East Lake, Wuhan
Suppose a foreigner consults: Where is the preferred attraction to go to Wuhan? Wuhan locals usually recommend: Go to the East Lake.
East Lake, the largest urban lake in China, has a total area of 82 square kilometers. It is the lake that Mao Zedong loved all his life, and it is also the place where countless celebrities have left ink on their poems.
As early as 2,000 years ago, the patriotic poet Qu Yuan sang here: "Climb the tomb to look far away, and talk about Shu Wu's worries." More than 2,000 years later, a Pavilion of The Pavilion and a Pavilion of Canglang were placed on the shore of the lake and became the memorial place of Qu Yuan.
Li Bai, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, let his thoughts fly in the East Lake and left behind "Watching and Releasing the White Eagle": "In the cold winter of December, the goshawks are eight or nine hairs, and the birds and birds are not in harmony, and they have their own clouds and clouds." Today, there is an eagle platform on the shore of Fruit Lake.
Later, the Southern Song Dynasty poet Yuan Shuyou even compared the East Lake with the West Lake: "Only say that the West Lake is in the imperial capital, and Wuchangxin also says East Lake." Sixty miles of smoke and waves, several teams of jackdaws and thousands of chicks. Wild trees cover the geese, and fishing boats dotted off the flying crows. How not to make a qiantang scenery, but to make a picture in Jiangcheng. ”
After the founding of New China, Comrade Zhu De wrote such a poem: "East Lake temporarily let West Lake be good, and it will be stronger than West Lake in the future." The praised East Lake can become what it is now, condensing the wisdom and efforts of generations. In the middle, there is a little-known story, and the protagonist of the story is the original owner of East Lake.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" >01 Red Financier</h1>
The predecessor of the East Lake Scenic Area, called "Haiguang Farm", belongs to the private garden. The garden builder is called Zhou Cangbai, a "red businessman".
In 1888, Zhou Cangbai was born in Wuhan into an industrial and commercial family. The Zhou Hengshun Machine Factory, founded by the Zhou family, is the longest private machine factory in history and the first factory in Wuhan Machine Manufacturing Industry. The large incense burner in the Guiyuan Temple in Wuhan was cast in the factory. Zhou Cangbai's father, Zhou Yunxuan, was favored by Zhang Zhidong because of his outstanding achievements in running the commercial bank "Dingfu Foreign Firm" and served as the chairman of Hankou Electric Appliance Company.
Growing up in a wealthy merchant family, Zhou Cangbai received a good education. He first studied at Wuchang Tan Hua Lin Wenhua College, a church school with a large number of foreign progressive publications. Zhou Cangbai was a regular visitor to the reading room, so he received new ideas.
In 1901, the Qing government signed the "Xinugu Treaty" that lost power and humiliated the country, and the news reached Zhou Cangbai's ear, and the hot-blooded teenager who swore to fight for the salvation of the country immediately chose to join the revolution and joined the Japanese Notice Society set up in the reading room.
Zhou Cangbai
The Rizhihui is an organization with the same name as the League, and Zhou Cangbai met a group of aspiring young people here. Later, due to the denunciation of traitors, the secret activities of the Nichiren Association came to an abrupt end. Zhou Cangbai had to flee to Shanghai and enter Shanghai Nanyang Public School.
After graduation, Zhou Cangbai went to the United States under the sponsorship of his brother Zhou Caobai and entered the Department of Economics of New York University for further study. In his study abroad life, his biggest feeling is that China has no status in the world, and Europeans and Americans are full of discrimination against Chinese. His heart could no longer be at peace, and he set a lofty ideal of industry to save the country.
In 1917, Zhou Cangbai obtained a bachelor's degree in commerce, and when he returned from his studies, he found that his motherland was already devastated.
Promoted by his predecessor Chen Guangfu, Zhou Cangbai began to emerge in Shanghai's financial circles. He first worked as an accountant at the head office of the Shanghai Commercial Bank, then returned to his hometown and took over the responsibility of vice president of the Hankou branch of the Bank of Shanghai.
