Huang Renyu
If I claim that I am destined to become a contemporary Chinese historian, I would be too arrogant. To put it another way: fate has given me many opportunities to stand in the middle and observe the progress of the civil war from different angles. Fate also allowed me to recount the prelude and follow-up to the Civil War. Before I realized it, I was blessed to be an observer, not a practitioner, and I should be grateful. Naturally, I expanded my horizons and completed the identity shift with deeper thinking, from the small role of a Kuomintang officer, to an unfettered journalist, and finally to a historian. But before I left Anyaborg, I still did not know that while accepting the predestination of fate, I also threw off the last vestige of the collectivization of Chinese culture and began to think independently, just as during the Reformation four hundred and fifty years ago, people with the same convictions did the same.
My friends and colleagues had to swallow the bitter consequences of the end of the civil war and its aftermath, and I could never escape the criticism of opportunists. But to this day, I still can't understand the mystery of how the combination of opportunities works. I have to examine myself in detail to determine which part is the opportunity and which part is my own conscious arrangement. There is one factor that may be decisive. Throughout my school years, I was under my father's wing. Behind my impulses, there was always a shadow of his cautious attitude, whether I perceived it or not.
An anecdote
Before I elaborate, I would like to tell you an anecdote:
Many history students believe that Chiang Kai-shek was a military commander under Sun Yat-sen. But this is not true. When Sun Yat-sen died in Beijing on March 12, 1925, his military general in Guangdong had been Xu Chongzhi. Jiang was the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy and the chief of staff of General Xu.
After Sun's death, factions of the Kuomintang government in Guangdong split. It is generally believed that Chiang took the middle line, so he was able to unite the Kuomintang and then the Northern Expedition. When liao zhongkai of the left was assassinated, hu Hanmin of the right faction was said to still be in contact with the assassins, so Jiang expelled him. Then Jiang drove General Xu away, because Xu was also involved. Xu happened to be unscrupulous, he was addicted to gambling in Guangdong, and often interacted with the dust girls. The future chairman of the committee first settled his subordinates before inviting General Xu to dinner. At a time when the preparations were staggered, Chiang suggested that the general could go to Shanghai for a three-month rest, and that he, as chief of staff, clear the gate in Guangdong. When the general learned that his subordinates had agreed, he still wanted to excuse himself, and he needed at least a few days to deal with the family's private affairs before leaving. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek clearly told him that Mrs. Xu and her children were already waiting for him on the boat at the dock. When Xu Chongzhi was having fun in the city, his chief of staff had already arranged to exile him, starting with his family. General Xu was shocked, and immediately after dinner, he took a boat to Shanghai and never returned.
He should have accepted the whole thing with grace, because according to the custom of the warlords of the time, he was likely to be taken to the backyard and shot before the last dish was served. This bloodless coup allowed Chiang Kai-shek to ascend to the throne of the Commander-in-Chief of the Kuomintang and lead the Northern Expedition.
Xu Chongzhi
I don't know if this story is in words, I think it is necessary. Experts from this period should be able to confirm or refute events of such significance. I wrote it down pending confirmation by experts because I think my source is quite credible. The father who told me this story also served as the chief of staff of General Xu Chongzhi, especially when Xu was the commander of the old Fourteenth Division. Before Chiang Kai-shek, my fathers Huang Zhenbai and Xu Chongzhi had known each other for many years. My father's story belongs to this point in time. He instilled in me in an indirect but effective way that revolutionary rhetoric and action are different. In a way my view of history comes from his teachings.
Father's teachings
My father came from a family of landlords in Hunan, and this background was suitable for the Chinese revolutionaries. He traveled to Guizhou, Yunnan and the Indochina Peninsula, from Haiphong to Guangdong and finally to Fuzhou. At the beginning of the 20th century, this homeless man, who was nearly thirty years old and often on the verge of starvation, joined the secret society "League", the predecessor of the Kuomintang.
In the late Years of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Revolutionaries of the League devised a strategy to influence the newly formed army and navy. Later they changed their tactics to infiltration or sending people into the army. This was the case with my father, who entered the provincial military academy in Fujian, and the principal at that time was a brigade commander, General Xu Chongzhi, who was about the same age as his father. His father not only graduated first and received a gold medal from General Xu, but also persuaded him to join the League. During the Wuchang Uprising, the southern provinces immediately declared independence from the Qing government in Beijing. General Xu played an important role in handing Fujian Province into the hands of the revolutionaries. His father had graduated from the military academy at that time and immediately became the chief of staff of General Xu.
Soon after the revolutionaries proclaimed the establishment of the republic, Yuan Shikai plotted to change his presidential status to emperor. The "Second Revolution" was born, but the revolution failed and the leaders of the League fled to Japan. After his father returned to Hunan, he was immediately arrested, and it turned out that the authorities had offered him a reward for his arrest, and he escaped at the first moment with the secret help of his friends. After Yuan Shikai's death, he became general Xu's chief of staff again. But Yuan's death did not bring peace to China, but only symbolized the beginning of a decade of anarchy. At this time, my father felt that he had had enough, so he returned to Hunan and married his mother, and the next year I was born and became a man who took care of the family.
When I was a child, I realized that my father was much older than the parents of my classmates. But I did not know that the forty years between my father and me had skipped a generation on behalf of my entire family, and had also brought me into direct contact with China's long-term struggle to pursue modernization, which had begun before him and would probably not end in my life. This is the case, but it brings some inconvenience. The father retired early, and the first price he paid was poverty. The whole family has never been hungry, but we have few special treats, and there are fewer snacks outside of simple meals. Boxes of sweet potatoes, roasted peanuts, roasted corn and leeks are sold on the streets of Changsha, and the aroma of the aroma reminds me again and again that I have been hungry from childhood to youth. When I started my English class in middle school, I wanted to have my first pen, but our family's budget only allowed me to bring an ink pen and another can of ink! When it rained, my classmates added rubber sleeves to their shoes, shiny and fashionable, but I clumsily stepped on the clogs, making an annoying sound, making me feel self-conscious. I complained about the above things, and my father would tell me stories of his youth, but my little wish was not met, and I did not believe that the hardships of our family had anything to do with the fate of China.
