Some time ago, the TV series "The Age of Awakening" vividly showed the spirit of china's intellectuals in the 20s and 30s of the last century, in order to pursue the truth and explore the road to saving the country and the people, and their noble character and personality charm were awe-inspiring.
The author's father, Liu Kanyuan, was a member of the upsurge of saving the country and saving the people at that time, he met Li Dazhao during his stay in Japan, and then experienced the ups and downs of the revolution, came to Beijing to teach in the 1930s, transmitted the idea of saving the country and saving the people to young students, and translated progressive books, which had a very close relationship with underground PARTY members. Although he was not a member of the Communist Party, when the nation was in danger, he resolutely threw himself into the revolution and contributed his strength to the cause of the revolution.
In 1984, the author and Liu Kanyuan were in Xuanwu Lake, Nanjing
Li Dazhao wrote a letter recommending him to the Whampoa Military Academy
In December 1893, Liu Kanyuan was born in Meitianqiao, Liling County, Hunan. In 1901, at the age of 8, Liu Kanyuan began to study the "Four Books and Five Classics" with his father, Liu Ruolai. In 1904, 10-year-old Liu Kanyuan participated in the imperial examination and was selected as a "tribute", so he was known as a "prodigy". After that, he studied railway architecture at the "Hunan Higher Industrial School" in Changsha.
In his youth, Liu Kanyuan was deeply influenced by his eldest brother Liu Youyuan. Liu Youyuan (1877-1940), alias Liu Yan, studied with his father at an early age. In 1902, the county won the first place, and he and his father were in the same department, which became a good story for a while. Liu Yan was later funded by the prefectural government to study at Waseda University in Japan. After graduating in 1911, Liu Yan joined the League, and after returning to China, he served as a senator of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, a member of the National Assembly, and the director of the Administrative Department of the Guangzhou Protector Military Government. In 1925, Liu Yan was elected chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.
During his study in Japan, Liu Yan concentrated on collecting materials and compiled books such as "History of Chinese Diplomacy in the Last Thirty Years", "History of Sino-Japanese War During the European War", and "History of China's Diplomacy in Recent Times". These books are rich in content and clear in thinking, and vividly criticize the aggressors' cruel plunder of China and the incompetence and ignorance of the Qing government.
These books were printed in Japan and carried back by Liu Yan, and once they were distributed, they became famous in the government and the public. In 1926, Liu Yan supplemented the book, expanded its length, and renamed it "History of Imperialist Oppression of China", which was distributed nationwide. The bookstore in Wuhan alone sold more than 4,000 copies in three days.
This book also had a profound impact on Liu Yan's fifth brother Liu Kanyuan and sixth brother Liu Yanyuan: Liu Kanyuan had read the relevant content written by Liu Yan as early as 1911, which was deeply inspired and laid the ideological foundation for him to devote himself to the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle. Liu Read the book in middle school and has since thrown himself into the struggle against Japan and the civil war.
In addition to ideological enlightenment, Liu Yan also helped Liu Kanyuan to plunge into the torrent of revolution through actions. In July 1913, with the help of Liu Yan, Liu Kanyuan studied in Japan and entered the Sendai No. 2 High School. During his time in school, Liu Kanyuan was active in his thinking and grew rapidly. In 1915, Liu Kanyuan spoke at an anti-Yuan conference attended by thousands of people, and his speech was quite influential. Later, in the "Liaison Activity for Students Studying in Japan", I met Li Dazhao, who studied at Waseda University. The two had met and talked twice, and deng Chumin and others were also present at the meeting.
In 1925, Liu Kanyuan led a "delegation of Japanese students returning to China" (10 other people, representing 10 provinces) back to China, protesting the "May Thirtieth Massacre" along the way, and arrived in Beijing through Korea and Northeast China.
After the delegation was dissolved, Liu Kanyuan came to Beijing and lived in the home of his eldest brother, Liu Yan. At that time, after Peking University professor Chen Xiying traveled to Europe and the Soviet Union, she published an article in the Morning Post entitled "Whether to Unite Russia or Hate Russia", which caused controversy. Some intellectuals, led by Liang Qichao and others, used the Morning Post as a stronghold to vigorously advocate the hatred of Russia, and dozens of scholars in colleges and middle schools echoed the situation.
Liu Kanyuan did not study politics deeply before, and after a period of study, he believed that only socialism, communism and Russia could save China in the domestic political situation and the way out of the country. At the same time, he came to the conclusion that it is impossible to overthrow corrupt officials, landlords, and capitalists to achieve world unity without breaking the concept of private ownership.
Liu Kanyuan wrote six consecutive articles published in the Beijing Daily to expound his views, and this series of articles forged his ideological system.
