The February 28 Incident, which occurred on February 28, 1947, was undoubtedly one of the historical events that had the greatest impact on Taiwan in modern times. Mr. Bai Xianyong once said: "If you do not understand 'two two eight', you will not have a deep understanding of the psychology of Taiwanese people." "As sily said. And Lin Xiantang, known as "Taiwan's first gentry", his experience and thoughts in "228" can also properly reflect the true attitude of Taiwan's elite intellectuals towards this incident.
Lin Xiantang
Lin Xiantang was born in 1881 in the Wufeng Lin family in Taichung, a large family in Taiwan. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government was forced to cede Taiwan to Japan, and Lin Xiantang crossed to Quanzhou, Fujian Province with his family, and soon returned to Taiwan to run a huge family business. Lin Xiantang received traditional Chinese culture education in the family private school from an early age, and his profound achievements in traditional Chinese studies became the source of his long-term adherence to the chinese cultural standard. At that time, Japan exercised harsh colonial rule in Taiwan, bloodily suppressed the anti-Japanese movement, and suffered heavy casualties among the anti-Japanese soldiers. The Taiwanese of the colonial people were denounced as "Qingguo slaves" and did not enjoy the same "national treatment" as the Japanese. In 1907, Lin Xiantang met Liang Qichao in Japan and told the people of Taiwan about their suffering. Liang Qichao told him: "In the next thirty years, China will not be able to help Taiwanese people fight for freedom. Therefore, the Taiwan compatriots must not act rashly, but offer senseless sacrifices, and it is best to imitate the irishmen's methods of dealing with the British themselves, and thicken the dignitaries of the Japanese central political circles, so as to contain the politics of the Taiwan Governor's Office and make them dare not oppress the Taiwan people too much. Subsequently, Lin Xiantang gradually adopted the method of "non-violent non-cooperation movement" to fight for the rights of Taiwan compatriots to democracy and freedom from the colonial authorities through peaceful petitions, associations, newspapers, and other means.
At the end of World War II in 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally and Taiwan returned to the motherland. Aroused by the nationalist enthusiasm that had been suppressed by the Japanese colonialists for many years, many elderly people who had become adults at the time of taiwan were even more tearful, dressed up to welcome the Nationalist government troops who had come to receive Taiwan. Many Taiwanese intellectuals who had long been committed to the civil rights movement were also rejoicing and looking forward to the Kuomintang government, as did Lin Xiantang. In 1945, he was invited to Nanjing to attend the Japanese surrender ceremony. The following year, in the preface to Tang Zibing's book "Outline of the History of Taiwan", Lin Xiantang wrote: "After the victory of our country's War of Resistance, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally, the province was returned to the territory of the motherland, and the Han officials were given a re-examination of the prestige of the Han officials. After his recovery, Lin Xiantang also served as a member of the Taiwan Provincial Senate and other public opinion representative positions. However, chen Yi's government did not govern properly, and the Kuomintang brought its habit of "robbery" on the mainland to Taiwan, which caused dissatisfaction among the Taiwanese people. The failure of economic management and the disappointment of political ideals spread throughout Taiwan, and the crisis was on the verge of erupting.
Protect Yan Jiagan
On February 27, 1947, anti-smuggling team members of the Taipei Monopoly Bureau beat up peddlers on the street, causing public anger. In a panic, the team members shot and killed a onlooker. The next day, the family gathered in front of the police station to demand a strong disposition; after not receiving a valid answer, they went to the front of the Chief Executive's Office to petition. The improper administration after the restoration has caused a lot of anger in the hearts of the People of Taiwan. More and more people joined along the road, storming the official office and clashing with the guards. The guards opened fire and suppressed, and the incident was unmanageable. The people revolted, attacked the arsenal to seize weapons, occupied the radio station, and the news soon spread throughout The island was in turmoil. Due to the scarcity of troops on the island, it was difficult for the provincial government to suppress in time, and could only stick to some major strongholds such as ports, airports, and official offices. In the days that followed, the streets of Taipei fell into chaos, with thugs, hooligans, and japanese soldiers of taiwanese origin rising up, chanting slogans such as "Fight Ah Shan," blatantly beating and killing people from other provinces, and burning many shops. Throughout Taiwan, many military and catholic personnel from other provinces were beaten and humiliated at worst, and died at worst.
