In China's modern history, Hunan was a place of great talent, giving birth to many politicians, military experts and writers, including the famous revolutionary educator Zhu Jianfan.
Zhu Jianfan, formerly known as Zhou Jiachun, was born into a family of eunuchs in Ningxiang, Changsha, Hunan Province. His father, Zhou Dawu, was a soldier under Zuo Zongtang. Because of his bravery and good fighting, he was reused by the imperial court and successively served as a company commander, a Sichuan Taishou, and a Gansu Taishou.
According to the Zhou family tree, Zhou's real name is Zhu, and his ancestor is Zhu Jianjun, the son of Ming Yingzong. During the reign of Emperor Yingzong of Ming, Zhu Jianjun was called King Ji and his fief was in Changsha, Hunan. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Empress Ji added the word "Ji" to avoid the pursuit of the Qing army, changed her surname to Zhou, and lived in seclusion in Changshaning Township. For Zhou Jiachun's generation, this is Zhu Yuanzhang's 27th grandson.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Zhou Jiachun changed his surname to Zhu and took the name Zhu Jianfan. Although Zhu Jianfan was born in a feudal bureaucratic family, he did not have any playboy style. He studied hard from an early age, studied in Japan, got to know Huang Xing and other revolutionaries, and accepted the ideas of democratic revolution.
After returning from studying in Japan, Zhu Jianfan taught at the normal school in his hometown. Faced with the backward educational situation in China at that time and the atmosphere of preferring sons to daughters, Zhu Jianfan began to advocate the establishment of girls' schools. Because of Zhu Jianfan's practice of opening girls' schools, the Qing government repeatedly banned and blocked girls' schools.
But Zhu Jianfan did not give up. He opened a girls' school in his garden and sold his family's property to maintain the cost of the school, which was only for school-age girls. At the time, the school was known as the "Southern State Academy". In the years since, girls' schools have continued to expand. For this reason, Zhu Jianfan sold most of his family's house and property, and the money he earned was subsidized to the school he opened.
For more than a decade, Zhu Jianfan has studied under his teachers and not hesitated to sell his property, which has won the appreciation of the broad masses of the people and patriotic compatriots. Nankai School has also trained a number of outstanding female students, such as the famous revolutionary martyrs Xiang Jingyu and Yang Kaihui.
After the founding of the Republic of China, he served as the president of Changsha First Women's Normal College and the president of Changsha Normal School, setting an example for the educational circles in Hunan Province.
In the 1920s, he represented the Hunan education community in Beijing for a conference. At that time, Prime Minister Fan Yuanlian valued his contribution to modern education and wanted to ask him to be the chief education officer, but was refused. In his view, education is the foundation of national rejuvenation, and has nothing to do with fame and fortune.
In fact, Zhu Jianfan is not only concerned about education, but also about the revolution. In 1923, when he heard that Mr. Sun Wen was going to launch a revolution in Guangzhou, he went to help Mr. Sun Wen prepare for the Northern Expedition. After the Northern Expedition, he returned to Hunan and served as the director and mayor of Changsha City Public Security Bureau.
In terms of life, Zhu Jianfan set strict demands on himself and resolutely opposed the idea of "noble women first, three wives and four concubines" in the old feudal thinking. At the age of 17, he married Wei Xiangruo, the daughter of Wei Guangtao, the governor of Liangjiang. According to the official regulations of the time, when he got married, his family gave him his daughter's concubines, but they were all sent home by him, and he gave birth to only one wife in his lifetime.
In this regard, he once said: "I want equality between men and women, and I want women to be liberated." How can I marry three more wives and four concubines?"
Abstract As a famous educator in modern times, Zhu Jianfan has a unique vision in educating his children and supporting them to participate in the revolution, especially the communist revolution. With his support, his eldest son, daughter-in-law, and third daughter all joined the Communist Party and made outstanding contributions to the Chinese revolution.
The third daughter, Zhu Zhongzhi, graduated from Nanjing Jinling Girls' School, joined the Communist Youth League in 1926 and became a revolutionary cadre of our party. In 1926, I met Xiao Jinguang in Wuhan, a young general who had just joined the Northern Expedition. They fell in love at first sight and got married after a period of contact. After the founding of New China, Xiao Jinguang was awarded the rank of general.
In addition to his three sons-in-law, Zhu Jianfan also had a more powerful son-in-law, that is, Wang Jiaxiang, former head of the General Political Department of the Red Army. Zhu Zhongzhong is zhu Jianfan's younger daughter. Influenced by her father, she joined the revolution at the age of 15. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, she came to Yan'an, the holy land of revolution, and was cordially received by the chairman.
Speaking of his father, the chairman said sadly: "Your father is the pride of Hunan, but he died too early, otherwise he could have been our minister of education."
During his stay in Yan'an, Zhu Zhongli met Wang Jiaxiang and eventually entered the palace of marriage.
In the history of the Chinese revolution, Wang Jiaxiang has a very high status. This was his "key vote" in the Long March of the Red Army at the Zunyi Conference, enabling the Chairman's correct thinking and policies to be implemented. It can be said that the Party and the Red Army were saved at a critical juncture. After that, he formed a military command team with the chairman and three other people, leading the Red Army to victory in the Long March.
After the founding of New China, Wang Jiaxiang served as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, and died in Beijing in 1974 due to illness.