Elegance and Grandeur: Remembering Qu Qiubai

Qu Qiubai is righteous. Photo by Zhong Binbin

This is the last image left by the revolutionaries to the world: hands behind their backs, eyes looking straight ahead, and a calm smile at the corners of their mouths. The end of his life, for him, was just a "great" rest.

This is the last world in the minds of a "talented man" and "literati": "Everything new, struggling, and brave is moving forward." So good flowers, so fruit, so beautiful mountains and water, so majestic factories and chimneys, the light of the moon seems to be brighter than ever. ”

He was Qu Qiubai, who was only 36 years old at the time of his death.

Mao Zedong highly praised Qu Qiubai: "He insisted on the position of a hero during the difficult years of the revolution, preferring to walk towards the executioner's butcher's knife rather than yield." This spirit of his work for the people, this indomitable will and the ideas he has preserved in the writings will live forever, not die. ”

From his birthplace of Changzhou in southern Jiangsu to his birthplace of Fujian Tingzhou, Qu Qiubai's short, legendary and brilliant life, together with the many "good stories" and "mysteries" he left behind, has been deeply rooted in the history of the party and the psychological history of intellectuals for a hundred years.

Cell durian red

On the west side of Changting, a place called Luohan Ridge, the Monument to the Martyrs of Qu Qiubai towers among the green mountains and white clouds, and whether it is an important node or an ordinary day, the visitors here are always in an endless stream.

Here is the place where Comrade Qu Qiubai, one of the early principal leaders of the Communist Party of China, a great Marxist, an outstanding proletarian revolutionary, theoretician and propagandist, and one of the important founders of the Chinese revolutionary literary cause, was generously righteous.

On June 18, 1935, on the road from Changting Zhongshan Park to Luohan Ridge, a middle-aged man walked with his head held high, singing the "International Song" in Chinese and Russian along the way. When he reached a grassy field, he sat down on the ground, straightened his waist, smiled and nodded to the executioner, "This place is good!" Shoot! ”

In February 1935, Qu Qiubai, who remained in the Soviet area after the Long March of the Red Army and was seriously ill, was ordered to transfer from Ruijin to Shanghai to engage in revolutionary work, and was unfortunately arrested in The Village of Meixuan in Changting when he broke through to western Fujian.

For this day, Qu Qiubai had already made mental preparations. In Shanghai after the defeat of the Great Revolution, at the height of the White Terror, Qu Qiubai often discussed the issue of arrest and sacrifice with his wife Yang Zhihua. He once said, "Our unfreedom is for the freedom of the masses, and our death is for the life of the masses." ”

Wu Qisheng, the author of the book "Autumn White Cangcang" and chairman of the Changting County Literary Association, said that after Qu Qiubai was arrested, he first assumed the pseudonym Lin Qixiang and claimed to be a doctor, and his weak and elegant temperament was also in line with that of the doctor, and the enemy did not suspect it at first. Later, because the information leaked to Nanjing, coupled with the identification of traitors, the newspaper published the news of Qu Qiubai's arrest in a conspicuous space.

The CCP's "big figures" were arrested, coerced confessions, and exhorted to surrender. At that time, Song Xilian, the commander of the Kuomintang 36th Division stationed in Changting, was in charge of interrogating Qu Qiubai, and he said that he had read Qu Qiubai's articles in middle school and had great respect, but qu Qiubai bluntly interrupted this kind of "attacking the heart": "No language can change the position we are in today' opposite position." ”

Because Song Xilian's interrogation had no breakthrough, Nanjing later sent special personnel to come many times, but there was no result. They did not know that as a communist with firm convictions and the heroic sacrifices of many young comrades around him, Qu Qiubai had already seen through the different positions between the two sides of the interrogation room. In the face of the lobbying of all kinds of people, Qu Qiubai finally replied: "People love their own history, more powerful than birds love their wings, please do not tear my history!" ”

The Changting County Museum, not far from Luohan Ridge, is the former site of the Fujian Provincial Soviet Government. In the corner of the museum, there is a cramped room, which was once the place where Qu Qiubai was imprisoned. This cottage is damp and dark, when the sun is empty, a small amount of sunlight can shine through the patio into the doors and windows, the house is only furnished with a bed, a table and a chair.

It was in this makeshift cell that Qu Qiubai wrote the final chapter of his life on a dim oil lamp, including seven prison poems, an unfinished catalogue, a letter to Guo Moruo, and "Superfluous Words" that later caused an uproar.

In the courtyard of the cell, there is a vigorous pomegranate tree, which is still full of life. "This pomegranate tree blossoms every year, and the years are bright, just like the faith of the revolutionary martyrs, it is as red as fire, and it is endless." Museum docent Li Yanbin said.

