In 1996, Chiang Hsiao-yong held a press conference in Taiwan, not to promote any current affairs or tell some news, but to propose that the coffins of his grandfather Chiang Kai-shek and father Chiang Ching-kuo be moved back to the mainland for burial, fulfilling their last wish of "returning to their hometown".
This proposal quickly attracted widespread attention and discussion, and Jiang's rhetoric was touching, but the reality was full of complexities and challenges. In order to achieve this mission, he continued to work hard and struggle, but he could not achieve it until his death.
Before he died, he left two last words, which made people sigh, but his persistence and hard work touched countless people. Today, let's talk about this story full of difficulties and emotions.
The rise of Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was born in Fenghua, Zhejiang Province, in a family whose mother supported the family by doing small businesses and odd jobs.
He was a strong student in his hometown, then in Nanjing, and in 1906 he went to Japan to study at Tsinghua School in Tokyo.
At that time, studying abroad was not about how much knowledge could be learned, but about being able to get in touch with advanced ideas in advance, and this study abroad experience just exposed Chiang Kai-shek to new ideas and laid the foundation for his later military and political career.
After 1924, Chiang Kai-shek began to emerge and was reused by Sun Yat-sen, and two years later in the Northern Expedition, he served as the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army to lead the Northern Expedition and achieve a national victory.
During this period, Chiang Kai-shek's reputation reached its peak, and it was at this time that the contradictions with the CCP gradually emerged. The Northern Expedition was not carried out by the Kuomintang alone, and our party also played an important role in it, but Chiang Kai-shek wanted to enjoy it "when the fruit was ripe".
On April 12, 1927, the Kuomintang launched a shocking "purge of the party" campaign in Shanghai, arresting and executing a large number of communists, and from then on, Chiang Kai-shek completely seized the real power of the Kuomintang and was the nominal central government of China.
From this time until the formation of the anti-Japanese national united front in 1936, Chiang Kai-shek never gave up the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army and the persecution of our party.
Even after the outbreak of the September 18 Incident, when Japan invaded and occupied the three northeastern provinces, and the Chinese nation was facing an unprecedented crisis, Chiang Kai-shek still pursued the so-called policy of "settling the interior before attacking the outside world."
This policy not only aroused dissatisfaction and opposition from the whole country, but also enabled the Japanese army to take advantage of the fisherman's profits and completely occupy the three eastern provinces in a short period of time.
On December 12, 1936, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched the "Xi'an Incident" in Xi'an, detaining Chiang Kai-shek and demanding that he stop the civil war and unite to resist Japan.
With the joint efforts of our Party and all walks of life throughout the country, Chiang Kai-shek was forced to agree to stop the "suppression of the Communists" and to cooperate with the Communists again to establish an anti-Japanese national united front.
The peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident enabled the Chinese people to unite and jointly resist the Japanese invaders at a time when the nation was in danger.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek served as the chairman of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China, leading the military and civilians of the whole country to resist the war, and the Chinese army won a series of important victories.
In the course of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek showed some erroneous decisions and arbitrariness, especially in some major battles, which affected the course of the War of Resistance to a certain extent, and even found opportunities to persecute our party personnel on many occasions.
Although this incident had a bad impact, it did not affect the development of the overall situation, and after the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan in 1945, the people of the whole country rejoiced and prepared to welcome the arrival of a new era.
Civil war and defeat in Taiwan
Both the "Double Tenth Agreement" and the "Chongqing Talks" have only one purpose, that is, the peaceful coexistence of the KMT and the CPC, which is also a devastated country and a rising demand of the people.
However, Chiang Kai-shek ostensibly cooperated with our party and agreed to jointly build a new China, but secretly mobilized the army to carry out the next move, trying to defeat our party through civil war and continue to maintain the rule of the Kuomintang.
In June 1946, a full-scale civil war broke out, and the Kuomintang and the Communist Party once again fought each other, and the common people were once again in dire straits.
During the War of Liberation, the unpopularity of the Kuomintang army, coupled with Chiang Kai-shek's many strategic mistakes, led to the defeat of the Kuomintang army in the contest with the PLA.
In particular, in the Liaoshen Campaign, the Huaihai Campaign, the Pingjin Campaign, and the Battle of Crossing the Yangtze River, the Kuomintang army suffered a devastating blow, the elite forces were basically exhausted, and the era of Chiang Kai-shek was gone forever.
On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was established in Beijing, and Chiang Kai-shek's rule came to an end, and two months later he was forced to retreat to Taiwan with the remnants of his troops and a large number of Kuomintang officials.
In Taiwan, he continued to implement his authoritarian rule and carried out a large-scale "purging the Communist Party" campaign to consolidate the ruling position of the Kuomintang.
At the same time, a series of measures have been adopted to promote Taiwan's economic development and modernization, so that Taiwan has achieved economic take-off in a relatively short period of time, and the purpose of all this is to counterattack the mainland and restore the rule of the Kuomintang in the whole of China.
It is a pity that although Chiang Kai-shek has made certain achievements in Taiwan, his regret that he lost control of the mainland has always lingered, and "counterattacking the mainland" has become more and more unrealistic with the passage of time.
Chiang Kai-shek ruled Taiwan for more than 20 years, until his death in 1975, and until his death failed to realize this dream.
After Chiang Kai-shek's death, his body was temporarily placed in the Cihu Mausoleum in Taipei, why is it said to be "temporary"? Because I am waiting for the opportunity to move back to the mainland for burial in the future.
After Chiang Kai-shek's death, his son Chiang Ching-kuo accepted the supreme power of Taiwan, and at this time, the development of the mainland gradually left Taiwan far away, and it was even more unrealistic to want a "counteroffensive", and he failed to fulfill his father's last wish.
Chiang Ching-kuo died of illness in 1988, and his body was later placed in Daxi Town, Taoyuan County, with the intention of preparing to be transported back to the mainland for burial in the future. However, with the complicated changes in cross-strait relations, the coffins of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo have not yet been able to "return to their roots."
Jiang Xiaoyong's efforts and helplessness
Chiang Kai-shek had 5 grandsons, and all 5 of them had different lives, but one person had to be mentioned, he was Chiang Ching-kuo's youngest son, Jiang Xiaoyong.
Born in Shanghai in 1948, Jiang Xiaoyong was loved by his grandfather, Chiang Kai-shek, and carried many of the family's expectations.
In 1964, he entered the military academy and ranked among the best in various grades, but an accidental injury forced him to bid farewell to the military academy and study politics and law instead, and in 1988, Chiang Ching-kuo died suddenly and shouldered the burden of the family.
However, the situation in Taiwan at that time had changed too much, and the Chiang family was no longer the Chiang family when he first went to Taiwan, and Jiang Xiaoyong could not affect the situation in Taiwan at all, let alone the relations between the two sides of the strait.
In 1996, Jiang Xiaoyong was seriously ill with esophageal cancer, and decided to fulfill the last wishes of his grandfather and father during his lifetime.
In order to promote the Soul Removal Project, Jiang Xiaoyong also personally went to the mainland for a secret visit, hoping to find a way to realize this wish through personal experience and field investigations.
He was warmly received on the mainland, and also visited the former residences of his grandfather Chiang Kai-shek and father Chiang Ching-kuo, and felt the strong historical atmosphere and warmth of his hometown.
Immediately after returning to Taiwan, he held a large-scale press conference to announce his plans and hopes to the public.
He solemnly proposed that the coffins of his grandfather Chiang Kai-shek and father Chiang Ching-kuo be moved back to the mainland for burial, fulfilling their last wish of "returning their souls to their hometown".
"My grandfather Chiang Kai-shek and father Chiang Ching-kuo specially explained before their deaths that they wanted their souls to return to their hometowns, which is human nature, and this will not change at any time. Grandpa and father, as the deceased ancestors of the Jiang family, will spare no effort to help them realize their last wishes. ”
"Sending my grandfather and father to the mainland for burial is their last wish, and it is also a cause that I have struggled for all my life. The descendants of the Jiang family will not forget and dare not forget, and will do their best to complete this matter. ”
Soon after this proposal was put forward, it aroused widespread attention and discussion from all walks of life, and the Taiwan media rushed to report it, and the mainland is also paying close attention to this trend. Unfortunately, although Jiang Xiaoyong's rhetoric is touching, the reality is complex and challenging.
The Taiwan authorities and some opposition forces have taken an opposing attitude toward this proposal, believing that it is a means for the Chiang family to gain political capital.
In the face of tremendous resistance, Jiang Xiaoyong did not flinch, and visited the senior leaders of the Taiwan authorities many times, hoping to change this obstacle through communication and negotiations.
However, each meeting ended in failure, and despite Jiang Xiaoyong's great efforts to achieve this, the transfer of spirits was never realized until death.
In 1997, Jiang Xiaoyong was critically ill, perhaps knowing that his time was running out, he took his son's hand before his death and solemnly instructed: "We must complete this mission, and don't let the wishes of my grandfather and father be disappointed......
Looking back at the development of the two sides of the strait, in 1979, the Chinese People's Liberation Army stopped shelling Kinmen, marking the beginning of a real ceasefire between the two sides of the strait; Deng Gong's great concept of "one country, two systems" was also to solve the Taiwan issue.
Subsequently, economic and cultural exchanges between the mainland and Taiwan began, and cross-strait relations underwent historic changes. In 1992, the two sides of the strait reached the "consensus of '92" to further promote friendly exchanges between the two sides of the strait.
It can be seen from all the above that despite facing many challenges, the reunification of the motherland is the trend of the times, and the great cause of reunification will certainly be realized through the unremitting efforts of generation after generation.
As an important figure in the modern history of the mainland, Chiang Kai-shek's life was full of controversy and complexity, but no matter how history judges, he did make great contributions in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek's wish to "return to his hometown" not only represents his personal wishes, but also represents the deep attachment and sense of belonging of countless separated families to their hometowns.
What do you think differently about this?
Resources:
https://kns.cnki.net/kcms2/article/abstract?v=XEQRgWHfXDEeWHU76bKwqgs8iYzWU4ghiZxKv6GbWjgPK5iYGmiHLztq7-8rqn3yNe2qUZKUwr_w51tMrIsp-ZbI7UkJArU5S0LZU6M1yLbuML1ds1g_UuI-DRH7zmP8w5AbgUoXs_c=&uniplatform=NZKPT&language=CHS
Revealing the different life experiences of Chiang Kai-shek's 5 grandsons (Photos)-Chinanews (chinanews.com.cn)