On September 6, 1985, Shi Liang died of illness in Beijing at the age of 85.
After handling her funeral, the family began to divide the inheritance. In fact, Shi Liang had donated all his real estate to the state before his death, and all he had left was some personal jewelry.
Everyone took the jewelry for identification, and it turned out that all the rings, brooches, earrings, and necklaces were not real, and they were worth three thousand pieces together.
As the first minister of the Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China, the two-term chairman of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, and a well-known barrister during the Republic of China period, who would have thought that her jewelry was actually fake?
In fact, if you think about it carefully, you may not be surprised.
When the NLD had no office space in Shanghai, Shi Liang directly donated a three-story building with nearly 60 houses to the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the NLD. After liberation, she donated about 10 houses to the state free of charge.
In her mind, money doesn't matter, it's only more valuable if it's put in a more useful place. Those jewels were just for the needs of work and to satisfy her own pursuit of beauty, and as for the real and fake, she didn't care at all.
A noble personality does not need to be reflected by money, and she has a soul that shines brighter than a diamond.
01 Poor family girl to kuo lawyer
In 1900, Shi Liang was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.
Shi Jia was once one of the eight famous doors in Changzhou, and had produced several people and jinshi, but by the time of Shi Liang's father, Shi Gang, he had already declined. Shi Gang was deeply disgusted by the imperial examination system, and was unwilling to enter the examination as an official, only working as a private school, so the family's situation became more and more embarrassing.
Shi Liang did not have the opportunity to go to school until he was 13 years old, and only under the sponsorship of his eldest sister Shi Qun did he enter the Wujin County Women's Normal School.
Shi Liang was talented and hardworking, and she completed all the courses of the five years of primary school in only two years.
"In all my study time, I can really say that I am a student who works hard to read, and the hard work is indescribable, only books are in my heart, and I don't pay attention to anything else."
In 1922, at the age of 22, Shi Liang was sponsored by his friends and was admitted to Shanghai University of Political Science and Law to study law.
The reason why she reads law is that Shi Liang believes that the law can uphold justice and justice, and she hopes to help the people who have been bullied and treated unfairly through the knowledge she has learned.
Because the principal only valued money and did not care about teaching, Shi Liang and many classmates joined forces to fight against the school, and as a result, 4 classmates, including her, were expelled.
So Shi Liang led more than 100 classmates to transfer to the newly established Shanghai Law University and became the proud protégé of President Dong Kang.
In 1927, Shi Liang graduated from university, because the school had not yet been completed in the Ministry of Education, she did not obtain a legal certificate, she could only find a job at the Nanjing Political Staff Training Institute under the General Political Department of the Nanjing National Revolutionary Army at that time.
In 1930, the Ministry of Education of Shanghai Law University completed the case, and Shi Liang finally got a lawyer's certificate and began practicing. She started her own studio. Soon, she became famous for her high professional standards and high efficiency in handling cases, and many commercial capitalists were willing to seek her out for lawsuits.
One of the most famous lawsuits was that she took over the inheritance case of Zhou Chunqing, the "king of land" in Shanghai, and after winning the case, the other party directly paid Shi Liang as a lawyer's fee for the three-story building in nanhai garden and a dozen houses in the lane. It's sky-high!
At that time, Shi Liang's monthly income was almost 1,000 yuan, which was equivalent to the annual income of ordinary people, and he was a complete "gold collar" person.
Shi Liang's work has its own principles, one of which is that there is no charge for the poor to file a lawsuit. She used her expertise to help the poor, to help women, to help the revolutionaries.
But it was also in the process that Shi Liang found that under the bad system, perhaps the law could not play its full role, and she began to think about what she could do to change the system.
02 "Seven Gentlemen" to the Minister of Justice
Shi Liang has never been a little girl who "keeps to herself in peace", let alone a "barrister" who closes her eyes and ignores current affairs, she has always had a deep sense of responsibility for the survival of the country and the nation.
As early as her studies, she was an active member of various student movements, the May Fourth Movement, the May Thirtieth Movement, she rushed to the forefront; after work, she was arrested and imprisoned for opposing the Kuomintang dictatorship, but fortunately Cai Yuanpei and the old principal Dong Kang rescued her.
In prison, Shi Liang witnessed the torture of Communists but unyielding. She was impressed by the noble qualities of the Communists who regarded death as a homecoming and adhered to their faith, and she also hated the brutality of the Kuomintang reactionaries more and more, which became an important reason for her later active participation in the rescue of the Communists.
After practicing law, in addition to serving as an executive member of the Shanghai Lawyers Association, Shi Liang also participated in the "Revolutionary Humanitarian Mutual Aid Association" set up by our party; she fought with her tongue, fought hard in court, participated in many cases of rescuing party members of our party, rescued political prisoner Ren Baige, He Long's relative Xiang Yuangu, and Shi Yi (pseudonym of CPC leader Deng Zhongxia), thus angering Chiang Kai-shek.
In an article in memory of Shi Liang, it is written:
After our party's comrades Deng Zhongxia, Ren Baige, and other comrades were illegally arrested by the Kuomintang reactionaries, she went to great lengths to actively defend and rescue them. At that time, the noble spirit of sharing hardships with our party, cooperating closely, closely related, and fighting heroically was extremely valuable and made people sincerely admire. ”
In 1936, on the eve of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the National Federation for the Salvation of the Nation from all walks of life was established. In order to promote the Kuomintang's resistance to Japan, Shi Liang, together with Shen Junru, Zhang Naiqi, and Sha Qianli, as representatives of the National Salvation Congress, went to Nanjing to petition and actively participated in the propaganda activities of resisting Japan and saving the dead.
On July 15, 1936, Shi Liang, Shen Junru and others jointly published "Basic Conditions and Minimum Requirements for Unity and Imperial Insults", echoing the CPC's proposition on stopping the civil war and forming an anti-Japanese national united front, and demanding that the Kuomintang stop suppressing the Communists.
On November 23, the Nanjing Nationalist Government arrested and imprisoned Shen Junru, Zhang Naiqi, Zou Taofen, Shi Liang, Li Gongpu, Wang Zaoshi, Sha Qianli, and seven other well-known anti-Japanese democrats in Shanghai for the crime of "endangering the Republic of China." This is the "Seven Gentlemen Incident" that shocked China and foreign countries.
The incident provoked public outrage. The Communist Party of China and progressives at home and abroad actively rescued them, and it was not until after the July 7 Incident that the Nationalist government in Nanjing was pressured to release the seven of them.
This time in prison, Shi Liang felt very deeply again, she was more aware of the corruption of the Kuomintang, aware of the importance of close cooperation between the various parties, and in the decades since, she has maintained close cooperation and friendly relations with the Communist Party as a democratic party.
Deng Yingchao once commented on her:
"With his own image, Shi Liang has set an example of 'long-term coexistence, mutual supervision, treating each other with all sincerity, and sharing weal and woe,' and is worthy of being an old friend of the Communist Party, a glorious patriotic democratic fighter, and an outstanding female revolutionary in China."
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Shi Liang served as a suffragan member of the National Committee of Political Participation, and she was the only woman in the constitutional period of the National Committee of The People's Political Participation, and waged an unremitting struggle to demand that the Kuomintang government implement democracy and protect women's rights.
In 1941, the Chinese Democratic Political League was established, and in 1942, Shi Liang joined the China Democratic Political League with the National Salvation Congress, and later reorganized into the China Democratic League.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Shi Liang served as the executive director of the Wartime Child Care Association, opened a nursery school, and took in and cared for more than 20,000 children.
During the Liberation War, Shi Liang also actively participated in the struggle against dictatorship, civil war, democracy, and peace.
She fought for the whole country and the nation.
After the founding of New China, Shi Liang was invited to participate in the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China. He also served as the first minister of justice of New China and a member of the Political and Legal Committee of the State Council.
Shi Liang devoted his greatest efforts to the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China. On May 1, 1950, the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China was promulgated, which was the first law in New China.
The Marriage Law abolished feudal marriage systems such as arranged coercion and male superiority over female inferiority. Freedom of marriage, equality between men and women, monogamy. Chinese women can have all kinds of rights today, and Shi Liang's contribution is indispensable.
03 Swing the sword to cut the ambiguous and enduring marriage
Shi Liang is a person who loves beauty.
Due to the needs of her work, she often wears a skirt and jewelry, which is very elegant and decent. She went to Zhang Bojun's house to see that the flowers were blooming just right, and she would also pin them in the buttons.
Zhang Bojun's daughter Zhang Yihe sighed:
"Shi Liang looks beautiful, loves beauty, and understands beauty." The sum of these three 'beauties' makes her different wherever she goes and wherever she comes."
Such a beautiful and intelligent woman has also encountered Waterloo emotionally.
Shi Liang once had an affair with the great talent Luo Longji, and the relationship between the two was about to come out, and the love letter was a big stack. It is said that when Shi Liang was later asked about the relationship, she also confessed, "I love him." ”
It is said that this relationship came to an abrupt end with the arrival of female journalist Pu Xixiu. Pu Xixiu has a good face and outstanding temperament. Luo Longji immediately turned the bow of the ship to offer his courtesy to Pu Xixiu. The clever Shi Liang quickly perceived the ambiguity between them, so he immediately chose to quit and end this "crowded" relationship.
Although Shi Liang's adopted daughter later denied this fact and also considered using legal means to clarify the facts, she did not put it into action in the end, making this history more and more confusing.
No matter how much you love someone, you can't become humble and become vague for him. Shi Liang had the courage to swing his sword and slash his emotions.
Fortunately, fate did not treat such a strong and brave woman badly, and she soon met her lifelong partner.
Lu Diandong, a native of Wujiang, Jiangsu Province, studied law at Harvard in the United States, fluent in French and English, and later worked as a translator in the French Concession Patrol House.
They met at work, and soon found that the two people were very tacit and well coordinated.
Lu Diandong was responsible for communicating and providing information on the arrest of political prisoners, while Shi Liang gave advance notice to these people to evacuate as soon as possible or defended them in court.
Not only are they like-minded, they are all in common affliction.
After the outbreak of the "Seven Gentlemen Incident", Shi Liang was imprisoned, and Lu Diandong did not leave Shi Liang to avoid disaster, he also helped outside, bent on rescuing Shi Liang.
After Shi Liang was released from prison in 1937, under the witness of Song Qingling, the two married Qin jin.
Lu Diandong is younger than Shi Liang, so they belong to the "sister-brother love". Shi Liang is a strong woman at work, and her personality is lively and straightforward, Lu Diandong has a gentle personality, gentle and considerate, and he takes care of Shi Liang so much that even the ability to take care of himself in life is almost gone.
Everyone was together in the soft sleeping car of the train. Lu Diandong came and went, serving tea, pouring water, lifting slippers, and sending snacks. After lunch, Shi Liang said to take a nap. Lu Diandong then took out his pajamas and nightcaps, as well as the curtains he carried with him, to arrange a peaceful sleeping environment for Shi Liang, and then folded her clothes.
Shi Liang took a nap inside, and Lu Diandong stood in the aisle, looking at the scenery outside the window, silently guarding his sleeping wife. Lu Diandong was ashamed of Shi Liang and made all the men ashamed, and also made all the women secretly envious.
If there is no predecessor's riding wall, how can there be a later match made in heaven?
Shi Liang also has great respect for her husband, and when she went out, someone asked her to take a picture with her, but she shook her head and said that in private activities, her husband should be present. Without him or with him but not invited, she alone would not be photographed with anyone.
Staying together is a lifetime, and in January 1976, Zhou Enlai died. At the memorial meeting of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Lu Diandong was in excessive mourning and suddenly abandoned the world with cerebral hemorrhage.
The 76-year-old Shi Liang was stripped of the pillar of life, she was immersed in grief and nostalgia, often weeping for no reason, she left her husband's room, everything, intact. Every day, I meditate in front of the statue for an hour or two. At that time, she wore a black veil for every activity she participated in and kept filial piety for her husband for three years.
Maybe God is jealous of such a warm and lasting love.
epilogue
Now everyone will mention the "big heroine", what is the real big heroine?
I think the answer can be obtained from Shi Liang.
Noble moral character, putting the fate of the country and the nation in the first place;
Have independent thoughts, open horizons, do not covet vanity, are not enslaved by desire;
Self-reliant, diligent and hardworking, relying on themselves to create a world;
Treat love, love is brave enough, and when you leave, you don't drag mud and water;
Independent and confident at work, you can also be a bird in front of your lover.
I hope that women can become the real "big heroine".