress pointed out that Zou Taofen, Tao Xingzhi, Li Gongpu, Du Chongyuan and others "suffered sacrifices for the cause of the people, and they became permanent examples of Chinese intellectuals who sacrificed themselves and were loyal to the people." They and all the people's heroes who sacrificed their lives for the national salvation movement will be immortal!" In 1983, on the 40th anniversary of Du Chongyuan's murder, Deng Xiaoping wrote an inscription: "The martyr Du Chongyuan is immortal", and Deng Yingchao wrote an inscription: "The pioneer of the revolutionary left, the patriotic and heroic martyr who supports the party."