On the day of the outbreak, Lin Xiantang accompanied Yan Jiagan, director of the provincial finance department, in Taichung to attend the shareholders' meeting of Changhua Commercial Bank. Somehow, Lin Xiantang's diary is missing a record from March 1 to March 5. Perhaps in the midst of a chaotic situation, Lin Xiantang had too many things to write, or did he delete his contents afterwards to avoid causing trouble? I don't know. Since March 2, the people of Taichung have also followed taipei's example, at a time when chaos has become chaotic, transportation and communication have become difficult, and people from other provinces have become "street rats" that everyone shouts and beats. The Yan family had nowhere to go, so they had to avoid the Lin family. This matter was learned by the mob, who gathered in front of the Lin Mansion and demanded that Lin Xiantang hand over Yan Jiagan and others, and overturned Yan Jiagan's car, and even threatened to set fire to the Lin Mansion. Lin Xiantang did not give in, saying, "Unless you knock me down first." On the other hand, it is also good to persuade each other. Intimidated by the prestige of the Lin family, the mob did not dare to move. Yan Jiagan hid in the Lin family and waited until March 12, when the nationalist reinforcements approached Taichung, and then had to go north to return to Taipei. During this period, there were still thugs who intended to attack the Lin family, but were fortunately killed by the patrol police. After Chiang Kai-shek's death in 1975, Yan Jiagan, who was also officially prosperous, succeeded to the "president" as "vice president of the Republic of China".
Protect the border and the people, and support relatives and friends
After the restoration of Taiwan, the Kuomintang authorities feared that the gentry would pose a threat to the authorities' authoritarian rule. Lin Xiantang, who adopted a "non-violent and non-cooperative" approach to the colonial authorities during the Japanese occupation period, was put on the "blacklist" of the Kuomintang intelligence organs after his recovery. First, Lin Xiantang had a history of participating in the Imperial People's Council, and was accepted as a member of the Japanese House of Nobility, with the title of "Royal Gentry"; second, Lin Xiantang was listed by Gu Zhenfu and others as an important figure in Taiwan's independence plan after Japan's surrender, and was suspected of participating in "Taiwan independence." The above cases have become the "sword of Damocles" hanging over Lin Xiantang's head, which also makes Lin Xiantang more reticent and serious in the face of the political situation after the restoration.
Because of his high moral standing, Lin Xiantang was the leader of Taiwan's Shilin, so he was also listed as a standing committee member of the provincial "228 Incident Handling Committee" after the 228 incident. Because Lin Xiantang needed to stay in Taichung to protect Yan Jiagan, who was stranded in the Lin family, and also to stay in Taichung's "Current Situation Handling Committee" to participate in presiding over the situation and mediating with the leftists, he could not escape to Taipei, where the political whirlpool was, to participate in the handling of the incident. Otherwise, after the Kuomintang troops landed in Keelung on March 9, he would inevitably be killed like his friends -- Lin Lianzong, who was sent to Taipei by the gentry of Taichung to express solidarity and liaison, was elected to the "Bureau Committee", and his whereabouts were unknown during the March arrest, and although he had the identity and aura of "National Congress representative", provincial senator, lawyer, etc., he was unable to save his life.
After the outbreak of the 228 incident, there was no major turmoil in Taichung, with four or five people from this province and people from other provinces dying and more than forty wounded; the situation was also under the auspices of Lin Xiantang and other gentry, and order was restored quickly. Although former county magistrate Liu Cunzhong and other military personnel from other provinces were arrested and placed in centralized care in the people's hostel, the casualties were not serious. However, Lin Xiantang and other local gentry also spared no effort to protect Yan Jiagan and other provincial officials from being harmed, and coupled with the armed resistance of taiwan communist leader Xie Xuehong's "27 troops", the Kuomintang army also made the Kuomintang army throw rats and rats, so after the Kuomintang army entered Taichung, it did not retaliate as in other places, which is also a great credit to Lin Xiantang and other conservative gentry to protect the border and the people.
An excerpt from Lin Xiantang's diary in 1948
By March 15, the situation was largely under nationalist military control. Lin Xiantang and other gentry went to Taipei to meet Chen Yi and learned that his old acquaintances Lin Maosheng, Chen Zhong, Ruan Chaori, Wu Jinlian, Lin Lianzong, and Shi Jiangnan had all been executed. Lin told Chen Yi that the February 28 incident was really an accident and asked him to be lenient with the Taiwanese. After the arrest began, the family members who came to ask Lin Xiantang to sign and guarantee his pledge kept saying that their words were so desolate that Lin Xiantang was in a state of "no guarantee". A Japanese soldier of Taiwanese origin was arrested after being found in his home in Qingxiang, and he also came to Lin Xiantang to protect him. Lin smiled bitterly, "How can Yu dare to take on this responsibility?" Ruan Chaori's wife, Lin Maosheng's wife, Wu Jinlian's wife, Chen Qi's wife, and Wang Tiandeng's brother also came several times and asked Lin Xiantang to save his family, and asked Lin Xiantang to be a guarantor and intercede. However, even if Lin Xiantang had the art of reaching the heavens, it would be difficult to save these "primary people" who the Kuomintang believed that they would want to get rid of them quickly. However, he was well aware that "people from other provinces do things with affection and despise law and reality", and also tried his best to rescue comrades and relatives and friends who were arrested, and many people were released or commuted through his guarantee. Another important job of Lin Xiantang is to support relatives and friends. In his diary, there are often records of righteousness and wealth. He sponsored the provincial officials who were beaten and injured by the people of this province, and he also sponsored the families of the elites of the province who were killed by the Kuomintang, and he also helped to go to the mainland to find friends who had no sichuan resources for work.
