In January 1941, at the critical time of the unanimous resistance of the military and the people of the whole country, Chiang Kai-shek brazenly launched the Anhui Incident that shocked China and foreign countries, and pushed the anti-communist activities to a climax once again.
As the leader of the Communist Party, Chairman Mao was particularly busy during that time, and the documents that needed to be processed reached the highest record during the War of Resistance, often without rest for days and nights.
In order to process the documents faster and better, Chairman Mao specially named a young man to be his secretary, that is, Hu Qiaomu, who was not yet 29 years old.
Hu Qiaomu was born on June 1, 1912 in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, a scholarly scholar, his father was a talent in the late Qing Dynasty, under the influence of his father, he learned poetry and songs from an early age, and read a lot of books.
In 1930, at the age of 18, Hu Qiaomu was admitted to the Department of Physics of Tsinghua University, and because he was particularly interested in literature and history, he transferred to the Department of History.
At Tsinghua University, Hu Qiaomu actively participated in patriotic revolutionary activities, participated in leading the anti-Japanese patriotic movement of students and workers in Beiping, and served as the secretary of the Chinese Social Scientists Alliance and the secretary of the General League of Chinese Left-wing Cultural Circles after graduation.
After the outbreak of the July 7 Incident in 1937, Hu Qiaomu came to Yan'an and worked in the Central Propaganda Department, the Central Youth Commission and other departments.
In 1939, in order to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, Hu Qiaomu wrote an article entitled "Ideological Problems in the Youth Movement", which was published in "Chinese Youth", which attracted chairman Mao's attention and laid the foundation for Hu Qiaomu to become Chairman Mao's secretary in the future.
In January 1941, after the outbreak of the Anhui Incident in southern Anhui, Chairman Mao was too busy with his work and urgently needed a secretary to help him handle documents, so he remembered Hu Qiaomu, who wrote "Ideological Problems in the Youth Movement", and named him to be his secretary.
When Wang Ruofei informed Hu Qiaomu of this news, Hu Qiaomu was very surprised, worried that he would not be able to do a good job, so he vigorously pushed back, wang Ruofei encouraged him: "The ability of the people named by Chairman Mao is certainly not bad, you can rest assured to go, if there is something you don't understand, ask, Chairman Mao likes to help young people!" ”
Hu Qiaomu had never been engaged in the work of "secretary" before, and this time he suddenly went to be a secretary to Chairman Mao, so you can imagine how nervous he was, but when the order came down, he had to harden his scalp!
That day, after Hu Qiaomu walked into Chairman Mao's office, Chairman Mao was handling official business, and after seeing him, he asked some basic information and went to work. Hu Qiaomu was afraid of disturbing Chairman Mao's work, and did not dare to ask more, so the day passed.
After returning from work, Hu Qiaomu was very confused: What can he do for the chairman? He tossed and turned one night and decided to go early the next morning to ask for work instructions.
The next morning, when Hu Qiaomu arrived at Chairman Mao's office, he found that Chairman Mao was already at work and had many documents in front of him.
This time, Without hesitation, Hu Qiaomu went directly to Chairman Mao and said, "Let me help you correct the documents!" ”
When Chairman Mao heard this, he smiled and said to him, "Well, you have found a very important task that suits you very well!" ”
It turned out that Chairman Mao was testing Hu Qiaomu's ability to take the initiative to work.
In this way, Hu Qiaomu officially became chairman Mao's secretary for 25 years, and did not leave until 1966.
Although Hu Qiaomu had not done secretarial work before, his writing ability was still very strong, coupled with his high understanding and willingness to endure hardships, he would soon be able to take up this job, and even Chairman Mao said satisfactorily: "Relying on trees, there is food to eat." ”
During that time, Hu Qiaomu read a large number of books and materials on the history and theory of the Communist Party, became a senior party history expert, participated in the compilation of many important party history materials, and was praised as "the first pen in the Communist Party".
After the founding of New China, everything was in ruins to be rebuilt, the development of the economy, science and technology, education, culture, and other aspects was in its infancy, and how to build a brand-new China became an important issue that distressed Chairman Mao and other leaders.
At this time, Chairman Mao once again appointed Hu Qiaomu as president of the Xinhua News Agency, director of the General Administration of Information, and deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department, and took on the heavy responsibility of cultural propaganda.
Under the leadership of Hu Qiaomu, the building of socialist culture in New China has steadily advanced, forming a thriving situation, which has been praised by Chairman Mao.
On July 1, 1951, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Chairman Mao personally appointed Hu Qiaomu to take charge of this matter in order to sum up the development of the Communist Party of China in these 30 years.
At that time, Hu Qiaomu had just undergone gastrectomy surgery, but as soon as he received this task, he did not hesitate at all, immediately threw himself into his work, and finally wrote a long party history " Thirty Years of the Communist Party of China " , with a full text of nearly 50,000 words.
After reading this, Chairman Mao was very satisfied and instructed the People's Daily to publish it in its entirety.
What is even more precious is that although Hu Qiaomu has worked around Chairman Mao for a long time and has also held important posts, he has always maintained the demeanor and arrogance of a "scholar", doing everything himself, and never flattering or bullying others.
Chairman Mao also greatly appreciated this quality of his, and repeatedly reminded him to pay attention to rest and not to be too tired.
However, it was precisely because of his scholarly personality that he later said something that should not be said, was criticized, and coupled with his poor health, Hu Qiaomu proposed to Chairman Mao to leave his post and recuperate, and Chairman Mao also agreed.
In June 1966, Hu Qiaomu met Chairman Mao again in Hangzhou and proposed that he wanted to return to work with Chairman Mao, but Chairman Mao did not express his position, but only reminded him: "When you return to Beijing, talk less, see more, and understand the situation more." ”
Hu Qiaomu knew that he would no longer have the opportunity to be Chairman Mao's secretary, but what he did not expect was that this would be the last time he would meet Chairman Mao.
After Chairman Mao's death, Hu Qiaomu was re-employed and served as president of the Academy of Social Sciences, deputy secretary general of the Central Committee, and secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, and became a deputy state-level cadre.
On September 28, 1992, Hu Qiaomu died of illness in Beijing at the age of 80.
Hu Qiaomu left a will before his death, hoping to scatter his ashes in Yan'an after his death. Later, his family helped him realize this last wish.
Perhaps, for Hu Qiaomu, Yan'an is his own "root", and he wants the leaves to fall back to the roots.
(References: "Party History Expo", "Xiangchao", "People's Network", "Xinhua Net")