"My father led the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee to accept the leadership of the Communist Party of China because he saw that the Communist Party had a real heart to save the country and save the people, which was consistent with the goal of rejuvenating China that he had struggled for all his life, and he believed that the Communist Party of China could lead the country to prosperity and strength and let the people live a good life." Li Xiaosong, the daughter of Li Jishen, the main founder of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang and the first chairman, said in an exclusive interview with reporters recently.
Pictured here on June 10, Li Xiaosong shows old photos from a family photo album.
When his father died in 1959, Li Xiaosong was only 10 years old. I remember my father being busy all day and rarely telling her about work. What she knew about her father was more about her later research on historical materials and listening to the stories of people who had worked with Li Jishen.
When Li Xiaosong was interviewed at home, he took out a well-bound copy of "Li Jishen's Painting Biography" from the bookshelf and told reporters, "My father actively advocated cooperation with the CPC, resolutely resisted Japan, and gradually accepted the leadership of the Communist Party and embarked on the road of the new democratic revolution. So in 2005, on the 120th anniversary of my father's birth, we decided to compile and publish such a book to commemorate it. ”
Born in 1885 in a peasant family in Cangwu County, Guangxi Province, Li Jishen was determined to save the country in his youth, threw himself into the army, followed Dr. Sun Yat-sen to the revolution, and was a senior Kuomintang general with outstanding military achievements, and had the reputation of "all the army in the country are studying behind, and the two famous Cantonese generals are full of protégés". He met the Communists, began with the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, and in the tempering of the revolutionary years, he became a companion who took care of each other and shared honor and disgrace.
In 1924, Li Jishen met Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. In January, mao Zedong attended the meeting and was elected as an alternate member of the Kuomintang Central Committee, during which time he met Li Jishen, who was then the commander of the First Division of the Guangdong Army and the inspector of the xijiang rehabilitation. In November, Zhou Enlai went to the Whampoa Military Academy as the director of the political department, working with Li Jishen, who was the director of the coaching department, and the two worked closely together and supported each other. Li Xiaosong said, "Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai were much younger than my father, but he respected and admired these two talented young people. ”
After Chiang Kai-shek gradually seized power in the National Revolutionary Army, he openly undermined the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and betrayed Sun Yat-sen's three major policies. Li Xiaosong told reporters, "Out of strong patriotic feelings and persistent concept of saving the country, my father gradually recognized the direction in the complicated historical environment, profoundly realized that Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship would cause disasters to the country and the nation, and if he wanted to change the fate of the country, he must find another way." On the other hand, through contact and understanding, he became more and more identified with and supported the Communist Party and began to work closely together. ”
The picture shows Li Xiaosong flipping through the "Biography of Li Jishen's Paintings" at his home in Beijing on June 10.
"My father had a lot of correspondence with Mao Zedong." Li Xiaosong said that these letters have witnessed many major historical events. For example, in 1936, Li Jishen supported the Chinese Communist Party's proposition of "stopping the civil war and unanimously resisting Japan" and proposed the conclusion of an anti-Japanese national salvation agreement. Mao Zedong personally wrote a letter to Li Jishen expressing his approval and discussing the details of cooperation, and Li Jishen replied that he supported the anti-Japanese national united front and proposed that he was willing to cooperate closely with the Red Army in military operations. After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Jishen actively promoted the second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation.
More widely known, after the release of the "May Day Slogan" of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on April 30, 1948, Mao Zedong sent Pan Hannian the next day to send a handwritten letter to Li Jishen and Shen Junru in Hong Kong. "My father was very pleased to receive the letter, and immediately expressed his full support for Mao Zedong's proposal to Pan Hannian and immediately launched a series of actions in response to the 'May Day slogan.'"
"Father has always opposed civil war and foreign interference. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, under the influence and help of the Communist Party, he devoted himself to the domestic peaceful democratic movement and joined the People's Democratic Revolutionary Front. Li Xiaosong said that in 1948, Li Jishen categorically rejected the United States' plan to support him in establishing a new government, "ruling by drawing the river" with the Chinese Communists, and creating a split, and secretly left Hong Kong and went north under the meticulous arrangements of Zhou Enlai to participate in the preparations for the new CPPCC.
In order to strive for the liberation of the whole country by peaceful means, a few days before leaving Hong Kong, Li Jishen asked someone to forward his handwritten letter to Bai Chongxi, exhorting Bai Chongxi to support the convening of a new CPPCC meeting and the organization of a coalition government to break with the United States and Chiang Kai-shek. Li Xiaosong said, "My father said in the letter: I myself do not understand what communism and socialism are, but I believe that the Communist Party and Chairman Mao are truly for the interests of the country and the nation and the people, and all those who have a slight sense of justice and nationality should approve of supporting them." He also asked someone to tell Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, "Everything that listens to Chairman Mao will be easy to handle."
On April 2, 1949, Mao Zedong invited Li Jishen to the Shuangqing Villa in Xiangshan to fully exchange views with him alone on peace talks with the Kuomintang Nanjing delegation, preparations for the New CPPCC Conference, and diplomatic issues. In September, the first plenary session of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference was held, and after Mao Zedong's nomination, Li Jishen was elected vice chairman of the Central People's Government, and on October 1, he climbed the Tiananmen Tower to attend the founding ceremony.
Li Jishen was elected vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in 1954 until his death five years later. "My father was a man who worked all his life." Li Xiaosong said, "Since I can remember, he has been busy all day, carrying a huge briefcase out of the house, and when he will come back, I don't know." He was still busy until ten days before his death. ”
In his later years, Li Jishen was concerned about the reunification of the motherland, actively supported the principle of "striving for the peaceful liberation of Taiwan" put forward by the CPC, and did a great deal of work to this end. Four days before his death, the last poem he left behind read: "I am with the whole people and I want to see Kyushu." Li Xiaosong said, "Today, we are closer than ever to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and I hope that my father's wish can be fulfilled as soon as possible." ”
(Source: China News Service)
The United Front is transmuted
Journalistic self-reliance
WeChat: tongzhanxinyu