"It's a calm day." On November 14, 1985, Gu Weijun wrote his last diary.
A few hours later, he took a bath in the bathtub of his New York apartment and was ready to go to bed in his pajamas, but suddenly fainted on the bath cushion and died peacefully at the age of 97.
At the memorial service, both sides of the Taiwan Strait gave a high evaluation of Gu Weijun, which is extremely rare.
The deceased Gu Weijun re-entered the public eye. For Gu Weijun, who is known as the "first diplomat of the Republic of China", everyone is full of interest.
Before he died, he said: "I always have China in my heart, and I know that China will be unified." "Let countless Chinese admire."
What is the legend of Gu Weijun's life experience? How did he spend his later years? Let us return to the Republic of China era a hundred years ago to understand the life of Mr. Gu Weijun.
Gu Weijun
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > Gu Weijun</h1>
Gu Weijun was born on January 29, 1888 in Jiading County, Jiangsu Province (present-day Jiading District, Shanghai). Jiading is a place where individual talents and talents are born, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties alone, there were three titles and more than a hundred jinshi. Wu Xueqian and Qian Qichen, china's two modern vice premiers and foreign ministers, are both Jiading people.
Gu Weijun's ancestors were official eunuchs, and after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the family began to decline with the decline of the late Qing Dynasty. When his father, Gu Qingchuan, was working at the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Bureau, he coincidentally became the first president of the Bank of Communications. The Gu family successfully changed from official to business, and the family's situation quickly improved, and gradually restored its former glory. It can be said that Gu Weijun is a "rich second generation" in Shanghai Beach.
Gu Weijun entered a private school at the age of four. My father saw that the late Qing Dynasty was full of holes and the number of qi had been exhausted, and he felt that taking the road of the imperial examination might not work. So it was decided to let Gu Weijun receive a Western education.
In 1901, he was admitted to the top St. John's College in China, where Gu Weijun not only learned English, but also came into contact with Western democratic ideas.
In 1904, Gu Weijun went to the United States to study. After an intensive year of English at Cook College in New York, he was admitted to Columbia University to study diplomacy and international law.
In 1909, Gu Weijun received a bachelor's and a master's degree in political science.
In 1912, Gu Weijun received his doctorate, and in his dissertation "The Status of Outsiders in China", he described the situation in which poor and weak China was bullied by the great powers, and he recalled that when he was a teenager, an Englishman was in a hurry to watch the game and violently whipped the rickshaw driver with a whip.
Gu Weijun believes that the unequal treaties and concessions are the scars in the hearts of Chinese, and he is determined to work hard to serve the country.
In April 1912, Gu Weijun returned to China, by this time the Qing government had collapsed, and on the recommendation of Premier Tang Shaoyi, Gu Weijun became Yuan Shikai's English secretary and began his political career.
In 1915, at the age of 27, Gu Weijun became the Minister of the Republic of China to Mexico, and three months later, he became a Minister to the United States. Later, Gu Weijun successively served as a minister in Cuba and Britain, served as vice president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and struggled for 52 spring and autumn on the foreign war line, experiencing almost all the elaborate diplomatic events in the Republic of China period.
It has also made great contributions to safeguarding China's rights and interests in the world. He is revered as "the first diplomat of the Republic of China".
Gu Weijun's starting point for entering the political arena was very high, and his later career was relatively brilliant. His emotional journey is legendary, and the four wives he married are all famous and enviable after the magnates.
Tang Shaoyi
Gu Weijun's first marriage was nominal, and he married his wife Zhang Run'e on the orders of his parents.
The two had no emotional basis, and in 1911, the two parties agreed to divorce. Gu Weijun's second wife was Tang Baoyue, the daughter of Tang Shaoyi, the prime minister of the cabinet, and Tang Shaoyi greatly appreciated Gu Weijun's talent, and even gave his name to Gu Weijun, and both of them were called "Shaochuan", which became a good story at that time.
In October 1920, Huang Huilan, the second daughter of Huang Zhonghan, the richest man in Nanyang and the "king of the Asian sugar industry", became Gu Weijun's third wife.
The Huang family provided continuous financial support to Gu Weijun. Whether it was his promotion to foreign minister after returning to China, the formation of the cabinet as prime minister, and he was in a high position; or after the fall of the Beiyang government, he was wanted, and he interceded with Song Ziwen and turned the danger into a disaster. Huang Huilan's economic strength has played a huge role.
Huang Huilan
In 1959, at the age of 71, Gu Weijun married Yan Youyun, who was 20 years younger, in The Hague. Yan Youyun is the daughter of a wealthy shanghai businessman, well-known in Shanghai's celebrity circle, and was known as Fudan's "school flower" when she was young. The two frothed with each other and walked hand in hand through the last days of their lives. Gu Weijun spent a happy old age under the careful care of Yan Youyun.
After Gu Weijun's death, Yan Youyun donated hundreds of his relics to the Jiading Museum in Shanghai and set up the "Gu Weijun Scholarship" at Columbia University, which can be regarded as an account for Gu Weijun.
In May 2017, Yan Youyun, who was 112 years old, died at her home in New York.
Gu Weijun summed up the last three wives before his death. He believes that Tang Baoyue helped him develop politically, the lord is noble; Huang Huilan gave him financial support, the lord is rich; and with Yan Youyun white head to old age, the lord loves. This is also a microcosm of his own life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="24" > Gu Weijun's later life</h1>
Gu Weijun settled in New York in his later years, lived a comfortable and leisurely life with Yan Youyun, and spent his old age calmly and fully. Gu Weijun himself summed up his life in his later years as "not complaining, not complaining, not seeking, harmonious and pleasant, and satisfied."
He believes that the secret of longevity is to eat less snacks, walk more and take care of his wife. The eldest son, Gu Dechang, believed that Yan Youyun's care had at least extended his father's life span by twenty years.
Yan Youyun's care for Gu Weijun's daily life can be seen from the arrangement of bedding. Gu Weijun likes to sleep on a high pillow, and Yan Youyun carefully selected from more than a dozen kinds of pillows to determine a suitable chrysanthemum pillow.
In order to facilitate the elderly Gu Weijun to live, Yan Youyun paid great attention to the height of the bed, and it was appropriate to stretch her legs when she went to bed. She laid a 6 to 9 cm thick cotton mat on top of the wooden bed board, and Gu Weijun slept comfortably.
Gu Weijun and Yan Youyun are not married for the first time, but the two treat each other's children as each other and regard them as their own. The good family atmosphere and the visit of old relatives and friends have made Gu Weijun have no troubles with trivialities and family affairs, and his later life is physically and mentally happy, not deserted.
Yan Youyun centered on Gu Weijun and ran the entire family for Gu Weijun. Gu Weijun was able to spend his old age with a high life expectancy quietly and comfortably, and completed the oral history, and Yan Youyun's contribution was indispensable.
After his retirement, Gu Weijun continued to serve as a senior official in the Taiwan authorities, coupled with the generous salary he had earned from his previous service in the International Court of Justice.
Gu Weijun's old age was worry-free, and his life was relatively moist. His life is more regular.
When you wake up each day, drink a cup of hot lemonade first. Start moving your legs and feet.
After washing, he spent half an hour reading the newspaper, and because he insisted on doing eye exercises for many years, he did not need to wear glasses to read. Breakfast starts at 9:30. Gu Weijun attaches great importance to breakfast, he chews carefully and swallows slowly, and can only finish eating at eleven o'clock.
His breakfast was sumptuous, a butter bread and a boiled egg were staples; served with a plate of chicken claws or other side dishes. The drink was a cup of coffee with honey and cream. Dessert is a large bowl of cornflakes topped with honey, cream and seasonal fruit. During meals, he likes to watch videos of Chinese movies while eating.
After breakfast, Gu Weijun began to do oral history with professors at Columbia University until two o'clock in the afternoon. After a two-hour break, start eating lunch. His luncheon was simple and he didn't eat much. Lunch is usually bread, biscuits and soup, but dinner must be Chinese. After lunch, I started to sleep, and when I woke up, I went for a walk in the nearby Central Park.
When you come back, grab a bite to eat. Usually go to bed around eleven o'clock in the evening. At three or four o'clock in the morning, Gu Weijun would sit up and eat some cookies, read a book for an hour, and then go back to sleep.
Gu Weijun's hobbies in his later years were three things: walking, playing mahjong, and studying painting. The central park opposite is in a wonderful setting, and he has to walk there every day on crutches, rain or shine. After being robbed several times, he took some change in his pocket to send the robbers, but the walk could not be interrupted.
Gu Weijun likes to walk backwards, and other elderly people around him have followed suit, called "Gu's walking". If he has enough time, Gu Weijun will still go swimming, and when he is ninety years old, he can still dive.
Another hobby of Gu Weijun in his later years was painting. He carefully studied traditional paintings such as plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum, and also made a special trip to Hong Kong to study Chinese painting. Before his death, Gu Weijun used his memory to draw a map of Jiading County to express homesickness, which is now in the Jiading Museum.
Gu Weijun's favorite leisure style in his later years was to play mahjong. Yan Youyun organizes a poker game for him every week. The stakes are not large, three dollars per round. Gu Weijun's thinking is quick, but his skills are not as good as people, and he loses more and wins less. After playing cards, he hosted a family dinner for the guests. Gu Weijun enjoyed this lively atmosphere and was very happy.
After talking about hobbies, Gu Weijun still had a major thing in his later years, that is, to do oral history. Gu Weijun's life experience can be described as a diplomatic history of the Republic of China.
Beginning in 1958, he worked with Columbia University to collate and narrate his experiences. It was not completed until 1976, which lasted for 18 years, and the English transcript reached more than 10,000 pages. This vast oral history was made into microfilm and donated to Columbia University along with the original manuscript.
After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, Gu Weijun gave a copy of the manuscript to visiting Chinese scholars. It is hoped that the memoir will be published in Chinese for scholars to study the diplomatic history of that era. Gu Weijun lived a very peaceful, regular and fulfilling life in his later years. Spent the happiest time of my life in the company of my family.
In 1985, he died without illness and was buried in Fincliff Cemetery, and his life can be regarded as a good beginning and a good end.
China and the United States establish diplomatic relations
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="44" > Gu Weijun's career as a diplomat</h1>
Gu Weijun's diplomatic career coincided with China's situation of poverty and weakness, internal and external troubles. In the international diplomatic arena, it is the world of the Western powers. China's diplomatic status is low. But it is in this predicament. Diplomats of that generation still did everything in their power to participate in international affairs and to protect the rights and interests of the country to the greatest extent possible.
Gu Weijun is one of the representative figures and leaders. The "United States to Japan" approach he created became the policy of foreign policy at that time. Gu Weijun's specific contributions are as follows.
First of all, there is the Paris Peace Conference.
Paris Peace Conference
In 1918, after the end of World War I, China was invited to participate in the Paris Peace Conference for the first time as a victorious power. The Paris Peace Conference, which the critics believed was a redefinition of the new world order, and the detractors thought it was a "conference to divide the spoils." Gu Weijun realized that no matter what, it was an opportunity for China.
He made meticulous preparations for this, first enlisting the support of US President Wilson and proposing to him the three principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and economic independence.
However, "weak countries have no diplomacy", and Gu Weijun's legitimate demand to directly return Shandong's rights and interests to China was ignored by the imperialist countries. Gu Weijunmei had no choice but to argue on the basis of reason at the meeting in accordance with international law. It has resolutely demonstrated China's determination to safeguard territorial integrity and sovereign independence. In the case of ineffective resistance, Gu Weijun resolutely refused to sign the peace treaty.
Although it did not achieve its goal in the end, Gu Weijun's performance changed the image of China's diplomacy as a historical coward. It is heard loudly on the international stage. Its performance is enough to go down in the annals of our country's diplomatic history.
The Paris Peace Conference with the Chinese delegation and Churchill
Second, Gu Weijun promoted the revision movement.
At the end of May 1924, after several negotiations, Gu Weijun and Galahan signed the Agreement on the Outline of the Settlement of Outstanding Cases between China and Russia, abrogating the previously signed treaty that undermined China's sovereignty, and establishing diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level between the two countries. This is the first treaty signed by China on the basis of equality.
In November 1926, China repeatedly negotiated with Belgium to revise the Sino-Belgian Treaty, but rejected China's proposal for example. Gu Weijun drafted an annulment order, unilaterally announcing the abolition of all unequal and outdated provisions. For the first time, China unilaterally said "no" to unequal treaties. This is a milestone in the history of Chinese diplomacy.
Third, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, Gu Weijun actively campaigned and called on all countries to condemn Japan's aggression and assist China in the War of Resistance.
Sino-Belgian Treaty
In September 1944, the Dunbardon Oaks Conference proposed the formation of the United Nations. Gu Weijun attended as the chief representative. On the basis of the plan discussed between Britain and the United States, a supplementary plan for China was proposed. China's three-point supplementary opinion was written into the CHARTER of the United Nations, guaranteeing China's status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Gu Weijun was born in a turbulent era, he cherished the dream of a strong country, in a difficult environment with outstanding eloquence, made contributions to the protection of the rights and interests of the Chinese nation. He was highly praised by the outside world. The British newspapers considered him kind and composed, and no Western diplomat could surpass him. Some Chinese scholars believe that there are "two and a half" diplomats in China's modern history.
Li Zhongtang and Zhou Enlai each counted one, and Gu Weijun was the "half.". After Gu Weijun's death, both sides of the Taiwan Strait gave him a rare high evaluation at the same time.
Dunbardon Oaks Conference
Gu Weijun has lived abroad for many years and has never become a U.S. citizen. He has always missed his hometown on the mainland. He repeatedly asked his daughter Gu Juzhen to return to her hometown to worship her ancestors. I was overjoyed to hear that the homeland had changed dramatically. But for various reasons, Gu Weijun was not able to go back to see it in person, which may be a pity. But his lifelong contribution to the country's diplomatic cause will be remembered by future generations.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="60" > references:</h1>
[1] Shi Yuanhua, "China's Top Ten Diplomats", Shanghai People's Publishing House, May 1999
[2] Jin Guangyao, "Gu Weijun and Chinese Diplomacy", Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, June 2001
[3] Gu Weijun, Memoirs, Zhonghua Bookstore, August 2013