Actively run and strive to clean up the aftermath
The bloody suppression of 228 has aroused the dissatisfaction of people of insight. Chiang Kai-shek sent Defense Minister Bai Chongxi to Taiwan to "announce the aftermath." Bai Chongxi ran to the island, listened carefully to the voices of the Taiwanese, and saved the lives of many innocent people. On March 17, Bai Chongxi met with Lin Xiantang, who stated what he believed was the reason for the outbreak of February 28: 1. Retaliation for the abuse of returning military dependents (i.e., Taiwanese Japanese soldiers) at home; 2. Youth unemployment and high prices; 3. "ambitionists" instigated from it; 4. Students were innocent and easy to tempt; 5. Corrupt officials were disliked by the people, and asked Bai Chongxi for leniency. This characterization still points to the improper administration of Chen Yi Provincial Government. The next day, Lin Xiantang again attended Bai Chongxi's reception to review the factors of the outbreak of the 228 incident from the perspective of the social character of the Taiwanese people. He said, "Taiwan is oppressed by Japan and assimilated education, and most of the young people have become acute and shallow, unable to understand the country, so this move is made." The countermeasure he proposed was to strengthen the national education of the Taiwanese people, "from now on, we must make efforts to educate them, so that there must be no mutual hatred for the real people."
At this time, Lin Xiantang was still worried about his friends whose lives and deaths were unknown after their arrest, thinking about seeing when it was appropriate, and asked Bai Chongxi for bail. "Lin Maosheng, Lin Lianzong, Chen Qi, Ruan Chaori, Wu Jinlian... I don't know what the fate of him and others will be", but most of them have already died in Huangquan. Although there have been many rumors that they have been shot, they have not yet been confirmed. At the end of April, he asked Ke Yuanfen about Lin Maosheng and others, and Ke replied, "There is no such case." In early May, he again asked the Security Command for confirmation, replying that "there is no such person among the detainees". Lin Xiantang finally understood, "Oh! They are dead! ”。 The grief and indignation are beyond words. Yet the families of the victims still lean on the door and still do not believe that this is the truth. Wu Jinlian and Shi Jiangnan's wife continued to run to Lin Xiantang and ask for a seal for her husband. Lin Xiantang informed Wu Jinlian's wife of this news, "Ru can despair of Rufu's life"; Shi Jiangnan's wife still did not want to believe it, and Lin Xiantang had no choice but to seal it again as a guarantee. Lin Maosheng's wife said more tenaciously: "If you die, you must ask why you died!" Lin Xiantang actively ran to the authorities and officials, tried to reduce the unjust, false and wrong cases and the losses of the people in the aftermath, and became a communicator between the government and the people of Taiwan.
The evil consequences of the 228 incident were so numerous that the masses pointed to Chen Yi, who was improperly governed, and the National Government, in response to the anger of all parties, transferred him away. On May 6, Lin Xiantang delivered a farewell speech as a representative when attending Chen Yi's farewell banquet in Taipei. He affirmed Chen Yi's three-fold doctrine of "not lying, not taking a nap, and not picking up oil, and praised him for his three merits in Taiwan: first, maintaining the Taiwan dollar system; second, deporting Japanese prisoners; and third, setting up a public opinion organization. An independent monetary system could keep the mainland's chaotic economic system from invading Taiwan, and the repatriation of Japanese prisoners was also very effective; although Chen Yi had, she was indeed a clean and diligent government. However, the words did not go through. Back at home, Lin Xiantang wrote down his greatest dissatisfaction with Chen Yi in his diary: "The people are anxious to rule, the February 28 incident is not a rebel central committee, because of the demand to get off the line and misunderstood, please follow the instructions ..." In his view, Chen Yi's characterization of the "228 Incident" led to a bloody suppression of the Taiwanese, and Chen Yi could not escape the blame.