The bank building was located on Qinsheng Road, which is today's Jianghan Road. When Zhou Cangbai returned to Han in 1919, the family lived in Lihuangpi Road, Hankou, and now the Western-style buildings with door numbers "Huangpi Village No. 5" and "Huangpi Village No. 6" are the "Zhou Mansion" of that year.
After entering the Hankou branch, zhou Cangbai's modern banking management knowledge learned in the United States immediately came in handy. A group of young talents have grown up, adding fresh blood to China's financial industry, and many of them have become the backbone of the local banking system. Zhou Cangbai also became the president of the Hankou branch in 1926 with excellent ability.
At that time, the Comintern planned to send 400,000 yuan to the Chinese Communist Party, but many domestic banks did not dare to accept it. At this critical juncture, Dong Biwu, head of the Hubei party organization, found Zhou Cangbai and hoped that he could help solve the problem. Zhou Cangbai did not hesitate to agree, and he took the risk of remitting this huge amount of money to the United States, and then dividing it into multiple accounts and remitting it to the Hankou branch of the Bank of Shanghai, and finally 400,000 yuan was safely transferred to the hands of the CCP organization.
Wu Peifu
However, there was no impermeable wall in the world, the Beiyang warlord government soon learned of this matter, Wu Peifu sent someone to arrest Zhou Cangbai, plainclothes entered the door, saw Zhou Cangbai's wife Dong Yanliang in the living room, they asked in a menacing manner: "Is Governor Zhou at home?" Dong Yanliang's heart tightened, knowing that the comers were not good.
Just at this time, Zhou Cangbai came down from the second floor, and Dong Yanliang said in a hurry: "These two guests came to find Governor Zhou, is he at home today?" Zhou Cangbai immediately understood and replied, "He went out very early." Plainclothes were really deceived, disappointed, and the Zhou family escaped a disaster.
At the end of 1926, the National Government of Wuhan was established, and the troops of the Beiyang warlords were like birds of fright, scrambling to withdraw cash from the bank and fleeing in a hurry. The abolition of old currency, the loss of official bills, the closure of factories, the closure of merchants, and the face of a run, many banks have to choose to close their doors. The Hankou branch, where Zhou Cangbai is located, declared to the outside world at this time: Resolutely protect the interests of depositors, and the previous deposits can be redeemed according to the current foreign. For a time, the reputation of the Hankou branch was greatly enhanced, people came to deposit, the volume of banking business surged, and Zhou Cangbai became famous in one fell swoop.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="44" >02 The past life of East Lake</h1>
Although he helped the government stabilize the overall situation, Zhou Cangbai's heart did not have the slightest joy. He saw the decay and degeneration of the privileged classes in old China, and he was even more distressed by the sluggish state of the Chinese people, where people were addicted to gambling and opium everywhere, and the whole society was shrouded in a layer of gloom.
After careful consideration, Zhou Cangbai had a bold idea: to build a place for citizens to exercise and recuperate, leisure and entertainment, and reverse the current bad atmosphere.
At a glance, he caught a glimpse of the East Lake, which is overgrown with weeds, but the scenery is beautiful and very suitable for development and utilization. And in Zhou Cangbai's view, East Lake is not just a lake, it is pure atmosphere, vast as the sea, so it has the name of "Haiguang Farm".
After careful preparation, the project was officially launched in 1929. The construction personnel connected small wastelands into pieces, covering an area of more than 600 mu, and successively built agricultural experimental fields, nurseries, fruit forest areas, breeding farms, zoos, and fish ponds.
Yang Xiandong, who was the director of the cotton industry test site in Hubei Province at the time, heard about the construction of the park and was extremely moved, and directly gave up Moshan free of charge. Some progressive merchants followed suit, transferring their ownership of the East Lake plot to Zhou Cangbai. The scale of Haiguang Farm continued to expand, eventually reaching 2,000 acres.
On every rest day, Zhou Cangbai would bring his wife and daughter to help cut the grass and open the land, plant trees and flowers. He also invited his father to write an inscription for the "Haiguang Agricultural Garden", and the cement arch that now holds the inscription is located in the East Lake Tingtao Scenic Area.
Before and after the whole project, Zhou Cangbai invested 300,000 silver dollars, which can be described as pouring out his family wealth. In order to save money, he cut down on food and clothing, eating only one fritter and a bowl of thin porridge for breakfast every day, and an old Zhongshan suit full of patches. In order to realize the self-financing of Haiguang Farm, Zhou Cangbai managed to develop special products such as salted duck eggs, honey, and mosquito coils, and also built a rice mill.
After the completion of the park, Zhou Cangbai officially announced: Haiguang Farm does not charge tickets and is open to the outside world free of charge. Hearing this news, the citizens were excited and rushed to visit, where people played and played, walked and exercised, and could also participate in the work and understand the process of agricultural production.
For a time, Haiguang Farm received countless praises and became a poem and a distant place in the minds of Wuhan people. Idealistic rich second generation Zhou Cangbai, finally the dream came true.
Haiguang Agricultural Garden is not only the earliest urban park in Hubei, but also attracts a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists and has become a well-known tourist attraction. Zhou Cangbai's children also spent a wonderful childhood by the East Lake, using this place as their own backyard garden. But my father always reminded them: "The park will not be reserved for you in the future." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="65" >03 The experience of the revolution</h1>
In 1938, the Japanese army invaded, Wuhan fell, and Zhou Cangbai was forced to flee to Chongqing. At the beginning of this year, he had just experienced the pain of losing his son. The second son, Zhou Deyou, the director and violinist, died at the age of 19 because he actively promoted the anti-Japanese resistance and participated in the troupe performances.
Before leaving Han, Zhou Cangbai entrusted the management of The Haiguang Farm to a local friend. Five years later, the Japanese forcibly occupied the Haiguang Farm, destroying its buildings, farmland, orchards, and entertainment facilities, and killing the animals in the zoo. Zhou Cangbai was shocked to hear the bad news and was sad and indignant.
While in Chongqing, Zhou Cangbai worked for the Sino-US joint venture revival company, and the author of the Yellow River Chorus, Guang Weiran, was helped by Zhou Cangbai to evade the pursuit of secret agents. Zhou Cangbai secretly took Guang Weiran out of Chongqing through a special transport vehicle for the bank. Since then, Zhou Cangbai has helped many Communists escape from danger in the same way, and the Zhou family has become a temporary refuge for underground party members to eat and live for free.
In order to support the anti-Japanese movement of the whole nation, Zhou Cangbai generously donated money, he donated 3,000 yuan to the "Tangchi Training Class" in Yingcheng, Hubei Province, undertook the living expenses of Ye Ting during his time in Enshi, contributed hundreds of taels of gold in support of the New Fourth Army, and even provided some arms for the troops. The patriotic fervor of this democrat tied him to the revolution.
When the Anti-Japanese War was victorious, Zhou Cangbai immediately returned to Wuhan, the family was reunited, looking at the once glorious Haiguang Farm, which was now a ruin, Zhou Cangbai was not discouraged and made up his mind to rebuild. After several years of hard work, the park has recovered most of its vitality. Although it is not as large as it was then, the charm of Haiguang Farm is still there, and tourists come from all over the world, which makes Zhou Cangbai feel very pleased.
While serving as director of the Hubei Branch of the General Administration of Rehabilitation and Relief of the Kuomintang government, Zhou Cangbai received a plea for help from his old friends Dong Biwu and Wang Zhen, who hoped that he would provide material assistance to the troops of the Central Plains Military Region. Zhou Cangbai did not say a word, and immediately in the name of disaster relief, personally followed more than a dozen truckloads of goods through the two blockade lines of the Kuomintang and reached the location of the troops.
When more than 1,000 tons of flour were safely put into storage, a US reporter asked: "Why did Mr. Zhou receive the Communists?" Zhou Cangbai replied rhetorically: "Relief materials come from the people, and communists are also the people, regardless of party as long as there are difficulties, they should be helped." The reporter was immediately dumbfounded.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="80" >04 The present life of East Lake</h1>
One day in May 1949, Deng Zihui, Tao Zhu, Tan Zheng, Li Xiannian and others came to Haiguang Agricultural Garden to visit Zhou Cangbai, who was living here. Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was visiting the beautiful scenery, Zhou Cangbai took the initiative to donate the Haiguang Agricultural Garden to the country free of charge. In September of the same year, Haiguang Farm was officially nationalized.
At the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, Zhou Cangbai and his wife Dong Yanliang were invited to climb the Tiananmen Tower and witness the rise of the five-star red flag with thousands of people. And the Haiguang Farm, which he spent his life building, is the best gift to the motherland.
With the approval of the central government, Haiguang Farm was renamed "East Lake Park", and the central area of the original Haiguang Farm was converted into East Lake Hotel, and the small Western-style building where Zhou Cangbai's family lived every day was compiled as Meiling No. 1. This park, which was built in the old days, has ushered in a new life on the land of New China.
Zhou Cangbai's practice of selflessly returning wealth to the people was affirmed by all parties, and Zhou Enlai praised him as a "great industrialist", which made Zhou Cangbai the "father of the East Lake".
Since then, East Lake Park has been renamed "East Lake Scenic Area", the East Lake Construction Committee has been established, zhou Cangbai has served as the vice chairman of the committee, and he has continued to make contributions within his reach, and he has also put forward the earliest suggestions for fish farming in East Lake.
The East Lake Scenic Area has gradually expanded its scale, and attractions such as Tingtao Scenic Area, Xingyin Pavilion, Changtian Tower, and Nine Women's Pier have been built one after another, spanning more than 70 years, during which they have undergone comprehensive fishing retreat and ecological restoration, which has the appearance of today's East Lake.
In 1959, Zhou Cangbai was appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, so he left Wuhan, where he had lived for many years, to settle in Beijing.
In 1970, when Zhou Cangbai was seriously ill, he was still worried about the East Lake thousands of miles away, and he said to his children: "Quick, quick, I want to get dressed and go to Wuhan for a meeting, they are still waiting for me to discuss the construction of the East Lake." Unfortunately, the old man never returned to the haunted East Lake, closed his eyes forever, and died at the age of 82, and his body was buried in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.
If you walk into the Tingtao Scenic Area of East Lake, you can see a place called "Cangbai Garden", which has a memorial room for Zhou Cangbai and his daughter Zhou Xiaoyan. Deep in the secluded garden, on the verdant lawn, stands a bronze statue of three people, which is carefully created with reference to the photos of Zhou Cangbai and his children's spring travels. The several osmanthus trees next to the statue were planted by Zhou Cangbai himself that year. Being in it, it seems that you can touch the dream of the Zhou family and the two generations of the family.
Opposite the Cangbai Garden, there are Moshan Mountain and Luojia Mountain, the water and sky are colorful, the pavilions are pavilions, the fish and shrimp are flocked, the wild birds are playing, and the former citizen park has now become the green heart of the city.
The past follows the wind, the Slovak people have gone, the pure child's feelings, never perished. If East Lake is a cultural business card of Wuhan, then the red past of the father of East Lake is the most primitive and pure humanistic core here.
References: "The Rise and Fall of the Shanghai - Memories of Greater Wuhan", "Longteng Jianghan: Timeline of the 60 Years of the Liberation of Wuhan", "The New Fourth Army and Wuhan"
Author: Our special guest author Shinobu