"The pomegranate has the branches of a plum tree, the leaves of a willow, strange but not barren, fresh and not feminine, and this grace has the length of the plum willow, and gives up the shortness of the plum willow." Qiu Bai's friend Guo Moruo's prose title "Pomegranate" praises a noble spiritual character through pomegranates, and this is the vivid image portrait of the revolutionary Qu Qiubai.

By the bridge

“...... Before I left my hometown, the green bamboo wildflowers of Changzhou Hongmei Pavilion and the clear streams of grass around the stream also entrusted me with my whimsical reverie. Recalling his hometown of Changzhou, Qu Qiubai's pen has no shortage of beauty in Jiangnan style.

Changzhou, a thousand-year-old city, is the starting point of Qu Qiubai's life. The current Qu Qiubai Memorial Hall was originally the Qu Clan Ancestral Hall, which consists of two parts: the former residence and the memorial hall. From 1912 to 1916, Qu Qiubai's family was backward in the middle of the road and lived here.

Walking into the museum, I was greeted by a bronze-colored white statue of Qu Qiu, and there were two poems behind the statue: "I am the first swallow in Jiangnan, and I am on the clouds for the spring color." Qu Qiubai was a poet of 7 years old, and this poem was one of his representative works during his life in Changzhou.

Tang Ruyu, deputy director of the Qu Qiubai Memorial Hall, said that from comparing himself to "holding chunyan" to his determination to "open up a bright road for everyone", Qu Qiubai has nurtured his feelings of home and country and the ideal of salvation since he was a teenager.

The dozens of pieces of furniture and supplies placed in the former residence were displayed according to the original life of qu Qiubai's family. At the same time, there are also video materials showing his glorious life, passing on the spirit of Qiubai to every visitor. Tang Ruyu said.

Through the decoration of the memorial hall, we can vaguely see the life scene of the teenager Qu Qiubai. According to records, Qu Qiubai was born into a declining eunuch family. His father, Qu Shiwei, was good at painting and medical practice, but he was unemployed and childless, living in his uncle's house for many years, and his life was supported by his uncle and cousins. Her mother, Jin Xuan, was quite cultivated in traditional culture, could compose poems and fill in words, and could write a small kai that was handmade and beautiful.

"The subtlety of the family has made Qu Qiubai gradually grow into a person with a strong literary temperament." Ling Chengwei, a teacher in the Party History Teaching and Research Department of the Party School of the Fujian Provincial CPC Committee, said that this kind of literary temperament is not an external weakness and illness and a simple sad spring and autumn, but is closely related to social reality and personality cultivation.

In 1915, due to the lack of access to debt, Qu Qiubai was forced to drop out of school. In the Spring Festival of 1916, due to poverty and illness, Qu Qiubai's mother committed suicide by swallowing matches, and then the family dispersed. The death of his mother was a great shock to Qu Qiubai, and he not only wrote poems to mourn, but also accompanied the spirit for half a year. Years later, whenever he talked about his mother's suicide, he would be silent for a long time.

Qu Qiubai Memorial Hall is adjacent to Changzhou Miduqiao Primary School. Tang Ruyu said that Qu Qiubai entered a private school at the age of 5, and later entered the Guanying Primary School, where he spent more than 3 years in school. This Guanying Primary School is the predecessor of Miduqiao Primary School.

Guanying Primary School is very close to Qu Qiubai's residence, and the teenager Qu Qiubai often walks across the Bridge. The word "Midu" seems to be a metaphor for Qu Qiubai's life's deeds: he has hated all evil social phenomena since he was a teenager, and then he has been searching for it all his life in order to find a "ferry" to the new world.

During the Changzhou period, Qu Qiubai showed his progressive and brave side. On October 10, when he was 14 years old, all school organs in Changzhou hung red lanterns to celebrate the Xinhai Revolution, but Qu Qiubai mentioned a lantern with the word "national mourning" written on it to express his indignation at the usurpation of the fruits of the revolution by reactionary warlords.

From Midu Bridge, Qu Qiubai traveled to various destinations on the broad stage of his life: to teach in Wuxi and then to study in Beijing; to work as a journalist in Soviet Russia, to join the Communist Party of China in Moscow, to participate in the Conference of the Communist International; to preside over the "Eighty-Seven Conference" in Wuhan; to lead the left-wing cultural movement in Shanghai; and finally to be ordered to preside over education work in the Soviet Union until he was sacrificed...

"All his life, Qu Qiubai has been 'looking for a ferry', searching for the true meaning of life. From a reader to a revolutionary, he was an explorer and practitioner of typical significance in that era of awakening. Ling Chengwei said.

"I bless them"

In June 1923, the "New Youth" reissued issue published Qu Qiubai's translation of the words and the simplified score of the "Internationale" from The French, which was the earliest version of the "Internationale" that could be sung in China.

Whenever the Internationale is sung, Qu Duyi will think of his father Qu Qiubai: "Which of the confucian scholars and the heroic revolutionaries is the father?" ”

Although he is not out of his own, Qu Qiubai has a deep affection for his daughter, calling her "pro-duyi", writing small poems for her, and always remembering to bring her the milk slag she loves to eat when she comes home from work, because she learned to write letters at a young age and was overjoyed...

His wife Yang Zhihua once recalled the experience of returning to the countryside with Qu Qiubai to see the children, when Qu Duyi was snatched away by people in Yang Zhihua's ex-husband's family, "I and Qiu Bai walked coldly from the river, silent along the way, and this is the first time I saw Qiu Bai shed tears..."

Qu Duyi said goodbye to her parents when she was 9 years old, and when Qu Qiubai became righteous, she was only 14 years old. In her memory, her father was a versatile man, painting, seal carving, music, opera, writing and translation. In a correspondence, Qu Duyi received a postcard with a large airship printed on it, on which his father wrote: "When you grow up, you will also build such a large airship for the motherland." ”

"Confucian scholar" not only refers to the spiritual outlook of "having poetry and bookishness in his belly", but also the light of life that Qu Qiubai burns violently as an "evangelist" and "writer". In the tense and busy time, Qu Qiubai stayed up late to write with his sick body for many years, leaving behind more than 5 million words of rich writings on political theory, literature and art, and language and writing.

During the Shanghai period, Qu Qiubai ushered in the "golden age" of creation, the literary leader Lu Xun provided him with a lot of help in work, creation and life, Qu Qiubai also regarded Lu Xun as a political and literary confidant, he praised Lu Xun as "a contrarian son of the feudal patriarchal society, a courtier of the gentleman class, and also a friend of some romantic revolutionaries!" ”

Ding Ling summed up the interaction between Qu and Lu as "glorious, fighting, noble, and indelible friendship." Lu Xun once hand-wrote a handwritten letter "Life is enough to know oneself, Si Shidang with the same heart" to Qu Qiubai, after his murder, the sick Lu Xunqiang endured grief and anger, and wrote a pair of elegy: Is a seven-foot boy, born to give up himself; as a ghost of a thousand autumns, he will not return home after death.

In addition to his friendship with Lu Xun, Qu Qiubai had many legendary deeds in his life: he met Lenin twice and had cordial conversations; he founded the first daily newspaper of the Communist Party of China, "Blood Daily"; he went to Soviet Russia as a journalist to cover all aspects of social life in Soviet Russia; he was the head of the sociology department of the university, the classes were very popular with students, and the classroom was often crowded with people; he tried to Latinize Chinese characters; he and Yang Zhihua broke through the worldly dependence and left behind the marriage story of "Autumn White Hua"... ...

"He who knows me is worried, and he who does not know me is what I ask for." At the end of his life, Qu Qiubai left behind the "Superfluous Words" that were later controversial, and also condensed the legend of his life into this 10,000-word long text.

Through the storms and fogs of history, "Superfluous Words" is now being studied more and more deeply and interpreted more impartially. Chen Tiejian, a researcher at the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the author of "The Biography of Qu Qiubai", believes that "Superfluous Words" "not only does not harm the revolutionary festival of the martyrs, but on the contrary, with rare self-dissection, profoundly expresses Qu Qiubai's inner world."

"If I were to describe Qu Qiubai in one sentence, I would say that he is a transparent, sincere person who is willing to dissect himself without reservation." Zhang Jie, deputy research librarian of the Postdoctoral Research Station of the National Museum of China, said.

In "Superfluous Words", Qu Qiubai wrote: "What else do I miss? This beautiful world is thriving for children. 'My' daughter, and all the happy children. I bless them. ”

On the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the party, Qu Duyi, the daughter of Qu Qiubai, became the recipient of the "July 1st Medal". From following his parents to Soviet Russia as a child, to being imprisoned by the Kuomintang in the 1940s for more than four years, to broadcasting Chairman Mao's speech to the world in Russian at the founding ceremony, and then co-founding the Moscow branch of Xinhua News Agency with his lover... The Chinese Communist Party peer has integrated the spirit and expectations of his parents into his lifelong pursuit of dedication to the party.

Qu Qiubai once said that the cause of the masses is not dead, and he will appreciate the "eternal youth". Opening the guestbook of the Changzhou Qu Qiubai Memorial Hall, an unnamed message made people happy: "Today is March 20th." Here I go again. The weather is nice, the wind is good and you are also good. (Reporters Tu Hongchang and Dong Jianguo)

Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph