Those Pioneers A Hundred Years Ago (Wang Zhijian)

Today we continue to talk about Wang Zhijian, another early member of the Communist Party who came out of the Wang family in Xiangzhou, Zhucheng.

Wang Zhijian, also known as Shi Fo (also Shi Fu), was born in 1899 to a landlord family in Xiangzhou Village, Xiangzhou Town, Zhucheng City, and was the nephew of Wang Xiangqian, an early Communist Party member in Shandong. Wang Zhijian graduated from Xiangzhou Higher Primary School in his early years, and in 1917, he went to Jinan and was admitted to the Provincial No. 1 Middle School. In order to save costs, he was later transferred to the Provincial First Normal North Park Branch and entered the preparatory department. Wang Zhijian and Wang Zhimei are classmates in the same class, live in the same dormitory, and they are both high-achieving students in the school, both are good at literature, and their friendship is also particularly deep. During this period, he was influenced by Wang Gemei and actively participated in organizing many progressive activities. After the outbreak of the "May Fourth" Movement in 1919, Wang Zhijian and Wang Gemei, in view of the dark and corrupt educational policy and teaching methods, and in view of the pure rules and precepts of the first division that restricted students' freedom of thought, speech, and action, contacted Deng Enming, Wang Kejie, and Wang Xiangqian, a teacher at Yuying Middle School, to make a noise in the first division, demanding the removal of the principal and the abolition of the corrupt old education system. In November 1920, Wang Zhijian, Wang Gemei, Deng Enming, Wang Xiangwu, Wu Falcon and more than a dozen other people initiated the establishment of the "Lixin Society" in the Jinan Qilu News Agency run by Wang Leping, and at the same time founded the semi-monthly magazine "Lixin". In the spring of 1921, Wang Gemei, Deng Enming, Wang Xiangqian, Wang Xiangwu, and others established the "Marxist Theory Research Society" in Jinan, and at the same time established the "Jinan Labor Weekly Society" and published the "Labor Weekly" to carry out propaganda of "improving the status of laborers and improving the lives of laborers", and made certain ideological preparations for the revolution. The membership grew to fifty or sixty, and Wang Zhijian was one of them. In April 1921, Wang Zhijian and Deng Enming co-founded the "SY" youth league organization (that is, the Socialist Youth League, English name: Socialist Youth League). In January 1922, Wang Zhijian, together with Wang Gemei, Deng Enming, Wang Xiangwu, Wang Fuyuan, and Wang Leping, as representatives of the Communist Party, the Kuomintang, and industrial workers in Shandong, attended the First Congress of Communist Parties and National Revolutionary Groups of the Far East held in Moscow, Soviet Union. In the same year, Wang Zhijian joined the Communist Party of China in Jinan. After graduating from the Provincial First Division in 1923, Wang Zhijian first participated in the "Civilian Society" organized by Wang Gemei and Wang Leping, then went to Qingdao to teach, and then was introduced by a friend to join the army in Feng Yuxiang's department in Henan. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek openly rebelled against the revolution and hunted down CCP members and radicals everywhere. Fearing that he would set himself on fire, Wang Zhijian ran to the Hangzhou Banshan Temple to become a monk, and was later restored to his hometown by his eldest brother Wang Tiefo, and the two brothers re-restored the Xiangzhou Wang Private Primary School, with Wang Zhijian as the principal, and thus settled down. The school presided over by Wang Zhijian was once called "Chihua Primary School" by the Kuomintang Ma Hongkui troops. After the liberation of Zhucheng in September 1945, Wang Zhijian worked briefly in the county education department before returning to the village to open a shop to run a small business. In 1947, he was quarantined for suspected Kuomintang and sent to the county. In the same year, when the Zhucheng County government organs were transferring their war readiness, they were executed by the Public Security Bureau in the area of Xishagou in Haogezhuang Town because Wang had a foot disease and was suspected of having different intentions. After the founding of New China, the Zhucheng County CPC Committee re-investigated Wang's case and concluded that it was manslaughter. In 1987, he was killed in the line of duty. Wang Zhijian was one of the earliest CPC members in Shandong, and as a pioneering and legendary figure in the history of the Shandong revolution, either because of his youth and vigor, or because of the turmoil of the times, or because of different political views, and so on, he finally threw himself into the revolutionary cause vigorously, to see through the red dust, returned to his hometown, and finally got a fate of being killed by mistake, which has a lot to do with his wandering character.

At this point, the story of the early party members of the Wang family in Zhucheng Xiangzhou is over. Here it is necessary to say a few more words to introduce the Xiangzhou Wang family. The Wang family of Zhucheng Xiangzhou has been famous for more than four hundred years. In the modern history of the Shandong Revolution, the Wang clan of Zhucheng Xiangzhou played an important role, although they were members of the same ethnic group, they belonged to the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and even intersected between the two. A large part of the revolutionary talents of the Wang family are due to Wang Fengyi, the fifteenth king of the Xiangzhou Wang family. During the Qing Dynasty, his official title was "Supervisor, Candidate Prefecture Tongzhi". Under the influence of the atmosphere of "abolishing the imperial examination and revitalizing the school", Wang Fengyi returned to his hometown and decided to establish the Xiangzhou Wang's private third-class school. The Wang family donated land and used the land rent as the foundation and funding for the establishment of the school. In 1904, the school was established, with a three-year study system, Wang Fengyi as the president, he hired local celebrities to teach ancient Chinese and history, and foreign missionaries to teach mathematics, physics, chemistry and English. Because of its outstanding achievements, it was also awarded a gold medal by the Qing Dynasty Academy. The idea of saving the country and trying to survive advocated by Wang's private third-class school had a great influence on students, and many people engaged in revolution or opened up the wisdom of the people appeared. Its graduate Wang Xiangqian was one of the early Communists, and as many as nine people with the surname of Zhucheng Wang who joined the League that year included Wang Leping and Wang Mingshao. The four writers of the Wang family: Wang Tongzhao, Wang Xijian (Wang Xiangqian's third son), Wang Yuanjian (author of "The Shining Red Star"), and Wang Yijian (Taiwanese writer, pen name Jiang Gui) all received primary education at this primary school, and the other two sons-in-law of the Wang family, Zang Kejia and Wang Li, although they did not go to school here, but their wives who had a deep influence on them were from this school. From 1929 until the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Wang Zhijian served as the principal of Wang's Private Primary School in Xiangzhou. With his efforts, Xiangzhou Wang's private learning reached its peak. Among the progressive young students at that time, there were Wang Zhijian, Wang Zheng (daughter of Wang Xiangqian), Wang Enjian, and Wang Yijian, all of whom were relatives of this family (the "Jian" generation was the fourth generation of the same great-grandfather).

In the early Communist party organizations in Shandong, except for Deng Enming, Wang Fuyuan and Wang Yongzhang, all of them were members of the Xiangzhou Wang family or people with close ties to this family. Wang Xiangqian, Wang Xiangwu, Wang Leping, and Wang Zhijian all belong to this family, and wang Xiangqian's wife's aunt is Wang Gemei's aunt, because of this level of kinship, Wang Zhimei is also closer to the Xiangzhou Wang family. Therefore, in the early Shandong party organization, the Wang family had a lot of say. In September 1921, chen Duxiu's first meeting after returning to Shanghai from Guangdong was attended by more than a dozen local representatives, and Luo Zhanglong, the head of the northern region, suggested transferring Wang Quanmei to work in the northern ministry, but the central government approved it, and the Shandong party did not agree. This shows that the Wang family holds a lot of power in Shandong's party affairs, and later Wang Le flattened out of the Shandong party organization, and the wang family's right to speak transferred to Wang Xiangqian, until later wang Xiangqian lost contact with the party organization, and the influence of the Wang family disappeared.