His father obviously did not have a high opinion of General Xu Chongzhi, but his chief and "teacher" trusted him and promoted him from the bottom of his heart, so that driven by traditional loyalty and his self-esteem, he could not go to Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing government to seek a position, and in the old Kuomintang class, Chiang Was under him. He also considered that he had been away from the party for many years. In Hunan, he accepted sporadic jobs in local governments, not only paid less, but also had to endure the humiliation of a superior whose quality and ability were inferior. But he had no other choice. My mother used to tell me and my brother that my father had sacrificed a lot, and he wanted us to have a better life. We should concentrate on our studies and prepare for college, and our father wants us to be engineers or to make decent money by working constructively, not as politicians or soldiers, and definitely not as revolutionaries.
When I was in middle school, our student congress, which, although not directly related to the Communist Party, demanded the removal of the principal appointed by the provincial chairman and questioned the existence of military training. This also touches the authority of the provincial president. My father asked me to stay out of the matter, but I didn't listen, and he actually ran to the school himself to see if I was an active person, which made me ashamed and angry. I was furious because my father could no longer find a better way to humiliate and laugh at me in front of my classmates. It was only after I calmed down a bit that my father explained to me that radicalism rarely stemmed from personal beliefs, usually from social pressures. Under the pressure of the public, it is possible to do many things that you will regret when your mind is clear afterwards. I understand his parenting anxieties, but I'm not appeased that teens can't be complacent about being daddy babies.
It was many years before I understood the main point of his words. Due to the intervention of provincial chairman He Jian, the movement was in a mess. The principal remains in office, and the compulsory military training courses remain as usual. The dismissal of the headmaster, and the duration and length of military training, although at best a local affair, still have a dubious relationship with politics throughout China. Even Chiang Kai-shek has no way to make a comprehensive change, so we should be careful in our words and deeds, because a little intervention may turn into serious input, and even we are not conscious.
So should we be cowards and obediently accept the arrangement of fate? Father assured me that he just wanted us not to be outright fools. Father's ideas naturally led to the conclusion that revolution should be avoided as much as possible, and if not, the individual should pay attention to its shortcomings and deceit. In my father's own experience at the beginning of the people, revolutionaries become martyrs when they fail, but when the leaders of the revolutionaries succeed, they may become warlords. In addition to General Xu, his father also looked down on Huang Xing. Huang Xing is also from Hunan, but not a relative of ours. In April 1911, only a few months before the Wuchang Uprising, the League would capture Guangdong Governor Yamen, huang Xing became a hero, although he had an excuse, but insiders knew that when the uprising failed, he fled the scene, and his followers were arrested and subsequently became martyrs.
Huang xing
A man who holds such a view of the revolution must prove that he has worked hard to consolidate his position. I knew that my father was not a coward, and he must have tried to prove how upright and reliable he was in times of adversity, as if I had worked hard to prove that I was not a coward on the battlefield.
Thinking of my father, I don't feel sorry for my sad memories. In 1936, I was awarded a scholarship to Nankai University for tuition waiver. At that time, he must have thought that his wish would be fulfilled for many years, and he saw that his son could go to a different path in life, but the next year when he went to war with Japan, the whole country was in chaos, and his dream was also punctured. However, when the war developed into a full-scale war, although he was uneasy, he was even more arrogant and sent away two sons who volunteered for the army. "We must not lose this war." He said with mixed emotions. He didn't have time to know about pearl harbor, let alone the victory of the anti-Japanese war and the People's Republic of China. Fortunately, the younger brother graduated from the Kuomintang army's jiaoyuan school, served in the army for three years, and finally returned to school, completed his university studies, and after a series of long struggles, obtained a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, and the father at least had a son to practice his dream.
History in formation
How did my father influence me to become a historian? He made me realize that I was a survivor, not a martyr. This background made it clear to me what could and could not be done in the situation, and I did not need to confront what had already happened.
After living in Anyaburg for many years, I have removed one of my bad habits and stopped being angry at the way history is presented, because this move does not increase knowledge, but only increases the holes in historiography. While I'm not a 100 percent skeptic, I've learned to imagine the motivations behind public figures (including fellow historians) rather than fully endorsing them. Positivism naturally has its shortcomings, and if applied too narrowly, it may prematurely endorse the belief that "power is an axiom" and "survival of the fittest." The doctrine of fateful predestination, or my own version, offers a solution. China's civil war is not just faith or grace, not just redemption and curse, but should be recognized as one of the amazing and unprecedented events in modern history, involving many unexpected and unexpected twists and turns. But at the end of the civil war, many conditions could no longer be restored. These conditions, mixed with mundane and normal factors, drive China onto the road of no return. At first, the whole development seemed bizarre and incomprehensible, but over time, the unexpected features became more credible and more likely to coexist with China's past. These lead us to believe that this is history in shape. The power of a country of hundreds of millions of people is irresistible. These actions shoulder this force in an attempt to break through the impasse of more than a hundred years and will therefore transcend the ingenuity of one man, the interests of a social class, and any slogan.
This solution is already predestined. Above our moral judgments.
This article is excerpted from "Yellow River Qingshan: Memoirs of Huang Renyu" ([United States] Huang Renyu, translated by Zhang Yi'an, Life, Reading, Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore)