On August 3, according to the WeChat public account of the Tsinghua Alumni Association, Comrade Chen Shunyao, the former deputy secretary of the party committee of Tsinghua University and the wife of Song Ping, died in Beijing on July 31, 2019, at the age of 102 due to illness.
Met and fell in love with Song Ping at Tsinghua
Chen Shunyao was born in September 1917 in Jinan, Shandong. In September 1936, he was admitted to the Department of Civil Engineering of the School of Engineering of Tsinghua University.
Subsequently, the Outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chen Shunyao studied at Changsha Temporary University, left the school at the end of the year, and went north to yan'an to study. Subsequently, he was assigned to work in the Office of the Eighteenth Group Army in Chongqing under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Communist delegation in Nanjing. It was not until the liberation war broke out that he returned to the northeast liberated areas and engaged in youth movement and education.
At the beginning of 1953, Chen Shunyao returned to Tsinghua for eight years, successively serving as vice provost, assistant to the president, and deputy secretary of the party committee of Tsinghua University.
In 1961, he was transferred to the northwest, and since 1961, he has been the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Gansu Provincial Party Committee. From 1981 to 1988, he served as a member of the editorial board and adviser of the Research Office of the Secretariat of the Central Committee.
Chen Shunyao once recalled his experience in Tsinghua Garden, "I was only three semesters at Tsinghua, but it affected my whole life. ”
Due to the critical situation in the country at that time, she devoted herself to rescue activities. "Japanese imperialism is pressing forward step by step, the Chinese nation has reached the most dangerous time, and I feel that saving the people is the most urgent task, so I, together with many of my classmates, threw myself into the fiery rescue activities in Tsinghua Garden." Chen Shunyao recalled.
At that time, Chen Shunyao and his classmates participated in various report meetings and current affairs seminars to heat up the current situation and the future of the country.
Looking back on the past, she still remembers the bits and pieces she did to resist Japan when she was a student. "We used to sew cotton vests for Suiyuan anti-Japanese soldiers in brightly lit classrooms. We organized the Haiyan Song Group to learn from the Haiyan before the storm and call for resistance against Japan, and the songs of "Songhua On the River" and "Flowers in May" often came out of the great hall. In order to exercise ourselves, we once gathered in the West Mountain Wuliang Hall, climbed up in the middle of the night, sat on the top of the peak and waited for dawn. I also rode my bike along country lanes to teach women's literacy classes, giving my first exposure to the countryside as a student growing up in the city. This period of life inspired me to choose my own path in life. ”
It was also in Tsinghua Garden that Chen Shunyao and Song Ping, who was one level higher than himself, met and loved each other for a lifetime. The two participated in the "12.9" movement.
Born in 1917, Song Ping later served as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and head of the Central Organization Department, and is the oldest living member of the Standing Committee.
According to the official website of Tsinghua University, in recent years, the party secretary and president of Tsinghua University have also made many special trips to visit Song Ping and Chen Shunyao. On September 30, 2016, Qiu Yong and Chen Xu also made a special trip to visit Song Ping and Chen Shunyao at their homes, reported to them the latest situation of the school's reform and development, and conveyed the good wishes of all the teachers and students of the school. The two hundred-year-old seniors embarked on the revolutionary road at Tsinghua University that year, always cared about the construction and development of their alma mater, and hoped that the school would unswervingly follow the path of world-class development with Chinese characteristics, enhance self-confidence, maintain its characteristics, and make new and greater contributions to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Witnessed the process of constitutional discussion and formulation
Chen Shunyao is also a deputy to the First and Third National People's Congress and a member of the Seventh National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
In an interview in 2014, 97-year-old Chen Shunyao recalled his involvement in discussions of the draft constitution.
"I'm 97 years old this year, and many things in the past are slowly forgotten, but there are two historic events that I will never forget."
One of these two events is that on October 1, 1949, the great leader Chairman Mao Zedong stood on the tower of Tiananmen Square and solemnly announced to the world that the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China had been established, and the Chinese people had since stood up. "I was in the northeast at the time, but it was as if I was crowded into the Tiananmen crowd and cheering. Only by experiencing the pain and humiliation of being enslaved by imperialism can we most deeply appreciate the happiness of 'standing up'. ”
"Another thing is that in September 1954, the first session of the National People's Congress was solemnly held in Beijing and formulated the Fundamental Law of the State, which is what we call the 1954 Constitution today. Both events are of landmark significance in the history of the Republic. ”
As a deputy to the First National People's Congress, Chen Shunyao attended the first session of the First National People's Congress. "At this meeting, I discussed the draft constitution with them (npc deputies), which vividly and concretely explained that the working class is the leading class."
Chen Shunyao said: The first session of the first session of the National People's Congress can be said to be a true practice of the party's mass line, whether it is from the election of deputies or from the drafting, discussion, revision, deliberation, and adoption of the draft constitution.
At the time, at the age of 97, she still remembers the situation reported on the draft constitution. On September 15, 1954, on the opening day of the first session of the First National People's Congress, Liu Shaoqi made a report on the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (Draft) on behalf of the Constitution Drafting Committee. The report took more than 3 hours, and delegates frequently applauded the report. ”
"On September 20, all the delegates voted by secret ballot to adopt the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, and every one of us present was extremely excited."
Helping out-of-school, underprivileged children
"Political Affairs" noted that Song Ping and Chen Shunyao were concerned about education issues and had repeatedly helped out-of-school children and poor children.
In 1994, Song Ping and Chen Shunyao, through the Central Hope Project Headquarters, sponsored three primary school students in Wangjia Village, Slate Township, Shanyang County, Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province. In August of the following year, the couple sent a letter to the Hope Project Office in Shanyang County, Shaanxi Province, sending 1,600 yuan to help the four children return to school.
Song Ping once went to Sichuan after retirement, and the local leader in charge of the reception advised him to go to Jiuzhaigou, and it was difficult to make sense. The next day, the plane was ready to take off, but he sat on the couch and couldn't get up, saying, "Ah, go to Jiuzhaigou?" Let me ask you a question first, how much oil does the plane use to fly to Jiuzhaigou? How much does it cost? How many Hope Primary Schools can be built with this money? "In the end, the trip didn't work.
According to reports, in October 2015, Song Ping and Chen Shunyao met and talked with several "post-90s" volunteer teachers in "Beautiful China" at their home.
Regarding the current situation of rural education, Song Ping stressed the importance of rural issues, "China's urban and rural areas are very different, and rural areas are the largest part of china's masses and society. He also pointed out the focus that needs to be paid to at present, "understanding the countryside, farmers and their needs" and "left-behind children are now a big thing." ”
"Political Affairs" (WeChat ID: xjbzse) Written by Wang Jun Proofreader Liu Baoqing