After the article was published, it caused great repercussions. In January 1926, Liu Kanyuan was invited by Li Dazhao to meet at the Soviet Embassy. The two exchanged views on the situation and the future of the Chinese revolution, and also talked about the enlightenment of the October Revolution in Russia. Their views are similar and their politics are the same. Later, when it came to the future, Li Dazhao suggested that Liu Kanyuan go to work in the Feng Yuxiang Department of the Northwest Army, but Liu Kanyuan longed for Guangzhou, the cradle of the revolution, and only wanted to teach, and Li Dazhao agreed. Li Dazhao personally wrote a letter introducing Liu Kanyuan to Wang Jingwei, Chen Gongbo, and Lin Zuhan (i.e., Lin Boqu).
Liu Kanyuan Mobao
After Liu Kanyuan went to Guangzhou to meet Lin Boqu, Lin Boqu arranged for him to teach at the Whampoa Military Academy (4-6 periods) as a political instructor and a political instructor for the director of the Enlistment Department. Coincidentally, Peking University professor Zhou Lansun (a student studying in Japan, who returned to China to teach first) also wrote to president Chen Gongbo to introduce him because sun yat-sen university in Guangzhou needed faculty members. Therefore, Chen Gongbo arranged for Liu Kanyuan to take part-time classes at Sun Yat-sen University.
But Guangzhou is not quiet. In April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek rebelled against the revolution and massacred Communists and workers' pickets in Shanghai. Li Jishen and others also practiced white terror in Guangzhou, disbanding the Whampoa Military Academy and the workers' pickets, and Liu Kanyuan was forced to leave Guangzhou. It was during this time that Li Dazhao was killed by warlords in Beijing. When the news of Li Dazhao's righteousness came, Liu Kanyuan was deeply shocked and extremely distressed.
Teaching in Peking is popular with students
After Liu Kanyuan left Guangzhou and went to Wuhan, Lin Boqu (then director of the General Office of the National Revolutionary Army and director of the Political Department of the 6th Army) appointed him as the director of the Political Department of the 17th Division of the 6th Army, whose commander was his old friend: Li Minghao.
Li Minghao, a native of Liling, graduated from the Japanese Non-Commissioned Officer School. Liu Kanyuan and Li Minghao have known each other in Japan. But Liu Kanyuan did not stay long in Wuhan, where he came to work in Jiangxi and Shanghai, translating progressive political books for a living. At this time, Liu Kanyuan translated the English version of the book "Karl Marx" for the first time, which was published by bookstores such as "Pingken Bookstore", "Shenzhou Guoguang Society" and "Shuimu Bookstore".
In March 1930, the "Central Plains War" broke out, and Chiang Kai-shek won. After that, Chiang Kai-shek implemented a reactionary policy throughout the country, encircled and suppressed progressive ideas, and banned the publication of progressive books and periodicals. Liu Kanyuan, who makes a living translating progressive publications, suffered a blow economically. At this time, his eldest brother Liu Yan was in Beiping "as the dean of the Republic of China College and taught at some universities, with too many hours to cope", so he invited Liu Kanyuan to go north.
In the winter of 1930, Liu Kanyuan took his family to Beiping. After Liu Kanyuan arrived in Beiping, he successively taught political economy at Peking University, Peking University, Beijing Normal University, and the Republic of China College, and at the same time exposed Japan's ambitions to invade China, called for resistance against Japan, and opposed Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary policy of "foreign countries must first be at home."
During this period, he was a well-known patriotic professor along with Huang Songling, Xu Deheng, and Wang Zekai (then pseudonym Du Shulin). At that time, Chen Lifu, the minister of education of the National Government in Nanjing, repeatedly asked these schools to cancel the curriculum taught by Liu Kanyuan. Because the Japanese invading forces frequently invaded the south at that time, young students woke up one after another, and after the mainland university in Shanghai was sealed, some students came to Beiping, so Liu Kanyuan's ideas have always been very popular with young students, and the schools at that time also needed students, so these schools did not implement the instructions of the National Government.
Liu Kanyuan in his youth
At the end of 1935, Liu Kanyuan participated in the "12.16" patriotic student movement, and the number of people marching that day reached thousands, Liu Kanyuan walked in the front of the line, and was almost slashed by the reactionary military and police, but was fortunately pulled away by Wang Zekai's wife.
At the beginning of 1936, Liu Kanyuan was secretly arrested by Song Zheyuan, chairman of the "Jicha Political Affairs Committee" and commander of the 29th Army, and was imprisoned in an army prison for more than 70 days, and later rescued by Feng Yuxiang, Cheng Qian, and others. In prison, Liu Kanyuan spent time with other arrested teachers and students, learned about the movements of some young people, and also learned to sing and transcribe some revolutionary songs, and his soul was deeply shaken.
After the "July 7 Incident", Peiping fell, because the Japanese side would poison patriots who had long adhered to the anti-Japanese stance, with the help of friends, Liu Kanyuan came to Tianjin in August, and after the family members met, they took a British passenger ferry to Shanghai. Due to the war in Shanghai, he was forced to land in Yantai instead, and then returned to his hometown of Liling in the south of the economy, Xuzhou, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Changsha.