On May 19th, Lin Xiantang was invited to the Taiwan Training Group to give a speech to the students. In his speech, he again talked about the reasons for the occurrence of 228. He said: Compatriots in this province have always cherished the motherland and welcome their restoration. There are three main reasons for the occurrence of 228: 1. political and economic dissatisfaction; 2. youth unemployment and high prices; 3. Mutual contempt between people in this province and people from other provinces, coupled with language barriers. He called on young people to cultivate a patriotic heart, a sense of responsibility, and an open mind, and not to make preconceived judgments, so as to cultivate themselves and govern peace.
After Chen Yi left, Wei Daoming took over as chairman of Taiwan's provincial government, and restoring the Taiwan people's confidence in the central authorities was indeed the most important task. Wei Daoming explicitly opposed the idea that "compatriots in Taiwan Province were too deeply educated by Japanese enslavement" and proposed that the government and the people cooperate, which won the favor of Lin Xiantang. When discussing the aftermath policy, Lin Xiantang made seven suggestions to Wei Daoming, one of which was to release the detainees of the 228 incident as soon as possible. He suggested that the government should be resolved as soon as possible if there is a crime and innocence in the 228 incident, and that even missing persons such as Lin Maosheng and Chen Qi, the results of which should be announced.
Avoid Japan, avoid right and wrong
In the 228 incident, Lin Xiantang saw that his friends were killed, imprisoned, and exiled, and his heart was inevitably terrified, and his future for Taiwan's politics was even bleaker. In 1949, the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan. Under the presidency of Chen Cheng, chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government, Taiwan adopted the "Measures for the Leasing of Private Arable Land in Taiwan Province" and began to implement a rent reduction in the 375th Five-Year Plan, that is, the land rent should be capped at 37.5 percent, and if the harvest fails, it should be lowered, etc. In addition, there are many policies to protect the interests of tenant farmers and restrict landlords. The Wufeng Lin family is a local magnate who controls a large amount of land in Central Taiwan and belongs to a real landlord. The introduction of this policy is the most direct blow to the Lin family. Lin Xiantang felt more and more unfavorable to the political environment, and finally on the eve of the curtain of white terror, he left Taiwan, a place of right and wrong, in the name of medical treatment, and avoided Japan until his death.
Hayashi Kendo during the day (right)
Lin Xiantang lived through the rule of the Qing government, the Japanese colonial authorities and the Kuomintang government in his lifetime, and his mental journey is also a typical portrayal of Taiwan's elite intellectuals. In 1936, Mr. Lin Xiantang visited the mainland and called China the "motherland" in his speech, which caused the Japanese ronin to beat him. In order to escape persecution by the Governor's Office in Taiwan, Lin Xiantang avoided Japan for three years. Lin Xiantang devoted his life to the pursuit of equal status for the Han compatriots in Taiwan, and the word Zhonghua was pronounced here, and for this reason he was jealous of the Japanese colonial authorities, but he always avoided Japan when he was most in danger in his life. This cannot but be said to be a kind of historical paradox.
From the performance of Lin Xiantang and other Taiwan gentry, it can be seen that the February 28 incident was mainly the result of the Taiwan people's pursuit of fine politics, calling for internal reform, and mainly pursuing autonomy under the "Constitution", which is also a natural continuation of the Taiwan national and civil rights movement after the restoration of the Japanese occupation period. Although some "Taiwan independence" elements rushed to the incident, they were really a minority and failed to exert an impact on the people of Taiwan. Even the ideals of the left-wing Taiwan Communist Party Xie Xuehong and others emphasize more anti-Chiang Than "anti-China."
Since the establishment of Taiwan's "228 Incident Memorial Foundation" in 1995, until August 2015, the association has approved 684 cases of victim deaths, 178 cases of disappearance, and 1426 other cases such as imprisonment and injury. In February 2016, even the family of a Japanese missing person was compensated. This figure also shows from the side that the victims of the Taiwan people in the 228 incident are not as exaggerated as the contemporary "Taiwan independence" elements have exaggerated.
(Thanks to Ms. Zhang Yufen of National Chengchi University in Taiwan for her help)
bibliography:
(1) Zhengqi Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1947.
(2) He Yilin, "The Dangerous State Does Not Enter, the Chaotic State Does Not Live: Mr. Lin Xiantang's Political Participation and Retirement in the Midst of World Changes", Taiwan Literature, Vol. 50, No. 4, December 1999.
(3) Lin Xiantang, Xu Xueji, editor-in-chief: The Diary of Mr. Guanyuan 19 (1947), Taipei: Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica, 2001.
(4) Xu Xueji, "Lin Xiantang in the 228 Incident", in Taiwan History and Figures in the 20th Century: A Collection of Essays on the History of the Sixth Republic of China, Taipei, 2002.