At the end of 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo boarded a plane bound for Taiwan in the southwest. At the time of parting, Chiang Kai-shek also looked at the land under his feet with "affectionate affection", with both reluctance and some longing and anxiety about the unknown.
Because Chiang Kai-shek knew that once he left Chinese mainland and fled to Taiwan, the political and economic system of the Kuomintang would be completely overturned.
Chiang Kai-shek understood even more that he had been able to transform from an uneducated gangster to a dictator of China because of the "strong support" of the four major families.
Yellow flowers are easy to splendid, after all, flowers fall. When the Kuomintang was defeated and fled to Taiwan, what was the outcome of the four major families that had been in cahoots with Chiang Kai-shek for many years?
Nowadays, people often mention the four major families of the Kuomintang, namely Chiang Song, Kong and Chen, and the first is the Chiang family led by Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo's father and son.
After the defeat of the Kuomintang and its flight to Taiwan, the Chiang Kai-shek family continued to control Taiwanese politics. In 1975, Chiang Kai-shek died of illness, and his beloved son Chiang Ching-kuo became the leader of Taiwan after some setbacks.
When Chiang Ching-kuo died of illness in 1988, the notorious "Taiwan independence" element Lee Teng-hui ascended to the pinnacle of power, and the Chiang family at that time had long since lost its former glory.
Since the death of Chiang Ching-kuo and Chiang Wei-kuo, the third-generation members of the Chiang family have also wanted to make some achievements in the political arena. Unfortunately, due to various factors, although the descendants of the Chiang family have a large population, they are unable to make a major breakthrough in politics.
Today, most of the descendants of the Chiang family have settled in Taiwan, and some live in the United States. The children of the Chiang family who are still active in Taiwan's political arena are only the descendants of Chiang Ching-kuo and Zhang Yaruo, namely Jiang Xiaoyan and Jiang Wanan, father and son.
Jiang Wanan, who is the mayor of Taipei, has also been anxious recently, and his political future is uncertain. His father, Jiang Xiaoyan, whose original name was Zhang Xiaoyan, once served as vice president of the "Executive Yuan" and secretary general of the Kuomintang on the island, and also served as a "legislator" in Taiwan in his later years.
As for the other descendants of the Chiang family, they are far away from politics, and most of them are engaged in business, education, and entertainment. At present, the fourth generation of the Chiang family, which is most famous in Taiwan and the mainland, is probably Chiang Kai-shek's great-grandson Chiang Youbai.
In September 2003, Jiang Youbai's daughter was born, and the news that the Jiang family had a fifth generation suddenly became a hot topic of media reports across the Taiwan Strait.
On the day of the full moon of the beloved daughter, many Taiwanese political heavyweights came to congratulate, which can be called a rare event for the Chiang family in recent years since Chiang Ching-kuo's death.
The founders of the Song family should be the brothers and sisters of the Song family, namely the famous Song Meiling, Song Qingling, and Song Ziwen.
Soong Ching-ling, the widow of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, also served as the former honorary president of the People's Republic of China, and has been living on the mainland.
After the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan, Soong left the mainland for Hong Kong, then moved to New York, where he died in San Francisco in April 1971.
In the 60~70s of the 20th century, Soong Meiling repeatedly blew the pillow wind to Chiang Kai-shek, hoping to arrange some positions for Soong Ziwen or his nephews, but was rejected by Chiang Kai-shek.
Because of the plundering of countless people in the mainland back then, even if the descendants of the Song family settled in the United States, they could still have no worries about food and clothing.
The head of the Kong family is Kong Xiangxi, who was known as the "God of Wealth" of the Kuomintang during the war years, and died in New York, USA, in 1967.
He had two sons and two daughters with Soong Ailing, and the eldest son, Kong Lingkan, joined forces with Soong Meiling for a period of time, trying to squeeze Chiang Ching-kuo's political position and gain a firm foothold in Taiwan's political arena, but in the end he was swept away by the scheming Chiang Kai-shek.
In recent decades, the children of the Kong family have been living in the United States, which is relatively low-key, and they rarely interact with other strangers Chinese except for close relatives and friends.
At present, the Kong family has no descendants in politics, and the family members are scarce. However, Kong Xiangxi's descendants are very good at business.
The last family is the Chen family, headed by Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu. The brothers once took charge of the Kuomintang's spy work for Chiang Kai-shek, that is, the Central Unification, and their power was extremely great, and there was even a saying that "the Chiang family is the Chen family in the world" at that time.
After the defeat of the Kuomintang and its flight to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek reorganized the power of the Kuomintang secret services and handed them over to Chiang Ching-kuo. Whether it is the military unification or the central unification, or the secrecy bureau and party communication bureau after their reorganization, life on the island of Taiwan is not easy.
Because of this, Chen Lifu left Taiwan in 1950 and went into exile, living in New Jersey for 20 years. In 1969, at the invitation of Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Lifu returned to Taiwan.
Brother Chen Guofu has always stayed in Taiwan, but only one daughter, in order to continue his brother's incense, Chen Lifu passed on his eldest son Chen Ze'an to Chen Guofu.
Except for Chen Lifu's youngest son, who also lives in Taiwan, everyone else lives in the United States. The Chen family is the poorest of the four major families, Chen Lifu and Chen Guofu did not have much savings in their lives, and they did not leave much property after that.
In addition, when the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan, the Chen brothers had been squeezed out of the Kuomintang power center by Chiang Kai-shek, so the descendants of the Chen family have been living by their own efforts.
Around 2010, it was suggested that Chen Lifu's former residence in Taipei should be demolished, and the descendants of the Chen family repeatedly begged the other party to "show mercy", but the house was eventually demolished.
In general, after the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan, the four major families basically had a hard time, and the vast majority of their descendants did not set foot in politics like their predecessors, and there are many reasons for this.
Because of the eldest patriarch of Song Meiling, who lived to be more than 100 years old, the descendants of the three major families of Jiang and Song Kong had more contact, and the children of the Chen family seemed to be a little loner and had less contact with the other three major families.
But no matter what, the four major families are witnesses to a period of history, and they have also witnessed their own families from prosperity to decline. The political gloom seen from the ups and downs of their predecessors and the cold of the world may be an important reason why they are willing to live the life of ordinary people and are unwilling to enter politics.
With the reform and opening up and the increasingly close relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the grievances and grievances that have occurred in history will be resolved. That old history seems to have been lost to Shi Hai with the past......
Bibliography:
Yan Huang Chunqiu,1994(10):62-65.
Hunan Literature and History,2004(04):37-38.