Hometown school enlightenment youth
Liu Kanyuan returned to Xiangxiang with his family, and when passing through Wuhan, he reunited with Li Minghao again. At this time, Li Minghao was the director of the Wuhan branch of the Central Military Academy, and Liu Kanyuan returned to his hometown after staying in Wuhan for several days.
In 1939, Liu Kanyuan was idle on the outskirts of Liling City, and it happened that the Wuhan branch of the Central Military Academy was moved to Wugang, Hunan, and Li Minghao invited Liu Kanyuan to Wugang. Liu Kanyuan made a report for the 14th-15th batch of students of the branch, analyzed the situation at home and abroad, spread the idea of loving the country and saving the nation, and encouraged the students' enthusiasm for resisting Japan.
In the same year, in order to solve the problems of the children of military school teachers and staff and the backwardness of local education, Li Minghao and Liu Kanyuan jointly discussed the establishment of "Dongting Middle School", with Li Minghao as the chairman of the board and Liu Kanyuan as the principal and national history teacher. Liu Kanyuan often gave students a materialistic view of history and an enlightenment education against ignorance and authoritarianism.
The first batch of junior high school graduates of Dongting Middle School will have excellent results in the examination, no one has failed in the discipline, and the proportion of people admitted to high school ranks first in the province, which has caused a sensation in the hunan education community. It is worth mentioning that Liu Kanyuan created the lyrics of the school song for Dongting Middle School at that time, and more than seventy years later, Dongting Middle School evolved into Wugang No. 2 Middle School, and Wugang No. 2 Middle School still uses the school song created by Liu Kanyuan that year.
In 1944, the Japanese invaded Xiangxi, and the families of Liu Kanyuan and Li Minghao were separated during the escape, and the relationship between the two families was still very close after the founding of New China. Later, according to the information, it was learned that Li Minghao had already contacted the CCP and that he had applied to join the Communist Party of China, but considering the situation at that time, the CCP secretly instructed Li Minghao to hide in the Kuomintang troops, and Li Minghao provided the Red Army with a large number of important military maps. During the Kuomintang Civil War, Li Minghao went to the Liberated Areas. Li Minghao was a member of the First National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in New China, and he also introduced many well-known figures in the military and political circles to participate in politics.
In 1945, after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mrs. Liu Kanyuan's cousin Fan Chengchuan was ordered to take over the 13 textile factories opened by the Japanese in Qingdao and set up the Qingdao branch of the China Textile Construction Company. He invited Liu Kanyuan to Qingdao to take over the translation of the process. After the takeover was completed, Liu Kanyuan was hired as a commissioner of Qingdao China Textile Company. At this time, Liu Kanyuan was extremely dissatisfied with the political corruption, economic decline and soaring prices under the Kuomintang, and at the same time excited by the victory of the People's Liberation Army. On the eve of the liberation of Qingdao, many spies were active around them, and they wanted to blackmail the Qingdao China Textile Company into withdrawing south with the Kuomintang and preparing to destroy the equipment in the factory. Liu Kanyuan actively participated in the work of the "Factory Protection Committee" to protect the equipment in the factory.
Liu Kanyuan and his wife's home in Qingdao
In the early morning of June 2, 1949, Qingdao was liberated. On the same day, Liu Kanyuan was ecstatic and dragged me through the streets and alleys to meet the vast PLA team.
In 1951, Li Da, one of the founders of the Communist Party of China, was the president of Hunan University, and he invited Liu Kanyuan to Changsha to serve as a professor at Hunan University and Hunan Normal College, teaching courses on Marxist-Leninist theory. Since the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and forced to flee south, Liu Kanyuan has not attended the university lecture hall for 14 years, but he has great respect for Li Da, and Li Da asked him to teach his favorite course, so Liu Kanyuan resigned from his job in Qingdao and moved to Changsha.
However, because of some misunderstandings in history, in the following decades, Liu Kanyuan suffered many unfair treatment and was affected by various movements, but he always opened up, adhered to the principle of seeking truth from facts, did not admit the untruths imposed on him, and he also consistently supported the party's policies and propositions in various historical periods and supported socialism. In 1978, Liu Kanyuan was finally rehabilitated and restored to his political reputation. In the same year, the Ministry of Education resumed his counselling duties, after which Liu Kanyuan and his eldest son Liu Ji lived in Nanjing.
In 1989, Liu Kanyuan died in deep sleep, completing his ups and downs of his life. According to his will, his ashes were scattered into the Yangtze River. After Liu Kanyuan's death, the State Education Commission commented in his life that "he is a friend of the Communist Party of China" and "has done a lot of useful work for China's new-democratic revolution." This is the most pertinent evaluation of Liu Kanyuan's life.